Southeast Asia Backpacking Jan.-April 2018

Thailand: Koh Tao scuba diving

20 March at sea from Surat Thani to Koh Phangan
On a fine sunny day I caught a Grab taxi back to Langkawi Island’s ferry pier, got some breakfast snacks at 7-11, visited a money changer to convert the remaining Malaysian ringgits to Thai baht, then got in a long line for immigration. At about 9:30 a.m. the boat motored out on a smooth sea, passing many small jungle-covered islands on a journey that lasted 75 minutes and cost RM35. Although I had a window seat, the window was too high and heavily tinted to see out well, and there’s no outside deck to watch the scenery go by, which misses the scenic potential of taking boats here.
 
Thai immigration gave me the hoped-for 30 days, which will take me to April 18th, the day I fly back to the U.S.A. Travel agency touts tried to rope me into buying minibus tickets from them for the trip to Surat Thani, but their 800B asking price seemed high, though it soon dropped to 600B. I decided to arrange things myself and got in the back of a songtaew (pickup truck) for a 50B ride to Satun’s bus station, where I bought a 120B minibus ticket to Trang, and on arrival there a 160B minibus ticket to Surat Thani. The minibuses were comfortable enough and I only had to wait about half an hour for each of them. Rubber tree and palm oil plantations cover much of the landscape here in Thailand’s far south, just as they do in nearby Malaysia. Sheer limestone mountains rise here and there, and signs advertise caves to visit.
 
In Surat Thani I walked down to the river pier where night boats hang out, but sadly berths on the boat to Koh Tao had sold out. My plan had been to arrive at the island in time for an afternoon pair of scuba dives, but now that looked uncertain. So I got a ticket on the boat to Koh Phangan (400B)—the island just south of Koh Tao—with plans to catch a boat onward to Koh Tao in the morning. My night boat didn’t depart until 11 p.m., so I had plenty of time for dinner and headed across the street to Milano Pizzeria for a very tasty thin-crust pizza. The wooden night boat has two levels, the lower for cargo such as bags of vegetables, car tires, and whatever else islanders need. The upper level contains two long rows of mattresses and pillows, but no frills such as blankets or air-conditioning. The night air turned out to be a very comfortable temperature, though, and seas calm.
 
21 March Sairee Beach, Koh Tao
My boat pulled in at Koh Phangan about 5:30 a.m., just as the first sign of dawn appeared. The 24-hour 7-11 had breakfast fixings, then when a restaurant opened, I had time for a greasy omelet followed by writing and internet surfing. Three companies offer ferry connections among the islands here, and I like Seatran Discovery the most. The 8:30 a.m. boat to Koh Tao (400 baht) came in a bit late, but I had a pleasant 1.5-hour ride sitting on the covered upper deck and enjoying the views.
 
I’ve been going underwater with New Way Diving https://www.newwaydiving.com/ since 2006 when I got recertified with PADI, and have been back most years since. The diving around Koh Tao is good and extremely good value. One of the staff kindly picked me up at the pier for the drive north to Sairee Beach. Luckily I had time for signing the liability release form and get on the afternoon dives. I also checked into to nearby U&I Place, reserved through Booking.com for six nights at 790 baht/night (US $25.50). The room was advertised as with air-conditioning, which I thought a misprint at this price, but turned out to be true!
 
