Travel Plans/August 2023

Overall Plan

Mako's Plan

2023-08-12 (Saturday): Leave Seattle
2023-08-12 (Sunday): Arrive Japan 3:30pm
2023-08-16 (Wednesday): Fly from NRT-SIN
2023-08-17 (Thursday) — 2023-08-19 (Saturday): Wikimania!
2023-08-20 (Sunday): Fly from SIN to BKK and meet Mika; overnight bus that evening and boat the next morning
2023-08-21 (Monday) — 2023-08-27 (Sunday): Diving in Koh Tao Template:Tentative
2023-08-27 (Sunday) — 2023-08-30 (Wednesday): Hanging out in Bangkok
2023-08-30 (Wednesday) — 2023-08-31 (Thursday): Flying back to Seattle via HND (6h) and LAX (8h)
2023-09-04 (Monday): Mako needs to be in Princeton for kickoff the next day

Tokyo Planning

Maybe do festivals?

Fukagawa Hachiman Matsuri 11-15th in Tokyo [1]
August 15th evening fireworks in Ota (7:30pm): [2] [3]

Thailand 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

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 [4] 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 for getting in/out

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:

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