JonnieB
Contributor
22 March 2021...In the time of Covid
The Boat MV. Mandarin Queen
This is a report of my day-trip diving on MV Mandarin Queen, in Phuket. This was my first time diving on this boat and I was anxious to compare it my usual Phuket "go-to" Seabees Diving and their Excalibur 1. I booked a 3 dive day at the Racha Islands through Shall We Dive, a small shop in Kata Beach I believe. (I found them and booked the trip on Facebook.) I don't know if the MQ has their own shop where one can book directly...it appeared to me the divers were all with various independent or freelance dive guides from various shops or doing classes with instructors from different shops around the island. The boat may be run by Phuket Dive Center. The MQ is currently doing a full schedule of 3 dives a day 7 days a week. Their schedule and prices are shown here:
The posted price is B3900 for any 3 dive day. In my case, it would have been 300 baht more for a rental computer. The price I paid Shall We Dive was B3500, for which they provided one of their freelance guides and they threw in a computer for free. So I saved 700 baht off the posted prices.
The MQ itself is one of the larger boats doing daytrips to the local Phuket dive sites. It has three decks and during normal times can take 50-60 divers. I can imagine the dive deck being pretty tight with this many divers as it was a bit of a squeeze with the 15 or so we had today. The boat appears to cater to the Thai diving market (this could be because that's more of less all there is at moment) and divers are expected to get kitted up and sort themselves and their gear on their own (or with their instructors/guides). "Concierge diving" this isn't. There is an air conditioned salon off the dive deck, with tables and seating for divers who want to keep cool during the day, as well as an open-air seating, eating, and resting area on the main deck above. The upper-deck is both a covered and open air lounging and sunning area. There are three large combination toilets/showers provided. The breakfast (food is prepared on board as there is a kitchen) included Thai chicken rice soup, fried eggs, and toast. Coffee, tea, and water are also always available. Lunch, served after the first dive, included fried rice, curry chicken drummettes, and noodles with yellow curry sauce with Thai condiments. The lunch was tasty and there was plenty of it. After the second dive, a snack of Thai "snowcones" is set-up and divers can grind some ice and top it with a selection of candied Thai fruits and sweet sauces. I found this very tasty and refreshing on a hot day. Finally, after the last dive, an additional snack of some kind of sweet rice concoction was put out, which was eaten with gusto by the Thai divers, while I decided on a cup of java along with a few of the always available cookies. You're not going to go hungry diving with the MQ that's for sure. Canned soft drinks (cola and tea) are available free on board and beer is available for purchase after the last dive.
The Diving
So as I mentioned before, today's dives were three at the Racha Islands, Noi and Yai (small and big). From following various Phuket based Facebook scuba diving pages, I saw they were talking up sightings of some Guitar sharks/rays at Racha Island...I'd never heard of this before and was definitely eager to try to see one so my choice of the Racha Islands to dive. The day's first dive was at Racha Noi's Banana Bay to try to catch a sighting of it. It was slightly overcast with some surface chop. Banana Bay is a shallow sandy bottom sloping down to 30 meter plus. Unfortunately, despite being the first two divers down, me and my guide didn't see the Guitar Shark, though several of the other later groups of divers did. Here is some video footage of the shark from the dive:
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=759792508235316
On to the second dive of the day at South Point, Racha Noi. This site is a series of very large underwater boulders and crevices covered with a profusion of beautiful purple, red, and pink soft corals. It can be a challenging site because the currents can be very strong. The visibility was poor at 5-7 meters due to a heavy presence of milky plankton...however what do you get when you combine some current with lots of plankton...to my great pleasure my first Manta Ray sighting in Phuket. A majestic medium sized Manta graced us with it's feeding just off the boulders at about 15 meters or so. It certainly made up for having missed the Guitar Shark on the first dive. Another group of divers said they saw two Mantas (or possibly the same one twice). Apparently this is a know site where Mantas can often be seen if the conditions are right. Here is the video from the same site the previous day:
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=859909167899946
The last dive of the day was at Bay 1 (Shipwreck) again at Racha Yai. This is an easy dive in a shallow sandy bottom bay. There is an intact wooden ship wreck, which has large schools of yellow fusilers and many easy swim-thrus. There is also a sunken moto-taxi where divers can pose for a photo. There are other schools of fish, puffers, and garden eels about. There was also a large school of batfish. This was a nice relaxing dive to finish a great day of diving. Seeing a Guitar Shark and a Manta Ray on subsequent dives...anything else is just gravy.
Conclusion
I definitely enjoyed my day diving with the crew of the MV Mandarin Queen, the boat is comfortable, the food is good, and the diving we had was great. A full day of diving, starting at 8 a.m. and returning at 5 p.m., two meals and snacks, for $113 is hard to beat. I will definitely be diving with them again...the Wednesday and Friday dives to King Cruiser, Shark Point, and Ko Doc Mai might be just the ticket for next week.
