January 31, 2026 • 19 mins
Advanced PADI, Nitrox, and National Geogrpahic certified Malcolm Teasdale describes his scuba diving experience around the world.
His top 6 include:
- Palawan, Philippines
- Maldives
- Cebu Island, Philippines
- Raja Ampat, Indonesia
- Palau, Micronesia
- Sipadan, Borneo
Listen and find out his top 3 and why, then think about getting certified and get closer to Mother Nature, underwater.
Remember: Life is Short, Life is Fragile. Explore the world. Have no regrets.
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Welcome to the Travel Addict Podcast.
(00:02):
Your host and fellow traveladdict, Malcolm Teesdale, is
here to take you into the heartof the world's most fascinating
destinations.
He talks with passionateglobetrotters and fearless
explorers who share their wildjourneys and cultural insights
from around the world.
Or sometimes he just chats byhimself, describing enriching
travel experiences.
(00:22):
So buckle up and let's hit theroad, because the world is
calling and we're answering.
SPEAKER_01 (00:27):
Hello everybody, Malcolm Peasdale here, the
travel addict.
It's been a while because I'vebeen out of the country for at
least a month and a half.
Almost two months, actually.
They got caught in that horriblestorm that came through the
southeastern part of the US anddelays in Atlanta Airport.
That's another story.
So it took a while to get home.
(00:48):
Anyway, this is a podcast by metoday, and it just came to
realize that I hadn't done oneon scuba diving around the
world.
Yes.
And it it may be not relevant tomany of you out there, but it
may pique your interest to giveit a go one day.
Now, when I first came to theUnited States was many, many
(01:10):
years ago, decades ago, Idecided to, you know, fulfill an
ambition and to get qualified.
And one of the first trips Itook when I came to the United
States was to, believe it ornot, Tahiti in French Polynesia.
I was by myself, so I justdecided to go down there for
Christmas and the New Year.
(01:31):
So I decided to take a coursethere, seemingness.
It's not very uh prominent thesedays.
It's a French uh governing uh, Iguess, a French qualification.
And uh, well, it's FrenchPolynesia, so that's a lot to do
with it.
And it's an easy qualificationto get.
Um so I started off with that,which enabled me to dive and see
(01:53):
the underwater landscape down inthat part of the world.
But later on, I decided to getwhat we call paddy uh qualified,
which is the most prominentcertification you can get these
days.
So in the early 2000s, I thinkit was 2007, I decided to take
an open water diving course uhin a classroom in Atlanta, and
(02:14):
the open water time, which isthe last part to get fully
qualified, was done in the Turksand Caicos Highlands.
So I became an open water diver.
Along the way, um, I decided totake an advanced open water
diving course, which enabled meto navigate underwater.
And today you can do a lot ofthis online, by the way, but I
was in a classroom at the time.
(02:36):
Then I got qualified to usenitrex, nitrox underwater, which
basically it's a higherpercentage of oxygen in the
tank, which enables you to stayunderwater longer.
Not deeper, by the way.
All right.
Then I got National GeographicCertified, which was excellent,
which taught me more about theunderwater world, which is
(02:58):
significant.
So I've got a few uhqualifications under my belt
along the way.
So, the purpose of this podcastis really if it piques your
interest, I'm gonna share someof my finest moments or what I
feel are the best scuba divingplaces in the world.
Now I'm in North America uhright now, it's well lemon, of
(03:19):
course, so it's easy to godiving, say, to the Caribbean,
and that's where I've done mostof my diving.
But you know what?
It's uh in America there'splaces to go to, but you know, I
haven't really been to any ofthem, to be honest with you.
I don't like cold water.
So, you know, um there's a fewplaces to go to in the United
(03:40):
States, like Hawaii, of course,and off the coast of Florida,
where I used to live in Destin,but scuba diving, to be honest,
there, is not very good.
So I got my qualifications andthen I started to dive and took
a few trips to the Caribbean,and I got familiar with the
area.
So I do have some favoritesthere.
(04:01):
It's all good.
And uh, of course, some thingsthat you do when you dive.
You never dive alone, of course.
You always go out with aqualified scuba diving uh
company who are paddy certifiedand all that.
Type in paddy.com, p-adi.com.
You learn more about it.
