Khao Lak, Thailand

[alc16]

Hi SeaGypsy,

My hotel is the recently opened Khao Lak Merlin Resort on Sunset Beach. This hotel is quite close to the Khao Lak Laguna Resort I believe, which harbours the Kontiki Dive Club, so I am considering to book some trips from there.

Other questions:
- can anyone else perhaps recommend a dive center in that area of Khao Lak?


Thanks for any info!

Martijn

Hi - The dive operator there is not called Kontiki Dive anymore. They changed to IQ-Dive a while back (www.iq-dive.com). I actually did a couple of day trips to the Similans last October and they were the only operator to run day trips during that time (just before the season actually started 'officially') in their high speed catamaran. I found them to be reliable and they answered my email queries well before my arrival there. Their divemasters were also good - much better than the ones I had experienced on the other side of Thailand.

 

[alc16]

Hi SeaGypsy

I went with IQ-Dive (formerly known as Kontiki) for day trips (I did 2 lots of day trips) and found them to be very good - see previous entry for weblink.

As a single diver myself there was no problems - you are assigned a buddy or should numbers be too few, you'll buddy with the DM, who guides all dives anyway. I had two different DM's when I did the trips and both were very competent and were great at showing you around (at the time, i'd only done 20 something dives). Plus they took their time so you really didn't feel rushed.

The boat was a high speed cat which got to the Similans in around 2 hours. The time I went was just before the start of the season so the water was rough as guts and the journey was probably longer than those done during the right season. I found the crew on the boat to be very helpful.

Send them an email and you'll probably get a reply from a nice guy called Ernst. He's very helpful and will endevour to answer any query you have. He assured me that I could go at the time I wanted to (Oct 2003) even though it was just out of season - I was initially worried that i'd be wasting my time as I had been diving on the East Coast of Thailand and wanted to know if it were viable to trek to the West coast just to see the Similans. I didn't regret it one bit!

Hope that helps
Alan

 

[moraygirl]

Hi Sea Gypsy,
My experience is fairly limited but I went out in January with queen scuba and was well impressed. It was so good I am going back again in 2005. Its a big boat, pretty new with a large dive deck and good equipment. The western staff and thai boat crew were excellent and plenty of attention was paid to safety and making sure everyone had a good trip. I think there were 15 divers (and one snorkeller) on the boat with 4 instructors, so small groups which seemed to be grouped by experience. The boat itself has plenty of space, a large saloon area, plenty of tables on the middle deck and a top deck for sleeping/sunbathing - it didn't ever feel crowded. The pre-dive briefings were accurate and informative and the post-dive eating was very good indeed! Cabins were very comfortable wth aircon and hotwater showers. We dived around the beautiful similan and surin islands, and richelieu rock which is definitely worth going to - quite different from the similans. After some of the dives we were picked up by a little motordinghy and taken back to the qs, and there were always plenty of hands to help pull you up onto the boat! The observation of the dinghy and the qs captain in picking up divers was spot on.

As someone else said, the prices are a little higher, but I thought it was worth every penny. Have fun whatever you decide! Its beautiful diving out there.

I will be in Thailand next month. I want to do a bit of diving in the Similans. My plan is to go out of Khao Lak as the boats there have shorter one or two day trips, which I prefer to longer trips.

I've found 4 diver operations there:
KonTiki Khao Lak - M/Y Similan Queen
Phuket Divers - M/V Carina & M/V Huntsa
Similan Tour - Choke Duang Ta
Sea Dragon Dive Center - M/V Mariner One, M/V Koragot & M/V Nangnuan

Does anyone have any experience with any of them? I'd like to hear comments on the quality of the crew, safety and comfort of the boat, the choice of dive sites, number of divers on board. Are any of them better or worse for a single diver or do they all have a divemaster in water as a guide?

Is Richelieu is much different than the Similans? Would it be worth trying get there also?

Thanks for any information you can give me.