mantajohn
Contributor
I posted my first ever trip report on SB earlier this year. It seemed to get some positive feedback so I thought Id post again after my trip to the Far East. I hope its of interest to some of you. Apologies if I ramble on.
My interest in this region had been awoken by buddies on a previous lob. Quite frankly, I found it difficult to choose between the various options; Sulawesi, Raja Ampat, Komodo etc they all looked equally wonderful. In the end I decided to go with one of the major top end franchises. Travelling on my own to a new region, this seemed to give me a degree of certainty re quality etc. I could only travel in Nov & that happens to be the time when Komodo Dancer goes to Alor, so by nothing stronger than that logic I booked up.
At least I knew where I was going 4 people on the trip thought they were actually going to Komodo!
Overall:
A great trip. A wonderful, wilderness diving experience. Excellent DMs, very good company & a lovely, interesting boat.
Would I recommend it? Probably....
Booking/Flights/Arrival:
I started investigating this trip with one of PHs UK agents, but they seemed to have little knowledge of the destination. So I booked directly with PH lob, internal flights (Bali-Maumere rtn), Bali stopover hotel & extra transfers. V friendly & helpful. No problems at all.
Booked my international flights (UK/KL/Bali) directly on Malaysians website. Excellent prices. Also, it lets you book different ticket types on different segments.
Due to the unreliability of the internal flights, PH strongly recommend that you take a night in Bali before & after the lob. In fact they were provided free on this departure. I didnt fancy a 30 hour wait in Bali on return, so I took a gamble & took both my free nights pre lob. As a precaution, I booked fully flexible return international flights only cost an extra £40.
Outward flight & connection in KL went well. Malaysian has 2 extra legroom in economy than BA. Disappointingly, the food however was virtually inedible. Fellow travellers who took Frankfurt to Bali on MAS had the same experience.
Upon arriving in Bali, its very quick & easy to pay the visa/tax if you have US$25 to hand. You will need local currency to pay departure taxes, excess baggage charges, taxis/tips etc. Immediately before you exit the customs hall, there is a row of bureau de change. They offered the best rate that I saw all trip. So if you are awake enough, change some money on arrival.
PH arranged a transfer to my hotel but its just a local taxi driver so they have no knowledge of your trip tomorrows pick up arrangements etc.
My hotel was the Mercure, Sanur. My expectations were not high as Mercure in Europe is pretty ordinary, but it was fine for a 2 night stay. Quiet, pleasant rooms, nice buffet, beach bbq on arrival evening, helpful staff. Most of the other divers had been put in the Puri Santrian. From their comments, this sounded a less good option.
Boat/Cabin/Food/Crew
Komodo Dancer is a lovely vessel. Whilst less than 10 years old it is constructed from wood in the traditional phinisi style. Most of the trip is diesel powered, but on the last day, the crew unfurled the sails for a few hours beautiful.
We barely used the lounge. The shaded foredeck with a 16 seat dining table is the focal point for eating, dive briefings etc. Upstairs in front of the wheel house, there is an area with 8-10 loungers shaded & full sun options.
Most cabins are the standard cosy lob dimensions. I chose to upgrade to the owners cabin (there are 2) behind the wheel house. My luck was in and no-one booked to share it. Roomy, large bathroom & 3 real windows. Proper toilets & loads of hot water for the shower.
There is a huge & helpful crew
Food good as opposed to great. Breakfast made to order and served straight after the first dive was the best. Lunch was theoretically Indonesian & dinner European. There was nothing wrong with the food, but I wouldnt describe it as a feature
Our trip had 14 guests (max 16) & never felt crowded.
Dive Set Up
KD is a proper diving liveaboard. The whole day is built around diving i.e. first dive before breakfast & dinner starts when the night dive happens to finish. 4 dives per day gave good surface intervals & a nice rhythm to the day.
Diving is by means of 2 tenders each taking up to 8 divers + 1 or 2 DMs. The crew moves your kit moves between the tenders & KD for fills & for the longer transits. Average times to the dive sites were below 10 mins each way.
Excellent dive briefings always starting with the friendly good morning thrill seekers. Part of the excitement of this trip is that you get to dive rarely dived sites. Garry (Cruise Director) would often recce the dive sites in advance by tender & took great care over site selection & timing.
The style of presentation is quite different to the Caribbean. Motorhead logod wetsuit & occasional blasts of Van Halen over the PA contrasting with the epaulettes & pressed white uniforms of the Caribbean. I have to say that I enjoyed both styles & both groups of DMs/crew.
Nitrox reliably at 32%. As a PH repeater free as well. They had a strange dislike of divers analysing their own tanks. Seemed to think we should trust their infallible blender. About 50% of us chose to ignore their guidance.
