Diving in Thailand - can anyone recommend a dive site

PCPhoto

Can anyone give some recommendations for dive sites in Thailand and dive companies to dive with.

I'm planning 2 weeks over there in April (with the girlfriend) 1 week on Koh Sumui so ideally Koh Tao/Koh Sumui .... I'd love to see some whale sharks or turtles....or can someone recommend places because of what they experienced or have seen.

I'm fairly new to diving - have approx 15dives, am PADI open water certified .... hopefully going to take loads of photos too. (probably going to bring Canon G10 and Canon 5D - and underwater housings.

planning on doing some more diving here before I head over to improve my buoyancy as I see it as a weakness at the moment.

crazydaize

I've never been to Thailand so can't help you with that.

Have you gotten much use of those cameras underwater yet?

PCPhoto

not really gotten much use out of them - but I'll keep practicing.

Rangi

I dived on Phuket with Sea-Bees,can't recomend then highly enough. I was a bit shocked at first by the prices,but once on the boat it was worth the money,very well looked after,and great meals aboard(day trips).
May not be of use to you though,but no harm in looking.

http://www.sea-bees.com/

BigDuffman

I spent two summers in Koh Tao and dived with Crystal Dive. Great centre. The dive sites can get busy round peak times though, but they use their own sheltered shallow dive sites for taking out the OW Students so you wont have a load of newbies dropping on to you and silting up when you are trying to take a pic..

PCPhoto

cheers for that .... planning on doing the earlier dives - so hopefully wont be too busy - some of the dives are super early ... might try to do a night-dive or two.

JohnCleary

I dived in Koh Tao in Jan 2012 - it was actually the only place I got to dive in Thailand due to busy schedule.

Koh Tao is known as the cheapest place for diving in Thailand, and that is most likely true - diving on the west of Thailand is much more expensive.

Kao Tao is pretty much a diving factory - if you don't mind this then you'll love it! But just remember that it's busy year round.

The dive sites there aren't amazing, but they're definitely fun. Going back to the 'dive factory' line, it's a case of get the hoards in, get them diving, and get another hoard of people in.

While in Kao Tao I dived with Phoenix Divers - I'm a CMAS diver so didn't do any classes with them, just 'fun dives'. I ended up paying 675 baht per dive, which was by far the cheapest on the island. Their boat was the same as all the rest (so no nasty surprises) and the dive leaders were all really nice and friendly people... we often met up with them for drinks at night time after diving.

They (like many others) do 3 dives per day: Morning, Afternoon, 'Night' (it's dark, but not late... you're back by 10pm)

My GF did her OW course with Ban's Diving - I had heard nothing but bad things about them (because they have such high turn-over) but my GF really enjoyed diving with them, and got plenty of 1 on 1 attention when she was having breathing issues. Her issue with them was that one of the instructors was a bit of a creep, but she just shrugged it off.

One thing to note about Kao Tao, if you're planning on staying in the main area (forget the name of it, starts with an S... god help me) is that accommodation is either expensive or hard to find, if you are not diving with a place. I know we were there at peak season, but i've heard it's like this year round. If someone in your group is doing an OW course, then no problem, but if you just want to pay for accommodation, expect to pay between 800 - 1000 baht per night accommodation. Also don't get too excited about the 'free' accommodation that places offer if doing an OW course: They are fan rooms with no hot water, you have to pay extra for luxuries like hot water/air-con. When we stayed with Ban's we managed to get a free upgrade after lots of arguing (they had assured us hot water in e-mails)

Other than that... Kao Tao is a lovely island.. don't just stay in the main beach, explore the whole island. The roads are dodgy as hell but if you can drive a bike defo do it, we were glad we did!

Maximus Alexander

I can't recommend Scuba Junction on Koh Tao highly enough. Good prices, extremely knowledgeable and friendly dive masters and instructors, and you'll never be in a group of more than four on a dive. I just did my open water and advanced with them and could not have been happier. If you're just doing fun dives, they only charge 750 THB per dive, which includes equipment, water, tea, coffee, fruit etc on the boat.

Whale sharks and turtles are rare enough around Koh Tao, but many of their staff have seen them and can take you to the places you're most likely to spot them. There are some great dive sites around so just pop in and ask them what they suggest.

PCPhoto

will take a look ...cheers for the recommendations guys.

