On the Thailand leg of our Round the World trip, we passed through Koh Phi Phi and Koh Tao where did a bit of diving. Read on...
We hadn't really intended to do any diving whilst in Thailand. We knew it was the wrong time of year to get to the Similan Islands or the Burma Banks, where the "World Class" diving is; and we also knew that Koh Phi Phi did not feature high on the list of must dive destinations. None the less, we were here and the island is literally stuffed with dive shops. They are all geared towards the "why not try diving whilst on holiday" market, with most obviously hoping to generate some PADI Open Water courses.
We wandered around the island chatting with many of the operators. It seems that Koh Phi Phi is also a place to do your Dive Master Internship as virtually everyone we spoke to had been diving for a few months and was a DM candidate looking to clock up the dives. In the end, we settled on Phi Phi Scuba as a reasonable operator who said they would take us out to dive a wreck on their custom dive boat.
We did 4 dives with Phi Phi Scuba as follows;
| Bidah Nog | 21% | 15.2m | 47 min |
| Bidah Noi | 21% | 13.7m | 57 min |
| King Cruiser Wreck | 21% | 22.2m | 52 min |
| Shark Point | 21% | 22.8m | 44 min |
Those of you who know our diving habits will know that only one of these dives was really of interest to us - the wreck of the King Cruiser. For completeness though, we should say that the other three dives had visibility of somewhere between 5 and 10m with water temp about 31 degC. Main features were an abundance of massive fan corals the like of which we'd not seen anywhere else, loads of puffer fish, some lion fish and a few leopard sharks, but they were pretty dopey. According to the DMs, these were excellent dive sites, but we've seen coral before so ho hum really! We had to be led by Dive Master trainees on all dives which was a bit of a bind as they kept getting lost or insisting on swimming senselessly into a raging current. When you consider the prices they charge (see below) it's a bit rich to make you take a trainee with you too! Still rules are rules, even in Thailand - well they are when it comes to making money.
We were obviously more interested in diving the only wreck in the area. Sunk in May 1997 and rumoured locally to be an "insurance job" (there were enough life jackets on board when she sank - unusual for a Thai vessel), the King Cruiser was an 85m long, twin-hulled vehicle ferry doing the run from Phuket to Koh Phi Phi when she sank almost exactly half way across (to the delight of dive operators at both ends, to be sure). She lies upright in 31m with the top deck in 14m. In fact, the King Cruiser is rather reminiscent of a small Zenobia; i.e. modern vehicle ferry, dodgy circumstances, clear water.
We were "fortunate" to have a fully qualified DM leading us on this dive and she was careful to point out that we should not spend very long inside the wreck! Of course, with a vehicle ferry to explore, there was little chance of us bimbling around the outside. In the end, we swam the whole length inside the vehicle deck which was most picturesque with light streaming in through large windows all along both sides. There were no vehicles on the vessel when she sank (unlike the Zenobia) so the vehicle deck is a large open space with no entaglement hazzards to speak of. There's a small accommodation block one deck up and then on top of that is the bridge area. Most navigation equipment is still present although it's obviously of dubious quality. For a wreck that's been sunk 5 years, there's quite a bit of life - mainly lion fish and barnacles although we did observe a couple of huge octopi.
We dived with Phi Phi Scuba who struck us as one of the more professional outfits on the island. They took the time to answer all our questions and showed us round the facility. We only found one operator on the island who thought they might be able to supply us with Nitrox but they weren't sure!! We inspected their facility and found they had a Trimix blending panel but no one present even seemed to know about Nitrox so we moved on. Many operators made much of the fact that they took you out to the wreck on a speed boat which cut down journey times and thus maximised sun-bathing time. Little did they realise that we were more interested in a stable, safe diving platform - see below.