Itinerary
Effectively, you cruise due east for 2/3 days; spend 3/4 days around Alor & then rtn. Easy passage, we had no swells. Quite a few night passages which took a little getting used to be able to sleep through.
A real feature of this trip is how remote it is. Cruising empty waters past all but deserted islands is fabulous. Virtually the only contact with the rest of the world were the smiling village children in their dugout canoes.
Divers, Diving & dive Sites
A good mix of divers (from US, UK, Germany, Switzerland, Austria & Belgium) with lots of experience all over the world. All with good diving skills no reef kickers on this trip!
This trip is for macro critter diving. Superb pristine reefs dive after dive after dive. Some great drifts. Walls, overhangs, drop offs, black sand, & one stunning site where for 60 mins every inch beneath us was wall to wall anemones. Some days you felt as if you might be the first person to dive the site.
Im no expert on species id, but ample types of ghost pipefish, frog fish, octopus, mandarin fish, scorpion fish, nudibranchs, leaf scorpion fish, rinopius, & dragonet to delight the serious photographers. A few sharks & eagle rays & schooling barracuda.
Some fun currents on c.25% of the dives.
Most of us had followed the PH suggestion of 5mm wetsuits, but generally, 3mm would have been fine. On the dive where the temp dropped from 29C to 19C in about 3 minutes, I was very grateful for all that neoprene!
In addition to Garry, 2 excellent DMs: Gede & Claire. This was my first experience of critter diving. They were superb at spotting & helping me learn how to spot.
In view of the currents, I had expected more balance between the critters & the bigger stuff. I loved the trip, but will take the regular Komodo itinerary when I return to the region.
10 days
This was my second lob of more than a week. If you have the time, it is highly recommended. On a 7 day trip, it seems that as soon as one is orientated & getting into the diving groove, its over. Both my longer trips have been a more relaxed experience. And when you re into the diving rhythm, you get loads more days to enjoy it.
Any negatives?
Well, yes. I didnt feel that the tender drivers were that good. And the frequency with which the Cruise Director bawled at them implied that he agreed with me.
We were fine & had no iffy moments. Its just a personal opinion, but they didnt give me much confidence that they would be on the ball if there were any problems. The itineraries that KD follows involve a lot of strong current opportunities if separation upon surfacing occurred, Ive encountered many tender drivers on other lobs that I would prefer to have on site. Also, they tended to speed boat between the surfacing divers.
Its a shame, were it not for this factor, I would be booking up now for the Komodo itinerary next year. As it is, Im wondering if I should consider booking with another operator
My interest in this region had been awoken by buddies on a previous lob. Quite frankly, I found it difficult to choose between the various options; Sulawesi, Raja Ampat, Komodo etc they all looked equally wonderful. In the end I decided to go with one of the major top end franchises. Travelling on my own to a new region, this seemed to give me a degree of certainty re quality etc. I could only travel in Nov & that happens to be the time when Komodo Dancer goes to Alor, so by nothing stronger than that logic I booked up.
At least I knew where I was going 4 people on the trip thought they were actually going to Komodo!
Overall:
A great trip. A wonderful, wilderness diving experience. Excellent DMs, very good company & a lovely, interesting boat.
Would I recommend it? Probably....
Booking/Flights/Arrival:
I started investigating this trip with one of PHs UK agents, but they seemed to have little knowledge of the destination. So I booked directly with PH lob, internal flights (Bali-Maumere rtn), Bali stopover hotel & extra transfers. V friendly & helpful. No problems at all.
Booked my international flights (UK/KL/Bali) directly on Malaysians website. Excellent prices. Also, it lets you book different ticket types on different segments.
Due to the unreliability of the internal flights, PH strongly recommend that you take a night in Bali before & after the lob. In fact they were provided free on this departure. I didnt fancy a 30 hour wait in Bali on return, so I took a gamble & took both my free nights pre lob. As a precaution, I booked fully flexible return international flights only cost an extra £40.
Outward flight & connection in KL went well. Malaysian has 2 extra legroom in economy than BA. Disappointingly, the food however was virtually inedible. Fellow travellers who took Frankfurt to Bali on MAS had the same experience.
Upon arriving in Bali, its very quick & easy to pay the visa/tax if you have US$25 to hand. You will need local currency to pay departure taxes, excess baggage charges, taxis/tips etc. Immediately before you exit the customs hall, there is a row of bureau de change. They offered the best rate that I saw all trip. So if you are awake enough, change some money on arrival.
PH arranged a transfer to my hotel but its just a local taxi driver so they have no knowledge of your trip tomorrows pick up arrangements etc.
My hotel was the Mercure, Sanur. My expectations were not high as Mercure in Europe is pretty ordinary, but it was fine for a 2 night stay. Quiet, pleasant rooms, nice buffet, beach bbq on arrival evening, helpful staff. Most of the other divers had been put in the Puri Santrian. From their comments, this sounded a less good option.
