Immeriswas
Contributor
Spent 10 days in Laha on Ambon during a longer trip to the south malukus and RA. Due to the extended stay in Indonesia, we were booking into Dive Bluemotion in Ambon, which were quite inexpensive. The shoredive in front of the dive center ( right at the twilight zone ) and short boattrips were under 20 Euro ( with your own gear ). The additional fuelcost for trips to more distant places as on the other side of the bay were always splitted up between the divers on the boat, which in our case 6 to 8 divers, came up averagely to 10 Euro each.
The stay at Patra Guesthouse - around 300m away - with 275000 rupia per double room - AC and ensuite bathroom - was also very reasonable. The beds were quite good and the bathroom with shower, mandi and western toilet ok, the AC worked without any problems. WiFi was only in the kitchen and super slow - ok for mails but everthing else you had to be very patient.
Don´t let you put off from the first impression with the murky and dirty inlet behind the breakfast veranda . Bringing a mosquito net was a good idea. Well, the included breakfast was not more than toast with yam and bananas, but we bought some peanut butter and other stuff around the corner, to get some more variety. Water , tea and coffee was for free the whole day long.
The nice and helpfull landlady has kind of limited english knowledge, but even without my very little bahasa Indonesia, there was always a way to make your wishes clear.
Eating out for lunch and dinner in Laha was very basic and cheap ( you are looking at 2 to 4 euro for a meal !! ) in different warungs and one better restaurant 3km away.
But we were always satisfied with the indonesian style kitchen and never !! sick.
One big advantage against the stay in a posh resort - as where we stayed later in RA - was the interresting contact to the people. We were even invited to the local village party. So we had a great time there for less than 1000.
There has been written enough about the diving in Ambon .A lot of critters - only a very few divers !! In all the dives we only twice had contact to another group, either from a liveaboard or from Maluku Diver. I liked it better than Lembeh, where we stayed in 2009.
Michael from Bluemotion is a very friendly, relaxed and helpfull fellow ( we could eg. leave our equipment at his place during our 10 day trip to Saparua, Molana and Ceram - by the way - very beautiful unspoiled islands).
The nightdives guided by him were absolutely fantastic - good spotter!! The other guides were, let alone one indonesian woman ,all european, very helpfull and safetyorientated, but still new in the area and therefore not that good at spotting. To find even more special things you maybe get more expierienced local guides at the Maluku Divers some Km up the coast at the other end of Laha.
The stay at Patra Guesthouse - around 300m away - with 275000 rupia per double room - AC and ensuite bathroom - was also very reasonable. The beds were quite good and the bathroom with shower, mandi and western toilet ok, the AC worked without any problems. WiFi was only in the kitchen and super slow - ok for mails but everthing else you had to be very patient.
Don´t let you put off from the first impression with the murky and dirty inlet behind the breakfast veranda . Bringing a mosquito net was a good idea. Well, the included breakfast was not more than toast with yam and bananas, but we bought some peanut butter and other stuff around the corner, to get some more variety. Water , tea and coffee was for free the whole day long.
The nice and helpfull landlady has kind of limited english knowledge, but even without my very little bahasa Indonesia, there was always a way to make your wishes clear.
Eating out for lunch and dinner in Laha was very basic and cheap ( you are looking at 2 to 4 euro for a meal !! ) in different warungs and one better restaurant 3km away.
But we were always satisfied with the indonesian style kitchen and never !! sick.
One big advantage against the stay in a posh resort - as where we stayed later in RA - was the interresting contact to the people. We were even invited to the local village party. So we had a great time there for less than 1000.
There has been written enough about the diving in Ambon .A lot of critters - only a very few divers !! In all the dives we only twice had contact to another group, either from a liveaboard or from Maluku Diver. I liked it better than Lembeh, where we stayed in 2009.
Michael from Bluemotion is a very friendly, relaxed and helpfull fellow ( we could eg. leave our equipment at his place during our 10 day trip to Saparua, Molana and Ceram - by the way - very beautiful unspoiled islands).
The nightdives guided by him were absolutely fantastic - good spotter!! The other guides were, let alone one indonesian woman ,all european, very helpfull and safetyorientated, but still new in the area and therefore not that good at spotting. To find even more special things you maybe get more expierienced local guides at the Maluku Divers some Km up the coast at the other end of Laha.