Thread: best places in Thailand for diving?

Originally Posted by denz

My two sons are keen on Scuba diving. One (18 yrs old) has PADI qualification ,second son (20 yrs) has advanced diving qualification (I hope i have remembered that name right!) Any advice on best places for them to do a 1 or 2 days when here in Thailand in July?
Many thanks.

So where do you end up diving and how did it go?

Hi there....

I have to say for learning scuba diving i would go to Koh Tao. I did my diving course there a few years back and the conditions to learn diving are perfect. The island has about 40 diving centers and it is easy to get around.

Hope i could help you


Stony

I got my SSI card in Koh Tao in January of this year. While Koh Tao has some nice diving spots, it was amazingly overcrowded. I would think your sons would have a nicer time going to the Krabi area and diving in the Andaman with a local dive shop.

Also, I think the weather should be considered as far as dive planning. Being tossed about on rough seas before and after a dive and fighting storm currents while underwater and on surface is not that much fun for me.

Granted I've only dived in a few places; Jamaica and Koh Tao, but the Jamaica dive was really nice because of the weather. The 4 Koh Tao dives ranged from nice weather to slightly bad weather. The nice weather was 10 times more fun than the slightly bad weather.

Just my novice opinion though.

Good luck.

RickThai

Hi

I have lived on Koh Tao for many years now and can say that the diving is great and at the moment it is fantastic (I seen 1 whale shark myself two days ago and there has been three more sightings since).

I am not sure when you are planning on coming but now is a good time. We will be heading into high season in July & August. The weather is great at the moment and the visibility is great too, however as a previous poster mentioned the visibility is a bit like Irish weather - unpredictable!

If friends ask when they should visit I usually say around May or June as the weather and visibility is good and it is not so busy.

Originally Posted by Bettyboo

^ Bull sharks might decide to have a nibble anyway; horrible fukers along with Tigers and Oceanic Whitetips...

Bull sharks are found in Sydney harbour, big ones who have munched on some human flesh.
Bull shark fatalities in Thailand are reported as suicides, so no official fatalities are recorded, so it's safe, nobody die from shark.

^ Loan shark, maybe...

Thai lone shark death is still suicide , people are dying to get out of the debt.

Being taken by pool sharks in Pattaya probably counts as suicide too.