Where to dive early July??

[widarecu]

Hi there,


…. well it happens that I’m currently working in Singapore and also happens to have a full week off early July, what a complicated life!!!

… It also happens that I just upgraded my old crappy Canon camera with a new S90 + housing + strobe + Fish Eye lens and it also happens that I have some extra money to allow me a nice relaxing diving trip

So then guys, now I’m starting to plan my trip but I’m a bit stuck with that many options.

This is sort of what I want:
• Dive in one of the best diving sites in Asia-Pacific
• Nice bio-diversity
• Not excessively far from Singapore (I guess no more than 4 hours from Singapore flying)
• My divings are all around photography, love taking pictures of everything
• I love the small stuff (nubibranchs, frog fish, clowns, sea horses and all that) as well as I enjoy spotting the big stuff from time to time
• I love colorful corals, specially soft corals
• Live aboards are my preferred option

I’ve already dived in:
• Maldives x 2 (The best, Love it!!!!)
• Similan Islands x 1
• Thailand (the rest apart of Sipadan) x 3
• Malaysia/Sipadan x 4
• Great Barrier x 2

I’ve done some research so far and I think some good options are as follows but not really sure exactly where:
• Palau, Micronesia
• Papua New Guinea
• French Polynesia
• Philippines or Indonesia maybe??

What do you think guys? Any experience in any of these sites? Should I consider another option? Should I stay at home watching TV and playing with the camera in the bathtub??

Thanks a lot guys in advance for your advice,

Cheers,


Wilson

 

[vladimir]

With your 4-hour flight constraint Palau, PNG, and Polynesia are out. I can highly recommend the first two from personal experience. I'd fly to Manado and do the Lembeh/Bunaken combination. Or go to Bali--nice and easy--and do a few days in Tulamben and Menjangan and a few days on Lombongan Island for a nice variety of sites.

If your profile is corrent, you have 12 dive trips and 50 to 100 dives? You have to get in the water more. I did almost 50 dives on one (long) trip to PNG!

 

[widarecu]

Lol, I was just updating my profile, a bit of diving has happened in the last 2 years

I'm seriously considering Palau, PNG, and Polynesia, they have been in my list for a pretty looooong time. How complex is the flight from Singapore? I have around 8 days for the whole trip so I guess I could do something

Whats your feedback on these sites?

Thanks mate!!

 

[vladimir]

Getting to Palau can be a bit of adventure, even from Singapore. I went Singapore-Manila-Guam-Koror and took a day, counting an overnight in Manila. If you get the right flights though, including a direct from Manila to Koror, then you could be swinging in a hammock at the Palau Pacific Resort 8 hours later. Okay, maybe 9, but only 8 hours of flying time. That would be my first choice if it is doable, but I don't think it is in 8 days. You would have to content yourself with day diving, rather than a liveaboard--I don't know how much of a compromise that is.

PNG is not too bad, I think it's around 5-6 hours from Singapore. I flew Air Niugini. The adventure starts when you get there; you will have domestic flights from Port Moresby to get to the popular dive destinations, although there is diving in Bootless Bay, which is just a drive and a boat ride away. Again, 8 days might not be enough time for a trip to PNG--the hassle factor starts to loom large for the amount of diving you get in, but any diving you do at either Palau or PNG will be better than the diving you've done in Thailand or the Great Barrier Reef, in my opinion. Sipadan was pretty spectacular when I was there and compared favorably, but that was back in 1995, and we had schooling hammerheads, massive schools of fish, and so many turtles they bored you .

 

[widarecu]

Well I could play with my dates to make it a bit longer so I'll have to check ...... do you know the airline names that fly both destinations?? And what about liveaboards, which ones did you take?

Have you done Maldives? how would you compare it with PNG and Palau?

 

[vladimir]

To PNG it's just Qantas and Air Niugini, as far as I know. Air Niugini will fly direct from Singapore--Qantas will stop in Darwin. Unless things have changed, the only airline to Palau is Continental. How you get to Manila or Japan to pick up your flight is up to you.

I have not been to the Maldives yet. They were always a favorite among the Singapore divers when I lived there, but I never made it. The attraction of Palau is sharks and pelagics, mostly, although it has pretty much everything. Jellyfish Lake is pretty unique (not completely unique--there's a poor-man's version on Kakaban), they have WWII shipwrecks, at least one good cavern dive, and healthy reefs with the usual assortment of macro subjects. You can see dozens of reef sharks on a dive, half a dozen mantas on another, tuna, large schools of reef fish, etc.

