ChefDude

Any tips would be greatly appreciated - the books advise, sensibly, going to a reputable dive centre.

any thailand holiday tips would be great please - dealing with the locals, bartering, theft, mugging, drinking local water (prolly not lol), etc etc.

I will be booking to go first 2 weeks in april.

JamieMiller

I was there about 5 years ago. I went to Ko Phi Phi and did my Padi open water course. It was fantastic. The island was really chilled out and I didn't get any hassles. The only time we did was when we were in Patong on Phuket but even then it wasn't too bad. Just take the usual precautions regarding valuables. You get bad people wherever you go.
Enjoy.

Brendan Hughes

PM me your email, I'll send you something. Did PADI open water at Ko Tao about 3-4 yrs ago. With the amount of concrete and building going on on the island at that time, I'd be surprised if anything I have to say is still valid!

Petem95

Ah 'dived', I read that as 'died'!!

If you have problems with the locals just shout "**** theres a massive wave coming!!!" in Thai and run

ChefDude

lol

Brendan Hughes

Will send you summat tonight

prodriva

I've just got back from Koh Samui in Thailand. Had two glorious weeks and hate being back at work. I cant help on your diving question but I can on the others. Dealing with the locals - they are very friendly and patient and most have a good understanding of english though sometimes it can be a struggle. As for bartering when you ask how much the first thing they will do in most cases is grab a calculator, punch in a price (in Thai Bhat) and they pass it over to you. You then suck air through your teeth and say too much and key in a lower price and hand back to the seller. I ended up offering half what a guy was asking for a Diesel bag and I got it without hardly any bartering. Just try it on and see what they do. At the end of the day you will hardly ever have to pay the initial asking price. As for theft/mugging I've no idea, never been an issue. Just be sensible about things like dont leave bags lying around etc and try not to carry large amounts of cash on you at any one time. As for the water, on Koh Samui we were advised not to drink the tap water, rinse your mouth out with it when brushing your teeth or taking a shower. Bottled water everytime. Most of the hotels provide bottled water for free anyway so not a huge problem. Food and drink is very very cheap out there. My missus and I really struggled to spend more than 1,500TB a day on food a drink. A large bottle of the local Singha Beer cost 70-100TB which is stupidly cheap (we got an exchange rate of 64TB to £1). Confirm at the check-in desk where your flying from (Heathrow/Gatwick) that your luggage will follow you when getting your transfer flight from Bangkok. Are you staying on Koh Tao or just going there to dive. If your staying on Samui dont pack too many clothes as you can buy everything you need in Chawang and its all dirt cheap.

Any other questions, just ask away

ChefDude

wow!

Cool review P

who did you book through?

prodriva

Chefdude, we stayed at Samui Peninsula Spa and Resort which is a predominantly timeshare resort on the northeast part of the island near Choeng Mon Beach. My missus works for the hotels trust company so got it through her work. We paid for our filghts through Quantas for the long-haul flights and bought our transfer flight (Bangkok to Samui) through Bangkok Airways. Oh, and make sure you get air conditioning in your room as it does get very humid in the evenings. also make sure you take a good strong formula mosquito repelant as they come out at night!!! There are loads of places offering the dive trips/day trips to the surrounding islands so plenty to choose from. I heard that the Angthong National Marine Park is a good place to visit and dive. Loads more info can be found and these two sites:

http://samui.sawadee.com/
http://www.kohsamui.org/

Brendan Hughes

If you're staying on Koh Tao, not many places had aircon when I was there. In Dec/Jan the heat was almost unbearable for sleeping - wouldn't like to imagine it in April!

Edit - some other tips here http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/showthread.php?t=451189

Robbie200

Done most of the dive sites around Koh Tao, and far and away the best is Chumpon Pinnacles. Bottom is down to 36m although most dive operators don't go below about 25m. There were quite a few 6ft grey reef sharks which came pretty close, and have been known to bump divers in their curiosity (particularly if you have a camera). It's close to blue water so there are quite a few big barracuda shoals and some seriously big groupers. Possibility of whale sharks in the right seaon (although I can't remamber when).
Sail Rock is also excellent with a chimney in the rock formation you can swim up from 18m to 6m. Avoid touching the lionfish though.

Green Rock is pretty good with lots of swim throughs in the rock formation although avoid touching the bottom as there are stonefish which are invisible until you see them move. There is also quite a large nest of titan triggerfish which are really just best avoided in the nesting season. Aggressive little bu66ers.

Japanese Gardens and White Rock are 6m-12m training sites with coral and sandy bottoms. Once you've done them once or twice you're not in a great hurry to get back.

Visibility is 10m-20m at most sites and the water will be 28-30 degrees so comfortable in a 3mm shorty.

Don't know what level you're at, but there is a wreck a few miles of Koh Tao which is meant to be fantastic, but then it is 60m down for the techies.

Hope this helps a bit.

Mungo

Diving at Ko Tao is fabulous - did our PADI Advanced at http://www.buddhaview-diving.com/

Chumpon Pinnacles is indeed a great great dive!

speye91

ahh brings back memories of last year in LOS soon b there again and dont forget DONT LITTER IN BANGKOK. moving over in a year to do my full masters course 6 months in the sun (JOMTIEM) near pattaya so not far from walking street ermm want wait

speye91

you could also try www.tripadvisor.com and post on there it is a good usefull site if ur going to Thailand ,LandOf Smiles