Learn to dive - Thailand's best places

Ever wonder what it would be like to jump into the water and look into the face of a passing turtle?? The underwater world is mysterious and yet inviting, the experience of diving it provides and addictive sense of zen. There's no better place to have your first dive experience than Thailand – with good conditions year round. Where to learn to dive in Thailand?

Most dive shops in Thailand offer PADI or SSI certification but it's also possible to find a few offering NAUI or CMAS. Beginners may be more comfortable diving in the calmer and shallower waters off the east coast of Thailand, with destinations such as Koh Tao or Koh Samui being the most popular on that side. The East coast has less marine life and coral though.

As the West coast has much better marine life and coral - you may want to consider this as your destination. However The weather makes diving unsafe from June through October. If you plan on visiting during this time - you will probably have a better time diving around Khao Lak and the Similan Islands. Hotspots for diving around here include Phi Phi and Koh Lipe.

Phuket has several dive operators to chose from, but the conditions near the pollution strewing island can be intolerable. Khao Lak offers an excellent choice of dive shops and also has a good range of accommodation to suit most tastes. It is also the closest jumping off point to the Similan Islands.

Phi Phi is quite popular among the younger crowd but there are hotels catering to older couples and families, which also offer scuba diving courses.

The Similan Islands, technically located in Phang Nga province, provide some of the best dive sites in the world. Protected within a marine national park, the nine islands are still pristine and rich with wildlife above and below the water. Most dive operators will take you ashore at one of the islands, where you can enjoy the powder-white beaches and see exotic birds and monkeys. Under the waves, the colorful reefs and boulder formations are teeming with coral and a variety of marine life. Sometimes whale sharks are even spotted in the waters, as well as rays and other sharks. Visibility is good, varying from 30-50m.

The best way to see the Similans is by liveaboard, and most dive operators will allow you to do your Open Water dives from the boat if you've completed the paper and pool work ashore beforehand.

Much like Phi Phi, Koh Tao is a fun place for backpackers to learn how to scuba dive. This may well be the most affordable place in Thailand to take a PADI Open Water course and to build up your dive log. Unfortunately it's not the best diving in Thailand – but it's not yet the worst either. Koh Tao used to offer frequent whale shark sightings but they are relatively rare these days. It's also conveniently close (2 hours by speed boat) to Samui. In fact you can do diving courses on Samui too.

The number of dive boats on a site is not restricted, so you may find there is too much company around peak dive times. You may find yourself surrounded by 50 to 100 divers at a time, with most of them being Open Water students or day trippers from Samui. Needless to say, Koh Tao might be great for learning and for progressing to instructor – but it's not all that great for just recreational diving. Many people come here specifically to advance through courses and proceed with PADI Advanced, Rescue Diver, Dive Master/Master Scuba Diver and Instructor courses.

There are so many choices on Koh Tao that you should look carefully at each dive shop and make sure they offer you the best value for money. Not all dive instructors are the same, and some are downright scary. Likewise, equipment standards can vary, and you'll want to make sure any shop you choose has quality equipment and maintains it properly and hygienically. You should also check into the insurance policy of the dive shop and enquire as to if you should purchase your own dive insurance for the hyperbaric chamber if you have an accident.

It boils down to this - you get what you pay for. If you think it's a bargain - it's not! Your life depends on well-maintained well equipment and good staff. If you would like to know where to learn to diving in Thailand?

Most the dive operations in Thailand are run by foreigners, which is just as well since Thais have a rather different approach to safety and responsibility, but you'll find yourself diving with plenty of Thai staff who are their usual friendly easy-going selves

Advice and information on the Similan Islands

Explore the Koh Similan - A Group of Nine islands in the Andaman Sea
One of the best-known island groups , largely because of the wonders that wait beneath the clear blue waters that surround it.

"Similan" is derived from the Malay sembilan, and means "nine". Each of the Similan Islands has a number as well as a name. These are, running from north to south: Koh Ba Ngu (No. 9), Similan (No. 8), Payu (No. 7), Miang (No. 4, No. 5 and, in some opinion, No. 6), Payan (No. 3), Payang (No. 2), and Hu Yong (No. 1). Hin Pusar, or "Elephant Head Rock", is alternatively designated No. 6 by some. Koh Bon, lying 17 nautical miles north of Ba Ngu, is part of the Similan National Park and may be granted honorary status as No. 10.

Ironwood and gum trees are among the larger trees, while jackfruit, rattan and bamboo form part of the denser undergrowth. The islands are home to crab-eating monkeys, dusky langurs, squirrels, bats, lizards and a good variety of birds (though the monkeys are shy and rarely seen by the casual observer). But the most striking feature of these islands, at first glance, are the huge boulders that litter the western and southern shores on several of the islands.

Another highlight, as the visitor soon discovers, are the white coral-sand beaches, splendidly picturesque and often deserted. The most interesting sights, however, are to be found beneath the waves. Some of the most spectacular coral growths in the world can be found here - and the same boulders that scatter the shores have turned the waters around the Similans into an adventure playground for divers.A variety of forces have given shape to these islands. To begin with, the Similans were intrusions, upwellings of hot magma that found their way through weak spots in the Earth's crust 100-150 million years ago, working their way through thick layers of sedimentary rock already laid down at least 100 million years earlier still. Then, unimaginably powerful movements in the crust cracked the granite substratum into blocks, preparing the way for experiments in sculptural form by wind and wave.

Today, piles of curious stones, some of them as big as houses, lie as though collected and later abandoned in careless heaps by some ancient race of beachcombing giants. Even Donald Duck Rock, the distinctive formation teetering high above the cove on Koh Similan (Island No.8), has been shaped in this way. And boulders just like these spill in jumbled piles down beneath the surface of the sea to 35m and beyond, where submarine peaks, canyons, caves and passageways provide scuba divers with some of the most interesting submarine prospects in the world. (On the west side of the islands, currents have kept the formations clear of sand; on the coral-covered sandy slopes of the east side, the boulders have been largely buried.)Underwater, meanwhile, all sorts of marine creatures have helped establish the reefs and the sandy beaches. When you climb up to Donald Duck Rock, consider the brilliant white sand below. This beach is in large part a product of diligent scraping and nibbling away by organisms such as the parrotfish - an average individual of which species may excrete more than 16 kilos of sand in the course of a year's lunching on hard corals. And there's plenty here to eat.

The conditions for coral growth are ideal, with a minimum prevailing sea temperature of about 28oC and exceptionally clear waters. More than 200 species of hard coral alone have so far been identified in this area, while these islands have the greatest profusion of reef fish in Thai waters. In fact, in terms of both marine life and bottom topography, there's more variety than you'll find in most other dive destinations around the world. Similan Diving has almost everything - coral walls (if you count Koh Bon, to the north, as one of the Similans), big rocks, huge sea fans and barrel sponges, caves, swim-throughs, and plenty of shallows for snorkelling as well. For, although the fringing waters around the islands average from 30-45m dropping down to 70-80m between islands, you'll find coral gardens in as little as six to seven meters.