Indonesia vs. Thailand

[fuggler]

I just found out that China Airlines is having an early bird special from SFO to a handful of southeast asian countries: http://www.china-airlines.com/en/promotionen/promotionen001148.htm.
I'm trying to decide between Indonesia and Thailand; I'll be going for 2 weeks in November. Last year, I did a few days in Tulamben, Bali and a 7-day liveaboard to Komodo. I absolutely loved both places. This time, I'm thinking of the following itineraries:

A. few days in Bali, one week in Raja Ampat
B. few days in Bali, one week in Manado + Lembeh
C. wherever in Thailand (I don't know much about the sites there, to be honest.)

What are the best sites in Thailand and how do they compare to Komodo or Raja? (what are they known for - macro stuff, soft corals, pelagics? etc) From what I've heard/read in trip reports, diving in Similan Islands can be crowded and that's kind of a turn-off for me. I'm interested to hear comparison/thoughts from people who have experience in both areas. Thanks guys.

 

[weeksd]

Indonesia reefs are covered with life. Similan island is boulders some as big as a house with patches of corals. Both are good but indonesia has more coral, more fish and less boats.

 

[frogfish]

In my experience, Thailand does not compare to the best sites in Indonesia (exception being Richelieu Rock). Don't get me wrong, you can get very good dives in the Andaman sea, but on average it does not match what you get in Komodo or R4 in terms of diversity, fish life and coral coverage; in addition as you pointed out Thailand dive sites are quite crowded and Similans have recently suffered severe coral bleaching.

On a good Similan/ Koh Bon/ Richelieu trip, you will see mantas (but I believe November is to early in the season), leopard sharks, turtles, healthy reef life, some good macro (harlequin shrimps, frogfish, seahorses...) and if you are very lucky a whale shark (well I saw one in one of my four trips...)

Personally I prefer diving the remote Indonesian reefs, but always happy to go to Thailand for convernience (very easy to get to from Singapore).

 

[fuggler]

Right after posting this, I also started looking into Sipadan/Mabul. It sounds like that combination is very much on par with Bunaken/Lembeh. So now I think I'll put Thailand on the back burner and focus on making a cost comparison between Malaysia and Indonesia. Thank you guys for the input.

 

[Centrals]

Bunakan/Lembeh would be my preference over Sipadan/Mabul in pure divingwise.
There is no comparison between Indonesia and Thailand.
Philippines run pretty close 2nd to Indonesia.

 

[Luko]

Bunakan/Lembeh would be my preference over Sipadan/Mabul in pure divingwise.

... could be discussed a long time.

While I agree that Lembeh is richer/denser than Mabul in terms of critters, Sipadan smokes Bunaken hands down in terms of ANYTHING, especially fish schools.

Overall I feel that the combo Sipadan/Mabul has pretty much the most variety of diving within a very small dive area... I would say only Komodo and (probably, because I haven't been yet) Raja Ampat competes in terms of variety, from macro to pelagics.