Hello all, I'm looking to do trip to SEA over the American thanksgiving holiday. From looking at the seasonal climate patterns, for most areas in SEA it's the transition from the rainy to dry season. From percipitation graphs it looks like, on average, there is still quite a bit of rainfall in November. I've only been to Thailand once, so I don't have a lot of experience with SEA. I'm trying to get an idea if it's a bad time to travel, or which areas in SEA are more favourable during November. Does it rain non-stop all day, or just for a period then clear up? My constraints are: I'm experienced, I do almost all of my diving in the PNW of Canada and am comfortable with almost anything My partner is a new diver, and wouldn't want anything with strong currents, so places like Komodo are out We've got a decent budget so anything but the really high end resorts would potentially be okay Have about 14-18 days of travel What I've been looking at right now is the Visayas region in PH, doing Malapascua, Bohol, Moalboal, Dauin (not necessarily all of them), and potentially flying to El Nido and doing more surface side activities for a few days there before flying home. I'm okay with muck diving, but I think my partner would perfer more reefs, I think she would be okay with some muck diving, just not entirely focused on finding macro critters and would rather see larger reefs. Pros for Visayas: Direct or one layover flights from the west coast of NA surface side activites to do with my partner who wants to do things other than diving Cons: Potentially going during the rainy season and having awful weather the whole trip ??? Other areas I've been looking at are doing Bali and then Raja Ampat which is supposed to be in the dry season, but getting to RA and back seems like it could be a lot of time spent traveling. Do people have any recommendations for other areas in PH, SEA, or if it's a bad idea going during this period?
@Chris Ross Thanks for the suggestion for the Sulawesi region of Indonesia. Ill do some research on that area and see how it compares to PH. I haven't done much research on Sipadan, I've only done some research on the permiting system, but it worries me that I could be staying at a hotel there and not get a permit and wasting days not diving. Do you have experience with the system and how readily available the permits are if you're staying at a dive hotel? Is Fiji okay to do in november? I'm reading that it says november is the start of the tropical cyclone season for that region. Okinawa would be a nice one though. Japan is great, and Ill have to look more into that.