our Dive trip......

[mslise]

I'm currently planning a 3 month trip around asia, which will start in singapore and go to phils, borneo and then indo.

There are a lot of choices (flights) to get to phils (we're flying into cebu and then around the visayas and then up to manila via PG), then from manila you can fly to KK (with airasia- super cheap!) and then across to tawau for sipadan (again air asia- cheap!) then we're planning to fly to denpasar via KL probably and then across to manado for bunaken/lembeh and work our way back to denpasar via komodo (been there, LOVE it.. liveaboards are pretty expensive so if you dont mind long boat rides, I'd do it from labuanbajo) and then to bali. Also I think for the weather, this is possibly a good order to do it all in- ie komodo was better later in the dry season.

But everyone seems to say sipadan is the bees knees and should be done last- in this case go down to indo and do that loop then up to phils (eg via singapore) and finish in borneo.

Sorry if this is a bit jumbled- pm me if you have any questions! And have fun!

 

[Mike Veitch]

i would recommend doing Bali last as opposed to Sipadan.

Why?

Mola Molas start to show up in late July and August...

 

[bubblemonkey]

mslise you have a PM..

 

[justinechn]

Komodo is great.. it's a must-go! Fantastic reefs, and superb condition! Reefseekers and Dive Komodo are good operators..

A warning about Bajo Dive tho.. there have been various complains reported and I have dive with them in 2006 and experienced it myself. I took a nitrox course with them and the analyser was broken, and the operator tried to persuade me to do without the analyser which I disagreed. We had to do it the next day.

On top of that, on the same trip, a french girl and I were molested by their boatmen as they were helping us get out of the water after a dive. I thought it was unintentional at first.. then it happened a 2nd time as I was already upright on the deck on the boat, as the boatman was holding on to my bcd strap.. *squeeze*.. good thing my instructor saw it.. then he spoke to the french group and found one of the girls had the same incident. We told the operator.. dont know if they fired the boatman or not.. but he was on the boat the next day.

On top of that, their local divemaster.. wasnt able to find the dive site in two of our dives and also lost some divers and didnt realise it till the end of the dive.

To sum it up.. they're quite chaotic.. so just beware if you do decide to dive with them. Later I just booked with Reefseekers for the rest the days there.

 

[bubblemonkey]

wooooo hooooooo
got confirmation of our places on both liveaboards today....

 

[LantaLad]

Hey Bubblemonkey!

If you haven't decided on a dive center yet for Koh Lanta check out http://www.scuba-fish.com/ , They're friends of mine and run two great 5-star operations on the southern end of Koh Lanta. I live down here and I find diving with ScubaFish in the south gets you to most of the dive sites faster. (Pretty much everyone else launches their boats from Saladan in the north, which usually means an early morning van ride north, followed by a boat trip back south to get to the sites.)

I broke a toe right before my Hin Daeng dive so I can't personally vouch for it, but everyone else who's been seems to agree it's one of the best spots in asia.

Have a good trip!
TAD