Destinations Far East

[slemm]

HI,
Looking to next years holiday. Can anyone suggest any where in the Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand sort of area. I know its a big area, just asking for suggestions or any really good recommendations. Look forward to hearing from you.

Ta Steve

[Sphyrna Lewini]

Hello

I've been to Manado and Lembeh Straits (North Sulawesi, Indonesia) staying at Kungkungan Bay Resort and Tasik Ria. The diving, food, staff and accomodation at KBR are brilliant: 'alien' fish, loads of nudis, eels, mimic octupus and even a wreck! The peanut sauce is to die for! You can combine (as I did) a week at KBR with diving at Tasik Ria, where you can dive Bunaken NP (wall dives, pretty fish and turtles).

Whilst over there you can do a couple of day trips: we went on a volcano trip (which also ncluded a visit to a lake, temple, market and traditional house) and went into the jungle to see the tarsiers - saw other monkeys and a python too!

Another option (where I'm off in 2009) is Komodo, which you can get to from Bali (liveaboard) or day boats (as I'm going to do) from Labuan Bajo on Flores.

I can't comment on Sri Lanka, but apparently Malaysia (Sipidan, Borneo) and Thailand also have excellent diving - no doubt someone will come along and tell you more about them.

[Sipadan]

I travelled/dived the area a few years back. Mainland Thailand was dissapointing, as was Vietnam and Cambodia. The Similans were good, but I didn't see any big stuff, so I don't excited at the mention of them as some people do. I thought the Perhenthian Islands (Malaysia) were good and it was a nice surprise on the backpacker trail. Sipadan was of course fantastic

[Bora_Horza]

I enjoy backpacking and diving around South East Asia, mostly to Indonesia and the Philippines.

Diving from Labuanbajo, Flores into the Komodo National Park is awesome, spectacular corals, lots of fish, and seasonal mantas - dozens at a time! I've visited there 3 times as I like it so much. There's a trip report I wrote a few months ago at this forum: Komodo / Labuanbajo. I dived with Reefseekers who were very good, run by Kath and Ernest, a brit couple.

I also went to Alor island in the east of Indonesia for a bit of diving - beautiful place, great if you want an 'away from it all' experience. See Alor Trip report for another trip report I wrote.

I did my Open Water course in the Togean Islands, Sulawesi back in 2002, a very pretty place, then I ran out of time and never managed to dive Manado / Bunaken / Lembeh, such is life...

I'm planning a trip to Pulau Weh, an island off the north tip Sumatra which is meant to be good.

The Philippines has some great diving - better to fly into Cebu instead of Manila, less hectic. From Cebu city lots of options..

Off the north tip of Cebu is Malapascua island (there's a possibility of seeing threasher sharks, maybe manta rays, and diving at Gato island, especially the 'tunnel dive' under the island, to a cavern with lots of whitetip sharks is something special). Plus its a really pretty island with nice beaches. I dived with the Sea Explorers dive shop, they were good. See their website for an overview of the region: Sea Explorers

On the west coast of Cebu is Moalboal town (nice diving, not so much big stuff in my experience, but decent low key nightlife, resteraunts, etc).

A 2 hour ferry trip east is Bohol, I've only seen Alona beach, Panglao island, which was not bad if a bit commercialised for my tastes. Good diving around Balicasaig island. I also hired a moped from there for the day and went exploring Bohol, past the Loboc river, then the Chocolate Hills, which was a good day out.

Or south you can make your way to Dumaguete, on Negros (good seafront / promenade / resteraunts / university town), from there make your way to Apo island - the best diving and corals I've seen in the Philippines - visited there twice myself! See Apo Island Liberty Community Lodge

If you fly into Manila, you can fly to El Nido (Palawan), which is amazingly beautiful abovewater - all those islands and beaches, but the diving there was not brilliant. There's also Coron, or the Busuanga islands (off the north tip of Palawan), which has its WWII Japanese wrecks, which were interesting. There's a good overview of Palawan at this website: Philippines holiday destinations

A few pics from my trips at bora_horza's photos and albums on webshots Hope this helps, have fun...

[slemm]

Wow thanks Bora thats very helpful
Steve

[York_Tyke]

Also did diving whilst backpacking round SE Asia. Did Padre Burgos and Malapascua Island in Philippines, both of which were excellant, crystal clear waters, lots of marine life. Also did a liveaboard out of Phuket that went up into Burma, again fantastic diving, not too much on the big stuff apart from the Mantras at Black Rock.

Sipadan, top diving and cheap.

I kept a blog with photos, if you want to know a bit more.

Padre Burgos - Padre Burgos, Philippines Travel Blog

John.