Lakbay-freak: Underwater Scooter in Phuket

Underwater Scooter in Phuket
September 19, 2012


It's time for our underwater scooter adventure.  There are two kinds of this tour, one is a group tour in a large boat and the other one is a private tour in a speed boat and have your lunch in a restaurant, it is a bit more expensive.  We chose to be on a group tour, included in the package are accident insurance, hotel pick up and drop off, complementary drinks on board, lunch buffet on the boat, 5 minute banana boat ride, swimming, snorkeling and the underwater scooter ride which is about 15 minutes.  The clear canoe is not available during these times and we were not able to do that.  After all these off shore activities, we headed to Coral beach, which is on the other side of the island, it's your free time of about 1 hour, you can snorkel again if you want to or relax on the beach, they have some souvenir shops and a small bar so bring along some extra cash.  Distance from Patong to Chalong pier is about 15 minutes, and from pier to dive site is 30 minutes.  Upon boarding the boat you will be asked to take off you foot wear and have a sea sick pill which is provided.  This is a whole day activity around 8am to 4pm.   The tour is operated by Joy Dive and it cost THB6,600 for both of us.  It was  booked through Phuket Easy Tour.
.

                                                    Underwater Scooter Adventure Video

• Swimming and snorkeling.  After arriving at the dive site off shore of Coral Island, the crew prepares all the equipment.  While waiting for your turn, you can go swimming and snorkeling in the clear waters and feed the fish.  

• Banana Boat Ride.  They have a double model with two seating tubes side by side, it's wider and less prone to flip over.  The ride is about 5 minutes

• Underwater Scooter Ride.  It's an underwater vehicle that gives you a scuba experience with speeds up to 4 mph and rides 4 meters deep.  It has a double and single seater models.  It's operable by a push of a button for the motor and handles for steering.  One diver in scuba goes along during the ride.  We tried the double seat, I did the driving and Jona is the passenger behind me.  It rides so slow that it looks like we're sitting still, you will notice that you are moving when the fish runs after the food  as the scooter drags us.  

• Lunch Buffet On Board.  After all those activities, we had our lunch while on our way to Coral Beach.  We had two chicken dish, soup, rice and fruits.  

• Coral Beach.  It's a beautiful place to relax with white sandy beach and blue waters.  They also have shops and bars.  Stayed here for about 1 hour.

• On our way back to the pier they served us 1 round of rhum cola to celebrate the day.   Everything went great except for 1 that bothers me, they literally asks for tip.   There's nothing wrong with 'tips', but for me asking for it is unethical, should be voluntary and please leave the box alone, don't push it to each one of us.  Sorry bro, I'm not giving any.  

On our way back to the hotel we passed by Patong beach, so I asked the driver to drop us off to enjoy for some time at the beach and watch the sunset. We had our dinner and walked back to hotel ourselves.

Arm bar girl at Patong Beach

See my entire Phuket Trip post.