So, highlights in the USA, ifthere are any, Hawaii, maybe
(04:22):
Alaska, um, Catalina,California, Santa Barbara, and
the Florida Keys and St.
Padre Island in Texas are a few.
I've never been to any of thoseapart from in the Gulf of Mexico
in Florida.
Um, apparently you can dive inthe uh Denver aquarium as well,
(04:42):
with the swim with the fishes.
I'm not sure if that wouldappeal to me.
But highlights of the Caribbean,there's plenty of places to
dive.
And that includes Mexico andContamel and uh Campo Pulmo, and
even on Honduras, there's afamous dive site there called
Roatam.
Cayman Islands, uh, is basicallyuh Grand Cayman or Little Cayman
(05:05):
or Cayman Bratt, all good BonAir and uh Tortola.
Tortola's a famous shipwreckthere.
So Bon Air is excellent, and uhit's great because it's a marine
park, it's protected by theDutch government there, and it
is superb diving in that area,probably the best in the
Caribbean.
Last time I went there was abouta year ago and just did some
(05:26):
shore diving and didn't go outon a boat, just had my gear on
walked in the water, and thenjust swam around and saw nature
at its best.
Other place in the Caribbean youcould consider is Costa Rica,
Aruba, there's a shipwreck therecalled the Antilla Wreck.
There's a Belize, the Blue Hole,it's a famous site where you go
(05:46):
quite deep actually.
Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, anduh Curacao.
And they're all good.
There are a number of greatsites around the world which are
recommended by Paddy.
Australia has the Great BarrierReef, Thailand, PP Islands,
Ratcha Islands, and the AndamanSea, and there's the Maldives as
well.
And where else is there in theworld?
(06:08):
Oh, there's Palau, Fiji, theCaribbean, and lots of others.
Indonesia, Egypt, Bali, lots inAsia, by the way.
Even in down in South America,there's Ecuador, if you want to
go dive in the Galapagos, whichmust be fantastic.
I've yet to do that.
But there's more all over theworld, whether it says uh Asia,
(06:30):
Africa, or the Americas.
And sometimes people go whatthey call on Liverboard, where
they their hotel is a boat.
So they get up in the morning,dive three, four times a day,
but you know, they're waitingon, they get the food there,
they stay on the boat, but itenables them to go further out
into the middle of nowhere.
(06:50):
So that's good.
Not really exciting for mebecause I like to be on dry land
um for most of the day.
So it's all good.
But I do have my top divingsites in the world, which I'm
gonna go over that now.
I'm gonna give you my top six.
Sixth place is Cebu Island, C EB U Island in the Philippines.
(07:13):
Why is that great?
Well, because of large fish.
That's a place I went to and Iwas diving with whale sharks.
Also, they're gentle giants.
I know the word shark worriespeople.
But it's whale sharks, they'reabout 36 feet long, these things
are, but they're gentle giantsand they swim by you in peace,
(07:34):
and they feed off the planktonand the stuff that flows through
the water there.
Massive fish.
Second largest fish on theplanet, I believe, after the
blue shark.
So Cebo Island for me comes inat sixth place.
Fifth place is Palawan in thePhilippines.
It's the sort of a not a remoteisland, it's an island actually
to the west of the Philippines.
(07:55):
And what's special there is, youknow, the ability to see strange
fish.
It's the first time I ever saw afrogfish.
It doesn't even look like afish, but calm water.
Beautiful place.
Maldives comes in a fourth placefor me.
And why?
Well, I went to a place calledRangale Island there, and the
water is so blue there, and youcan't tell the horizon because
(08:19):
the blue sky means the bluewater, you know, and it's it's
it's not clear, not clear line.
It's uh sort of interestingexperience.
But diving into those bluewaters is fantastic, but lots of
manta rays there, and uh they'repeaceful animals as well, so
you've got a close and personalone with manta rays, not too
close.
So that brings me to the topthree.
(08:40):
I'm gonna tell you how to get tothese, and these are famous dive
sites around the world, all inAsia actually.
The first one, I should say, inthird place for me, is a dive
site called Sipadan.
You've got to have a permit todive there.
Sippadam is an old volcanicisland which is so below, it's
below the surface of the water.
(09:02):
Getting there is challenging.
Um, basically, uh when I wentthere, I flew out of Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia, to a placecalled Tawa on the island of
Borneo, I believe.
