The Bida Islands
Koh Bida Nok and Koh Bida Nai (aka the Bida Nok and Bida Nai Islands) are two small rocky islands situated at the southernmost part of the Phi Phi Island group and are part of the Had Nopparathara National Park.
It takes around 40 minutes to reach these islands from the main Phi Phi Don Island – just enough time to set up the equipment and do a good dive briefing. The two islands are about 200 meters away from each other, which makes them a great option as part of our our Bida Bonanza three dive Special trip
FYI Koh = Island, Nok = Outer, Nai = Inner (refer to spatial distances from Phi Phi Don Island)
THE DIVE SITES
3-4 dives possible at these two islands, although they are so good you’ll probably want to go back and repeat the same dives.
Bida Nok Island
Koh Bida Nok (also spelt Bida Nog) literally translates to Outer Bida Island and so named Bida Nok as it is the further of the two Bida islands from the main Phi Phi Island. It is also the larger of the two islands roughly 800 meters in circumference. It is a rocky island with no accommodation.
There is more than one dive to do here, as it is not possible to get the whole island done in one dive. We tend to refer to the dive sites here as the deep side or the shallow side, both equally amazing and each offering a different type of dive, but sometimes the choice is not up to us but up to which way the currents are running.
The shallow side
Dives quite often start in the shallow bay on the southern side, and as soon as the boat drops us off we swim into the back of the bay in search of the black tip reef sharks. The reef here is from 3 to 10 meters deep. Swimming south (anti-clockwise) from the bay, the reef gets a little deeper and we encounter a wall that drops to around 15-16 meters. Heading further north, it’s worth a swim out over the sand in search of leopard sharks or kuhl’s stingrays that may be resting there.
The shallow side is also the site of some large rocky overhangs that offers some pretty spectacular topography and is there are usally large schools of snappers here.
Although we call it the ‘shallow side’ there are still some deeper portions of the site heading towards the northern end of Bida Nok island, dropping off to 25 meters. A dive on this side usually ends with a safety stop on the shallow reef flat, where black tip reef sharks are quite often circling the area.
The deep side
We can choose to start in the bay or, we might get dropped off at the north of the island and travel south. The deep side is made up of walls, sloping reef and large coral outcrops. Huge schools of yellow snappers are often found here. Pelagic fish such as trevally and barracudas hang out on the edge of the schools as they patrol for an opportunity of a meal. Although we call it the deep side most of the reef and the best ‘stuff’ is located shallower. Moray eels, scorpionfish, lionfish are very common here. Cuttlefish and octopus can be found also.
The bay at Bida Nok island
The Bida Islands Gallery
Bida Nai Island
Koh Bida Nai literally translates to Inner Bida Island as it is the closer of the two Bida islands to the main Phi Phi Island. It is the smaller of the two islands roughly 600 meters in circumference. It is a rocky island with no accommodation.
It is possible circle most of this island in one dive, although doing multiple dive here would offer something new each time.
Fantasea Reef
On the southeast side of the island is a small outcrop of reef, the top of which is at around 14 meters and drops of to 24 meters at it’s deepest most easterly point. To reach it, we need to swim 40-meters out from Bida Nai island, across the artificial coral reef installations that were installed over a number of years by The Adventure Club and continue across the sandy flat that is between the island and the outcrop.
The outcrop is a small mount and there are usually groupers, and pelagic fish around the mount. Leopard sharks, turtles, and stingrays are often seen here
The main Island
The reef is a sloping reef that ranges from 1 meter – 30 meters (in some spots) with a great wall reef located on the north to north west sides. On days when there is no current we can comfortably dive around the full island, although on days when there are currents we can swim on the leeside with no current until we reach a spot on the island where the current is no longer easy to swim against and then turn around and drift back towards the leeside.
