YEAH!
Mr. Monk and I have our tickets (planning ahead for once) and are going to Koh Tao for CNY. We are planning on doing some diving (here fishy fishy) as well as some well deserved relaxing and eating (and drinking).
Anyone have recommendations for dive company, bungalows, best tom yum or anything else?
Thanks! 
I did my open water diving course with Black Tip Diving, Tanote Bay - Koh Tao 84280 tel.: 01 6065806.
Tanote Bay is quite isolated, beautiful place though. I did the trip from the town once on a motorcycle and wouldnāt do it again. To get into town you need to take a jeep taxi. Great place, great diving school. So good in fact Missus Huang and I are planning on heading back for this CNY!
Very good food and bars in the town but I hardly bothered. Saved that for a few nights in Bangkok on the way back through. Pity I missed the errh, den. But I know where that is now.
May see you there.
HG
Thanks HG!
We were looking at the Black Tip website and it looks like a nice place to stay and dive.
Have you heard of New Heaven Diving or Bungalows? They looked pretty good too.
Monkbucket,
How did you book your flight from Bangkok to Samui so early? I was told I canāt book until the Jan 1, so I have only booked to Bangkok so far.
Chewy
Chewyc,
Iām not sure how that worked out. Weāve been talking to our trvl agent about this trip for more than a month. When we were finally ready to pay for it all, I told him I wanted to book the Bangkok-Samui legs too, and he did.
Maybe we were just luckyā¦ in any event iād suggest leaning on your agent, or perhaps call a few others. Good luck!
m
Not until you posted that. Does indeed look good. Nice looking beach. Iām highly tempted to swtich locations thus increasing the prospects of running into you!
Cheers!
Chewy:
I think your agent should be able to land the tickets. Iām fairly sure I had them in hand at least a month before I left last year.
HG
I canāt recall the name of the bungees we stayed at, but they were about 1/2 way up the beach on the east side of Tao. These (3 yrs ago) were the nicest on the island. At the time, it was the only resort with a pool. This may be the only way to find it. Sorry. I believe it had the name āSunā in it if that helps. I know itās weird to want a pool with that awesome Gulf of Thailand right thereā¦but it really is refreshing. 24 Hr Power, TV, fan for about 700B/night. We did our diving with the mega school called BuddhaView. All schools are comparable price wiseā¦they all go to the same sitesā¦I found Buddhaviewās staff very knowledgable and friendly in the extreme. They have a great beach front BBQ every night with the best food Iāve ever eatenā¦prawns the size a ya headā¦added bonusā¦big discount on the bungee each day you dive with them. I think we only paid 400B a night for those days.
The āshackā is way up the hill above the BuddhaView school. See the Mama-sanā¦she take care of all your needs manā¦including best view of the sunset on the entire island.
Hope to join yaā¦under da seaā¦
btwā¦we went on CNY too, and even thoā you may have the BKK to Samui part booked, that doesnāt mean you will get a seat. My idea would be to get a group of 8 together and hire a helicopter to take you from BKK airport to Tao. I looked into this during our 8 hour visit to BKK airport trying to get to Samui and it turns out to be both cost and time effective. As I recall, it worked out to 4000B/person. Considering the flight is about 3300 and the speed boat is, what, about 500ā¦plus the speed boat leaves at noon, so you may end up with an expensivey-pants night on Samuiā¦Worth tryingā¦maybe there are enough 'umosans heading down to make this viable???
Iāll see if I canāt find a linkā¦
Jeez, weāre all gonna be there!
Should we exchange photos soās we can avoid each other? Or just meet at the airport and rent a chopper? Thereāll be two of us up for it.
Okay, now I am starting to seriously consider heading that way for CNY too. HGC and the Stragā¦I predict many pails purchased.
Do we have enough intetrest to try the chopper ride. We may have to repel as there isnāt really anywhere to land. Total James Bond approach to island hopping the Gulf of Thailandā¦heheheheā¦
What are everyoneās travel datesā¦I think I may be able to book a few days prior to CNY off. Avoid the rush kinda thing. Anyone else?
Dates are still tentative - and after a particularly bad blunder is in line with my current job! - but Iāll be travelling with two others. The chopper could be a go go. Missus Huang did the booking and for the life of me I canāt recall the dates.
