thank you for all the info so far. so far it looks like im going to focus on the similan islands ko phi phi don and some of the krabi province mainland (elephant treks and stuff).
as for getting open water certified... i got my certifactaion i think 5 years ago at a place called extreme detours in eu clair. but extreme detours has to my knowledge gone out of bussiness. my favorite place in calgary for anything dive related is the dive shop across from hooters on mcloude trail. i was certified in waterton and dont recomend it. its basicaly a glacier lake i went in the middle of summer and i found out that glacier water is basically almost the coldest water in the world to dive in. LITERALY!! if you can get out to vancouver island i would recomend that or even better somewhere tropical. the only thing is that i have heard in tropical destinations the training isnt always as good because competition is so fierce in places that they just zip you through so that you can basically go straight to diving. i dont find diving is a complicated activity but its good to know how to use a dive chart so you dont have a life threatening accident. i did some specialty training through ogden point dive center on victoria island last year in march. the water was clear a tad colder then in summer but not to to major, and hotel pirces where dirt cheap i stayed at the harbour... something or other about 3 blocks from ogden point and it was like 80$ a night for a full suite, which i thought was awesome. i was in walking distance to downtown, the warf, the main strip, and the dive shop.
hope that helps at all
Richard
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