Part 3 - Lembeh Resort
Lembeh Resort is a gem, a beautiful resort, thats especially enchanting at night with the cottage lights winding up the hill above the water. Very friendly, professional staff. Open air restaurant/bar. Nice pool. Very nice looking camera room (that we didnt use because were not real photographers) near the dive shop. Les Williams, the General Manager knows how to run a fine resort down to the last detail with a personal touch added. Mostly European guests there was only one other American couple during part of our stay.
Accommodation:
Cottage 5. It was the best placed cottage for us it has a nice water view, and is a short walk to the restaurant, and located just at the top of the steps from the pool and dive area (so you didnt have to climb a lot of steps each day). It has a large veranda and a spacious room with comfortable double bed, A/C, in room safe and a small refrigerator stocked with drinks. Bathroom is open to the outside air (Balinese-style), and has a bath tub and shower with very nice shower gel and shampoo (specially made for Lembeh Resort). There was always plenty of hot shower water. We were told that sometimes friendly monitor lizards come down the hill, and go into the bathrooms for a snack of toothpaste. So, guard your toothpaste, and keep the bathroom door closed! Hair dryer is available upon request.
Food:
The food was overall very good to excellent. Breakfast is buffet-style, with cold cereal, juice, yogurt, breads, pastries, and omelettes and pancakes to order. Late-morning and afternoon snacks were available in the restaurant, and were also taken down to the dive area for returning divers. Lunch and dinner are usually ordered from a menu or occasionally buffet-style, and offer a decent variety of very well prepared and presented food, including local Minihasa dishes. Drinks were reasonably priced with a large beer about 4.50 USD and a coke at 1.70 USD. On one of the nights at dinner, there was a local singing group which we really enjoyed.
Diving:
The dive op, Lembeh Divers, was excellent. Dive briefings were thorough, and Lembeh Divers did a good job of taking care of our equipment (rinsing, storing, setting up) and making sure that it showed up on the boat to which we were assigned. Always double check though, because when we checked our equipment before leaving for one of our night dives, one of our masks was on another boat. Like Gangga Divers, the diving was from wooden boats that were in good shape and comfortable. Dive sites were very close, usually about a 10 to 15 minute boat ride away, so divers partly suited up before getting on the boat, and the dive boats usually returned to shore after each dive. The daily dive schedule was dives around 8 AM, 11 AM, 2:30 PM and 6ish PM. There were also dives that you could schedule for the house reef and for mandarin fish. Usually two to three boats went out with about 6 divers per boat, each boat to a different site. We did 3 to 4 dives a day (including 3 night dives), and used nitrox. Most of our dives were just the two of us with a divemaster. There was drinking water available on the boat (hot tea for night dives) with fruit and hard candy offered between dives (if the boat didnt return to shore for the surface interval). A towel was provided for each diver on the boat.
For us, the diving was amazing the kind of amazing that spoils you for diving many other places. We werent sure what to expect with Lembeh or even if we would like muck diving, but were hooked now! The divemasters were excellent and had an uncanny ability to find the creatures that Lembeh is famous for. We saw the usual Lembeh critters including mimic octopus, coconut octopus, pygmy seahorse (hippocampus denise), thorny seahorses, ornate, robust and halimeda ghost pipefish, giant and painted frogfish, ambon scorpionfish, rhinopia, leaf scorpionfish, waspfish, sea moth, spiny devilfish, bobtail squid, bobbitt worm, tons of nudibranchs, little crabs and shrimp We didnt see a wonderpus, hairy frogfish or stargazer maybe the next time! Joni, who was our divemaster for most of our dives, was great, and the King at finding mimic octopi (5 in one day) for us and a bunch of other weird critters. We had our best night dive ever with Joni who on that dive showed us a large Spanish dancer, beautiful big pink rhinopia, the largest giant frogfish wed ever seen, and a bunch of other creatures.
Water temps were surprisingly warm about 80-1F, and the visibility was 20 to 30 feet. Topside weather was mostly overcast with some rain showers. My husband wore a 3 mm wetsuit, and I wore a 2 piece 3 mm wetsuit. We didnt get cold underwater, even with the all dives lasting over an hour. I did get a little chilled after the third and fourth dives (I get cold pretty easily), and was glad I had a dive jacket on the boat.
Other:
You can buy those steel pointers that all the Lembeh divemasters use from the Lembeh Divers shop for 12 USD. We liked them a lot and used them on every dive they are very handy for pointing out something, helping you hold your position while looking or taking a picture, or getting your buddys attention.
My husband brought with him a hand held magnifying glass that he bought over the internet and modified with a ring on the handle for attaching it to his BC. His near vision isnt that great and he said that the magnifying glass really helped him see the tiny stuff.
Do as many night dives as you can at Lembeh they were a lot of fun! For that matter, try not to miss a dive You really do need to control your buoyancy and modify your fin stroke so that the silt isnt kicked up, or the visibility will quickly go down the tubes. Gloves arent allowed for diving in Lembeh, so no need to pack them.
One afternoon before our night dive, we got a massage in our cottage that was not very good (done by an outside vendor who came to the resort; not by Lembeh staff), so I wouldnt recommend that.
Transfer to Lumbalumba Resort (Manado):
Lembeh Resort handled our transfer which was about a 2 hour drive. In Manado, we stopped and had lunch with the Lembeh Resort GM, Les at a water side barbecue place that served great barbecue at an incredibly low price. Watch out for the hot sauce!
