TeqP
Contributor
Here are a few photos and brief trip report from my vacation to North Sulawesi during August 2008.
I stayed at Kungkungan Bay Resort the first week and then headed to the Bunaken side and stayed at Bunaken Cha Cha. First off, I just want to say that my non-diving girlfriend and I really enjoyed staying at KBR. My girlfriend is a snorkeler and Steve (dive manager at KBR) let her accompany us on the dive boat when we went to a site that had good snorkeling. She really enjoyed the opportunity to snorkel other sites around Lembeh. She ran into a few big cuttlefish during one snorkel trip. The KBR house reef is a very nice place to snorkel as well. Their house reef is very healthy. The staff at KBR goes the extra mile to make sure your stay is what you expect out of a vacation. The diving, snorkeling, relaxing, sunshine and KBR staff just made for a great vacation. The water was pretty warm, in my opinion (it ranged from 79-82F (26.1- 27.8C). I used a long sleeve rash guard and swim trunks. I believe everyone else was using a very thin wetsuit all the way up to a 5mm full wetsuit. The one thing that I will say about not using a full lycra suit is that every once in a while I would feel a stinging on my leg (not too often, but it happened on a few dive sites). The stinging didnt hurt that much to me, but some might not like this. I dive wet (7mm wetsuit) in southern California where the water temp ranges from 48-65F (8.9 18.3C), so my tolerance might be higher than others. I will also say that I was assuming that the depths of the dive sites would be a little more shallow. The majority of the dive sites around Lembeh were in the 60-90' (18.3 - 27.4m) with a gradual decrease in depth to the 15-30' (4.6 - 9.1m) for the safety stop.
I recommend doing at least one night dive while at the resort because the marine life is much different at night. I dove Nudi Falls in the morning and at night very nice to compare. I also recommend that on the boat ride back to the dock, you just keep looking up at the stars. Its AWESOME to see the stars on a clear night, with a chance to see some shooting stars while sipping some hot cocoa!
I definitely prefer the Lembeh side of N. Sulawesi. If you want a chance to see the larger animals and better visibility, then Bunaken is your best option. We did see large turtles, white tip sharks, trevali and some species of tuna. The visibility was in the range of 60-100 (18.3 30.5m) and the water is warmer than Lembeh with temperatures in the range of 81-84F (27.2 28.9C). There is more current that can change quickly depending on dive location around Bunaken Island. I prefer the macro an rather unusual creatures that you will see on the Lembeh side.
I stayed at Kungkungan Bay Resort the first week and then headed to the Bunaken side and stayed at Bunaken Cha Cha. First off, I just want to say that my non-diving girlfriend and I really enjoyed staying at KBR. My girlfriend is a snorkeler and Steve (dive manager at KBR) let her accompany us on the dive boat when we went to a site that had good snorkeling. She really enjoyed the opportunity to snorkel other sites around Lembeh. She ran into a few big cuttlefish during one snorkel trip. The KBR house reef is a very nice place to snorkel as well. Their house reef is very healthy. The staff at KBR goes the extra mile to make sure your stay is what you expect out of a vacation. The diving, snorkeling, relaxing, sunshine and KBR staff just made for a great vacation. The water was pretty warm, in my opinion (it ranged from 79-82F (26.1- 27.8C). I used a long sleeve rash guard and swim trunks. I believe everyone else was using a very thin wetsuit all the way up to a 5mm full wetsuit. The one thing that I will say about not using a full lycra suit is that every once in a while I would feel a stinging on my leg (not too often, but it happened on a few dive sites). The stinging didnt hurt that much to me, but some might not like this. I dive wet (7mm wetsuit) in southern California where the water temp ranges from 48-65F (8.9 18.3C), so my tolerance might be higher than others. I will also say that I was assuming that the depths of the dive sites would be a little more shallow. The majority of the dive sites around Lembeh were in the 60-90' (18.3 - 27.4m) with a gradual decrease in depth to the 15-30' (4.6 - 9.1m) for the safety stop.
I recommend doing at least one night dive while at the resort because the marine life is much different at night. I dove Nudi Falls in the morning and at night very nice to compare. I also recommend that on the boat ride back to the dock, you just keep looking up at the stars. Its AWESOME to see the stars on a clear night, with a chance to see some shooting stars while sipping some hot cocoa!
I definitely prefer the Lembeh side of N. Sulawesi. If you want a chance to see the larger animals and better visibility, then Bunaken is your best option. We did see large turtles, white tip sharks, trevali and some species of tuna. The visibility was in the range of 60-100 (18.3 30.5m) and the water is warmer than Lembeh with temperatures in the range of 81-84F (27.2 28.9C). There is more current that can change quickly depending on dive location around Bunaken Island. I prefer the macro an rather unusual creatures that you will see on the Lembeh side.
