Diving from Singapore in August

[amadeus00]

I will have a few days in Singapore after a business trip to take a dip in the water. I can start my travel on 8/17 in the afternoon and must return to Singapore Sunday 8/21 for a early morning flight on Monday. Are there any operators that can arrange travel out from Singapore? What sites do you recommend with the restricted time frame. I only have 4 days so that limits the travel distance. Ideally I would like to bus or boat out of Singapore. Live aboards from Singapore can be considered but it has to fit that time frame. I don't think I have enough time to hit the big spots like Sipadan. Any suggestion from the locals?

 

[logic8482]

Hi,

In terms of boats from Singapore, you're pretty limited to either the White or Black Manta or a cruise with a stop in Redang. The Black Manta is in Indonesia this time of year, but the White Manta has a Malaysia trip 19th - 21st that would work, but I find the price quite expensive, cheapest base price is SG$650 for what you get. Not dove with them though. Whitemanta.com

Otherwise, you can join a trip to Tioman / Aur / Dayang in Malaysia. Most local shops operate to one of the 3 each weekend. Bus leaves Friday night and drops you back off Sunday night. Usually around SG$400 with equipment and you get in 6 dives max with most. You can also self-organize a trip to those locations, but that's gonna require some more effort and booking your own bus / ferry ticket up. You can see some sample itineraries at Amazing Dive Travel. Diving is not fantastic at these spots though.

Better Malaysia diving would be to head up via a 10 hours bus from Singapore or 12 hour train ride from Johor to Perhentian or Redang. This is the prime season for this part of Malaysia and the diving is warm and cheap. Best bet is to catch a bus from the company Transnasinoal, straight from Singapore to Pulau Terengganu / Jertah Transnasional. Book these tickets early, because there's only one Trans bus per night and it fills quickly. The other companies are much more expensive and labor intensive through customs. You can try Turtle Bay Divers / Watercolours and Tuna Bay in Perhentian, all are pretty well regarded.

Best place in reach this time of year is probably Bali. Flying up Wed night gives you 3 full days diving with a day to enjoy the island and catch a late night Sun flight back. You can fly with any of the budget carriers (Tiger/Jetstar/AirAsia/Garuda/LionAir although only a few have evening flights. You can go do the Tulumben area wreck dive and then go Mola Mola hunting down at Nusa, prime time for them, but its deep (30+m) and colder (22Cish) diving. There's also a decent manta dive. Check out Aquamarine's page for an example of the 4 day safari packages. AquaMarine Diving Bali. Not sure you have time to really get to any of the other prime Indonesian diving (Sulawesi / Raja etc.)

The other often visited spot that is in season is Ko Tao in Thailand. The areas been a bit over dove, but viz should be good and the diving is cheap with the chance of whale sharks. The only direct flight is with Bangkok Airways and its pricey, but you can catch a connection with most of the other airlines. This will be a bit riskier with your schedule.

Other options, although the season is not prime include, Cebu area or Malapascua, which you could just squeeze in or Phuket (take your chances with the rain). Check out Thresher Shark Divers or Evolution in Malapascua.

Others may have some lesser known destinations! Good luck and let me know if I can help any more.

Ryan

 

[vladimir]

Logic8482 knows the local options a lot better than I ever did. The recurrent theme, though, is that diving on peninsular Malaysia is often "map-close," but not "time-close." The flight to Tioman might be the exception. If time is the only constraint, rather than time and budget, then I'd really look hard at Bali, as he suggests. Remember that flying in and out of Changi is pretty painless, especially compared to American airports. But the trip from the Denpasar airport to Tulamben or Menjangan is a three-hour drive or more. If you lodge on Lembongan you will have similar logistics issues. And you can spend some time on the queue at immigration in Denpasar, as well. But the diving on Bali is worth the trip and the price, in my opinion.

 

[Zippsy]

Logic's summary is excellent and useful. I'll clarify some points though, and keep in mind that I work on the White Manta so my opinion has to be taken with a grain of salt, even though I try hard to be honest.

There are a few other liveaboards that sail directly out of Singapore. They are mostly budget operations and while I don't enjoy the boats, others do and their price can be anywhere between the White Manta and the shops that bus/ferry over. These other boats are (in order of quality / price of the boat going from top to bottom) the Dive Race, the Mata Ikan, the Samudra Quest and the Seaborne.

The reason many people dive off the White Manta - and the price is higher - is convenience and luxury. It's the only boat with all this - big en-suite cabins, hotel quality mattresses, passenger controlled air-conditioning, huge dive deck, great food served five times a day, a masseuse, etc. The boat leaves on a Friday night directly from the pier near the airport and returns on Sunday night. Between boarding and diving, you only have to gear up and relax. This avoids at least a 4 hour bus ride, the usual jam before the causeway, long queues at immigration on both sides of the causeway, dragging you gear on an off the bus several times, a mid-night to 3:00am crossing on a old boat, land cabins that don't match what's on the WM, commuting to dive sites, diving only the closest dive sites, etc. When I had less money and more patience, these budget trips are what I did because I could do 2 for almost the price of the best LOB. When I could afford it though, I jumped on the convenience because I actually felt like I had a holiday after a weekend on the boat, rather than I needed a holiday!

