Khao Lak Dive Sites -Bon Soong Wreck (aka Bang Sak Wreck)

Bon Soong Wreck
We visit this local dive site two or three times a week. We only need two people and we are ready to go! All our staff are always eager to do this dive. Not only is it convenient – just a few kilometers offshore, but the diving is incredible. I’ve personally dived it close to 150 times and still love it.

We go by longtail, using our local captain. We will have lunch on the longtail itself, and we spend a good long surface interval so that we can have lengthy dives. This isn’t fancy diving – backrolls over the side and just us on the boat. And if you think your surface interval is too long – you’ll see that we just talk away about all the different kinds of marine life.

Bon Soong (The original name – it means heavy spray, like from an elephant trunk) is a tin dredger that sank around 20 years ago. This particular dredger was built in Australia in the 1920’2 or 30’s, eventually making its way here. This region was famous for it’s tin long before it was famous for its beaches.

Bon Soong is scooping dredger, meaning it had a long arm with a series of buckets that it would lower into the shallows to dig up the bottom. Kind of like an elephant trunk (thus the name of the boat!)

The boat went down during a sudden Thunderstorm in the early 80’s. One person died. It wasn’t the sturdiest boat (see construction date) to begin with. The tin was starting to give out and the government was starting to limit the tin mining concessions. So it was fortuitous timing.

It is located a few kilometers off Cape Pakarang or about 13 nautical miles away from Tap-Lamu pier. It is also off of Bang Sak beach, which explains it’s other name.

At first, due to it’s large size, the wreck lay close to the surface making it a safety hazard to local fishing vessels. So the Thai Navy were called in to bomb the boat, reducing its height by collapsing the decks, and creating the wreck that we dive on today.

The Wreck used to be in two pieces, or so we thought! The tsunami of 2004 lifted a huge section of the superstructure off and spread it out. Now the site is even better! More spread out, more nooks and crannies and more for us to poke our heads into!

The wreck lies on serene flat sandy region at 18 to 20 metres. As there is nothing else of note within several kilometers of the site, all the small fish and their predators come to this one locale. The concentration of fishlife here is extraordinary. At times visibility drops to 3 meters – but due to fish, not plankton!!!

We expect to see schools of bigeye trevally, snappers, batfish, porcupinefish and squids on every dive. On the sand floor, we often see leopard sharks, several varieties of gobies, tiny flounders and flatheads wedged in the sand.

Hiding beneath the wreck in the dark, we have often seen a huge marble stingray.

On the wreck itself, you can find a great selection of nudibranchs, white-eyed morays and honeycomb morays with spectacular patterns. Cuttlefish, octopus and pipefish are also very common. If you are fortunate enough, you may encounter a whale shark.


This is a shallow site and easy to navigate, but that doesn’t mean it is safe! The wreck is completely encrusted in corals, mollusks and rust. It also pokes out in some unexpected ways. Even more intimidating are the sheer numbers of Scorpionfish and Lionfish. Hundreds of both just saturate this site with their dangerous spines. This is one of the few sites that actually has Stonefish. Scorpionfish are often identified as Stonefish by the less experienced divemasters. The Stonefish venom is quite painful.

This site is usually THE favorite or one of the favorites of all local Instructors. The amount of life here is incredible, but also the diversity. While we at Wicked are firm believers that the smaller the better – you can still find Sharks, Rays and Barracudas.

This site is home to Hypseledoris Zebrina, Hypseledoris and several other very rare species of Nudibranchs and Flabellinas. Tucked in hidden corners of the wreck are also Frogfish and even seashorses. This is the place to take your time and really like for the little stuff.

Also watch you deco limits