Is this a good buy? Diamond

[raden888]

Oooo De Beers eh? Don't get me started on them.That's like a whole new thread.

Yea, I'm clueless about diamonds, don't see the big deal about them!

Since you're a diver and I'm pretty sure you've been to Boracay. Is Boracay all that?

[JR8]

I tend to agree with you on the diamonds, I admit I know nothing about them and girls that want them. (I shy away from those types). But let's just agree to disagree on "expert" on the diving arena as there are many types of diving and none of us are expert in all of them. Always remember what my first commercial diving instructor told me. There are old divers and there are bold divers, but there are damned few old, bold divers.

Yeah, welcome back. Hence my introduction earlier.

Oh yeah, I can always tell the difference between dry wit and BS.

Well gemstones have long been a fascination of mine (since childhood). No particular reason, they just have been. My wife is not really that interested either, but buying her ring was a major project for myself... and yeah I enjoyed getting the ultimate stone I could So, she enjoys wearing them (I'm sure), I enjoy the technical side of buying them...

Oh and yeah SMS, I would not profess to be an expert over all of diving (phhhh who would). Just experienced enough to give broad opinions to newbies really...

No Radon, never been to Borocay. Just back from Sipadan yesterday. If you get to Borocay please report back

[JR8]

I am in search for diamond too. Did you managed to get a good deal from this retailer?

Ha ha ha ha ha!! ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha..... sorry

ha ha ha ha aha ha aha ah aha ha aha ha.....genuine ha ha....


Ok (breath!).
.. ha ha ha.... I think I'm ha ha ha... just about ok now

[sundaymorningstaple]

So what was your opinion on Sipadan? It's a shame you can no longer stay on the island itself. When I went, the only operator on the island was Borneo Divers who I also used to dive with off of Labuan on a wreck dive once.

[raden888]

I love Sipadan but then again I was there 10 years ago!!! so JR8 has the updates. Labuan is lame isn it? Beer was cheap though! Did you get to Banggi Island? Its worth the effort .

[JR8]

I stayed on the converted oil rig just off Mabul: SeaVentures.

How did I find it? With a couple of hundred dived in the bag. Dived Europe; been to Egypt say 12 times....

I'll be honest, and try and summarise it thus.

It was patchy. The vis. promised as 'for ever' was actually 10-20m [monsoon goes on], which is not very good. There was a lot of 'big stuff' (49 turtles on my last dive). Hard corals are good, but there is very little soft coral and colour.

Some people seem to get a fixation about diving Sipadan. I had to put my foot down and tell the resort I'd had enough after 5 days and wanted a change. Still they listed me for a 6th day <sigh>. The whole permits thing is a complete mare....

[sundaymorningstaple]

I wondered how much it's changed since I was there. Apparently considerably. Possibly a combination of factors I reckon, traffic probably the biggest one. Twenty years is a long time.

[JR8]

Yeah SMS... the island is limited to 120 divers a day. These are thrown out in quotas.

I won't even try and explain how that works.... it's so whacko, I'd have to be double whacko to make sense of it....