And then I took an hour and ahalf drive to a town called
Sempona.
Had to overnight there beforegetting on a boat for a two-hour
(09:28):
ride to an island called Mabul.
Mabul Island.
And that's where the dive resortwas.
Basically, anyone who goes tothis resort is there for diving.
It's a special place.
Sibidan, no one lives thereapart from the wildlife.
It's forbidden.
So it's a protected area.
Again, you need a permit.
Sibidan again.
It's S-I-P-A-D-I-A-N.
(09:51):
And it's fantastic.
What it is famous for is largeschools of fish.
So, yeah, diving one day, and uhmyself and my dive buddies,
about four or five of us, weresurrounded by literally
thousands of jackfish, smallfish, and it was sort of a uh
(10:12):
unbelievable experience,surrounded by fish.
They didn't attack, of course,but uh it was actually a
fantastic experience.
And a bit further along we sawsort of a uh something that
happens periodically over there,and it's called the um Barracuda
Point, where hundreds ofbarracudas swim around in a
(10:34):
circle towards the surface ofthe water.
Fantastic experience.
But the fish life, well, it'slarge, large schools of fish in
that area, and the uh the coralsystem is is excellent also, so
it's great.
It's difficult to get to, but isit worth it?
Yes, indeed.
Okay, I stayed on Mabola Island,M-A-B-U-L island, it's sort of
(10:59):
in the middle of nowhere.
Just to let you know that, butGoogle it, you'll find out
exactly where it is, and theisland of Sippedatten.
It's lovely.
So, second place is the islandof Palau.
Now you may have heard aboutthis, it has a significant dive
site there called Blue Corner.
(11:20):
It's in Micronesia.
And the way I got to Palau is Iarrived in at Manila Airport,
but I had to take a late-nightflight, and actually I think I
was on United Airlines fromManila to uh Palau, the island
of Palau.
It's close to Guam, by the way,um, but it's part of Micronesia.
So the flights typically land atone o'clock in the morning.
(11:43):
So I got a taxi from there to aplace I was staying, and uh they
checked me to my room.
Obviously, I can't dive the nextday because I've been up in the
air.
So you've got to leave about 24hours between flying and diving,
right?
So that's important.
So you don't get um so itdoesn't affect your ears.
So I've always wanted to go tothis plough for mainly one dive
(12:05):
site.
Now, apart from the marine parksthere, which are gorgeous, rocks
and clear water there, there'sone famous dive site called Blue
Corner.
So it's the first time I've beenon a dive boat, and the dive
master gave me a reef hook, andI didn't know what it was for.
But basically, we're down at 50feet, and the current can get
(12:28):
strong.
So what we had to do was umattach our reef hook to our
jacket, BCD, dive jacket, andhook it onto a rock so we don't
float away in the current andwait for the show to begin.
And that's when literallyhundreds of sharks swim by.
They'll give you a sort of acurious glance, but they swim
(12:51):
by.
There's other fish in the area.
But if you're afraid of sharks,probably not for you.
We had a couple of sharks comeby close up just to probably
look at us and say, Yeah,they're scared eyes, we'll leave
them alone.
I don't know.
But it's absolutely spectacular.
The uh scenery in the area is uhunbelievable.
But just seeing all those sharksin one place was quite
(13:14):
something.
Got the adrenaline going.
So that's Palau in uhMicronesia, out in the Pacific
Ocean somewhat.
About three and a half hourflight from Manila, actually.
So it's worth hanging around uhthe capital Kuror for a couple
of days as well.
But I was diving every day andeating out at night and uh
(13:34):
thoroughly enjoyed that.
It's in the middle of nowhere.
So I did that a few years ago.
I don't need to do it again.
Now, my number one site is afamous dive site, and the name
of it is called Rajar Ampat.
And a lot of people would agreewith me on this, that's probably
the best dive site in the worldwho've dived these other sites.
(13:57):
It's another place that'sbasically in the middle of
nowhere.
It's in Indonesia.
Rajar Ampat is actually thelargest biodiverse marine area
in the world.
Well, tens of thousands ofspecies of fish there.
So I had to do it to fulfill myquest to go to the best diving
(14:18):
sites in the world, or those topthree.
Getting there, well, it was uhsort of challenging.
