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Koh Tao
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Does Paradise really exist? For many people it does, and where paradise is found vary from person to person. For a long time, Koh Tao was my paradise, and I was lucky to experience the island life there before it got to developed.
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I'd like to go back for a visit, and can recommend this tiny island north of Koh Samui. For descriptions of the island life
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and how to get there, take a look in the traveling section of my world.
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There are 21 dive sites around Koh Tao – each with their own "specialties", and well worth exploring. Koh Tao offers a vast variety of aquatic life, and you'll have excellent dives there independent of taste/preferences and level of experience. Most diving centers offer 2 dives on relatively deep water in the morning, and 2 shallow dives in the afternoon. Night dives are also offered on a regular basis.
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I spent 15 months on Koh Tao, and at the time there were only PADI dive operators there – some more serious than others! Today you'll find PADI 5-star centers, and I can strongly recommend www.bigbluediving.com. Not only because they're the first ones to operate on Koh Tao, and not only
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because I did all my diving with them… The quality of the boat, equipment and instructors/dive masters was high at the time I was there, and from what I've heard from others visiting recently, it still is.
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I really enjoyed all the dive sites, and all my dives, there, but of course I got my favorites
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Chumpon Pinnacle
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Chumpon Pinnacle is found approx.. an hour outside Koh Tao.
It drops down to 38 meters, and it's relatively easy to spot stone fish there. A bit down, you'll often find huge brown spotted groupers.
Chumpon Pinnacle is also a great place for huge schools of barracudas and tunas.
Whale sharks have been spotted there
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occasionally, and also a Manta ray - but that's out of the ordinary, and not to be expected.
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Nan Guyan Twins
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Twins is the place you'll see about anything or everything - and if you take your time and use your eyes, I'll bet you find something new on every dive...
The diversity on Twins is incredible - from huge sand rays to small moon wrasses, from angel's to Spanish dancers. Twins is also packed with all sorts of corals. It's a small dive site, but you can easily spend hours there.
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Southwest Pinnacle
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I had one of my best experiences diving, so far, at SW Pinnacle - a really close encounter with a Leopard shark.
I was diving with a DM who claimed he knew for sure where to find the shark, which he did. When we spotted her, we stopped all activity but breathing, and were just hovering, watching
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her. Being used to divers chasing her around trying to touch her, she got curious on the two of us just watching. After a short time she came over, and started circling us- closer and closer. She got so close that I could easily have touched her, but I dindn't - I never do. It was a magic moment, but all good things has an end, so we had to interrupt her inspection to surface. I often saw her after this, but never got that close again.
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White Rock
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White Rock is the home of Trevor the Trigger - a Giant Trigger with an attitude!
Trevor's attitude makes him a fish even his own mother would have problems loving, but he can be lot's of good fun to.
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Divers either love him or hate him, I loved him! As all Giant Triggers, he's extremely territorial - problem with Trevor is that he moves around all over White Rock all the time, so you never know where to expect to see him. He's known to attack divers, but he mostly go for the fins. Few, if any, good pic's exist - you have to be an experienced UW photographer to have a fair chance, not to mention have nerves of steel. ;o) The guy who gave me this photo just managed to turn around after a minor attack of the King of White Rock.
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White Rock is much, much more than Trevor. It is one of the most diverse dive sites on Koh Tao, and the list of what you find there is long - it's a bit like swimming in a huge aquarium.
White Rock was my definite favorite site for night diving. In addition to a rich night life, we quite often also had close encounters with a huge Barracuda - probably the grandfather of Barracudas.
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