Phuket was known as Bukit, Junk-Ceylon or Muang Talang. Bukit is the name that derives, in meaning from the Tamil Manikram or Crystal Mountain. Junk- Ceylon is the name that was found on all the old maps (Ptolemy’s Geographical), written by the Greek, Alexandrian, the Geographer. In the third century A.D. and it was also named Muang Talang from the part of the Srivichai and Siri Tahmarach empires. It was also called Monton Phuket in Rama V’s reign.

Heroines Monument.

The most important historic event is the story of two heroines. Thao Thep Kasatri (Kunying Jan) and Thao Sri Sunthorn (Kunying Mook). The people of Phuket were assembled led by these two heroines to fight with the Burmese. The Burmese army came to Phuket to attack, but after a month’s long siege, the Burmese were forced to depart, well and truly beaten.

On 13th March 1785, Kunying Jan and her sister were credited with the successful defence of Phuket. In recognition King Rama 1, bestowed upon Kunying, the honour of Thao Thep Kasatri! A title usually only reserved for Royalty. According to legend local Phuket women were disguised as men to become male soldiers.

Phuket Island as a long history, in centuries past Phuket was an important trading post on the eastern shore of the Bay of Bengal, shipping and dealing with sailors from the Arab and Malay worlds. India, Burma, China and, of course Siam. By the 16th century, Phuket was well known to the Europeans, first Portuguese and Dutch, and then the English and French sailed to its fabled shore.

At that time, Phuket enjoyed an unprecedented surge in wealth, when tin was found to be available in large quantities. Ambitious hardworking miners and businesses flocked to Phuket and from the province South China came to the island as well. Nowadays there is still a Chinese element in Phuket cuisine, architecture, Chinese community and Chinese Temples.

Peter and Bente from Denmark, who completed the Northern trip were joined by three French men, Alain, Bertrand and Sylvian.

The first dive of the trip was at Shark Point. Captain Pu dropped the customers on the “shallow rock” on pinnacle two. As soon as we hit the water we were surrounded by fish. Shark Point is a beautiful dive with gorgeous soft corals, huge gorgonion sea fans and massive barrel sponges. The pinnacle was full of schools of fusiliers, snappers and yellow fin barracudas. The site lived upto it’s name by giving us the opportunity to see a large leopard shark sitting quietly on the bottom. A great photo opportunity for the divers with cameras.

Our second dive was on Koh Bida Nai. We entered the water on the north side of the island where we dived along the wall. An ideal place for macro with many different types of nudibranch. Koh Bida Nai has a combination of sloping reef and walls, so it offers a great variety of life. There are some amazing coloured magnificent anemones all swaying in the current. The third dive was Koh Haa Islands 2 and 4. Again, a variety of topography with the walls of the Islands with a sandy patch in between. The customers, all keen photographers except Bente took the opportunity to slowly scour the walls for nudibrach, shrimps, hermit crabs and other macro critters.

The night dive was in the lagoon. Albeit a shallow dive the life was incredible with large hermit crabs walking along the bottom, flounders laying in the sandy bottom, red reef crabs and numerous lobsters. The harlequin crab was also spotted. At the back of the boat there was a huge bait ball that was attracted to the light. A perfect ending to the days diving.

Unfortunately, the weather was not kind to us and we were unable to go to Hin Daeng and Hin Muang, but this did not detract from the great diving that was to be experienced. The first dive on day 2 was the caves on Koh Haa Yai. The Cathedral has a wonderful entrance.

From inside the cave as you look out there is a wonderful contrast of colour. The group had a great time posing for silhouette shots in the entrance of the cave. The reef has some fantastic whip and stunning soft corals. Lobsters were seen hiding in the cracks on the rocks. Nudibranchs and wart slugs were plentiful. The reef cuttlefish was also seen. The second dive was Koh Haa Neau (North Island) The corals here are unbelievable. There is a swim through that opens onto a field of lilac soft corals that look as if they have been on steroids as they are so huge. This site offers boulders with soft corals in the initial part of the dive and then onto a plate coral reef with a huge school of resident snappers. For dive 3 we headed back to Koh Bida Nok, the sister Island to Koh Bida Nai. The topography offers a combination of sloping reef and walls, so the marine life is diverse. A turtle made his appearance and was posing for the cameramen!!! The group decided to do a night dive. This was on Koh Bida Nai. The night dive was wonderful with large hermit crabs, decorator crabs were found on the walls. There was an abundance of crabs in various shapes and sizes. A huge barracuda graced us with his presence as he was hunting around the rocks.