By 12:33 I was in the water for a Red Rock Drop-off. We got off the boat at Red Rock, a barely submerged pinnacle, swam underwater to the nearby small island of Nang Yuan, then followed its underwater shore around to Japanese Gardens, a popular snorkeling spot. It’s one of my favorite dives and includes a cave formed of giant granite boulders that we swim through. We saw the usual incredible diversity of colorful life along the way, including a Jenkins whipray, school of long-faced emperor fish, and the sometimes feisty titan triggerfish. It’s mating and nesting season now for the titan triggerfish, and they sometimes chase away and even try to bite divers who come to close. We gave wide berth to the fish and had no problems. Koh Tao has many corals, most with descriptive names such as solid table, bushy tale, leather, brain, staghorn, mushroom, boulder, and funnel. Soft corals hang out too, such as the well-named bubble. Colorful fish surround us, such as blue-ringed angel fish, longfin banner fish, parrot fish, squirrel fish, and sergeant major (they’ve got their stripes!) fish. It’s worth looking for small critters, and we saw a brown-banded pipefish, which looks like a seahorse and is in the same family, but its body is straight, not curved. Although small, one cannot miss the colorful Christmas tree worms! These underwater creatures each have two feather-like spiral structures used for filter feeding and respiration, but if something comes close, the worm retracts these in a flash. Why they come in so many colors is a mystery to me. Some are bright monochrome reds, blues, yellows, or even white, while others have multi-colored structures.
 
Water temperature was a comfy 29° C (84.2° F), though I wore a ‘shorty’ wetsuit for a bit of extra warmth. Visibility was OK at 8-10 meters. We went down 19 meters, then spent much of the 59-minute dive at shallower depths where the sunshine brought out the many bright colors of sea life around us.
 
After the dive we took a break of about an hour and a half before our next dive, at the underwater pinnacles called ‘Twins.’ We saw many of the same sea life as on the earlier dive, but also a blue-spotted ribbontail ray, which lay in a crevice for protection. A blotched porcupine fish swam slowly and ungainly, protected by spines which protrude when the fish inflates by swallowing water; and if that’s not enough to deter predators, and powerful neurotoxin in its body organs will. A toothy white-eyed moray eel hung about on the bottom. A scribbled filefish motored by, powered not by its tail but by its undulating fins. In the small-critters-department, we saw a Durban dancing shrimp, which has a red and white pattern.
 
Back on land, I filled out my logbook with help of the divemaster Emma, then I headed to the Shalimar Indian Restaurant for a good vegetable thali that includes a samosa along with a mango lassi and small pot masala tea.
 
22 March Sairee Beach, Koh Tao
Of the dive sites near Koh Tao, Chumpon Pinnacle has the reputation for the biggest and most fish, but it can get crowded with divers in the morning, when most people go. So when New Way Diving offered an afternoon trip, I jumped at the chance. In the water we saw lots of giant grouper, most sitting quietly waiting for a meal to swim by. Sleek and silvery trevally, a predatory fish and member of the jack family, swam about. And we saw a great variety of other fish including chevron barracuda, queen fish, rainbow runner, and titan triggerfish. This is one of the deeper dive sites of Koh Tao, and we went down as far as 25.3 meters with 40 minutes underwater.
 
A bit more than an hour later just myself and divemaster Emma followed a buoy line down to the 28.8-meter bottom near Sattakut Wreck, a 48-meter U.S. Navy landing craft launched in 1944 that saw action in the Pacific at Iwo Jima and other locations, receiving three battlestars for service during World War II. Afterward it saw a long service in the Thai Navy before being purposely sunk here as a dive site in 2011. Unfortunately today the site had a spooky visibility of just two meters, so not much to see. After swimming past the bow gun, we headed to nearby Hin Pee Wee, a shallow-water dive site full of life. Besides the usual fish, we saw a pair of highly camouflaged bearded scorpion fish; they are suction feeders that lie in wait for an unsuspecting victim to swim near. As their name suggests, they are neither pretty nor cuddly, having venomous spines. We were in the water 47 minutes. For dinner I went back to Shalimar for a palak paneer, which chefs there do very well.
 
