Hello, everyone. It’s us again Orca’s Travel, who will lead you the way to the next exciting trip. This time we’re taking you to another popular island in the Myanmar waters. Meet the Emerald Heart Island, or Cock’s Comb Island. The name is given for its heart-shaped lake seen from a bird’s eye view. For this trip, we’ll be traveling with Grand Travel.

To travel to the Myanmar waters, there is only one way. Everyone must take a boat from a Ranong pier. There are many travel options from Bangkok to Ranong and the best way we recommend is flying from Don Muang Airport (DMK) to Ranong Airport. The two airlines currently available are Nok Air and Air Asia. Then, from Ranong, take a boat ride into the Myanmar water. Thai nationals need only an identification card (only hard copies are accepted) to cross the border.

We totally recommend you to stay one night in Ranong before the trip begins. Mamy Booking would call you to confirm your itinerary and to inform that there would be a car picking you up at the hotel in the morning. If you stay in Ranong city, the ride is free of charge.

In the next morning, at around 7:40am, Grand Travel’s vehicle picks us up at the hotel. Then it stops by at a few other hotels to pick up other travelers before it heads to the Grand Andaman Pier. All of this takes only 15 minutes.

Finally, we arrive at the pier. The nearby parking lot offers several parking spaces. If you travel with your own car, you can definitely park here.

Since we arrive at the pier, let’s go check in.

After the check-in, each of us is given a wristband. And this is a map and schedule of our trip to the Emerald Heart Island.

Light snacks are offered at the pier too, for those who haven’t had breakfast yet.

After waiting for only a few minutes, we’re ready to hop on a boat. Let’s go!

Before getting on a boat, everyone’s required to take off their shoes first to prevent slipping on the vehicle. It’s also good to let your feet touch the soft smooth sand.

It’s time for the boat to take off. It’s heading to the Grand Andaman Hotel on Koh Son first to pick up more tourists. And over there we meet our tour guides Ning and his Burmese friend. Some of the tourists on this trip are Burmese nationals.

After Ning told us roughly about the schedule, it’s time for us to proceed a border pass at Kawthaung, which doesn’t take too much time. Plus, the guides take care of everything for us. After we get on the boat, the officials come to check on us as a part of their safety measures. Everyone needs to wear a life vest, or else the boat isn’t allowed to take off.

As our boat is leaving Kawthaung, the guides tell us more about the trip. We’re told that we’ll be cruising for about an hour.

The boat cruises past several islands. At this point, we can notice different colors of the seawater from navy blue to turquoise. The scenery is amazingly stunning. Soon the boat is reaching near the Zadetkyi Island which is a base of the Myanmar Navy. We are forbidden to take a picture of the island.

Today, there is a slight change in our schedule. Since the high water level makes the cave at Emerald Heart Island inaccessible, we dive at the Paradise Bay first instead. We dive at the spot for about 45 minutes. The water is crystal clear and we see many leaf corals.

For those who cannot swim, don’t worry. The guides would provide you with swim rings and they would tell you about the coral reefs and underwater habitat. You would feel like you’re taking a fun and education field trip.

After diving for some time, we feel the need to feed our stomachs. We’ll be having lunch on Tafook Island.

Today’s lunch is all-you-can-eat buffet. We also have grass jelly with ice to beat the heat.

The water at Tafook Island is mirror-like crystal clear. We rush to the island to reserve the best seat for dinner by the sea. The view is inexplicably magnificent.

Tafook Island is not a large island. It offers white sand beach where everyone can relax and take a photo. Restrooms are available there too

Don’t waste any more time. Let’s go to the highlight we’ve been looking forward to. It takes only a few minutes and we’re finally at the Emerald Heart Island. The island is a large limestone atoll. If you get a bird’s eye view above the island from a drone, you’ll see a stunning heart-shaped, emerald-colored lagoon.

When we arrive, we can swim into the cave. Be careful though, because the tides are quite strong and the water is quite deep. A safety rope is provided so we can grip it and follow it into the cave.

However, the water at the emerald lagoon is very shallow. There are many coral reefs to be seen here, especially sea whip corals. Snorkel and see them up close, but please don’t touch them.

There are several sea urchins over here. It’s quite risky when swimming near them, but we just cannot resist the beauty of the underwater. We dive further to see sea anemones, giant clams and diverse fish.

We’re given time to dive here for about 45 minutes. At first we thought the guides gave us too much time, but we end up feeling that the time passes so quickly. It’s time to say goodbye to the island. We’ll come back next time we have a chance.

But that’s not it for our trip. We still have another diving spot waiting for us. Zedetkyi Island is known as one of the best places in the Myanmar waters for diving since it offers abundant coral reefs and beautiful ecosystem.

The cruise takes about half an hour before we arrive at the Zedetkyi Island. The guides give us another 45 minutes to dive here. Let’s go and explore.

And finally it’s time for everyone to return to the shore. We’re heading back to Koh Son, where the Grand Andaman is at. Some of us take a quick nap while traveling to the island.

After 40 minutes, we finally arrive at Koh Son. The tour offers special dinner for us here. We show a coupon to the staff at the dining room before we get in to dine on a bunch of international dishes. If you want to take a bath or change your clothes, you can do so on the island too. For shoppers, feel free to find an excellent array of goodies at the duty-free shops. In case you want an ultimate entertaining activity, it’s worth to try the lounge where a lot of international games are available.

The program ends here at Koh Son. After that, the staff would ring a bell every hour to tell us there is a boat ride ready to take us back to the shore. The ferry rides are available hourly until 11pm. If you want to return to the shore late, make sure you have your own ride from the pier to your next destination, because Grand Andaman only offers a car ride up to only 7pm.

*We’d like to recap the trip here*

– The Emerald Heart Island is perfect for diving enthusiasts who want to see coral reefs.

– Coral reefs are diverse and abundant. If you’re a diving enthusiast, we really recommend you to visit the Myanmar sea.

– Make sure you exercise to keep fit before traveling since the schedule is quite busy with physical activities.

– For those who plan for a day trip in Ranong, we’d recommend you to stay in Ranong for three days and two nights because there are still travel limitations in Ranong namely the tight schedule and only a few Ranong-bound flights.

– If you want to have comfortable travel, flying to Ranong is highly recommended. It’s more time-saving and physically comfortable than riding a car.

– If you want to travel in Ranong city as well, you can hire a car and a driver to show you around. Renting a car is also recommended because each tourist attraction in Ranong is quite far away from each other.

– Myanmar sea opens from October through May each year.

*Expense*

One-day diving trip to the Emerald Heart Island, booked with Mamy Booking 3,500 baht (car ride from a hotel to the pier included).

*Tips for the trip*

Don’t forget to bring things needed when traveling to the beach. If you love photography, don’t forget to bring an action camera.

Many may wonder which month is the best time to travel to the Myanmar sea. We already did research for you! Opening times of Myanmar islands can be checked online here: ประกาศปิดอุทยานแห่งชาติ ปี 2018 – Mamy Booking – Blog.

And importantly, please don’t forget to keep the beach clean and follow the rules during the travels.

Mamy Booking also has many other tours to the Myanmar sea. You can check them out here: ทริปท่องเที่ยวทะเลพม่าและระนอง

This is it for Orca’s one-day trip to the Emerald Heart Island. We hope this review would be helpful for you when you plan to travel to the island. See you in the next trip. Bye bye for now.

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