Lonely Planet’s Thailand Diving And Snorkelling Guidebook is packed with amazing underwater images but quite thin on the info you need to get the most out of the country’s incredible scuba diving
The newly updated Lonely Planet Thailand Diving And Snorkelling is one of the prettiest books LP have ever published. Written and illustrated by underwater photography pro Tim Rock, this dive guide is crammed full of his jawdroppingly good photos. Full colour pictures of whale sharks, manta rays, leopard sharks and coral reefs jump out from every page. Flicking through this book will definitely makes you want to go diving, and this photo led approach is something the non-diving LP guides could do with as well, rather than their usual walls of text. Unfortunately, when you turn to the book for practical advice on where to go diving in Thailand, it feels like there are a few pages missing.
Lonely Planet Thailand Diving And Snorkeling – Tim Rock
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Diving And Snorkelling Thailand breaks the country’s dive sites into five groups – Phuket and Phi Phi, Similan and Surin Islands, Western Gulf, Eastern Gulf and Myanmar, which is a nice addition as several liveaboards run from the Similans up into Myanmar’s Mergui Archipelago. Each section is prefaced with a brief overview and then gives a description of every dive site in the vicinity. The problem with this approach is that is quickly becomes very dull to read. In my experience divers are not actually that interested in each particular dive site they are going to visit – they are interested in the overall experience of an area and a general sense of what they might encounter. While some dive sites undoubtedly deserve to be singled out – the amazing encounters with manta rays you can often have at Koh Bon, for example, makes it a must-see site – in general these just need to be highlights rather than doggedly finding something to say about each site.
Tim Rock has written hundreds of articles for scuba magazines and would have been perfect to write evocative essays about the experience of diving each of the locations described here, but instead the book’s format has constrained his writing style into basically writing fish lists – i.e. what you might see when you dive at each site. This trainspotter approach is extremely reductive, and doesn’t really capture the essence of what it’s like to go on a Similans liveaboard or to learn to dive on Koh Tao.
There’s also some peculiar omissions – the Phuket and Phi Phi section, for example, doesn’t even mention Phi Phi’s neighbouring, far less developed island Koh Lanta, which is where the majority of boats depart from to visit Koh Haa, one of South Thailand’s best sites. There is a burgeoning scuba industry on Lanta that is perfect for those who want some peace and quiet away from Phi Phi’s party scene or Phuket’s crowds. Similarly, Khao Lak, fully recovered from the tsunami and the closest place to the Similan Islands on the Thai mainland, is completely omitted, despite it being far more of a backpacker dive destination than Phuket itself. Admittedly, I’ve got a vested interest in both Koh Lanta and Khao Lak as I work with dive companies there (Phuket Diving Safaris and Amazing Lanta), but I’m baffled that they don’t even warrant a single mention.
The weather information is also perfunctory at best. Koh Tao and Pattaya are diveable all year round, while the sites in the Similan Islands and Southern Thailand are only accessible from October to April. While the book correctly states this, there’s no mention of the fact that it’s quite dangerous to try and visit these sites during May to September due to the monsoon weather. Hence most operators stop running to the Similans and Southern Thailand during this period. While Phi Phi and the dive sites around it are accessible all year round, the ocean sites like Hin Daeng/Hin Muang and Koh Haa are not. Ditto with the Similan Islands – you won’t find many liveaboards going out there during May to September because it’s simply too rough. Two Thai liveaboards sank in 2005 and a passenger ferry to Koh Phi Phi sank as recently as September 2007 due to these conditions, so it’s not simply a case of some bad weather and a choppy crossing – the monsoon makes the Andaman Sea genuinely dangerous.
While it’s a gorgeous book to look at, Diving And Snorkelling Thailand has the feel of a rigid editorial template that’s been imposed on its subject matter without thinking what’s really best for the reader. A few more pages at the beginning comparing and contrasting (and, indeed, simplifying) the main dive choices for visitors – Koh Tao, Similan Islands, South Thailand or Pattaya – would have been good. The book could really do with a lot more info on the process of learning to dive itself , given that Koh Tao is the biggest place for getting your PADI certification in all of Asia Pacific, besides Cairns in Australia. As it is, Koh Tao doesn’t even get a look in until p101. I imagine a lot of people who want to learn to dive will pick up this book and be disappointed at the lack of pointers about what to expect.
There is also the apres-dive culture to consider – most backpackers love Koh Tao and Phi Phi not only because the diving is fun, but because the islands have a great party scene. Whereas if you go on a Similans liveaboard, you better like being on board a boat for 4 days and spending all your time eating, sleeping and diving. These sorts of things are important to point out in a guidebook to help people choose the sort of dive experience they will most enjoy, because it’s not entirely about just what you see in the water.
There are many more ways Diving And Snorkelling Thailand could have sliced and diced its information to make it more accessible – e.g A round up of the best places to see manta rays or whale sharks or octopus or barracuda in Thailand. There could have been more info on exactly what each of these creatures are too, plus highlighting some of the more weird and wonderful critters you might encounter, like the spearing mantis shrimp or leaf fish. There is a basic Best Dives box at the beginning but it doesn’t really inspire that much.
More importantly, LP should have made specific budget and luxury recommendations for dive operators in each area too, and provided much more specific info on travelling to each dive centre (i.e. how to get from Bangkok to Koh Tao or the Similan Islands) – as it is, the travel section is generic stuff imported from the standard LP guide and the list of dive operators at the end is large but without any editorial comment and so fairly useless. There’s zero info on where to stay at any of the locations too like Koh Tao or Phi Phi, which indicates LP clearly see this guide as a supplement to their main Thailand guide rather than a standalone book.
If Diving and Snorkelling Thailand had this extra attention to detail which would have taken up another 30 – 40 pages or so, it would have made a useful – and still concise – guide to diving in Thailand, despite my reservations of the dive site by dive site format. As it is, the book whets your appetite with its spectacular photos, but then becomes quite frustrating to use in terms of making it clear how you can travel and stay at these different locations and how you can best experience these sites. There are plenty of places online you can get this info – the Scubaboard forums or Lonely Planet’s own Thorn Tree Diving and Snorkelling forum – which makes its omission all the more bizarre. Bottom line – buy it for the photos, but don’t expect to be able to navigate your way through Thailand’s diving using this guidebook on its own.
Lonely Planet Thailand Diving And Snorkeling – Tim Rock
See all books about Thailand Diving at
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