New Years Party 2009/2010

Another passes and the new comes in. Every year we celebrate in style, good company, good food, good music and of course good fun. This year we had a fancy dress theme to the new years eve party, which was held on the beach outside the dive school. As you can see some of the costumes were great and we all had a great time dancing away to live music from Monrak Bora Bora.The fesivities continued into the small hours of the morning, sunrise for the new year was another special one. The fun didn't stop there, after we all had a few hours sleep we took a boat load of 40 people over to Sai Daeng beach were the games continued , a day off for all the staff fun and games on the beach, people of different cultures and back ground coming togther and enjoying each others company. Lets hope the new year continues as well as it starts.

November - December 2009

Monsoon season, although this year the wind and rains never came. The diving conditions remained fantastic all the way through the traditional rainy season. In fact the sea was so flat that it looked like the boats were floating above the water!!!!! During this time the island has fewer tourists so if you are lucky with the weather; it's an excellent time to visit. The marine conservation program closes over the monsoon season, but normal fun dives and courses go on throughout the year, as usual we had the good fortune to meet many interesting people from all over the world. During November the dive school joined in with the local community to celebrate the Loykatong Festival. Its always a great night when all the island locals get together sing and dance the night away. Everyone constructs small floating boats which are set out to the sea with a candle , the meaning is to wash away all our misfortunes and to start again with a fresh start.

August - October 2009

During this time the island is full, many Europeans, especially from Italy and France give Koh Tao a very cosmopolitan atmosphere. Diving at this time is great, this year we have been fortunate to see many whale sharks, also the number of turtle sightings have increased significantly to previous years. The visibility is always good at this time; it is not unusual to have 30 meter visibility, making for excellent fun dives at our top dive sites.

The marine conservation program has also been going well with many new students here to assist with the Save Koh Tao ' Buoyancy world ' project. This year we planned to make a new artificial dive site at the Twins. Eight dive schools from the island were involved and we all had loads of fun, and hot days constructing the individual structures. New Heaven's structure was the Himpaman Tree (Thai for cashew tree). Our structure was designed to grow corals as well as to be an interesting piece of art work. We were unable to complete the project as the weather began to change toward the end of September and the deployment of the structures to the sea has been delayed until after the monsoon season.

June - July 2009

Summer time, well tropical summers are pretty much like the rest of the year and the weather during this time can range from super hot and flat to big waves and torrential rains. so as you can imagine the dives are different every day. At this time the east side of the island opens up and we can dive at sites such as Laem Tien, H?n Wong Pinnacle and King Kong Rock. The t?des are much lower at th?s t?me so we have an extended beach out the front of the dive school, plenty of room for beach football, volley ball and frizbe. Although the weather is not so hot as the dry season long summer days are for sure fantast?c here on Koh Tao.

April - May 2009......... School Holidays

As this time is the Dry season in Thailand, most schools are closed. All the kids whose parents are working on the island are generally sent to boarding school, or to live with Grand Mun on the mainland. So during the hot dry season months the island has a different atmosphere, all the koh tao kids are back and the island surely benefits from this.

April 13th - 15th........ Songkran 2009

For those of you who have been here at this time, you will remember april is busy month. Thailand has it's main holiday break 'Songkran' and the entire country is off celerbrating the coming of the rains. of course the rains are not guarnteed so everyone in the whole country fills up water guns and just completely soak each other. if you are lucky you may well get some purfumed talc thrown in as well.As you can imagine we are not shy to join in on the fesivities, this year at New Heaven the dive school held a memorable live music garden party. A local band from Bangkok joined us for a few happy days of music, laughter and of course some water in your face !!!!

