dive phuket march 4-5

[jigo]

hi guys. newbie here. been suddenly called to phuket and have time to dive from saturday afternoon and sunday morning only. what are my options? i want to see sharks and manta rays. is that possible with my limited time? how about night dives?

also, how much do operators there usually charge? and can you recommend a local operator with good guides and reasonable rates?

[stevenl]

What you could do is make a local dive at Kata Beach, either by longtail or from the beach. IMO, Kata Beach offers the best beach diving in the area.
Also nightdives are possible here and very nice with lots of lobster, scorpion fish, cuttlefish. There are also barracuda in the area and ghost pipe fish, occassionaly even a turtle, so really worth the effort. Just don't count on manta rays or sharks.

[Bowmouth]

Your only and best option seems to be shore diving off Kata Beach. I've dived Karon Rock in the past a few times but am not sure what the current status of that site is. It's only a short longtail boat ride away from Kata and has always been a great site.
Kata has also a fairly nice shoredive and the local operators are professional and reasonbly priced. I dived with Phuket Scuba Club years ago and they are friendly and still there!

[pinklizard]

Try a 3D/2N liveaboard to Hin Daeng / Hin Muang! Saw a manta every dive when I was there in December. Just came back from Similans 2 weeks ago, no mantas tho'.

[Quero]

I don't have first-hand experience with this, but I know that there are some half-day dive trips around. I think you can find a half-day trip to Koh Weo and another to the tin dredge wreck up between kamala and khao lak somewhere.

A couple of speedboats offer half-day trips; from what I can tell, they may be afternoon only.

I know of one dive op in Kata that does half-day longtail trips nearby, and it's likely that others also offer this. If you want more info, PM me. I should tell you not to expect mantas at these sites, but you never know. One instructor saw a whale shark when he was out with DSD students last month!

[Traminer]

The dive shops in Patong, Kata/Karon all offer day trips to PhiPhi, Racha Yai, King Cruiser/Sharks Point. Most of them will involve a 2-3 hour ride out to the site, with breakfast and hot lunch included. Prices are comparable, between 2000 to 3000 bh per trip. None of the daytrips will do night dives, except for the local shops in Kata/Karon who may do dives on their house reefs.

I dived with West Coast Divers, www.westcoastdivers.com and I think they are great.

The LOBs ex Phuket are very expensive because of the distances involved and fuel costs. If you're keen on the similians, there are daytrips ex Khao Lak via speedboat. And similarly for Hin Daeng, you can do a trip ex Koh Lanta.

[stevenl]

Hi Traminer,

How long ago have you been here, the prices you mention seem to be a bit out of date. Prices for daytrips are, depending on destination operator and number of dives, between 2,400 Baht and 4,000 Baht. There are a couple of daytrips with 4 dives, so yes, it is possible to make a nightdive on a daytrip, and as you mention, there are of course the operators offering nightdives at the house reefs.

LOB's from Phuket are no more expensive than the boats from Khao Lak. The cheaper boats tend to leave from Khao Lak, but whether you book them in Phuket or Khao Lak won't make any price difference though. For daytrips to the Similans I totally agree, they are more comfortable from Khao Lak than from Phuket.

[jigo]

thanks for the great infor guys!

[jigo]

how feasible is going to shark point from phuket? how many hours and how much will it cost?

[stevenl]

Shark Point from Phuket: 1h45, will cost about 3,000 Baht for 3 dives (normally also at King Cruiser and Koh Doc Mai, but also Anemone Reef is possible) or 2,500 Baht for 2 dives, in combination with either of the above.
Trips are leaving every day, for a 3-dive trip, count on about 08.00 till 18.00 hours.