Thailand Cave Diving
 Name: Song Hong
Location: Tung Yai, Krabi,
Thailand
Depth:
0 - 150m/500ft
Training reqs: Lake; OWD - Trimix
Cave; Cavern - Full cave
Access:
Park next to entrance
Permissions: None
Discoverer: Matt London, 2001
Last Dived by: Bruce Konefe, 2010
This is one of the most amazing caves that I
have seen. It doesnt have the most beautiful stalagmites or stalactites. It is
the size that puts me at awe. Song Hong is about 120km drive from
Krabi, the nearest town would be Thung Yai.
Song
Hong lake is only about 75 meters across and 75 meters wide. In the middle of
the lake you can reach 110 meters from what I have been told. I have managed to
get down to about 125 meters in the cave a couple times. One time I had a
pressure gauge implode at max depth of 125 meters on are way to 130 m. Think we
were going to 130 m when that happened.
 Both
inside the cave and in the lake you will find survey lines at depths like 10 m,
20 m, 40 m etc going all around the lake and cave. You will also see lines that
follow the wall down deep. Viz can actually get to be about 20 meters.
Sometimes you have better viz inside the cave then you do outside. When you go
inside the cave entrance it is amazing because you cannot see any of the other
walls. There is supposed to be a passageway somewhere around the 140 meters
deep. One diver by the name Mike Gadd had penetrated these passageways for about
800 meters. Actually one of my life adventures is to film this passageway and
try to add a bit more line to the
existing one. Mike had done this with the help of Matt partridge and Ben
Reymenants a year or two back.
How to get there:-
Directions to Song Hong Take 4 going east . Go past the airport til you get
to 4037 then turn left. Drive till you reach 4156 and make a right turn. Drive
39 km and this will take you to a hotel (which about one of the only ones
around.) 400 baht per night. 0765368619 0898717043
To get
to Song Hong from the hotel make a left on 4156 and drive to 4038. Head down
4038 until you see a yellow school bus stop on the left side. It is exactly
12.9 km once you get on 4038. Turn left and drive 3 km until you come to a T
junction . Turn right at the T junction and drive 4 7/10 km . There will be a
road turning to the right and a market there on the corner. Turn right before
the road to the right, there is a car path leading back to Song Hong. Probable
the nearest place to get tanks filled would be the
One Stop Shop near Ao-Nang.
Tel: +66
(0) 75 637 926/7
Can speak to Dave at
0815358782 One Stop Shop
Want to arrange a Cave Course or trip to
this cave? Contact Bruce Konefe
bruce_konefe@yahoo.com , Tel
+66-81-299-2968
 Name:
Sre Keow
Location: Sre Keow, Krabi,
Thailand
Depth:
0 - 240m/800ft
Training reqs: Intro to Cave - Full cave
Access:
National Park, Travel by elephant
Permissions: Ask the local 'Gamnan' or 'Puu-Yai-Baan'(Head
Villager)Discoverer: Matt London, 2001
Last Dived by: Bruce Konefe, 2009
This is the deepest cave that I know of and
have dove in Thailand. This cave looks like a small pond but what you do not
know is that small entrance will take you a long ways in. I have made numerous
trips down to this cave on different occasions. There are two ponds that you can
see and they will both join up at about 80 meters depth. The first pond you come
to has the best viz of the two. Be careful when you go because the viz can turn
real bad and real quick. The second pond there is what looks like to be training
lines all over the place. Every time I went in this pond the viz we lousy right
from start. The viz does get good once you get past the 80 m mark to where
it actually gets quite clear. This must have something to do with the rain and
the mountains surrounding the caves. On numerous trips I helped other team
members by staging tanks down to the 120 meter depth range. Some of the divers
had gone down to 150 m on one trip and 200 m the next. One time I had to be the
clean up diver hitting the surface with 8 tanks clipped on. That was fun right
up to the 20 m mark where there was a line trap and had to try and navigate
around .This cave bottoms out at 240
 m. A group of guys living in Thailand had
gone and bottomed out the cave on one trip. Around the back side
of sure Keow if you follow the small road around you will come across a small
pond. The viz was not so good but if you follow the line that is already laid
you will come up to a small restriction Just about big enough to squeeze through
with a set of twins. Once you get through this passage way the cave goes down at
about 45 degree angle I have down to only 40 meters or so but have been told
that it goes beyond 90 m. This passageway is at an angle heading right towards
the main cave system. the start. The viz does get good once you get past the 80
m mark to where it actually gets quite clear. This must have something to do
with the rain and the mountains surrounding the caves. On numerous trips I
helped other team members by staging tanks down to the 120 meter depth range.
Some of the divers had gone down to 150 m on one trip and 200 m the next. One
time I had to be the clean up diver hitting the surface with 8 tanks clipped on.
