Diving in Thailand

[Shona Baxandall]

Can anyone tell me where the best diving is please (post tsunami) and recommend some good dive centres. I would prefer a british run centre, but great diving and service is more important. I am an experienced diver, looking for relaxed diving, love reefs, wrecks, swim throughs, caverns. Thanks

[Adrian Kelland]

Shona,

Don't let any of the TV footage put you off. I was on the western side of Phuket in April, the damage was far more apparent on shore than under the water. Most if not all the dive shops are PADI, and often share day boats out to the various island. I would go again - reefs tend not to be as lively as the Red Sea, but still plenty to see, even some of the large mantas knock around, and there are sighting of whale sharks. Not that I have seen one :( I have not done any wrecks out there, I'm not sure there are many in the normal 30/35m recreational depths that a PADI diver is likely to go. I think they are more in the trimix range.

I did not come across British run centres as such, but English is usually spoken as it is usually understood by most travellers.

The eastern side of Thailand - Koh Samiu and Koh Toa were not hit by the wave AT ALL.

Adrian

[iani]

Shona,

Mathew Partridge has a shop on Phuket http://www.protechdivers.com/ he and his team are British and should be able to sort you out. As long as you avoid Kao Lak you are unlikely to notice much Tsunami damage.

Ian

[stevenl]

Basically in Thailand there are 2 sides for diving: The Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea. In the Gulf of Thailand there are the divesites near Pattaya, Koh Tao, Koh Samui and Koh Phangan. The wrecks in the Pattaya area are nice, but visibility tends to be very limited there, plus they are quite deep. For the rest the diving in the Andaman Sea is much nicer, the only other divesite worth it in the Gulf is Chumpon Pinnacle and maybe Sail Rock.

At the Andaman Side there are the divesites of Hin Daeng, world class diving, accessible by daytrip from Phi Phi and Koh Lanta and by liveaboard from Phuket, there are the Phi Phi divesites, accessible from Lanta, Phi Phi, Krabi and Phuket, the Shark Point area, from Phuket and Phi Phi, and the Racha Islands, from Phuket. And there are of course the other world class sites from Similans, Koh Bon, Koh Tachai and Richelieu Rock, accessible by daytrip and liveaboard from Phuket and Khao Lak.

On land you will see signs of tsunami damage on Phi Phi and Khao Lak, both took a bad hit, and some signs in the Northern part of Phuket. On the best known beaches of Phuket, Patong, Karon, Kata etc., you won't see anything. Under water the only divesites that took a hit are the Similans, but there are still over 20 divesites at Similans alone that are completely undamaged, so if you don't know what the sites looked like before the tsunami, you won't see a thing.

Phuket basically is the diving capital of the area, because all sites are accessible from Phuket, and there are lots of diving centers, so you have an excellent choice here.

[NickPheas]

Can anyone tell me where the best diving is please (post tsunami) and recommend some good dive centres. I would prefer a british run centre, but great diving and service is more important. I am an experienced diver, looking for relaxed diving, love reefs, wrecks, swim throughs, caverns. Thanks
I had a very good time with http://www.seadragondivecenter.com/ a few years back.
They have a set of dive boats going out of Khoa Lak. Gorgeous diving, Simlans, Richleau Rock, Andeman Sea and the like.

[Shona Baxandall]

Thank you to everyone who responded with information about diving in Thailand, your comments have been really helpful :)