Papua New Guinea vs Indonesia

[WetPup]

Layang Layang in Malaysia (Borneo) if you like reefs and "big stuff". Schooling hammers and heaps of mantas. Need to get the timing right though as the resort only opens for half the year during dive season.

Derawan off Kalimantan. Heaps of big stuff. Google "Big Fish Country", which is the name of a dive site. Appropriately named. Stay at Nabucco Island Resort or something. There's only a few dive resorts in the area - so far.

 

[Wingy]

As above although it's a luck thing as you know Hubby lol -

How about Uepi?

Or Timor Leste
Can't seem to find any great footage but I hear rave reviews on Autora reef - dugong and dolphin interactions plus the worlds oldest living corals (apparently)

Layang Layang

 

[silent running]

Hello all, haven't posted in a while but wanted to chime in having been to PNG, Indo and the Solomons.

PNG is my favorite, though I haven't been in quite awhile, so it's good to hear people are still having good experiences. PNG has it all, high diversity, big stuff, WW2 wrecks and amazing scenery with lowest population density of all. I've been from Eastern Fields to Kavieng and everywhere in between, best diving I've ever done. Airfare is outrageous by the time you figure in domestic flights. It was always bad, but is worse now, no excuse considering the price of oil the last 2 years.

Komodo, Alor and Ambon Indonesia are a close second, but not as much big stuff. Diversity is off the charts and plenty of fish, sharks and tuna if your operator has good local knowledge.

Most recent trip in September of last year was to the Solomons, it certainly has plenty of WW2 wrecks and lots of fish the further you get away from Honiara. Liveaboard is probably the best way to see it. I was on Taka, very well run boat, had sharks on most dives, some very big tuna and bumpheads. I heard many good things about Uepi, but not sure how long the boat rides are or how nice their boats are. Taka has itineraries that include Uepi dive sites. So one could go either way. Definitely not as much macro species diversity, but plenty of biomass and there's always some odd endemic stuff to see, just not to the degree of what I saw in the shallows at Restorf island in Kimbe PNG or the hard coral gardens in the waters north of Alor.

The 3 leading indicators of the best diving IMHO: proximity to deep water, high species diversity and low population density..

 

[chillyinCanada]

I first did PNG back in the late 90's when Mike Ball still operated Paradise Sport in Milne Bay. I miss that lob, was epic.

I'm one of those who also generally prefers PNG. Much less crowded than anywhere in Indonesia, and is far more laid back. I do enjoy diving Indo, don't get me wrong, but I find it hard to relax there anymore because someone always seems to be in your face about something.

Really? May I please request some for instances? I'm quite curious now as to whether I've been completely lucking out or if I've been brain dead, which is certainly possible since I'm so overwhelming with delight in Indo.

And darn you guys anyway. I'm trying to get Raja out of my system and now I might have to go further afield to PNG. Aaaaarrrrrgh

 

[chillyinCanada]

I know what you like.
You will love this.
Money is just paper - I dunno, roughly double RA times by incredible memories divided by that tingle inside.

Go

I have no money like that anymore. Guess I'm going to have to stay gobsmacked by RA. Sigh

 

[silent running]

Really? May I please request some for instances? I'm quite curious now as to whether I've been completely lucking out or if I've been brain dead, which is certainly possible since I'm so overwhelming with delight in Indo.

And darn you guys anyway. I'm trying to get Raja out of my system and now I might have to go further afield to PNG. Aaaaarrrrrgh

FWIW, I don't go places where there are tons of other divers, certainly not on purpose. I found some of the nearer sites at Indo/Bali Nusa Penida to be a bit crowded, but still the diving was very good. Further sites on Nusa were better, aside from the mantas at Nusa, but definitely top notch in terms of numbers and healthy corals.

The entire two weeks my group of 4 was in Alor Indonesia, I did not see a single other dive boat. Same in Ambon. Komodo was a bit more crowded, but mostly with day boats, and if your liveaboard Capt stays in contact with the other liveaboards and pays mind to the range/schedules of the day boats, you can still mind your own business. Did two liveaboard trips to Komodo and never saw another boat at night in the southern end of the park.

However, I once did a month-long trip in Papua New Guinea and saw no other dive boats, electric lights or even heard an airplane pass overhead for 4 weeks. I had a similar experience last fall in the Solomons. It is the best medicine, especially when combined with scuba diving..!

 

[chillyinCanada]

Oh! Perhaps I mistook what Wetpup was saying. The diving I've been doing in Indonesia the last 3 years has seen other boats but almost never run into other divers.

 

[WetPup]

Really? May I please request some for instances? I'm quite curious now as to whether I've been completely lucking out or if I've been brain dead, which is certainly possible since I'm so overwhelming with delight in Indo.

And darn you guys anyway. I'm trying to get Raja out of my system and now I might have to go further afield to PNG. Aaaaarrrrrgh

I’m not referring to crowded dive sites. Without going into detail, there’s a cultural mentality there that I don’t like. It is not everywhere, and some parts of Indo it is more prevalent than others. However, I’m in their country, and I deal with it. I just don’t necessarily like it.

 

[charlier]

Layang Layang in Malaysia (Borneo) if you like reefs and "big stuff". Schooling hammers and heaps of mantas. Need to get the timing right though as the resort only opens for half the year during dive season.

Derawan off Kalimantan. Heaps of big stuff. Google "Big Fish Country", which is the name of a dive site. Appropriately named. Stay at Nabucco Island Resort or something. There's only a few dive resorts in the area - so far.

When did you last visit Layang Layang? From my limited experience, the region has greatly suffered from overfishing and dynamite fishing. This was based on my visits to the region about 5 years ago. Though, I have not returned since 2013. Other than land-bases resorts, a few LoB’s visit Kakaban, Maratua, and Sangalaki. The resident school of barracuda are ever present in the channel at Bahaba.

 

[WetPup]

When did you last visit Layang Layang? From my limited experience, the region has greatly suffered from overfishing and dynamite fishing. This was based on my visits to the region about 5 years ago. Though, I have not returned since 2013. Other than land-bases resorts, a few LoB’s visit Kakaban, Maratua, and Sangalaki. The resident school of barracuda are ever present in the channel at Bahaba.

Was last there in 2011-12. Dynamite fishing was an issue back then too, but there was still decent amounts of big stuff to see.