March 22nd 2009 " Save Koh Tao Festival"

This year the festival ran over 2 days, new heaven dive school took a few days off to enjoy the activities and enjoy some time on the island with the local community members. Amy and dagamar did a fantastic job getting the save koh tao marine booth ready, and a few afternoons were spent listening to fred singing a few tunes. Our surve and sosphistcated instructor wow a prize for the best dressed recycled costumes, although those lady boys sure put in a good show.you can view some ofthese events in our photo ablum section.

these festivals are are about conservation and getting the message across with good times and music, this year the bands put on another amazing display of thai reggae/scar, a good time was had by all apart from a few morons who drank too much and ending up stabbing each other !!!! i guess sometimes people just don't get the message.

March 3rd 2009Hello again so slowly the website improves, it will take a while but we will be getting more pictures up on the site soon so you can visualise what we are writing about, better still why don't you book yourself a holiday or make a life decision and come to vist us for a while. Of course the choice is yours , but people forget that sometimes and make them selves so busy they forget they need time to relax, by doing stuff other than normal activity. so in some way i hope this website can help you to remember that life is there there to enjoy .

We all enjoy different things but if you like warm weather, tropical ambiance, abundant nature, and good people, then i can safely say you will enjoy your time hear.

oh the vis , it averaging about 15m. and abel saw two sea horses today he was really happy >

February 22nd

Wow what a busy island Koh Tao has been the last few weeks. A famous Swedish Reggae band were on the island and the place was packed. The visability has been great too the last few weeks , looks like it will be like that till the next full moon. so if you are thinking about a vist come down now !!

Since i last wrote we have taken on Three new DMT'S Fred (Quebec )

David ( France )

Pawel ( Poland)

All are progressing well and its been fun to have so many different type of characters in the shop. Also joining the New Heaven Team we have three new Students for the New Heaven Reef Conservation Program.

Amy ( England )

Kai ( Holland )

Debbie ( Australia)

You can find out more about these courses on the relevant pages on this website.

The sea is Blue and the trees are Green Koh Tao looks beautiful at the moment so if you are thing about a holiday or want to spend time with old friends come and give us a visit.

January 31st 2009

So its been over a month now since i last wrote to you on this blog. To be honest i am new to all this web site stuff but find it a fascinating way to communicate with people, we truly have come into a global age. Hopefully i can use this blog to keep you up to date with the activities and life at new heaven.

New years is now a month old and as 2009 sees us start a year where the developed countries are screaming depression, doom and gloom. I often ask my self , why do people jump on the headlines so intently ?

It's fortunate for us here to see so much enthusiasm a positive vibration rather than that negative outlook. So although business is down we are happy as ever living life with joy. The music is flowing and the butterflies are out.

The monsoon winds seem to have settled and visibility is improving everyd

ay, shark island has 20 meter vis in places and if the flat seas continue all will clear up soon. many events are coming up this year concerning the marine environment so i will keep you posted on this blog with a weekly update. right time to upload a picture.

December 15th 2008

Hello everyone and welcome to our new web site. I will be updating you all from this site on a weekly basis giving the latest information about our activities here on koh Tao. Presently we are just coming out of the monsoon season; the rains have been non-stop at times and at others non-existent. Weather patterns around the world are mixed up and here on the island it’s no different. The rains were so hard sometimes you could think you were in Scotland, then the next day the sky would be full with a glorious sunset that only tropical locations can offer.

As we approach the New Year we look forward to a season where we can increase our activities with marine conservation and help to make koh Tao a more environmentally aware tourist destination. Our reef conservation program started again in December, we hope all sea lovers can join us and learn new skills that improve knowledge and helps protect the world’s oldest ego system. Look under our marine conservation section to find out about courses on offer.

We also hope 2009 will be the year we open the Sattva Gardens yoga and health resort. Preparations have been going well over the last year and the first bungalows are planned for completion in July. We will keep you up to date with the progress as the year goes by.

Yoga classes are still being held on the veranda at the dive shop at 5.30pm. A small number of yoga enthusiasts have been practicing over the low season. Again we welcome you to join us, if you never tried before …….well never tried never know!!!!!