Can't Scuba Dive!

No problem at all. You can still enjoy the colorfulness of marine lives. What you essentially need is simply a snorkeling set, viz. a mask and a breathing tube which is better familiar as a snorkel. These two pieces of equipment usually come as a single package with an elastic strip holding both together. To increase mobility at the skin of and under water, a pair of fins are particularly quite helpful, though not indispensable. Once putting on these, you are good to go. I met several non-swimmers who could get along with this equipment very well and had had a great time at the sea level. Snorkel is absolutely an amazing device; its structure and technology are fairly simple, but its usability and effectiveness are enormous. You might be able to stay in the pool water for ten minutes, trying to keep your head above the water. You could most likely do much shorter in the sea water if the waves are a little raging. But with the tube, you could stay for in for the whole afternoon. It helps slow down the state of exhaustion, as you no longer need to push yourself vertically. The head stays literally underwater most of the time, gazing at those fish and seahorses. All your body energy is then used most economically to kick the fins and propel yourself to that cluster of sea fans. The time really does not matter any more as it stops right there. I once felt that the whole afternoon was just a short moment that I needed it prolonged, until I realized the burning pain on my back and shoulder because of the sun. After that trip, the scarfskin on those parts started to peel off, and it felt really strange!

It's a lot cheaper to go on a snorkeling trip than a scuba trip due to lower equipment requirements. The experience may not be quite identical as of scuba diving, but I am sure you will get quite a lot out of it. To give some idea, a snorkeling day-trip to the Coral Island or Koh Hae (just 15 minutes offshore off Phuket's south by speedboat) including equipment and lunch costs from only 500Baht (roughly equivalent to 10EUR or 13US$)

Sincerely,
Boone (http://smilingland.blogspot.com)

PS: Be informed that fins are normally not included in the package and hardly be available even with extra cost. Instead, a live vest is provided for the novices. The only reason is to protect shallow-water corals which are usually hard and get broken easily when being walked upon. Some people walk -- with fins on -- on the hard corals and thereby damage them with no bad intentions. These corals takes decades to naturally grow, so please help protect them. Fins are a great propeller for divers but at the same time a great danger to the beauty we are after.