Jin’s Favourite Dive Destinations.

For those of you who are seeking to dive the most luscious, unspoiled dive sites, this post is for you.

I set the standards really high for myself since my first dive as an adult. By the time I had 100 dives under my belt, I had already seen everything that I wanted to see underwater. I went to Borneo and dived Sipadan surrounded by so many sharks, turtles, and schooling barracuda. Sipadan is also where I fell in love with the tiny creatures: macro diving. I did my divemaster course in Mozambique where I was snorkelling with whalesharks daily, scuba diving with mantas, feeling the booms and songs of humpback whales nearby, and fine-tuning my eyes to spot harlequin shrimp and so many different types of nudis. Then I went to Malapascua Mozambique for an internship to dive with thresher sharks and mantas almost every day. To be fair, I was driven by my love of the ocean and my undergrad degree in marine biology.

Nowadays, what I love most about diving is solitude where we do not run into other dive groups underwater like a traffic jam. And of course, I want to see healthy, biodiverse reefs where life is thriving.

So, if you are interested in exploring the best, please dive with us. Here are my top 3 dive destinations in Southeast Asia:

1. Alor, Indonesia
   Alor is Indonesia’s best-kept secret when it comes to scuba diving. The only problem is, it is far away; it takes 3 flights from Singapore to get there. But the reward is worth the trouble.

2. Alas Strait, Indonesia
   I was pleasantly surprised by the healthy reefs and abundant life of Alas Strait and the best part is that is it a fairly new dive destination that is a short flight away from Singapore. Alas Strait is accessible from Kuta Lombok!

3. Banda Sea, Indonesia

   Without exaggerating too much, Banda Sea is Southeast Asia’s Galapagos. The season is short, it is only accessible through liveaboard, but you get to dive with schooling hammerheads and if you are extra lucky, a whaleshark or two might show up.