The Boat MV. Mandarin Queen
This is a report of my day-trip diving on MV Mandarin Queen, in Phuket. This was my first time diving on this boat and I was anxious to compare it my usual Phuket "go-to" Seabees Diving and their Excalibur 1. I booked a 3 dive day at the Racha Islands through Shall We Dive, a small shop in Kata Beach I believe. (I found them and booked the trip on Facebook.) I don't know if the MQ has their own shop where one can book directly...it appeared to me the divers were all with various independent or freelance dive guides from various shops or doing classes with instructors from different shops around the island. The boat may be run by Phuket Dive Center. The MQ is currently doing a full schedule of 3 dives a day 7 days a week. Their schedule and prices are shown here:
The posted price is B3900 for any 3 dive day. In my case, it would have been 300 baht more for a rental computer. The price I paid Shall We Dive was B3500, for which they provided one of their freelance guides and they threw in a computer for free. So I saved 700 baht off the posted prices.
The MQ itself is one of the larger boats doing daytrips to the local Phuket dive sites. It has three decks and during normal times can take 50-60 divers. I can imagine the dive deck being pretty tight with this many divers as it was a bit of a squeeze with the 15 or so we had today. The boat appears to cater to the Thai diving market (this could be because that's more of less all there is at moment) and divers are expected to get kitted up and sort themselves and their gear on their own (or with their instructors/guides). "Concierge diving" this isn't. There is an air conditioned salon off the dive deck, with tables and seating for divers who want to keep cool during the day, as well as an open-air seating, eating, and resting area on the main deck above. The upper-deck is both a covered and open air lounging and sunning area. There are three large combination toilets/showers provided. The breakfast (food is prepared on board as there is a kitchen) included Thai chicken rice soup, fried eggs, and toast. Coffee, tea, and water are also always available. Lunch, served after the first dive, included fried rice, curry chicken drummettes, and noodles with yellow curry sauce with Thai condiments. The lunch was tasty and there was plenty of it. After the second dive, a snack of Thai "snowcones" is set-up and divers can grind some ice and top it with a selection of candied Thai fruits and sweet sauces. I found this very tasty and refreshing on a hot day. Finally, after the last dive, an additional snack of some kind of sweet rice concoction was put out, which was eaten with gusto by the Thai divers, while I decided on a cup of java along with a few of the always available cookies. You're not going to go hungry diving with the MQ that's for sure. Canned soft drinks (cola and tea) are available free on board and beer is available for purchase after the last dive.
The Diving
So as I mentioned before, today's dives were three at the Racha Islands, Noi and Yai (small and big). From following various Phuket based Facebook scuba diving pages, I saw they were talking up sightings of some Guitar sharks/rays at Racha Island...I'd never heard of this before and was definitely eager to try to see one so my choice of the Racha Islands to dive. The day's first dive was at Racha Noi's Banana Bay to try to catch a sighting of it. It was slightly overcast with some surface chop. Banana Bay is a shallow sandy bottom sloping down to 30 meter plus. Unfortunately, despite being the first two divers down, me and my guide didn't see the Guitar Shark, though several of the other later groups of divers did. Here is some video footage of the shark from the dive:
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=759792508235316
On to the second dive of the day at South Point, Racha Noi. This site is a series of very large underwater boulders and crevices covered with a profusion of beautiful purple, red, and pink soft corals. It can be a challenging site because the currents can be very strong. The visibility was poor at 5-7 meters due to a heavy presence of milky plankton...however what do you get when you combine some current with lots of plankton...to my great pleasure my first Manta Ray sighting in Phuket. A majestic medium sized Manta graced us with it's feeding just off the boulders at about 15 meters or so. It certainly made up for having missed the Guitar Shark on the first dive. Another group of divers said they saw two Mantas (or possibly the same one twice). Apparently this is a know site where Mantas can often be seen if the conditions are right. Here is the video from the same site the previous day:
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=859909167899946
The last dive of the day was at Bay 1 (Shipwreck) again at Racha Yai. This is an easy dive in a shallow sandy bottom bay. There is an intact wooden ship wreck, which has large schools of yellow fusilers and many easy swim-thrus. There is also a sunken moto-taxi where divers can pose for a photo. There are other schools of fish, puffers, and garden eels about. There was also a large school of batfish. This was a nice relaxing dive to finish a great day of diving. Seeing a Guitar Shark and a Manta Ray on subsequent dives...anything else is just gravy.
Conclusion
I definitely enjoyed my day diving with the crew of the MV Mandarin Queen, the boat is comfortable, the food is good, and the diving we had was great. A full day of diving, starting at 8 a.m. and returning at 5 p.m., two meals and snacks, for $113 is hard to beat. I will definitely be diving with them again...the Wednesday and Friday dives to King Cruiser, Shark Point, and Ko Doc Mai might be just the ticket for next week.