Best I get back to you.
HG
I did my rescue certification with Master Divers and the outfit was pretty cool. The guy that owns it is and English bloke and their are a couple of hot instructors when I was there. Makes the dive that much more enjoyable 
I stayed in some green and white bungalos just up the street from Master Divers, it came with the price of certification.
Donāt foget to head to Koh Pan Yang (canāt remember how to spell it) for the full moon party if youāre there at the right time. The party is a blast and goes all night. You can get a ticket from Koh Tao that drops you off at about 10pm and picks you up at about 8am.
There are also a couple of good clubs on Koh Tao to go to.
In addition to that, there is some place up the road (past the infamous Mr. Jās) that serves garlic mashed potatoes and other scrumptious Western food (something I can rarely find here).
May want to take it easy on the buckets as two will definately do you in 
Need any more info, just ask. I spent four months pissing around over there; diving and drinking and a little bit of drinking. Oh yeah, I also drank a couple nights a week (seven or so).
Party hard and donāt piss off the locals, cuz theyāll throw you to the sharks. 
For a cheaper and more adventurous trip to get to Ko Tao, take the overnight bus from BK to Chumpon and catch a ferry directly to the island. Donāt oversleep on the bus (as I did), though, or youāll end up at the end of the line at Surat Thani, and lose about a day.
Itās kinda sad how developed Koh Tao has become. I first went there 14 years ago and there was a dirt road and only a few bungalows. I do remember you could take a long tail boat to Koh Nangyuan, the barbell island, which seems now to also be ābuilt upā 
samuihoteltravel.com/nangyuan_dive.htm
Iām glad I did my asian explorations when I was younger, and the region was pristine and cheap then. Now, I only travel in first world, so as not to be disappointed by āprogressā.
[quote=āToe Saveā]btwā¦we went on CNY too, and even thoā you may have the BKK to Samui part booked, that doesnāt mean you will get a seat. My idea would be to get a group of 8 together and hire a helicopter to take you from BKK airport to Tao. I looked into this during our 8 hour visit to BKK airport trying to get to Samui and it turns out to be both cost and time effective. As I recall, it worked out to 4000B/person. Considering the flight is about 3300 and the speed boat is, what, about 500ā¦plus the speed boat leaves at noon, so you may end up with an expensivey-pants night on Samuiā¦Worth tryingā¦maybe there are enough 'umosans heading down to make this viable???
Iāll see if I canāt find a linkā¦[/quote]
Iām thinking of heading over to BK to visit a friend, but this sounds very interesting. let me know if there are enough ppl interested. i havent gone to these places b4
Its all relative though Alien. I recall planning my travels back in 1981 and deciding that Thailand was āspoiledā (whatever I meant by that). Stupidly I didnāt go then and avoided the place for years afterwards. When I did finally get there I enjoyed it immensely.
Iām still possibly in the running, although thereās some very weird variables between now and then.
Man, I need a holiday badly!
HG
Its all relative though Alien. I recall planning my travels back in 1981 and deciding that Thailand was āspoiledā (whatever I meant by that). Stupidly I didnāt go then and avoided the place for years afterwards. When I did finally get there I enjoyed it immensely.
[/quote]
Yah, but I have been back to Thailand and each time gets more and more built up. Last time I went to Koh Chang I couldnāt believe it! The first time I went there was NOT a road, and I canāt help but remember those were the days when there werenāt hordes of tourists and backpackers, and we could drink fresh water from the mountain spring instead of littering the place up with bottled water and having to hear the noise of motorbikes day and night. 
Include me out of the helo. Partly because we have other plans, but mostly because Toe Rag will keep saying my name wrong.
We should arrange a meet thoā. My gf will be doing her open water course, and Iāll be doing some fun dives so maybe a few beers at the end?
I could use a dive buddy while sheās with her class too. Weāre probably going with Asia Divers.
The WHOLE of Thailand? How about the north? Thatās not built up.
The WHOLE of Thailand? How about the north? Thatās not built up.[/quote]
The beaches.
Philippines still has nice beach places. Cheap. And Iām hearing Gilley Islands in Lombok are nice. BFace, you hopped over there yet?