Special for the London International Dive Show this weekend:

4D/3N PADI Open Water Course on Tioman Island, Malaysia, based on twin sharing accommodation in 3 Star Resort – GBP 280.00. Includes full course, course materials, equipment rental, certification, accommodation

6D/5N Unlimited Diving with B&J Diving Centre on Tioman Island, based on twin sharing accommodation in 3 Star Resort – GBP 330.00. Includes up to 3 day dives per day, lunch on board, accommodation (dive equipment rental not included)

Open to non-show-goers. Contact Symbiosis for more info.

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Calling filmmakers, photographers & journalists to the biggest underwater imagery festival in the Asia Pacific!

Dust off your cameras and take to the water with 5 Star IDC Centre Thalassa, located in the heart of Bunaken National Park. CTS participants get a head start in the Shoot Out competition with our special 5-day unlimited diving package. Literally dive till you drop in Bunaken, Bangka and the Lembeh Strait. With sites only 5 minutes away by boat, you can get trigger happy as and when you please. So why wait? Get your chance to win the festival’s top award along with a cash prize of USD 3500.

* Camera rinse tanks and electrical charge points onboard custom-made dive boats
* Imaging facilities for video capture and image processing
* Specialist photographic dive guides
* Boat charters

5 nights Deluxe room in Seaside Resort Santika
5 days Unlimited Diving with Thalassa, incl. use of tanks, weights, towels and lunch with the dive centre Daily breakfast + Airport transfers

Package for 2 : USD775
Package for 1 : USD1,045
Extension 1 Night + 3 Dives (for 2) : USD160
Extension 1 Night + 3 Dives (for 1) : USD190

Contact Symbiosis Custom Travel for full details

In association with the World Festival of Underwater Pictures, Le Festival Mondial de l’Image Sous-Marine – Marseille 2010, Ocean Geographic, DIVER magazine (Canada), Action Asia (HK), X Ray Mag (Scandinavia), Duiken (Holland), Tauchen (Germany), AQUA (Italy), Plongee (France), Neptune (Russia), DIVE (UK) and Scuba Diver Australia

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Some great deals here on the lovely pinisi sailing schooner, Tambora, in Indonesia. Cruises include destinations such as Raja Ampat & Triton Bay in West Papua, North Sulawesi and Eastern Borneo.

Bookings must be confirmed before 01 May 2011. Cruise dates are between now and December 2011.

Dates & Destinations
03-15 Mar (12 nights): Raja Ampat & Triton Bay. Was $4,425, now $3.320.
17-31 Mar (14 nights): Raja Ampat, Halmahera & Lembeh. Was $4,775, now $3,580.
02-16 Apr (14 nights): Manado, N Sulawesi to Tarakan, E Borneo. Was $4,775, now $4,059.
18-29 Apr (11 nights): E Borneo: Derawan, Sangalaki, Maratua, Kakaban. Was $4,075, now $3,465.
02-13 May (11 nights): E Borneo: Derawan, Sangalaki, Maratua, Kakaban. Was $4,075, now $3,465.
16-27 May (11 nights): E Borneo: Derawan, Sangalaki, Maratua, Kakaban. Was $4,075, now $3,465.
30 May-10 Jun (11 nights): Tarakan, East Borneo to Palu, Central Sulawesi. Was $4,075, now $3,465.
13-25 Jun (12 nights): Palu to Manado, N Sulawesi. Was $4,425, now $3,540.
29 Jun-13 Jul (14 nights): Manado to Raja Ampat, W Papua. Was $4,775, now $3,820.
29 Aug-10 Sep (12 nights): Raja Ampat & Manokwari, W Papua. Was $4,425, now $3,540.
12-24 Oct (12 nights): Raja Ampat & Manokwari, W Papua. Was $4,425, now $3,540.
24 Nov-05 Dec (11 nights): Triton Bay, W Papua. Was $4,075, now $3,465.

Prices in USD. Final booking date 30 April 2011.

Contact Symbiosis Custom Travel to Book now.

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London International Dive Show special offer: book any liveaboard dive cruise in Indonesia aboard the beautiful S.M.Y. Ondina traditional sailing schooner and receive a €150 discount plus free Nitrox.

Check here for schedules and to make a booking.

Valid only for bookings made before 10 April 2011 through Symbiosis Custom Travel.

Unable to visit the London International Dive Show this weekend? No problem, just visit the Symbiosis Custom Travel website to reserve your berth.

Small Groups special: 6 divers, pay for only 5

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Last chance to book one of these heavily discounted liveaboard dive sfaris with the Siren Fleet. These March special offers are for trips booked between 1st and 31st March only.

Mandarin Siren
18-29 JUL 2011: North Sulawesi – was €2,500, less 15% => 2,125 Euro

Philippine Siren
23 JUL-02 AUG: Southern Visayas – was €2,400, less 30% => 1,680 Euro

Maldives Siren
25 OCT- 04 NOV 2011: Northern B – was €2,400, less 15% => 2,040 Euro

Oriental Siren
12-22 DEC 2011: Best of Thailand – was €2,300, less 20% => 1,840 Euro

Contact Symbiosis Custom Travel now to book.

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To mark the 2011 London International Dive Show (LIDS) this weekend, 26 & 27 March, Symbiosis is pleased to offer discounts on one week dive cruises aboard the Celebes Explorer as follows:

Booking period: from now until 30 April 2011 only

Travel period: 27 March 2011 to 26 February 2012.

