KO TAO - August 2009 - any tips?

[cgf]

Any advice? resort/diving in Ko Tao to contact? Which part of island could better?
Thai is the Country of smiles, but I heard the resort are not smiling to people going there for not doing courses, is it the same treatment for who wants to dive only?
thanks

[Mystery Dive bum]

Accom ain't very easy if you are only divers.

We stayed at a wierd little place in the hills above the main resort. It turned out to be the best place we stayed. I will look for the name and get back to you.

We were recommended the place by a Dutch dive master from bans dive centre.

There is also some simple beach huts called simple life who do non diver accom but is quite basic.

I can recommend bans as a dive operation but I used them in 2004 so things may have changed.

Good luck with it and feel free to pm me for any other advice

neil

[NotDeadYet]

Northern end at Sairee is a bit of a dump, southern end at Chalok is nicer but not a lot there.

I'd avoid Crystal Divers, the big place in Mae Haad. If you aren't doing a load of courses with them then they aren't interested though their bar on the beach is actually a good place. The Greek woman (with a Scottish accent) that was running Crystal when I was there was a complete misery. Samosa man's appearance at 5pm is a lifesaver, the only plus that Crystal has. I used Master Divers boats a couple of times and they seemed quite good. A friend of mine was working for Buddha View and rated them as one of the better outfits.

To be honest, I wouldn't go back to Koh Tao to dive, most of the main dive sites are a bit dull. It's a nice place and not overly developed but it's not the world's most exciting diving, Stoney Cove with sun. If you are there a while and fancy something different then do a freediving course with Apnea Total, well worth it and a better way to see some of the dive sites.

[macstinator]

I heard a rumour that the Thai Police once found a corpse in a freezer in Bans. All the dive centres are much of a muchness. I did Big Blue, which was pretty good. the diving is pretty poor around Koh Tao, but atrip to Chumpon Pinnacle is worth it.

[Zero-Viz]

Stoney Cove with sun.

I've never seen shoals of Yellow Fin Barracuda, Bull Sharks, Sea Snakes, carpets of Anenomes, loads of Potato grouper, Titan Triggers etc at Stoney....maybe because the viz was so bad

Granted, Ko Tao hasn't got the best diving in Thailand (normally found on the West) but it's subjective. My gang had only experienced the Med so were blown away and the island itself we found very relaxing with plenty to do at night.

We dived with Simple Life and they were just as keen to take 'fun divers' as run courses.

[NotDeadYet]

I've never seen shoals of Yellow Fin Barracuda, Bull Sharks, Sea Snakes, carpets of Anenomes, loads of Potato grouper, Titan Triggers etc at Stoney....maybe because the viz was so bad

Yeah, OK What I meant was it's all geared up to learning to dive and very raw novices and the sites that the boats go to reflect that.

the island itself we found very relaxing with plenty to do at night.

Yeah, agreed it is a nice place. I changed my ferry reservation about three times. Went there for 5 days, ended up there for nearly a month. Definitely good at night and it didn't have the usual resort sprawl. Though the northern area was headed that way.

We dived with Simple Life and they were just as keen to take 'fun divers' as run courses.

Whoever thought that phrase up needed a good kicking, I don't know why but it really wound me up every time I heard it. Which was about every ten seconds.

[Zero-Viz]

Whoever thought that phrase up needed a good kicking, I don't know why but it really wound me up every time I heard it. Which was about every ten seconds.

know what you mean

[cgf]

thanks for the replys.
Bans Diving Resorts is here Instructor Development Course: Instructor Internship: Divemaster: Koh Tao IDC Group, Thailand
and they seem to care more about students then divers, it could really happen to go for diving with all students, 30 minutes dive as most of them have no more air.
Ko Tao might be not the best place for diving, sure I wish I'd gone to Sipadan for third time, but, beside prices are araised a lot since we've been there Jan 2008, nowdays there are more new diving operators and number of people allowed to Sipadan (it does not matter if divers or not) is still 120/130. In Mabul the SMART with an average of 90 divers staying there in August, gets an average of 15-20 permits, rarely little bit more, so not only diving to Sipadan every day is guaranteed, it's not guaranteed at all! Of course, the price it's nealy the same, it's not not the Sipadan permit that make you out the budget, so we kept Sipadan for a next time, preferebly in low-season months to be sure to do not stay in Mabul all day if not just last one.
As my wife and I will be already in Singapore in August, plus the crisis still affect our jobs, we were convinced about Thailand as we always heard it's cheaper then Malaysia where we've been alredy five times since 2006, last it has been for diving March 2009 at Redang and Lang Tengah Island, I have to say that in March it is not great for diving around those islands, the best things have been I used my 0,5mm wet suite and having boat and guide for only two of us. No much to see beside a very beatiful leopard shark we met once, visibility was nearly always poor and not a lot of [big] fish.
From Singapore it's also easy to go to North Sulawesi, but we have already gone to Manado-Bunaken-Lembeh Strait August 2007, we wanted to change and we've never been to Thailand before.
At the moment from Singapore we just have a one-way flight ticket to Ko Samui and nothing else booked, the plan was to stay some days there and then KoTao. nothing else planned yet.
All tips, names, suggests are very welcomed ;-)

[Polyphemus]

I did my time at Bans, you will get a DMT, or a DM take you out. they always have a couple boats of "fun divers" going out morning and afternoon.

if you go on shallow morning dives, you will end up at white rock and Twins, the open water training dive sites.

Best dive sites are South West Pinnacle, chumpon Pinnacle, and if you can find someone to take you, Sail Rock.

Alot of the guys I used to work with now work at Sairee Cottage

KohTaoIsland.net - Sairee Cottage, Sairee Beach, Koh Tao - The Sairee Cottage is a nice family run buisness in the middle of the Sairee Beach. The Sairee Village is just behind and is locat

They have two super cool speed boats and do trips out to Sail Rock. I lived there for months. Very nice people, great food.

never heard the body in the freezer one about bans.