Hin Daeng is a steep pinnacle mainly covered in red anemones and rated as one of the worlds best dive sites.

Name Dive Site:	Hin Daeng or Red Rock
Depth:	0-40m (0-131ft)
Visibility:	10-25m (32-82ft)
Accessibility:	Boat, Live-aboard
Inserted/Added by:	lars, © Author: Lars Hemel
Rated:	Rated 5.0, 8 votes
Specifications:

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Hin Daeng or Red Rock is with depths of up to seventy meters, well beyond normal recreational diving limits, one of the deepest and most popular dive sites in Thailand. Located at eighty kilometres south of Koh Phi Phi Don Island and forty southwest of Koh Lanta, it is also one of the most remote. This underwater limestone pinnacle is located in the middle of the ocean next to its brother Purple Rock reachable by a one hour speedboat ride. Red Rock is unlike Purple Rock not completely submerged and sticks out into the sky for almost three meters depending on the tides. Both sites are heavily protected by the Mu Koh Lanta National Marine Park.

The southern side of the pinnacle drops down to depths of seventy meters decorated in black corals, sea fans and soft beds of anemones mainly in the colours red and purple. There are small caverns and caves nearby who all add up to its divers underwater topography. Its northern side is definitely as spectacular but there the reef lacks its extremely steep descent and drops in a relatively gentle slope.

The pinnacles are the only shallow vegetation for tens of kilometres and therefore attracts all sorts of marine life. To start with some of the best encounters divers can ever have are the whale sharks and manta rays. They often visit this area in their search for huge amounts of plankton and don't forget to peek into the blue from time to time or you might miss them all together. You will find huge groups of predators such as barracuda's, jacks, sailfish, rainbow runners, crocodile long toms or houndfish and trevallies all waiting, playing, darting and hunting for a wide range of delicious meals. Sharks also patrol around the pinnacle especially around the forty meter deep parameter; probably because this is the deepest divers will go. Smaller fish such as batfish and banner fish eat from the coral and are offered an excellent and safe place to live. Moray eels, octopus, boxer shrimps and cowry shells hide in the many cracks and holes the pinnacle has to offer. Nudibranches, sea stars and other small invertebrate live is very common as well. Don't forget to pay attention to its excellent smaller creatures as well as live on the pinnacle is as crowded and divers as a huge city.

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