Advice re: M/Y Flying Seahorse diving south Thailand from Koh Lanta

[Kbhandari90]

Hello everyone, I am new to these forums, looking for some advice on where to dive in the southern Andaman Sea in Thailand.
I am looking at diving out of Koh Lanta on a 7 day liveaboard trip in March and we have a choice of two itineraries. One of them heads down South, diving Ko Phi Phi first and heading down as far as Ko Lipe, also doing Hin Daeng and Hin Muang en route.

The other itinerary I have a choice with is with the Andaman Deep Andaman Queen, based out of Phuket which covers the Similan Islands, Surin, Richelieu Rock and goes over the border to Myanmar to dive Burma Bank and Mergui marine park. This is considerably more expensive (twice the price) than the first option but we would travel further and get to dive in two countries this way.

In terms of the diving I like, I mainly want to see big things like mantas, turtles, sharks and other big fish. I like to see lots of small things too but I don't want an entire week of only mainly seeing macro things and not enough of the larger creatures. I haven't dived Thailand before so this is all going to be a completely new experience. I am a very experienced PADI Divemaster with over 450 logged dives in a variety of diving conditions, including wrecks and drifting.

Of the two itineraries, which one do you think would represent the best-value diving for me?

 

[stevenl]

First of all, Deep Andaman Queen is by far the better and more comfortable boat of the 2. Secondly, for what you're looking for the North trip is better, especially the Burma part of the trip. Hin Daeng and Hin Muang though have been seeing their fair share of manta's and whalesharks these last years and also the diving on tyhe other southern sites has been really good.

 

[MikkelBC]

One thing to be aware of with the Flying Seahorse is their limitations on Nitrox. This may or may not be important to you:
- They state that the mix is only 28-30% oxygen. I have seen a reviewer stating that he sometimes got only 26%. On other boats, "Nitrox" normally means 32% oxygen implicitly.
- When I asked them about a year ago by email, they refused to fill 15L tanks with Nitrox. Even for an extra fee it is not possible. They cited difficulty in getting big oxygen tanks on Koh Lanta.
- They have a disclaimer on the website saying that even though free Nitrox is offered as part of the package, there will be no refunds if their Nitrox equipment is defective or if they couldn't get oxygen on Koh Lanta. According to a review I read, this sometimes happens, and then there will be no Nitrox.

"* Free Nitrox on Board Flying Seahorse 28 to 30% Oxygen If the big Oxygen Tanks are not available on our island or the Nitrox System fails there is no refund! All divers will dive with normal pressed air in the tanks."

Like I said, depending on how important Nitrox is to you, this may or may not matter to you.

Mikkel

 

[kassj0peja]

I have done most of my diving in the Andaman Sea and would do either a short southern Mergui trip from Ranong or an even shorter one to Hing Muang/Daeng + Ko Haa from Ko Lanta.
Richilieu Rock i enjoyed most on 2d1n trip from Kuraburi or Ko Phra Thong. I am not the biggest fan of liveabord diving though and I did not have nice dives at Black Rock (supposedly besides Western Rocky the best dive site in Myanmar) and the Similan Islands are not that spectacular under water in my opinion.