Suggestions for October 17-25, 2015?

[huskychemist]

I've got one week to dedicate to a dive holiday and I'm considering something in Thailand. I currently live in Bangkok, so getting there would be easy. It seems the Similans might not be available at that time?

Any other options?

Thanks.
Lowell

 

[MichaelWallentin]

Hi Lowell. It seems like this is your lucky day. The Similans opens on the 15th October. Not all liveabords will start operating from this date but you will still have plenty of options. Only a very few have their schedule ready for next season. PM if you need some help.

 

[stevenl]

Excellent option with schedule already available would be OKtavia. 18-22 October, and very likely to get confirmed.

 

[huskychemist]

Stevenl, thanks for the tip on Oktavia. I'm still looking around, as I'm thinking a liveaboard isn't necessarily the best given that I want to dive as many of my nine days as possible. The liveaboard would limit that a little bit. I've also heard October is a bit iffy with weather. Given that I live in Thailand I may save the Similans for another time when I can hit better weather and find another location for October. (Thinking maybe Bali.)

Thanks again for taking the time to offer a suggestion.

Lowell

 

[Buadhai]

Well, for something completely different you could try diving Losin. I've been a number of times and have enjoyed the trips there very much. It's a huge dive site which is rarely visited. I dove there in October of last year and saw a number of whale sharks. There are several other interesting dive sites in the Southern Gulf. A few photos and a video here:

Out and About Thailand: Diving Losin and the Southern Gulf of Thailand

 

[stevenl]

Stevenl, thanks for the tip on Oktavia. I'm still looking around, as I'm thinking a liveaboard isn't necessarily the best given that I want to dive as many of my nine days as possible. The liveaboard would limit that a little bit. I've also heard October is a bit iffy with weather. Given that I live in Thailand I may save the Similans for another time when I can hit better weather and find another location for October. (Thinking maybe Bali.)

Thanks again for taking the time to offer a suggestion.

Lowell

Yes, you have to make choices.

But I really don't see how a liveaboard would limit your diving, I would say it would maximize your diving.

 

[Oldbear]

....

But I really don't see how a liveaboard would limit your diving, I would say it would maximize your diving.

I was thinking the same thing. A could of years ago I booked on The Junk and we dove 4-5 times a day.

If you want to dive the Similans and make the most dives possible in a day...you need to be on a liveaboard where you are on site before you even get out of bed and in the water before the shore based operators are still on their way out.

 

[Buadhai]

Yep, if you have the time and money, a liveaboard is the way to go.

 

[huskychemist]

The liveaboard doesn't limit my diving while I'm on it. Rather, for an eight night/nine day trip the liveaboard will not fill the entire trip. Depending on how the transfers/timing work out, I could lose a day of diving in the middle. Then, when the liveaboard is finished, I end up shore diving. Thailand doesn't have any (that I know of...) dive resorts where you can get four to five dives a day. So my nine days is now five days on a liveaboard, with three days of two dives per day based on most schedules. That's the issue I'm having with the liveaboard.

Having done a resort trip to Lembeh, I'm not bothered by that. Having learned what I've learned from this conversation and some others, I think I'll save the Similans for the better weather season, since I'm living here and know that I can come back at some point in the future.

As for Losin, sounds interesting. Thanks for the link. Could I make a full trip out of Losin?

Thanks everybody for the discussion. I am very appreciative!

Lowell

 

[Buadhai]

I'm not sure if the Losin trip would fit in to your schedule, but it's worth a look. Most of the liveaboards do Losin in conjunction with repositioning the vessels from the Gulf to the Andaman and vice versa. In October the boats will be leaving the Gulf. So, you could probably arrange to do a few days of day-trip diving on Koh Tao and then get on a liveaboard that is doing Koh Tao/Koh Krah/Losin/Songkhla. You'd fly back to Bangkok from Hat Yai. I've done this several times in both directions. Incidentally, Songkhla is a very interesting town; worth a day of exploring. Some of the boats hang around Songkhla for a while and do trips that leave from and return to that port.

You might be able to get four dives per day on Koh Tao. Many shops do early morning dives, but some (Master Divers) go out in the afternoon to avoid the crowds.