23 March Sairee Beach, Koh Tao
Up early this morning, I joined divers for a trip out to Sail Rock, a pinnacle that rises high out of the water between Koh Tao and Koh Phangan. It’s considered the best diving of the area, but takes two hours of motoring in the former fishing vessels that most dive companies use. Unfortunately our little wooden boat had to go against big rolling swells, and after nearly two hours of that I became very seasick despite taking a Dramamine tablet earlier, but the sickness soon passed. We jumped into the 27° C water at 8 a.m., then descended through a ‘chimney,’ a spacious vertical swim-through, and exited it in deeper waters. At times big-eye trevally swam overhead in a school so dense that it darkened the sky. Chevron barracuda also circled about in big schools. Other sizeable fish included yellow-tail barracuda, queenfish, rainbow runner, batfish, titan triggerfish, and giant grouper. The underwater vertical rock faces of Sail Rock provided habitats for many kinds of life, including both hard and soft corals. Leo from Italy led the dive, which went down as far as 23.8 meters and lasted 48 minutes. A thermocline about 17 meters down divided murky green water below and the warm water above, which had a 15-meter visibility.
 
We had anchored in the lee of Sail Rock, which reduced the waves, and took a 59-minute break before jumping in again. Nevertheless, another bout of sea sickness attacked just before the dive, and I waited a few minutes for it to go away. Being underwater is a relief as the wave action doesn’t go below about two meters. On the second dive we had similar conditions and fish sightings, though without the huge school of trevally. Leo thought that an approaching storm had caused many of the trevally to head off into ‘the blue’ and she thought that the schools of barracuda appeared nervous. When we came up, a big storm had filled the sky to the south, so our boat hurried north back to Koh Tao. A light rain swept over us, but with the wind at our stern the boat easily rode the waves. I devoured a bunch of watermelon slices, then felt good enough to have my breakfast sandwich. Having a two-hour rest before the third and final dive of this trip was much needed!
 
Normally the third dive would have been at one of the sites just south of Koh Tao, but with the storm we instead went to White Rock, a popular and sheltered site west of the island. Lots of colorful life swarmed about the many corals in 28° C water. Pink anemone fish safely swam among the tentacles of the abundant anemones. A blue-spotted ribbontail ray rested under an overhang. Hermit crabs and banded boxer shrimp searched for morsels of food. A blotched porcupine fish slowly and fearlessly swam by. Lots of the usual fish put in an appearance, including a titan triggerfish and golden trevally. Although most sea life is pretty, not so for the crown-of-thorns starfish with its venomous thorns; it was munching on hard corals. We went down as far as 16.7 meters and stayed 54 minutes. Visibility was about 12 meters. For dinner I had my left-over lunch that had been provided on the dive trip, then a thin-crust marinara pizza.
 
24 March Sairee Beach, Koh Tao
I planned to dive here on Koh Tao for seven days, then head across to Thailand’s west coast for a five-day live-aboard trip around the Similan and Surin islands of the Andaman Sea, considered one of the world’s best diving locales. I made a reservation for the live-aboard with Similan Diving Safaris https://www.similan-diving-safaris.com/index.html and the same company I went with two years ago. This morning I went to Bon Voyage, a little travel agency run by a woman who used to work at New Way Diving, and bought a combined ticket—a night boat to Surat Thani, then a bus over to Khao Lak on the Andaman Sea. The seven days of diving here on Koh Tao should give me some ‘sea legs’ before going out to sea for an extended period!
 
After a good rest, I headed out for a pair of afternoon dives, starting with a Mango Bay Drop-off. The gentle waters of this large bay on the north shore of Koh Tao provide a great place for snorkelers and people just learning scuba diving. And there’s a lot of undersea life. Leo and I jumped in just as the boat neared Mango Bay, then meandered through the shallows to the central area, reaching a maximum depth of just 12.3 meters along the way. We had to cover a lot of distance, so kept a steady pace, making for a good workout on the 55-minute dive. On the way we saw a blue-spotted ribbontail ray flee across the sandy bottom. Small creatures included a very pretty dotted nudibranch (Jorunna funebris), white with delicate black markings and exposed gills. (The word ‘nudibranch’ comes from the Latin nudus ‘naked,’ and the Greek brankhia ‘gills.’) It’s in a group of marine gastropod molluscs which shed their shells after their larval stage. I also watched a small reddish flatworm undulate through the water near a coral. Leo found a shorthand commensal shrimp, hard to spot as it’s small and transparent, and usually only active at night. Lots of big and small fish swam around the corals including titan triggerfish and gold saddle rabbit fish.
 
