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Published: March 28th 2009
Finally, a nice easy journey! Getting from Koh Pha-Ngan to Koh Tao on the 20th March was just a short ferry trip and yet again we were innundated with touts trying to get us to stay at their resorts throughout the journey. Although we were instantly suspicious of these guys they do generally seem to have decent deals and it appears that this is the accepted way to get business if your resort is not one of the first you stumble across from the pier. The competition between touts also looks to keep prices reasonable.
Koh Tao (literaly translated as Turtle Island) is famous for its scuba diving and snorkelling and is apparantely listed in the top 10 dive sites in the world. As a result, a lot of the resorts have resident dive companies within the complex and we arranged a deal for a reduced room rate by booking onto a 2,000 baht (40 pound) dive at a place called Coral Grand Resort with a friendly tout on the ferry. When we got there and spoke to the guys in the dive centre we were told that they were planning a special trip out on the 23rd that they
only do every once in a while as a special event. Usually you either go on an advanced dive (which we are not yet quailified for) in the morning or a basic dive (which we are qualified for) in the afternoon. However, on the 23rd they were booking a day long trip to a site called Sail Rock which is much further out to sea so usually beyond their reach on a half day trip. All of the dive masters in the centre were pretty hyped up about it and promised us it would be something special. Of course, it was more expensive than the dive we had agreed on with the tout on the ferry but seeing as it was a whole day trip and would involve 3 dives instead of the usual 2 per trip, plus a free lunch, we thought the extra was worth it.
First however, we had a couple of days to kill. As we had splashed out on the dive we had to draw in the pursestrings for the first coupe of days but as the resort had a nice pool and restaurant, and looked out over yet another spectacular beach it wasn't
exactly a hardship to laze around doing very little. In the evenings we explored the local town of Sai Ree and found countless gorgeous restaurants to eat in. Koh Tao is the smallest of the three frequently visited islands off the south east coast of Thailand (along with Koh Samui and Koh Pha-Ngan) and is also a contender for the prettiest. It's less developed than Koh Samui and less party-orientated than Koh Pha-Ngan and we found that it had a lovely atmosphere with backpackers mixing well with tourists on expensive fortnight diving holidays. The restaurants and bars also reflected this and we ate some fantastic food, albeit at a slightly higher price than we've been used to. There was also a small festival on the 21st and 22nd March called the Koh Tao Underwater Festival. All profits went to environmental groups who are dedicated to keeping Koh Tao clean and full of the rich marine life that it has become famous for. The money also goes towards sending groups of divers out to clean the beaches, sea and corals once a year to collect any rubbish that has built up. We dropped in and bought some of the local food
and drinks and also got ourselves a funky beach bag with "save paradise" written across the front for 90 baht (just under 2 pounds). Seeing as Koh Tao is stunning it seemed a small price to pay to help such a good cause. There were also local bands playing slightly dodgy cover versions of Thai pop songs and Bob Marley tunes which was good fun.
When the 23rd came round we excitedly rocked up to the dive centre to pick up our kit and board the boat. We settled in for the journey out to Sail Rock and got talking to a Hungarian guy called Mickey who runs his own dive centre in Croatia and comes to Thailand in the Croatian off-season to film dives and sell DVDs of the footage. We said that we'd be interested in him filming us and so he said he'd come on our dives and record them for 2,500 baht (50 pounds). There were a number of groups diving on the trip, all with varying abilities who would be going to different areas around Sail Rock based on their experience and qualifications and Amy and I were paired with an Austrian guy called
Markus who was also newly qualified. The three of us would be taken down on a simple route around Sail Rock with an English dive master called Alex and Mickey would follow us filming. As Mickey is an experienced diver it was handy having both him and Alex to talk to as we set up our equipment and planned the dive.
As we neared Sail Rock Alex took Amy, Markus and I to the front of the boat for a briefing and to go through the plan for the first dive. Sail Rock is a rock pinnacle shaped like an iceberg that emerges from the seabed 40 metres below surface and rises to 15 metres above the surface. At 6 metres down there is an entrance to a vertical swimthrough or chimney, formed within the rock and swarming with coral. The chimney continues down until 18 metres where you swim back into open water. The plan for the dive was to decsend to around 4 metres, swim around the rock watching the fish and coral and then find the chimney entrance. We'd then swim through, exit at 18 metres (the deepest our qualifications allows us to descend) and explore
the area around the chimney exit before slowly heading back to the surface.