That was fun right up to the 20 m mark where there was a line trap and had to
try and navigate around .This cave bottoms out at 240 m. A group of guys living
in Thailand had
 gone and bottomed out the cave on one trip. Around the back side
of sure Keow if you follow the small road around you will come across a small
pond. The viz was
not so good but if you follow the line that is already laid you will come up to
a small restriction Just about big enough to squeeze through with a set of
twins. Once you get through this passage way the cave goes down at about 45
degree angle I have down to only 40 meters or so but have been told that it goes
beyond 90 m. This passageway is at an angle heading right towards the main cave
system. I believe it joins up at some point. Maybe next trip
How to get there:-
Take
4203 which is just north of Ao-Nang Thailand heading east. Make a left on 4033
and go approximately 1 ½ km then turn right on 1003. Drive about 3/10 km and
turn right on a small road leading to a elephant farm. You will drive 1 4/10 km
down this road and turn left. You will turn left right before the road turns
into a dirt road. This road will take you to the two main ponds of Song Sre keow.
GPS to
Sre keow 8 degrees 107.99 N 98 degrees 4825.89 E
Hotels
There are plenty of hotels about 20 km west of Sre Keow of all prices ranges in
Krabi and Aow Nang
Nearest
Fill station ONE STOP SHOP located on Moo 2 right off of 4201. GPS 8 degrees
0229 N, 98 degrees 5022 E
One Stop
shop : Tel: +66 (0) 75 637 926/7
Can
speak to Dave at 0815358782 One Stop Shop
Want to arrange a Cave Course or trip to
this cave? Contact Bruce Konefe
bruce_konefe@yahoo.com , Tel
+66-81-299-2968
Name:
Thong Pha Phum
Location: Thong Pha Phum,
Kanchanaburi, Thailand
Depth:
0 - 60m/200ft
Training reqs: Cavern - Full cave
Access:
Long tail boat from local fishing village
Permissions: None
Discoverer:
Bruce Konefe, 2005
Last Dived by:
Bruce Konefe, 2009
Thong Pha Phum located about 120 km north
of Kanchanaburi. This is where I first started searching for caves, I think I
have come across about 6 different caverns and two very nice caves. The first
cave that I dove in up north was when a Thai policeman took me up there to show
me its location. It was a beautiful 40 minute long tail boat ride. When you
arrive you will just see a small island in the middle of this lake. If you scale
down the one wall you will find the entrance. Going straight will take you
through the cavern and right out the other side. A great place to take cavern
students for their first cavern dive. Safe and easy to navigate. There is a nice
passage that follows the left wall around that will either take you outside or
turn right and take you to the main passageway through the middle. In this cave
I have seen schools of baby cat fish and also some of the biggest catfish alive.
The biggest catfish was about 1 ½ meters long. This fish definitely was not
scared of me, he kept staring at me and never swam away. The bottom depth of
this cave is around 15-18 meters. This is hard to judge sometimes since the
water level varies a lot during the year. Not far from the village where we
leave from are two other caverns. The one cavern is one of my favorites since
there are a lot of turn and
boulders in there that make good practice for
the students practicing laying lines. The cavern gives you the feeling like you
are way back in a big cave system but if you look close you can see the light
from the entrance. During the low level water season someone had parked a small
boat inside. The water had risen and the boat was left in there. To be surprise
we looked up and there was this boat inside the cavern. Just around the corner
from this cavern is another one. Nothing spectacular but a descent place to dive
and practice skills. I believe these two caverns do connect somewhere in the
middle. I have not been able to connect them up as of yet since I am normally
with students when I go. One of these days I will take my OMS side mount kit and
see if they really do connect. Not far from a floating restaurant there are a
bunch of caves along this big tall mountain wall. Two caves there really stick
out in my head. One of them the entrance is not very deep maybe 6 meters or so.
When you enter you turn to the left and follow the wall. Once you get in there
are a couple different directions that you could go. There is a nice
passageway you follow with spots all over the
wall. IF you do go the other way there are places that you can poke your head up
out of the water. There is one place you can actually get up and take your
equipment off. I never did but there was a passage way going somewhere. The viz
in this cave is totally awesome, never been there with bad
viz. There are some permanent lines laid in this
cave with some jumps put in for the students to practice with, Not far from this
cave is another island that has a real descent cave, Once laid out more than a
whole reel and it kept going back in. Stupid me reeled out and have not been
able to find the passageway again which is somewhere against the back wall. I
have been told that there is a large
Buddha image still left in this cave. I did find a large wooden table in the
middle of the cave. This table was used to put Buddha images and such when they
come to the cave. This lake is all
fresh water. 
 The
whole area used to be dry until they built the dams about 30 years ago and
flooded the whole town. This same cave the viz can get quite low however I like
this cave the most and give the student some excellent training. I did lay some
primary lines through the cave but they probable should be re-laid. 
