Where to Settle in thailand

[whooyeah]

I'm planing on spending a year in thailand from November and would like some advice on where is a good place to settle.

I'll be working monday to friday via the internet so I want somewhere that I could easily dive on the weekend without traveling too far.

I thought about BKK but i hear diving Pattaya is pretty rubbish and Hua Hin has nothing.

I'm planning on staying on an ED visa so I'll need to be near a school as well.

Any suggestions to find basic accommodations that has a desk and decent internet would greatly be appreciated as well. My budget would be about 15000baht

 

[limbo]

Diving in Pattaya is what you make out of it. Viz in average is not as good as the rest in Thailand, West or east coast but in return you get to dive more wrecks than anywhere else in Thailand. I would consider BKK or Pattaya directly, cut out the city life and be close to the diving. With long weekends you can always make it down to Phuket or other destinations for a weekend.

My recommendation would be the general Phuket area, lots of convenience (malls etc on Phuket itself), good dive sites albeit the trips will be full day trips, no nearby dive destinations. Check into Koh Lanta and Krabi. Khao Lak could also be an option.

Koh Tao, diving very cheap but there are better areas to dive and explore.

Ask yourself what you want out of your trips, good viz and lots of fish, photo opportunities, macro or wrecks or something else and what do you expect from your day to day life, convenience or is that not much of a priority? Based on those preferences, it will be easier to recommend a good location.

 

[decompression]

I like Phuket and Koh Lak, the possibility of diving Myannmar is a big draw for Koh Lak. It's nice and quiet but good food, cheap and easy to get away from the beaten path. Phuket has the busy vibe and has the malls, shopping and tourists as well as good day dive spots.

 

[Quero]

Limbo is giving good advice. If you want an infrastructure for a prolonged stay, then you probably won't want to be on Koh Tao or a similarly small island that you need to get on and off by ferry. Phuket is convenient in that there's an international airport, supermarkets, cinemas, excellent medical care, and other infrastructure that makes life comfortable. At the same time, it provides easy access to good diving, and the airport, which is a hub for the budget carrier Air Asia, makes travel to other parts of Thailand and the entire region (both for diving and for land-based touring) simple.

 

[lord khram]

You are quite right about Pattaya, it simply is not a serious dive destination, having said that there are a few OK dives, but if you are planning to spend 1 year and dive regularly you will soon become bored, there is simply not enough quality diving in the area to sustain interest over any length of time.
Yes there are two small wrecks in Pattaya and one at samae san (around 30 miles away) that most shops run regular trips to. All are worth diving, but after 1 or 2 dives on each, again there is little to sustain further interest.
To me Quero has the best suggestion in Phuket, good transport links, lots of general facilities in the area, and the Andaman sea without question has the best diving in Thailand, available from Phuket and many other islands along the South West coast of Thailand. Also travel to koh Tao would easily be possible for a weekend, KT is far from my favourite place in Thailand, but is well worth a visit for any diver. Whilst it is in the Gulf of Thailand, again the diving there is far superior to what you will find around the Pattaya area, and indeed has some small wrecks to dive on.

 

[AleG]

Personally I've always thought that Surat Thani (or wherabouts) would be a good place to locate.
It's more or less smack in between Koh Tao/Surin and Phuket/Krabi, being at the narrowest point of the Malay Peninsula it's a very short distance from coast to coast. There's also the amazing Khao Sok National Park at hand.
I don't know much about the city itself, but location wise I think is a very good compromise.