Price: $51 USD/night inclusive of breakfast
Transportation: Lots of walking & Taxi or Tuk Tuk -->avg ride 15 mins. = $10 USD
Dive Company: Sea Bees - definitely the best way to dive with breakfast and dinner served to you each day Thai style!
The first night when we arrive, The Dunlap's (Christina and Dirk) and Sara Laster all got together to walk down the streets of Patong Beach. Our hotel was located right on the beach and was a pretty good setup for the price. I could have used a softer bed since it felt like laying on hard concrete, but we were so tired each night, we didn't have to worry about falling asleep. We had a great Thai dinner with drinks in a fresh pineapple, walked around to all of the shops selling cheap knock-offs, then headed back to our hotels since we had an early morning of diving.
Saturday morning we were all picked up by Sea Bees diving company. http://www.sea-bees.com/ The boat was 2 stories and the largest boat we have dived on yet. We dove two dives that day at Racha Noi. Here we saw 3 different octopus that were quite incredible. Of course this was the day that I forgot to bring the camera, and we never saw the octopii again...after a long day of diving, we all came back to get ready to head to FantaSea.
FantaSea http://www.phuket-fantasea.com/ is a cultural themepark and show of Thailand. We had an extravagant Thai buffet before the show. Right before the show, we happened to pass a sweet baby tiger that was being fed and available to take pictures with. I was in heaven, it was the cutest thing I had ever laid eyes upon!
The second day of diving was Super Sunday. We dove 4 dives this day including a night dive. We started off going to Shark Point, Anemone Reef, then Phi Phi Le, and finally the night dive at Ko Dok Mai. Shark Point had to be one of my favorite dives because it is here where we saw the Leopard Shark (seen with Kaes below). This was the first time either of us has seen one and it was truly an amazing site. They are quite docile and don't mind if you come up close for a picture. Don't worry though, they don't have any teeth! The islands of Phi Phi Don and Phi Phi Le are beautiful. They are truly a place you don't think really exists. Maya Bay at Phi Phi is the place where the movie The Beach was filmed and was quite a popular place. This day was amazing except for the fact that I got sick on the way home. Being sea sick is no fun!!!
The last day of diving on Monday was just as good as the rest of the dives. We went to the ship wreck King Cruiser and back to Shark Point again. King Cruiser had more fish than I had ever seen! You almost had to part the fish to be able to swim through them. We saw many different types of fish including large lion fish (second picture below), barracuda, turtles, crocodile fish, jellyfish (third picture below), porcupine fish, and many more. Shark Point was just as great as the first time because unlike the first time we dove it, this time we saw a momma eel with 17 of her babies!!! The picture below only shows 7, but the rest were under the coral right next to where this picture was taken.
The last day we decided to take it easy and go to another one of the beaches (Karon beach) to look around. The weather was amazing the entire time but was definitely a little steamy the last day. We were heading back to the airport that afternoon, but couldn't do so before getting one more Thai massage. The massage place was right next to our hotel and gave 1 hour Thai massages for $9 USD!!! They were great and was a excellent way to wind down after our strenuous vacation :)
