want info koh tao small shop

[ryc]

Hello all, never been before to the island, but have plenty of experience w/ diving and beach life in country. This is what i'm looking for on koh tao. Wanting to dive 4-5 days and looking for the right shop. Wanting thai DM to dive w/ having eyes for macro and thousands of dives, not wanting the typical thai cattle boat trip for most of my dives w/ 20 or more divers on a boat, wanting onsite accommodation w/ quiet seaviews and not having to listen to bob marley remixes from the nearby reggae bar all afternoon and into the evening but also not wanting to be so far away from everything that i have to walk 30 minutes to get anywhere.

any insights would be much appreciated, cheers!

 

[swissrob]

KT is quite small and the diving places are located along Sairee beach so plenty of choices, only places i can remember that were quiet with sea views and directly on the beach was at the far RH end of the bay but it still had disadvantages that the music would drift over the water and could be quite loud in the evenings. but TBH anywhere around sairee beach is only a 10-15 minute walk.

contact another member here ayeshacantrell she works and lives there and she will tell you where to go.

 

[ayeshacantrell]

Thanks Swiss Rob !

The dive centre I work for is actually a small one and is located in Mae Haad - far away from the maddeneing crowd in Sairee however you do have easy access to it when you want to go out too ! Most of our divers stay on the quiet beach of North Mae Haad - there are many options depending on your budget - if you let me know what that is then I will happily send you some suggestions. This area is just a few mins walk from the dive center on a quiet beach with good snorkelling out in front too. This is the gem of places to stay .....

Sensi Paradise Resort Learn To Dive On Koh Tao

We do not have a Thai DM but we do have many good 'critter-spotters'. We keep our groups small - never more than four and if you are expereinced and want to bubble around on your own then thats fine too ! We do cater a little more towards the fun-divers and more experienced divers but clearly we do teach courses too.

Feel free to contact me if you want more details....

 

[Black Tip Diving]

We have a 5 star Idc Gold Palm Resort in Tanote Bay, this is bay with some of the best diving in Koh Tao. We always work in small groups so that we can provide personal attention to each one of our customers. We have 2 big dive vessels, rigged and ready to take you to any of the dive sites around Koh Tao. We also have a liveaboard option for a sail around the bay of Thailand with unlimited dives....please feel free to check our website, abyssdivers-asia.com and blacktipdiving.com
Happy Diving
Pat

 

[samaka]

Here comes some advice from someone who's not trying to taut you into their business.

I used to live on the Island and I have to say that there are better places to go to get what you describe in the post. However, if you desperately want to go to the Koh Tao - armpit of south east Asia - "The Rock", I would recommend Big Blue Dive Resort where you have good accommodation and a very professional Dive Operation going on. If you want macro life you should absolutely choose this operator since they have a program going on where they chart the bay geographically and chronologically so that they can take you out to see anemone fish eggs hatch! That is a truly magical experience!

hope it helped
.........a.........

 

[ryc]

thanks for the input guys. Got over in time to take advantage of the half moon and great viz. Dived the "must do's" and have to say the gulf doesn't really compare to the andaman. I won't mention one of the shop's i dove with. I felt like i should of been paid to dive w/ their DM's. Had a great time with the folks at good time adventures though. A shop that actually caters to divers and not backpackers wanting to get their open water in 3days for the cheapest price possibly. Glad i finally made it over to check koh tao out, doubt i'd ever go back though.

 

[BigJeff]

ryc,

I think you should mention both shops that impressed you and shops that didn't - as a personal experience.

Many people (yourself included) ask for recommendations, where would we be if everyone only heard the positive side? Do you want the next person to relive your experience.....?

The board should reflect a balanced view, no doubt there will be people who agree and disagree with your experience but at least they will be aware of it.

 

[wedivebc]

Master Divers in Mae Haad is just 3 doors down from the ferry dock and has some nice quiet bungalows just up the hill with beautiful views of the bay. They use a rhib instead of a cattle boat and treated us very well when we were there about 2 years ago.

 

[ayeshacantrell]

Master Divers is actually where I take my students to teach them and although they no longer have the rib they do still treat divers like divers. They organise their boat times to try and avoid the busy times on the popular dive sites and offer a range of opportunities for doing some different diving activities. The have a photo and video pro or you can do a bit of taster technical diving so you can try some other things that might interest you. They are a smaller diver centre so a little more flexible and personal - one of the many reasons I choose to teach my students there.

Samaka - I would hardly call it the armpit of South East Asia but then I live here so Im a bit biased !!!!

 

[ryc]

You are probably right Jeff, and i should probably mention the other shop. However, i don't think that is fair to the owners. They were ok for what they were trying to do on tao and are probably a good shop for the average customer on tao (a backpacker doing an open water course or someone with less than 15 dives). However, I have worked and dived all over thailand and they just weren't the right fit for someone such as myself. In my opinion, i don't think that 90% of the shops on Koh Tao would really be that good for an experienced diver, much less a person with lots of experience diving in thailand. Nor do i think the diversity even compares to the Andaman. About the only thing that really impressed me was the size of some of the groupers, snappers, barracudas, and blue spotted rays. Proper, muture, adult specimens of each at some sites. Which says something for the fisherman around the area. Also, the numbers of cowry shells at some of the sites. Somehow over the years the diving farangs on Tao have convinced the local fisherman to leave some fish for us divers to enjoy. Thumbs up to that.