stevenl
Contributor
Water temperature stays more or less the same year round, with also year round at certain sites a chance of a thermocline. 3mm suit is fine for nearly everybody.
9 day trip - diving similan islands in April + super short trip to Cambodia
- Thread starter Kelle
- Start date
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I have just come back from four days on MV Pawara and can vouch for it being an excellent, very comfortable and well-run boat. Regarding wetsuits - I was in a 3mm shorty and was fine, water temperature was 28-30C, some people even dived with no wetsuit at all - just swimming trunks.
Wingy
Contributor
Frantic travel 
Ok - my recommendations - Before your LOB drop the cooking class - they're great but take up a lot of your day and you can watch YouTube for same results if you feel up to it after your flight, go check out the Bangka Road Patong freak show, it's fun but most sane people get pretty sick of it very quickly.
after your LOB Chalong Pier to Patong is a long and jarring drive. You're going to be tired, I'd personally stop at Kata where you can stay at somewhere super lux like Sawasdee Barry Villa with a spectacular restaurant, walk down towards the beach and have the best pampering session at the Masseuse shop on the corner - lovely lady's who give a professional massage and can give your hair or skin a pamper if you want. Turn left, walk along the road maybe 200m there's a Muay Thai ring there..if no fights scheduled, check out the tiny kids sparring with adults - awesome.
Hotel near airport - Nai Yang beach club resort. Beautiful quiet beach and 5 mins from airport.
Yes go to Siem Reap, it's a cheap quick direct flight from BKK (not sure if connections PPhuket to BKK to Siem Reap) - sure you have limited time but you can "do" Ankhor in a day...remember - no ticket no temple!
You won't get to know Thailand or Cambodia but you will have a ball and be extremely exhausted at the end of it. Distance within Asia is your friend when it comes to air travel - I've left Phuket at 10pm on a $1 air Asia flight, arrived in Vietnam at midnight, grabbed a few hours sleep in HCMC, done the Cu Chi tunnels, gone back to the airport, flown 40 minutes to Phnom Penh for dinner - HCMC was annoying me.
Have fun whatever you choose and make sure you have dinner in Pub Street in SR. You may even see a Cambodian Boxing match around - worth checking out.
Ok - my recommendations - Before your LOB drop the cooking class - they're great but take up a lot of your day and you can watch YouTube for same results
if you feel up to it after your flight, go check out the Bangka Road Patong freak show, it's fun but most sane people get pretty sick of it very quickly.after your LOB Chalong Pier to Patong is a long and jarring drive. You're going to be tired, I'd personally stop at Kata where you can stay at somewhere super lux like Sawasdee Barry Villa with a spectacular restaurant, walk down towards the beach and have the best pampering session at the Masseuse shop on the corner - lovely lady's who give a professional massage and can give your hair or skin a pamper if you want. Turn left, walk along the road maybe 200m there's a Muay Thai ring there..if no fights scheduled, check out the tiny kids sparring with adults - awesome.
Hotel near airport - Nai Yang beach club resort. Beautiful quiet beach and 5 mins from airport.
Yes go to Siem Reap, it's a cheap quick direct flight from BKK (not sure if connections PPhuket to BKK to Siem Reap) - sure you have limited time but you can "do" Ankhor in a day...remember - no ticket no temple!
You won't get to know Thailand or Cambodia but you will have a ball and be extremely exhausted at the end of it. Distance within Asia is your friend when it comes to air travel - I've left Phuket at 10pm on a $1 air Asia flight, arrived in Vietnam at midnight, grabbed a few hours sleep in HCMC, done the Cu Chi tunnels, gone back to the airport, flown 40 minutes to Phnom Penh for dinner - HCMC was annoying me.
Have fun whatever you choose and make sure you have dinner in Pub Street in SR. You may even see a Cambodian Boxing match around - worth checking out.
Did 3 days on a LOB with the trip co-run by Giamani crew (Giamani wasn’t available so they arranged for us to be on another boat). The best was our 4 dives at Richelieu. Unbelievably spectacular and prolific sealife. Our heads just swiveled around in all directions trying to take it all in. Whaleshark on 2 of those dives. On one of them we spent 40 minutes with him. He circled us over and over coming so close each time, putting on a breathtaking show, including belly shots. Wonderful pics and videos of that. Will never forget it. Saw the green monster briefly a few times and found it to be fascinating actually.
Both crews were great. Giamani crew is so kind, proficient and efficient. Ricardo is not only interesting and fun, but the most genuine, knowledgeable, safety conscious and intuitive DM we’ve ever encountered. The Chef is extremely talented too I might add! Truly delicious cuisine.
Strong current plus surge at Koh Tachai proved to be too much on the day we went- had to call that one short. Too bad, since from what we did see, it was awesome. Large schools of barracuda and seriously hunting Jacks.
