Ambon if you are on a lower budget

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Immeriswas

Contributor
Messages
123
Reaction score
97
Location
Germany
# of dives
200 - 499
Spent 10 days in Laha on Ambon during a longer trip to the south malukus and RA. Due to the extended stay in Indonesia, we were booking into Dive Bluemotion in Ambon, which were quite inexpensive. The shoredive in front of the dive center ( right at the twilight zone ) and short boattrips were under 20 Euro ( with your own gear ). The additional fuelcost for trips to more distant places as on the other side of the bay were always splitted up between the divers on the boat, which in our case 6 to 8 divers, came up averagely to 10 Euro each.
The stay at Patra Guesthouse - around 300m away - with 275000 rupia per double room - AC and ensuite bathroom - was also very reasonable. The beds were quite good and the bathroom with shower, mandi and western toilet ok, the AC worked without any problems. WiFi was only in the kitchen and super slow - ok for mails but everthing else you had to be very patient.
Don´t let you put off from the first impression with the murky and dirty inlet behind the breakfast veranda . Bringing a mosquito net was a good idea. Well, the included breakfast was not more than toast with yam and bananas, but we bought some peanut butter and other stuff around the corner, to get some more variety. Water , tea and coffee was for free the whole day long.
The nice and helpfull landlady has kind of limited english knowledge, but even without my very little bahasa Indonesia, there was always a way to make your wishes clear.
Eating out for lunch and dinner in Laha was very basic and cheap ( you are looking at 2 to 4 euro for a meal !! ) in different warungs and one better restaurant 3km away.
But we were always satisfied with the indonesian style kitchen and never !! sick.
One big advantage against the stay in a posh resort - as where we stayed later in RA - was the interresting contact to the people. We were even invited to the local village party. So we had a great time there for less than 1000.
There has been written enough about the diving in Ambon .A lot of critters - only a very few divers !! In all the dives we only twice had contact to another group, either from a liveaboard or from Maluku Diver. I liked it better than Lembeh, where we stayed in 2009.
Michael from Bluemotion is a very friendly, relaxed and helpfull fellow ( we could eg. leave our equipment at his place during our 10 day trip to Saparua, Molana and Ceram - by the way - very beautiful unspoiled islands).
The nightdives guided by him were absolutely fantastic - good spotter!! The other guides were, let alone one indonesian woman ,all european, very helpfull and safetyorientated, but still new in the area and therefore not that good at spotting. To find even more special things you maybe get more expierienced local guides at the Maluku Divers some Km up the coast at the other end of Laha.
 
Thanks for the report, looking forward the rest of your report on Molana and Ceram. :wink:
 
Thanks for the report. I'm currently trying to see if I can add on a few days in Ambon before my crossing trip to Raja Ampat which leaves from there. I've done Lembeh 3x and really want to dive Ambon more than the 2 dives on the liveaboard. It's good to hear about the budget options as some options there are a bit to expensive for my taste, as the crossing trip isn't cheap and then after that trip I'm doing another 10 day North/South Raja trip. Now if I can just convince the wife that she can do without me for a whole month.
 
Immeriswas did you dive Molana seram and separua? I wanted to go to Molana but didn't get a chance. We did ask DIA before we went to Ambon re going which was deemed possible. But when we were there it was just the two of us and nobody seemed keen to go. In the end we chose to stay as we wanted to spend extra time to find rhinopias! Didn't see one til day 10!
 
Immeriswas did you dive Molana seram and separua?


We just snorkeled at Molana on a day trip from Saparua, because we left the heavy dive gear at Bluemotion so that we could travell light only with mask and fins. Was one of the best snorkel trip we ever did. Amazingly dense and colourfull soft corall - even on the reef top in 1-3 meter. A lot of fish and quite a current ! The two bungalows, where we intended to stay were booked at the time, so we stayed on Saparua at Putih Lessi Indah - 6 nice bungis at a white beach under palm trees - from where we explored the beautiful island with a small motorbike. We heard, that there will be a dive center on Molana in the nearer future. Definatly a place to go.
On ceram we spend a week in Sawai on the north shore at Lisa Bahari a nice located guesthouse, who offered snorkel trips to the outer islands as well as trips to Ora Beach ( the place which put Ceram on my travellist in the first place ) and to a sago production site along a river running into the close NP. In front of the guesthouse there is a reef of medium quality - good for night snorkeling though( saw my first mototi octupuss there), but the further away reefs looked great. If there ever will be a dive operation ,i think it will be worth to go there.
 

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Thanks for the info. Will definitely try and get to Molana on the next trip. I will push harder for it. And it's beach looks lovely but no diving there I don't think! Very lucky with the mototi snorkelling - over 300 dives never seen one lol! And u got the reptilian snake eel - which dive Site was this? Never found one lol
 
very lucky with the mototi snorkelling - over 300 dives never seen one lol! And u got the reptilian snake eel - which dive Site was this? Never found one lol[/QUOT




yes indeed lucky with the mototi ( unfortunatly the camera was at the docking station that evening ), but i must admit that i nearly do as much night snorkeling as diving, whenever there is a housereef available.
The snake eel was at the twighlight zone at the old harbour in Laha at a night dive.
 
Thanks for the good report.
Regarding coral diving in the south side of Ambon (Pintu Kota or Hukurila Cave ), how long does it take to go from the dive center ?
 
I've had nothing but good reports from clients we have sent to Maluku Divers. They say "better than Lembeh" and critters without the crowds is true.
 

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