True Story: Phi Phi is not closed for diving!
After having a conversation with one Dive Centre owner on the boat the other day, I heard that the world are reporting that Phi Phi Islands will be closed to divers from June – October… I was totally amazed as I geared up to jump into the Sea at Koh Bida Nok, a dive site at Phi Phi – Hmmm.. Phi Phi dive sites are open !
So after very little research and also knowing that this isn’t the case, I wanted to let you know what is being reported here = the facts.. Maya Bay the stunning secret place we all remember from the film ‘The Beach’ starring Leonardo Dicaprio, closed from 1 June – October for the re-generation of the beach and the coral reefs in the beautiful bay (which btw the dive boats are far too big to go into!) for visitors to go on to. Full story reported by one of the local online newspapers can be found HERE
Let’s give her some breathing space and allow the beauty to return.. It’s reported that Maya Bay will be closed each year for 4 months to allow rest of this very popular tourist attraction.. Phi Phi dive sites remain open in the National Park.
For the divers amongst us, last year the Marine Authorities introduced rules that the Dive Centres could not take Discover Scuba Divers or first day of the Open Water course students to Phi Phi dive sites – hallelujah! Just to explain why, our reefs are beautiful and need protecting, if you’ve never dived before in the open water you need to learn skills and a major skill is that of buoyancy.. if you haven’t been taught then how do you know what to do? So you could be bouncing around, that bouncing around could be into corals resulting in damage which could take years to repair or even irreversible damage – make sense? So we take beginner divers to dive sites which are more suitable, shallower depths, sandy beneath and no corals directly below whilst performing any dive skills.
We hope this verifies that Phi Phi dive sites are not closed and that certified scuba divers can book to dive at sites around Phi Phi Islands.. there is a National Park fee for everyone that enters, 400thb entry fee plus 200thb for diving so 600thb (as of 14 June 2018) for the day collected on the boat in cash on the day you dive.
As we approach green season here in Phuket please do note that the boat schedules can change dependent upon the weather conditions on the day – we do still go diving if it’s raining! As I’m writing this it’s glorious sunshine and blue skies btw..
Happy Diving All! 🙂