Koh Tao, Diver’s Paradise? – Diving in Thailand
Koh Tao – Diver’s Paradise.
That’s what they say. Because you only need a few flaps with your fins to get from Sairee Beach, the most popular beach at Koh Tao’s west coast, to the first corals. That’s ideal especially for students – there are so many diving schools that really everybody should strike gold.
After I got certified in Mexico I was dying to descend again. Once we’d chosen to go to Thailand we searched for our first destination online. In the end we chose Koh Tao as this island seemed to be perfect for us: Patrick could get certified and I could refresh my skills – after all I hadn’t been under water for half a year and I didn’t have a lot of routine yet.
The Diving School
We’ve never been to Thailand before. Therefore we thought it would make sense to book the first destination from home. After we chose Koh Tao for our first stop we searched for a proper diving school and found Stefan’s Rainbow Fish Divers real quick – Stefan is a German guy who (understandably) chose a nicer place to dive than his home country.
As the diving school had only positive ratings on TripAdvisor I got in touch with Stefan to make the reservation for the first 6 days of our vacation. I booked the scuba diving course for Patrick as well as our accommodation. The price was unbeatable due to a discount we got for booking both the course and accommodation at once – we paid 12.000 Baht (ca. 275 €) in total. I highly recommend to book at Stefan’s diving school as early as possible because the courses are booked up very quickly. A course always consists of maximum 6 people – and as long as we’ve been there a new course started every day. Patrick chose the Open Water Course including the following: 5 nights for two in a small bungalow, 6 dives, the whole equipment for rent, the diving license, the logbook and a video of the last open water dive.
Stefan’s emails were very friendly right from the start and he gave us all kinds of information about the island, the diving course and how to get to the diving center. He told us his phone number and the number of his assistant Poo who we could’ve reached day and night if a problem occurred. I think that’s a great service.
We got more and more excited about our vacation and then the day of our departure was finally there. We flew from Germany via Bangkok to Koh Samui where we took the Seatran Ferry to Koh Tao. Stefan booked the tickets for us and explained in his last email how to get to his diving school: after we left the ferry we had to keep straight on to Café del Sol and then turn left. And then straight ahead until Rainbow Fish Divers shows up on the left hand side. Stefan didn’t tell us that „straight ahead“ includes two very steep ascents. But we handled them successfully and arrived at the diving center after about 20 minutes.
As we arrived early, the room wasn’t yet ready. So Stefan offered us to have a seat on the terrace and do all the paperwork first so we could directly start with the fun part afterwards. So we sat down on the terrace and enjoyed the beautiful view – we were glad to be finally there after a long journey. We were surrounded by small groups of diving students who were studying for their license. We immediately felt good.
After we finished the paperwork we could move into our bungalow. It was small but okay – with en-suite bathroom and air con it had everything we wanted. As Patrick’s course started the next day we were free for the rest of our first day on the island and we set off to explore the surrounding area. We were surprised how many diving schools exist at Sairee Beach. Pretty much every second shop was a dive center. And most of them have belonging accommodation. Thus it wasn’t really necessary to book everything in advance. If you don’t want to dive with Germans you can come to Koh Tao without any planning and will find an accommodation. You learn something new every day. (That isn’t valid for the days after the Full Moon Party at Koh Phangan – finding an accommodation is more difficult when everybody comes from Koh Phangan to Koh Tao to relax and sober up.)
The Scuba Diving Course
Patrick’s course started the next morning with a theory lesson and the first tryings to use the diving equipment in the shallow water. That’s one of the biggest pros at Sairee Beach: the diving schools don’t need a pool for the lessons in shallow water. Another pro is that the water gets deeper real quick: the students don’t have to take a boat to do their first open water dives, they just can swim a few meters and then descend.
Patrick’s group consisted of the maximum of 6 people – almost every group we saw was fully booked. Rainbow Fish Divers offers the SSI as well as the PADI certificate but most of the students do the SSI as it’s cheaper than PADI and you’re learning exactly the same stuff.
The Dives
The first 2 days I just lay on the beach and watched the diving students learning and making their first tryings in the shallow water. I wanted to dive together with Patrick and that was not possible until the 3. day of his course. At that day they planned 2 open water dives a short boat trip away from Sairee Beach. Though the students stay amongst themselves at those dives, we were at least at the same dive site and could spend the days together and see the same things under water.
Rainbow Fish Divers only offers 2 dives at a time for certified divers. You always take the boat and it’s of course cheaper if you do 2 dives back-to-back. 2 dives cost 2.000 Baht (ca. 45 €) and include a divemaster and the whole equipment. Sascha was my divemaster and it was just the 2 of us in addition to Patrick’s group. Our first dive was at Mango Bay in the North of Koh Tao. We did the briefing on the boat right before we arrived at the dive site – it was really short as only 1 thing was important: if we see a trigger fish we have to get away. As it was spawning season it wasn’t unrealistic to encounter a trigger fish that watches over the young ones. Trigger fishes attack divers who get closer than 10 meters.
Mango Bay is a small, easy bay visited by many divers and big groups of snorkellers. The boat stopped in the middle of the bay and we jumped into the water right away. Sascha and I wanted to dive alongside the rocks at first and then get back to the boat through the free water. The dive was fun but I wasn’t as fascinated as I was by Mexico’s underwater world. Besides the fact that we had to mind the trigger fishes, the water was full of tiny shreds and thus rather unclear. But unfortunately you have no bearing on such things and I hoped that it would get better at the second dive site Green Rock.
As soon as all divers were back on the boat we drove to Green Rock and used the short break for a snack. They offer water, coffee, tea as well as pineapple for refreshment. Once arrived at Green Rock we got ready for the 2. dive and descended in the south-west of the rock formations. Green Rock has a lot of tunnels that give variety. But as the trigger fishes were spawning there as well we had to mind them again. And the water was rather unclear there as well.
I tried to enjoy the dive as much as possible anyway. But I didn’t understand why so many divers adore Koh Tao so much. The dive sites were okay, but I’ve seen dive sites that were way more beautiful. Perhaps we just caught a bad time.
Have you been diving in Koh Tao and made different experiences than I did?
