Perhentian diving and Manado

[skuba dude]

My girl friend and I are goingto the Perhentians on the 15th of Sept. How is the diving there and at Redang. We are on a budget and would like to know where to stay. Kecil or Besar? some suggestions on who to dive with? What should we expect to pay per tank?

Getting to Manado just became easier. After some great muck diving in Lembeh and some OK diving in Bunaken. we flew the very first flight with Air Asia Manado to KL. This new route makes it a lot cheaper and convenient to get to and from Manado.
Air Asia allows 15 kilos baggage and for 40Ringgit ,15 kilos sports equipment allowance.

 

[whangarei]

Just my general opinion to diving at the Perhentians: fantastic!!! We stayed a week longer than planned because of the good diving and relaxing time. It's not spectacular at the first impression, but the great encounters just keep coming, even while snorkelling we saw loads of turtles, moray and sharks.
The Watercolours team changed our way of diving, we had a debrief after every dive trying to identify every creature we remembered - after a while we had a good feeling for what's rare and special and what's common. There's lots of rare life around so it's extremely rewarding to explore. Now we always travel with a fish guide.
Not the single best dive, but maybe the best dive holiday we had. I wonder if this naughty Al Capone trigger still lurks around the wreck....
Also, on the west coast of Malaysia Pulau Payar Marine Park had some of the best corals we've ever seen.

 

[morid]

Hi,
diving Perhentians is good! I really like it. Especially not only diving, but also the whole surrounding, the beach, the relaxed atmosphere, the friendly people, the BBQs and - not to forget - the compulsory snickers-shake!
I saw my first Seahorses in Perhentians.

You can do a day-trip to Redang which is also worth the extra money, visibility is normally better there.

On a budget I would recommend to go to Kecil and stay at Coral Bay. It's quieter than Long Beach, but you still can get over to Long Beach for some party the one or other night...
I would recommend Maja, not directly on the beach but should be quite cheap - or a bit more expensive: Senja at the right side of the beach (coming from the sea). Senja was about 70 myr per chalet/night when we where in Perhentians earlier this year. Here's a photo (from earlier this year): Flickr Photo Download: Senja Chaltes, Coral Bay

For recommendation of dive-shops: I have very good experience with Steffens Seasports. Steffen is around for a long time and so is quite some of their staff, mostly locals too.
Also good experience with Turtle Bay Divers, although they are a bit more geared towards beginners, they do very good education, sometimes too strict for my taste (eg: when the first diver reaches 70 bar everybody surfaces - dive was sandy bottom 23m), but also very good briefing and debriefing.