I was in I had to fly toJakarta, Indonesia, and from
there I took a uh flight throughthe night from Jakarta to the
island of Sarong.
S-O-R-O-N-G Sarong.
It's about a four and a halfhour flight.
(14:41):
And the plane landed in theearly hours of the morning.
When I got there, anyone who wasdiving at the resort I was
staying at was met at theairport, and then uh we had to
take a boat ride, about an hourand a half boat ride from the
island of Shillong to the islandof Taiwei, Tawei.
(15:02):
And uh so that's what we did.
And once we were there, I waspicked up by uh the boat from
resort I was staying at.
But the resort I was staying atwas Papua Explorers, P A P U A
Explorers.
Okay, and people who go inthere, like I said, just
basically there to dive.
But if you don't want to dive,you just go there because the
(15:24):
scenery is absolutely fantastic.
So that was about another hour'sride, and we checked in and I
had a lodge over the water witha spectacular view.
So diving about three times aday there, saw the whole area.
I tell you something, I've neverseen as many strange fish in all
(15:46):
of my life.
I even saw some wobblegongsharks.
I've seen sharks, but there's aspecies of shark there that I've
never seen anywhere else in theworld.
And it most of them weresnoozing, and it doesn't even
look like it's a shark, but itis.
Would they attack?
No, I got got close and friendlywith them and took a video of
it, but there's lots of weirdand wonderful fish there.
(16:09):
And above that, the coral systemis pristine.
Now, in our time of globalwarning warming, the oceans are
warming up a few degrees, it'sbad for a coal reef system.
But you know, it's protectedsomewhat there, so the coal reef
system is superb, verycolourful.
(16:30):
And the Indonesian government doa fantastic job of restricting
the amount of divers or peoplethat go there for tourism.
So that's a good thing as well.
You need permit, but the divingthere is absolutely wonderful.
So it ranks as my number oneplace on the planet.
Challenging to get there, butyou know, it's well worth it.
(16:54):
So on the way back, I did thereverse of the trip that got me
there in the first place.
And uh I've got memories of alifetime.
I took videos of all of thatstuff.
I think I've got some um YouTubevideo of my experience there as
well.
Papua Explorer is a fantasticresort, not a five-star place,
but the food was good, thepeople, the dive staff were
(17:15):
excellent.
And even on the last night wewere there, the local village
came down and did sometraditional dancing for us, and
the parents watched that theirchildren danced around the
restaurant.
Just lovely.
And uh the people are sofriendly there as well.
So everybody, Mother Naturebeckons, and I'm a great fan of
Mother Nature.
There's so many beautiful placeson the planet, above ground and
(17:39):
below ground.
Um what I saw from those divesites I went to is fantastic.
It's a whole new world under thewater, folks.
So if you get the urge to getcertified, then just do it.
Don't leave it too late in yourlife.
Don't have any regrets.
It's worth doing.
To these dive sites I went to, Imet a couple of people that um,
(18:02):
gentlemen that were in their70s, they were still doing it.
The currents tend to bother thema little bit, so they were
pretty cautious of it, but theygot through it, but they did it.
And a lot of these people justfulfilled an ambition of a
lifetime.
It's fantastic.
Mother Nature is beautifulagain, whether you're above
ground or below in the water, inthe depths, it is fantastic.
(18:25):
So scuba diving.
Think about that.
So if you're in North America,just go to a dive site
somewhere, it could be in theCaribbean.
You could do a uh Discover divewhere you can learn the basics
in the morning, they take youdown to about 30 feet in the
afternoon to get you sort ofinterested.
And I think you could do that tostart with, you might want to go
ahead and get certified.
(18:45):
Easy process, but there's a lotto see in the world, I can tell
you folks.
Anyway, thanks for joining metoday.
Hope you enjoyed this.
Uh, check out YouTube or Googlethose places I mentioned,
especially Rajar Ampat inIndonesia, Palau in Micronesia,
and Sipadan in Borneo.
Okay, those are my top three,but there's loads of other
(19:05):
wonderful places on the planetto explore.
Thanks all.
Take care, we'll be in touchsoon with the guests.
Thanks, bye.
SPEAKER_00 (19:13):
That's it for this episode of the Travel Addict
Podcast, where we chase sunsets,flirt with danger, and
occasionally make questionablechoices in foreign lands.
