Indonesia (Bunaken,Lembah & Raja Ampat) Trip Report 12th Feb - 8th March 2009

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UKdreamer

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It's a bit late but I thought I share my experiences with you...

After many hours travelling from the UK, via Dubai and Jakarta, we finally arrived in Manado and were pleased to be greated by two smiling faces, cold water and cold towels! The journey to Tasik Ria Resort gave us an insight into the area as we drove through Manado and surround villages.

Arriving at the beautifully landscaped resort put at ease that we'd made a good choice and we waisted no time making us of our free jet lag massage at the beautiful spa.

As we were slightly off season the dive boat went out the next day for just us! Taking the hour long ride out to Bunaken for some fantasic wall dives followed by a great hot buffet lunch and then the third dive at a local site.

The wall dives didn't quite match up to past experiences at Sipadan but there some lovely dives. What surprised me the most was the standard of the local dives - muck dives where we were lucky enough to find harlequin shrimp, ghost pipefish, madarin fish and the funny little orang-u-tan crabs.

As we were'nt far away we took a day trip to the other side of the island to Lembeh Straits - what a fantastic experience and a MUST do!

When you first enter the water you are surrounded by black sand, broken bottles, old shoes and other rubbish! Give yourself a few minutes and your eyes start to adjust - porcupine fish hide in the shoes. Small clumps of soft corals support huge arrays of reef fish, shrimps and crabs. Funny looking sea moths and flying gurnads walk the bottom. Sea fans full of pgymy sea horses - we spotted over 10 on one fan, including tiny baby ones!

The local food of mixed rice eated out of a banana leaf whilst sitting on top of the local wooden boat hired for our day trip just made it!

After 7 days at Manado and Lembeh we were looking forward to the main pull for the trip - Raja Ampat!

Thankfully the transfer to Sorong went smoothly with an overnight stay in a local (basic) hotel before we set off. That overnight stay allowed the necessary delay time for half of the group that didn't quite have the smooth transfer we experienced! But the resort staff that met us (Thoban & Andy) were not phased and expected those hicups.

The 5 hr boat ride over to Missol Eco Resort was an experience in itself - through the beautful limestone island groups, escorted by dolphins and stopping for the toilet at the last village (1.5hrs into the journey) and being greeting by hoards of village children.

The resort itself is even more beautiful than the photos! Really worth the extended travel! The food was fantastic! I'll never understand how I didn't put on weight after eating 5 times a day?

Little breakfast...early morning dive...big hot breakfast...mid morning dive...lunch...afternoon dive...afternoon snack...night dive...evening meal!

The diving was breath taking - I have never seen such beautiful walls full of soft corals -sea fans covering every inch of the wall as far as the eye and see and such a density of fish!!! Every dive was fish soup the real aquarium sensation!

There were plently of little stuff too - nudi's, tiny file fish, loads of pgymy seahorses - even on the house reef! Some guests have even seen the tiny blue ringed octopus but we weren't so lucky.

Two of the local treats were the walking epaulette shark (seen regularly on night dives) and the large and strange looking tassled wobbygong shark (see at two of the dive sites)! Lots of black and white tips, some grey reef sharks and turtles - unfortunately we didn't get to see any mantas. To guarantee to see them you probably need a liveaboard or less luxurious Kri resort.

All in all an amazing holiday - finished off my an overnight stay in Jakarta and city tour!

Thanks goes to Zain from Discover Indonesia (on this forum) who arranged all elements of the Indonesia elements of the itineray for us!
 
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UK Dreamer--Better late than never (and better still that you had a great trip!). Welcome to SB (not that I'm an official greeter or anything). We're looking fwd to our first trip to that general area in December (well, Bali and a Raja liveaboard) and I end up reading whatever posts I see from that part of the world. Have not yet found a way to fast fwd to December so even a post from a last Feb./March trip seems current. You must have been thinking about it--again! :eyebrow: Thanks for posting this. // ww
 
Thanks

Yes it's certainly a trip that will be firmly stored in my memory banks! You'll have a great time out there!

Just booked my next big trip...Palau and Yap next Feb / March so I'm willing away the months now too!
 
Thanks thats sounds great and is making me more excited since we head off to Tasik Ria and then KBR on the Lembeh Strait in 10 days
 
Thanks for the report....I have only been to the Papua area and stayed at the Sorido resort and they have the Mantas there....not been in the Misool area yet...On my list for 2010!....why are you going to Yap?....spend the time in Palau much better diving...but the Island of Yap is cool.
 
Why Yap? From the UK it's an expensive and long trip to Micronesia so wanted to make the most of our time there so decided to have a multi-centre trip.


We are spending 2 thirds of our time there in Palau but wanted to fly over to Yap for a few nights to see the island, cultural tours etc and of course the mantas.
 
UKdreamer....you are right on to see the island of Yap, really kewl.....good luck on seeing the Mantas always seen more in Palau.....but if you are one of those lucky ones that see the 20+ mantas in a formation it will be worth your time underwater.
 
Just thought I'd share some pics from my trip...

The spa at Tasik Ria Resort, Missol Eco Resort, one of the many pygmy seahorse, the lovely clown fish and the amazing soft corals of Raja Ampat
 

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Thanks for sharing the beautiful pics. Did you have any problems with the "rainy season" in Feb-March in Sulawesi? I'm just now thinking about a first time trip to Indonesia & Feb-March would fit into my schedule, even though May to September are supposedly "best" months.
 
We had mostly beautiful sun with only one thunder storm during the day which was so brief it came and went during our lunch time surface interval.

The main benefit was that we had the entire dive boat and dive guide to ourselves and only a handful of people back at the resort pool - so no fighting over sun loungers or crowded dive boat.

From what I understand the weather is rarely severe enough to stop dives - so it will just be whether you are prepared to take a risk of the rain spoiling your time on land?
 
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