Hin Daeng and Hin Muang

Why are Hin Daeng and Hin Muang called the red and purple rocks?

Hin Daeng means red rock and Hin Muang purple rock, and one descent is enough to see why: the first is lined with red sponges and soft corals, the second with a forest of purple soft corals. Both belong to Mu Ko Lanta National Park, created on August 15, 1990, which covers 134 square kilometers and sixteen islands in the south of Krabi province and lists them, with Koh Rok, among its sites closed during the monsoon. They are the tops of isolated seamounts in open sea: nothing marks them at the surface except a rock head at Hin Daeng, and the walls around them drop to 60 and 70 meters, among the deepest in the country.

What can you see on a Hin Daeng and Hin Muang dive day?

The first dive is usually on Hin Muang, the deeper of the two: a descent onto the western tip at 8 or 9 meters, then along the ridge to the east between 20 and 35 meters, past the cleaning stations where the mantas stop and, below, the purple walls that drop away endlessly. The second dive circles Hin Daeng between 15 and 30 meters, over the red walls, the sponges and the lionfish, with an eye on the blue for trevallies and barracudas. Three-dive days end at Koh Haa, more sheltered, on the way back to Koh Lanta.

When can you see manta rays at Hin Muang?

Hin Muang is one of the manta sites of the Andaman Sea, along with Koh Bon and Koh Tachai. The mantas come to the cleaning stations on the ridge, where small wrasses rid them of their parasites, and they often arrive several at once, mostly in January and February. Watch them as you would anywhere: stay low and still, and never swim toward them or pass above them. The whale shark follows the same logic and comes when the plankton is there, with no calendar; the dive centers that see it most often sell it as a bonus, not a promise.

Why stay on Koh Lanta to dive Hin Daeng and Hin Muang?

Koh Lanta Yai, 25 kilometers long and 6 wide, with 10,830 residents in 2012, has stayed a quiet island, less built up than Phuket or Phi Phi, with its west coast beaches, Klong Dao, Long Beach and Klong Khong, and its old town on the east coast. The dive centers are in Saladan, in the north, where the speedboats leave for Hin Daeng and Hin Muang, Koh Haa, Koh Bida and the King Cruiser wreck. The 2004 tsunami spared the island, with 11 deaths against thousands in Khao Lak. From Krabi airport you arrive by minibus and ferries or by speedboat; the dive center season follows the Andaman Sea season, from mid-October to mid-May.