Wish the boat we used wasn’t raining from the inside (not a good look and not alot of sleep). Who knew that could happen on an expensive and highly rated boat - but again the Giamani crew made everything right - wasn’t their boat. Maybe another trip with them again on the Giamani this time - highly recommend them.
Missed the muay thai boxing match but that’s a-ok with me. Market visit and Thai cooking class tomorrow and then off to Ankgor Wat the next morning. Hotels are insanely beautiful- Paresa in Kamala Beach and X2 Khao Lak Anda Mani (only 15 mins from Tab Lamu Pier).
Both crews were great. Giamani crew is so kind, proficient and efficient. Ricardo is not only interesting and fun, but the most genuine, knowledgeable, safety conscious and intuitive DM we’ve ever encountered. The Chef is extremely talented too I might add! Truly delicious cuisine.
Strong current plus surge at Koh Tachai proved to be too much on the day we went- had to call that one short. Too bad, since from what we did see, it was awesome. Large schools of barracuda and seriously hunting Jacks.
Wish the boat we used wasn’t raining from the inside (not a good look and not alot of sleep). Who knew that could happen on an expensive and highly rated boat - but again the Giamani crew made everything right - wasn’t their boat. Maybe another trip with them again on the Giamani this time - highly recommend them.
Missed the muay thai boxing match but that’s a-ok with me. Market visit and Thai cooking class tomorrow and then off to Ankgor Wat the next morning. Hotels are insanely beautiful- Paresa in Kamala Beach and X2 Khao Lak Anda Mani (only 15 mins from Tab Lamu Pier).
stevenl
Contributor
Thanks for the report, good to hear.
And yes, Ricardo is an excellent guide and tourleader, plus a nice guy.
But you're IMO too gentle on Giamani. They organised the leaky boat, and it is their responsibility that boat did not meet standards. They should have known better.
If I charter a boat, that boat is my responsibility.
And yes, Ricardo is an excellent guide and tourleader, plus a nice guy.
But you're IMO too gentle on Giamani. They organised the leaky boat, and it is their responsibility that boat did not meet standards. They should have known better.
If I charter a boat, that boat is my responsibility.
Nope they had no idea - was not disclosed to them. You probably wouldn’t have any idea that this boat would be leaking either, given it’s great reputation. I see it highly recommended all the time by everyone here. I have no doubt it will be fixed and back to it’s former glorious condition soon
stevenl
Contributor
Giamani broke down, I think a generator problem. So they last minute decide to rent another boat, yes a nice one, that has finished for the season already and is just waiting for its annual maintenance. They don't inspect the boat knowing it is not running and even has only a part of the crew available, the rest has left already.
If I rent a boat and that boat is not 100% ok, that is fair and square my responsibility. If Giamani is renting a boat and that boat is not 100% ok that is their responsibility.
The good thing though is that the boat you were on is much more spacious than Giamani is, and even with a few leaks much more comfortable.
If I rent a boat and that boat is not 100% ok, that is fair and square my responsibility. If Giamani is renting a boat and that boat is not 100% ok that is their responsibility.
The good thing though is that the boat you were on is much more spacious than Giamani is, and even with a few leaks much more comfortable.
Yes, the day of, or day before we were ready to make our trip on Giamani, their generator broke down. They still had a back-up generator, but were being responsible by not taking their boat out for our trip. The dive group of unassociated passengers including us, were locked into our departure date at the end of our planned trip, so options for another boat were extremely limited. Giamani offered to just refund us our money at that time. Our group collectively almost begged them to find an alternative boat b/c we had traveled so far. They jumped through hoops to get us on an alternative boat, with the departure date a day later than our originally planned trip. Giamani put us up in a hotel that night at their cost and paid for a very nice dinner for us all. The next morning we were off to sea on the alternative boat. There were loads of staff taking care of everything with the combined crews. Giamani also brought all of the food and bedding materials for the trip. They worked around the clock to get everything prepared in a short time.
You say the alternative boat was just waiting for its annual maintenance. We think the problems on that boat go way deeper than just needing annual maintenance. The ceilings had extensive leaks throughout the boat, some of which weren't apparent until it set off with movement. The dining area ceilings were dropping brown water on the dining table soon after we set off, before the rain even started. This looks to us like it will require extensive repairs, based upon what we saw. The alternative boat had just run a trip a few weeks ago --- check out this review from divezone.net, which explains exactly what we experienced: SY Diva Andaman Liveaboard Review – Phuket, Similan Islands, Surin Islands, Thailand Dive Boat Reviews posted by Farshad Danicek on April 8, 2018. This means they've run their own charters with the deplorable conditions we saw - previous to stopping for the season for maintenance. Also, the alternative boat gave us their own boat briefing when we got on, never mentioning one thing about leaks or roaches, or what to do about them.