Boat/Cabin/Food/Crew
Komodo Dancer is a lovely vessel. Whilst less than 10 years old it is constructed from wood in the traditional phinisi style. Most of the trip is diesel powered, but on the last day, the crew unfurled the sails for a few hours beautiful.
We barely used the lounge. The shaded foredeck with a 16 seat dining table is the focal point for eating, dive briefings etc. Upstairs in front of the wheel house, there is an area with 8-10 loungers shaded & full sun options.
Most cabins are the standard cosy lob dimensions. I chose to upgrade to the owners cabin (there are 2) behind the wheel house. My luck was in and no-one booked to share it. Roomy, large bathroom & 3 real windows. Proper toilets & loads of hot water for the shower.
There is a huge & helpful crew
Food good as opposed to great. Breakfast made to order and served straight after the first dive was the best. Lunch was theoretically Indonesian & dinner European. There was nothing wrong with the food, but I wouldnt describe it as a feature
Our trip had 14 guests (max 16) & never felt crowded.
Dive Set Up
KD is a proper diving liveaboard. The whole day is built around diving i.e. first dive before breakfast & dinner starts when the night dive happens to finish. 4 dives per day gave good surface intervals & a nice rhythm to the day.
Diving is by means of 2 tenders each taking up to 8 divers + 1 or 2 DMs. The crew moves your kit moves between the tenders & KD for fills & for the longer transits. Average times to the dive sites were below 10 mins each way.
Excellent dive briefings always starting with the friendly good morning thrill seekers. Part of the excitement of this trip is that you get to dive rarely dived sites. Garry (Cruise Director) would often recce the dive sites in advance by tender & took great care over site selection & timing.
The style of presentation is quite different to the Caribbean. Motorhead logod wetsuit & occasional blasts of Van Halen over the PA contrasting with the epaulettes & pressed white uniforms of the Caribbean. I have to say that I enjoyed both styles & both groups of DMs/crew.
Nitrox reliably at 32%. As a PH repeater free as well. They had a strange dislike of divers analysing their own tanks. Seemed to think we should trust their infallible blender. About 50% of us chose to ignore their guidance.
Itinerary
Effectively, you cruise due east for 2/3 days; spend 3/4 days around Alor & then rtn. Easy passage, we had no swells. Quite a few night passages which took a little getting used to be able to sleep through.
A real feature of this trip is how remote it is. Cruising empty waters past all but deserted islands is fabulous. Virtually the only contact with the rest of the world were the smiling village children in their dugout canoes.
Divers, Diving & dive Sites
A good mix of divers (from US, UK, Germany, Switzerland, Austria & Belgium) with lots of experience all over the world. All with good diving skills no reef kickers on this trip!
This trip is for macro critter diving. Superb pristine reefs dive after dive after dive. Some great drifts. Walls, overhangs, drop offs, black sand, & one stunning site where for 60 mins every inch beneath us was wall to wall anemones. Some days you felt as if you might be the first person to dive the site.
Im no expert on species id, but ample types of ghost pipefish, frog fish, octopus, mandarin fish, scorpion fish, nudibranchs, leaf scorpion fish, rinopius, & dragonet to delight the serious photographers. A few sharks & eagle rays & schooling barracuda.
Some fun currents on c.25% of the dives.
Most of us had followed the PH suggestion of 5mm wetsuits, but generally, 3mm would have been fine. On the dive where the temp dropped from 29C to 19C in about 3 minutes, I was very grateful for all that neoprene!
In addition to Garry, 2 excellent DMs: Gede & Claire. This was my first experience of critter diving. They were superb at spotting & helping me learn how to spot.
In view of the currents, I had expected more balance between the critters & the bigger stuff. I loved the trip, but will take the regular Komodo itinerary when I return to the region.
10 days
This was my second lob of more than a week. If you have the time, it is highly recommended. On a 7 day trip, it seems that as soon as one is orientated & getting into the diving groove, its over. Both my longer trips have been a more relaxed experience. And when you re into the diving rhythm, you get loads more days to enjoy it.
Any negatives?
Well, yes. I didnt feel that the tender drivers were that good. And the frequency with which the Cruise Director bawled at them implied that he agreed with me.
We were fine & had no iffy moments. Its just a personal opinion, but they didnt give me much confidence that they would be on the ball if there were any problems. The itineraries that KD follows involve a lot of strong current opportunities if separation upon surfacing occurred, Ive encountered many tender drivers on other lobs that I would prefer to have on site. Also, they tended to speed boat between the surfacing divers.
Its a shame, were it not for this factor, I would be booking up now for the Komodo itinerary next year. As it is, Im wondering if I should consider booking with another operator
