Pulau Payar Island which is about 30km from Langkawi, has a number of dive sites close by, one of which is House Reef. Calm shallow waters make this an excellent spot for night diving, for training beginner divers, for snorkelling and also for any level of reef and drift diving. Depths here vary from 5 to 18m and viz can be a bit murky, or really clear up to 20m depending on the season.

An incredible variety of soft and hard corals adorn the reef, you’ll see boulder corals, stony corals, brain corals, staghorns and knob corals in beautiful colours, and a staggering array of marine life such as titan triggerfish, porcupine fish, moon wrasse, jacks, angelfish, butterfly fish, rabbitfish, lionfish, snappers and hundreds of yellowtail barracudas. Baby reef sharks flock here and you might even get to meet the local residents; a scary-looking but friendly giant barracuda named Mustafa and a massive grouper named Toby, who is very shy!

House reef is really great for macro and muck diving enthusiasts, looking carefully along the muddy sandy areas on the bottom and amongst the corals, you could discover unusual and wonderful creatures like sea horses, starfish, ghost pipefish, moray eels and mantis prawns, as well as porcelain crabs, cuttlefish and tomato anemone fish.