Tasik Ria / KBR trip report - May 2008

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Registered
Messages
38
Reaction score
11
Location
Kailua-Kona, HI
# of dives
200 - 499
Hi all. My partner and I just got back from 2 fantastic weeks of diving in N. Sulawesi. First of all, thanks to all who provided pre-trip guidance and advice.

Eco divers runs great operations at both Tasik Ria and KBR. Their staff are outstanding, and many thanks to Bjorn & Caroline at Tasik Ria, and to Steve & Kim at KBR.

Tasik Ria is a beautiful and comfortable resort, located about 45 mins south of Manado Airport. Accommodations were clean and comfortable, with in-room safes. The on-site spa provides every guest a complimentary 15-minute jet-lag head and neck massage. Longer massages are very affordable. Breakfast is buffet style with both western and Indonesian choices. Lunch for divers is provided on board the dive boat. Dinners are a la carte most nights with ample choices of both Indonesian and Western meals. Special BBQ or Seafood evenings are hosted once or twice a week. The grounds are extensive, with an enormous free-form swimming pool with swim-up pool bar. There is also another bar located out at the end of the dive jetty, with an optional choice of evening dining at the grill.

The majority of dive sites in Bunaken National Park are about 1 hour's boat ride from the resort. The boats are large and can accommodate up to 22 divers, however they normally take a maximum of 16. Divers are split into groups of 4 or less, and each group assigned their own dive guide. Each group drops into the water separately, so there is no mass scrum on the reef. The boats provide ample space for cameras, and electrical sockets for battery chargers. Wall dives predominate, with huge schools of pyramid butterfly fish and red tooth triggerfish. Tasik Ria also has its own house reef, a combination of sandy patches with coral heads containing at least 1 pair of mandarin fish.

For those combining both Bunaken and Lembeh, a complimentary transfer between Tasik Ria and KBR is provided. This is normally not a dive day, and the transfer is normally around noon, and takes roughly 2 hours.

Unlike Tasik Ria, which caters to non-dive guests, everything at KBR really centers around diving. Accommodations are very comfortable. Meals are taken in the main restaurant, built out over the water. The dive operation is very well run, with small fast boats taking groups of up to 8 divers (max 4 per guide) to/from dive sites and returning to the resort between dives. The furthest site is only 15 minutes away. Most sites are no more than 3-5 minutes away.

The diving is primarily muck diving on sloping sand, with small coral heads. There are some small walls, and one or two wrecks as well. This is real critter diving, and every dive is like a fantastic treasure hunt. Dive guides know just where to find all the critters, and for the most part, take very good care to accommodate photographers without stressing the environment.

The same can not be said for all resorts. A warning to those considering other resorts - during several dives, we observed the newly arrived American dive manager of Bastiano's Lembeh handling the coral, bending fans to accommodate his Japanese dive group who were all wearing gloves and jamming there cameras into the sea fans in an attempt to photograph the tiny and very fragile pygmy sea horse. Sadly the next day, the fan was broken and the seahorse was no longer to be found. Our own dive guides were furious with the behavior they observed and after our dive, we made a report to Eco Divers managers, who said they would take it up with Bastianos owner, and at the next meeting of the dive operators association.

I know nothing of Bastianos resort, or their dive operations... however I caution anyone reading this and thinking of traveling to the region to consider their choice of dive resort carefully.

All in all, we had a fantastic time, and saw almost all the critters we had hoped for.
 
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Glad to see this report! We had a fantastic time doing those two resorts year before last (although I have to say KBR was the one that really captured my heart). I had heard some rumors that KBR was getting a little run down, and I'm glad to see you didn't feel that way.
 
KBR was in the midst of planning some upgrades that were temporarily put on hold while Eco Divers completed the opening of their latest resort north of Manado, called Kima Bajo. It is supposedly targeting an upscale market. One of the upgrades Steve is planning is to run a pipeline from their compressor right down the KBR jetty, so that the staff don't have to haul tanks up and down between dives. They also constructed a building behind the pool, but it remains unfinished, along with plans for a bar upstairs above the restaurant.

All in all, these were really superficial extras we really didn't miss. It didn't affect the performance of their dive operations, or the quality of the accommodations at all. My favorite touch was the restaurant staff bringing sweets, tea & coffee over to the Dive Center between 1st and 2nd dives. Also the hot chocolate after a night dive! We were using only dive skins, and if we did a night dive as a fourth dive, the hot cocoa really warmed us up.
 
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