I did a liveaboard around Milne Bay in PNG and did some land-based diving from Loloata Island. It is Indonesian-style muck diving, for the most part, but we still saw the occasional reef shark, hammerhead, or tuna. Your macro lens will get a work out there. The sites on New Britain Island (Rabaul, Kimbe) are more known for sharks, but I can't speak first-hand to that. The logistics of getting up north--and in PNG in general--might be difficult with your time constraints. I took a full three weeks, so a day or two waiting for a plane wasn't a disaster.

 

[Luko]

This is sort of what I want:
• Dive in one of the best diving sites in Asia-Pacific
• Nice bio-diversity
• Not excessively far from Singapore (I guess no more than 4 hours from Singapore flying)
• My divings are all around photography, love taking pictures of everything
• I love the small stuff (nubibranchs, frog fish, clowns, sea horses and all that) as well as I enjoy spotting the big stuff from time to time
• I love colorful corals, specially soft corals
• Live aboards are my preferred option

I’ve already dived in:
• Maldives x 2 (The best, Love it!!!!)
• Similan Islands x 1
• Thailand (the rest apart of Sipadan) x 3
• Malaysia/Sipadan x 4
• Great Barrier x 2

I’ve done some research so far and I think some good options are as follows but not really sure exactly where:
• Palau, Micronesia
• Papua New Guinea
• French Polynesia
• Philippines or Indonesia maybe??

Working in s'pore and not been diving Indo yet? ... you're missing some of the best diving in the world!

Except for the Phils and Indo, none of the destinations on your wishlist are less than 4 hours from Singapore.

This is what would be my recommandation, although I am wondering whether we have the same dive tastes, from the responses you wrote to another post on Thailand and Sipadan, and also from your appraisal of dive areas : for instance I found Maldives pretty less interesting than SEA diving especially for small stuff and corals, not enough variety to my taste, and on the other hand Sipadan is on my top list -(what do you mean "rest of Thailand apart from Sipadan"??? mistyped Similan maybe ) as well as the Phils and most parts of Indonesia.

Palau would be great (from what I read, I haven't been to Palau yet) but you have to go through Manila then Palau, much more than 4 hours flight indeed, same applies for PNG, won't even speak about French Polynesia (which btw is terribly expensive and almost devoid of corals and small stuff, you may preferably try New Caledonia or Fijis).

Phils might not be your best bet for biggies unless you go to Malapascua for mantas and threshers, it's ver consistent on small stuff and corals (for corals I find some of the places like Moalboal better than Indo) but in july there might be a typhoon or two coming in. Not the best period either...

Indonesia is then ahead of your choices : if you want big things not far way from S'pore, Bali would be an option, there are chances of Mola Mola, Manta rays and sharks in Nusa Penida or Gili Mimpang/tepekong and July is fine. For small stuff and variety, Bali is hard to beat too, you have almost everything.
I wouldn't recommend North Sulawesi for you since you don't seem to like "crap water" .. though Lembeh is a favorite amongst many divers (like Mabul ) and I love Bangka (see my photo gallery below).
Komodo could also be an option, said to be outstanding but I can't speak of it yet (though I am coupling it with Sipadan in august).

 

[widarecu]

This one is just for Luko

I don't wanna start any discussions just want to clarify some points so I can get the guys to give me some good recommendations and help me choose the right spot.

Working in s'pore and not been diving Indo yet?

I've been in Singapore for just 2 weeks with the assignment finishing in July so not many options to travel more than at the end of the project. Maybe I could do some quick weekend diving but …… I don’t like just to dive for the sick of get wet; I like to dive in nice spots and see cool stuff (what do you think of Tioman??? That could be an option for a long weekend).
Apart of that due my work, normally I come to Malaysia a couple of times per year for 1 week then I escape for a few days (normally no more than 5) to do some good diving (much easier to go to Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia in those cases).
What I’m looking to do now is to use the chance that I’m already in Singapore and I can get some extra days (9 to 10 days should be doable) and do some diving that I wouldn’t be able to do easily (time and budget constrains) in my bi-yearly quick trips to Malaysia.

Except for the Phils and Indo, none of the destinations on your wishlist are less than 4 hours from Singapore.

