How Bad Is Marine Life In Pattaya Diving?

[lord khram]

Thanks for all the replies everyone. I think for me if I was to travel all the way to Thailand again, I would want to see Pattaya but also get in some 'good' diving. So I would likely go to Pattaya and then fly down to say Phuket to dive out of there in order to get the Andaman Sea diving. In such a trip where I would dive in the Andaman Sea for sure, I am wondering if I should even bother to do one day of diving when I'm in Pattaya. What would you do in such a case?

In Pattaya, to me the best dives are Koh Rin North Rock, and the Khram wreck, due to them being quite far apart it is unlikely to get an operator to visit both on the same day. I know you said you were not interested in the wrecks, and would agree that as wrecks none in the area are particularly inspiring but the Khram does have lots life to see, more so than most of the so called scenic dive sites.

At Samae San, Shark fin rock is in my mind the best site, nice reef down to around 26m. To me the hard deep wreck is simply no longer worth diving, particularly as no one ever plans dives around the tides, and the wreck now being well broken up, so with the window of slack water being so short at this site, it is highly likely that you will find yourself in quite an extreme current which will be hard work and can make for unpleasant diving conditions.

---------- Post added May 8th, 2014 at 12:30 PM ----------

LK, I have no desire to get into a 20 page 'tit for tat' argument. I'm sure that regular visitors to this forum are well aware of your 'axe'. I agree with you that it would not be wise to plan a diving holiday to Pattaya (I think I said something similar in my original post) but I do think it is worth a day out if you find yourself in the area. I have around 300 Pattaya dives under my belt, some great, some OK and some not so good. No offence intended. I just wanted to offer a balanced opinion.

Thanks for the reply Russ. I note as you are offering a balanced opinion, and as you say my opinion is ''an axe to grind''! Just so we all know.

I congratulate you on your 300 Pattaya dives, but again to put a balance on our opinions I have done well in excess of 1000 dives in the area over a 15 year period, couple that with several thousand other dives at various locations around the world, including cave / mine diving, and advanced deco dives up to almost 100m, but generally don't feel the need to quote such statistics when answering a simple question on a forum. I would also note that as yet you still have not told us exactly what the axe is you say I am grinding??

 

[daz88]

If you want to dive while visiting Pattaya...ok. If you want to plan a dive trip.....not the place to go. Much, much better places to go diving in Thai.

 

[NFacey]

So everyone is agreed that you don't go to Pattaya especially for the diving. Now the OP has asked where in the Andaman Sea to dive, which I would also appreciate some feedback on. Not sure when cleung is going but I'm looking at mid-late May which I'm aware is the start of monsoon season... any advice?

 

[stevenl]

So everyone is agreed that you don't go to Pattaya especially for the diving. Now the OP has asked where in the Andaman Sea to dive, which I would also appreciate some feedback on. Not sure when cleung is going but I'm looking at mid-late May which I'm aware is the start of monsoon season... any advice?

It doesn't make much of a difference where in the Andaman Sea. Just not Khao Lak, since the diving from there will all be done from Phuket, and that means a long transfer. The places in the far South like Koh lipe will be really dead with nobody there, but the main places like Lanta, Phi Phi, Ao Nag and Krabi will offer daily divetrips.

 

[limbo]

It doesn't make much of a difference where in the Andaman Sea. Just not Khao Lak, since the diving from there will all be done from Phuket, and that means a long transfer. The places in the far South like Koh lipe will be really dead with nobody there, but the main places like Lanta, Phi Phi, Ao Nag and Krabi will offer daily divetrips.

Stevenl, I don't know where you get your information from, but there are plenty of dive centers based in Khao Lak that own their boats and depart from Khao Lak and visit the Similan islands and/or Richelieu directly. These dc's definitely will not transfer their customers to Phuket for the dives but have their boats depart nearby Khao Lak.

 

[stevenl]

Stevenl, I don't know where you get your information from, but there are plenty of dive centers based in Khao Lak that own their boats and depart from Khao Lak and visit the Similan islands and/or Richelieu directly. These dc's definitely will not transfer their customers to Phuket for the dives but have their boats depart nearby Khao Lak.

The question was for mid-late May. Looking forward to your apologies.

 

[nkped]

Thanks for all the replies everyone. I think for me if I was to travel all the way to Thailand again, I would want to see Pattaya but also get in some 'good' diving. So I would likely go to Pattaya and then fly down to say Phuket to dive out of there in order to get the Andaman Sea diving. In such a trip where I would dive in the Andaman Sea for sure, I am wondering if I should even bother to do one day of diving when I'm in Pattaya. What would you do in such a case?

You could get a couple of pretty good dives. See Lord Khram's post at #11. On the other hand if you catch a crappy weather day (or whatever the deciding factor is) and go to Koh Sak, you probably aren't going to be happy for one day of diving.

 

[Buadhai]

Certainly the visibility around the Far Islands is usually better than that at the Near Islands. Be sure to check with the dive operator as to where they will be diving before handing over any monies. Mermaids would be my choice as weather permitting they run a boat out to the Far Islands most days.

My experience has been that even if the operator says that they are going to the Far Islands it is likely that you will end up in the Near Islands. I've tried to dive Pattaya several times. Every single time I've been promised the Far Islands but have ended up with very poor diving in the Near Islands. I can't imagine ever going there again in spite of the fact that it is the closest dive site to where I live.

YMMV

 

[lord khram]

My experience has been that even if the operator says that they are going to the Far Islands it is likely that you will end up in the Near Islands. I've tried to dive Pattaya several times. Every single time I've been promised the Far Islands but have ended up with very poor diving in the Near Islands. I can't imagine ever going there again in spite of the fact that it is the closest dive site to where I live.

YMMV

I am glad it is not only me that experiences such poor behaviour from Pattaya DC's. Over the years I have heard so many excuses for cancelling far island trips, including 'rough seas' when the swell was at least 50cm!! I came to the conclusion years ago it is plain and simple to save on fuel costs, which I don't have a problem with if they are at least up front about it. Standard Pattaya way, promise everything the customer wants, once payment has been made the reality of what customers get all too often becomes quite a different story.

Your decision not to visit Pattaya again, based on your opinion here is clearly the right one. Yes in general the conditions at the far islands are an improvement to the near islands, but the difference is really not that great.

 

[cleung]

I am glad it is not only me that experiences such poor behaviour from Pattaya DC's. Over the years I have heard so many excuses for cancelling far island trips, including 'rough seas' when the swell was at least 50cm!! I came to the conclusion years ago it is plain and simple to save on fuel costs, which I don't have a problem with if they are at least up front about it. Standard Pattaya way, promise everything the customer wants, once payment has been made the reality of what customers get all too often becomes quite a different story.

Your decision not to visit Pattaya again, based on your opinion here is clearly the right one. Yes in general the conditions at the far islands are an improvement to the near islands, but the difference is really not that great.

So I guess if I were to visit both Pattaya and Phuket in one trip, I should just do all the diving out of Phuket and none in Pattaya ...