travelling with dive gear

I travel with my own gear all the time, but my dive trips are almost exclusively dive-focused, meaning I don't have to worry about being separated from my gear while I do land tours. If that is your worry, you might consider the left luggage facilites at airports and places like Sentral Station in KL as temporary storage while you are not diving.

As far as security goes, I have heard of very few cases of stolen equipment, and most of the time the items that have "gone missing" have been things like computers, knives, lights, and such that are easily portable.

Hi Shelley,
Travel as light as you can, airline restrictions. Try to take only what you need.

For land tours, stay at a nice hotel for one night before the tour. Most of the time you can leave you luggage at the hotel storage room till you are back. Lock your bags.

If you are doing "lots" of diving take the gear.

If only a few dives i suggest leaving the gear at home.

dp

Have been travelling with mine for years.....have a strong carry on so you can put heavy items in like regs to hide the weight....International flights, long haul, its never a problem...cheaper flights on places like Air Asia can be tricky, but have yet to pay excess..In places like indonesia, don't worry..Lion air, etc have huge luggage allowances....

And yeah, store it someplace safe if going into Lao for example.....

When I did SE Asia, I just brought the regs and computer. Easily wraps up and fits in the bottom of the backpack. Leave everything else back home.

I've taken my dive gear over to Asia on extended trips a lot. Never had a problem with theft (I pack my gear in a MEC duffle bag and put a lock on it). I suppose it depends if your comfortable using rented gear or not. For short hops in Asia you might pay a few bucks here and there, probably equal to what you'd pay for rental gear. As you are only going to Malaysia and Thailand, your probably going overland a lot, so weight shouldn't be and issue. I have sent my stuff home (Winnipeg) from Singapore a few times via sea mail, no problem. If you are hoping to dive off the east coast of mainland Malaysia in "early 2009", the weather might not be the greatest. Also, if you show them your dive master cards and tell them some story about going to work, they might let you on with extra weight.

If you declare your dive kit as sporting equipment when you buy a ticket (not budget airlines) they will often give you an extra 10kgs weight allowance above the usual 20kgs.

I've worked as a DM in both Malaysia and Thailand and only carried my gear when I was working, otherwise left it securely locked and chained to a wall in a Bangkok Hotel. It's just too much of a pain in the arse to carry all that extra weight in the tropical heat. Wheelie bags are great if you're truly inseparable from your own kit but be warned, they are a nightmare on sandy beaches. When carrying kit home I did the same as post #4 above, carried regs in my hand baggage along with my dive torch.

you need to get a big carry on bag and hide the heavy stuff in it .. travling with all your gear is no problem in fact i am also lugging round a dslr strobes housing ect and i get buy just fine .. but a big carry on is the key and a smile at check in always helps .
maybe also invest in a pac safe it comes in handy you can put the regs ect in it and secure it to some thing unmovable is the hotel is a bit dodgey .....

good luck

"If you declare your dive kit as sporting equipment when you buy a ticket (not budget airlines) they will often give you an extra 10kgs weight allowance above the usual 20kgs"

Unfortunately this is not true for most airlines - they do not consider diving a "sport".
Imagine that!
You will have to check with them before you try this or you will end up paying extra - lots extra.