Prioritize Expensive Indo travels

[billt4sf]

We’ll be living in Bali from mid-April. Having looked into many of the great dives sites in Indo (and topside travels, too!) we are now faced with great choices and limited money. Ha!

We already have plans to go for some of the lower-priced (but still great) sites like Bangka, Lembeh, Bunaken, Banda (and probably Ambon) and those in Bali.

So if you have any input as to comparing these options …. It’s always fun to discuss traveling!

I would like to prioritize the following (we will not be able to do them all). Prices do NOT include transport (except where indicated). In some cases the estimated expense is really just a ball park number, for others I know fairly well the price.

What would be YOUR priority order? (and why).

Thanks and have fun dreaming with me!

1 – PNG: a week in Tawali (Milne Bay) and a few days seeing the Mt. Hagen sing-sing (cultural experience). A friend said that the sing-sing was “the best travel experience ever” and he has traveled and dived all over the world. Estimated price: $10K including transport

2 – Misool resort in Raja Ampat. $7,000. I choose this because of the probability of low currents (best for wife) and tons of fish! I was in RA on a liveaboard and the Misool portion was the best dive experience I have ever had. Not including transport.

3 – Raja Ampat liveaboard – e.g. Mermaid I $7,000 for 10 days. Was on this a few months ago and loved it. But I think the wife would rather stay out of the (more-likely-to-be-stronger) currents in Dampier straits so that’s why I am tending towards the Misool resort. Not including transport.

4 – Angkor Wat (surface trip) – the best topside site in all Asia? Estimate: $4,500 including transport.

5 – Andaman Island (India) – estimate $4,000 including travel through Chennai. We would most likely add a topsite visit to south India, so add – what, another $2,000 to make it a $6,000 trip including transport.

6 – Malaysian Borneo – Maybe Around $3,000 including transport for a week of travel to Sabah and / or Sarawak? (N.B. I have read great things about Sipadan but we are not going there because of the personal risk).

Hey THANK YOU !

- Bill & Emily

 

[Lorenzoid]

Liveaboards and dive resorts are generally expensive--no way around that. But your estimates for land-based, non-diving activities seem high. I guess you are looking for luxury travel, but keep in mind that penniless backpacking youths have been visiting Angkor Wat and Borneo for decades. My wife and I--long past our backpacker days--spent much less than what you list for those things.

 

[billt4sf]

Thanks Lorenzoid. I tried to be conservative, meaning to overestimate at this stage.

"Luxury travel" means so many different things. We are older now, so backpacking travel is out of the question. At the same time, it's not the rose on the pillow that does it for us -- it's the en-suite bath, cleanliness and (frankly, typically) the newness of the accommodations that are important to us. We don't need a great view (usually) or top of the line food, but good quality and food safety are important.

- Bill

 

[AlMitch]

Ankor Wat is amazing but Lorenz is right you can do it for far cheaper. You can get some very comfortable 4 star hotels for around $100/night. Or some very cool B&B's for even less.
Food and beer is also very inexpensive. The $4500 should be enough for two weeks at least. But I would say 1 week is MORE than enough time to spend there. After a few days the temples sort of become same same. You could do 1 week in Ankor and then hop over for 1 week in Thailand for the $4500 quite easily.

I would agree that Misool is incredible and probably just slightly better than the North of RA, BUT the two areas are so different and to go all that way and miss out on the North seems a bit of a missed opportunity. I wouldn't worry too much about the currents up N, the DM's really should be able to help your wife out and keep her out the worst of the current. There is also just something magical about a LOB.
Why not stay in Misool and then do a week Northern cruise.

The other place you have missed out on your list is Alor.

 

[WetPup]

Tawali - because it's the best

Angkor Wat - because you should see some topside stuff too, and it's awesome

Malaysia - because it's a convenient topside-diving combo, and the oragutans are cute

 

[Manneca]

Angkor Wat is a don't miss. I love Malaysian Borneo. And you can dive Sipidan and Layang Layang from KK. You can do cheap or you can do expensive on Borneo. If you are in Bali to see/do as much as possible, I'd take out a loan to do as much as possible! When I did Sipadan I was on Seaventures (the oil rig). They guarantee a certain number of Sipadan permits per night, more than any other resort offered. As it turned out we dived all but our first two days at Sipadan. My only regret is that we didn't pay the fees for the extra dives when no one else wanted to share them. Sipadan is absolutely the best place I have ever dived

 

[Zippsy]

I voted but I still don't understand the safety issue of Sipadan. I feel a lot safer at a resort there compared to the rest of Borneo, PNG, Angkor Wat, Bali....

 

[Lorenzoid]

To expand on what I said above, I suppose my thinking on Angkor Wat is that you could do it as a weekend trip from Bali. A week traipsing around Cambodia--maybe. But a week at Angkor Wat is a lot. A couple of days with a guide would be plenty, unless you are Indiana Jones. For your budget, you could probably spend a week doing a combined Cambodia and Laos trip. Vietnam, too.

In Malaysian Borneo, we used local buses, which cost next to nothing, and stayed in business-class hotels (which is to say, not luxurious but not ratty). We visited Kuching, Kota Kinabalu and the Orangutan Rehab Center at Sepilok, then stayed in a wildlife camp for a couple of days. A relatively inexpensive week.

If I really wanted to splash out, it would be a Raja Ampat liveaboard.

 

[Tippytoes12]

Yes I stayed in a fabulous hotel in Siem Reap for 100 us per night , there were many many cheaper places. This particular one had a spa , a pool and a restuarant. If you are acclimitised to the time zone you won't need so many trimmings.

The Philippines has wonderful diving and very good value accommodation in places like Sogod Bay and Dumaguete in particular. We also love diving in Lembongan and Gili Air , again these are wonderful value. We recently did 3weeks diving in Indonesia for 3000 us each including international flights from the UK.

But definitely as the other posters have said , priorities places like Raja Ampat and Komodo.

 

[billt4sf]

I voted but I still don't understand the safety issue of Sipadan. I feel a lot safer at a resort there compared to the rest of Borneo, PNG, Angkor Wat, Bali....

If you google Sipadan, you will see that there have been tourist abductions from there are from the Malasia Borneo coast near there.