Similan v Sipadan

[Chris.M]

Hi All

I am looking to do my Open Water certificate in December while backpacking around SE Asia.
I am trying to decide between Sipadan or the Similan islands. From what I can gather the general diving and marine life is a lot better in Sipadan but the conditions are harder. Is Sipadan too difficult for a beginner.
Has anyone dived in either or both these areas and could offer any advise. I am new to Scuba Diving with only 7 dives to my name, so any advise would be appreciated.

 

[Quero]

Do you mean you want to do the course while you are actually at the Similans or Sipdan, or that you want to become certified AND THEN go to Sipadan or the Similans. I don't recommend the first, but the second one makes some sense. The issue is that to really enjoy either of these two places, you should already be certified at least Open Water, and ideally Advanced Open Water. These areas are wasted if all you're going to do is training dives.

 

[DevonDiver]

I can't speak for all the dive operators in Sipidan, but those I know of won't conduct OW training dives on Sipidan. Some even require AOW to go there. You'll probably be doing the training dives from Mabul island... which is amazing, but not in a way an OW student may appreciate (muck/macro critters).

 

[Chris.M]

Thanks for the advise, I will be travelling around Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines too so maybe its best I get my OW certificate in one of these countries first before I go to Sipadan. AS Quero said, no point in wasting days on Sipadan with training dives.

 

[DevonDiver]

The east coast of Thailand is probably the cheapest place in the world to get certified.  You need to be VERY discerning in your choice of dive school though...

Cambodia and Vietnam have quite a small dive scene. There are schools around though. Vietnam (I haven't dived Cambodia) was mostly about macro critters.

Philippines is an awesome dive destination.There are some credible schools for open water here, but also a lot of duds. It's best to come here with some good training at OW/AOW level to get the most out of it.

If visiting Sipidan, do book well in advance to secure permits for Sipidan trips - they are in short supply/very limited.