Whatever that means, as Cairns liveaboards are matketed to the
Japenese and Aussie divers?  ;)

I am an clueless newbie when it comes to diving Asia and the
Indo-Pacific, and I wasn't greatly impressed with Bali diving
either, though it was very good and I was fortunate to encounter
the only mola mola I had ever seen diving the Batu Aba site.

I think that's an unfair generalization, probably the result that
you HAVEN'T dived many locations in the Caribbean.

LOL!  Different kinds of fish perhaps, but if you want to see fish,
you'll see plenty at the Punta Tunich site of Palancar.  No fish
on the Santa Rosa Wall, and not many fish on the other Palancar
walls either, because you dive the massive coral structures, the
swim throughs, and the rich corals and high vis on the Palancar
walls between 150 and 200 fsw.  :-)

The owner of Dive Paradise, Apple, started her diving career in
the Maldives.  There she met my scuba-shop owner friend Paolo
in South Carolina.  If you think that's "small world", I dived
with Pedro and his brother who BOTH moved from Cozumel to the
Maldives.

In the case of Pedro, I think he was forced to move because I
wrote about a dive in which he took an uncertified student to
164 fsw (I knew because I loaned him the computer <G>) when he
was supposed to dive to a "secret wall" with me to 150 fsw.
At any rate, the Scuba-L Fascist, Nick Simicich apparently
reported him to PADI, and PADI must have pulled Pedro's
Instructor rank and every diving PADI credential to allow
Pedro to make a living in Cozumel in the dive business,

But Pedro was a safe diver -- a little bit on the crazy side
perhaps, and my wife and I held his student down for the
long "safety stop" when they sucked his tank down to 100 psi
and he had to surface.

But Pedro was back to Cozumel in 1996 (working for Papa Hogs)
and my friend Jeff wrote about Pedro in 1996:

http://tinyurl.com/8o873

Jeff dived with me and Pedro in both 1994 and 1996.  Jeff was
narked both times, below 120 fsw, when we were just looking for
the mythical "Alexandria Wall".   There was an undercut, but
there was no such thing as the Alexzandria Wall in Cozumel.
Pedro just made it up, and later admitted it, when he realized
that I had done every divable wall in Cozumel.  :-)

But I digress on your "small world" remark.  It is indeed a
Small World.

-- Bob.

Jason, you say the island chain of the Maldives is not atoll based except in
the case of the 26 that have coral surrounding a lagoon (the proverbial
Atolu), you say no liveaboards dive the waters near uninhabited islands
because you have never been on one that did (indeed you don't sound like you
have been on one at all),  you say all the sea bed beyond the classic atolls
is thousands of feet deep, you say that outside of the already inhabited
islands non other are habitable (clump of sand and bushes), you say the only
channels and passes are at the entrances to the classic atolls, etc. etc.

Bottom line is that you are either a liar or distressingly incorrect and I
don't have the time to discuss this with a person guilty of either.

You have a very good day (or in this case evening) and enjoy your next
diving adventure.

But it ain't impertinent to hear a Canadian use "ain't", and a
Denverite to say isn't pertinent".  :-)

For the few rare times, I straddle the fence on this issue, but
leans toward Dan's position.

For scuba folks in the 'Merkas, money and time are BOTH constrints,
but time may be a bigger constraint than money, especially for
those (not in Dan's case) who can AFFORD only one (or two) week(s)
a year say, from their work.  In those cases, time IS the essence,
and money is only secondary in choosing a dive location.

-- Bob.