Diving in Malaysia (prices/maybe camera rental)

[CPixie]

Hi,

I'm on an overland 'round the world' trip at the moment, currently in Thailand and continuing into Malaysia & Indonesia, then Australia. I'd like to do some diving wherever possible (budget permitting). I googled about diving in Malaysia, but had problems finding prices for dives & rental equipment.

Could someone give me a pointer about this? (I will stay in budget accomodation wherever possible, so am not interested in diving resorts unless it's unavoidable).

-What's the average cost of, say, a 2-3 dive daytrip in Malaysia? (kind of like diving from Phuket is between 2700 and 3500 baht)?
-What's the cost of rental equipment in those places?
-Is it possible to rent an underwater housing for a Canon 5D somewhere? Or is this kind of equipment too specialized?

I'm not too bothered about 'which dive centre to go'. Just a rough indicator about costs would be much appreciated!

Thanks a lot!
CPixie

 

[victor]

You can find budget rooms on Prhentian for about 40R per night See A B C Chalet , A.B.C chalet, A B C chalet - perhentian besar, Perhentian Island ( pulau perhentian ) and probably cheaper if you just turn up and are prepared to negotiate.
Expect to pay about 70R per dive including equipment again you need to negotiate.

I doubt you will find anyone to rent you a housing for your camera. However some will rent a point and shoot.

Also look at Redang and Tioman, Google Malaysia and search for the island names.

The Islands are closed until end of Feb as it is the wet season.

 

[morid]

you say "a 2-3 dive daytrip", but I assume you go to the diving location yourself and manage accomodation youself.
In Malaysia the dive sites are normally only a couple of minutes away from the dive shops so normally you don't do "daytrips" but you rather just join for the one or other dive. For longer trips, more than 20min by boat, you might go for two dives in one trip, normally in the morning.
A dive will cost you around 70-90 myr, with some discount when you do more than one dive per day.

I prefer the way of diving in Malaysia, because often it's good enough to turn up 30 min before the dive is planned and hop on the boat. And if you don't feel like it you just tell them and don't join that trip - very easy. I hate when you have to say which dives you want to do a day in advance and can't change your mind.

A lot of dive centres have their rates online, just search...

Renting of camera housing is very uncommon.