Carribean, Australia, Indonesia or Thailand?

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Hey Andy, Thanks for your suggestion. You are indeed a fine ambassador for your country. The reason why I didnt consider NZ is simply like Vladimir put it, its colder temperatures. But, Ill tell you what.. I promise to come diving in NZ within a year, should i move to a location within close proximity :D Maybe you could show me around to the fine sites?
 
I spent the last 8 months in Indonesia, did first my DM during a 4-months internship in Komodo, then worked as DM in South Lombok. Food and accommodation can be inexpensive, depends of course on what you require..

Before that, I worked in Indonesia in my normal job for one and a half years, and obviously went diving whenever possible - there is many places with great diving in Indonesia!
 
Well, we can agree on that. Of course it's always hard to make general statements--there are some great dives in the Caribbean too. But I'll make one more: don't take day boats out to the Great Barrier Reef.

I enjoy the diving in southern Thailand--I have about a hundred dives there myself, mostly day boats out of Phuket, but also one liveaboard trip on the MV Fantasea to the Similan Islands, the Surin Islands, and Richelieu Rock. Almost all of the dives on a Mike Ball itinerary to the Coral Sea would be better, in my opinion. As far as budget goes, no doubt a dollar goes further in Thailand than in Australia or the Caribbean, but how about in Indonesia?

I did Mike Ball's liveaboard (MV Spoilpsort) to the Coral Sea last year - it was awesome! Costs a wee bit more than a tootle out to the Similans from Phuket though - hence the advice to the OP. Plus, on the whole, I actually prefer the similans to the Coral sea - although the one advantage the coral sea has over Thailand diving is the sharks! Bloody hundreds of them - everywhere. Saw so many sharks we were actually getting bored of the littluns! On the other hand, even the standby rate will eat up a fair bit of the OP's budget!

Indonesia's a good idea financially (and the diving is awesome) but I have no real experience there so can't help.

For the OPs budget though - South East Asia.

Cheers

C.
 
One thing the Caribbean is not: cheap.
 
Hi Morgan,

The one thing in your original post jumped out at me: That given "recent developments" you were thinking of avoiding Thailand.

That woudl be a huge mistake, There's absolutely no reason not to come here and whether you were referring to the political upheavals of a couple months ago or the current worldwide swine flu problem, neither should impact your decision to come to Thaialnd.

The protests, while awful looking on TV, were extremely isoldated from virtually all people. Plus, you wouldn't be in Bangkok anyway. Lots of Bangkokonians wil join me in saying that while protests raged in one small area, life went on as usual elsewhere.

As for the flu, it's a worldwide thing and, the fact is, more people die of regular flu every year than have died of H1N1.

The good side about all the perceived problems is that Thailand has never never never been a better deal. Airfares are at 10-year lows. Hotels are offering free nights for every night you buy. Here in Pattaya prices in restaurants are 20% off, clothes stores have 70% off and even dive shops like my own are offering really great promotions.

Our Aquanauts VALUE internship, introduced about a month ago, came in response to the worldwide economic slowdown plus the dropping numbers of tourists in Thaialnd. We took our hugely successful, full-featured, all-inclsuive Aquanauts COMPLETE internship, stripped out all the bells and whistles and created a program that is 45% less expensive. It's even less than internship programs in Koh Tao and Honduras! That's low.

Low prices don't always mean low quality however, as our track record shows. I invite you to explore our website at the link below, Google the news about Thailand and see what a great value it is and put the Land of Smiles at the top of your list again!


There's
 
Also, dont you still have that problem with that evil wizard Saruman still? :rofl3:

Yeah, he's a bit pesky.... off skiing this weekend on the hill over from Mount Doom, so I'll drop in and ask him to warm things up a bit for him! Not joking either, you get a great view of Mount Doom from our local skifield!

MountNgauruhoe.jpg


Summer is warm here, it hits 22-23 degC in the water (in the north) which is about the same winter water temp as parts of Aus (we were at Ningaloo last month, and it was down to a chilly 21 degC!).

The biggest thing to look in to, I think, is whether you are going to be legally able to work where ever you go. I don't know the visa requirements for Indonesia, Thailand etc. But if youa re 30 or under, the working holiday visa for Australia is well worth looking in to, easy to get and gives you 12 months (I think, may have changed to 24) hassle free working.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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