Not really a constraint, just wanted to know if there is something reaaaaaaally good close, but if Palau or Papua are worth and better than Indonesia then I don’t care about how long it would take me to get there (that doesn’t mean I would go to Bonaire or Cocos in the Caribean )

although I am wondering whether we have the same dive tastes

From my intro message:
• My divings are all around photography, love taking pictures of everything
• I love the small stuff (nubibranchs, frog fish, clowns, sea horses and all that) as well as I enjoy spotting the big stuff from time to time
• I love colorful corals, specially soft corals

you wrote to another post on Thailand and Sipadan, and also from your appraisal of dive areas : for instance I found Maldives pretty less interesting than SEA diving especially for small stuff and corals, not enough variety to my taste, and on the other hand Sipadan is on my top list -(what do you mean "rest of Thailand apart from Sipadan"??? mistyped Similan maybe )

The Sipadan thing at the end of that paragraph yes, it was a mistyped, I meant Similan
About Maldives, yes I loved it and it’s on my top list because of the variety, what I mean with that is that I’ve taken 2 liveaboards there already, first one was OK (was my first liveaboard and they kind of con me, but still was OK for my first experience), but the second one was just AMAZING, a 5 day live aboard when in the same trip I could see Whale Shark, Manta Rays, Eagle rays, big nice friendly turtles, sharks, a big big big school of napoleon fish (more than 30 huuuuuuge monsters), as well as my favorite stuff, nice reefs with hundreds and hundreds of fish that you didn’t know where to look at as well as soft coral reefs, nice nubibranchs and all that …… I don’t know how Sipadan can beat that, I’ve been in Sipadan around 5 times already and yes, cool the barracudas, cool the sharks, cool the turtles, but it’s always the same ….. maybe I’m just frustrated cause I’ve never been able to see the fricking Hummer Head sharks …. bad luck I guess

I wouldn't recommend North Sulawesi for you since you don't seem to like "crap water" .. though Lembeh is a favorite amongst many divers (like Mabul )

What I meant with crap water was as I said, diving in the middle of bottles, cups, plastic bags, toilet paper ….. sorry but that’s not my ideal of diving.
Tell me you love diving under the Diving Platform close to Mabul??? Man, that’s not the best spot there, I agree Mabul is great (love it as well, first time I’ve seen Mandarin fish in the wild), but as I said, a part of Mabul and Sipadan, some of the other places there is a lot of crap around there.
Again, maybe was my diving operator taking me to the worst places but well that’s my experience, and for what I was able to see, most the operators leaving from Semporna do the same thing ….. just my experience.

 

[widarecu]

..... so now back to business, the best options look as:

1. Palau
2. Papua
3. Indonesia
3. Philippines (not that good because of the timing?)

How would you rank them? Am I missing a potential paradise on that list? What would be your best option for nice variety in 7 days diving?

Cheers,


Wilson

 

[facesofthesea]

I would suggest Komodo for July. Raja Ampat can be dived year round but better later in the year. Komodo obviously looking at liveaboards and 7 days is probably a bit short as most will do 10 or 11 nights. You could fly from Singapore to Bali (Denpesar) and then either join a liveaboard that starts from Bali or catch a connecting flight to Bima in Sumbawa and join a liveaboard starting from there.

There are many choices of liveaboard (SY Siren - Damai - Pindito - Arenui - Seahorse - and others) and all offer some amazing diving. Komodo has fantastic healthy coral reefs, critter diving, pelagic diving (sharks, manta rays, dolphins, tuna) and of course land visit to observe the Komodo Dragon.

Bring a 5mm full length suit for the chillier southern waters.

Otherwise yes Sulawesi and Lembeh or Bunaken are good options for resort diving. With 7 days you could do a twin stay ( few days in Bunaken and a few days in Lembeh).

Closer to home would be the Perhenthian Islands, Redang or Tioman... easy access from Singapore and a favourite for weekend divers from Singapore. The diving is not as good as Indonesia in my view but still nice and pretty cheap.

The Philippines are cheap and easy to get to but you have to be careful where you end up in July as can be rainy season and although diving possible, your top side activities may be restricted.

I think Komodo offers fantastic diving, you can get there easily via Bali and if you can extend your holiday you would not be disapointed.

Faces of the Sea
Stay in Style - Dive in Style