Tioman

Dive centres sit in the beach villages strung along the sheltered west coast, and the day runs off the sand rather than a jetty: tanks go into an open boat pulled up on the beach, you ride out for anything from a few minutes to half an hour or so, and you come back to land between dives. The usual shape of the day is a two-tank morning, a single dive in the afternoon and a night dive on a nearby reef. Weekends fill with groups over from the mainland, and midweek boats go out noticeably emptier.

The site list splits along the geology. Inside the bays the bottom is shallow sand and low-relief coral, and that is where the small-animal diving is; off the north and west, detached granite rocks stand in open water, catch more movement and hold the schooling fish, their boulders piled into gullies and shaded gaps. Depth decides very little either way, with almost everything inside the 5 to 25 metre band. Visibility is the variable that does decide things, running from a few metres after a blow to around 20 on a settled day.

Conditions track the monsoon closely. The calm middle of the year is when boats reach the outer rocks reliably; at the shoulders the exposed sites drop off the list first and trips shift into the lee, and around the turn of the year the ferries thin out and much of the accommodation closes. The island lies inside a marine park, so a conservation fee is collected on arrival and there are rules on anchoring and collecting. For a few days of undemanding reef diving without committing to a liveaboard it works; for big animals, walls or depth it is thin.