Advice Please...Where to dive next in Asia!

[hutchinson12]

I am planning a dive trip for early June and would preffer a liveaboard but are open to any suggestions. I am based in Hong Kong and have been looking at Palau but this seems quite difficult to get to and I am limited to 7 days. I have heard there is some great diving in Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, PNG etc
I'm not restricted to Asia....Any recommendations and liveaboards would be very much appreciated!!
......I would love to see a whale shark :)

[japan-diver]

From Hong Kong you are a short trip from Okinawa. With 7 days you can explore the Keramas islands, the ruins of Yonaguni and the wrecks off the main island of Okinawa.

[Quero]

For a weeklong liveaboard trip in June for an inexperienced diver (if your profile shows your dive history correctly as 0-24 dives), I would recommend the Southern Andaman islands of Thailand. The diving isn't too hard (as it tends to be in Komodo, a top June liveaboard destination). You could also try Sipadan for early June. There's a liveaboard there (with a couple of spots still open) as well as all-inclusive land-based options.

[instructorinasia]

Indonesia is a great option. North Sulawesi is easy to get to from Hong Kong via either Singapore or Jakarta. Both Lembeh and Bunaken would be good for a newer diver and you could split your time between the two with a 7 day trip.

[Centrals]

Early June could be too late for the liveaboard to Tubattaha in Philippines.
At the time of writing the ONLY place in Asia that can guarantee whaleshark(s) sighting is at Oslob in Philippines. There are plenty reports available. Would the whalesharks stay beyond May is anybody guess.
BTW, if you are based in HK, you can catch the early Sat morning(01:30) Cebu Pacific flight to Cebu, hop into a taxi and head to Oslob. Jump into the water and snorkel with the animals. Catch the evening flight(22:30) home on the same day.
Seriously, you are based in HK and never dive Philippines!!!!!!
Fly to Cebu and you have Bohol, Dumaguete, Malapascua, Moalboal, Siquijor and Southern Leyte to choose. And if you are into WWII history then the several Jap wrecks in Coron are not to be missed. Even though the Irako and Akitshisuma(flying boat tender) are more suitable for experienced diver.

[Kevrumbo]

Go to Palau via Manila Philippines direct (i.e. no stopping in the US Territory of Guam which requires a Visa obtained beforehand):

Scuba Dive Philippines – Destinations – Palau, Micronesia (http://www.scubadivephilippines.com/SCUBAdestinationpalau.shtml#palau1)

[hutchinson12]

Thank you for the advise!! I still class myself as a beginner as i've been diving just less then a year but have over 50 dives now and have recently completed my advanced so i'm not too worried about only sticking to the easy dives. (my fault- i hadn't updated my profile)
The only places in Asia i have been are Sipadan and the philippines (Moalboal) but as I'm so close to the philippines this looks like it could be the best option.

[Centrals]

Malapascua(Cebu) for the thrasher shark and if the whalesharks are still around, save the last day(snorkelling only) for Oslob.

[Quero]

In that case (50+ dives and AOW), you might consider Komodo as well with easy flights from Hong Kong to Bali, but most often requiring a second flight the next morning to get to Labuan Bajo. There are 5-day trips, which could fit your 7-day period quite nicely. The Thailand southern island liveaboards would also fit your time period, and Air Asia has non-stop flights between Hong Kong and Phuket, which cuts down on travel time considerably. If I lived in in Hong Kong, I'm sure I'd dive the PI more often than I do now, but I have to put up with terrible connections from here, and while the diving is really good there, I like Indonesia better overall when I have the chance to travel away from Thailand, plus it's a lot easier to get to for me! It's always a combination of factors: time, price, travel, culture, and each of us has to put the whole package on the scale before we decide to buy!

[japan-diver]

Okinawa has a good mix of reef, wall, drift and wreck dives ranging in depth from 12 to 40 meters. No liveaboards here but lots of good land based options.

