Thailand and Bali dive ideas?

[jnbblues]

I everyone. I'm going to be in thailand and bali for my honeymoon this coming December (yes, still far away) and wanted to get some ideas/thoughts on where and who I should dive with.

Will i need any special equipment for these regions? (<3mm wetsuits, etc)

Many thanks!
blues

 

[amadeus00]

Just came back from Bali for my honeymoon. I have to say Bali is beautiful above and below the water. Since you are asking about below water, I'll stick to that.

I dove with Bali International Diving Professionals (BIDP) while I stayed in Candidasa. They are located in Sanur which is about 1.5 hours drive away. They run a good dive operation but since I was staying nowhere near the dive op, it was a little inconvient.

For our first day of diving, we went to Tulamben. They came and picked us up at the hotel in Candidasa so it wasn't all that inconvient. The diving in Tulamben was average. Good Corals and medium marine life. Vis was 15-20m.

Second day at Nusa Penida. We have to drive the 1.5 hours to Sanur early in the morning. 3 hour round trip. Lot of wasted time if you ask me. The diving was spectacular! Long stretch of coral for drift diving and in excellent condition (no dynamite fishing effects). I highly recomment this site.

Third day, we didn't feel like making the trek back to Sanur to dive with BIDP so we hooked up with a remote site of Blue Lagoon Diving. They are located with in Bali Shangrila Beach Club in Candidasa. They were excellent! We dove right off of Candidasa. There's three little islands there, Eagles Nest and the larger island. I shouldn't say island as they are more like big rocks. There are effects of dynamite fishing there but the marine life makes up for it. Larger fish and half decent corals. Saw lots of rays, white tips, and schooling jacks. It was nice to be close to the dive ops.

So my advise is to find a local dive operator even though the different sites might be far away. But you will have the comfort of being close to homebase. As far as special equipment? Always have your own. The water might get chilly but I had a full 3mm and it was comfortable. Some only had shorties and got cold. My wife had on a full 3mm and another 3mm shorty but was still cold. She's an exception because she will find all water temps cold. Even in a jacuzzi!

 

[yadidoo]

Hi Blues,

Its wide range and variety of sites.

Dive Tulamben for the Liberty Wreck, a dramatic drop-off reef, and superb macro underwater photography, Secret Bay for weird muck critters, Nusa Penida for Mola Mola (in season), sharks, mantas, and current-swept reefs, Gili Tepekong for the famous canyon a striking structure of Angular black boulders, Menjangan Island for clear and calm water, a mysterious old wooden shipwreck, cave, and gorgonian-covered wall.

Other:
Very tricky current, strong surge, uncomfortably cold in some dive sites.

 

[Scubaroo]

Bali is OFF our places to visit list for political reasons.

Anyone travelling to Bali, please ensure that your bags are weight INDIVIDUALLY and the weights recorded by the airline. There is currently an Australian woman on trial for her life in Bali after over 4kg of marijuana was found in her boogieboard bag, believed to have been placed there at Sydney airport by interstate drug runners, with it intended to be removed in Brisbane (connecting flight). Apparently the guy in Brisbane missed the bag during the connection, and the woman ended up going through customs in Bali with the marijuana still in her bag. The airline weighed the bag with others, so there's no individual weight recorded for her bag at checkin time before the drugs were placed in it, information that would have exonerated her about 5 months ago. She's facing the death penalty if convicted. Balinese police didn't even bother to fingerprint the bag to see if her prints were on it, instead they handled it without gloves and contaminated the evidence. Protestors attend the hearing, protesting outside for the death penalty to be applied, even though a verdict has still not been reached. NOT somewhere you want to get into legal problems.

 

[jcclink]

One might take this to mean be very aware in Australia vs Bali. The water temp in Bali could be as low as 70 deg in Secret Bay & mid 70's in other areas.

 

[jedah]

In Bali, I would stay away from Aquamarine divers. Do a search for a previous thread on this topic. We dove in Candidasa at the site called Gili Mimpang. The marine life was outstanding. Tons of sharks, schooling batfish and a lot more that I can't remember! It was cold though.

In Thailand, I would dive off Phuket; you have a wonderful selection of resorts on the island, and you can visit great dive sites such as the king cruiser wreck, koh doc mai (great wall), anemone reef, shark point, as well as the Similan islands (great coral), Koh Tachai (mantas) and Richelieu rock (whalesharks). This can all be done on daytrips. Check out www.dive-the-world.com, they are based in Patong and they can arrange different trips according to your needs. The water temps in Phuket will be higher than in Bali.

Enjoy your honeymoon!

J.

 

[jnbblues]

yadidoo, these are bali sites not thai - right?

Hi Blues,

Its wide range and variety of sites.

Dive Tulamben for the Liberty Wreck, a dramatic drop-off reef, and superb macro underwater photography, Secret Bay for weird muck critters, Nusa Penida for Mola Mola (in season), sharks, mantas, and current-swept reefs, Gili Tepekong for the famous canyon a striking structure of Angular black boulders, Menjangan Island for clear and calm water, a mysterious old wooden shipwreck, cave, and gorgonian-covered wall.

Other:
Very tricky current, strong surge, uncomfortably cold in some dive sites.

 

[yadidoo]

yadidoo, these are bali sites not thai - right?

Jnbblues, these are Bali dive sites.

 

[davidlkh]

Honeymoon and Diving

This means pick nice romantic resorts and dive sites.

Mimpi Tulamben is very romantic and diving is at your door step.

Scuba Seraya near Tulamben is another romantic place with diving at your door step. It has a fast boat to get you to the sites and back quick.

Mimpi Menjangan for Menjangan Sites.

If you like horse rides into the sunset and jungle, then stay at Pemutaran area Taman Sari. Besides diving the local off the beach sites, you can take a 45min to 1 hour ride to Menjangan.

Another romantic resort would be Nusa Lembongan Resort. The waters there are very cold for Asian standards with very powerful currents. So it is a big fish site. If you go in September the mola mola is in season. Not unusual to be wearing 5 mm suits.

Ideally stay near or at the site where you plan to dive. Car journeys can be very long in Bali.

By the way, the other sites 3 mm is more than enough.

 

[munkispank]

can I hijack this thread for a question- when staying at Mimpi, can you shore dive the wreck on your own (with a buddy I mean) ???- I have chaecked out their website and their rates for dives- but noticed they also have tank rental rates listed too. I have done the Liberty a couple of times before, and have the underwater map, so would not be interested in a dive guide for all the dives- has anyone done this?