Month in S/E Asia - Padi course needed!

liamtimdusty

I'm hoping to travel South East Asia for a month at the end of august.
Main priority is to get my open water / advanced open water Padi course done.

Can anyone speak from past expieriences on what routes to take?
Only thing I have in mind is Bali for the Padi course!

JohnCleary

Well of course, Kao Tao is the PADI capital of the world. It's also a really nice island (imho) we've been there 3 times now.

I can recommend a reliable French run dive school on Sairee beach. I'm a CMAS diver for over 10 years now so I feel like I was qualified to be critical of their teaching (granted I only saw people actually diving, not in the classroom) and found the dive leaders quite good when bringing noobs in the water.

Of course, Kao Tao has gotten a reputation over the past few years, but I never had any hassles there.

liamtimdusty

JohnCleary wrote: »

Well of course, Kao Tao is the PADI capital of the world. It's also a really nice island (imho) we've been there 3 times now.

I can recommend a reliable French run dive school on Sairee beach. I'm a CMAS diver for over 10 years now so I feel like I was qualified to be critical of their teaching (granted I only saw people actually diving, not in the classroom) and found the dive leaders quite good when bringing noobs in the water.

Of course, Kao Tao has gotten a reputation over the past few years, but I never had any hassles there.

Thanks for the info, would you say Kao Tao is the best place to do it then? What's the name of the dive school you are talking about?
I can imagine Kao Tao being a bit touristy at this stage, when was the last time you were there? And how was it?

liamtimdusty

Current thoughts:

Fly to Bangkok, stay for a few days there.
Either public transport or buy some cheap bikes and make my way to Koa Tao to get my dive course done.
Island hopping for a few days, snorkling etc.

Continue down to Phucket.

It would be amazing to see some of Cambodia but it may be unrealistic given the time frame.

Any thoughts / suggestions?

duffman13

liamtimdusty wrote: »

I'm hoping to travel South East Asia for a month at the end of august.
Main priority is to get my open water / advanced open water Padi course done.

Can anyone speak from past expieriences on what routes to take?
Only thing I have in mind is Bali for the Padi course!

If your going to Bali id recommend going to Gili Trawangan to do it. Gili Divers had great instructors and I really enjoyed it there. Great island aswell.

If you havent picked where your going id agree with the OP that Koh Tao is your best bet purely because if I remember correctly I think it's cheaper there. It 6,450,000 rupiah to do open water there which is about 450 euro in Gili. Hostel costs are about 14 euro a night.

duffman13

liamtimdusty wrote: »

Current thoughts:

Fly to Bangkok, stay for a few days there.
Either public transport or buy some cheap bikes and make my way to Koa Tao to get my dive course done.
Island hopping for a few days, snorkling etc.

Continue down to Phucket.

It would be amazing to see some of Cambodia but it may be unrealistic given the time frame.

Any thoughts / suggestions?

You can bus and boat it to Koh Tao for cheap enough from Bangkok, a bike wouldn't be feasible to get to Koh Tao, you'd probably die before you got out of Bangkok! Also Airasia do flights from Bangkok to Siem Reap for cheap, so you could do a bit of Angkor Wat for a few days.

You could do your dive course, time it right and go to koh phangan for a full moon then on to Samui. From Samui you can get a bus and boat combo to Phi Phi or Phuket for around 20 euro and usually takes about 8 hours.

liamtimdusty

Cheers for all the info guys.

Was looking again and maybe it would be a better option to fly from bangkok to Phucket, then do as suggested, Koa tao, phiphi , koh phangan. Any possibly fly to vietnam and buy motorbikes there.

JohnCleary

liamtimdusty wrote: »

Current thoughts:

Fly to Bangkok, stay for a few days there.
Either public transport or buy some cheap bikes and make my way to Koa Tao to get my dive course done.
Island hopping for a few days, snorkling etc.

Continue down to Phucket.

It would be amazing to see some of Cambodia but it may be unrealistic given the time frame.

Any thoughts / suggestions?

liamtimdusty wrote: »

Cheers for all the info guys.

Was looking again and maybe it would be a better option to fly from bangkok to Phucket, then do as suggested, Koa tao, phiphi , koh phangan. Any possibly fly to vietnam and buy motorbikes there.

If I were you, this is what i'd do (and have done in the past)

OPTION 1:
Fly Bangkok => Krabi (Wouldn't bother with Phuket personally, but don't let me put you off)
Then do PhiPhi and any other islands there that may interest you
Back to Krabi and either fly or bus/ferry to Samui
Get out of Samui ASAP (again just personal opinion, some people love it) and go to Phangan / Tao

OPTION 2:
Fly Bangkok => Samui
Do Phangan / Tao. If you get bored with there, then make your way over to Krabi (and then on to PhiPhi and other islands)

** Just to be clear, i'm suggesting Krabi as a hub only, not to stay there long. There's not much to do there. That said, Ao Nang is nice for a night or two as you can get the long-tail over to Railay (We stayed in Railay but you're looking €100 per night as it's a sort of honeymoon destination) **

Won't be the cheapest, but given you have only 3 weeks, I think flying is an absolute must. Given that the bus / ferry takes hours, can you really afford to lose that much time for the sake of, say, €30 - €40 in the difference? We weighed up the cost / time loss when comparing flying / bus, and we always ended up flying.


You won't have time to make it down to Koh Lipe (right down South on the west of the country), but it was the most amazing place i'd been to... get there before it gets over-crowded. You can get a "Fly n' Ferry" from DMK in Bangkok for something like 1500 baht (well, we did at Christmas, but booked about 2 months in advance) - bargain considering the time it'd take via bus.