Bigass Indonesia Group Trip Report - Ambon, Bali & The Banda Sea

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saudio

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First, a quick introduction. I've been a lurker here for a long time but a very infrequent poster. Most of the divers on this trip call the forums over at scubadiving.com home, and it is there you will see the nicknames referred to in the report. Since we are for the most part unknown in these parts, let me point out that there is no commercial interest here, just a bunch of avid divers, travelers, photographers, and amateur journalists who enjoy sharing our adventures.


This is a big, group effort trip report from a fantastic trip to Indonesia. The report covers the Archipelago Adventurer II live-aboard (Banda Sea Itinerary), Scuba Seraya Dive Resort on Bali, and Maluku Dive Resort on Ambon. As a group, we covered resort and dive operator reviews, lots of details and stories about the diving we did, literally hundreds of pictures contributed by the many photographers on the trip, some awesome video clips, plus some tips for traveling in Indonesia.

We hope you enjoy, and that the report will be helpful to anyone planning to travel to this part of the world.


Bigass Indonesia Trip Report
 
Fantastic reports... I haven't finished everything yet, but I love it.
Explanation of what muck dives are is really great, best description I ever heard !
So thanks a lot for the work of putting these reports together and online.
 
Amazing report - even more amazing if you took the time to do a report like this without it being for financial reasons - if that's the case you are wasting your talents but many thanks anyway!!!!
 
Wow! Great report and awesome photos. Thanks for sharing. Very lucky to have seen the evasive new Ambon frogfish. Accordingly to the guides, they went into hiding since last Oct... hopefully they'll be found soon. The luxury rooms in Maluku look nice. I just got back from Ambon as well but was diving with Blue Rose Divers becos' they offered me a cheaper package, no need to pay for single supplement. Diving is GREAT in Indonesia, isn't it? Just can't get enough!!

Happy bubbles,
Jovin
 
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Does someone hand out Emmy's or Oscar's or some such for trip reports? If so, here's your winner!

Thanks for taking the time to put this together and share.
 
Very nice. Thanks to you and all who contributed.
 
I forgot to mention that most of our e-mails are mentioned in the report if there are any questions to be directed toward individuals.
 
Good trip report except for the travel tips.

1. Visa pages. Be real. Endorsement pages in a passport are not to be used for visas. That is a world-wide international agreement. The same is true for "pasting" over visas. That action can actually cause a passport to be invalidated. Learn the rules or pay the penalty.

2. Baggage charges. No one is ripping off tourists. Indonesians pay the same. The charges are in fact very reasonable compared to what you would pay on a US airline or in Europe.

3. Departure taxes. They exist worldwide. Many travelers do not notice since they are included in the ticket - and yes, they are an add on to the basic fare. Once again, Indonesia taxes are not especially high or unusual.
 
Good trip report except for the travel tips.

1. Visa pages. Be real. Endorsement pages in a passport are not to be used for visas. That is a world-wide international agreement. The same is true for "pasting" over visas. That action can actually cause a passport to be invalidated. Learn the rules or pay the penalty.

2. Baggage charges. No one is ripping off tourists. Indonesians pay the same. The charges are in fact very reasonable compared to what you would pay on a US airline or in Europe.

3. Departure taxes. They exist worldwide. Many travelers do not notice since they are included in the ticket - and yes, they are an add on to the basic fare. Once again, Indonesia taxes are not especially high or unusual.


As author of the Travel Tips part of the report, I feel the need to defend what I wrote.

1. Visa Pages - I put this in as a warning to other travelers who might be visiting Indonesia. It certainly did not occur to me that this could be an issue (in fact, in spite of a lot of international travel, I had never noticed that there were special pages in my passport marked for Visas). And, despite what you cite as a "worldwide international agreement" it would appear that some Indonesian Immigration authorities can and do bend the rules, and charge usurious amounts of money to do so, as was the case with one of our group, when arriving in Jakarta. YMMV.

2. I would disagree about your claim that no one is ripping off tourists. It seems that Indonesian airlines are quite "flexible" with regards to overages - and overages were negotiated for our group to and from Ambon by a local representative of the boat we were using. It was the same on the Ecuadorian operated flights to the Galapagos. We also recently negotiated an overage charge on Merpati Airlines, on our way back from Bima on Sumbawa. We were not charged any overages whatsoever when departing for Bima, on the same airline, with exactly the same lugggage amount and weight, when we were accompanied by an Indonesian agent of the live aboard company at check in. YMMV.

3. Visa and departure taxes may well exist worldwide, but they do seem quite steep in Indonesia, given that many people there are lucky to make $15 a week in income. This was offered as a personal opinion, and as such, I'm not sure it is disputable.

Thanks for your feedback.

Judy G
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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