Until next time, may yourflights be on time.
And your travel stories justscandalous enough to leave a few
details out.
Check out Malcolm's websites atmalcolmteesdale.com and
(19:34):
travelingenglishman.com.
Save travels and enjoy life,everyone.
Welcome to the Travel Addict Podcast.
(00:02):
Your host and fellow traveladdict, Malcolm Teesdale, is
here to take you into the heartof the world's most fascinating
destinations.
He talks with passionateglobetrotters and fearless
explorers who share their wildjourneys and cultural insights
from around the world.
Or sometimes he just chats byhimself, describing enriching
travel experiences.
(00:22):
So buckle up and let's hit theroad, because the world is
calling and we're answering.
SPEAKER_01 (00:27):
Hello everybody, Malcolm Peasdale here, the
travel addict.
It's been a while because I'vebeen out of the country for at
least a month and a half.
Almost two months, actually.
They got caught in that horriblestorm that came through the
southeastern part of the US anddelays in Atlanta Airport.
That's another story.
So it took a while to get home.
(00:48):
Anyway, this is a podcast by metoday, and it just came to
realize that I hadn't done oneon scuba diving around the
world.
Yes.
And it it may be not relevant tomany of you out there, but it
may pique your interest to giveit a go one day.
Now, when I first came to theUnited States was many, many
(01:10):
years ago, decades ago, Idecided to, you know, fulfill an
ambition and to get qualified.
And one of the first trips Itook when I came to the United
States was to, believe it ornot, Tahiti in French Polynesia.
I was by myself, so I justdecided to go down there for
Christmas and the New Year.
(01:31):
So I decided to take a coursethere, seemingness.
It's not very uh prominent thesedays.
It's a French uh governing uh, Iguess, a French qualification.
And uh, well, it's FrenchPolynesia, so that's a lot to do
with it.
And it's an easy qualificationto get.
Um so I started off with that,which enabled me to dive and see
(01:53):
the underwater landscape down inthat part of the world.
But later on, I decided to getwhat we call paddy uh qualified,
which is the most prominentcertification you can get these
days.
So in the early 2000s, I thinkit was 2007, I decided to take
an open water diving course uhin a classroom in Atlanta, and
(02:14):
the open water time, which isthe last part to get fully
qualified, was done in the Turksand Caicos Highlands.
So I became an open water diver.
Along the way, um, I decided totake an advanced open water
diving course, which enabled meto navigate underwater.
And today you can do a lot ofthis online, by the way, but I
was in a classroom at the time.
(02:36):
Then I got qualified to usenitrex, nitrox underwater, which
basically it's a higherpercentage of oxygen in the
tank, which enables you to stayunderwater longer.
Not deeper, by the way.
All right.
Then I got National GeographicCertified, which was excellent,
which taught me more about theunderwater world, which is
(02:58):
significant.
So I've got a few uhqualifications under my belt
along the way.
So, the purpose of this podcastis really if it piques your
interest, I'm gonna share someof my finest moments or what I
feel are the best scuba divingplaces in the world.
Now I'm in North America uhright now, it's well lemon, of
(03:19):
course, so it's easy to godiving, say, to the Caribbean,
and that's where I've done mostof my diving.
But you know what?
It's uh in America there'splaces to go to, but you know, I
haven't really been to any ofthem, to be honest with you.
I don't like cold water.
So, you know, um there's a fewplaces to go to in the United
(03:40):
States, like Hawaii, of course,and off the coast of Florida,
where I used to live in Destin,but scuba diving, to be honest,
there, is not very good.
So I got my qualifications andthen I started to dive and took
a few trips to the Caribbean,and I got familiar with the
area.
So I do have some favoritesthere.
(04:01):
It's all good.
And uh, of course, some thingsthat you do when you dive.
You never dive alone, of course.
You always go out with aqualified scuba diving uh
company who are paddy certifiedand all that.
Type in paddy.com, p-adi.com.
You learn more about it.
So, highlights in the USA, ifthere are any, Hawaii, maybe
(04:22):
Alaska, um, Catalina,California, Santa Barbara, and
the Florida Keys and St.
Padre Island in Texas are a few.
I've never been to any of thoseapart from in the Gulf of Mexico
in Florida.
