Singapore Expats

I was wondering is someone could suggest a good local dive trip I might make at end April, maybe for a week or so.

I am a DM with a few hundred dives, although tend to prefer very slow chilled out diving rather than adrenalin-rush stuff. I seem to keep ending up in Tioman or Phuket, probably as it is just so simple to organise. Leaving SG soon... so this will be the last-blast for a while!

I have yet to get to Sipidan or Manado/Bunaken.

(sorry to not answer your question BUT) How is Tioman for diving? We were there a couple of years back. Snorkelled off the beach and was ok, didn't get the chance to dive as weather turned (late October).

missis wrote:(sorry to not answer your question BUT) How is Tioman for diving? We were there a couple of years back. Snorkelled off the beach and was ok, didn't get the chance to dive as weather turned (late October).

I'd rate it highly, but they have a 'closed season' which is roughly November to end Feb when the monsoon is on. Seemingly almost the whole island closes then, and forget about diving...

It is incomparable to the west coast (Penang, Pangkor etc) where the water is... let's be honest brown and muddy. Diving from the shore (or close to it) the vis. might be down to say 10m at times depending on the tide, 20m+ at good times. Go out further and say 30m+ vis. seems pretty standard. I was weaned on the Red Sea so my standards are high! One of my fav dives is Rengiss island (islet) which is just offshore from the Berjaya hotel. Lovely hard corals, a stack of black-tips seemingly always there (going round and round - so there might only be about 4-5 of them but you see them about 12 times on a dive )

About half an hour motor offshore are a group of small islands. The main one is called Chebeh I think. A fantastic jumble of huge boulders, swim thoughs, cheeky currents... amazing vis.

Do go, it is fantastic, 35 min flight from Seletar... (I use 'Tioman Dive Centre' (Google it if interested)... and stay at their associated on-site hotel 'Swiss Cottage'... the latter is... er, a divers kinda place, calling it basic is polite [my wife would never put up with it ]).

Considering how close it is to SG... Tioman really is an inexplicably undeveloped and unspoilt gem! No wonder I keep going back.

Thanks, good to know
We got spoilt as our first dive experiences were in Fiji...!

i always thought that Bali is one of the nicest places to go diving at

Frankly, if you do ONE trip to Sipidan, you will not be happy anywhere else in SE Asia.

Can I tell my SE Asian wife this?

By all means. But to help put it into perspective, it's also a place who's ownership is being disputed by two countries and several years ago (not too many) a bunch of tourists were kidnapped from there and help hostage. It's a rather small island with very, very limited facilities. But who cares. The diving is out of this world.

http://www.malaysiasite.nl/sipadaneng.htm

I'm gon... next week
Oh yeah baby!
p.s.
For the 60's/70's children here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v7LzOeTkfM
Focus - Sylvia/Hocus Pocus
From my buddy Jan on gittar .....

JR, my wife is Singaporean as well. But she isn't a diver. However, I have over 40 years of scuba experience and 20 years commercial oilfield diving experience (13 of them in Asia). I think I've dove just about everywhere in SE Asia that's fit to dive and a lot that's not! Sipadan is number 1 for me.

Diving Sipadan reminded me of diving the Cayman's (that was way, way back in '76) without the blowholes around the north shore of Cayman. I'm a sucker for wall diving!

Woooooah-ok! I'm not massively into walls or blue, I prefer slow and slow, and slow and chilled. I've had all the drama and big stuff and don't need it any more...


Did you enjoy Jan though? I'll send you the dive song he wrote for me if you like.

p.s.
Oh - yes.
Damn, that is some diving track record.
Kudos points now.... [I laugh, as I reckon most people here would simply have no bloody idea]

sundaymorningstaple wrote:J I have over 40 years of scuba experience and 20 years commercial oilfield diving experience (13 of them in Asia).

Wow - I am in awe!

While not really my cuppa, I do admire his virtuosity on the guitar! Technically he's really good.

<oh> that pains me

I find it hard to be amongst people for whom he is not a life-changing event.

'Technically he's really good'. Ok, good start! Technically he's good.... Well, he's better than Clapton and Sultana, and probably the best technical guitarist in the world.

Focus At The Rainbow 1973 - Jan Akkerman Lute Solo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fV35BrRn4_I