Travel Plans/August 2023

Diving trip planning

Date suggestions would be arriving to Ko Tao on August 20, 2023 and leaving on August 27th. We could then to visit Bangkok for a couple days arriving on the August 27 and leaving on August 30.

Resources

• Wikivoyage page for Ko Tao
• Agoda Search
• luggage storage at BKK options

Potential dive shops

Sairee beach places in order that I should contact them:

• [Contacted 2023-07-09] [good choice for combo diving/place to stay] Sairee Cottage diving seems to have extremely cheap package deals w/ diving trips [1] and places as little as $15/night; some have wifi and the Sail Rock trip is on Saturdays
• Mojo Diving goes to Sail Rock every Wednesday and Saturday (6am-1pm) w/ 1.5k reviews on TA: https://mojodiverskohtao.com/
• Shop that runs very early morning trips (6am) but seems to mostly beat the crowds as a result with 1.5k reviews on TA: https://newwaydiving.com/en/fun-diving/
• Bigger newer shop seems to be run entirely by foreigners w/ lots of options (3k reviews on TA): https://www.roctopusdive.com/
• Run by Austrian's with a website in German (200 reviews on TA): https://www.divepoint-kohtao.com/index.php/en/

• [more of a school] Big Bubble which seems to be one of the bigger options: https://www.divingatkohtao.com/
• Hobo-ya (Japanese Dive shop): http://www.hobo-ya.com/kohtao/

Other places:

• Mae Haad dive shop with built in accommodations and some upgrade options: https://www.crystaldive.com/accommodation-at-crystal-dive/

Places to stay

• Splurge place to stay (~5000 TBH for the cheaper ones) https://www.kohtaocabana.com/
• Just a place to stay but like 1000 baht/night: https://www.summerguesthousekohtao.com/

Mako's Plans

2023-08-16 (Wednesday) — 2023-08-19 (Saturday)

Mako should be in Wikimania in Singapore

2023-09-04 (Monday)

Mako needs to be in Princeton for kickoff the next day

When leaving, it probably makes most sense to fly to Koh Samui. There are direct flights, which are reasonably priced:

There is also the option to take Singapore Airlines (SQ706) leaving at 7:10am, changing in BKK, and arriving at 11:40am in Ko Samui (USM).

Two high speed boats go from Ko Samui to Ko Tao:

• https://www.lomprayah.com/timetable
• https://songserm.com/time-table

The closest pier to the airport is the Ko Samui Bangrak SeaTran Pier and departure are at 12:00 (arriving at 14:15) and 14:30 (arriving 17:00).

An alternative plan would be to fly to Bangkok, which is MUCH cheaper and there are many many options. From there, there are a bunch of options including a sort of bus + high speed boat options. These leave at 6am (arriving at 2:45p) or at 9pm (w/ VIP bus option that costs a little more) arriving a 8:35a the next day.

Bus location in Bangkok for the Lomprayah bus is: 154 Rambuttri rd., Banglumpoo, Bangkok 10200

Request to Sairee Cottages

Greetings!

I am interested in arranging for a stay in late August for myself and my wife Mika. It will just be the two of us. We are both PADI Rescue Divers with 100+ dives. Here are the details:

- Arriving on Sunday August 20th
- Leaving on the morning of Sunday August 27th

I think we'd want to plan to dive on all those days:

- Monday 21, Tuesday 22, Wednesday 23, Thursday 24, Friday 25 (so 10 dives?)
- PLUS a Sail Rock trip on Saturday August 26 

In the interest of taking a day off, maybe we can just register for 6 or 8 dives with the idea that we can add one or two based on how we are feeling when we arrive?

I think we're flexible in terms of accommodations although a double/queen bed would be fine and we'd love to stay in a place with Wifi. In that sense, the Yellow or Green rooms look most attractive.

You can reply to us at: team@leastsquar.es

Regards,
Mako