Lembeh Resort is a gem, a beautiful resort, thats especially enchanting at night with the cottage lights winding up the hill above the water. Very friendly, professional staff. Open air restaurant/bar. Nice pool. Very nice looking camera room (that we didnt use because were not real photographers) near the dive shop. Les Williams, the General Manager knows how to run a fine resort down to the last detail with a personal touch added. Mostly European guests there was only one other American couple during part of our stay.
Accommodation:
Cottage 5. It was the best placed cottage for us it has a nice water view, and is a short walk to the restaurant, and located just at the top of the steps from the pool and dive area (so you didnt have to climb a lot of steps each day). It has a large veranda and a spacious room with comfortable double bed, A/C, in room safe and a small refrigerator stocked with drinks. Bathroom is open to the outside air (Balinese-style), and has a bath tub and shower with very nice shower gel and shampoo (specially made for Lembeh Resort). There was always plenty of hot shower water. We were told that sometimes friendly monitor lizards come down the hill, and go into the bathrooms for a snack of toothpaste. So, guard your toothpaste, and keep the bathroom door closed! Hair dryer is available upon request.
Food:
The food was overall very good to excellent. Breakfast is buffet-style, with cold cereal, juice, yogurt, breads, pastries, and omelettes and pancakes to order. Late-morning and afternoon snacks were available in the restaurant, and were also taken down to the dive area for returning divers. Lunch and dinner are usually ordered from a menu or occasionally buffet-style, and offer a decent variety of very well prepared and presented food, including local Minihasa dishes. Drinks were reasonably priced with a large beer about 4.50 USD and a coke at 1.70 USD. On one of the nights at dinner, there was a local singing group which we really enjoyed.
Diving:
The dive op, Lembeh Divers, was excellent. Dive briefings were thorough, and Lembeh Divers did a good job of taking care of our equipment (rinsing, storing, setting up) and making sure that it showed up on the boat to which we were assigned. Always double check though, because when we checked our equipment before leaving for one of our night dives, one of our masks was on another boat. Like Gangga Divers, the diving was from wooden boats that were in good shape and comfortable. Dive sites were very close, usually about a 10 to 15 minute boat ride away, so divers partly suited up before getting on the boat, and the dive boats usually returned to shore after each dive. The daily dive schedule was dives around 8 AM, 11 AM, 2:30 PM and 6ish PM. There were also dives that you could schedule for the house reef and for mandarin fish. Usually two to three boats went out with about 6 divers per boat, each boat to a different site. We did 3 to 4 dives a day (including 3 night dives), and used nitrox. Most of our dives were just the two of us with a divemaster. There was drinking water available on the boat (hot tea for night dives) with fruit and hard candy offered between dives (if the boat didnt return to shore for the surface interval). A towel was provided for each diver on the boat.
For us, the diving was amazing the kind of amazing that spoils you for diving many other places. We werent sure what to expect with Lembeh or even if we would like muck diving, but were hooked now! The divemasters were excellent and had an uncanny ability to find the creatures that Lembeh is famous for. We saw the usual Lembeh critters including mimic octopus, coconut octopus, pygmy seahorse (hippocampus denise), thorny seahorses, ornate, robust and halimeda ghost pipefish, giant and painted frogfish, ambon scorpionfish, rhinopia, leaf scorpionfish, waspfish, sea moth, spiny devilfish, bobtail squid, bobbitt worm, tons of nudibranchs, little crabs and shrimp We didnt see a wonderpus, hairy frogfish or stargazer maybe the next time! Joni, who was our divemaster for most of our dives, was great, and the King at finding mimic octopi (5 in one day) for us and a bunch of other weird critters. We had our best night dive ever with Joni who on that dive showed us a large Spanish dancer, beautiful big pink rhinopia, the largest giant frogfish wed ever seen, and a bunch of other creatures.
Water temps were surprisingly warm about 80-1F, and the visibility was 20 to 30 feet. Topside weather was mostly overcast with some rain showers. My husband wore a 3 mm wetsuit, and I wore a 2 piece 3 mm wetsuit. We didnt get cold underwater, even with the all dives lasting over an hour. I did get a little chilled after the third and fourth dives (I get cold pretty easily), and was glad I had a dive jacket on the boat.
Other:
You can buy those steel pointers that all the Lembeh divemasters use from the Lembeh Divers shop for 12 USD. We liked them a lot and used them on every dive they are very handy for pointing out something, helping you hold your position while looking or taking a picture, or getting your buddys attention.
My husband brought with him a hand held magnifying glass that he bought over the internet and modified with a ring on the handle for attaching it to his BC. His near vision isnt that great and he said that the magnifying glass really helped him see the tiny stuff.
Do as many night dives as you can at Lembeh they were a lot of fun! For that matter, try not to miss a dive You really do need to control your buoyancy and modify your fin stroke so that the silt isnt kicked up, or the visibility will quickly go down the tubes. Gloves arent allowed for diving in Lembeh, so no need to pack them.
One afternoon before our night dive, we got a massage in our cottage that was not very good (done by an outside vendor who came to the resort; not by Lembeh staff), so I wouldnt recommend that.
Transfer to Lumbalumba Resort (Manado):
Lembeh Resort handled our transfer which was about a 2 hour drive. In Manado, we stopped and had lunch with the Lembeh Resort GM, Les at a water side barbecue place that served great barbecue at an incredibly low price. Watch out for the hot sauce!
