On the southwestern side of Kecil Island lies a popular diving site called ‘Vietnamese Wreck’ or ‘Pasir Tani’ in Malay. Once used for transporting Vietnamese refugees during the war, it sank in the 70’s after delivering them to Kecil Island. Reached by speedboat in 25-40mins, this site is only recommended for experienced and expert divers, due to the strong currents and deep murky depths, with viz ranging from 7 to 10m.

The wreck sits upright about 22m below the surface, on a sandy bottom which is covered in beautiful nudibranchs and soft corals and the sides are covered in lots of colourful varieties of corals, gorgonian sea fans and barrel sponges. Take a peek on the deck top and you’ll see an amazing, lush garden of purple, lilac and red soft corals spread everywhere.

A huge array of marine life live amongst the corals here, such as scorpionfish, pretty orange, red and yellow bioluminescent sea pens, sea horses, tiny sweetlips and lionfish can be found in the sand, around the base and on the insides of the wreck. The hull has a few openings which create a swim-through for expert divers to explore the colourful sea fans, corals and macro creatures adorning the walls.

It is home to several species of colourful marine life like angelfish, lionfish, wrasse, boxfish, stonefish and batfish and you can see dense schools of grunts, barracudas, snappers, stingrays and trevallies swimming around the wreck, and you might even see a leopard shark or two resting in the sand by the base. Good months to dive here are between April and September.