Phi Phi & the King Cruiser · Thailand · Wall · Coral garden
Tonsai Wall
Fan corals on the deep face, staghorn thickets in the shallows
Area photo: Krzysztof Golik · CC BY-SA 4.0
A wall dive off Phi Phi Don that runs from about 18 m down to 30 m, hung with fan corals and worked slowly by divers looking for nudibranchs. Table and staghorn corals fill the shallows above it, so the dive has two distinct halves: the deep face first, then a long finish over hard coral where tigertail seahorses are the prize find.
Where it is and how deep
7.7205° N, 98.7710° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
The dive begins on the wall itself, which starts at around 18 m and drops to 30 m. Work along the face rather than up and down it: the fan corals the site is known for sit on the exposed sections, and the nudibranchs are small enough that you are better off looking hard at one patch of rock than covering distance.
Turn the dive on gas and come up onto the shallow shoulder above the wall, where table and staghorn corals take over. This is the part that keeps the site workable for less experienced divers — the deep face is optional, and the hard coral in the shallows carries the safety stop on its own. Tigertail seahorses are reported here, though they are a find rather than a fixture; check the bases of the fans and the edges of the coral before you surface.
Marine life and season
- Nudibranchs
- Macro critters
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Prime | Prime |
Season follows Phi Phi & the King Cruiser: Nov–Apr is the dry season with the calmest, clearest water; the south-west monsoon from May to October brings swell and rain.
Questions divers ask
How deep is Tonsai Wall?+
The wall runs from about 18 m at its top down to 30 m. The hard-coral shallows above it are much shallower, so a dive here can be planned either as a deep wall profile or as a shallow coral dive.
Sources
- Tonsai Wall — Scubago / SSI MyDiveGuide
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