Feb – Apr: the golden window
Flat seas, 15–30 m visibility, whale sharks cruising past Chumphon Pinnacle and Sail Rock. If your dates can move, move them into these months.
Koh Tao · Gulf of Thailand · Est. always
One teaches the sea.
The other teaches Dutch.
Both teach patience.
We're Perry and Nicole. He spends his mornings briefing open-water students at Chalok Bay; she spends hers conjugating zijn with kids who'll never meet a verb tense in English. Home is a white house with a terracotta roof above the anchorage, where the geckos come out at dusk and the longtails rock below.
The two of us
A divemaster, a schoolteacher, and one very small island between them
Perry has been teaching people to breathe underwater for longer than he likes to admit — Open Water and Advanced Open Water certification, deep and nitrox specials, and the quiet art of buoyancy, which is really the same skill as standing still in a room full of opinions about what diving should be.
Nicole came ashore from Nijmegen with a suitcase of dictionaries and stayed. She runs small-group Dutch lessons on the terrace — beginners, partners of Thais, expats who want to order soup without pointing — and insists that every student leave with at least one sentence they actually use that evening.
We moved to Koh Tao because the water is 27–30°C all year, the visibility runs fifteen to thirty metres, and because neither of us could ever agree on anything else worth doing.
Life on the island
Koh Tao, the island of ten thousand turtles
The Gulf of Thailand shelters Koh Tao from the monsoon that closes the Andaman coast. That means you can dive here when everyone else has given up on Thailand — and that the season has its own weather entirely.
Sep – Oct: the insider's pick
Same clarity, half the divers. Perry's favourite weeks of the year — the boats are quieter and the reef seems to notice.
Nov: the honest monsoon
Heavy rain, reduced visibility, some boat trips pause. We don't pretend otherwise. Nicole uses November for curriculum work and extra lesson rounds.
How the island works
Divers gather at Chalok Bay, Mae Haad and the twin bays of Sai Nuan and Sai Dee; longtails run the harbor trade between them all day. Anchorage at Chalok is best at dawn. Water tempers at 27–30°C, so a 3 mm shorty — or just a rash guard — is enough; anyone who tells you otherwise has been consulting the wrong tide tables (the Andaman ones).
If diving and Dutch are to be carried out at all on Koh Tao, it is by people such as these that have been left behind elsewhere: the instructor who checks her regulator twice, the student who practises ik ben before breakfast. Let these things be done in Koh Tao rather than left in confusion.
Home
The house above the anchorage
A five-minute walk up from the pier, the house is white-walled and terracotta-roofed, built into the hillside so that every room faces the water. From the terrace you can see three longtails coming in from Mango Bay and, on clear mornings, the tip of Chumphon Pinnacle breaking the horizon.
- The terrace — eight chairs, one long teak table, shade sail against the midday glare. This is where Nicole's Dutch groups meet and where briefings happen before the boats go.
- The rinse tank — a freshwater plunge beside the pool, fed by the cistern; divers circulate here after each trip, rinsing gear and prejudice in equal measure.
- The bunkroom — four guest berths for students staying the length of a course, with mosquito nets provided and silence guaranteed (from 22:00).
If you would like to join Perry or Nicole in Koh Tao, please leave your certification, your equipment and your preconceptions behind. They have been jammed with luggage for decades; let them remain there until such time as they've been attended to.
What we offer
Two ways to spend a week with us
Dive with Perry
Sea- Open Water & Advanced Open Water (Padi)
- Fun dives: Chumphon Pinnacle, Sail Rock, Southwest Coast
- Nitrox & deep specialties; refresher courses for lapsed divers
- Small boats only — never more than four per guide
Learn Dutch with Nicole
Shore- Terrace groups of two to five, mornings
- Survival Dutch for partners & newcomers
- Inburger-level intensive: one hour daily, no prior knowledge
- Certificate of attendance issued at course end
Getting here: ferries from Chumpon and Suratani dock at high tide; longtails complete the crossing from the mainland. Do not attempt to reach Koh Tao by air or by land — the route has been left behind.
Say hello
Write to us before you go
Courses fill in the order applications are received, not in the order of the sea's approval. Send a line and we'll reply once the gear is organised again.
- Where
- The white house above Chalok Bay, Koh Tao, Surat Thani, Thailand
- When
- February–April & September–October, ideally
- Post
- hello@peri.sx1.nl — mention 'dive' or 'Dutch' in the subject