personally, i think snorkelling, redang still the best, followed by tioman. west coast, pulau payar for it's diversity in marine life, but corals a bit cham

haha i meant dive, after all this IS a scuba diving thread right. 20c water should be an issue as i swam in waters ranges 18-23 during training and open water dives here.

peak season is said to be in August and i am planning to go that time. at the mean time, i'm going for dives every weekend!

i wore a 3mm full suit, and then additional 3/2mm shortie outside, then only feel ok while diving. not to mention another rash guard inside. oh yah...gloves as well... kinda like diving in ice water, especially when you hit a thermocline under 35m

Yea the snorkeling was for the other guy who asked.

That's good. Get lots and lots of experience before you go for diving in Bali! As long as you're well prepared with the layers of rash guards and wetsuit, I don't think it will be a problem. You might wanna book early to get good rates as well.

Really that cold kah? all dive site in bali is cold? Aiyak... Btw, anybody have any idea if Tulamben is suitable for Open Water Diver onot?

not all place in Bali is cold lah. mostly like our east coast. just that nuda penida is cold due to the antartic waters flowing through. imagine hot weather but jump in cold. quite syiok also.

as for tulamben, pretty sure OW can dive la. wreck dive. i dived there that time still OW (i think so), so should be ok

Tulamben isn't that cold. And it's very much suitable for OWD. It isn't very challenging. Just the wreck only. And the very weird black stone beach.
I wore just a bikini and wetsuit over only. Didn't even wear a rash guard.

Other places like what blackwhitechipsKL mentioned is more cold and has more current.

oo ok, Tulamben here i come!!!!! anyway, what dive shop did you go with? is it recommended to pre-book?

My bf and I went ourselves. Didn't go thru any dive shop.
I stayed at Tulamben Wreck Divers. Was recommended to us by a few dive master/instructors. It's run by a foreigner but the people there are mainly local. Contacted him thru email and settled everything thru email without paying any deposit. Paid full on my last day there. Make sure you keep all the emails that states the agreed price and also print it out if possible. Because when I was there, the local guy charged me 50USD more and say that there's no way I could've gotten so cheap price. I didn't bring the printed email with me so no choice. When I came back, I scanned the receipt and emailed it to the boss and he courier back 50USD to my house. So yea, just be careful.

There are many dive hotels there. So I think nonit to pre-book also can. But the problem is how are you going to get there?
When I book my stay with Tulamben Wreck Divers, they came to Tune Hotels at Kuta Beach (where I was staying) to pick us up and take us to their hotel, which was like almost 3 hours away and a whole lot of winding road car ride, but very scenic.

so what made you stay at tulamben, is it bcoz it's cheaper to do so? Or it's the best way to avoid the crowd? I already booked my tune kuta, so considering a stay at tulamben for a day. How's d diving anyway? Is it nice?

Not really. I just like wrecks in general.
For me it's nice cause it's a shipwreck. I like stuff like this.

I think your plan is feasible. I did something like that as well. Went to Bali for about a week long, stayed in Kuta Tune Hotel for a night before leaving for Tulamben early next morning. Was in Tulamben for 2 nights before going back to Kuta to continue Bali tour.

Tulamben actually pretty boring at night, but if it's jsut rest you want, then it's ok. quiet. the last time i went Bali, i did Tulamben, Seraya and Nuda Penida. Seraya is pretty cool as well, more macro stuffs, but otherwise, dive profile a but like Tulamben, beach dive but more gradual slope as oppose to tulamben drop off after 30-40m from the beach.

Hey guys, I am interested in learning how to dive and learn OWD.. Is size a factor? I am a fluffy guy.

Another things, anyone can recommend a place where I can do part of the lessons in KL and the other somewhere else? I dont have the luxury of time yet as my boss loves me too much and gets worried.

Thanks!

you can easily split up your time for the lessons, i.e. weekends do the modules, and pool lessons, then once ready, one weekend go to island do certification dive

You can be chubby but not fluffy.

Heheh fluffy guy. How fluffy are you?

And yea, blackwhitechipsKL basically tell you what to do edi.
There are lots of mainland dive centers that can help you with that.

Well not biggest loser asia fluffy but quite fluffy as in size 40 pants.

Urm any recommendations on places that can offer what blackwhitechipsKL had said?

I note that there is an upcoming Dive expo. Should I go there to try get an offer or just go approach the centres now?

the upcoming Dive expo is called MIDE, and you can get pretty good discounted scuba gears there. as for course packages, it's more or less same lah.

Yea MIDE is on 1st July. Too bad I'm not able to go.

As far as I'm concern, size isn't a problem. I have seen a really fat foreigner (and I mean reallllyyyy fat) went diving in a dry suit. He's the boss of one of the hotels that I've stayed in when I was in Mabul. He still enjoys diving.

This post has been edited by munkeyflo: Jun 2 2011, 12:02 PM

Ok Sounds interesting.. Classes classes..