Going Thai in January!

[scottfiji]

kalani, stevenl was great to work with when Penny and I went to thailand... I'm sure you'll have a great trip!

scott

 

[limbo]

In January it is going to be very busy whereever you go. There are a few speedboat/faster boat options, but I would presume these would be no good for your wife. So I would recommend to go with one of the big boats. They may be slow, but they are stable, and there a couple of options where the number of divers will be limited, thereby avoiding the cattle boats.

Why do you mention Samui in your post? For diving I would recommend to go straight to the Andaman Sea, and avoid the Gulf of Thailand.

Thanks for the heads up from your fellow divers in the Gulf, Stevenl.

 

[stevenl]

Thanks for the heads up from your fellow divers in the Gulf, Stevenl.

I was just wondering why he mentiones Samui in his post, since he goes to Bangkok and wants to go to the Similans from there, staying on Samui?

Plus in January, I would think the Similans seem a better choice than Samui?

 

[CompuDude]

We're not staying in Koh Samui after all... I misspoke. We're staying in Phuket, and diving locally. No Similans for me, because the boat trips are too much for my wife.

 

[Bubble Junky]

It's very easy to plan/book your travels around Thailand once there. There are many excellent travel agencies all over. It will be a lot cheaper doing it that way too.

 

[limbo]

I was just wondering why he mentiones Samui in his post, since he goes to Bangkok and wants to go to the Similans from there, staying on Samui?

Plus in January, I would think the Similans seem a better choice than Samui?

Fair enough Steven, it just sounded like you wanted to bash the Gulf :no

No worries

 

[limbo]

We're not staying in Koh Samui after all... I misspoke. We're staying in Phuket, and diving locally. No Similans for me, because the boat trips are too much for my wife.

Phuket is good in that time of the year and there a few dive operators from Phuket active in this forum, like StevenL and Ringo.

My advise is to stay either in Kata or Karon.

As Bubble Junky already mentioned, once in Thailand, you can have things organised locally.

 

[CompuDude]

Phuket is good in that time of the year and there a few dive operators from Phuket active in this forum, like StevenL and Ringo.

My advise is to stay either in Kata or Karon.

As Bubble Junky already mentioned, once in Thailand, you can have things organised locally.

Tell that to my wife. She's a planner. :laughing:

The concerns, it seems, is locking down flights for the general game plan, and making hotel reservations. It being high season apparently a number of hotels she had been looking at are already completely booked, so she's worried.

Once we have hotels locked down I can start looking for what dive ops I want to use, and what my diving options are.

Is it true that there really are only cattle boats stuffed with people, and that all the dive sites fro Phuket involve 1 hr + boat rides?

 

[Bubble Junky]

The dive boat I posted a picture of earlier on this thread, from Pimalai Divers, takes a maximum of 20 divers, and is normally back on its private jetty by 2:00pm. If you don't think you can make it out to the Similans, Hin Daeng/Hin Muang are probably the next best options in the area. Pimalai Resort is also an amazing hotel. It's not the cheapest on Koh Lanta, but there are other nice choices too, such as Sri Lanta, Lanta Palace Resort, or Rawi Warin.