* 7D7N package: $200 disocunt = $1,615
* 6D7N Package: $185 Discount = $1,508

The following fees still apply:
* Sipadan Dive Permit: $13 per person per day
* Semporna Jetty Fee: $3 per person per trip

Contact Symbiosis Custom Travel now to book

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Nice appraisal from this French family from Japan who undertook a Mekong River Explorer trip, finishing this week:

From: Marie-Cécile Conilh de Beysac
Subject: thank you
Date: 6 March 2011 20:02:48 GMT+07:00
To: Christopher Gow
We have only have one word : wonderful ! One of our best trip.
Thank you for having allowed us to make this trip. You really deserve your ad : off the beaten tracks !!!
It was exactly corresponding to our expectations!
Our kid did every thing without any problem. He learned so much !!!
Your organization is excellent and very reliable, we will recommend it to our friends…
We are back in Tokyo with more than 1500 photos and the head full of images, emotions, flavors…
Thank you

Bernard, Cecile and Jean

And…. no!… I did not write this myself! However I am not surprised as that part of the Mekong River from Southern Laos into northern Cambodia is exceptional for anyone looking for a real, off the beaten track adventure. Time has left this part of Indochina behind. The bird life is fantastic, and village life is much as it has been since before the Khmer Rouge destroyed so much of the rest of the country. However development is threatening, with new roads being built between Stung Treng and T’beng Meanchey to the west, and the road from the Laos border to Phnom Penh is already complete. News today talks about rubber plantations encroaching into the biodiversely important Virachey National Park on the Cambodia/Lao border.

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This New York Times story highlights some interesting eco-tourism developments in Cambodia.

See some of my pics from Chi Phat here on the Symbiosis Facebook page

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The Cambodian Government yesterday approved a land concession in the heart of dense forest in Koh Kong Province for a titanium mine that environmentalists say will devastate dozens of endangered species and clear thousands of hectares of trees in Cambodia’s Cardamom mountains.

I visited Chi Phat, the area that will be affected, a couple of years ago and have posted an (unedited!) photo album from that visit on the Symbiosis Facebook page today.

This area of the southern Cardamoms is home to about 24 natural water sources and more than a quarter of Cambodia’s remaining wild elephants, as well as numerous other endangered species.

Hornbills at Chi Phat, Cardamom Mountains, Cambodia

There is also a thriving community-based tourism programme in Chi Phat, driven by wildlife protection NGO, The Wildlife Alliance, that has successfully turned former loggers and illegal wildlife traders into protectors of the forest, earning them and their families $66,000 in the past 2 years – a small fortune for remote villagers in Cambodia. Much needed evidence that community-based eco tourism can turn poachers into gamekeepers and help to protect the natural environment.

I would urge you to visit Chi Phat soon to show support for the local community’s efforts to halt the mine project… and, of course, to experience this stunning natural area before it is too late!. Have a look at the Symbiosis web page for Chi Phat to get some ideas.

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In case you missed last month’s blog following my New Year visit to Preah Vihear… before the latest round of skirmishes started… here it is again: http://www.symbiosis-travel.com/blog/2011/01/07/preah-vihear-cambodia-30-dec-2010/

I will try to find time to post some more shots shortly.

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25% discount on a superb 9 day dive safari in India’s Andaman Islands aboard the sailing schooner, Oriental Siren.

Dates: 29 March to 07 April, 2011.
Price: was €3.300, now only €2.475 per person, sharing.

Details:
The Oriental Siren departs from Port Blair on an 8 or 9 night diving adventure. The lack of commercial fishing around the Andaman Islands, results in unusually abundant fish populations, including bumphead parrotfish, Napoleon wrasse, dogtooth tuna and barracuda. We also find species endemic to the area such as the Andaman sweetlips and damsel fish. Visiting Barren island, unlike the name would suggest, rewards divers with pristine soft corals, and it is here we are most likely to see manta rays, whilst at the Passage it is common to see mobula rays and groupers. Despite recent concerns over coral bleaching, due to spikes in water temperature, the reefs of the Andaman Islands remain healthy and support diverse marine life.

Contact Symbiosis Custom Travel to book now

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Amazing half price offer on 2 end-of-season Mekong River cruises between Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam, and Siem Reap, home to Cambodia’s Angkor Wat temple complex.

Dates
13 to 20 March: Saigon to Siem Reap on the Toum Tiou II
29 March to 5 April 2011: Siem Reap to Saigon on the Toum Tiou

Book now! Contact Symbiosis right away.

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Could this be the real reason that Sea Turtles are being driven to extinction? These pictures are taken in Costa Rica of sea turtle egg “harvesting” by locals for sale in the local markets for food.

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Posted 3 Jan 2011 on Ethical Traveler by Katia Savchuk
Performing short-term volunteer work abroad is “potentially exploitative” of vulnerable populations, according to a recent study of “voluntourism” in African orphanages. Authored by researchers from South Africa’s Human Sciences Research Council and Queen Mary, University of London, the report found that foreign volunteers who came, bonded and left harmed the emotional and social development of children.

Read the full story on ethicaltraveler.org

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Book a stay before 31 March and for every dive package you book you will get one FREE!

Choose from either Kima Bajo Resort & Spa, Manado, or Lembeh Cottages by the world famous critter haven of Lembeh Strait – or combine the two – and enjoy diving the best of both worlds.

It really is as simple as booking for two people, yet pay for only one!

This offer must end 31 March and will not be repeated, so this is a unique opportunity to have a dive holiday in World renowned NOrth Sulawesi at unbeatable value. It’s your chance to enjoy the popular luxury of Kima Bajo Resort & Spa or to try our very special Lembeh Cottages, now with spa, outdoor restaurant and cozy lounge bar.

Contact Symbiosis today while still available.

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