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For Divers since 1975 The Private, Exclusive Guide for Serious Divers Since 1975 |
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Sunrise Diving & South Siam 3/Deevana Resort, Oct, 2006,by Jon Morrow, NV, USA ( 2 reports). Report 3053. |
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No photos available at this time | |||
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best): |
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| Accommodations |  |
Food | |
| Service and Attitude |  |
Environmental Sensitivity | N/A |
| Dive Operation | |
Shore Diving |  |
| Snorkeling | N/A | ||
Overall Rating |
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| Value for $$ | N/A | ||
| Beginners | |
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| Advanced | |
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| Comments |
Sunrise Divers in Patong beach put together an outstanding 6 day package of diving. We had a great liveaboard experience put together by Damian on the South Siam 3. Chris did an excellent job getting my buddy AOW certified during the trip. Chris was very professional instructor and very attentive to make sure the course was a positive experience. Free rental gear in the price of the liveaboard was a plus. Rental gear and the shop are all new since they were all destroyed by the Tsumani. Finally when a problem developed with our planned dives, Damian made it right when many dive operations would have just shrugged their shoulders. A professional operation with quality people and equipment. The South Siam 3 is a new boat with space for 16 overnight guests in comfortable cabins. The boat is geared around day trips by speed boat from Tap Lamu and is limited to the Similan Islands and Koh Bon. Having the speedboat arrive everyday allows you to dive as many days as you want and start and stop whenever. This was important to us since our air connections limited us to a Saturday arrival and departure. The boat schedules five dives daily with those staying on board able to pick any four of the five dives. On arival day four dives are available and 3 dives are done on departure day. We were picked up and delivered back to our hotel in Patong and taken 1.5 hours north to the speedboat. A 1.5 hour trip by boat brought us to the liveaboard. Be prepared for anything based on weather conditions on the ride across. On rainy days or rough seas the ride can take up to 2 hours or more. Once on board you are given a briefing in English on the boat, time to set up gear and then a dive briefing. Diving starts within 45 minutes of arrival. Briefings by John the boat manager were professional and gave a good idea of what to expect. DM were very competent and the boat was adept at adjusting profiles and groups based upon ability level. I never saw a group bigger than 6. Since I was diving with a new diver, numerous times I was able to extend my dive when the group need to ascend by the dive master coordinating my joining another group underwater. With no Nitrox available, and the usual dive profile starting at 95', the 50 minute limit on diving was good advice and it was putting us into the caution zone on the computers by dive three of the day. Food was plentiful and good, always Thai and usually something Western. The boat is on a three day rotation through the Similans and Koh Bon though dive sites were mixed. The most famous dive sites were done for the speedboat day trippers. The boat has the capacity for 50 divers during the daytrip though we never saw more than about 18 total divers since this was shoulder season. That might be a problem though in the high season. When the speed boat left the remaing 6-12 people dove once more. Some dives were as good as I've seen anyplace in the world. Night dives were offered but generally were not very good. We skipped them after the first day. The boat is on the cheap end of the liveaboard scale but was new, clean and well organized. Richelieu Rock is not visited by this boat. I would have no hesitiation to go back. I would certainly use Sunrise Divers again to set up a return trip. |
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Reporter and Travel |
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| Dive Experience | 101-250 dives | ||
| Where else diving | Asia, Carribean | ||
| Closest Airport | Getting There | ||
Dive Conditions |
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| Weather | windy | Seas | calm |
| Water Temp | 84-0°F / 29--18°C | Wetsuit Thickness | 1 |
| Water Visibility | 60-95 Ft/ 18-29 M | ||
Dive Policy |
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| Dive own profile | ? | ||
| Enforced diving restrictions | [Unspecified]500 LBS or 50 Minutes, stay on the same profile as the DM. | ||
| Liveaboard? | no | Nitrox Available? | N/A |
What I Saw |
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| Sharks | Lots | Mantas | 1 or 2 |
| Dolphins | None | Whale Sharks | None |
| Turtles | > 2 | Whales | None |
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best): |
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| Corals | |
Tropical Fish | |
| Small Critters | |
Large Fish |  |
| Large Pelagics |  |
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Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best): |
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| Subject Matter | |
Boat Facilities | |
| Overall rating for UWP's | |
Shore Facilities | |
| UW Photo Comments | Freshwater camera tank onboard the South Siam 3 Restricted to Lights and Cameras. Enforced | ||
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Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above. |
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