ScubaBackpacker
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Just returned from diving for 10 days or so on Tioman Island, Malaysia, so here is a short report. Tioman Island is located about 30 miles off the southeast coast of peninsular Malaysia . For context, almost all of my previous 200 plus dives have been in the Caribbean-- this was my first dive trip to southeast asia.
Most of the divers on the island are "locals"(meaning from Kuala Lumpur or Singapore, as both are just a few hours away by car and ferry) or Europeans, chiefly German or French. Most of the divers are in their 20s and 30s. We flew into Singapore and after a couple of days there, took a 3 hour bus trip to Mersing and then a 2 hour ferry ride to the island. Language isn't a problem as almost everybody speaks at least some English. There isn't currently a commercial airport on the island, but it's so close to KL and Singapore a lot of people come for 2 or 3 days. The dive centers can help with the specific logistics.
Note that the island largely shuts down for diving during the northeast monsoon season of November/December through February. The season really ramps up in May. Our diving was during mid to late April. During our stay there was little rain, but it varied from partly to mostly cloudy .
Most of the diving is on the west, landward side of Tioman. There are 5 communities on the west: Genting, Paya, Tekek, ABC(Air Batang Bay), and Salang, and one on the east - Juara. There are several dive ops on the west side and a couple of active ones on the east side. We stayed in ABC at Tioman Dive Resort and did all our diving with B&J diving centre at the resort. Our diving came out to about $30/tank.
The resort(12 rooms, I believe, and now a dorm) has newly remodeled rooms with aircon, safes, very hot water, etc., ranging from about 50 to 80 US dollars for the executive suite. Local cabins, called chalets, are available at much less cost. The resort provides no meals, but there are numerous restaurants next to it and within a very short walk. Unfortunately, the only early coffee available is in-room made Nescafe. Food prices are low -- good quality meals were available at ABC restaurant and Hijau nearby for $5 or less.
B and J divers is a teaching center, and many of the people diving there are taking courses at one level or another. Tech divers may be able to make special arraignments to dive the HMS Repulse 45 miles offshore. There are a number of recreational divers, like us, as well. The dive boat frequently carries 15-20 divers plus staff, but groups are broken up to 4 divers plus guide based on experience levels. Dives are shallow(our deepest was 84 feet), and carried out mostly on islets consisting of large boulders around the main island, and limited to 50 minutes. Staff was uniformly very nice and polite and some of them exceptionally so. The only issue I observed was there are so many staff in their twenties that their interactions among themselves sometimes take precedence over interacting with the clients. Since all divers assemble and take care of their own gear, more attention to helping rusty divers suit up when they first arrive would be a big plus.
Visibility was low by Caribbean standards. It varied from 15 feet to 60 feet, but was mostly in the 40-50 feet range. But for us visibility wasn't key due to the variety and abundance of the organisms that are
not found in the Caribbean and we had not previously experienced: hard and soft corals, sea stars and sea cucumbers, nudibranchs, fish, bivalves, sea snakes, bottom-dwelling smalls sharks, turtles, etc. For me, the nudibranchs in particular were spectacular ! In fact, we had planned to stay for only a few days on Tioman but wound up staying twice as long as originally planned.
In sum, it was a great intro. to southeast asia diving and by Caribbean standards very reasonably priced. It surprises me that there aren't more north Americans there.
Most of the divers on the island are "locals"(meaning from Kuala Lumpur or Singapore, as both are just a few hours away by car and ferry) or Europeans, chiefly German or French. Most of the divers are in their 20s and 30s. We flew into Singapore and after a couple of days there, took a 3 hour bus trip to Mersing and then a 2 hour ferry ride to the island. Language isn't a problem as almost everybody speaks at least some English. There isn't currently a commercial airport on the island, but it's so close to KL and Singapore a lot of people come for 2 or 3 days. The dive centers can help with the specific logistics.
Note that the island largely shuts down for diving during the northeast monsoon season of November/December through February. The season really ramps up in May. Our diving was during mid to late April. During our stay there was little rain, but it varied from partly to mostly cloudy .
Most of the diving is on the west, landward side of Tioman. There are 5 communities on the west: Genting, Paya, Tekek, ABC(Air Batang Bay), and Salang, and one on the east - Juara. There are several dive ops on the west side and a couple of active ones on the east side. We stayed in ABC at Tioman Dive Resort and did all our diving with B&J diving centre at the resort. Our diving came out to about $30/tank.
The resort(12 rooms, I believe, and now a dorm) has newly remodeled rooms with aircon, safes, very hot water, etc., ranging from about 50 to 80 US dollars for the executive suite. Local cabins, called chalets, are available at much less cost. The resort provides no meals, but there are numerous restaurants next to it and within a very short walk. Unfortunately, the only early coffee available is in-room made Nescafe. Food prices are low -- good quality meals were available at ABC restaurant and Hijau nearby for $5 or less.
B and J divers is a teaching center, and many of the people diving there are taking courses at one level or another. Tech divers may be able to make special arraignments to dive the HMS Repulse 45 miles offshore. There are a number of recreational divers, like us, as well. The dive boat frequently carries 15-20 divers plus staff, but groups are broken up to 4 divers plus guide based on experience levels. Dives are shallow(our deepest was 84 feet), and carried out mostly on islets consisting of large boulders around the main island, and limited to 50 minutes. Staff was uniformly very nice and polite and some of them exceptionally so. The only issue I observed was there are so many staff in their twenties that their interactions among themselves sometimes take precedence over interacting with the clients. Since all divers assemble and take care of their own gear, more attention to helping rusty divers suit up when they first arrive would be a big plus.
Visibility was low by Caribbean standards. It varied from 15 feet to 60 feet, but was mostly in the 40-50 feet range. But for us visibility wasn't key due to the variety and abundance of the organisms that are
not found in the Caribbean and we had not previously experienced: hard and soft corals, sea stars and sea cucumbers, nudibranchs, fish, bivalves, sea snakes, bottom-dwelling smalls sharks, turtles, etc. For me, the nudibranchs in particular were spectacular ! In fact, we had planned to stay for only a few days on Tioman but wound up staying twice as long as originally planned.
In sum, it was a great intro. to southeast asia diving and by Caribbean standards very reasonably priced. It surprises me that there aren't more north Americans there.
