Diving in Asia: Where would you go?

i whould pick Havelock on the andamas island in India, i got arundt 800 dives and andamans is my favorite. its untouched 30+ visibility. not that many people, cheap/good acconmadation. its not like thailand Compared with nightlife, first time i was there the nightlife was great (depends on what type of people thats there)

only borring thing is it abit of hassle to get there, need to fly to kolkata or chennai (can take the boat) and then take a boat from port blair to havelock (2.5 hour)

i did my open water/advanced in havelock some years ago and every place i been after that has been disappointing compered to havelock

Edited by: lindgren

lindgreen, can you shed any light on dive trip prices an the Andamans? I am looking at doing a liveaboard in the Similan Islands in Thailand because the price looks ($900 for 18 dives over 6 days) and also because it looks like a nice part of the world - great beaches and scenery between dives, good fun towns before and after the liveaboard trip. It sounds like the coral will not be as vibrant as in the Phillipines, but that the fish and quality of life will be great. Anyways, I would switch plans to Havelock, as I will be based in India, but it just looks expensive.

genghis_caterpillar: Thailand looks great, particularly if budget is a concern, though isn't July the beginning of monsoon season in Asia? Personally, if I was planning a pure dive trip, it would be to the Red Sea or Indonesia.

in havelock its 4dive shops, atleast when i was there last time, the price is around 400$ for 12dives, thats include equipment rental.

http://www.andamanbubbles.com
http://www.diveindia.com
http://www.divingandaman.com/
http://www.diveandamans.com/ my favorite diveshop

to get to Andamans (port blair) det flights coast around 150$ for a round trip if you book early in advanced,

Havelock is pretty quiet comperd to Phillipines and Thailand if you looking for party and alot of other people, its realy laidback place. since it not that much to do its easy to save money, you can get acconmandation from 100rupee (shard bathroom) 150 for your own bathroom.
so you can esay live on less then 10$ each day.

i have dived Similan , Phillipines (donsol, borrocay,apo) and havelock is my favorite by far.

im going back there for xmas this year

For you guys, it sounds like Phuket could be the place. Good nightlife and good diving as well.

The Red Sea could be tempting as well though, with in e.g. Hurghada good nightlife too.

lindgree, have you dived in the Maldives? It seems to me that, given the opportunity to dive in that par of the world, it would be a much better option than Havelock. Of course, both destinations look incredible.

Thanks for peoples thoughts - they're all much appreciated.

Sadly, Andamans is out because its monsoon season in July, and the Similans are out for the same weather related reason. The Red Sea is a place we've all dived multiple times before so thats out too.

At the moment, I'm kind of focusing on either Malaysian Bornea, or Indonesia, but would be really interested in any recommendations for Indonesia. Threeopus3 (or anyone else) - what would be your preference within Indonesia ?

genghis, I don't know a lot about those places other than that they look wicked and that Kalimanatan gets mentioned a lot.

Also, Palau sounds like heaven and Micronesia generally sounds like an adventure. Check out episode 128 of this podcast:
http://amateurtraveler.com/old-episode-guide/

As a really cool novelty, in Palau you could even visit jellyfish lake:
http://echeng.com/journal/2006/04/07/jellyfish-lake-palau/

You could also do some world-class diving & swim with Humpback whales in Tonga:
http://amateurtraveler.com/2006/04/15/episode-38-swimming-with-whales-off-tonga/

Bunaken... :D