[hutchinson12]

Thank you Quero, What places would you suggest in Indonesia and Thailand? They have availability on the mermaid 2 Liveaboard for Komodo which could be an option

[Quero]

In Indonesia in June, for liveaboards, the obvious choice is Komodo. For Thailand, the only choice is the southern islands of the Andaman Sea. The Mermaid boat is one option for Komodo; there are others as well. Very often when I'm working with divers, the dates are critical, as they seem to be for you (you said early June). Sometimes a liveaboard option that a diver might like has sailing dates that don't match up well with the diver's available travel dates or available flights, so in large part, I get the dates first whenever possible, or at least a date range, and then I see what fits. The customer then makes a selection based on other important factors such as price, comfort, and even departure port.

[Hike]

i am based just outside hong kong and pondered the same question many times. Palau can be reached easily through manila, but i think you have to buy two separate tickets as its different airlines usually. diving is supposed to be very good, if not the best. LOB quite expensive. I am planning this for next year sometime
Sipadan is amazing and if you live on the LOB Celebes Sea Explorer, you get a much better chance to dive sipadan more often as they dont have many clients to split the permits up against. The diving is insane, the best I have personally seen, sharks and turtles everywhere and its possible to see anything at anytime there. Barracuda Point was just listed as the #1 dive site in the world by CNN.
Layang Layang, also on Borneo is supposed to be unbelievable with great vis and I believe hammerheads are still around in June. Also there are liveaboards that go there, the whitemanta for one. Both Sipadan and LL can be reached via short flight from Kota Kinabalu (airasia flies daily to KK and cheap, just book a lot of luggage allowance as extra luggage is quite expensive.
Bali has extraordinary diving and other things to do, you can also fly out to komodo for the lob. I am doing this in september and it seems to have great promise. I believe you will also get to see mola mola during June.
Maldives is always an option, 6 hour flight from Guangzhou on china southern, i think there are also chartered flights direct from hong kong also. Great diving and resorts, but pricy
Cebu is also a great option, real cheap flights on cebupacific (1400hkd round trip with all taxes and 20kg check in). In the north you have malapascua, threshers, maybe even hammerheads (heading there in 10 days), you can also go down south to oslob and see the whale sharks.

I too have less than 50 dives, but have already been to Bali, Maldives, Sipadan, Philippines and Thailand. Still looking at Fiji, parts of Thailand, Raja Ampat, PNG, Australia and more, lots of options in this area of the world

[hutchinson12]

I have found availibility on a couple of options that fit into our time frame .....
1)Indonesia - 7 day Komodo liveaboard (Mermaid 2)
2)Palau - 7 night at Palau Paciffic resort with 5 days diving with Sam's tours plus Jelly fish lake

Any advise/recommendations would be greatly received.
I would prefer to save the philippines for long weekends as it's so close to Hong Kong ...I can pack lots of long weekends away in throughout the year . As i have a bit longer on this trip it would be good to take advantage and go somewhere else which takes a little longer to get to like the above options. I'm also interested in diving at PNG so if anybody has any recommendations on this that would be great too, Okinawa would be another option I would consider.

---------- Post added April 19th, 2012 at 11:33 AM ----------

Thank you Hike, this is a great help. I've just come back from Sipadan and it was amazing!! I will have a look into Layang Layang! I have found availibility on a Liveaboard in Komodo and also Landbased Palau for early june ....I just can't decide which would be the best option :/ Do you have any advise on the Maldives...I have friends getting married in Sri Lanka next March and I'm thinking of tagging this on to the trip :)

[Kevrumbo]

I have found availibility on a couple of options that fit into our time frame .....
1)Indonesia - 7 day Komodo liveaboard (Mermaid 2)
2)Palau - 7 night at Palau Paciffic resort with 5 days diving with Sam's tours plus Jelly fish lake

Any advise/recommendations would be greatly received.
I would prefer to save the philippines for long weekends as it's so close to Hong Kong ...I can pack lots of long weekends away in throughout the year . As i have a bit longer on this trip it would be good to take advantage and go somewhere else which takes a little longer to get to like the above options. I'm also interested in diving at PNG so if anybody has any recommendations on this that would be great too, Okinawa would be another option I would consider.

