If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Similan Island Scuba Diving — Khao Lak, Thailand — Sea Dragon Dive Center
Similan Island Scuba Diving — Khao Lak, Thailand — Sea Dragon Dive
Center In November 2003 a friend and I got our PADI Open Water Diving Certification in Thailand. Our open water dives were from a liveaboard boat in the Similans. Fantastic experience! I don't like the Burger Kings, Dunkin' Donuts and overwhelming commercialism of Phuket, so we spent our two on-land nights in Khao Lak, a quiet, less expensive beach resort an hour north of the Phuket airport. If you seek discos and wild nightlife, Khao Lak may not be for you. But it has a small main street with many restaurants (Thai and foreign—there are a lot of German and Swede expats), small shops, a night market, four or five ATMs and money exchange counters, and a number of bars. It would be a good place to come with a family (or for romance). More on Khao Lak at www.khaolakonline.com/khaolak-attractions.html We spent two nights at the Nang Thong Bay Resort (http://www.thaisouth.com/nangthong/) a bungalow-style resort on a long white sand beach in a beautiful bay. The resort is quiet but right in the heart of the commercial strip and a five minute walk from Sea Dragon dive center. We liked our clean, spacious, newly renovated 950 bhat bungalows (exchange rate was about 40 bhat to the US dollar) with fan, refrig, hot shower, attached bath, porch, and comfortable, big beds (but no TV or swimming pool). They also have air con rooms if you prefer. The beach is beautiful. Our bungalows were in the garden; seaside units cost B 1450. Breakfast wasn't included—it costs B 100 at the beachside restaurant which has a full menu of Thai and foreign food. The resort staff are friendly and accommodating. For example, our liveaboard didn't depart until 9pm so the Nang Thong let us store our bags after checkout (and while we finished our classroom and pool dive training sessions), then let us take showers and clean up before heading to the boat. There are many other hotels and resorts nearby—some much more expensive, some much less—so if you wanted to switch accommodation for some reason, it would be easy. The Phuket airport taxis charge B 1300 for the drive to Khao Lak and our driver was a bit aggressive and obnoxious. We should have asked Nang Thong to send a car for us (B 800 for two passengers; B 1000 for three or four). We used them to head back to the airport—the driver was safe and courteous. We chose Sea Dragon Dive Center (www.seadragondivecenter.com) because I'd found a few positive write-ups in the newsgroups. Sea Dragon is a German-run, professional, friendly, environmentally aware and price-competitive outfit. As novice divers we felt we were in good hands but many experienced folks dive with them too. Sea Dragon has four boats. We chose the M.V. Mariner which does a three day, three night liveaboard trip to the Similans and Ko Bon with three dives per day (each time a new site), as much snorkeling as you wanted in between and, once, the option of a night dive). The four divemasters on our boat were German, Polish, British, and Thai (all good). My friend and I had an excellent teacher and divemaster to ourselves (Dave Allen) for the two classroom/pool dive days and on the liveaboard. The boat can handle 16 passengers, but fortunately there were only 9 of us this time out (it would have felt a bit crowded with a full house). Our companions came from England, Austria, and Finland (plus we two Americans). The Mariner cooks serve a Western breakfast; lunch and dinner are good Thai cuisine with lots of variety. Food and drinks (except beer) are included in the trip price, as is equipment if you need it. Sea Dragon has nice t-shirt designs too, if you want a souvenir. Getting our Open Water Certification + the liveaboard (eight dives total, using their equipment) cost about B 20,000 each ($500)—a lot cheaper than if we'd done it in Hawaii! The diving was great—we saw sharks, octopi, morays, sea snakes, a 6 foot barracuda, cuttlefish, triggerfish, scorpion- and lionfish, flying fish, turtles, and a marlin, along with lots of beautiful smaller fish and hard and soft coral. Unfortunately no mantas this trip, and the orcas that had been spotted in the area didn't stop to visit us. I would definitely dive with Sea Dragon again—next time to the Surin Islands and Richelieu Rock to swim with the whale sharks—and I'd like to do the one-day Wreck Dive near Khao Lak. By the way, you don't have to dive to go on the liveaboard—the Finnish husband was a diver but his wife just snorkeled every day and still had a good time. One suggestion: there is a video setup on the boat but they only used it for PADI vids—why not stock some episodes of Blue Planet or something else from Discovery or Nat Geo? It would have been great to watch a documentary on octopi or sharks in the evening! If you want to know more, email me at swittetATpathDOTorg. Scott Wittet |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
SCUBA Divers ONLY! Cheap Price, dive in Roatan, CoCoView | Robert Adelman | Caribbean | 0 | March 26th, 2004 02:08 PM |
SunBeach Varadero Cuba | Achim Nolcken Lohse | Caribbean | 0 | January 3rd, 2004 07:35 PM |
Similan Island Scuba Diving — Khao Lak, Thailand — Sea Dragon Dive Center | SW | Asia | 2 | November 29th, 2003 08:40 AM |
Similan Island Scuba Diving — Khao Lak, Thailand — Sea Dragon Dive Center | SW | Backpacking and Budget travel | 0 | November 29th, 2003 08:03 AM |
Cruising and Diving in French Polynesia (LONG) | Reef Fish | Cruises | 4 | November 2nd, 2003 02:11 PM |