Diving in Thailand

no I m not angry. I just thought it was funny you should assume another persons opinion.

This man who is going on holiday doesn t care if youre the 1st or even the maker of the boat.

He wants an unbiased opinion to have a great holiday, and at the end of the day even if you spend a million pound you can t garuntee you a brilliant dive.

bon voyage et bon chance

Yes, he wants a great holiday and a nice liveaboard experience. So in early January I would not recommend one of the South Siam boats, but rather one of the other boats the OP is looking at, with not too many divers, no daytrip guests, not the same program every few days, minimum of 4 days to go relaxed to Richelieu Rock, etc.

Amen!

Thanks, everyone for this helpful thread, and to Andy for starting it!

My boyfriend and I are looking for a (4-5 day) Similan liveaboard for late November/ early December. I think we'd prefer to go out of Ranong/ Ko Chang or Khao Lak and avoid Phuket altogether (and hoping to avoid 'party' boats, too!).

It seems that no air-conditioning is what separates the cheaper boats from the others? Sleeping on deck sounds nice (am I over-romanticising this?!) and I read that November is the 'coolest' month - would it be very uncomfortable without air-con? Is it worth spending the extra? We'll be stepping straight out of the UK November winter!

I had also wondered about the routes these boats take - there are so many that surely some of the sites become crowded with boats and divers?

Has anyone had experience with Aladdin who operate from Ko Chang? Or with Sea Dragon who seem to run both air-con and no air-con boats, pointing out that no air-con means night-time peace and quiet with no generator.

Recommendations gratefully received - don't want to hijack, but it seems unnecessary to begin a new thread!
Many thanks.

And I'm in nearly the same position but hoping to dive in April. It's mainly about the diving for us, but we'd like to steer clear of the day-trippers & party animals if possible & we have a slight preference for smaller boats.

We've had Mermaid II & Pawara (newer?) recommended, but I was wondering about the different itineraries. Pawara does 6 days around the Similans & Richelieu whereas 6 days on Mermaid II is made up of 4 Similans-Richelieu followed by 2 around Phi Phi & Hin Daeng.

I'd be really grateful for any views on these boats (for example, is all air conditioning equally effective?) but mostly for opinions on whether or not it's better to spend an extra 2 days in the Similans or to head South to Phi Phi. I've heard that all of the diving is good, but is the extra variety of visiting more places worth the extra sailing time? (Both trips offer 22 dives in 6 days.)

Thanks!

hiya,

have just paid a deposit on a liveaboard in december with Sunrise Divers on White Manta. Just wanted to get some independent confirmation before we pay the rest - can anyone else confirm that these guys are legit? Everything looks perfectly fine, but I prefer to get some sort of cross-confirmation before forking out large sums of money over the internet to people overseas.. No offense Jamie!

Had the same qualms last year before going to Sipadan with Kapalai dive resort - in the end was a fantastic trip and an awesome place! But can't be too careful..

Finally can anyone explain the relationship between the boats and the operators? E.g. you can book White Manta through any of several operators - same dates, e.g. thailand-scuba, sunrise divers, and several others as well as www.whitemanta.com. What's the deal?

thanks
Martin