Less than 2 weeks before we depart for Thailand...woo hoo.

Seve OB

I did my PADI with a place called Buddah Dive in Ko Pha ngan (I still have the T-Shirt) about 10 years ago so they might not still be there, but I'm sure there are plenty.
It was just based by the harbour, and they brought us to some amazing places.
Seen a few trigger fish and a couple of small sharks (I think a small tiger shark, but can't be sure with the old grey matter 10 years on)

Also were at Phi Phi and found the water over that side much clearer, but we just snorkled over there

Would love to go back

veg123

spent a lot of time in that part of the world and I would definitely recommend you base your diving out of Koh Tao if it's still an option. Diving is better and just a short 10-15 min boat ride off shore. Will be easy to do a night dive if that takes your fancy as well. They'll have good prices for you to get the advanced course done which will also help with buoyancy.

When I was in Samui a lot of the operators were going to Tao which is a 2 hour boat ride away and also a little more expensive...

Only downside is that there isn't as much to do for non-divers in Tao

Either way it doesn't really matter where you go as the diving is fantastic!!
Enjoy

Seve OB

veg123 wrote: »

spent a lot of time in that part of the world and I would definitely recommend you base your diving out of Koh Tao if it's still an option. Diving is better and just a short 10-15 min boat ride off shore. Will be easy to do a night dive if that takes your fancy as well. They'll have good prices for you to get the advanced course done which will also help with buoyancy.QUOTE]

I actually think this is where we got brought to do a days diving and it was fantastic

mocmo

Another vote for Koh Tao, was there last September, fantastic. Try these guys - run by an Irish guy and his missus. Great people who'll see you right http://http://pressuredropdivers.com/

PCPhoto

always good to try find the irish dive centre in Koh Tao !! (will keep 'em in mind)

cooperguy

I have to second your recommendation of Scuba Junction, I was diving with them June 2011. A great school and they really try to avoid the diving factory feel that you get with some of the other companies (and was mentioned on this thread). They have a small boat (no double decker packed to the gills boats like other companies!) and no more than 4 to a group.

PCPhoto

ended out diving with Silent Divers - nice bunch of lads.

also got chatting with people from Easy Divers ...would recommend them too.

Dived on Sail Rock and Koh Tao (2 dives on each)

would recommend Sail rock for schools of fish (hundreds of fish together in a school - looks amazing) and twins/chumpanon rock on koh tao for coral fans/anememy fish/ and smaller schools of fish

Seve OB

PCPhoto wrote: »

ended out diving with Silent Divers - nice bunch of lads.

also got chatting with people from Easy Divers ...would recommend them too.

Dived on Sail Rock and Koh Tao (2 dives on each)

would recommend Sail rock for schools of fish (hundreds of fish together in a school - looks amazing) and twins/chumpanon rock on koh tao for coral fans/anememy fish/ and smaller schools of fish

Ah yea, I remember we went to Sail Rock, funny story actually. Meself and the mate were doing the Paddi and there were 2 Swedish chicks doing it with us.

My so called "buddy" pissed off on a tangent and the water was a bit cloudy so we lost the dive instructor. What seemed like an eternity later, he found us and brought us up top. He gave us a bollocking and then we swam back to the boat where the two girls were back already.

So you know with the tank and all, I was more or less swimming on my back and next thing you hear the girls shouting in their broken english what sounded like "big yellow fish" "big yellow fish".

What, where??? I turned around and straight into a bloody bastard jellyfish. Luckily it just got me arm, but all of it, It felt so soft and gentle at first, like really silky hair and then a minute later it was "OH FU<X....."


Big yellow fish me arse... big jelly fish!!!

PCPhoto

you know how to deal with a yelly-fissh sting dont you ???


lol

..... peeeeeeee - it neutralises the sting !!

matrim

I was in Koh Tao last week and did my AOW with Davy jone's locker (DJL) divers.

Really nice bunch of people and some great dives. Got to see a whale shark at chumpanon It was also fun being there for the party for 4 new divemasters. Snorkle tests look evil.

I went into Scuba Junction to ask but didn't get a good first impression. Seemed very rushed and they didn't go through what they offered very well. Plus I had to explain 3 times that I wanted to do AOW not OW to get the proper price. Although given the good reviews they get I'm sure once you dive with them they are good.