If you were to move to Asia...

[KneeDeep]

Ok, I might not be moving to Asia (but who knows), where would you want to live, just for the diving?

The wife and I are planning our next over sea's trip, focused on diving.

Where would it? (Philippines, Thialand..)
Why would it be there
What type of diving (reefs, wrecks, caves....)

I would really like to travel to a place where, if I were to stay for 3-4 weeks in the same region, I couldn't get bored with diving 3-4 dives per day. Even if I had access to a boat to travel 2-3hrs to reach a site/region.

My wife only plans on doing rec level dives, but I would also like to do a few deep/wreck/tech dives. That being said, that would/could cover a wide range of diving.

Where would your dream move/trip be?

 

[hellhole]

Right now... it will be the Phillipines. .. as there are many great areas for many different type of diving. Marco, cave, wrecks, reef, threshers, ,whales... and nice island as well.

 

[DevonDiver]

I moved to the Philippines.

 

[waytallwhitey]

Right now... it will be the Phillipines. .. as there are many great areas for many different type of diving. Marco, cave, wrecks, reef, threshers, ,whales... and nice island as well.

+1...

 

[supergaijin]

+2 Phils- variety is the key

 

[pughio83]

Philippines

 

[KneeDeep]

I moved to the Philippines.

Yeah, I noticed that Andy.
Why did you move?
How long have you lived there?
Why did you pick the Manila area?
?

---------- Post added February 26th, 2013 at 10:30 AM ----------

Yeah, I noticed that Andy.
Why did you move?
How long have you lived there?
Why did you pick the Manila area?
What type of diving do you do?

Edited above, as I see what type of diving you do from you site

 

[DevonDiver]

Why did you move? I'd worked in Thailand, then Malaysia. Came to the Philippines for a month or two before planning to head back to the UK. Got offered work running/setting up a dive shop in my first week here, so stayed.

How long have you lived there? 5 years total, with a break in the middle east to top-up the bank account. The dive shop I ran folded (owner/partner issues) after a year, but by that time I was in a relationship here.

Why did you pick the Manila area? My partner has a career here (surgeon). It's within a reasonable commute to Subic, Anilao/Batangas and Puerto Galera.

 

[Quero]

I had this choice to make 8 years ago, and I picked Thailand as my home country.

Selecting a place to live and dive at rather than to visit and dive at are two entirely different matters. In choosing a SE Asia country to live and dive in, I had several criteria:
1) The diving had to be fairly good--maybe not the best, but good enough that I wouldn't be bored with it after a short time.
2) There had to be easy access to airports--I didn't want to have to drive many hours or take ferries to get to an airport in case I need to get to my elderly mother in a hurry, for example.
3) There had to be excellent medical facilities (I'm not getting any younger, and I dive a lot). Other infrastructure like supermarkets, cinemas, etc. for a normal life was also a factor.
4) Local culture, food, dominant religion (and the attitudes that fosters) were also considerations.

Balancing out all these desires and needs, Thailand came out ahead of all the other countries in the region for me, and specifically Phuket for the airport, the medical facilities, and the infrastructure.

From the perspective of visiting and diving, I do travel quite a lot to dive, and it's so simple to manage this from where I live that I see no need to actually live in a particular place just for the diving.