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Hi guys, just wanted to ask for some advice on where would you recommend doing the PADI certification.
I just bought myself a flight ticket to Singapore for two weeks, so I'll be in the area. What would you suggest, stay in Singapore or Malaysia or go to Thailand and take the PADI training there.
I have two weeks vacation and i'll be traveling alone, so I want to mix thins up a bit, to have some fun traveling and to have some fun learning scuba-diving.
The diving in Singapore is horrible, but you don't say when you plan to come, so I can't offer a thumbs-up or thumbs-down for Malaysia without details. At certain times of year, it's just not practical to dive in Malaysia because of the monsoon season. The northeast monsoon (October to March) shuts down the diving in Malaysia that is nearby to Singapore. For Thailand, you can get to Phuket very easily, year round. I just certified two new Singapore divers a couple of days ago here on Phuket.
Tioman, Kapas, Redang and Perhentians off the East coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Tioman is pretty close to Singapore.
Langkawi on the West coast is the only one that I can think of. There should be other. Look it up.
Check the season FIRST.
Plan your oveland trip to Malaysia carefully as there is no need to go to Thailand for scuba lesson.
There is diving from Langkawi, but not much, and it's worth even less--poor visibility, zillions of snorkelers in the only "protected" marine park so that the corals are dead from getting stepped on and the fish have forgotten how to hunt because of so many people feeding them. There isn't any other diving on the west coast.
If the season is wrong for east coast Malaysia, your best bet would be Thailand.
wrt your question, depending on when is your arrival, you may be able to dive on the east coast of peninsula malaysia due to the monsoon. by the later part of this month (feb) or next month, the monsoon shld be over and diving wld be resumed.
however, do consider east malaysia. you can dive in sipadan or kk. these are divable all yr round.
alternatively do consider indonesia. u can do bali or manado. u can reach both places with 1 direct flight from singapore.
as for diving in singapore, you can skip it unless u enjoy diving in murky waters with poor visibility.
No, I'm not wrong. There's no decent diving at Pangkor (there's water, yeah, but no dive sites worth visiting), and as for the Sembilans, there used to be a dive operator called Sembilan Divers when I lived in Malaysia, but it's been closed down for about 15 years now. Going to the west coast of Malaysia for diving is not a good option for most people. The liveaboard Kaleebso sometimes does charters out there, but that's not really appropriate for somebody who is going to take their basic open water course.
To summarize:
1) The east coast of Malaysia is a good option in season for somebody based in Singapore.
2) If the east coast of Malaysia is not in season, Phuket is a good option.
3) Langkawi is a lovely, lovely place with beautiful beaches, but the diving is uninspiring.
Last edited by Quero; February 2nd, 2012 at 11:43 PM.
Interesting to know someone had mentioned that Sembilans Divers was closed in 2006 ie 5 yrs ago.
Apparently, Quiver Dive Team(Perhentian) had been diving at Sembilans since late 2011.
..because the web is always right... and far more trustworthy than a first-hand report from someone who's lived there and is very well acquainted with the region...
Yeah, I know Quiver have been testing out an op over there to keep their client base busy during the east coast monsoon season when their Perhentian shop is closed during the worst of the weather. It remains to be seen whether they get enough business to make a go of it long term. As far as I know, they had planned to only open the shop for pre-booked groups. I wish them well as they are a good option for Perhentian (I know these guys personally), but the fact remains that diving on the west coast of Malaysia is uninspiring. It's okay if you're already there, or if you live in KL and can drive up there in just a few hours, or if you have no other options because you can't afford airfare to someplace with better diving. But for an open water student starting out from Singapore it's far from ideal and I wouldn't recommend it because the visibility is poor, it's difficult to get there (maybe a 10 hour journey by road), and there are really very limited options for diving considering that if there aren't enough customers a boat will not likely go out and there's no diving right from Pangkor.
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Originally Posted by Quero
