Friday, 31 July 2009
Diving holidays in Thailand
This post will be about diving and travelling in Thailand. Once you've landed in Bangkok or on one of the other airports on either the westcoast or on Koh Samui, it's fairly easy to get to your final destination. The buses, trains and minibuses are reliable to get you there. If you are staying somewhere near Kao San Rd in Bangkok the easiest way is to go to the "Hua Lamphong Railway Station", officially known as the "Bangkok Railway Station". It's about a 5 min drive with a taxi or about 15 mins walking from Kao San Rd. There you have the option of taking either the train, a bus or a minibus.
Now getting to the interesting part, the diving itself! In Thailand the options are vast. For people that want to start diving or are not that experienced yet, the best choice would be to go to one of the islands in the Gulf of Thailand. I would personally recommend going to either Koh Tao or Koh Chang.
First of all Koh Chang. It's a beautiful island near the Cambodian border. It takes about 6 hrs to get there from Bangkok. 75% of the island is covered in rainforest, hills and waterfalls. The westcoast of the island is the most populated, with White Sand Beach as it's main tourist attraction (very busy during high-season. There are several dive operators offering fundives (for the certified) and dive courses from different dive organizations. For tec-divers there is one operator offering interesting wreck dives as well ( Scuba Evolution). If diving on Koh Chang an absolute must is "Hin Luk Bath". This is one of the prime dive sites around Koh Chang. Hin Luk Bath is a pinnacle that offers refuge to plenty of shoaling fish. There are moray eels, stingrays, parrotfish, snappers, fusiliers, big groupers, butterfly fish, banner fish, barracuda, angelfish, and many more. On the way to the dive site you can sometimes see dolphins. The pinnacle is surrounded by huge uw boulders that offer some great swim throughs…. Great for night diving. Some of the dive sites at the Koh Rang National Park are nice too. Try to avoid going to the spots where all the snorkel boats are moored. No fun, diving with hundreds of snorkelers above your head! The best time to go to Koh Chang is between october and april. No use going there between may and the end of september as the monsoon "rains" the island.
Further south in the gulf you have a couple of islands worth visiting. Koh Phangang and Koh Tao. Try to avoid Koh Samui if you don't like mass-tourism. On Koh Phangang you have a couple of dive operators. But the island is mostly known for it's full- and half-moon-parties. Than there is Koh Tao. Known for being the nr. 1 dive destination in the gulf. On Koh Tao they offer the cheapest diving in Thailand, probably in the world, which is great for young backpackers! On the other hand you could end up diving at a divesite with many other divers around you. So the cheapest offer is often not the best quality! Try to find one that avoids the "traffic", especially in the morning. Some of the best dive sites in the gulf are in the surrounding waters of Koh Tao. An absolute must for the more experienced divers (read: advanced+) are "Chumpon Pinnacle". Regular spottings of whalesharks, have seen a couple of them there myself, different types of reefsharks and the bigger pelagics like barracuda's, mackerels and potato groupers. "Southwest Pinnacle", the tops of the pinnacles are covered with a carpet of anemones in brilliant greens, pinks and blues, filled with pink anemone fish. Whale sharks are occasional visitors to the site here too, which is home as well to large schools of snapper, yellowtail barracuda, and one mean titan triggerfish. Be aware, haha! "Sail Rock", which is like swimmimg in a fish bowl. Different big shoals of fuseliers, barracuda's, batfish and other large pelagics. Also featured on this pinnacle is a giant mooray eel, and a lot of scorpionfish and nudi-branchs for "the trained eye".
On the next post I will discuss the diving on the westcoast...
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