First liveaboard trip

[Bali Diver]

Agree 100% with Luko Red Sea very good destination,have to go south away from crowds and the best diving and best examples of hard corals can be found.

But Indonesia is simply a fantastic destination with all round diving and stunning reefs and yes stunning macro.My last trip in red sea was 2004 (south)and after Indonesian diving one massive differents on my return to red sea was DIVERSITY was no where near to what Indonesia has

To pughio83 you will just love Indonesia and Komodo in october would be good choice and north and south can be dived

 

[pughio83]

Thanks everyone for the imput. much appreciated. Well i have been lucky enough to dive a lot of cool places already, all over philippines incl southern leyte (which was awesome), bali, gili islands, sipidan/mabul and east coast penninsula malaysia, thailand, kenya and egypt. Now if i compare egypt to pacific triangle then for diveristy and macro there is no comparison. When i went to egypt i was very disppointed, despite great viz. I had cowboy dm's of no use what so ever, and the amount of fish was poor. I dived elphinstone twice and saw a solitary napolean wrasse and that was it, macro was shocking (as expected).However other people got lucky and saw whalesharks, oceanics and dugongs and dolphins!! Now i have been looking at the 'simply the best' options and they do look well priced and offer sharks, but so many people have advised me the diving in egpyt has gone downhill, and you could do a weeks liveaboard and see the odd shark and nothing else. Still a lot of money if thats all you get, and would rather put a grand towards a better trip.

thanks for the info on komodo. If i had the patience i would save up for longer and go RA or PNG or cocos, but i have itchy feet already so i think komodo in oct/nov maybe the best option, and combine it with some land based time. I would also consider palau but oct/nov i think is not best time right? i have been looking at scubatravel - can anyone comment on booking through these guys?

cheers

 

[Scuba Dive Asia]

Hello!

I cannot agree more; Komodo! You will be blown away not only by the underwater scenery but above as well. Komodo has it all. Big stuff, small stuff, sharks & mantas, dragons and almost no others boats around. You will feel special in a majestic place.
Palau is great however not as rich with macro; again amazing landscapes, the jellyfish lake, possibility to kayak thru the islands, bird watching...it is definitely a place to check out.
Fiji is also an option I would consider. Big stuff, pristine coral reefs, some macro. Not many lob, mainly landbased diving though.
Red Sea...well as mentioned above, it is to Europeans, our "Caribbean'. An easy place to get to, so therefore more crowded than Asia and indeed poor for micro life. However, boats are comfortable, crews are great and you have the pyramids

It all depends on budget. Looking back with experience, if you have the money, go for it! Asia and especially Indonesia have some of the best diving the world has to offer.

Where did you do your DM course?