South East Asia Dive Site Recommendations?

Teg Veece

I'm planning on spending a week somewhere in South East Asia this Christmas to do some diving. I was wondering if people here could recommend a great location for it.
I need to travel from Sydney to Phuket (southern Thailand) to meet a friend so a location somewhere between these two would be ideal - maybe in Indonesia, Malaysia or Thailand?

In terms of diving experience, I've been diving for about 10 years and have a Padi Rescue Diver qualification.

I'm really quite unfamiliar with the region so if people could suggest some epic dive sites, it'd be much appreciated.

locum-motion

"Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand" is not very specific. You may as well ask for a recommendation for a dive site in "the Caribbean" or "the Mediterranean".

Teg Veece

locum-motion wrote: »

"Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand" is not very specific. You may as well ask for a recommendation for a dive site in "the Caribbean" or "the Mediterranean".

I realise that it's very general but I haven't booked flights yet so I'm not really tied down to a specific location at the moment.

For example, if someone was looking for great dive locations in Australia, I'd recommend doing a live-aboard on the Great Barrier Reef that goes out past Osprey Reef. Mike Ball Dive Expeditions is one of the best operators in this area:
http://www.mikeball.com/4-nights-fly-dive-coral-sea
and while you're in Northern Queensland, the Yongala shipwreck off the coast of Townsville is another must-dive location
http://www.yongaladive.com.au/
In Western Australia, Ningaloo Reef is a great spot for coral life, Mantas, turtles and Whale Sharks from Feb to April. The Navy Pier dive in Exmouth is on the best in Australia: http://www.ningaloowhalesharkndive.com.au/diving/dive-the-navy-pier.html
Another good location (although 2 dives is probably enough to see it all) is the nurse shark cave dive at South West Rocks about 5 hours north of Sydney.
http://www.southwestrocksdive.com.au/

Something like that anyway!

Gav104

Hi,

I dived a few years back in Indonesia in places around Bali like the tulamben wreck and to see the Manta rays at Nusa Penida,also at certain times of the year Mola Molas or sunfish can be seen here.
I have also dived the Gili islands but my favourite was Komodo which is a a bit out of the way but is very high on the list of best diving in the world.It really is as good as the hype.At one site I counted 18 manta rays and a few days previously a dugong had been sighted.

As for Malaysia ,I dived in Borneo only.Places like Kota Kinabalu and Sipadan which again is one of the best in the world.Made famous by Jacques Cousteau.
So many sharks and turtles everywhere you'll get bored of them. But for me the highlight is the muck diving back at Mabul island where most of the accommodation is located.Great if you love photography.

If I can give you another suggestion it would the Philippines, its along side Malaysia and Indonesia making up the coral triangle.
In Malapascua you can see very rare thresher sharks getting cleaned.
In Dumaguete you can do amazing muck diving just off the shore of most of the resorts there or dive Apo island which has great corals and fish life.
Another is Puerto Galera ,this is where I am now,In the past week or so we have seen flamboyant cuttlefish and a blue ring octopus and then of course there is verde island where 40 meter visibility is common.

If you want me to be more specific on anything just let me know,I live in the Philippines for a few years now so I love yapping away the place.

Gavin

jonathan13

Gav104 wrote: »

Hi,

I dived a few years back in Indonesia in places around Bali like the tulamben wreck and to see the Manta rays at Nusa Penida,also at certain times of the year Mola Molas or sunfish can be seen here.
I have also dived the Gili islands but my favourite was Komodo which is a a bit out of the way but is very high on the list of best diving in the world.It really is as good as the hype.At one site I counted 18 manta rays and a few days previously a dugong had been sighted.

As for Malaysia ,I dived in Borneo only.Places like Kota Kinabalu and Sipadan which again is one of the best in the world.Made famous by Jacques Cousteau.
So many sharks and turtles everywhere you'll get bored of them. But for me the highlight is the muck diving back at Mabul island where most of the accommodation is located.Great if you love photography.

If I can give you another suggestion it would the Philippines, its along side Malaysia and Indonesia making up the coral triangle.
In Malapascua you can see very rare thresher sharks getting cleaned.
In Dumaguete you can do amazing muck diving just off the shore of most of the resorts there or dive Apo island which has great corals and fish life.
Another is Puerto Galera ,this is where I am now,In the past week or so we have seen flamboyant cuttlefish and a blue ring octopus and then of course there is verde island where 40 meter visibility is common.

If you want me to be more specific on anything just let me know,I live in the Philippines for a few years now so I love yapping away the place.

Gavin

Hi gav,

I've been to Palawan, Philippines but on the north side only, did some charity work and island hoping. Been saving up for holidays and learn scuba diving there... my dream is to go to Tubbataha reef. I'm from Manila originally. Roughly, how much would it cost? thanks!

Gav104

jonathan13 wrote: »

Hi gav,

I've been to Palawan, Philippines but on the north side only, did some charity work and island hoping. Been saving up for holidays and learn scuba diving there... my dream is to go to Tubbataha reef. I'm from Manila originally. Roughly, how much would it cost? thanks!

Hi Jonathan,

I've never gotten around to going to Tubbataha but I'd love to go, I heard good stories about it.For sure it would be advisable to get a good few dives under your belt before you go even just to have a marker to compare "normal" dives to there at Tubbataha.It gets quite strong currents also.

As for the open water course ,you are looking at 16,000 php to 20,000 php.Depends if they are shore dive or boat dives ,use a pool or a quiet section of a bay to do the confined water skills and the distance of the dive sites to the dive shop (further away means more fuel for the boat means higher running costs passed onto the customer).

But don't let cost be your deciding factor,you'll only get one first open water course in your life so search around.

Any other questions just ask away.

Gavin

smurfjed

Missus (PADI Dive Master) says you should try Papua Indonesia, but its not cheap...... On a scale of 1-10 she put the Cairns Great Barrier Reef at #1 and Papua #10. She was extremely disappointed with the GBR!

smurfjed

jonathan13

Gav104 wrote: »

Hi Jonathan,

I've never gotten around to going to Tubbataha but I'd love to go, I heard good stories about it.For sure it would be advisable to get a good few dives under your belt before you go even just to have a marker to compare "normal" dives to there at Tubbataha.It gets quite strong currents also.

As for the open water course ,you are looking at 16,000 php to 20,000 php.Depends if they are shore dive or boat dives ,use a pool or a quiet section of a bay to do the confined water skills and the distance of the dive sites to the dive shop (further away means more fuel for the boat means higher running costs passed onto the customer).

But don't let cost be your deciding factor,you'll only get one first open water course in your life so search around.

Any other questions just ask away.

Gavin

Thanks for the info Gav, probably i will search around here in Ireland to get me started scuba diving, I've only done snorkling there at Puerto Galera way back in 1996..

Jon

Rangi

Sipidan is well worth a visit. Stay on Mabul, which itself is not too bad for diving.