The Black Manta has just been refurbished and reflagged as an Indonesian boat. It will be hosting dive trips around Komodo until October, then Raja Ampat until April with a few other trips to Maumere, Ambon, Banda, etc. Therefore, it will not operate from Singapore to Malaysia any more.

Finally, the diving in Bali would definitely be better than around Tioman but I would not knock Tioman. For good divers, there can be very nice diving there. I don't know many cities as large as Singapore that have that good diving so easily accessible by budget or luxurious weekend trips.

 

[vladimir]

Zippsy, that was a compelling pitch for the White Manta. I just looked at the website--it looks like a nice boat. I wish I still lived in Singapore--I'd have weekend plans.

 

[logic8482]

I agree Vladimir, I might have to look into a White Manta trip myself now!

Zippsy - good to know about the Black Manta. How do the sites that the White Manta dives in Malaysia compare to those you'd typically do with a Singapore operator? That's been my large deterrent on the price, doesn't seem worth it from a "what you see" standpoint if you only dive the same place.

amadeus00 - if you can only dive the more southern Malaysian destinations, Tioman/Aur/Dayang, and you can't afford to take the White Manta this time around, I'd probably try to arrange everything yourself if you want to actually get some decent diving in. The typical sites that the Singapore based operators dive are not spectacular, as they are usually focusing on certifications, refresher courses, etc., less about the fun dives. If you can hook up with a local shop, you can probably get to some of the better sites, have a more enjoyable time, have diver with those of similar experience. You're also diving from a boat along with 25+ other divers in most cases, so its a bit cramped and uncomfortable.

 

[Zippsy]

Hi Logic - If you really want to get away from the where the land-based operators dive, we have regular trips to the Anambas Islands of Indonesia that usually include visits to the Seven Skies wreck. Those places are particularly good for sighting whale sharks & mantas in the later part of the season (mid-September to end-October). There may be one or two other boats out in the region at the same time but the operators normally can coordinate the dives if they are at the same site so not everyone is in the water at once.

On long weekends, we go to places like the north Anambas islands, Badas islands and Shark Point. No other dive boats go to those places.

We regularly dive Jack Rock (outstanding muck dive) & Bahara (usually good wide angle site for Tioman trips) on Sunday mornings and there are never other boats around. Some trips include dives at the Igara wreck, the Maritime Fidelity, the Capelina, the Ningpo Maru, Mapor island, etc.

On the Aur trips, we may dive the some of the usual Lang, Rayner's Rock, Telok Jawa, etc. but we always get in some dives at places like Pinang, the three pinnacles, Telok Teluran and Telok Miriam which the resort operators don't want to do because of the long commutes. Around Tioman, the further sites that are easy for us to reach and are often dived but are un-loved by the resorts include Pulau Jahat, Magicienne Rock and Pulau Chebeh.

In summary, we probably do some dives that you have been to often before and are regulars for the resorts too but it is likely that we will also have some dives each weekend that you haven't done or, at least, few, if any, other divers regularly visit. We also have some trips where most Singapore based divers have never or rarely been to before. In fairness too, except for the wrecks - particularly the Seven Skies - the diving may not be terribly different than what the resort operators at Aur or Tioman can offer. If the convenience, luxury, food, service, etc. isn't worth the price difference to someone, I am not sure the difference in a few dive sites will either (except, again, the Seven Skies late in the season).

Finally, for full disclosure, the DiveRace usually does the same southwest Anambas / Seven Skies trips that we do and the Mata Ikan and Samudra Quest also go out there at times. The DiveRace also goes to Jack Rock as much as we do. The Mata Ikan and Samudra Quest also more regularly visit the wrecks in the area.

Happy diving.

 

[logic8482]

Great info Zippsy, thanks - hopefully I'll see you sometime soon on the White Manta!

 

[dannyboy504]

Hi there,

I'm interested in planning a dive trip to Redang sometime early/mid December. Could someone advise if this is a good time to be out there, or would it be better to visit another part of Malaysia then.... or any other place that is easy to get to from Singapore. Many thanks.

Daniel

 

[Zippsy]

Due to the monsoon season, diving at Redang (and all other sites in that area of the South China Sea) in December is non-existent. From Singapore, you have great diving one short budget flight away in Phuket and Krabi (from November to March) and also pretty much year round in Bali, Manado (Lembeh) and Cebu.