Next our boat went to Green Rock, a great jumble of granite boulders on the northwest side of Koh Nang Yuan. We enjoyed three swim-throughs and seeing lots of life in the varied habitats. A pair of yellow-margin triggerfish engaged in what looked like head-butting, perhaps a mating ritual. A huge school of big-eye trevally swam above, and we saw giant grouper lurking in the depths. A yellow boxfish swam slowly, protected by poisonous proteins that it can release from its skin; although juveniles have a bright yellow color, this one’s skin had dark hues of an adult. We went down to 20.8 meters, but spent most of the time in the warmer water above a 12-meter-deep thermocline. The dive lasted 47 minutes, then we headed home. I had the vegetable thali and small pot masala tea at Shalimar.
 
25 March Sairee Beach, Koh Tao
Although I was tempted to go on the three-dive ‘Koh Tao Tour’ offered by New Way Diving, I decided to have a rest day and just do one dive—a night one. For the first time in awhile I had a big breakfast, digging into the 200-baht buffet at Simple Life Resort. Then I spent time on the internet, watching the U.S.A.’s political chaos explained on Washington Week, and doing some journal writing.
 
In late afternoon the people on the ‘Koh Tao Tour’ came back and reported that because of the waves they canceled plans of diving on the far side of the island and dove first at Shark Island off the southeast corner, then came back to a pair of sheltered sites on this side. Just three people went on the night dive, led by Canadian ‘Kade’ (named after the Sierra Cascades). Sam, a student diver also from Canada, was making his first night dive. As the sun headed to bed, we motored the short distance south to the dive sites of Pottery and Three Rocks. By the time we had set up our gear and had a briefing, the last light faded from the sky. We hopped into the inky sea to observe how life adapts to nighttime. We had the advantage of flashlights, of course, though nocturnal fish had to hunt using the feeble light of the half moon along with their other senses. Some fish just go to sleep, and we saw several parrotfish at rest in overhangs; unlike humans, they don’t eyelids to close. Filter feeders like corals, Christmas tree worms, and feather stars don’t need vision at all, and probably appreciate that fewer predators are about at night. Sea urchins, sea cucumbers, and starfish were out grazing in great numbers. We saw lots of crabs—tiny ones hiding in corals and a couple very large hermit crabs with borrowed shells. Kade found a tiny peacock sole and a mysterious tube-like creature with spikes. I saw a couple blue-spotted ribbontail rays, a blotched porcupine fish, and a white-eye moray eel. When I covered the light and waved my hands in the water I could see tiny green specks of bioluminescent plankton light up. Perhaps because of the darkness the clicking sounds of undersea life seemed more noticeable than in the daytime. This was the shallowest dive so far, only as deep as 8.8 meters, and used less than half a tank of air because the limitation of night diving is how long the flashlight batteries will last. We dived 41 minutes, but of course would have liked to stay down longer! Back on the surface I noticed that the light attracted tiny red critters that swam very fast. Night life on the reef is just as fascinating to see as during the day!
 
26 March Sairee Beach, Koh Tao
I signed up for another trip out to Sail Rock, with the hope of gentler seas. The swells turned out to be far smaller this sunny and hazy morning. My camera came along today for snaps of Koh Tao, the sunrise, dive sites, and life on the boat. Unfortunately I don’t have an underwater camera housing, so all my snaps were topside. As we neared Sail Rock one of the staff noted that the sea ‘looked like guacamole.’ Not a good sign, so two staff jumped in at Sail Rock to see what the diving conditions would be. Not good, as it turned out, with visibility only a meter and not a fish to be seen.
 