How to get there:-
Directions to Thong Pha phum Take 323 out of Kanchanburi . approximately 130
km north of kanchanaburi.
You do
need a long tail to get to the caves. Caves range from a 10 minute boat ride to
1 hour. Excellent boat ride getting there.
30 meter
cave 14.54.722 North 98.31.054 East
Depth
got to be 30 m, great for training, can have very low viz, there is a wooden
table inside where the people would put Buddha images on before the flood. This
cave is a traverse. I did lay some lines through the cave but after diving a
couple times I thought they could be laid much better. First time through you
have no ideal where to go.
Long
Cave 14.57.180 North 98.29.289 East
Shallow
cave with some awesome visibility. I laid some lines through and set up some
jump s for students to practice on plus there were other passages there. Very
nice tunnel with spots on the walls as you get near the end. There are places
inside this cave that you can surface and even get out of the water. You can
spend a hour playing around in this cave and have a lot of fun. The cave
entrance is directly across from a floating huts.
2 Caves 14.56.792 North
98.29.504 East
Bat Cave 14.51.988 North
98.29.429 East
I wrote down nick names for
the caves trying to remember why I named them that. Been awhile since I have
been up there.
Want to arrange a Cave
Course or trip to this cave? Contact Bruce Konefe
bruce_konefe@yahoo.com , Tel
+66-81-299-2968
Name:
Khao Sok
Location: Khao Sok
National Park, Surathani, Thailand
Depth:
0 - 100m/330ft
Training reqs: Lake; OWD - Trimix
Cave; Cavern - Full cave
Access:
Park next to entrance
Permissions: Must pay THB200 to enter the national park
Discoverer:
Bruce Konefe, Temple Cave, 2006
Last Dived by: Bruce Konefe, 2010
Khao Sok National park (Rachabrappha Dam)
This again is a fresh water lake. Probable the most well known cave in the lake
is Temple cave. We dove this cave for the first time back in 2006. I think
everybody and there brother has been in here. There are about 3 or 4 places that
you can enter into this cave. This cave is probable the most beautiful cave I
have seen in Thailand. If you dive the shallow sections of the cave is awesome
to be able to see all of the stalactites.
This cave is good for doing training courses
in. We have actually laid lines at different levels of the cave allowing the
students more to see. The max depth of this cave is around 24 meters, Again this
can change with the time of the year. Not far from Temple cave is Peters cave.
Not sure who was the first one to dive this cave, it might have been either Erik
or Milo. The cave entrance is quite shallow maybe 6 meters or so. There is a
primary line laid all the way around this cave. The max depth may be right
around 15-18 meters. There is a second entrance to this cave which I like to use
for training of restrictions. Down and off to the left of the main entrance is a
second entrance. You can barely squeeze through with a set of twins on, if you
have a deco tank you will probably have to take it off and shove it through the
whole. One you go inside after about 10 meters it will go to the left. There is
a nice restriction that you have to go through and it will come out right in the
bottom of Peters cave. This I like to do blacked out mask, out of air and touch
contact. Nam Dang is another place for training. Probable best for doing the
first couple dives of the cavern course. Easy and safe to dive. I like to get
people to practice laying line through here where if they make a mistake they
can easily get
 out.
You can see the entrance most of the way around the cave. There is one small
whole that Peter showed me and he said that it went up and in a good ways. I was
playing around to see if I could fit through the whole with my rebreather on.
Actually had my 02 valve roll shit , wondering why my po2 was getting low. Lol.
I believe there are good possibilities of finding more caverns and caves in this
lake. I know a lot of the guys from the south have been always checking out new
spots.
How to get there:-
Directions to Khao Sok National Park 41 to 401 Head west on 401. Drive till
the village Ban Ta khun. There is a sign that says Ratchaprapha dam. Turn left
and drive about 13 km and the road will come to a T. Turn left at the T and go
through the guard shack. Once through the guard shack make a immediate right
and this road will take you to the main pier
GPS
location to temple cave 9.2.12 N, 98.40.33 E
Long
Tail boat Owners name is Vell and can be reached at 0847458632
Want to arrange a Cave
Course or trip to this cave? Contact Bruce Konefe
bruce_konefe@yahoo.com , Tel
+66-81-299-2968
Phi Phi
Many moons ago I did my cavern course on Phi
Phi with Matt London. We did dive in a cave called Maia cave or something like
that. Actually thought it was a good cavern to dive it. This cavern is right
near the beach where they filmed the movie 'The
Beach' , There are some sea caves down off of PHI PHI that I have not had
the chance to dive in. I have been told that they go in about 120 m or so.
Hopefully I will get the opportunity to dive these caves in the near future..
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