Check with the travel agency to double confirm. Sometimes if you are an Open Water but have logged many dives, it should be no problem.
I did dive at those 3 dive sites in August and it was quite a easy dive for me. Although the sea was quite rough but not much current underwater.

There are many places to get it done. You need to consider whether you want to do your theory on mainland then go to island, or finish the whole course on the island. And also when you want to do it. Monsoon season is coming soon so East coast will be off limits. You can always walk in to any dive center near your area and enquire.

Hilton Maldives, way out of my budget.

As for others who wanna dive in Maldives, a few of my friends just came back from LOB at Maldive last month. It seems it was around RM5-6k for the LOB (10 nights or so), full board including dives.

Nope. Pangkor is at langkawi side. No monsoon.

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Added on October 10, 2012, 12:51 pmYup. You'll see lots of places with the saying "the worst day diving is still better than the best day at work".

This post has been edited by munkeyflo: Oct 10 2012, 12:51 PM

Try Lumut. I heard there's a few dive centers there and diving quite okay there.

I've heard of going to Lumut for diving, but not Pangkor.

RM130/dive is quite expensive eh, with or without eq? The cheapest dive I did so far was still at Redang for RM50/dive.

I've dived in Langkawi before and the vis wasn't really good. One thing was lots of seahorse. I heard Lumut also like that. If RM130/dive for not so good dive, I'd rather save the money go Thailand or Indonesia to dive.

The last I went to Pangkor was 5 years ago and the sea didn't look very clean to me, no surprise no one dives there.

In November? How bout Tioman/Aur/Dayang area?
I went to Dayang early November once, dives were great, weather on last night not so good.

I'll probably go Lumut once next time if I have the extra money to spend. I was quoted RM300 for 2 dives include eq and lunch everything in Langkawi last January, dives were not that great either.

Laguna Redang charge RM200 for 4 dives; RM600 for 6 dives and so on. And best part is can share the dives.
That's how I get RM50/dive and it's boat dives without equipments as well. The rest of the hotels along Long Beach at Redang charge the same as Redang Bay. Somehow Laguna charge less dunno why. And we know the dive center pretty well so we get free shore dives too!

Phuket was not too bad. The vis was quite good when I went. Current was a bit strong and didn't see much but service was excellent (cause all matsaleh there). The corals are very much more beautiful and colourful than what we have in our local dive sites.

Based on my experience, it's important and very crucial to get a good tutor when you learn the basics. This will ensure that you know what you are doing and also make the whole diving experience more enjoyable. Diving is not a cheap sport but it's fun and addictive. It can also be quite dangerous if we are not careful. So I believe it's always good to get a strict instructor.

You organize, if time ngam I'll have at least 2 person here can tag along.

Hm, but Quiver is the only dive center that operates there.

^Open water is up to 18m. Advanced will let you go up to 30m.

They most likely change already since 6 years ago. I did my OW in 2007 but I still had to swim and prove that I can float on surface of water for 10 minutes.

No need to swim professionally, as long as you can get from one point to the other that's good enough. Most instructors just want us to float but I don't know about now. When I did my rescue course, I had to tread water, I never did properly learn how to do it before also but manage to pass, very tiring only.

Just came back from 6D5N at Manado. Dived with Minahasa Divers at Hotel Sedona. Awesome divemasters and dive center. We did a day trip to Lembeh and the macro life at Lembeh was one of the best I've dived so far - family of pygmy seahorse and various nudibranches, also saw an electric clam. A very sad thing was that Bunaken and Manado had lots of rubbish on the surface. Lembeh was fantastic though. The underwater world was awesome and the corals were very beautiful but the surface was a whole different story all together. Will definitely go back to dive in Lembeh in the future.

Total damage:-
USD638/person include 3 boat dives a day, accommodation and meals
SilkAir SIN-Manado roughly RM1100/person
AirAsia KL-SIN roughly RM200/person include baggage allowance
Rp50,000 per day for Bunaken and Lembeh marine park fee

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Added on October 25, 2012, 1:24 pmI have a Canon S95 and a Canon G9 with Canon underwater housing. All bought from US except S95 housing bought from a friendly forumer here (website is Camera2u.com).

If you are just going to use it a few times for snorkeling, then get a Dicapac (or something similar). You can not only use it in the sea, you can also use it when you do outdoor activities. Here are some authorized dealers for Dicapac in Malaysia: http://www.dicapacmalaysia.com/where-to-buy/
There are also some online sellers here on this forum, I've seen quite a number of people selling Dicapac and similar items.

This post has been edited by munkeyflo: Oct 25 2012, 01:24 PM

I would go with perhentian. Haven't been to pulau sembilan but heard visibility not very good.

Open Water Diver is the beginner stage of PADI diving course. After that it's Advance Open Water then Rescue then Divemaster.

It's best to get a good instructor that will teach you properly and not one that just wants to earn some money. There are many people who will recommend instructors and dive centers but first of all, do you want to do it on mainland or all on the island? I would suggest to do it on mainland first then go to island for certification dives but knowing lots of people, they prefer to do 4D3N one shot. I did 4D3N course last time but now I'll advice anyone who asks me to learn your theory stuff on mainland first and do some practical in swimming pool before going to the island, that way you'll have a more relax holiday and you can learn at your own pace.

Also it's monsoon season now, so most of the island resorts are close. You can of course get signed up for the course in Selangor and do your theory first then go to island when they open around Feb/Mar. Maybe you can provide your location so some of them here can refer you to their dive centers.

There are 2 dive centers in 1U - Global Scuba and Sealantis.
http://www.sealantis.com/
http://globalscuba.weebly.com//

Have no connections with them other than going there to buy stuff occasionally but both also have very friendly ppl. Sealantis have their own pool, Global Scuba uses PJ Palm Sport. Can always pay them a visit and talk to the people there, get to know them and see how it goes.

This post has been edited by munkeyflo: Nov 8 2012, 05:03 PM

Went for trips with Siput Scuba. I agree they are a bunch of awesome ppl.

Klang eh. Long Adventure? Or Lee? Lee is my instructor and he's really good but yea he's in Klang.

Here's Siput facebook page, you can contact Nick or Lea Meng.
https://www.facebook.com/siputscuba?fref=ts

Have fun!

Yes, Pulau Sembilan and Langkawi is still open but the vis kinda sucks big time there. Quiver is the only dive center operating there and they have lots of promo for their courses on Groupon recently.

There's also East Malaysia to go to during monsoon season.

Yup, I took my rescue course from Lee about 3 or 4 years ago. Great instructor.

Ahh you did too! What a coincidence.. Haha.