As this was now our fifth dive and we didn't have to practise any skills, both Amy and I were a lot more relaxed than we had been while diving in Perhentian Kecil. We slowly decended to 4 metres with the group and were immediately stunned by the amount of coral and fish around the rock. We saw barracudas, giant moray eels, enormous grouper fish the size of large dogs, angel fish, butterfly fish, bat fish, titan trigger fish, long finned banner fish and even a distant tuna. Google them to see quite how gorgeous some of them are. We were excitedly signing to each other to look here, there and everywhere and there must have been much more stuff that we missed simply because we were busy gawping at something else. When we found the chimney entrance and slowly swam through it was a bizarre but utterly amazing experience and exiting back out into open water was strangely exhilarating. Having been enclosed in rock and then finding yourself in a vast expanse of ocean was something I don't think either of us will ever forget.
After lunch, the second dive followed the same route but in reverse, descending to 18 metres, swimming around the rock and then up through the chimney, exiting at 6 metres and circling the rock near the surface.
For the third dive we stopped off at a dive site called South West Pinnacle on the way back to shore. Even though everybody had raved about Sail Rock, SW was actually just as cool, although sadly without a chimney swimthrough. The fish and coral were just as colourful and varied and we even got treated to the sight of a titan trigger fish attack. When learning to dive in Perhentian Kecil we had been warned the only fish we really needed to watch out for was the titan trigger fish. Everything else should leave you alone as long as you leave it alone. Titan trigger fish are mostly dark blue with a yellow face and lines across their bodies and are fairly easy to spot. They can reach up to 3 feet long and are known to be aggressive around the mating season as they protect their patch. Typically, we're smack in the middle of mating season now. We had seen
Buddha's seat
The ribbons on the front of the boat are off limits to all passengers as they are where Buddha sits. I have to confess we didn't see him while we were on the boat but he may have been diving.a few on some of our dives already but always kept our distance. On the SW dive we had been under for only a few minutes when Alex spotted one and turned to us to signal trigger fish by forming the classic shape of a gun with his fingers. We all signalled that we understood and kept our distance but Alex swam closer to it for a better look. "All yours mate" we thought and stayed where we were! Trigger fish eat coral which is as tough as rock so they could easily chew through a soft finger and both Amy and I quite like having ten fingers. As Alex got closer it looked at him then darted towards him in attack. He managed to back off but it came for him again, snapping at him as he retreated. He got away and swam back to us and safety, looking a little shaken but it was great viewing for us! Mickey even got some of the attack on tape. Another beautiful moment in SW was nearer the end of the dive when we rounded a corned and were confronted with a gargantuan shoal of fusillier fish. There were so many
of them that they actually obscured the huge rocks from view and seemed to cloud the whole ocean. Even though fusillier fish are slightly less interesting and smaller than a lot of the fish we had already see the sheer number of them made the sighting one of my favourite moments of the day. We watched the shoal pass for a good few minutes and then continued before heading back to the boat, utterly stunned with an incredible day of diving. When we got back on the boat even the dive masters were saying they had rarely seen dives as good as that and were grinning from ear to ear. These are guys who have done thousands of dives between them so we agreed that we'd done alright for our 5th, 6th and 7th dives.
We met Mickey the next day at our resort after he had edited the footage together overnight. We watched the film on the tv in the bar and it was utterly fantastic. It's around 25 minutes long and has been edited with some cool effects and music. He was also kind enough to edit a shorter version for us so that we could upload
it onto youtube to show you guys. So here is the link:
The longer version is even more stunning. Mickey was a top bloke and a fantastic dive buddy so if anybody is ever heading to Croatia, do drop him a line (email address at the end of the video) and take a dive with him.
We were so chuffed with the dive that we have both agreed to do our advanced course the next time we have a bit of spare cash and are in a good diving spot. There are some nice beaches in Vietnam and Cambodia so will investigate there. If they are no good, we will try and find somewhere reasonable to do the course in Australia. Having our advanced certificate will qualify us to navigate by ourselves underwater, go as deep as 30 metres and visit some dive sites we would otherwise not be able to. Let us know if you have visited a good dive centre that you recommend!
Gotta sign off now, will write a little more about our adventures in Koh Tao next time I get a moment. Until then!
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Uncle Chris
non-member comment
Nice Dive :o)
Watched the clip and turned a little green. Well done the pair of you on getting Open Water ticket. You asked about dive centres. There's a good one in Manly, where Andy is - the Manly Dive Centre. No idea what their training is like but their dive guides are pretty decent. If you get to North Queensland, I went on a day trip out to the reef with Poseidon which was great (from Port Douglas). Again, no idea about their training. Enjoy.