Recently Timen has asked me to give him some recom­mend­a­tions where to go to in South­east Asia to learn to dive. This inspired me to come up with a list of my 10 most favor­ite spots (so far!) in that beau­ti­ful corner of the world.

1. Koh Lipe, Thai­l­and
   For the tran­quil­ity, the most beau­ti­ful beaches and great company.
2. Seraya, Indone­sia
   For the abso­lute beauty and peace I exper­i­enced there.
3. Koh Lanta, Thai­l­and
   For the awe­some diving and the best dive shop crew ever.
4. Hoi An, Viet­nam
   For the great japan­ese archi­tec­ture and all my drink­ing buddies.
5. Gili Trawan­gan, Indone­sia
   For the sharks, the turtles and one of the best social lifes you can imagine.
6. Angkor Wat, Cam­bodia
   For the fant­astic scenery and the mys­tic atmosphere.
7. Mount Kin­abalu, Malay­sia
   For the view after total and utter exhaus­tion and the hot springs.
8. Pulau Per­hen­tian Kecil, Malay­sia
   For Cap­tain Black­beard, his booze runs and the best mango shakes on this planet.
9. Luang Pra­bang, Laos
   For the funny monks and the beau­ti­ful temples.
10. Yan­gon, Myan­mar
    For Shwed­agon Paya and the friendly people.

The first stop on my upcom­ing trip will be Aus­tralia. My travel bud­dies and I have come up with a great idea, though! We leave our car some­where in Dar­win and fly for a little one-to-two-month detour to Indone­sia and then onwards to Malay­sia and Thai­l­and. I’m really look­ing foward to this as well, as it will give me a chance to catch up with some friends. Not sure yet, if I’ll be going back to any of these places above, though. I think I’ll be check­ing out some new fas­cin­at­ing places, but maybe my list gave you a bit of inspir­a­tion on where to head for next…