---------- Post added April 19th, 2012 at 11:33 AM ----------

Thank you Hike, this is a great help. I've just come back from Sipadan and it was amazing!! I will have a look into Layang Layang! I have found availibility on a Liveaboard in Komodo and also Landbased Palau for early june ....I just can't decide which would be the best option :/ Do you have any advise on the Maldives...I have friends getting married in Sri Lanka next March and I'm thinking of tagging this on to the trip :)
I did the Similans on Mermaid 2 Liveaboard; air conditioning broke down in my cabin only, so in return they gave me free nitrox for the five day trip --other than that, very nice, spacious & comfortable liveaboard.

Palau Pacific Resort (http://www.palauppr.com/) (PPR) is the five star resort hotel in Palau; has the best sandy beach & a good snorkel/shallow dive house reef on their property. Excellent food, but can be expensive eating there exclusively over a week. Far away from the eateries and souvenir shops of "main street" Koror, but there is an afternoon/evening shuttle bus service with a convenient schedule that can drop you off in town.

SamsTours (http://www.samstours.com/main.html) is my favorite land-based dive operation; can get crowded with the "cattle boat" mentality especially during Japanese & American National Holidays, but the nearly hour long ride out to the dive sites makes up for it with the beautiful Rock Islands' scenery. Ulong Channel (http://www.fishnfins.com/v2/en/dive-sites/ulong-channel.html) with incoming current is the best all-around representative dive site of Palau IMHO, with colorful abundant hard corals, schooling big fish, sharks & other pelagics in unlimited visibility with strong ripping current at depth. Bring a poncho/rain jacket for your surface interval and the long ride back to Koror should squall conditions develop in the afternoon.

My recommendation is to see if you can find a similar deal for a Palau Liveaboard (i.g. Ocean Hunter (http://www.oceanhunter.com/) ) instead of the premium cost of the five-star PPR and land-based dive-op (unless you managed to get a greatly discounted deal for PPR/SamsTours!). . .

[Centrals]

Riding day boat back and forth for six days was far too much for me. I opted to liveaboard on my subsequent visit to Palau.
Ocean Hunter is on the expensive side well at least for me. Big Blue was the one that I used.

[Hike]

I have found availibility on a couple of options that fit into our time frame .....
1)Indonesia - 7 day Komodo liveaboard (Mermaid 2)
2)Palau - 7 night at Palau Paciffic resort with 5 days diving with Sam's tours plus Jelly fish lake

Any advise/recommendations would be greatly received.
I would prefer to save the philippines for long weekends as it's so close to Hong Kong ...I can pack lots of long weekends away in throughout the year . As i have a bit longer on this trip it would be good to take advantage and go somewhere else which takes a little longer to get to like the above options. I'm also interested in diving at PNG so if anybody has any recommendations on this that would be great too, Okinawa would be another option I would consider.

---------- Post added April 19th, 2012 at 11:33 AM ----------

Thank you Hike, this is a great help. I've just come back from Sipadan and it was amazing!! I will have a look into Layang Layang! I have found availibility on a Liveaboard in Komodo and also Landbased Palau for early june ....I just can't decide which would be the best option :/ Do you have any advise on the Maldives...I have friends getting married in Sri Lanka next March and I'm thinking of tagging this on to the trip :)

For Indonesia check out the black manta. I believe the website is White Manta Home (http://www.whitemanta.com) (has both boats on one website). They do 4 night komodo cruises, you can get both Bali and komodo

The Maldives is fantastic, but you have to stay at the right resort, once you are at the resort, you dont go anywhere else for your stay so there are no shops to buy a beer or soda, you have to pay the great hotel price of like 8 dollars. LOB obviously the best option, but I have never tried it, I stayed at the Hilton, which had great diving, but high prices and reethi beach, this was less expensive and the diving was still good, but not as convenient as the Hilton

---------- Post added April 19th, 2012 at 09:09 AM ----------

Dont forget about Fiji, direct flights from Hong Kong on air pacific. Business class is reasonable to, about 15,000hkd i think, something like 8,000 for economy. Anytours.com.hk - Low Airfares to Hong Kong, Singapore, Kota Kinabalu, Kuala Lumpur (http://www.anytours.com.hk) is a good site to get cheap hotel and flight packages, of course cathaypacific.com has packages at great values, but they seem to be less and less available lately

