Thailand

[stevenl]

Rain at the moment in Phuket. It has been raining all night and all morning so far.

Regarding January: as Sunrise sais: book ahead, it can be quite busy, AND:
make sure you know how many people are allowed on a boat and how many will be on the boat. Some of the operators are notorious in putting 28 divers + divestaff on a boat that is allowed to take 20 people. That is no fun anymore.

Generally speaking: especially the cheaper operators do this. They have to do either this or raise the prices, and low prices sell easiest.

Have fun.

 

[Paulus Magnus]

Scubaboard's membership pointed me in the direction of 'Siam Dive 'n' Sail' which is run by Bent Posejpal and John Williams; www.siamdivers.com

Day One I turned up at John's office and plagued him almost every day. He was so incredibly helpful with the diving, the local area, customs and also helped us with other trips.

The only dive centre I wouldn't go with is Calypso Divers. They had one very good instructor but our dive guide was really bad, the worst I've encountered in my 54 dive career; annoying, poor english, tank banger, no signals, no real guiding. We also paid for a DVD ($65) of the two day diving trip and it never arrived. Emails to both Calypso and the video company have resulted in nothing but autoresponder emails.

 

[DORSETBOY]

I'll give siamdivers a look, suffice to say I'll prob not look at calypso divers...

 

[popje]

I didn't realise there were so many scubaboarders in Phuket. That's great as that's where I'll be in 3 days. Actually, I won't be staying in Phuket, I'll be heading to Phi Phi. Can I bribe anyone for better prices with gifts from civilisation...? Like say a block of Camenbert...?

 

[Batfish]

I didn't realise there were so many scubaboarders in Phuket. That's great as that's where I'll be in 3 days. Actually, I won't be staying in Phuket, I'll be heading to Phi Phi. Can I bribe anyone for better prices with gifts from civilisation...? Like say a block of Camenbert...?

No you'll have to pay extra for bringing smelly cheese into my shop. Phuket IS civilised you know..we are not living in the jungle in mud huts.

Oh, and please people don't say things like "I won't consider so and so divers", just because one person had a bad dive guide one day. Calypso are normally one of the best and have one of the best boats, and I'm sure that particular guide is not working there now. I think Mr Magnus raised this issue already on Scubaboard and John and I discussed it and he brought it to the attention of Calypso. Personally we prefer booking with them than anyone else.

As for the cheap ones overbooking..Well, one of them, who were well known as being THE cheapest..we don't book anyone with them anymore.

Happy Diving!

 

[popje]

No you'll have to pay extra for bringing smelly cheese into my shop. Phuket IS civilised you know..we are not living in the jungle in mud huts.

Woa... Hold it right there, chill, no need to get defensive. This would be my 3rd trip to Phuket. (Strange since this is on the whole the place I like least in Thailand...) I can assure you the junior suite at Le Meridien Yacht Club is nothing short of civilised. In fact much more so than many hotels in the West. eace2:

 

[scubashooter]

Paulus' beef with Calypso notwithstanding, an update on that situation would be fair. They no longer hire Ao as a dive guide(he served as their driver before and has helped me with many errands on the side over the years, but as a dive guide, I'm told he's overzealous in trying to show customers things).
I'm not defending Calypso blindly since even I have had hiccups with them over the years. However they have compensated me to my satisfaction everytime. Every operation will have differences with clients, be it personality conflicts etc. I've used Calypso for my day trips for many years, even though they don't pick me up in Surin Beach where I live. Then again no one picks up here in the boonies.

 

[Ringo]

I didn't realise there were so many scubaboarders in Phuket. That's great as that's where I'll be in 3 days. Actually, I won't be staying in Phuket, I'll be heading to Phi Phi. Can I bribe anyone for better prices with gifts from civilisation...? Like say a block of Camenbert...?

Hey Popje - the prices at our dive club are most definitely red wine and feta cheese negotiable. So if you happen to come across these delicacies on your travels and if you want to dive off Phuket then please feel more than welcome! Aaaah, how I do enjoy the good things in life!!!

Otherwise for the rest of this thread it is a pity to hear that Calypso divers gets such a bad knock on this board. They really are a very good operation and do not deserve such bad publicity through 1 incident. DORSETBOY check out the various operations when you arrive on Phuket if you do not find a suitable operation before. Also Siam Dive n' Sail are well worth checking out and I recommend that you check out Calypso as well :11ztongue .

 

[DORSETBOY]

DORSETBOY check out the various operations when you arrive on Phuket if you do not find a suitable operation before. Also Siam Dive n' Sail are well worth checking out and I recommend that you check out Calypso as well :11ztongue .

No worries, I'll have a look around the shops when I get there but as I wont be there for as long as I'd like to be and dont know phuket well myself, I'm trying to get opinions from people on here as to whom is a good dive company.

thanks,

Greg

 

[Batfish]

No worries, I'll have a look around the shops when I get there but as I wont be there for as long as I'd like to be and dont know phuket well myself, I'm trying to get opinions from people on here as to whom is a good dive company.

thanks,

Greg

Of course, many of the people posting on here ARE Phuket dive shops. I'm sure, though that we are all completely unbiased in our opinions