Ko Tao / Ko Samui

[Bubblesong]

@Bubblesong
There are two airports(BKK and DMK) in the city. DMK was used to be the main airport until 2006.

1. $80.00 for that package is excessive. Do you have the time for the beach in Koh Samui?.

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So wow! I booked Marine resort through their website, bought an airport transfer, turns out that is wrong.
No ride showed up at airport, and no one answered hotel phone.
Turns out they cannot see bookings made on their hotel website that links to Agoda, so they did not know i was coming and reception lady was in her pjs, reception office closes at 9pm. On the plus side, they gave me a room for 850 bhat, about $28. I’ll have to contest the other fake booking for refund.
Nice beds, door locks, no hot water and A/C has no Freon, so it just blows. Two free cold waters in antique fridge.
I am perfectly happy with this deal, I just wished I booked through correct booking website to save stress.

 

[Bubblesong]

Normal prices on Tao are 1000 THB per dive, with bulk diskcounts and your own equipment bringing it down to 700-800/dive,

This is what i paid at “56 divers” near my hotel Nat resort Koh Toa, and gear was in good shape with computers, and four guides for 8 people. Other 7 were all new divers though. When we got to pier we had to climb through five other boats to get to our boat, and guides had to carry our gear across that terrain, which at my age of 61, was just inconceivable, but they were some hard working kids!

 

[chillyinCanada]

This is what i paid at “56 divers” near my hotel Nat resort Koh Toa, and gear was in good shape with computers, and four guides for 8 people. Other 7 were all new divers though. When we got to pier we had to climb through five other boats to get to our boat, and guides had to carry our gear across that terrain, which at my age of 61, was just inconceivable, but they were some hard working kids!

I pulled a muscle in my groin, doing that boat climb exercise one night, many moons ago.

 

[Centrals]

No such issue with Master Divers. The dive boat is moored about 100m from shore. Divers and gears are transferred by long tail.

 

[Barmaglot]

No such issue with Master Divers. The dive boat is moored about 100m from shore. Divers and gears are transferred by long tail.

That is usually the case, but when I was there in late December, the longtail was broken down, so we had to use the main pier.

 

[chillyinCanada]

No such issue with Master Divers. The dive boat is moored about 100m from shore. Divers and gears are transferred by long tail.

That was how it was everyday except one and that was the one wherewe tied up to all of the other boays at the pier. It's been awhile but I think that it might have been because it was a night dive.

Keep in mind, that I was diving out of Sairee.

 

[Centrals]

Getting on the dive boat is NOT easy for some divers. The worst is getting back to the boat after a dive. And if the sea is rough and there are quite few divers waiting for their turn to climb back, it could be really uncomfortable. If the diver wants to remove the gear and hand it to the crew, the rough sea would add certain degree of difficulty.

 

[Barmaglot]

There's one or two liveaboards on the Andaman Sea side of Thailand that feature a lift platform that takes divers out of the water with zero effort. I don't recall the names; AFAIK those are boats catering mostly to Thai divers. Actually I'm not sure they're still operating it, as the current Similans national park rules prohibit diving directly from liveaboards; you're supposed to use a dinghy/dive tender for everything.

 

[Centrals]

Lift is the best but it is extremely rare in SE Asia.
However, if there are 30 divers in the water than it will take a while to recover all of them. The last one, usually the guide, could well be holding the drift line for at least 30 mins.

 

[Centrals]

as the current Similans national park rules prohibit diving directly from liveaboards; you're supposed to use a dinghy/dive tender for everything.

This remind me of Maldives. But the boats are so much bigger.
I did not notice any issue from diving directly from the boat in Similan yrs ago.
Perhaps the number of LoB boat is much bigger than 15 yers ago.