It varies. Personally i brought my whole set as cabin luggage without a hitch. But its domestic, airasia. Others, not so uneventful. One had their reg hoses mutilated coz no 'ropes' allowed on board or something like that.

I usually bring regulator hand carry. But be careful in Philippines because their law there doesn't allow any hand carry item that looks like hoses. So regulator cannot hand carry there. A friend also was asked to check in his reg while flying mas from Miri to KK or something like that.

But generally it's fine. Some ppl wear on their BCD into the flight also.

Me. No issue. But i went to Bandar Ache. Not sure other place how. I saw ppl hand carry fins no issue today at Bali and Komodo.

hye guys. im going to pulau weh end of this month. i just want to know does anyone here ever bring their gear into cabin on international flight before? i just want to shove everything including my bcd(backplate,donut,straps) + reg + fin into my 30L backpack.

i dont know wether they allowed to bring those big a3 size backplate or not.

the reason i dont do checkin luggage is because i dont have much time to get to the jetty from the airport. around an hour. but if i check in my luggage. its gonna take longer to wait.

if anybody have some experience bringing all your equipment onboard. pls share. thank you

Certain dive sites definitely not for Newbies ...

Sophie Wreck (deco dive)
Bastard Currents (drift dive, down currents some times)
Canyon (strong currents, choppy waves, negative entry)
few more... couldn't remember so much...

New/Full moon attracts plankton and pelagics hence the current is stronger. As there are foods for the pelagic.
No moon also not so nice ... but again depend on luck lo!
Tsunami not so much of the impact for Pulau Weh. But Aceh yes.
Pulau weh only affected side of the island only.

agreed.  experienced wash out to ocean at Arus Palee (bastard current) during safety stop.
overall P.weh is very nice dive and healthy corals.

Okay summary of my Komodo trip. Trying to get this done during my free time

22/10
Took the night flight to Bali. Checked in at Harris Hotel near Denpasar airport for few hour use. Harris Hotel provide 24 hours free shuttle to airport.

23/10
Took the 11am flight to Labuan Bajo, Komodo. Arranged for airport pick up with Scuba Junkie’s assigned driver. Pay transfer fees directly to driver. It’s a few minutes car ride to SJ’s office in Labuan Bajo town, very small town with one main street. Lots of hotels, restaurants and dive centers along that street. Jetty is at one end of the street. Quite a distance from jetty to SJ office. It was raining so the few of us checking in on that day decided to take a taxi to the jetty instead. Left jetty around 2pm, settled down at SJ around 4pm after signing all the liability forms, etc. Had a whole bale to myself. There are 4 shared bathroom with 2 basins outside. The bales are really small and tight for 2 person to share. Very limited space to put things or hang clothes. SJ resort is actually on Flores mainland itself (same as Labuan Bajo) but because it’s so underdeveloped, there is hardly any road connecting Labuan Bajo to the resort/village. And hence the fastest way there is by sea.

24/10-26/10
Dive days start early. Gather at around 6.30am or 7am depending which part of Komodo we are set to dive for the day. Breakfast is served on board the dive boat, breakfast consist of omelettes, pancakes, and white bread. Coffee, tea, milo, hot water provided free flow on the dive boat. The dive equipments are all kept on the dive boat. Time taken from SJ to dive sites is really long as the dive sites are far away. But the scenery in the national park is very beautiful along the way. We do 2 dives, have lunch (packed fried rice or some dishes with rice) and another dive before returning to SJ for snacks/tea time (donuts/goreng pisang/yummy breadsticks) around 4-5pm. The sun rises very early and sets very early over there. After shower, it’s dinner time at 7pm. Bedtime around 9pm. Beer is expensive there. SJ resort is pork-free and seafood-free. There is not much 3G connection at SJ, the signal isn’t very strong. Signal is very strong and you get very fast internet when you are at Manta Point.

27/10
Komodo dragon tour at the National Park before heading back to Labuan Bajo. Lunch in Labuan Bajo and flight back to Bali in the late afternoon.

Dives:
I only did dives in central and northern Komodo. There was not much current when I was there. We did go to The Couldron (Shot Gun) but there was like almost no current lol. Didn’t see many mantas thruout the whole trip but got a good 40 minutes dive date with a hugeeee manta at Mawan (central Komodo’s manta point). Saw plenty of sharks in Komodo. Macro is not too bad too, I saw ambon scorpion fishes at one of the muck dive sites - Siaba Besar. Most of the sites I went to had amazing healthy reefs with lots and lots of fishes. I would say the dive sites are quite comparable to R4 though R4 has much bigger and beautiful coral reefs. I was looking forward to experience some strong currents hence a bit disappointed that there wasn’t much current. But still manage to play around with my virgin reef hook

I went alone, so was put together with another couple for the first 2 days. We had one DM leading us and another DMT being the sweeper. On my 3rd day, I dived with another DM and another 2 or 3 divers I think. We have to check the whiteboard every night for a short briefing on who is diving with who the next morning.

Rough total cost:
RM500 (KL-Bali Flight include luggage via Airasia)
RM800 (Bali-Labuan Bajo Flight via Garuda) This can be much cheaper
RM30 (Airport transfer return to SJ Office)
RM25 (Data SIM card)
RM75 (Komodo Dragon Tour)
RM1450 (SJ Dive Package for 5D4N)
RM170 (Komodo National Park Dive Permits)
RM50 (Food and other misc shopping)

Total: RM3100 excluding tips

Photos still haven't really went thru it yet. Video maybe will be done end 2017. 

Edit: For more info on dive sites, please tag EvanSoon since he dived there for a month, he knows better. Hahah.