Samae San Dive Trips
The first time I discovered Samae San was on my Padi Open water course back in 1992. After making my Open water dives 1 and 2 in Pattaya my Father gave me the chance to complete my course in Samae San and I've never looked back.
To me Samae San was more like an Adventure and chance to see more than Pattaya. It is a nice ride when you travel along the Sukhumvit road, you can relax and look at the Thai country side the journey only takes 50 mins to get there but plenty to see on the way.
As you get close to the small fishing village where the pier and boats are, you will get a whiff of fish and squid drying in the morning sun as the local Thai people go about their business.
What is nice that Samae San village has not really changed since the 90's you still have the small wooden piers and plenty of fishing boats to see.
The local Fishing community are very friendly and helpful to scuba divers no problem in taking photo's or videos. It would be a shame if you didn't.
Back in the old days lol we used to have 2 small long tails which were very basic but very safe.
Being on the small boats you got know all the divers on the boat and helping each other into dive equipment and in and out of the boat.
The lunch was very Thai, fried rice great big pieces of fried chicken with heaps of water melon and pine apple, the only problem there was no toilet lol but we got over that with all the remote beaches to visit.
Sadly the old captains have retired now but we can get one of them Uncle Tong to do the odd dive trip for those of you who want to see how we did it in the early days.
Now we have an 18mt boat with a friendly Thai captain and boat boys plus we still have all the great food and new extras like hot and cold drinks, fresh water showers, plenty of seating and a western toilet lol.........
As you leave the pier and sail out to the dive sites you will notice a large island called Koh Samae San which has some beautiful remote beaches and lovely thick tropical trees and bush. All the islands are owned by the Royal Thai Navy so no jet scooters or banana boats (life is good) the islands make great photos and videos.
Some of the most popular dive sites are the WW2 Hardeep ship wreck which was bombed and sunk by the British RAF.
The ship rest's at 30mts max depth and offers so much aquatic life and coral growth it's amazing to see.
The first time I dived this shipwreck was with my brother Pete and it took my breath away ,this is a recommend dive to all Advanced divers subject to weather and sea conditions.
As time goes on the ship has started to come apart in the mid section Real Divers warn all their divers about this and keep to the large cargo holds to explore the wreck inside.
The coral dive sites are full of beautiful well kept corals and give you a chance to see some different and larger fish.
I've been lucky to see large Marble Rays, wild Dolphins, Reef sharks and huge Marlin.
Some of the most popular coral sites are Hin Chalem, Koh Cheuang, Shark Fin Rock and Koh Chan. These dive sites are great for Discover scuba divers to the more experience divers also night dives are great as you get to see heaps of squid.
I have always enjoyed the diving and fun in Samae San, as well as getting the chance to dive outside the Pattaya dive sites and also see some of the countryside.
In my own words I would recommend this trip not only for divers and students but all the snorkelers and passengers it's a great day out for ever one.
