After managing to get a good deal on a hotel voucher that could be used in either Bali or Phuket, Ves and I decided to take a quick peek at Phuket’s diving scene, which is why we decided to go to the Phi Phi islands for some scuba diving, which is a popular day trip for many divers from Phuket.
After looking around at some of the main dive operators, we decided on Love Diving Phuket, a pretty established dive shop located in Patong beach, which was near where we were staying. With over 1000 positive reviews on TA, we thought it should be a pretty well-run operation. Booking the dives was easy; all you needed to do was email them and put in a deposit or pay in full in advance, though an option to pay directly at the dive shop was also an option. They were very nice to offer us free equipment rental for a minimum of 2 divers booked. Like almost all other dive operators, free transfers to and from your hotel were included in the cost of booking, along with breakfast and lunch.
Phi Phi islands – just 3 hours away from Phuket by boat
It might seem like the middle of nowhere, but Phi Phi isn’t actually too far from Phuket (about 2-3 hours). Although that might be too much for some people, do note that the boat used was actually pretty sizeable (it’s actually a liveaboard), and is shared between several dive operators.
The size of the boat means that you wouldn’t need to worry so much about sea-sickness (though motion sickness pills were offered for free), and you have more than enough space to comfortably lounge around on the sun-deck or lounge area. Breakfast was also provided which gave us some distraction away from the duration of the trip.
The diving experience
Visibility wasn’t amazing when we went – I guess it was really just down to luck for that matter since the guides mentioned it was supposed to be a little better, but what made Phi Phi and its surrounding small islands stand out was the amount of fish life present on its reefs.
We had a lot of fun playing around with large schools of fish; swimming through them, taking photos and videos, and simply just observing their movements.
There were also the usual reef residents:
There were also a few fun swim-throughs here and there.
There was also a divesite called “Shark Point” (no points for creativity here) that used to have 4-5 leopard sharks cruising around, but when we went there we didn’t even see one, though other dive groups managed to spot one.
Here’s a typical dive profile of the dives we did there:
Will we go back again?
I’m actually not sure. My lingering feelings after the last dive was that we got to see some stuff, but didn’t manage to really experience what Phi Phi had to offer because it was just 1 day. I think to really experience Phi Phi diving, it would be better to directly stay there, or to just be on a liveaboard. This time, diving wasn’t our main activity (we wanted to explore Phuket Island as well) so it was more of a side trip. However, I think Phi Phi is a destination worth going just for the diving.
