A couple of years ago we went to Sipadan, in Malaysia; we were told it's one of the "top 10 diving destinations"... and we did, in fact, loved it.
Other than that, we dove in Ko Tao (Thailand), Gili Air (Indonesia) and next month we'll go to Mallorca for some more diving, but I was wondering
where are your favorite places to go scuba diving? Reply to this Papua New Guinea by a million miles...have dived most of the andaman sea and Indo and I still have yet to see the diversity of Papuan waters. Sipidan is good, Gili and Lembongan in Indo are favourites (manta point penida is a great dive) - Alotau province in Papua beats even Komodo. Have fun and big bubbles!
Reply to this Hi Guys,
Have dive Sipadan, Gilis...dive a lot of Thailand, PNG is still on my wish list...
My top 5...and dived all of them...
Galapagos
Palau
Tubbatha, Philippines
Sipadan
Aliwal Shoal in South Africa
The top 3 I haven't done
Cocos
PNG
Fakarava and Rangiora (Tahiti)
...hopefully more coming soon...
Last dive was last week in Los Roques...next dive in 10 days...blog to come...in middle of Pacific...
Enjoy the bubbles...we do...
Reply to this I read all your blogs, PA... loved them all, specially the ones where you dove with whale sharks... I hope I'll be able to do it as well one day!
Reply to this Here’s some cold water love!!
Top sites dived
- Coronados Islands, Mexico
- Channel Islands, California
- La Jolla Cove, San Diego, California
Top dives I haven’t done
yet
- Monterey bay, California
- Baja, Mexico
- Guadalupe Islands, Mexico (Great Whites anyone!?)
- Ice diving!!
Although I’ll admit in two weeks I’m going to be diving up Sipadan/Derawan and maybe some of the Philippines
and I’m beyond excited :D
Reply to this I hope you enjoy Sipadan, Kukula. It's one of my fabs!
Reply to this Having not done many dives can't really compare but favourites are
Raratonga
Fiji
Red Sea - great wreck dives
and South Africa - Cape Town (a bit cold though)!
Zanzibar
Hope to get back into it one day!
Reply to this Also yes to Sipidan and around, Rarotonga, Red Sea.
Also enjoyed lochs and oceans in Scotland, but very chilly!
But one of the better places has to be local - the Poor Knights, New Zealand.
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Cayman Brac is great.
The great barrier reef was not as good as I had hoped it would be. To be fair maybe we hit a couple of bad sites.
Reply to this I'm surprized no where in South America has been mentioned here yet. Allow me to start; I got open water and advanced certified in Utila and Roatan Honduruas respectively. I've also dived in Bocas Del Torro Panama, with several reef and white tip sharks as well as Costa Rica. I am a fan of South American diving, though I suppose I've little to compare it with.
Reply to this The great barrier reef was not as good as I had hoped it would be. To be fair maybe we hit a couple of bad sites
Thats because we keep the best reef secret 😱 Its on the other side - Ningaloo - I worked on the reef on a research project for 2 years - diving and swimming with Humpbacks and Whale Sharks almost daily - I miss that job!. Also interesting dive site nearby - the Montebello Islands - site of atomic detonation tests in the 60s - strangely a wonderful dive site probably due to its isolation and well.....it was kinda radioactive for a lot of years. You can dive on 'ground zero' and see the crater and remnants of the chain used to anchor the bomb.
Other sites ive loved - Solomon Islands, Guam, Truk Lagoon, Maldives and an unnamed site near Samoa.
Wish List - Great Whites (Doing this one in S.Africa next year)
Galapagos
Palau - will get there this time....bloody typhoons.
Tortuga
Wish i hadnt bothered List - Vietnam waters
Looking forward to next month - cage diving with CROCODILES - yeh cant wait for that one!
Reply to this Cindy, where are you going cage diving with crocodiles??... I've hear about the cage diving with great whites (I'll have a heart attack if I'll do that!), but never with crocodiles... I hope you post about it!... diving with whale sharks is on my wish list... hopefully soon!
Reply to this Hey Deni and Dax - the croc cage is lowered into the water so you dont actually have to be a diver to do it but I would rather take a lung down and stay down a while and spend more cage time submerged - You can do it in Darwin in Australia and also in South Africa. Ive wanted to do it since Papua where one of the local guys told me the Pidgen word for Crocodile is PocPoc and the word for Shit! is PikPik so if anyone ever says PikPik PocPoc! its time to get out of the water 😊 gotta love how people who live on the ocean respect and understand it so much. Whale sharks are lovely creatures...I kind of got a reverse mind blow when I started that job..on the second day I was in the water with a juvenile humpback whale - very playful teenage boy - so by day 4 when a couple of whale sharks came to play for breakfast I was prepared for BIG fishies. I hope everyone gets the chance to blow bubbles with them. Not sure if links are allowed but heres Crocosaurus park in Darwin
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Reply to this Definitely Pulau Weh in Indonesia! Amazing if you like canyons and strong currents but there's also relaxed muck diving in the house reef. Rare critters are everywhere! Try to go if you can, I've never known anyone to be disappointed by the place. Not much life on land, though, so go with a few friends and bring books/games to keep yourselves occupied in the evenings.
Reply to this Have dived the GBR, Bali, Thailand (Koh Tao), Phillipines (Cebu and Bohol) and Vietnam. Thailand and Vietnam were nothing to write home about, but the Phillipines were pretty spectacular.
Have had the pleasure of snorkelling Ningaloo reef in Western Australia with Mantas (wrong season for whale sharks unfortunately), turtles and dugongs. Wasn't certified yet so didn't dive it... there's always next time!
I went on a live aboard on the Great Barrier Reef and it was OK, just OK... Not sure whether it was bad luck but I saw more snorkelling on it!
However we dived on the S.S. Yongala wreck off Ayr, QLD for our tenth and eleventh dive ever and it was truly mindblowing, it seemed that the entire GBR ecosystem was contained within the confines of this wreck, an absolute feast for the eyes... I doubt we'll see anything that incredible under the water for a while!
Reply to this I still haven't done a wreck dive yet, but looking forward to it!!, and same can be said about live aboard...
Sometimes snorkeling can be better than diving, because most of the "colorful things" are closer to the surface... I love both! ;o)
I heard a few times that Vietnam is not that good for diving... haven't been there myself so I can't really tell; about Koh Tao... well, I was there in 2 different occasions: I did my open water there and loved it, but when I came back to do the Advanced diver 2 years later it was rubbish, mainly due to the poor visibility and the stupid instructor we had, as she was more worried in getting a tan and showing her (great, I admit) body that assuring we had a good time! :o(
Reply to this Oops denidax!!
I think I liked Sipadan a little too much... and now i'm working on Mabul at Uncle Changs as their new instructor!
Any chance you could make it back out here?! =)
Reply to this My best dive on the great barrier reef would have to be the S.S. YONGALA, you can take trips from Townsville or Magnetic Island. I did my advanced here and it was fantastic.
Reply to this kukula... we're coming back for sure!!... once we've saved enough money again! :o)
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