[hutchinson12]

Unfortunetly there are no liveaboards in Palau that meet my time frame in June but I have found an option with the aggressor for December so this my be the best option to dive Palau. ... therefore it looks like Indonesia in June

[ScubaMoMo]

I'm also based out of Hong Kong and have done quite a bit of diving around SEA. My two favourites in terms of diving and cost at the moment around here are Malapascua, Philippines and Tulamben, Bali. Both reachable by direct flight and about a 3-4h boat and/or car transfer.

Malapascua in my eyes is awesome. I have been there 3 times in 2 years. It has the early morning tresher shark dive and at the moment due to a new dive site they are there in abundance. Also you have great corals, white tips, macro, fish and everything at Gato Island. Muck diving all around the island itself. The mandarin fish dive in the evening. White sandy beaches. Great dive centres (i chose Evolution). Great accomodation. And from HK its unbeatable in price. Flights are a mear 1-2k HK$! Also btw. you would have the chance to go snorkeling with the whalesharks at Oslob on the last day if you arrange a privat car transfer and leave around 5am from Malapascua ;)

Bali was my latest trip and i spend 12 days at Tulamben with my family. In terms of prices its very comparable to Philippines. Tulamben itself has the awesome USS Liberty wreck dive and all around it there is lots of great macro and muck diving. In the south you have Nusa Penida with its Manta Rays and in summer you also have the chance of seeing Mola Mola's there. There is direct flights from HK to Bali by either CX or HK Airlines. Pricewise it will turn out to be a bit more expensive then the Philippines, especially due to the flight cost, but Bali has extremly much to offer culturaly and apart from diving. So if you go with somebody who doesn't like to constantly dive then this would be my number one pick. Flights usually are around 5-6k HK$.

I have done Palau and it is great. I did it land based with Sam's but have to say i wouldn't choose them again due to cattle boat diving. Also third dive of the day is always at one of the sites closeby which are not really great. If i would go back i would either try Fish'n Fins (due to experience of dive buddies) or much more likely with a liveaboard. Flights there from HK are not so easy. You can fly through Manilla but will definatelly loose a day on the way back and pricewise the flighs are not cheap. Around 8k HK$ for both.

Sipadan is one of my alltime favs as well. Unfortunately you also loose a day before and after and you have to be careful to do it off season to make sure you get enough permits. I dove from the Seaventures rig and it was an awesome experience and i don't see a reason if off season why to go the more expensive liveaboard way.

[Hike]

Korean air had flights for like 5,500hkd a little while ago, have to stop in Seoul though

[Nishan]

I have found availibility on a couple of options that fit into our time frame .....
1)Indonesia - 7 day Komodo liveaboard (Mermaid 2)
2)Palau - 7 night at Palau Paciffic resort with 5 days diving with Sam's tours plus Jelly fish lake

Any advise/recommendations would be greatly received.
I would prefer to save the philippines for long weekends as it's so close to Hong Kong ...I can pack lots of long weekends away in throughout the year . As i have a bit longer on this trip it would be good to take advantage and go somewhere else which takes a little longer to get to like the above options. I'm also interested in diving at PNG so if anybody has any recommendations on this that would be great too, Okinawa would be another option I would consider.

---------- Post added April 19th, 2012 at 11:33 AM ----------

Thank you Hike, this is a great help. I've just come back from Sipadan and it was amazing!! I will have a look into Layang Layang! I have found availibility on a Liveaboard in Komodo and also Landbased Palau for early june ....I just can't decide which would be the best option :/ Do you have any advise on the Maldives...I have friends getting married in Sri Lanka next March and I'm thinking of tagging this on to the trip :)

The Maldives is an easy add on if you will be in Sri Lanka, and March generally has excellent conditions. Lots of pelagics and schooling fish action as well as mantas. Best option is a liveaboard and there are heaps to suit different budgets. If you like wrecks and have time try some wreck diving in Sri Lanka.