Lads trip to Thailand

[DORSETBOY]

:dazzler1:

first and foremost, by 'lads trip to thailand' I dont mean sleaze!

situation is that there's four of us going over there on 13th Jan, we're looking to dive in the following locations and for recommendations of non-diving cultural things we can do whilst there.

Bangkok (no diving here, this is where we're flying too!)
Koh Samui
Koh Phang nan
Koh Tao
Surrathani / Chumphon (not sure which, depends on which ferry we take from Koh Tao)
Phuket

what we're looking to do is a lot of island hopping for the first week then a liveaboard in the Similans, ideally roughly 2 weeks in total for the whole trip.

 

[stevenl]

Here on Phuket: go to Phuket Phantasea, and make a trip around the island, either by rented car or organised.
For the diving: if I were you and if possible with your planning, I would include Hin Daeng and Hin Muang in the liveaboard. The standard Similan trip is 4 days, combine it with Hin Daeng etc. and you should have 6 days of lovely diving. The diving at Hin Daeng is excellent, big life (mantas, sharks, etc.) and small life as well (sea moths, ghost pipe fish, etc.), and it is not as well known as the Similans, so relatively quiet.
Check out www.thailand-scuba.com for more info on the boats and divesites.

 

[DORSETBOY]

cheers Steven, thanks again for the info Hin Daeng sounds very interesting. I really cant wait to get back to thailand and Im hoping to do as much as I can in the short space of time I'll be there (I will even go easy on the thai whisky this time!)

 

[DORSETBOY]

Anyone tried the internal filghts? Last time I was there was on a budget so took coaches nad trains everywhere, my timescale will be more important this time. Are the standards pretty good? what are the prices like?

 

[Jonathan]

Anyone tried the internal filghts?

not sure it counts - I went on the Thai flight from Phuket to Bangkok and it was a standard international flight. In fact from Japan it goes in a circle (or should that be triangle) Narita-Phuket-Bangkok-Narita - the internal bit cost me next to nothing and that was business class, then that was the route I wanted anyway...

Can't be worse than Continental through micronesia!!! The most expensive flight (for not micronesians) and lowest maintained....

 

[whitehead]

Internal flights are fine - just stick to Thai and Bangkok Airways though. We have ar ash of low cost airlines now but there are some horror stories about scheduling and timing - the worst I have heard was an 8 hour delay on a Chiang Mai flight - they were waiting until enough passengers showed up to make their breakeven cost.

Looking at your itinery you will only be flying BKK-Samui and Phuket-BKK (you can fly from Chumpon-Phuket on Angel Air but not really worth it IMHO) and flights are excellent as well as plenty on these routes (i.e. hourly)

 

[Kim]

You'll lose a days diving everytime you want to fly though - will that really save time?

 

[stevenl]

All my guests and people I have talked to have good experiences with air aisa. No service at all, but cheap and reliable.

 

[DORSETBOY]

You'll lose a days diving everytime you want to fly though - will that really save time?

what we're going to try and do is time it so that with ferry / coach connections prior to flights we get a 24hr rest period prior to flying. I dont mind spending half a day for example on the beach to make up time. My computer will let me fly sooner but I'd rahter not take any risks.

 

[clive francis]

:dazzler1:

first and foremost, by 'lads trip to thailand' I dont mean sleaze!

situation is that there's four of us going over there on 13th Jan, we're looking to dive in the following locations and for recommendations of non-diving cultural things we can do whilst there.

Bangkok (no diving here, this is where we're flying too!)
Koh Samui
Koh Phang nan
Koh Tao
Surrathani / Chumphon (not sure which, depends on which ferry we take from Koh Tao)
Phuket

what we're looking to do is a lot of island hopping for the first week then a liveaboard in the Similans, ideally roughly 2 weeks in total for the whole trip.

these are all in the gulf of thailand, if i am correct, that is their monsoon season, dive the andaman side in stead (phuket)