Dive Review of Temple Adventure in
India/Pondicherry

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Temple Adventure: "Lots of fish but not a destination", Feb, 2020, by heejae cho, Bangalore, India ( Reviewer 3 reports with 2 Helpful votes). Report 11435.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations	N/A	Food	N/A
Service and Attitude	N/A	Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	We recently relocated to India to work on a project and wanted to find an easy destination for diving that doesn't involve too much flying. Pondicherry seemed to be a reasonable choice as we can get there with overnight bus, which means no off-gas day is required and a quick weekend trip is possible. Pondicherry is a former French colony and is a popular holiday destination. February is peak season and restaurants and bars were very lively. Communications with Temple Adventure was good. They were prompt to respond and it was straightforward to reserve our spot. We were offered free nitrox. I expressed my concern regarding Trip Adviser review where the divers did not have enough bottom time because the dive guide ran out of air - Temple Adventure said they have addressed this and has policy of 70min max dive time. More on this later... Day starts at 6:30am but another hour or so is spent while the nitrox mix is checked, wetsuits are fitted etc. The harbor is approx. 10-15 mins drive from the shop and several trips were required to move all the tanks, gear and people to the harbor which meant that we wouldn't get to the boat until 8am. The harbor is in the "backwater" area where the river meets the ocean, and need not be said not the cleanest area. The dive sites are around 30-60 minutes ride from the harbor. The first day we dove the "wall" first. The bottom is around 30m and the only attraction seemed to be the fan corals. The area is not your typical wall, more of a slope. Visibility was not great though apparently better than rest of the year. The dive guide, who was relatively inexperienced, made us surface after only 30 minutes of bottom time. Second dive was better in the shallower water, where we dived "fishermen's reef". It was an artificial reef created by the fishermen using coconut tree leaves. Large fish such as groupers seem to love the area, nesting between the leaves. We saw several very large groupers and other fish, and a few critters such as crabs and mantis shrimp. Because our dive guide had ear issue, we were paired with the instructor and diver training (not sure for which course). We were asked to surface after around 50 minutes. Returning to the shop, we were asked to stay and take care of the gear for the next day diving but the gear took a long time to come back to the shop. We were very unhappy with this situation since the diving cost is very expensive comparatively - including tax and gear rental (not including computer) was around USD 100 per day per person for two tank diving - and for this amount of money outside of Caribbean we would expect valet service which this was not. To be fair to Temple Adventure, when we were asked how the day went and we listed our complaints, they did their best to address them. We were told they will take care of the gear washing, and we would have the option to dive only shallower sites. They also ensured we would have a tec dive trained guide with us. The second day diving was much better. Our guide was very good, we dived our own profile and we had a whole boat to ourselves as everyone else was doing either dive course or DSD. We dived a reef called Eel Garden, which true to form had many different types of eels that we stopped pointing them out soon. We also spotted frog fish and several scorpion fish. Unfortunately we also spotted several fish and a crab caught up in nets which we helped our guide to free up. We wished we had our own scissors. Temple Adventure built their own reef out of stripped cars, bikes and beer bottles set in concrete which was our last dive. They had also added palm leaves where several large groupers were hanging out in their folds. Lots of small and large fish were enjoying the artificial reef and while not the most colorful dive, it was a fun day. Question is, would I do it again? Maybe but it will be one or two days max if we happen to be in Pondicherry, and I will be more upfront about our demands like no deep diving (not worth it for the bottom time) dive guide and if we are renting gear, for the dive shop to take care of them. The dive shop seems to mostly cater for students and I admire them for building out the reef and increasing awareness for our ocean, but as a shop for leisure divers, the costs are too high for the quality of diving and service it offers. Unfortunately with steep competition in other countries I'm not sure if we'd return in a hurry.
Websites	Temple Adventure
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	Bermuda, Bahamas, Egypt, Little Cayman, Roatan, Utila, Cozumel, Isla Mujeres, Saba, Tenerife, Philippines
Closest Airport	Puducherry	Getting There	There are a few direct flight to Pondicherry, otherwise bus from Chennai takes approx. 3 hours.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm
Water Temp	28-29°C / 82-84°F	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	10-15 M / 33-49 Ft
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Time limit
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	None	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter	N/A	Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments

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Dive Review of Temple Adventure in India/Pondicherry

Temple Adventure: "Lots of fish but not a destination", Feb, 2020,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Temple Adventure in
India/Pondicherry