New fee for Similans marine park fee?

[Asiandivergal]

Hi there,

We are booked on the Similans trip end of this month, and the dive operator just told us that a new fee has been levied on divers visiting the Similans. The diver operator is charging us 1000 baht per person for a 4 days liveboard.

I just want to confirm if this is true - that the new marine park fee has just been implemented start of this month? Is this in addition to the previous marine park fee which was last implemented couple of months back? What is the exact fee being charged? Could someone point me to any formal news annoucement on this pls?

Alison, hope you can shed some light on this

Thanks!!

 

[keralucu]

been off the Board for a while... I'm checking on this for you as it affects my trip in Feb too! Although, I have to say, our operator has not mentioned it at all and he is quite close to our LDS... I would have thought he would mention it as we are due to make the final payments by end of this month... I'll let you know ASAP.

BTW, do you know of anyone who's got a week spare, mid-Feb, who would like to join our trip? We've got one place still empty as a friend pulled out last minute - it's a bit difficult to find a replacement from Europe due to flights, so if you know of anyone in Sing - send them my way. We've got one guy coming from Sing and 2 from KL...

More soon...

 

[keralucu]

This is what my guy said:

Hi Alison,

From October 16 the Similan Marine National Park charge 200 Baht entrance fee (good for 5 days) and 200 Baht/per day for diving, in other words, a 4d/5n cruise cost 1,000 Baht/person if you stay inside the park boundaries the whole trip.

Hope that clears it up for you. Have a great time! Remember, report, report, report pleeez.

Cheers

 

[Asiandivergal]

Hiya!

I'm back!! It has been a wonderful trip - not so much the diving but more the wonderful company we were in. It's really nice when you put a bunch of people crazee about diving together and everyone basically have fun together

Trip report: I was v. happy just to go diving, but some of my other diver friends were a little disappointed. We didnt see a single shark, which we found a little strange. Also, it seems that certain famous dive sites like Fantasea Reef and Elephant Head were closed to allow the corals to grow back. You might want to check with your dive master right from the start on this, coz we were not told about this, until we ask the DM why we were not being brought to dive these places.

The underwater terrain was fascinating, lots of nice swimthroughs and huge boulders. We actually found a little cave with an air pocket at the ceiling. Really interesting. Very strong currents at some places, close to 2 knots or so, hanging off the anchor line and doing our safety stop in such currents was really exciting - felt like we were flying!

I would say Similans is great for the micro stuff - mantis shrimp, ribbon eel, lots of garden eels, lots of different types of shrimps, crabs, pipefish, tons of lionfish, scorpionfish, trumpetfish, barracuda, moray eels, a fascinating little creature called the sea moth, many many triggerfish (we were attacked by one and lived to tell the tale), lots of breautiful reef fish - surgeonfish, damselfish, oriental sweetlips, huge groupers, moorish idols, bannerfish, batfish, unicornfish, we also saw the fierce looking tuna, lots of porcupinefish and pufferfish in various shapes, sizes and colours, octopuses, nudibranches etc.

The coral was really gorgeous, with lots of colourful fish life - for me it was a great dive trip with lots of fun and laughter, though i am really wondering what happened to all the big fish action like the sharks.

Hey Alison, do you still have any vacancies left for your trip? My friend is actually planning to go to Similans either in Jan or Feb, and I told him that I'd check it out with you first.

How's the planning coming along?

Cheers,
Agnes

 

[keralucu]

Hey Agnes - I'm wishing that Feb was here already after reading your report... My instructors have just come back from Similan too - they mentioned the same thing about Elephant Rock. Luckily, they are coming with us in Feb and have already sorted this out with our liveaboard operator. BUT - they also told us that our dates in Feb are smack-bang in the middle of manta season so.... we'll see won't we?

Yes, we still have one space available. Your friend can check my website and if he's interested email me about it. The planning is complete and everyone is ready to go - now if we could just fill that last slot....

Did you take any pics you'd like to share??

Cheers

 

[Asiandivergal]

OK i will forward your website link to my friend and see if he's keen. Actually I was quite tempted to go on your trip too, but we are planning to do a dive trip up to Manado that same week

ah well, never mind, there will always be another opportunity to dive together i am sure!

My friends took lots of pictures, and they have promised to email them over. Once I get that, i will send you some - a teaser of what you can expect to see heheheh

hope u see the mantas and whale shark

tok to you soon!

Cheers,
Agnes

 

[tribalshark]

hi there..

any good recommendation for liveaboard similan... $ factor

thanx ya!

 

[Asiandivergal]

Hiya,

The liveaboard we used was relatively cheaper as compared with the rest - The Witch by Sea King Divers. The boat was sufficiently comfy for our needs, the food was good and the DMs knew their stuff. You can check out their website here:
http://www.phuket.com/seaking-diving/index.htm

Another dive centre which lots of divers have recommended would be Sea Dragon - they have 4 different boats to suit different budgets.
http://www.seadragondivecenter.com/

Some other cheaper boats include:
The West Coast Explorer by West Coast Divers
http://www.westcoastdivers.com/

Parinee and Daranee by Andaman Divers
http://www.andamandivers.com/

Kingfisher
http://kingfisherdiving.com/index.htm

Vilai Samut by Ocean Divers
http://www.oceanphuket.com/

Scuba Adventure and Scuba Cat
http://www.scubacat.com/

But I have never used any of the rest, so I cannot recommend whether the dive operators are good or not. Anyone else who have used their services would be in a better position to advise.

 

[Zagnut]

Good trip report. Sounds like you saw alot of cool stuff. Also, good information on the liveaboards. I e-mailed your post to my buddy (see my "good liveaboards for diving the Similans" post). I hope you don't mind. You and Keralucu are great! Thanks for the good info.

 

[Asiandivergal]

Hi Zagnus,

No problem! I should have been a wee bit more hardworking and post that info under your thread, but u beat me to it heheheh I see that keralucu had sent u some info on that, and i am sure she would have been extremely thorough

I was just checking through the Lonely Planet website (the diving branch) and many of them seem to recommend Sea Dragon - that was actually my second choice after The Witch, but i never got the chance to try it - mebbe keralucu can tell u more about them. One other thing i heard was that many Germans use them

Anyway, hope your friend has a great time in Similans, do drop me a note if u need more info!