Koh Bida Nai and Nok (Bida in and out)
One a good day, one of my favorite sites. Just an explosion of fish. I have always seen leopard sharks and sea turtles here and occasionally black tip reef sharks. The reef sharks are skittish, so frequently one member of the group will spot one but the rest may not see it. Also for the patient types, ornate pipe fish and sea horses. The largest lobster i've ever seen in my life (including Boston/Maine seafood restaurants) was at Bida. Not really necessary to be AOW, but would be nice to go below 18m. Dive guides may be strict on depth. Bottoms out at 20-24meters.
Koh Ha (Five islands, though there are 6, 6 is bad luck in thailand as it sounds like to fall)
Probably my favorite site to DM. There's just so much variety in one dive site. There's 3 ways to dive this, the Lagoon (Koh Ha 2,3&4), Koh Ha Neua (North, or 1) and Yai (big, or 5). They are all great dives. The lagoon has got nice hard coral and towards the beach you can spot juvenile blacktip sharks. Round the islands, nice schools of travelly and barracuda, some big great barracudas. Frequently sea turtles, but not always. If you like macro stuff, tell your guide as he should be able to find oyu all sorts of shrimp (banded boxer, harlequin if your lucky), nudi branches and pipe fish or weird stuff like sea moth and frog/angler fish. Its a relaxed dive and visibility on a poor day is still good. Bottoms out at 24 meters or so, but slopes down to 30+. There are some nice rocks out at 28+ meters that are not frequently visited but are covered in macro life. My guess would be that this would be the place to go to as a beginner videographer, generally good to great vis and an easy dive.
Phi Phi Lay
I've only dived this a few times and not particularly interested to go back. Its got some interesting rock formations and chasms to drift through. But fish and visibility wise, nothing compared to Bida. Plus, there's always speed boats ripping through that don't always know how to look out for divers. If you go here, stick w your DM on the exit, he'll move to the wall and launch an SMB. I personally would not dive here during peak season with the boat traffic and near constant roar of outboard motors.
Sharkpoint/Anemone Reef, mostly they same stuff as Bida, but I prefer Bida overall. Big stuff, as you probably know, can be seen anywhere. But if you were to play the odds, Hin Daeng/Muang would be your best bet for whalesharks/mantas. Though the best time would be march/april.
If I had 3 days of diving i would do
Bida
Koh Ha
Hin Daeng/Muang.
If I had a 4th day, it would be a toss up between Anemone Reef/Shark Point and going back to Hin Daeng/Muang a 2nd time. You could swim to Bida, Koh Ha just over an hour away, Daeng/Muang would be a trek, 3-4 hours on a big boat, be less than half the time on a speed boat.
Thanks. I'm AOW and while she isn't, she's actually a pretty strong diver but it's good to know about potential challenging conditions.
Out of curiousity what are the sites around Phi-Phi and the farther sites known for? Macro? Coral? Fish? Big Stuff? I was just given a video camera for the holidays so excited to start shooting!
Also are there any must dive local sites? We are staying at PP Island Village and they have their own dive shop. They list going to: Bida, Phi Phi Lay, Shark Point and King Cruiser locally (as well as Hin Daeng & Hin Muang & Ko Ha). But I imagine they could be asked to go to other places if desired...
Thanks,
bg