Um, apparently you can dive inthe uh Denver aquarium as well,
(04:42):
with the swim with the fishes.
I'm not sure if that wouldappeal to me.
But highlights of the Caribbean,there's plenty of places to
dive.
And that includes Mexico andContamel and uh Campo Pulmo, and
even on Honduras, there's afamous dive site there called
Roatam.
Cayman Islands, uh, is basicallyuh Grand Cayman or Little Cayman
(05:05):
or Cayman Bratt, all good BonAir and uh Tortola.
Tortola's a famous shipwreckthere.
So Bon Air is excellent, and uhit's great because it's a marine
park, it's protected by theDutch government there, and it
is superb diving in that area,probably the best in the
Caribbean.
Last time I went there was abouta year ago and just did some
(05:26):
shore diving and didn't go outon a boat, just had my gear on
walked in the water, and thenjust swam around and saw nature
at its best.
Other place in the Caribbean youcould consider is Costa Rica,
Aruba, there's a shipwreck therecalled the Antilla Wreck.
There's a Belize, the Blue Hole,it's a famous site where you go
(05:46):
quite deep actually.
Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, anduh Curacao.
And they're all good.
There are a number of greatsites around the world which are
recommended by Paddy.
Australia has the Great BarrierReef, Thailand, PP Islands,
Ratcha Islands, and the AndamanSea, and there's the Maldives as
well.
And where else is there in theworld?
(06:08):
Oh, there's Palau, Fiji, theCaribbean, and lots of others.
Indonesia, Egypt, Bali, lots inAsia, by the way.
Even in down in South America,there's Ecuador, if you want to
go dive in the Galapagos, whichmust be fantastic.
I've yet to do that.
But there's more all over theworld, whether it says uh Asia,
(06:30):
Africa, or the Americas.
And sometimes people go whatthey call on Liverboard, where
they their hotel is a boat.
So they get up in the morning,dive three, four times a day,
but you know, they're waitingon, they get the food there,
they stay on the boat, but itenables them to go further out
into the middle of nowhere.
(06:50):
So that's good.
Not really exciting for mebecause I like to be on dry land
um for most of the day.
So it's all good.
But I do have my top divingsites in the world, which I'm
gonna go over that now.
I'm gonna give you my top six.
Sixth place is Cebu Island, C EB U Island in the Philippines.
(07:13):
Why is that great?
Well, because of large fish.
That's a place I went to and Iwas diving with whale sharks.
Also, they're gentle giants.
I know the word shark worriespeople.
But it's whale sharks, they'reabout 36 feet long, these things
are, but they're gentle giantsand they swim by you in peace,
(07:34):
and they feed off the planktonand the stuff that flows through
the water there.
Massive fish.
Second largest fish on theplanet, I believe, after the
blue shark.
So Cebo Island for me comes inat sixth place.
Fifth place is Palawan in thePhilippines.
It's the sort of a not a remoteisland, it's an island actually
to the west of the Philippines.
(07:55):
And what's special there is, youknow, the ability to see strange
fish.
It's the first time I ever saw afrogfish.
It doesn't even look like afish, but calm water.
Beautiful place.
Maldives comes in a fourth placefor me.
And why?
Well, I went to a place calledRangale Island there, and the
water is so blue there, and youcan't tell the horizon because
(08:19):
the blue sky means the bluewater, you know, and it's it's
it's not clear, not clear line.
It's uh sort of interestingexperience.
But diving into those bluewaters is fantastic, but lots of
manta rays there, and uh they'repeaceful animals as well, so
you've got a close and personalone with manta rays, not too
close.
So that brings me to the topthree.
(08:40):
I'm gonna tell you how to get tothese, and these are famous dive
sites around the world, all inAsia actually.
The first one, I should say, inthird place for me, is a dive
site called Sipadan.
You've got to have a permit todive there.
Sippadam is an old volcanicisland which is so below, it's
below the surface of the water.
(09:02):
Getting there is challenging.
Um, basically, uh when I wentthere, I flew out of Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia, to a placecalled Tawa on the island of
Borneo, I believe.
And then I took an hour and ahalf drive to a town called
Sempona.
Had to overnight there beforegetting on a boat for a two-hour
(09:28):
ride to an island called Mabul.
Mabul Island.
And that's where the dive resortwas.
