Above: It is possible to scuba dive with an elephant.
In the Andaman they have one of the last swimming elephants. You can snorkel or dive with the elephant … if you pay … it is about INR10,000 (NZD300) for one snorkel or dive. That’s like 3x the going rate for two normal dives. I couldn’t justify it so just did two standard dives instead with a good dive operator called Andaman Bubbles.
- The first site was at Aquarium which was nice enough, where the notable sightings included a porcupine fish, tuna and trevally.
- The second site was The Wall where there was a Napoleon wrasse, garoupas, pufferfish, jackfish and snappers amongst others. Unfortunately visibility wasn’t the best.
Being in the Indian Ocean you’d think that the diving would be amazing … but it wasn’t. It would be unfair for me to base my conclusion on two dives but my sentiments were shared by a French couple who did many dives (at many sites). But were were fortunately to see a dugong in the water in between our dives.
My dives here were through Andaman Bubbles:
- Their equipment looked in good shape … it’s my only experience with a dive centre that uses only one brand of equipment. That was very handy that you can try on your booties, fins, masks in the office and know that you’ll get the same size next morning (because it is all the same brand). No need to go into the equipment room.
- The divemasters were wonderful … you get a good feel for the care and attention that they put into ensuring your safety and wellbeing. The divemasters and the business owners appeared to be genuinely nice people too!