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Follow along as this Canadian mom takes her teen to Phuket, Thailand, a dive mecca in Southeast Asia, to learn all about safe scuba diving and a new culture.

Our son doesn't know how lucky he is. We're diving in Hideaway Bay, just one of many spectacular dive sites found in Thailand's Similan Islands, rated among the Top 10 places in the world to scuba dive. For adults, let alone a preteen kid just learning to dive, the Similans are a diver's paradise -- a cornucopia of underwater life rivaling the tropical forest on land.

Earlier, my husband, son and I had joined my brother on the island of Phuket in southern Thailand. My brother, a dive instructor, was going to teach my family how to dive. The big challenge would be our son Alex. While children can become certified at age 12, Alex was still naturally apprehensive about jumping into a sea of water and trusting his life to a tank of compressed air.

In Phuket, while enjoying a few days of relaxation at the Sheraton Grande Laguna Beach (66/76 324 101; 800/325-3589), Alex and my husband study dive tables and complete the various pool exercises required to become certified divers. (Since I already have my dive card, I loaf in the sun.) Five days later, we're ready for the Similans.

Sprinkled 100 kilometers northwest off the coast of Phuket, the Similan Islands are a group of nine uninhabited islands that were designated a national park in 1982. Giant granite boulders ring some of the world's fairest powdery white beaches. But, of course, the real reason for coming here is its magnificent underwater reefs.

Aboard the Scuba Cat 

A transfer boat takes us on the four-hour ride to the Similans, where we hop aboard the M/V Scuba Cat, anchored off Similan Island No. 1. One of two live-aboard dive boats operated by Scuba Cat, this will be our home for the next few days.

It has 10 simple cabins with an upper and lower bunk. Between each cabin, the walls are open above and below to allow cooling breezes to flow through the boat. There are two shared combination toilet/shower stalls. It's not the Sheraton. But it's clean and comfortable, and what's underwater promises to be fancier than any accommodation topside. Already, we're mesmerized by the water's brilliant shades of sapphire, turquoise and emerald. 

We arrive in time for lunch. A juggling act ensues as a departing group gets off to take the transfer boat back to Phuket. Then there's a safety and dive briefing for the 10 of us that have boarded, before everyone gears up for their first dive.

Because my husband and son are learning, our family dives separately with our own divemaster.