Hello,

My original post is in the General Discussion area and it was recommended I post here.

Anyway, I was open-water certified 6 years ago but never went anywhere to scuba dive. Now, I have some time off and was wanting to take a 4-6 week trip somewhere, take a re-certification/re-fresher course and do some diving, among other things. I figure I will going sometime between mid Dec-07 and early Feb-08.

I have never been anywhere tropical and trying to decide where to go to find warm water, affordability and abundance of marine life. The Phillippines has come highly recommended.

I am a 47 yr.old, single guy and would be traveling solo. I only have my mask, snorkel and booties from my dive class. Everything else I would need to rent.

I was hoping to possibly find a place where it is possible to secure inexpensive hotels, bungalows, share house, rent rooms, etc., that would be very near the diving areas or at least close to some dive shops, boats, tours, etc. I am familiar/comfortable with low budget travel so I am not looking for anything luxurious at all. I am more interested in things being affordable, safe and 'laid-back'. If possible, I would also like to hop around to a few different islands.

So, is what I'm trying to do very realistic?

I can already see the responses........ "yeah buddy, we ALL are looking for this", lol.

Any information would be a tremendous help. I would like to get a flight booked soon and get re-introduced to this great sport and meet some new people to go diving with.

Thank you,
jontay