Basically, anyone who goes tothis resort is there for diving.
It's a special place.
Sibidan, no one lives thereapart from the wildlife.
It's forbidden.
So it's a protected area.
Again, you need a permit.
Sibidan again.
It's S-I-P-A-D-I-A-N.
(09:51):
And it's fantastic.
What it is famous for is largeschools of fish.
So, yeah, diving one day, and uhmyself and my dive buddies,
about four or five of us, weresurrounded by literally
thousands of jackfish, smallfish, and it was sort of a uh
(10:12):
unbelievable experience,surrounded by fish.
They didn't attack, of course,but uh it was actually a
fantastic experience.
And a bit further along we sawsort of a uh something that
happens periodically over there,and it's called the um Barracuda
Point, where hundreds ofbarracudas swim around in a
(10:34):
circle towards the surface ofthe water.
Fantastic experience.
But the fish life, well, it'slarge, large schools of fish in
that area, and the uh the coralsystem is is excellent also, so
it's great.
It's difficult to get to, but isit worth it?
Yes, indeed.
Okay, I stayed on Mabola Island,M-A-B-U-L island, it's sort of
(10:59):
in the middle of nowhere.
Just to let you know that, butGoogle it, you'll find out
exactly where it is, and theisland of Sippedatten.
It's lovely.
So, second place is the islandof Palau.
Now you may have heard aboutthis, it has a significant dive
site there called Blue Corner.
(11:20):
It's in Micronesia.
And the way I got to Palau is Iarrived in at Manila Airport,
but I had to take a late-nightflight, and actually I think I
was on United Airlines fromManila to uh Palau, the island
of Palau.
It's close to Guam, by the way,um, but it's part of Micronesia.
So the flights typically land atone o'clock in the morning.
(11:43):
So I got a taxi from there to aplace I was staying, and uh they
checked me to my room.
Obviously, I can't dive the nextday because I've been up in the
air.
So you've got to leave about 24hours between flying and diving,
right?
So that's important.
So you don't get um so itdoesn't affect your ears.
So I've always wanted to go tothis plough for mainly one dive
(12:05):
site.
Now, apart from the marine parksthere, which are gorgeous, rocks
and clear water there, there'sone famous dive site called Blue
Corner.
So it's the first time I've beenon a dive boat, and the dive
master gave me a reef hook, andI didn't know what it was for.
But basically, we're down at 50feet, and the current can get
(12:28):
strong.
So what we had to do was umattach our reef hook to our
jacket, BCD, dive jacket, andhook it onto a rock so we don't
float away in the current andwait for the show to begin.
And that's when literallyhundreds of sharks swim by.
They'll give you a sort of acurious glance, but they swim
(12:51):
by.
There's other fish in the area.
But if you're afraid of sharks,probably not for you.
We had a couple of sharks comeby close up just to probably
look at us and say, Yeah,they're scared eyes, we'll leave
them alone.
I don't know.
But it's absolutely spectacular.
The uh scenery in the area is uhunbelievable.
But just seeing all those sharksin one place was quite
(13:14):
something.
Got the adrenaline going.
So that's Palau in uhMicronesia, out in the Pacific
Ocean somewhat.
About three and a half hourflight from Manila, actually.
So it's worth hanging around uhthe capital Kuror for a couple
of days as well.
But I was diving every day andeating out at night and uh
(13:34):
thoroughly enjoyed that.
It's in the middle of nowhere.
So I did that a few years ago.
I don't need to do it again.
Now, my number one site is afamous dive site, and the name
of it is called Rajar Ampat.
And a lot of people would agreewith me on this, that's probably
the best dive site in the worldwho've dived these other sites.
(13:57):
It's another place that'sbasically in the middle of
nowhere.
It's in Indonesia.
Rajar Ampat is actually thelargest biodiverse marine area
in the world.
Well, tens of thousands ofspecies of fish there.
So I had to do it to fulfill myquest to go to the best diving
(14:18):
sites in the world, or those topthree.
Getting there, well, it was uhsort of challenging.
I was in I had to fly toJakarta, Indonesia, and from
there I took a uh flight throughthe night from Jakarta to the
island of Sarong.
S-O-R-O-N-G Sarong.
It's about a four and a halfhour flight.
(14:41):
And the plane landed in theearly hours of the morning.
