Thailand or Philippines in late Sept./early Oct.?

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silent running

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Location
Brooklyn, N.Y. U.S.A.
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Hello everybody, I'm interested in hearing some opinions about the quality of diving in these two places in general and particularly for the 3rd week of Sept-1st week in Oct. I'm looking at a trip to either Phuket and the local diving area, including Purple and Red rocks and maybe the southern Similans(there seem to be no liveaboard options at this time)or Puerto Gallera, Coron and Alona/Bohol areas of Philippines. My choices in the Philippines are limited by the availability of supplies and other rebreather divers as I am a CCR diver. Any comments reguarding the fish life(size, quantity, diversity), visability and weather would be much apreciated. Thanks-Andy
 
September-October is pretty much the worse time to dive around Phuket in my opinion. Day trip is still running but there is always risk of rough sea, bad weather etc.
I personally would rather go to Puerto Galera during that period of time. PG has excellent macro stuffs, decent reef but not a lot of color like the Similans and none of the big palegic stuffs.
 
Weather aside I would choose Red Rocks-Green Rocks and Similians for sure because I found they have more to offer for color and diversity, but it will be difficult to get out to those sites that time of year.

Weather and vis in the Philippines should be ok that time of year. Always the chance of some rainy days, but not enought to prevent diving. This might give you some info regarding tech dive sites and fish life in Puerto Galera...Atlantis Tech
 
It also depends on what kind of diving you like. You can dive CCR at quite a few locations in the Philippines. Anilao is very fishy, has muck diving macro, a mini-pelagic dive site and has quite a bit of variety of fish over the years and the coral has come back very well in the last 10 years. There are some very pretty dives that rival the Similans. There's even a wreck there.
PG has all sorts of stuff like a few wrecks , deep reefs and caverns with fish. Not much in terms of pelagics but you do get schooling snappers, sweetlips etc. Then there's the wonderful color of Verde island which is very fishy too. All reef fish but great numbers.
Palawan (Coron Bay) is a wreck man's paradise. Since you're a tech diver, there's no other place where a CCR would be more useful. If you have a buddy, hire your own boat and dive your heart out.
Remember that in Phuket/Thailand, if you choose to dive with the day boats, you will be limited on your dive times, so a CCR will have no use there anyways. Unless you hire your own speed boat, which can be expensive. In the philippines, it's cheaper to hire your own boat(bangka) and if you have a buddy, well you can have 2 hour dives with no problems.
Supply side you won't have trouble with most of the tech destinations. Day trips from Phuket to Similan are limited during that time, esp if you have to leave from Khao Lak, which after the tsunami, is mostly on arranged basis.
If I were you, head to the Philippines and make a multidestination trip and make full use of your CCR. Inspiration or Megaladon?
 
Hi scubashooter, wherever I go I will be chartering my own boat, so we will not have to deal with time restrictions and bubble blowers scaring the fish. And you're right the prices I've been getting for chartering my own boat in the Ph. are about half what they charge in Thailand. But is there really that much less of the bigger fish in the Philippines than in Thailand? Why are the dive sites in Ph. less colorful than those in Th.? In which of the 2 am I more likely to see Grey Reef or Black Tip sharks? Oh, and I dive a Prism-Andy
 
silent running:
Hi scubashooter, wherever I go I will be chartering my own boat, so we will not have to deal with time restrictions and bubble blowers scaring the fish. And you're right the prices I've been getting for chartering my own boat in the Ph. are about half what they charge in Thailand. But is there really that much less of the bigger fish in the Philippines than in Thailand? Why are the dive sites in Ph. less colorful than those in Th.? In which of the 2 am I more likely to see Grey Reef or Black Tip sharks? Oh, and I dive a Prism-Andy
The idea of thailand having better colors come from the soft corals that cover sites like Garden of Eden, and Hin Daeng/Muang. There are sites with very nice soft coral in the philippines too. And biodiversity wise, PI is in the cradle of marine biodiversity. Unfortunately, you will be hardpressed to find pelagics like sharks in many islands because well they also have 80 million people, many of them who live off the sea.
Whitetips reef sharks are commonly seen around PG's shark cave and the deeper sites of PG have decent pelagics. All of which work with your CCR. And there's ample supply of He there too. I use Tech Asia when I dive there now since John Bennett passed.
If you want to see real sharks, I'd head to Malapascua and use the CCR on the threshers there. They are deep nowadays because fishermen have bombed the pinnacle. When I was there, I used twin tanks and found them at 40m, while everyone at 26m didn't see a thing. You'll have to bring your own supply of Sorbnolime from Manila but I know that a few ops have nitrox so you can fill your tanks. If you want He, then your choices are limited to PG, palawan and the main island.
The philippines has better diving in different spots compared to thailand, where all the best diving is in the Andaman sea and is off season in Aug/Sep. So I'd recommend you look at PG and Palawan for the deeper stuff, then Malapascua for threshers, a few whitetips at Gato, 2 wrecks, one deep and quite nice. I'm sure you could fill 2-3 weeks easily.
 
happybuddha mentioned that Exo Tech on Malapascua has Helium now in a recent trip report. Malapasucua is a nice place to spend a few days.
 
Andy,

If I'm guessing correctly, I actually know you from the neighborhood (you worked at Spring Lounge and Doc Holiday's if I'm not mistaken). New York is a big place, but I don't think that there are that many people around with your name who dive CCRs. I've been to the Similans, PG and Bohol/Panglao, the latter two in mid-September. I'm also heading back to the Philippines for the first two weeks of September this year. I'm happy to throw in my 2 cents worth. Shoot me a PM with your number or let me know if you'll be in the East Village / LES tomorrow and want to meet up.

Jonathan
 
If you do end up going to PG mid-late September, give me a shout as I'll be there with friends 12-25th. I can highly recommend TechAsia & will be doing my first Trimix course with them this break. Can't join you on CCR - semi-closed is as far as I go right now.

Regards,

Larry
 
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