Can anything think of a place that fits the following criteria not more than a 10 hour or so flight from Coolangatta?

Easy shore diving with good visibility, coral and varied marine life
Some more exciting offshore boat dives for the odd day
Interesting place with vibrant culture/food and so on
Good weather but not too scorching around February time of year

I imagine there's some great places around Malaysia/Indonesia? The easy diving/good viz/ no currents etc is paramount.

Cheers

I'm afraid I can't help . . . just waiting for some saddo to come along with the first 'muff diving' comment.

There's always one.

Bunaken Island off the coast of North Sulawesi is pretty good, not sure about weather conditions that time of year. You can fly to Manado from KL and Sng.
I dived and stayed with an outfit called 2fish Divers run by an English couple. This is mainly a dive orientated island, not much else to do, but its chilled and friendly.

Tulamben in Bali, my wife goes there every year, says it's great.

10 hours from Coolangatta?


Plenty of good diving to be had in PNG if you're adventurous.
Some Decent diving in Fiji (if you're less adventurous)

Getting close to that 10 hour limit you could get to the Philippines - theres some good diving there (look at somewhere like Malapascua Island - a bitch to get to [4 hour bus ride north from Cebu + 45 minutes water taxi] - but really nice). If going to the Philippines you'll probably want to avoid the tourist honeypot of Borocay though - its a bit overdone and a lot of the reef has been killed by dynamite fishing. I've heard good reports from 'El Nido' on Palawan - but you'll need mega$$$s to get and stay there.

http://www.malapascua.net/

My friends went to the Perhentian Islands off the east coast of Malaysia, said it's the nearest thing to the Maldives - where you can do all that stuff but it's too expensive to go there from Oz .

http://www.perhentian.com.my/

Sounds like it's a bit of a faff to get to though, flight to KL, internal and then road and boats but they were travelling around Malaysia at the time.

My Singaporean friend goes to Krabi in Thailand a lot for diving and other off the beaten track places in Malaysia, but then it's just up the road for her!

Tioman Island off the east coast of Malaysia

I stayed here a couple of months back http://www.kurakuraresort.com/ diving was excellent but it's not cheap and a bit of a bitch to get to, but you would have a fantastic experience.http://www.tripadvisor.com.au/Hotel_...Indonesia.html

I would second Bunaken (one of my favourite places in the world to dive).

Have also dived most of the other suggestions on here and all could be good options. I prefer the diving in Indonesia over Malaysia but fun, easy diving to be had in both (also Tulamben, as suggested). PNG is on my list but haven't made it there yet.
Have also dived all over the Philippines and absolutely love it there, so I would consider there.
Not sure about that time of year though?

Are you considering liveaboards or only land based diving?

My friend dives nearly every weekend and now has her instructor's licence. She was living in KL and was always at the Perhentians - she loved it there. Now she lives in the Philippines and Malapascua is often mentioned.

Land based easy stuff - Mr TE isn't a very competent diver (cue Spartacus) . We like pottering around taking photographs at 10 metres or so. I might pop off for a day or
two if there are any shark dives near by but generally very easy stuff with great viz. Can I add easily accessible snorkeling too pls!

I'm biting my tongue.......

viz would have made muff diving comments

I don't dive (hell, I barely swim) but I agree North Sulawesi should fit the bill. The Geek learned to dive there - we stayed on Gangga Island where life revolves around diving but caters mainly to Europeans who like their comfort

I have some mad-for-diving friends in Singapore who go all over the place that I could put you in touch with, but for starters have a look at http://www.kapalselam.org/ or http://www.scubasg.com/