Koh Tao is the place where we started our diving adventure and where we got our Open Water and Advandced Open Water certifications. Koh Tao is a tiny island on the east side of Thailand. The shortest way to get there is to take the boat that departs from Chumphon, where you can get by bus from Bangkok.

Dive, dive, dive

If you are looking for a beach holiday or a lot of partying you should go to neighbouring Koh Samui or Koh Phanang, where you can dive as well. But if your passion is scuba diving, go to Koh Tao. The size of the island is only 21 square kilometres, mostly uninhabited and covered with palm trees, but its most amazing feature is that it has got 38 dive schools.

The main township is called May Haad, where you can find dive shops on every corner. If you do not come to this island to dive, the locals will definitely wonder what you are doing there. There is hardly anything else to do on Koh Tao than diving and snorkelling, which creates a very special atmosphere.

Koh Tao tourism

Already when you take a boat to Koh Tao, a bunch of Thai promotion people will be trying to get you into their resort. Just keep you head cool and go to the resort you already had in mind, or go with someone who is friendly and not too pushy. All dive courses on the whole island have the same price, but if you take a course you can usually get yourself cheap accommodation in a resort that belongs to the dive school.

Big Blue Diving

The resort where we ended up, Big Blue, is located on Soiree Beach and offers a wooden condo on the beach for as little as 4 euro a night. It is very basic, in Thai style, but relatively clean and comfortable enough to stay for a while. The resort is close to some shops, a medical centre and it has a nice bar on the beach with regular happy hours and parties. It is a great place to meet people from all over the world. There are dive instructors from different continents and Big Blue offers both SSI and PADI courses in various languages.

You have to be a little adventurous when you go diving with Big Blue. Their instructors, equipment and shop are all very professional and there courses are great too. Their boats though, are something else. They have a couple of old fishing boats converted into dive boats. There are a couple of smaller ones, where a characteristic longtail boat takes you from Soiree Beach for boarding.

Their big boat, called ‘The Banzai’, is located in the harbour of May Haad. You go there in a bus stuffed with dive gear and you have to climb from a dissolving pier over half a dozen other boats to board. This is all the normal Thai style and you will probably get used to it soon enough. The good thing about this last boat is that you can climb on the roof and jump into the sea (about 5 metres below) to celebrate your certification.

Koh Tao dive conditions

The waters here always warm (close to 30 degrees Celsius), but visibility changes during the seasons. When we were here in June 2004, the visibility was 10-15 metres. In April and September, the visibility is only a few metres, but the waters are so full of food, that whale sharks come to feed there.

When the whale sharks are not around, there is still a load of marine life to see and there is a list of good dive spots around the island. The direction of the winds decides on a daily basis where the dive boats will go for the day. There are so many different dive sites to choose from, that it is very rare if the boats do not go out for a whole day.

Mango Bay

Mango Bay is a sheltered dive spot no deeper than about 12 metres. The waves are normally low here and it is an excellent spot for training purposes. Most common fish to see here are sergeant majors (which nibble on you during your training exercises), angelfish, butterfly fish, wrasses, goatfish and parrotfish.

Japanese Gardens

Japanese Gardens is another quite secluded dive location, which is not very deep, but has beautiful coral pinnacles. This is a brilliant spot for learning to navigate under water, for night dives and for underwater photography. Here you can spot pink anemone fish, long nosed butterfly fish, giant clams, young (yellow tale) barracudas, blue spotted puffer fish, yellow box fish, blue spotted stingrays, big black crabs, anemone crabs, long fin banner fish, rabbit fish, hermit crab, porcupine puffer fish, shrimps and cat eels.

White Rock and the Pinnacles

Nang Yuan Pinnacle, Hin Wong Pinnacle and White Rock provide the opportunity to go a little deeper, to about 18 to 24 metres. The sites have rock formations and coral pinnacles and a lot of fish swarming around, such as stingrays, emperor angelfish, blue ringed angelfish, six-banded angelfish, peacock and blue-lined groupers and stonefish, as well as most of the above mentioned species.

Leam Thiam

If you are into swim-throughs and caves, try Leam Thiam. It is a very exciting dive site and requires a lot of balancing and buoyancy skills, since some caves and tunnels are relatively narrow and the rocks are sharp. The rock walls have many different colours and a lot of tiny different marine species can be seen here. We also saw blue spotted stingrays, yellow tale barracudas and pilot jacks.

Chumphon Pinnacle

By far the most exciting dive spot we have seen around Koh Tao is Chumphon Pinnacle. This dive site brings you down to 30 metres or more. It consists of one giant pinnacle split into two. If you want spectacular views and spot larger species, this is the place to go. It is also a good spot to do a narcosis test and dept gauge comparison. You can find grey reef sharks, large flocks of full grown batfish, giant groupers, triggerfish and long fin banner fish here.