An Underwater Wonderland (Diving in Phi Phi Island)

Member Name: petehall

Product:	Diving in Phi Phi Island
Date:	13/04/02 (198 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Warm, magnificent variety, extremely good value

Disadvantages: A long way from home

Staying at Kata beach few years back, I booked a two dive package from Phuket Aquatic Safaris in Phuket town. At £50 it seemed a bit steep, but by the time I returned I was amazed at the value. An air conditioned coach picked me up from the hotel on Kata beach and took me to the harbour some 20 miles away. I was met by the divemaster and transferred to an air conditioned express boat for very comfortable one hour journey to Phi Phi. Travelling at 30 knots, the boat glided through the calm seas. It was only when we arrived that I saw my gear, carefully stored on the foredeck. Whilst the other daytrippers boarded a launch to take them ashore I boarded a long tail boat crewed by a couple of local guys. The gear was transferred and I didn't have to lift a finger. I found this hard to believe - I was the only diver, yet here was a boat and three guys at my service. We journeyed to Phi Phi Li, the smaller of the two islands, before they helped me kit up (its not easy on these narrow boats) and we entered the warm water (24 degrees). We dropped down to 10 metres within seconds to the most amazing display of colour I had ever seen. I was carrying an underwater cine camera which had only a 3.5 minute filming capacity, and I used the lot in the first five minutes. I've seen better since, but only in the Caymans. After 50 minutes of wondrous scenery we surfaced to find the boat an arm's length away - they'd followed us all the way. Max depth was 15 metres and even a Novice Diver could have coped.

Lunch was served on a deserted beach of this beautiful little island - a selection of hot food stored in an insulated container made for very pleasant eating. There was an opportunity for snorkeling during our two hour break, and then it was off to the next site, Phi Phi Don (the larger island). Although a pleasant and exciting dive with a whole lot of different corals to see, it didn't come up to the standards of the first dive. Since this was the shall
ower dive, at 12 metres, it wouldn't really be practical to reverse them. When the diving was over I was dropped off at the main tourist beach on Phi Phi Don to wait for the boat back in about an hour. This gave me time to explore the island and to reflect on the day's experience - fantastic.

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