Daily diving from Phuket. Which dive shop?

[bruges00]

hi all
my apologies, i wasnt in fact clear - as you can see i'm a newbie for diving, newbie for liveaboard and newbie for thailand too...

i did mean inside the gulf of phuket, not gulf of thailand- the itinerary mentioned by quero sounds nice, perhaps it makes sense to hire a DM just for me and my wife to show us these places while at the same time help ust o refresh the basics techniques of diving (e.g. doing some buoyancy etc).... we did OW last summer and have only 5 real dives up to now...it wldnt be bad before we go 5 days to the similans to "excercise" a little bit
can we ask this trip to all major local operators? would they be able to arrange it while we are there or best to organise it before we go?
thanks again for all your advice
(Mr) Luca

 

[bruges00]

One day Phi Phi and one day Shark Point area. That would give you some excellent diving, seahorses, leopard sharks, lovely soft and hard corals.

How come a username 'Bruges' for somebody from Brussels by the way?

opened my this mail account while i was studying and living in Bruges

 

[stevenl]

So prefer in Dutch or English?

Considering your experience, it makes most sense to do one daytrip to Phi Phi, to freshen up on the skills again, and one to Shark Point area.

A private DM for you and your wife would be no problem at all, both Quero and we could help you with that.

 

[bruges00]

So prefer in Dutch or English?

Considering your experience, it makes most sense to do one daytrip to Phi Phi, to freshen up on the skills again, and one to Shark Point area.

A private DM for you and your wife would be no problem at all, both Quero and we could help you with that.

we only have 5 days on shore, if we spend 2 of those 5 diving we'd have very little time to visit the sourroundings, the beachs and see phi phi "above water", so i'd be tempted to go diving only once (full day) or at most one full day plus another 1/2 day... have to think about it

by the way neither of us in Belgian: i'm Italian (and speak also EN, and FR) and my wife is German (and she speaks also EN, FR and IT)... she studied the PADI OW and EAD manuals in German and I studied them in IT, but we got instructors speaking EN and FR. so we'd probably go for a EN speaking DM

but before orgaising eveything i wld have to decide in which hotel I stay (which i cldnt decide because i first needed to decide about the liveaboard for the similans)... doesnt make sense to have a diving centre close to the hotel?

 

[stevenl]

The problem with the 3 tank dive to Phi Phi is that the first divesite may be not suitable for you. It could be suitable or not, the decision on divesites will only be made on the boat.

What you could do, is make one dive at our housereef in Kata. Very nice and relaxed divesites, ideal for you to get back into it again, and would only take a few hours. (One of) the following day (s) you could do the Phi Phi trip.

All DM's here will be English speaking.

I would suggest you stay in the South of the island, so you're close to departure point for excursions and diving trips. IMO Kata is very nice and close to the departure point for diving, others prefer Patong, really lively, or Nai Harn, a bit quieter than Kata. Kata would also have the advantage you're close to the housereef in Kata.

 

[bruges00]

thanks steven, very useful info- i'll think about it, it cld indeed be a god option if the first dive is only few hrs..and then go to the 3 spots suggested by quero (again with an instructor/dm)

 

[bruges00]

quick question to phuket experts: is a 5mm wetsuite (long john) too much for phuket duting this time of the year?
my wife is a bit sensitive to cold and we'll be doing some deep dives....
tx much!

 

[stevenl]

At Similans there can be thermoclines, but in general water temperature does not go down much when you go deeper.

I'm never too hot in a 5 mm, so if your wife tends to get cold easily, a 5 mm is not overdone IMO.

 

[Quero]

If she gets chilled easily, a 5mm will be okay. If she does feel warm at some point, she can always pull the neck away and let some water in which will give her a sensation of a little "breeze" on a warm day.

 

[bruges00]

thanks steven & quero