One word: Awesome.
did 10 dives over 4 days, which included my AOW.
The island truly is ready and practically rebuilt enough to accomodate almost everyone. Heaps & heaps of dive shops.. We went with Viking Divers - great bunch of people and highly recommended.
There are parts that are still being rebuilt, but the week we were there (31/01-05/02) there was walk in accomodation everywhere, and touts at the ferry asking for your business. Avg was about 1200-1400 baht a night for A/C & hot water. 3 weeks before that I was told that accomodation was pretty full up. Plenty of restaurants, bars, tour shops, etc.
I think I spotted 3 different banks with ATM's available, so no need to load up on dosh at Phuket.
All the dive shops have the (agreed) same price for everything so there is no competition, just go who you feel comfortable with.
Water was a constant 28C - I heard a lot of people say before hand I wouldn't need a wetsuit, but I took my 5mm suit along anyway. All the divemasters/instructers were wearing the same thing. I was completely comfortable the whole time and did not get hot at all.
Dived in order King Cruiser/Shark Point/Anemone Reef, Bida Nok, tonsai bay "bungalow" night and Ko Ha.
Highlight was definitely Ko Ha (where we ran into a 4-5m whale shark with a 2m cobia circling it. Visability was approx 30-35m. Amazing and lucky considering we were supposed to go to Hin Daeng the same day but couldn't get enough people for the boat (incidently, visibilty was very poor that same day from reports). Our AOW instructor couldn't make it that day because he had to do a visa run - he was devasted because he had only seen 3 before in over 300 dives in the area.
King Cruiser was a great wreck to dive with plently of Lion fish about. No sharks at Shark Point
plus current was too strong to venture past protected the east( I think) side. 10m vis at all sites
Bida Nok is my second fav site of all time (after Ko Ha). Did it twice - first with Deep, then a fun dive on the other side. Saw a black tip reef shark and a huge Leopard shark sitting down at about 26m. Basically a big circular wall that starts at about 25m that you just slowly swim around and up until you reach 50bar. vis about 15m
The bungalow is a relic from the tsunami.. was right in the middle of the forshore, but they towed it out towards the western side of the bay. Not real interesting, but for our first night dive it was nice & easy.
In all, I was very hesitant with going to Phi Phi for a diving holiday considering the disaster of a year ago, especially with the lack of concrete info out on the web. As you can see I was pleasantly surpised and highly recommend it to everyone!
did 10 dives over 4 days, which included my AOW.
The island truly is ready and practically rebuilt enough to accomodate almost everyone. Heaps & heaps of dive shops.. We went with Viking Divers - great bunch of people and highly recommended.
There are parts that are still being rebuilt, but the week we were there (31/01-05/02) there was walk in accomodation everywhere, and touts at the ferry asking for your business. Avg was about 1200-1400 baht a night for A/C & hot water. 3 weeks before that I was told that accomodation was pretty full up. Plenty of restaurants, bars, tour shops, etc.
I think I spotted 3 different banks with ATM's available, so no need to load up on dosh at Phuket.
All the dive shops have the (agreed) same price for everything so there is no competition, just go who you feel comfortable with.
Water was a constant 28C - I heard a lot of people say before hand I wouldn't need a wetsuit, but I took my 5mm suit along anyway. All the divemasters/instructers were wearing the same thing. I was completely comfortable the whole time and did not get hot at all.
Dived in order King Cruiser/Shark Point/Anemone Reef, Bida Nok, tonsai bay "bungalow" night and Ko Ha.
Highlight was definitely Ko Ha (where we ran into a 4-5m whale shark with a 2m cobia circling it. Visability was approx 30-35m. Amazing and lucky considering we were supposed to go to Hin Daeng the same day but couldn't get enough people for the boat (incidently, visibilty was very poor that same day from reports). Our AOW instructor couldn't make it that day because he had to do a visa run - he was devasted because he had only seen 3 before in over 300 dives in the area.
King Cruiser was a great wreck to dive with plently of Lion fish about. No sharks at Shark Point
plus current was too strong to venture past protected the east( I think) side. 10m vis at all sitesBida Nok is my second fav site of all time (after Ko Ha). Did it twice - first with Deep, then a fun dive on the other side. Saw a black tip reef shark and a huge Leopard shark sitting down at about 26m. Basically a big circular wall that starts at about 25m that you just slowly swim around and up until you reach 50bar. vis about 15m
The bungalow is a relic from the tsunami.. was right in the middle of the forshore, but they towed it out towards the western side of the bay. Not real interesting, but for our first night dive it was nice & easy.
In all, I was very hesitant with going to Phi Phi for a diving holiday considering the disaster of a year ago, especially with the lack of concrete info out on the web. As you can see I was pleasantly surpised and highly recommend it to everyone!
