Ambon diving

[Vcelson]

Hi Nautilus...after diving with Maluku Divers many times I tried out Blue Motion earlier this year. Maluku Divers is top notch in every respect...some of the best guides you'll ever dive with, food, and accommodation and, if its in your budget, I'd say make that your top choice. I tried Blue Motion this last time to save some $$ and wasn't disappointed..while on a budget i'd definitely go back there again. They are located about 15 minutes from the airport like Maluku Divers, and are situated nearly right next to the "Twilight Zone" divesite. Guides are ok...I had trouble not comparing them to MDs, and I'd say the dive op is a good place to go if you one who likes to do your own dive and find things on one's own (as they'll let you do after seeing your skills). Personally, for muck diving and being a photographer I generally prefer a guide, but also like to look around on my own as well. Dive prices are very reasonable, $25 or less, and you could do a night dive any evening. For day dives, they do a two tank morning dive with the ability to out for one addition dive in the afternoon. There isn't a great variety of accommodation in Laha, but I stayed at a homestay that was very comfortable and clean within walking distance to the dive center. For meals, there are a lot of choices among local warungs, and for lunch you can eat a prepared meal at the dive center. Any other questions, feel free to pm. I can't speak for Blue Rose or Dive into Ambon as have never dove with them.

In 2013 we stayed and dove with Maluku Divers and it was fine, the dive guides were, for the most part, pretty good - Though Samuel was unquestionably the best. It is a beautifully laid out small diver's dive resort, that has the dining and separate relaxing/chatting areas right next to each other. The first part of the trip there was a large group of Americans from the Midwest who were a bit loud. So I spent most of the non-diving time in our room. The second half was a great mix of divers from all over the world, sharing stories and pictures and plans.

This year we decided that we'd try "Dive into Ambon", primarily to save some money, and found it was the best decision we'd made in a long time. The only issue was that it was so far from the city, that only cars available were owned the Hotel, and were charged by the hour with a 3 hour minimum.

The owners of "Dive Into Ambon", Kaj and Barb, spent 3 years in Lembeh, prior to building the purpose built facilities with a spacious and well laid out camera room at the Natsepa Ambon Hotel, Ambon's only luxury resort. All the guides are great at finding the critters we wanted to see and the ones we hadn't even known existed, And on our departure Barb gave us a sheet listing every dive spot and most of what we saw.
Dive into Ambon is in a spectacular location offering both the muck diving that Ambon Bay is famous for, from their private dock in the bay, a 15 minute minivan ride from the dive op, and spectacular wall dives, swim-thrus, caves, and sea mounds in Baluga Bay. In addition they offer one-of-a-kind dives to places like "Hard Boiled Egg," where the dive guide boiled eggs in an underwater Hot Spring for us to have with lunch, and a spot where almost all of the Tobys had mutations and all were tiny than the Tobys in other areas that weren't that far away. My husband, Richard and I had visited in Anilao, Lembeh and Bali, as well as Maluku Divers, looking for a colorful Rhinopias. We were thrilled to finally find one who posed for us, both for Stills and the video where he walked like a drunk leaving the bar. We were shown several varieties of frogfish, nudibranchs, shrimp and crabs that we'd never seen before and an octopus in a jar, who took off her coconut shell lid, cleaned out the dead eggs, capturing the good ones that accidentally slipped out, sweeping them back in, and then closing the lid again. Two weeks before our visit, one of the guides found a pair of the Psychedelic Frogfish, which hadn't been seen in 5 or so years, and Barb managed to get beautiful images of them, though we weren't lucky enough to see them .