When I got there, anyone who wasdiving at the resort I was
staying at was met at theairport, and then uh we had to
take a boat ride, about an hourand a half boat ride from the
island of Shillong to the islandof Taiwei, Tawei.
(15:02):
And uh so that's what we did.
And once we were there, I waspicked up by uh the boat from
resort I was staying at.
But the resort I was staying atwas Papua Explorers, P A P U A
Explorers.
Okay, and people who go inthere, like I said, just
basically there to dive.
But if you don't want to dive,you just go there because the
(15:24):
scenery is absolutely fantastic.
So that was about another hour'sride, and we checked in and I
had a lodge over the water witha spectacular view.
So diving about three times aday there, saw the whole area.
I tell you something, I've neverseen as many strange fish in all
(15:46):
of my life.
I even saw some wobblegongsharks.
I've seen sharks, but there's aspecies of shark there that I've
never seen anywhere else in theworld.
And it most of them weresnoozing, and it doesn't even
look like it's a shark, but itis.
Would they attack?
No, I got got close and friendlywith them and took a video of
it, but there's lots of weirdand wonderful fish there.
(16:09):
And above that, the coral systemis pristine.
Now, in our time of globalwarning warming, the oceans are
warming up a few degrees, it'sbad for a coal reef system.
But you know, it's protectedsomewhat there, so the coal reef
system is superb, verycolourful.
(16:30):
And the Indonesian government doa fantastic job of restricting
the amount of divers or peoplethat go there for tourism.
So that's a good thing as well.
You need permit, but the divingthere is absolutely wonderful.
So it ranks as my number oneplace on the planet.
Challenging to get there, butyou know, it's well worth it.
(16:54):
So on the way back, I did thereverse of the trip that got me
there in the first place.
And uh I've got memories of alifetime.
I took videos of all of thatstuff.
I think I've got some um YouTubevideo of my experience there as
well.
Papua Explorer is a fantasticresort, not a five-star place,
but the food was good, thepeople, the dive staff were
(17:15):
excellent.
And even on the last night wewere there, the local village
came down and did sometraditional dancing for us, and
the parents watched that theirchildren danced around the
restaurant.
Just lovely.
And uh the people are sofriendly there as well.
So everybody, Mother Naturebeckons, and I'm a great fan of
Mother Nature.
There's so many beautiful placeson the planet, above ground and
(17:39):
below ground.
Um what I saw from those divesites I went to is fantastic.
It's a whole new world under thewater, folks.
So if you get the urge to getcertified, then just do it.
Don't leave it too late in yourlife.
Don't have any regrets.
It's worth doing.
To these dive sites I went to, Imet a couple of people that um,
(18:02):
gentlemen that were in their70s, they were still doing it.
The currents tend to bother thema little bit, so they were
pretty cautious of it, but theygot through it, but they did it.
And a lot of these people justfulfilled an ambition of a
lifetime.
It's fantastic.
Mother Nature is beautifulagain, whether you're above
ground or below in the water, inthe depths, it is fantastic.
(18:25):
So scuba diving.
Think about that.
So if you're in North America,just go to a dive site
somewhere, it could be in theCaribbean.
You could do a uh Discover divewhere you can learn the basics
in the morning, they take youdown to about 30 feet in the
afternoon to get you sort ofinterested.
And I think you could do that tostart with, you might want to go
ahead and get certified.
(18:45):
Easy process, but there's a lotto see in the world, I can tell
you folks.
Anyway, thanks for joining metoday.
Hope you enjoyed this.
Uh, check out YouTube or Googlethose places I mentioned,
especially Rajar Ampat inIndonesia, Palau in Micronesia,
and Sipadan in Borneo.
Okay, those are my top three,but there's loads of other
(19:05):
wonderful places on the planetto explore.
Thanks all.
Take care, we'll be in touchsoon with the guests.
Thanks, bye.
SPEAKER_00 (19:13):
That's it for this episode of the Travel Addict
Podcast, where we chase sunsets,flirt with danger, and
occasionally make questionablechoices in foreign lands.
Until next time, may yourflights be on time.
And your travel stories justscandalous enough to leave a few
details out.
Check out Malcolm's websites atmalcolmteesdale.com and
(19:34):
travelingenglishman.com.
Save travels and enjoy life,everyone.
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