beginner asia trip

[beth_castroll]

My husband and I have done a lot of Caribbean diving and would like to venture in the general direction of Asia for our next trip. We would like to go somewhere for 14 days total including travel. The main point of course would be diving but if we are traveling from San Francisco, Ca to say Thailand we want to see more than just the water. We have ruled out places like Fiji because we tend to stay away from resorts, see big price tags for honeymooning tourists and don't really know anything about the culture. We have ruled out Phuket as we aren't into any Full Moon Dance Parties as we're a tad old for that but still like a good party. We don't want any place that will require longer than 24 hour flight times. We would consider breaking it into 2 legs say, Bangkok and Ko Ta if the travel between didn't take too much time, say a day.

We are AOW divers who would want the following out of a trip.
1. 15-20 dives with short reef travel times and smaller faster boats
2. Small cabin, tree hut, yurt with fan/ac and at least access to communal kitchen/refrigerator
3. Local culture, street food, ruins or temples
4. Few Vegas Style resorts

Thanks for any feed back you have to offer

 

[Luko]

Mmmh... Looks like you should have been documenting a little more about culture and places before pigeonholing some of the areas you mention.

There's a lot more to Fiji than the honeymoon resorts of SavuSavu or Taveuni catering to american tourists. You'd hardly see any of that sort in Kadavu, the Yasawas, Northern Viti Levu or anyplace around Ovalau... the good thing about Fiji is that once you're out of your room you'd be immediately part of the local culture, even in Taveuni.

As for Thailand, Phuket is a quite big resort island but not the place for full moon parties, they're located on the other side of the Siamese peninsula on Koh Phangan nearby Ko Tao that you mention. You'd also be hard pressed to see ruins/temple nearby a diving spot, I hardly see any place as such in South East Asia, except for Bali.

That said when are you going, diving is very seasonal in Asia. Andaman coast of Thailand (Phuket) can be good (but clearly not the best in SEA) from December to April, otherwise you need to come up with another destination. reading your statement, I would say Bali is suitable (Bali fits almost everybody ) but that would rather be from April to October.
You can also access to many other places in Indonesia from Bali within a one day transfer.

 

[beth_castroll]

Thanks for your info. Don't mean to pigeonhole any area really. Clearly I have no idea what I'm talking about which is why I'm asking in a general forum.

Bali looks like an option that wasn't on my radar but could be.

Any more suggestions out there?

 

[Quero]

Beth, as Luko says, don't rule out all of Thailand, and in particular Phuket. The diving here is just perfect for you given your past experience, and our top dive site are mainly in the Andaman Sea, and mainly north of Phuket in the Similans and Surins national parks. Phuket Island itself is large and in fact does have some beach towns that are quite developed with pulsing nightlife (and even so we don't have full-moon dance parties), but the rest of the island is really quite rural with rubber and coconut and pineapple plantations, little villages, etc., so on Phuket you can pretty much get whatever you want in terms of atmosphere. We do have temples (but not temple ruins) and we do have culture, such as sea gypsy communities, local markets, temple fairs (e.g., at Wat Chalong), street food, etc. Because there's an airport here with shuttle flights all day long as well as direct flights from various Asia hubs, travel time is efficient.

If you were to come to Thailand for diving and culture, what I'd recommend would be an affordable liveaboard dive trip for 4-6 days (14-22 dives) and then perhaps some time at a place such as the ancient capital Ayutthaya, which is now in ruins (similar to Angkor Wat, but much smaller and not restored). So you could spend a week or so in the Phuket/Andaman Sea area, and the remainder of your time at an interesting cultural site.

Having said that, I agree that Bali is a good option. The only problem with diving and land-based tourism on Bali is that often you have to cross high mountains (there are active volcanoes on Bali) and you need a non-diving day before you can do so, which means it's not really practical to dive one day, tour the next, dive the next, etc. I love Bali, though, and I go every year or so for diving. It's hard to provide any further advice because much depends on the time of year you want to visit. Often my customers want to come to Thailand at a time of year I don't think provides the best experience, and at those times I send them elsewhere. Bali is generally my first suggestion at those times of year.