Which asian country / island meets these qualifications?

[charlier]

We're leaning heavily towards Bali. We are both strict vegetarians and it looks quite easy to eat veg there, since it's heavily Hindu.

Scubamat has a good suggestion. Depending on the length of you vacation, consider taking a fast boat to Gili Air. Great coral rich sand beaches and fine diving. It may not be as good as Bali, but still the water is warm and the visibility is outstanding. In general, Gili Air or Gili Meno has nicer beaches than eastern Bali.

 

[USMC CPL.]

Okinawa, just a short trip away.

You beat me to it. I dove in Okinawa and loved it. Kadena Seawall is a beautiful dive.

 

[Hank49]

Some of the things it can't have are below:

(2) Isolation;
(3) Inadequate transportation within the country;
(4) Lack of adequate recreation facilities;
(5) Poor housing conditions;
(6) Unsanitary conditions;
(7) Lack of essential services;
(8) Lack of adequate medical or dental care;
(9) Prevalence of communicable diseases;
(10) Unusual personal hazards

Those are pretty vague descriptions. Lot of gray area. Having lived and traveled in SE Asia fairly extensively over the last 30 years, I don't know of any single place that qualifies for all of the above. I'd just pay my own way and go to Indonesia. Lombok, Bali....great diving, beautiful....just don't get hurt or sick and close your eyes when you see poor housing conditions.

 

[Kevrumbo]

So my friend works for the US State Dept and she's currently stationed in Beijing China. I'm contemplating going to visit and we are planning to have a vacation somewhere in Asia, that is not China, in late 2018. The government will completely pay for her trip, but the place we go to has to meet certain qualifications before they will foot the bill.

Some of the things it can't have are below:

(2) Isolation;
(3) Inadequate transportation within the country;
(4) Lack of adequate recreation facilities;
(5) Poor housing conditions;
(6) Unsanitary conditions;
(7) Lack of essential services;
(8) Lack of adequate medical or dental care;
(9) Prevalence of communicable diseases;
(10) Unusual personal hazards

We were seriously looking at Cebu Philippines but there was a recent security notice, that specifically mentioned Cebu, regarding terrorist intentions of kidnappings...So that takes Cebu out of the picture..(#10) .Perhaps all of the Philippines as well because several other places were mentioned...

Can anyone think of a place that has good diving, that would qualify?

Not Asia, but the Oceania Region/Country of Palau has a Compact of Free Association with the United States, so the US State Dept should have no problems "sponsoring" a "working-vacation" to visit there:

Sam's Tours Dive Center Palau

How to Get to Palau? | 7 Gateways to Get You into Palau [Infographic]

U.S. Embassy in the Republic of Palau
https://pw.usembassy.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/282/2017/05/rop_cofa.pdf

 

[Scubamat]

I've heard good thing about diving in Palua. My experience is mostly mostly Bali due to ease of flying there from where I live. I will expand on my earlier recommendation and this is what I did on a recent trip. It will depend on your non diving partner a bit and what they like to do.

I tend to stay in Sanur and use a full service diving op. It has decent hotels and restaurants and an OK beach isn't right in the city so not to busy there are some ok bars with live music but is not party central. It isn't too far from the port. Diving in Padang Bai and Nusa Penida is relatively easy from here. I would recommend Nusa Penida lots of manta rays and chance of sunfish but chance are you will deal with current and surge. Padang Bai is an easy dive but there is better in the area.

While in Bali you will want to dive at tulamben on the USAT liberty wreck this is a good shore dive. It is a long drive however. You have two options stay up north not as much tourist infrastructure there but you can get in an early morning or night dive. I've dived there from Sanur the drive wasn't too bad but enough come from a part of the world where I dated a girl in the next town and it was a 3 hour drive each way to see her. Now Kuta/Seminyak area I wouldn't recommend unless your into clubs and drunk Australians(is that redundant?). It also adds 1/2 hour of bad traffic to go anywhere.

As for non diving stuff ubub is a nice place to stay and is central for more cultural experiences. You can negotiate a driver for the day to take you around to visit temples waterfalls ECT.. I book a cooking class with ex it was a good activity the Monkey Forest is nice. I haven't tried it(doe to rain) You can book a bike tour of the volcano, breakfast at the summit and a glide down. If you're into it Bali has an ok water park too.

Gili islands. I stayed on Gili T but this applies to all islands the diving is simple. All the dive shops charge the same fixed price so choose one that fits your needs. All diving is a short boat ride from the islands so you head out do one dive come back. The dive shop I used was flexible filled out paperwork when I arrived that had a big board with times and locations for dive just show up for the brief and good to go. Because I was AOW most of my dives end up just being me and a DM the OW divers would get dropped at the shallower parts we would go a bit deeper or do longer drifts. Not as much sea life as Bali but some sites had lots of turtles, saw a few sharks eels and octopuses, and enjoyed some long relaxing drifts. Day was wake up have breakfast kiss GF goodbye while she went back to bed went diving, wake her up have a nice long lunch went for another dive while she relaxed on the beach or pool and then afternoon bike ride and swim then some dinner or visit night market.

Each island has a different focus. Gili T is the party island but isn't that bad, mostly younger crowd, Gili meno quite for couples and Gili air is aimed at families with kids. I did a day trip Lombok as my SI before heading home.

 

[toris1968]

I'm currently stationed in Okinawa and the diving here is awesome. Like previously mentioned there is the Sunabe Seawall, about 10-20 shore based dives by itself. Super easy entry and exits. Then there are much more exotic/challenging shore dives like toilet bowl, Bolo point. But then you get into the boat dives, man the kerama islands are beautiful, the USS Emmons is an awesome wreck, hedo dome, the list just goes on and on. Lots of English speaking/owned dive operations like Reef Encounters. Food is excellent here, most speak places relatively good English. There is also a ton of non diving WWII related activities to do here as well. Hacksaw Ridge, Japanese Underground etc.