Phi Phi Scuba have a reasonable hard boat to take you the 40 odd Km out to the King Cruiser Wreck. Unfortunately, the skipper may be experienced with his vessel, he may even be an excellent fisherman but he's an appalling dive boat skipper. No attention was paid to currents, you just get dropped in anywhere and have to swim for it. Judging by the other dive boats we saw on site, this is not unusual. However, we were lucky with the weather for this time of year and the currents were pretty benign so everything went pretty smoothly. There was a bit of a hiccup when we asked where the Oxygen was stored. After a bit of a huddle amongst the DMs, we were spun some yarn about this not being the usual boat and that they normally always carried O2. We pointed out that it didn't really matter as it was always the employees that got bent anyway. In the end, it turned out that there was O2 on the boat. At least everyone now knew where it was!
It's worth noting that all dive operators charge exactly the same for their trips so there's no point trying to barter. Like most things on the island, the price fixing cartel ensures that tourists pay top dollar for everything. Our trip out to dive the King Cruiser and Shark Point cost 2600 baht each (approx.. £42), although this did include equipment hire, water, fruit and lunch. With all your own kit, the price comes down to 2200 baht (£36). Extortionate we'd say!
Later, we found ourselves surrounded by more dive shops as we relaxed on Koh Tao. Again, we asked around to find a dive operation we fancied. We ended up booking with a certain operation on the island as they were planning to dive what were reputed to be the best sites in the Gulf. The guys at the dive centre were very accommodating. One dude even seemed to understand more or less what Nitrox was and obligingly offered to sell it to us. He also told us that thermoclines at 20m pretty much put paid to going any deeper so, with an 18m depth limit and a bunch of other divers waiting for us, we elected not to use a mix - god's gas for these dives!
The dives actually turned out to be quite stunning - for scenic dives. It seems like not many people trek out to the marine park so there's plenty of life and the coral is intact. We dived pinnacles which seemed to be limestone which means swim-throughs. On one we emerged to see a grey reef shark swimming off into the blue. Barracuda and tuna were common. Megan spent much of her time examining the bright yellow soft corals for sea-horses. None!
We did 2 dives with this outfit as follows;
| Sail Rock | 21% | 21m | 54 min |
| Hin Nipon | 21% | 18m | 49 min |
So why not give the name of the dive outfit you ask? These dives are a long way from Koh Tao and were run using a speed boat - not something we would choose to dive from. This boat was about 30 feet long by 10 feet wide. On to this, they managed to cram 25 divers and 3 crew!! With cylinders for 2 dives (50) you have one seriously overloaded boat. In the monsoon season out in the Gulf of Thailand, it can blow up pretty quick. And it did. Much could be said about this trip, but it's sufficient to say that at one point the boat nearly capsized. 28 people - 50 cylinders - any diver will tell you that would be a mess!
You won't find Megan and Steve diving from a speedboat again. It's billed as a "bonus", but they're singularly unsuited and not designed for diving. You don't get out and back quicker, you just trek further - and you end up exhausted from hanging on (or swimming home). The dives were excellent but the trip was marred by total disregard for safety. We've not mentioned the dive shop here but if you're ever looking to dive on Koh Tao [or anywhere else for that matter] and you hear the word "speedboat" mentioned, ask some serious questions and be very careful!
In fairness, once we'd had a chat with the DM and pointed out how far down the incident pit we'd already gone, they did can the last dive, repack the overloaded boat, wait for the weather to calm a bit and keep in radio contact with base as we battled our way back. We had also been allowed to dive on our own which was a plus.
We'd won't dive in Thailand again having seen the best there is to offer (excluding Similan) and having experienced Thai money grabbing at it's most dangerous! The operators are not geared to experienced divers and safety precautions are minimal or non-existent. Plus you have to take a DM trainee with you on Phi Phi (and probably on Koh Tao if you pick a different operator) which is a bit of a bind considering the cost. Still, it was nice to get in the water again (did we mention it was over 30 degC?) and the wreck was an unexpected bonus.
One last gem. Steve's Solution Nitrox battery ran out and he had to buy a new one. 910 baht thank you very much - that's about £15...! Hmmm!