You say that the boat we were on is much more comfortable than Giamani even with a few leaks. That is SOOO not the case. We had reserved the Master Suite on the Giamani. We would have been in comparative blissful luxury to be in that cabin, with no filthy water pouring on our bodies and belongings, without roaches crawling everywhere. That was a horrific experience. Running up to the dining room benches to try to lay down for sleep in the middle of the night, only to be rained on with brown water from those ceilings too, wasn't even a workable solution. 2 nights of little sleep because of being soaked with dirty water, and with roaches crawling around in the kitchen, dining room, cabins and bathrooms was unbearable, and we were so grossed out. Giamani did the right thing in cutting the trip even shorter based on those conditions.
Giamani refunded us all for a substantial portion of our trip, in addition to the hotel and dinner costs the night before the trip. And, despite all of the misery the alternative boat caused us, the Giamani crew made a herculean effort to make the trip fun and managed to salvage 9 incredible dives for us. We would venture to say that Giamani made no money whatsoever from our trip, and quite possibly were in "the red" on this one. We're not saying that the owners and crew of the alternative boat were not nice to us in our interactions with them - because they were. And, this was definitely not the alternative boat crew's fault - they were great. If we were the owner of the alternative boat, there's no WAY we would have let any passengers on it in its present condition.
We have absolute trust and respect for the Giamani operation and crew after this experience, and we would unquestionably trust them for a future trip on their boat.
This writing is solely us speaking our opinions (and facts) from our experience - and we don't know what Giamani would say about it -- they maybe would not want us to go into these details on the alternative boat. We wouldn't have wanted to do that either - had we not read the previous post, and felt the need to set the record straight for the 100% responsibility the Giamani took for this trip.
You say the alternative boat was just waiting for its annual maintenance. We think the problems on that boat go way deeper than just needing annual maintenance. The ceilings had extensive leaks throughout the boat, some of which weren't apparent until it set off with movement. The dining area ceilings were dropping brown water on the dining table soon after we set off, before the rain even started. This looks to us like it will require extensive repairs, based upon what we saw. The alternative boat had just run a trip a few weeks ago --- check out this review from divezone.net, which explains exactly what we experienced: SY Diva Andaman Liveaboard Review – Phuket, Similan Islands, Surin Islands, Thailand Dive Boat Reviews posted by Farshad Danicek on April 8, 2018. This means they've run their own charters with the deplorable conditions we saw - previous to stopping for the season for maintenance. Also, the alternative boat gave us their own boat briefing when we got on, never mentioning one thing about leaks or roaches, or what to do about them.
You say that the boat we were on is much more comfortable than Giamani even with a few leaks. That is SOOO not the case. We had reserved the Master Suite on the Giamani. We would have been in comparative blissful luxury to be in that cabin, with no filthy water pouring on our bodies and belongings, without roaches crawling everywhere. That was a horrific experience. Running up to the dining room benches to try to lay down for sleep in the middle of the night, only to be rained on with brown water from those ceilings too, wasn't even a workable solution. 2 nights of little sleep because of being soaked with dirty water, and with roaches crawling around in the kitchen, dining room, cabins and bathrooms was unbearable, and we were so grossed out. Giamani did the right thing in cutting the trip even shorter based on those conditions.
Giamani refunded us all for a substantial portion of our trip, in addition to the hotel and dinner costs the night before the trip. And, despite all of the misery the alternative boat caused us, the Giamani crew made a herculean effort to make the trip fun and managed to salvage 9 incredible dives for us. We would venture to say that Giamani made no money whatsoever from our trip, and quite possibly were in "the red" on this one. We're not saying that the owners and crew of the alternative boat were not nice to us in our interactions with them - because they were. And, this was definitely not the alternative boat crew's fault - they were great. If we were the owner of the alternative boat, there's no WAY we would have let any passengers on it in its present condition.
We have absolute trust and respect for the Giamani operation and crew after this experience, and we would unquestionably trust them for a future trip on their boat.
This writing is solely us speaking our opinions (and facts) from our experience - and we don't know what Giamani would say about it -- they maybe would not want us to go into these details on the alternative boat. We wouldn't have wanted to do that either - had we not read the previous post, and felt the need to set the record straight for the 100% responsibility the Giamani took for this trip.
stevenl
Contributor
Thanks for your review.
Good to hear you are happy with the service provided. Seems like you and I disagree where the responsibility lies, but that's all I will say about this. Main thing is you are happy with the way the Giamani organisation handled it.
Good to hear you are happy with the service provided. Seems like you and I disagree where the responsibility lies, but that's all I will say about this. Main thing is you are happy with the way the Giamani organisation handled it.
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