The Bionic Salesman
A Journey around Thailand
There’s a dive shop every 20 metres in Phi Phi Town, and each one has a tattooed dude from Croydon or Helsinki just dying to sell you a half-day trip to the local dive sites.
But many of the people in the know just keep on walking past these shops and on out to Blue View Divers in the Viewpoint Resort at the eastern end of Loh Dalum Beach.
The advantage of Blue View Divers is that they run dives from Thai longtail boats, rather than the average motor yacht, and they are willing to be much more flexible about the diving schedule.
A typical dive trip around Phi Phi leaves port at 7am and returns at 1pm. Blue View Divers would rather launch the boat at about 10am for some late-morning diving before lunch on a quiet beach, followed by more diving in the afternoon.
This enables you to avoid the crowds at popular dive sites and provides time for a bit of post-prandial fun on the beach. In the past, this wa frisbee time, but Blue View have just taken delivery of a stock of Waboba Balls. So now it is just as likely to be Waboba time.
When we delivered, Caroline at Blue View said they were dying to try out the ball
“You have to remember to use some strength when you throw it, or it won’t work,” I said.
“Ah, no girly throws,” she said. “I think we can manage that.”
We haven’t heard from them since.
