Ocean Rover: East Coast Malaysia

[SnappyTheDiver]

The Ocean Rover is a great liveaboard but its trips on the east coast of Malaysia are not worth $375+ per day. I was on the boat for nine days and only about half of the dives were good and even those were more OK than great. Many of the dives were downright terrible due to uninteresting environments, lack of creatures, or bad visibility.

The better sites were around Pulau Tenggol to include Tokong Kamundi. There sites had a combination of hard and soft corals although some soft corals were pretty sparse at places such as Tokong Timur. I liked Pulau Chebeh at Pulau Tioman for the variety of soft corals, hard corals, and the boulders which had some nice swim throughs. A few sites were largely rubble or leather corals.

Creature wise there were a few turtles now and again. There was very little fish action and most of the focus of the dive guides was on nudibranchs. Visibility was from 45 to 75 feet. Hans, who was the cruise director, told us that this is normal for the area. There were also sites were there was a very silty, milky layer starting at anything from 30 feet onward. Hans said this was also typical of the area.

The boat operates out of Kuantan for these trips and due to the lack of dives sites around Kuantan the last day the program is to do three dives on the Kuantan Wreck. The wreck is OK for a dive or two but three dives is a bit much. There was some good Tallfin Spadefish, White Eye Moray Eels, and a few nudibranchs but many people did not bother with the third dive.

I was also disappointed by the conduct of the dive guides Hans and Andy. Both of these fellows seemed more interested in their own pursuits of underwater photography than in the guests. I rarely saw Andy for more than a few minutes at the beginning of a dive. Hans was pretty much the same except that he also seemed to stay in the company of a particular return guest.

I would definitely return to the Ocean Rover but not for trips on the east coast of Malaysia.

 

[Bowmouth]

East coast Malaysia has a good variety of nudibranchs and flatworms. At some sites other invertabrates like wire coral shrimps and wire coral crabs (Xenocarcinus conicus) can be found. There aren't too many other small and unusual invertabrates on the reefs with the odd exception of a longsnout pipe fish (bend stick pipe fish) and some spider and hermit crabs. The guides concentrate on finding the smaller and more unusual creatures to point out to the guests; in East Coast Malaysia most small creatures are either nudibranchs or flatworms.

Ocean Rover dives the last day of the cruise on the Kuantan Wreck and schedules 3 dives there (on "normal" dive days up to 5 dives are on schedule}
The wreck is at open sea away from any other reefs or islands and offers fairly good fishlife and lush soft coral growth. With some careful planning (and use of Nitrox) divers should have at least 45 minutes bottomtime per dive (provided they do not run out of air before that time!).

Before the first dive of the trip an extensive safety briefing is given by the Cruise Director. This briefing also covers the aspects of guiding. On Ocean Rover two guides are available for guiding to the guests on ALL daydives and on request for the night dives as well. Guests are asked in the safety briefing to let the dive crew know after each dive site briefing and just before the dive if they want to follow the guide. If they do want to follow the guide then all they have to do is follow him/her under water upon entry. The guides will look out for those guests that have expressed they want to be guided. In the safety briefing also is mentioned that if guests feel they miss out of the guiding they should notify the dive crew during the cruise.
Many of Ocean Rover's guests are either experienced divers that carry a camera and prefer to solo dive or just dive with their buddy or spouse.

 

[SnappyTheDiver]

Bowmouth, I don't think there is much more to say about the Malaysia diving. If you are nudibranch and flatworm fan you might be happy than someone looking for fish and pretty reefs. As noted, the Kuantan wreck was good for one or two dives but was getting old after three.

You sound like one of the dives guides on the boat. Yes, there was the offer of going with you and Andy but most of the dive I could not find either of you within minutes of getting in the water or you both seem preoccupied in your own photographic activities. If I stopped to take a picture you were soon out of sight, especially given the visibility, and not seen again. Others may feel differently but I do not cotton to trying to combine guiding with personal underwater photography.

As I said from the start. Ocean Rover is a great boat and East Coast Malaysia might please some folks but there is great diving in nearby at this time of year in Mabul, Sipadan, Layang Layang, and Indonesia for the same about of travel and equal or less money.

 

[Bowmouth]

I'm sorry to hear you didn't enjoy the diving and obviously felt you missed out during the diving on the guiding. It would have been much better though if you had expressed your feelings during the cruise to the dive crew. As said earlier it is not uncommon at all on the Ocean Rover that guests don't follow the guide or simply hook off during their dive and pursuit their own interests. Also, after finding a creature the guide will point it out to their divers and then slowly continue swimming and look for other creatures to point out. With poor visibility and / or current it can happen that some divers loose the guide or the guide loses some of their divers.

Ocean Rover's dive crew indeed brings a camera with them on their dives but (mostly) will only take pictures of interesting creatures after their guests have had a look at the critter and / or taken their pictures or vdo. I for one can say that often whole dives go by without me taking any pictures at all either because I got several people following me or simply because I just don't find anything I would like to take a picture of.

Yes, there's probably more interesting diving in Mabul, Sipadan, Layang-Layang and Indonesia. But from an Operational point of view having the boat in such locations is both complicated and risky. Ocean Rover has been for 3 years in North Sulawesi and the diving was fabulous. Getting fuel, proper food supplies, licences, finding safe anchorages etc. was extremely difficult at times though and needed LOTS of planning and investigation. One simply cannot take a vessel, go somewhere and just operate a 5 star dive boat without extensive planning and organizing.

East Coast Malaysia is a very pleasant area to operate because most of the problems encountered in Indonesia don't exist there. Also, Ocean Rover's nearly 100% Thai crew being away from their family and homes for more than 5 months in a row is another reason to operate closer to home (Thailand) and give the crew a chance to take a break and visit their families.

 

[GoorglinGeorge]

Snappy. Thank you for your post. I have been looking for information on diving on the east coast of Malaysia as well as liveaboards that operate in that area. I have generally understood it to be an area frequented more by divers from Singapore and Malaysia. From reading the short description of what you found for diving I think I understand why.

I certainly understand your point about spending that much money. You are lucky to be able to afford that kind of boat. I don't think Bowmouth understands your point about the readily available alternatives. There are lots of great resorts and boats in Indonesia and I can tell you the diving is fantastic. I am sure that the Thai crew finds that a long ways from home but that is not the point at $375 day!

I have seen the problem you encountered with dive guides that say they are there to be your guide but are determined to get their own pictures. Why boat operators advertise these people as guides and then let them spend their time taking their own pictures is something that I don't understand. I have been with fantastic guides at many places in the world and rarely if ever do I find them with their eye glue to the viewfinder while the guests are "losing" their guide or vice versa. I am sorry you encountered this problem. You should really contact the owner of the boat.

 

[Bowmouth]

The email addresses are info@ocean-rover.com and ceo@ocean-rover.com

This all sounds VERY much like Dr.Nice

 

[Live_in_Sin]

Snappy. I have been looking for information on diving on the east coast of Malaysia as well as liveaboards that operate in that area.

if you are looking LOB, try this

www.whitemanta.com.sg

very reasonable & comfortable.
dived with them several times.

 

[MartianBeerPig]

Looks like we're being swooped by seagulls.