Diving in Thailand

---

Younger tourists will enjoy the island of Phi Phi, called Koh Phi Phi. You must take a water taxi from Krabi or Phuket to get to Phi Phi. This island has no cars, only carts and very narrow streets. The town is a walking destination, so when booking a room, make sure it is in the town. There are several first class resorts on Phi Phi but most are not in town, so the decision to stay in one of these places means you will be staying in the resort for your whole visit. There are nice villas and hotels right in the town and for the backpackers there are hostels that rent rooms for as little as $15 per night. Phi Phi is an authentic party destination that looks like spring break all year round. It is not the best destination for older travelers and families. There are hundreds of shops and restaurants and bars, all within an area perhaps one-kilometer square. The streets go this way and that without much of a grid. But it’s difficult to get too lost because all roads lead to the beach.



In this small shopping area there are twenty or thirty dive shops. Phi Phi is a very serious dive destination with some of the most beautiful reefs in the world. The diving is easy, generally in less than fifty feet of water, with little or no current, and usually excellent visibility. On my dives I saw many things I had never seen in previous dives. I saw clown fish, which do not appear in the Atlantic or Caribbean. I also saw my first leopard shark in the wild. There are giant clams, beautiful anemone, turtles, and healthy corals of many types. Also I want to mention that the dive operation I used, Island Divers, is first class. All the dive masters are English-speaking; either Australian, British or American. Language was no barrier at all which, when doing something as serious as scuba diving, has to be communicated precisely. They believe in safety first. There were never more than five divers per dive master and the preparation talks for the dives were excellent. These dives are even appropriate for resort divers of which there were many. I took a two-tank dive that had a two-hour surface interval for lunch and a visit to Ma Ya Beach, where the movie The Beach was filmed. When we returned to the dive shop at the conclusion of our dives there was a debriefing where the dive master gave a talk to his clients giving them the statistics for their dives for their dive logs. I had never seen this done and the divers who kept logs embraced it enthusiastically.

---