Thailand questions

[aqudoc]

Hi and thaks in advance for any light you can shed. Wife and I are doing our academic and confined dives in the US, then off to Thailand in January for one month to do open water for certification and probably advanced open water plus just fun dives. I've been emailing outfits to get pricing and am in dialogue w/ save-money-diving.com about both courses. We will be on west coast/Andaman sea and were considering gulf later/Koh Tai, but the rep. said gulf is poor during that time and even in best time, not great. Anyone w/ experience diving Thailand have suggestions for us regarding outfits that are reputable, places to dive? All email response so far is quoting around $200 - 250 ea. for cert. and another $235 ea. for 6 more dives and advanced open water cert. Here's the itinerary

Day One Dives 1 & 2 Open Water Course Racha Yai
Day Two Dives 3 & 4 Open Water Course Staghorn Reef - Racha

Day Three Dives 1 - 3 Advanced Open Water King Cruiser Wreck, Koh Doc Mai and Shark Point
Day Four Dives 4 & 5 Advanced Open Water Phi Phi Island or Anenome Reef etc

Thoughts??

 

[h90]

Hi and thaks in advance for any light you can shed. Wife and I are doing our academic and confined dives in the US, then off to Thailand in January for one month to do open water for certification and probably advanced open water plus just fun dives. I've been emailing outfits to get pricing and am in dialogue w/ diveforlessabout.com about both courses. We will be on west coast/Andaman sea and were considering gulf later/Koh Tai, but the rep. said gulf is poor during that time and even in best time, not great. Anyone w/ experience diving Thailand have suggestions for us regarding outfits that are reputable, places to dive? All email response so far is quoting around $200 - 250 ea. for cert. and another $235 ea. for 6 more dives and advanced open water cert. Here's the itinerary

Day One Dives 1 & 2 Open Water Course Racha Yai
Day Two Dives 3 & 4 Open Water Course Staghorn Reef - Racha

Day Three Dives 1 - 3 Advanced Open Water King Cruiser Wreck, Koh Doc Mai and Shark Point
Day Four Dives 4 & 5 Advanced Open Water Phi Phi Island or Anenome Reef etc

Thoughts??

I was in a simillar situation one or two years ago. There are a lot companies which charge you tourist prices. If you and your wife comes I would tell them anyway that you want a discount because two people.
I collected a loooot internet links about diving in thailand and I know 1 really lovely place/dive shop. But don't want to spam here, if interested send me a privat message.

 

[stevenl]

Those are good prices, but not extremely cheap.
Nobody van promise you certain divesites at Racha Yai though, so day 2 will be Racha Yai, but where exactly?
Personally, I would prefer to do one day beach and one day boat (Racha Yai), which menas you will see different sites, plus personally I prefer the beach here at Kata over Racha Yai.

If I'm not mistaken, they operate only as a booking agent, so the insuctors will not be theirs.

 

[Ringo]

Have to agree with Steven about Racha Yai
Most of the DC's on Phuket conduct their Open Water dives off Koh Racha Yai making it chokkers with students not to forget about the fun divers there as well. There are however, some operators who apart from the same offer also offer the option of local shore and boat dives to sites within minutes from Karon, Kata and Kata Noi beaches. At these sites less divers with more marine life. By far more marine life than the sites at Koh Racha Yai at this time of the year.
Enjoy your course!

 

[MoonWrasse]

Racha Yai is just fine for the open water checkout dives. Likely on the
first 2 checkout dives you'll be at Bungalow Bay, which is a sheltered bay
(with lots of boats), which should make it easier on you the first time
you jump into open water (less surge).

As for the AOW portion, I'm one who believes having a few more dives
experience prior to taking AOW is a better idea. AOW is more of a
book course.

I'm sure you'll have fun

 

[Udo Hartig]

[FONT=&quot]Hi your dive itinerary is good and suitable to your needs. Weather wise the Andaman Sea coast is better at the time you intend to travel. There a many reputable operators on both sides of the coast and the prices quoted are reasonable. Check out their web sites and get in touch with them. You will find direct links to many of them here http://www.surfacemarker.com/component/option,com_sobi2/catid,3/Itemid,98/lang,en/ in the dealer section of our web page.

Enjoy your dives[/FONT]

 

[aqudoc]

We have had an offer from a company to do a our 4 open waters off shore @ Khoa Lak for 5500 B each. They say that area is nice reef and lots of fish. Agree?

 

[aqudoc]

Udo, Thanks for the links. I have not come across a number of those company's.

 

[Ringo]

Dont know exactly where they are planning on taking you. Even then it sounds exceptionally cheap. Also are you sure you would want to do all 4 Open Water dives from the shore? In other words would all 4 dives be at the same site? Usually people like to do different dive sites on the course. For example on the OW referral day 1 do shore dives and day 2 do boat dives to different sites.

 

[drbill]

I really enjoyed the two weeks I spent diving out of Koh Phi Phi with one exception, the King Cruiser. However, my Dutch DM/dive buddy midread the tide tables and when we descended the current was raging, vis was poor and I had no desire to penetrate the wreck under those conditions. However, I came up with a smile on my face... if you've seen her picture, you'll know why!

Andaman Sea diving was, in my experience, better than the diving in the Gulf. I really liked the people in Thailand (the ones away from the big cities and in the country).