yep, dived it in 2006 spent a few weeks out there & loved it!
yeah it was lovely, couldnt have got much closer to the water if we'd slept in it!
the viz was ahite though when i was there (Nov/Dec) as all the rainwater off the mountians was dragging all the mangrove crap into the water! Such a great feeling being in 20 mtrs of water and only knowing your on the bottom when you hit it, even though you cant see your feet! 
the western side of Thailand (similan islands etc) was much better though, viz out there is very seasonal i found. Did some great dives though, and i bloody missed seeing a whaleshark pretty much right of the jetty of ko tao too (must learn to swim quicker) 
would've loved to stay in one of those oriental style bunglows right on the beach on ko tao (you know he ones?) they looked beautiful!
Yeah i know the ones, there is only a few of them there. Probably loads now. I used to stay along the beach front then moved to the valley, no one knows about it and you can rent a place for like £150 per month and i had tv, fridge, 2 bedrooms, kitchen and shower. Its no hotel but as you can see by the pic its well worth it. I have photo of ko tao from about 1996 or 92 there is nothing there, just a path up to mai hat peer you know where the boats come in. i think they had about 2 bunglows on the island apparently 20 bart a night (back then about 10-20p) excluding residents. must have been amazing. I went to ko chang on the western side there are 2 ko changs and also ko Payam. But no diving there. There is only one boat to it once a week weather permitting. I was the only westerner on the island. Electric 4 hours a day on a generator which they had to extend for me as it was the world cup. Catching crabs on the beach and eating them. Just like paradise.
Yeah i have done a dive at Ko Pi Pi also, its really good there also. Never had any vis issues in march was over 20m all the time. must be a nightmare not being about to see your feet let alone dive buddy.
your eyes do get accustomed to the dark fairly easily tbh, its great with no torch if its a full moon! More often than not (especially in the red sea) if im not filming ill dive without a lamp as the poxy lionfish have learnt to home in on the divers torches so they can hunt by them! Can be a bit annoying when your filming and you stop, look down to see if your clear of everything only to find 4 huge lionfish right under you
mate 50+ minutes is nothing to be ashamed of! thats a more than respectable time to be getting out of 12L tbh, in fact its taken me ages to train my buddy to breath his cylinder dry so we can get a few more minutes in i used to swim a hell of a lot at a reasonable amatuer level in my (much) younger years so my breathing technique is fairly nice & slow which helps. Even though i havent really done much swimming over the last few years, its a bit like riding a bike, your body dosent forget it seems! now if only i could loose a stone or two.....
when we were out on the liveaboard in Thailand, one afternoon for an easy mess about dive we all agreed to go in on 200bar (or there abouts) and see who could get the most time out of it. Rules were no deeper than 10mtrs, no shallower than 5mtrs and you had to surface when you were down to 20bar. I surfaced approx. an hour after my buddy (we never strayed far from the boat, you could more or less see it all the time) much to the annoyance of one particular bloke on the boat who is EXTREMELY competitive! i ofter buddy up with his missus as her air consumption is fantastic. In fact me & her were the last to come out, and as id got in about 5 minutes before her i did the longest at 2hrs 26mins (shouldve stayed down an extra 4 mins lol) i looked like a bloody prune we i got out
Good tacktics by the lion fish i would be turding myself if i saw 4 just beneath me. I saw a giant grouper fish, that was huge, no idea if they are dangerous but i kept at a distance.
2hrs 26minutes, thats insane so much time for exploring. surely even if the water is 30 degrees you were cold by then, or do you wear something more warming. I get cold after 30mins even when the temp is 29 degrees 20 metres down.
All this talk i can't wait to go back.
There are loads of eels down there.
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It stretched right across the square and the web is massive
