scubashooter
Contributor
Well Burma is also a military regime which uses children for labor and military duty. Paying that $150 park fee means giving the government the money to continue their ways. Not to get too political but it may be important to some.23Greg23:As scubashooter said, at 15 dives we are not sure what we are into yet, the whole Martian world of tropical diving is wonderful to us...
I think Hallboy's post makes sense, especially in light of the need for tourists in western Thailand, but we have been to Thailand and are very interested in seeing Indonesia (above and below). We also have friends who will be in Bali for 4 of the days we plan to go. I also realize that spending a month in Thailand five years ago does not mean we have seen everything there is to see (particularly since we didn't dive!), but we were just looking to go somewhere new.
How's the diving in Burma?
As for Indah's claim that the biodiversity of Batu Kapal is equal to Cape Kri...weeelllll...not to me and I've done both sites more than a few times. Batu Kapal is very pretty and there is nice coral variation, but the soft and hard coral diversity and reef fish diversity is definitely wider in the Kri area.
If you have to be in Bali, and cannot do a liveaboard. Then perhaps you should try Alor and even (yuck!) Wakatobi. Wakatobi the resort is over priced for the diving there but there are some very nice walls and topography. Mostly easy diving with one way current without any nasty whirlpool downdrafts like Komodo.
There is also diving off Makassar at Pulau Selayar around the Takebone Rate islands. It's pretty undived but you get introduced to the scourge of coral reefs, the fish bombing in big time fashion. As you can see, lots of places, so you need to get a budget for us to give you better ideas. Not trying to pry but Indonesia has a varied selection for various budgets. You could dive all on Bali for pretty decent pricing too.