Just as the fish went elsewhere to dive, so did we, and the boat turned toward Southwest Pinnacle, and isolated group of submerged pinnacles well to the southwest of Koh Tao. Visibility turned out to be 7-8 meters—not great, but OK. We saw a lot of fish, a shiny tiger cowrie, a pair of banded-boxer shrimp, and other life. The site is much like Chumphon Pinnacle with limestone rocks rising steeply from sandy depths and covered with extensive growths of anemones. One diver accidentally brushed his leg against the anemones and welts formed on his skin. A staff diver poured vinegar on it and cautioned against touching the welts. We started deep at 25.6 meters and worked our way up to the tops of the pinnacles during the 40-minute dive.
 
Our boat turned toward the southeast corner of Koh Tao and the fin-shaped Shark Rock. Here we saw lots of fish including a large long-faced emperor fish, golden trevally, rabbit fish, parrot fish, long-fin batfish, squirrel fish, and soldier fish. We also spotted a blue-spotted ribbontail ray. Fan corals seemed especially numerous here among the abundant corals. Visibility was similar here and again we dove 40 minutes, with a maximum depth of 19.6 meters.
 
A bit farther north, we pulled into Aow Leuk, a cove on the southeast side of Koh Tao, that has a beautiful coral garden. Besides many types of corals, we saw giant clams, hermit crabs, a tiny white nudibranch with dark patterns (Risbecia tryhoni), a small white-eyed moray. Many small fish swam about including blue-spotted trout and gold-saddle rabbit fish. With a maximum depth of only 9.8 meters, we were able to stay down 60 minutes.
 
27 March at sea on Koh Tao-Surat Thani night boat
After a filling breakfast buffet at Simple Life Resort, I finished packing up and checked out at U&I Place, then went to New Way Diving for a pair of afternoon dives. That will make 15 dives with New Way over seven days. The manager gave me a discount as a returning diver, so the regular dives cost 650 baht, the night dive 850 baht, and the Sail Rock trio of dives at 2560 baht/trip. That’s a bargain compared with most parts of the world, and includes all equipment, boat trips, and guide!
We first went to one of my favorite sites, Chumphon Pinnacle, and saw great barracuda, yellowtail barracuda, giant grouper, queenfish, harlequin sweetlips, long-faced emperor fish, rainbow runner, and fusileer. Visibility was OK at 6-7 meters, and I stayed down 50 minutes, reaching a maximum depth of 27.3 meters. Leo didn’t wish to go deeper as our next dive would also be a relatively deep one. There were four of us, and Leo paired me up with a German diving instructor to stay down a bit longer while she headed up with the other diver.
 
At the next dive site, Sattukut Wreck, visibility was just 3-4 meters, not great but an improvement of the visit last week. We went down to 27.9 meters and swam to the stern gun, then over the decks to the two-story wheelhouse and finally past the bow gun—all very picturesque and just a bit spooky. I noticed that many small corals have gotten a start on the steel deck. Small fish like the security of the interior spaces. We saw some of the same fish as at Chumphon Pinnacle—great barracuda, giant grouper, and rainbow runner, but in far fewer numbers. A short underwater swim led to Hin Pee Wee and lots of colorful corals and fish, helped by increased visibilities of up to 12 meters. Again I stayed down a little longer with the German diving instructor for a total of 45 minutes.
 
Back at the New Way Diving office, I cleaned up, packed up my gear, then wandered around Sairee Beach in search of dinner. Italian appealed, and I enjoyed a tagliatelle with eggplant sauce and ricotta—heavenly—at Porto Bella. At 8 p.m. diving staff gave me a ride to the port, where I got on a Ko Jaroen ferry to Surat Thani. It’s a steel cargo boat with nicer accommodations than the wooden boats. For 700 baht I had a proper bunk bed with sheet and blanket. It departed a bit earlier than the scheduled 9:30 p.m. and arrived at Surat Thani, on the other side of the river from the wooden night boats, before sunrise.

On to Thailand: Similan and Surin Islands scuba diving

Back to beginning of Southeast Asia Backpacking Jan.-April 2018