Diving in Koh Tao, Thailand lat10.09561 long99.840396
From Myanmar our journey took us to Thailand. It was not only the cheapest destination flight-wise but we were also supposed to meet Romain’s parents for New Year’s.
From Yangon, it took us 16 hours which we spent taking a cab, a flight, another flight, a bus and a ferry we finally arrived in Koh Samui where we spent a couple of days with Romain’s great cousins. They have a beautiful house and we had a great time but unfortunately the monsoon started very late this season so that more than once we were trapped and couldn’t leave the house.
We still got the chance to visit the island. Strolling through Lamai, having drinks at the Sunday Night Market, taking in the sun at one of the many beaches and visiting the few beautiful temples were some of our favourites. Our insider tip : visit the rum factory! They’ve got excellent local rum and make amazing mojitos!
In fact, Koh Samui is known for the unbelievable number of expats that live there. It does, at times, feel more like the south of France than Thailand which can be disturbing (it was for us in the beginning). French restaurants, French bars, French travel agencies and French people. EVERYWHERE. It was Europe with a lot of Pad Thai.
It is a beautiful place, very exotic and you can definitely see a bit of culture but don’t expect to get to know Thailand when visiting Koh Samui. We had a wonderful time there but it is difficult to escape the masses of tourists - and expats for that matter. Although it was great to go to the restaurant and order in French, to have snails on the menu and find French wine basically everywhere, it is not what we are looking for when travelling to foreign countries.
It is paradise and there is no explanation needed to why so many foreigners decide to live there but if you want a down to earth Thai experience, this might not be the right place for you.
They do offer diving excursions on Koh Samui as well but all dive sites are about 3 hours away around Koh Tao so the prices are incredibly inflated.
There is a ferry service that leaves from Nathon and takes around 3 hours to reach Koh Tao. Koh Tao is a tiny island located about 80 km northeast of Koh Samui and all can do there is diving.
We absolutely wanted to pass our Open Water Diver and after researching our options - and you’ve got a lot of options when it comes to diving in South East Asia - we figured that Koh Tao would probably be one of the cheapest places while still having stunning marine life. Finding your dive school can be of some difficulty because there are hundreds. From tiny dive shops to entire resorts there is everything. And they won’t vary much in price either.
So how do you choose the perfect dive school?
We’ve got no idea. By chance, we ran into a Belgian guy in Myanmar who lived in Thailand (how random is that?) and he recommended us Big Blue Diving. After some more research of our own, we were convinced. Big Blue is one of the biggest dive schools on the island and while you can certainly find courses that are a bit cheaper, there are a lot of services included. For once, you get free accommodation for the duration of your course, you don’t have to buy or rent any study material or dive equipment and you get 10% discounts on any dive after completing the course. Also, they certify thousands of people each year and have actually been running for more than 25 years which should assure you that they know what they’re doing.
The Open Water Course cost us 9 800 Bath (260 € or so) per person including accommodation, equipment, instructor, snacks and drinks on the boat in between dives, transfer from and to the ferry and an unforgettable experience.
Going into detail about the course itself is unnecessary as hundreds of blogs have already done that. A quick trip to Google will tell you all there is to know but if you still have any questions or concerns drop us a message via email via the Contact tab below) or on Facebook and we’ll be happy to spill the beans on how it’s going down exactly.
If you want a brief summary : there is a day of theory, a day in the swimming pool where you get used to the equipment and do some simple tasks and then you go diving for two days straight (usually you do 4 or 5 dives). You also have to pass a written exam but it’s a joke so don’t freak out.
Romain was a bit anxious before the very first dive but he ended up absolutely loving it! After "graduating" our certification, we celebrated with a few drinks with our team mates and instructor! It was a great way to end this 3 day course (more or less). We ended up buying the video from the dives and Zak, the videographer, gave us permission to post some pictures of his video.
After that 3 day trip to Koh Tao, we went back to Koh Samui to spend Christmas with Romain’s great cousins. It was great to spend the Holidays with them and their friends but also weird to be away from Home (and to be wearing shorts).
We absolutely loved diving and decided to pass the second certification - the Advanced Open Water. Unfortunately, we were very unlucky in terms of visibility (only had 3 - 5m) but it was still an incredible experience. Diving into this other world that is literally just below our feet. Seeing a part of the world that is - and hopefully will always be - untouched and unharmed was such a beautiful experience. In February we’ll be back at Big Blue to practice some more and hopefully we’ll get to see a whale shark!