Day 3 and the first dive was on Hin Dot. This dive site is an undived treasure, definitely worth doing. The rocks are surrounded with huge amounts of fish. Often you have to part the fish to see the walls. There is a huge variety of nudibranch on this site. The highlight however, was the stone fish that was found on the wall at 9m. Talk about master of disguise!!!!!

This site will be dived more often by us on MV Scuba Adventure. It is a gem waiting to be opened!!! Our final dive of the trip was on the West side of Koh Doc Mai. The gentle slope here with numerous crevices are homes for bamboo sharks. We managed to find 2 tucked away. In the shallows there were multiple glossidoris nudibranch . This dive was enjoyed by all and it was agreed that it was a good choice for the end of the trip.

Northern Cruise to Similan Islands and Richilieu Rock

This trip left from Tap Lamu with Peter and Bente from Denmark, Emil and Patrick from Sweden and Urs from Switzerland. We sailed for a few hours to Koh Bon where we slept for the night. The first morning we had a check dive on Koh Bon Reef. Urs, who was doing his Advanced Open water course on board completed his deep adventure dive. The reef was active with beautiful schools of yellow snappers, the 2 resident golden trevellies made their appearance. The resident Napolean also made a visit.

After breakfast Patrick did the skills for the Discover Scuba. He was very confident and managed the skills with ease. The second dive had octopus, cuttle fish, banded sea snake and a manta!!!! We decided to move to Koh Tachai where we attempted to do the Pinnacle. Unfortunately, the current was so strong that Kath couldn’t make it to the mooring line… Another time!! All was not lost as we headed to the reef where we had a gentle easy dive. The night dive was also on the Reef. Fred, the resident barracuda accompanied us throughout the dive trying to hunt by torchlight. For a predator, he is not good at catching his prey (maybe he needs glasses!!)

On day 2 we went to Richelieu Rock where we did 3 dives. Each dive was completely different. The school of barracuda were hanging around the crescent as usual. They are a magnificent sight. One of the first things we saw was a Devil Scorpion fish moving along the bottom. This dive site is an incredible place and offers so much diversity from large schools of fish to macro. Each diver really enjoyed looking into cracks and crevices to see what could be found…pipefish, shrimps, moray eels, mantis shrimps and so much more. A Devil Ray was seen at the surface during lunch. A rare sight!!! Our final dive was at Koh Tachai. Emil, Peter, Bente and Kath went onto the pinnacle with zero current. A vast change from the day before. Peter and Bente had to abort the dive. A pity, as it was truly amazing. A huge school of barracuda with hundreds of fish appeared and stayed for a while. The batfish were hanging around one of the boulders and the trevellies were menacing the snappers and fusiliers. Elaine, the Dive Master on the boat took Urs and Patrik onto the reef where they saw a turtle.

The first dive on day 3 was on Koh Tachai. A good dive with some current. The soft corals and gorgonion sea fans are stunning. This dive site always has so much activity on it that it is difficult to put into words. You just have to experience it first hand. Our second dive of the day was on Koh Bon Reef heading towards the West Ridge. A manta made it’s appearance towards the end of the dive. Albeit a brief encounter it way still lovely to see this majestic creature. After dive 2 we headed to the Similan Islands and into Donald Duck Bay, where some of the customers went onto the beach to take photos from the view point. Urs completed his navigation dive as part of his advanced course. The natural navigation part of the dive was a dream with us finding a Green turtle sitting quietly under a rock. Our third dive on Three Trees was enjoyed by all on the boat. The reef is a sloping running reef on Island 9. There were several turtles in the shallows. We saw a Napolean Wrasse as we dropped in. Three Trees has an abundance of aquatic life. Our final dive of the day was a night dive on West of Eden. This site with the rocky formations and coral blocks is an ideal environment for many nocturnal creatures. There were plenty of lobsters, various crabs and shrimps. A free swimming giant moray was actively hunting. Always a great sight.

