Staying on Nangyuan?

[BabyFugu]

Hi everyone,

Myself and the husband are staying a few months in Samui and planning to do our AOW this month.

We've been fun diving on Koh Tao before at one of the bigger operators and it was..... well... you know what they all say about the 'dive factories'. So, this time around we are looking for a dive shop or resort that is much smaller and a bit further away from the party scene of Sairee beach.

One idea is to stay at the Nangyuan resort, which, according to their website, does the full range of PADI courses. Accommodation seems a bit pricier but it might be worth it. Though I imagine the food options are very limited!

Wondering if anyone has done any courses on Nangyuan, or if not, if anyone can recommend a dive shop on a quieter area of Koh Tao so that we don't have to look at tattooed 20-year-olds walking around town bareback in fake Billabong shorts all day long.

Thanks in advance for the advice.

 

[Stout]

Last January. when I got on the Lompraya catamaran on Samui, heading for Koh Tao, I instantly noticed the boat was packed to the gunwales with tourists. "Holy Carp" I'm thinking to myself, Tao is going to be packed and I mentally booted myself for not pre-booking a room. The boat stops at KPG, some passengers get off, but many more get on and I'm envisioning myself going all Man vs Wild and building one of those nifty hammocks out of readily available materials and queuing up to dive, so to speak.

The boat sails right past KT, and docks at Nangyuan, and mostly everybody got off there. We're talking about 150 people.

We arrive in Mae Haad, with about 20 people left on the boat, and I had no problems finding a taxi driver who was more than willing to rip me off for a trip to the south beach which was my intended destination.

I was in no hurry to get in the water, seeing as how I had lots of time so I started shopping around for a small operator to dive with. I'd been with Buddha View on past trips and although i find it hard to fault them, the diver factory was something I thought I'd try to give a miss to this trip.

I found an outfit called Reef Riders, at the end of the beach ( yes his website needs work ) and not only was it surprisingly inexpensive even by KT standards, the boat was clean and well run, Peter, the owner was a delight to dive with, and there was only 4-6 divers on the boat.

Every time we passed Nangyuan, I was reminded of an anthill and all those scenic postcard advertisements I'd seen of the place faded from my mind and any thoughts I'd entertained about staying there diffused like the ink shot I once got from a squid that I'd accidentally pissed off.

Mind you, the evenings are most likely quieter than those on Tao, which, IMNSHO, is trying it's best to become a mini KPG, with diving on the side.

 

[mase]

Chalok Baan Kow might be a good choice, it is on the South end of the island and much quieter.Big Bubble runs a nice operation.

 

[BabyFugu]

Thanks a lot Mase and Stout for the suggestions. Will look into the two operators you mentioned.

Stout -- indeed that was another concern, all the day trippers going to tiny Nangyuan for the day. But I figure if we're out on the boat doing our AOW course all day, and then back to Nangyuan for the night, it might not be so bad...

Another option could be Phangan, but it seems the courses there are a bit more expensive than those on Koh Tao. Which, again, could have its benefits!!!

Anyways, thanks for the suggestions. If anyone knows a good outfit on Phangan, please let me know.

 

[willo56]

hi,
I recently stayed on Nang Nangyuan on did some dives with the resident dive shop,Easy Divers.
They offer course+ accom packages that are fairly reasonable and give you the ability to just shore dive a few of those sites(Twin Rock,Japanese gardens etc).
The DM's seem ok and the equipment good also but the best bit was there was only a few divers per trip,sometimes just you and the DM....unlike some other operations close by.

The island goes from utterly deserted at night and early morning to be completely swarmed once the day trippers arrive later in the morning...however they are all gone by 5pm and you will have the beach to yourself again.
You are not supposed to take any plastic bottles on the island but this means you will be buying the 500ml glass bottles of water for triple the price of Koh Tao,not far away.
This price gouging goes for everything thing else on the menu also....beer,food etc

Id recomend staying and diving here but only for 2-3 nights tops.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

 

[Stout]

Cheers BabyFugu ( I had to google that, never heard of a fugu before )

True, it might not be so bad if you're out on the water. I have no idea what the evenings are like on Nanguan, peaceful I'd imagine. One thing to keep in mind if your planning on diving from KPG is, I've seen a lot of KPG/Samui boats over in the waters off Tao and you may be exposing yourself to a bumpy speedboat ride before and after your dives. Maybe that's not an issue though. My guess is that's where the added expense comes in, longer travel times.

( aside) hey, I once approached an operator on KPG, enquiring about diving Ang Thong, seeing how it's a park and they recommended against it, seems conditions weren't all that great and they figured I'd be disappointed.

As mase states, Chalok Ban Kao might be a good idea however there is the bar attached to the caraboo dive shop that goes loud until after midnight. On the southern end of that beach, and I only mean a couple of hundred metres, seemed quieter than the middle, where the noisy bar is. You can travel a litter further south to outfits like New Heaven and rest peacefully.

btw,if you do end up on Baan Kao, watch out for the dog at the Babaloo bar. He tried to rip my hand off, knocking me out of the water and causing me to have to hang around Tao for a week to see whether he died of rabies. I started the course of shots but it was no fun loosing the use of my left hand for three days

Have a great trip.

 

[Quero]

I've stayed on Koh Nangyuan also. The daytrippers didn't bother me a bit. They sit on the little (really little) beaches and get into the water up to their knees over the sandy bottom--only a few even snorkel out to Japanese Garden. Mainly they just get there, wander around on the elevated wooden walkways and the paths up to the "top" where they take lots of pictures ("neung, sawng, sam!" snap, snap, snap), go down for lunch, take a little nap in whatever shade they can find, and then leave. At night it's peaceful and un-Tao-like in that it's not a party atmosphere, though there is a little beach bar and they put out mats and low tables with candles so you've got a place to hang out after dinner, watch the sun set, chat, have a drink if you want it. The staff of the dive op did their jobs just fine.

 

[BabyFugu]

Thanks Quero for the info on Nangyuan. I'll have to check it out some time. This time around have decided to go with an operator on Koh Phangan instead. Hope it will be nice.

Stout -- funny you should mention a gargantuan dog on Koh Tao... when we were there two years ago this monster came up out of nowhere... thing was built like a bull and definitely on some kind of steroids... absolutely terrifying! Luckily we did not get bitten but I would not like to come across that beast again. Good thing you did not get rabies!

 

[Stout]

Ya, finding out I'm rabid would have sucked for sure. I got the first shot an hour after the incident, as well as stitches, antibiotics and painkillers. I was sorely tempted to "deal" whit the dog myself, especially after some German guy came by my bungalow and told the dog wasn't rabid, but merely stressed out because his owners were off the island.

I remember the dog situation on Tao from 6 tears ago, packs of 'em roaming at will and bungalow operators rounding them up, loading them into a pickup and dropping them off at "the other beach". They just shuttled these things back and forth until, as a few Tao residents told me, the Island administration grew a brain and decreed that all dogs on the island must belong to somebody and those that didn't, would be somehow, disappeared.

I went looking for the animal clinic, figuring I'd give them some money so they could keep on doing their work ( the money I was saving by not diving ) but I couldn't find them. Their advertised location was closed and nobody seemed to know what had happened to them.

 

[BabyFugu]

Scary stuff man. I can't stand it when people are not responsible for their dogs and leave them free to prey on the general public, or don't get them neutered. It's barely better on Koh Samui where a lot of the side streets have gangs of roving dogs that are quite intimidating.