Banda and Ambon pics

Hej alla,

I'm recently back from a dive holiday to the Banda Islands and Ambon. I dived with Blue Motion at both locations, and had a great time! Anyway some pics below.

First the Banda islands..


Laguna hotel view by bora_horza, on Flickr


Juvenile clown triggerfish by bora_horza, on Flickr


Tunicates by bora_horza, on Flickr


Dive boat at the Hatta dropoff by bora_horza, on Flickr


Hatta hole by bora_horza, on Flickr


Swim through by bora_horza, on Flickr


Nudibranch by bora_horza, on Flickr


Clouds of red tooth triggerfish by bora_horza, on Flickr


Reef by bora_horza, on Flickr


Benteng Nassau by bora_horza, on Flickr



PELNI ferry by bora_horza, on Flickr

---------- Post added November 28th, 2012 at 06:29 PM ----------

And some Ambon pics


Ambon boats by bora_horza, on Flickr


Twin spot lionfish by bora_horza, on Flickr


Frisky crabs by bora_horza, on Flickr


Hermit crab by bora_horza, on Flickr


Harlequin shrimp and larder by bora_horza, on Flickr


Snake eel by bora_horza, on Flickr


Rhinopias by bora_horza, on Flickr


Squid by bora_horza, on Flickr


Nudibranch by bora_horza, on Flickr


Lion fish by bora_horza, on Flickr


Moray by bora_horza, on Flickr


Sunset by bora_horza, on Flickr

Happy diving all!

Banda one of my very favourite area's of Indo.nice photos.Did you see many Napoleon wrasse,depending on if you did quite a few dives.There has been a project in banda to protect them and there numbers have been on the increase again in the area

Yes, on one of my last dives there we came across a scene with a lot of fish action - fusiliers and yellow snappers everywhere, a group of about 8 bumphead parrotfish, and a big napoleon with his smaller mate. Really beautiful. Will have to return there at some point!

Thanks for all the great pics.
Ambon is definitely on my list, and I'm glad to hear there is another budget dive option. Maluku Divers looks amazing but its quite pricey.
What were the dive boats like and the accomodation in both Ambon and Banda?

Geez, I've never saw Red Triggerfish in such large numbers!
Very nice pictures, thank you for sharing.

Nice pics, the fish life in Banda and Hatta is quite good, the amount of small triggers like your pic is really quite a lot in that area very fishy, great for pics

Did you dive in front of the hotel in Banda for the mandarins?

What a classic picture of the ferry!!!!!!!!!! Loved your nudi and crab pics! Great photos ! Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for the comments all!

AlMich, in Bandaneira there's a variety of accomadation to choose from. I stayed at Laguna right on the waterfront, great view from my balcony as pictured above, clean room with aircon and cool water shower / mandi (actually quite warm in the afternoons after the sun had heated the water) for 200,000 Rupia a night. Simple light breakfast of toast with nutmeg jam (very tasty!) and a fried egg, etc, if you ask. There's also the Delfika hotels, and for great food check out the Mutiara (see their website Some pictures from the Mutiara guest house Banda Niera « bandamutiara ). And there's a few Chinese shops to buy beers, etc.

The Blue Motion diveshop in the Bandas is well organised, and they have a new very fast diveboat, pictured above - only 40 min or so to get out to Hatta atoll, and usually 5 to 15 min to get to the closer divesites.

They also have a second slower boat, but this was being used (free of charge) in a marine / coral survey that was happening while I was there - a bunch of indonesian organisation officials, marine biologists and divers were in the Bandas for a couple of weeks performing Napoleon wrasse counts, logging coral and fish species along defined reef tracts, and also a social survey of the Banda population - talking to fishermen about fish catch trends, etc. The shop was very busy in helping organise boats, dive tanks and kit, and all that.

The Blue Motion dive shop in Laha (5 min ojek ride from the airport at Ambon) is very new, and they were still finishing off some work while I was there (bamboo chill-out platform just built, and material for a fence just delivered to shield from the villagers the shocking sight any scantily clad female divers - part of an agreement with the local village council ) But compressor and actual dive equipment all fully functional. Half the dives I did were local shore dives, we'd just walk into the sea - I did a number of night dives at the 'Twilight Zone' harbour divesite (the Ambon Boats picture above) - really interesting, and only 50 meters away The new diveboat for the Ambon shop was away being painted while I was there, so we visited other dive sites around the bay in a rented boat.

For accomadation in Laha I stayed at Patra guesthouse - 3 min walk from the diveshop - clean with aircon for 250,000 Rupia a night. Simple and comfortable. A pic below (the building with the 'over mangrove' patio thing):


Patra guesthouse, Laha by bora_horza, on Flickr

There's limited nightlife and dining options in Laha village, but people are very friendly. All the kids knew my name after a few days. Colourfully painted homes, a warung strip where you can get a nice satay or nasi goreng, and a good padang restauraunt on the airport road a 5 min ojek away which does a very good fried chicken! Usually someone would go and collect a takeaway and we'd eat at the diveshop, and watch the lights of Ambon across the bay. I understand there are plans to make a small bar area at the dive shop, as somewhere to relax and chat in the evenings, but this is still to be built.

Mike - I agree, some very fishy dives around the Bandas - so many of the little blue triggerfish!! (My top dive there was a visit to Batu Kapal ('Ship Rock'), a pinnacle dive near a small rock island, great viz, fish galore, thousands of pyramid butterfly fish, just wow! I may try to put together a short video to try and show some of what its like ) And I did go for a sunset dive for the mandarins, but it was just after a full moon, and for some reason they were all staying hidden at home, such is diving. I saw a few mandarins at Ambon though.

Did you take the Pelni to Banda? Or was the plane running at the time?

I took the NBA flight each way, in a small 16 seat plane, and the diveshop helped by putting my name on the passanger list both at Ambon and in Bandaniera (as the flights can only be booked and paid for at the port of origin). Currently flying Wed, Thurs, Friday. But this might change to Monday, Wed, Friday from what I heard? Who knows! As the flights get booked up in advance, and don't always fly when scheduled I built some flexability into my trip by getting out to the Bandas straight away. So no real stress if I got stuck out there for another 3 or 4 days