Day 4 and our final dives were on Shark Fin Reef. The South side has the most incredible rock formations. The enormity of the boulders is very imposing. During this dive we saw garden eels and numerous blue spot rays in the sand. We were lucky enough to see a huge bump head parrot fish hiding in a crack in one of the rocks. To see this fish so close was breath taking. The surgeon fish always look as if they are kissing the rock as they feed on the algae growing. Shark Fin also has the large boxfish, something that isn’t seen often on other sites in the Similans. Our final dive of the trip was on the north side of Shark Fin. Once again we saw the bump head parrotfish. The north side has rocks in the shallows and slopes gently to the bottom. A relaxing dive for the end of the trip.

Congratulations to Urs for completing his Advanced Open Water on the trip and to Patrik who had several dives on the Discover Scuba program. He is now bitten by the diving bug and will at some point in the future do the Open Water Course, so he can dive with his brother Emil.

Scuba Cat Diving was been based on the beach road of Patong for the past 18 years, but this year, things changed.

New Locations

A move away from the tuk tuks, tailors, massage parlours and Muay Thai advertisements (yes those of you who have already been to see us will recall “Monday Night, Monday Night……….” )to a new location inside the Kee Plaza, a fantastic hotel and shopping facility 200m off of the Beach Road. This has enabled us to have a larger retail selection, much more selection for our customers to choose from Scubapro, Aqualung and many more.

Kee Plaza

We have  kept our classrooms in Soi Watanna but opened a second shop putting retail and booking’s on the ground floor, this has allowed us to have our dive centre at both ends of Patong so is more convenient for you all. Our fun pub has moved to the roof top terrace we created this year.

Meet the team

It has been a different 6 months but things are progressing well.

Scuba Cat Diving, 5 * CDC is still under British ownership and management and they have the only female Course Director, Sarah Kench, conducting monthly IDC’s on Phuket. Along side this we are the only DDI (Disabled Diver International) Instructor Trainer Centre in Asia.

Scuba Cat has a long history of being eco aware, from laying artificial reefs, becoming the first National Geographic Centre in Phuket, bi-annual underwater clean ups and winning awards from Project AWARE. This is consolidated with our 5 year commitment to monitor reefs at a local island in conjunction with reef check trainers from China on a yearly basis as we are the only reef check centre on Phuket. Recently we won the Green Star Award, the first dive centre to achieve this on Phuket and quickly followed it up by becoming the first Dive Centre in Phuket to go 100% Aware.

Following the changes we made on the retail side of the business this year Scuba Cat has also made changes in the type diving we are offering.

As always we conduct our courses to the highest standards, with emphasis on quality rather time. IDC’s are available every month along with DSAT Tech diving up to Instructor level.

We are  running 3 Diving boats this year, all of which will have Nitrox available and limited numbers of divers on them, this will enable us to have 3 different schedules which will suit all divers and snorkelers.  Whether you are a snorkeller, brand new to diving or looking to change your life by joining us working in Paradise, no problem, we have a program to suit you and your whole family.

Daytrips to the local islands around Phuket on board MV Scuba Fun will run 3 dives per day at different locations. New for this year there will be freshly cooked meals from our own kitchen cooked by the awesome Chef from Lair Le Tong Restaurant.

Half day trips to the local reefs of Phuket on MV Scuba Sport, new for this year allowing boat diving on mornings, afternoons and night dives. Sightings on the reefs have been beyond our expectations, with things we have not seen around Phuket in many years, the most recent being a free Swimming Ribbon Eel.

Our liveaboard MV Scuba Adventure will run trips to both the North Andaman and South Andaman this season, allowing for 3, 4 or 7 day trips offering the best diving Thailand has to offer. As always she offers un-crowded conditions, by having reduced numbers on the boat and is run by our own Tour leader Kath Ridley and the best Captain and Crew on Phuket. A brand new schedule is being launched for the summer and next high season to give you even more variety.

A new IDC website created by our website designers dedicated to professional level courses and Internships will be launched very shortly.