Where to go for two week of muckdiving in late november?

[Vigfus]

For those who wonder or search for info like we did before our trip. We stayed first week in Anilao at Arthur's place. Second week we had first three days in Out of the blue in Sabang, but thought Anilao was much better for macro so went back and stayed the last four days with Club Ocellaris.

Water temp was around 29 C. Not that good visibility unless we were diving around Sombrero island. Lots of fun stuff to see on every sites around Anilao and no time limit for the dives at either Arthur's or Ocellaris, which was great (92 min night dive and you see the advantage of digital camera ). In Sabang the night dive at Sabang wrecks was good, but too many divers around so try to do it late in the evening if you want to take pictures.

Both Arthur's and Ocellaris have their pros and cons, but we can recommend both places for other divers.

 

[mjgoodman]

I'm thinking about Anilao. Would you recommend Arthur's or Ocellaris? What are the pros and cons of each? How many dives can you do per day?

Have you dove elsewhere in Asia? If so, how does Anilao compare? Thank you.

 

[Vigfus]

At Arthur's we were alone in the boat, but since no one else was staying there at the time I'm not sure if that's possible with others around. At Club O we dove with others as long as they stayed there. Both spotters were good at finding interesting creatures, though language barriers and that they sometimes didn't know the English name for the critters made it tough from time to time to get what you really saw. We started out with only three dives per day during the first week and moved up to four our last week.

The air con room smelled mouldy at Club O and unfortunately it was pouring down outside for our first night at Club O which made most of our stuff damp. Once the weather turned better the fan room was nice. The weather was dry when we stayed at Arthur's so I'm not sure how affected the air con room there would be by heavy rain. Over all the food was a little better at Arthur's, though some evening dessert was to die for at Club O. Club O's lounge room seemed more enjoyable if there were many people around with nice couches to hang back in.

If you like some sun for sunbathing and such during the day Arthur's position to the south is preferable. Club O's position to the west is preferable when it comes to the gear not hanging in the sun - especially since there is no roof over the kitting area at Arthur's. At Club O they have dedicated wash barrels for the photo equipment and the rinse tanks are bigger. Edit: For most of the dive sites Arthur's is closer since it's in the middle of the southern part of the peninsula, but the boat trip rarely takes more than 20-25 minutes even from Club O.

Much is of course down to preferences as to what you like. Even my friend and I have different opinions even though we've traveled together multiple times. Between us we've dived Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia in places like Bali, Tioman, Sipadan to name a few and we both really enjoyed the diving and the people in Anilao.
You can contact both place through e-mail
Arthur's Place - arthursplace_ph@yahoo.com
Club Ocellaris - inquiries@clubocellaris.com