Hello all,
My wife and I are off to Indonesia again for two months in July-August. It's our third visit.
So far we've been diving in the Gili Islands, Bunaken, the Togians, Bira, Pulau Weh and last February central Raja Ampat.
This is what we've go planned so far:
This time we'll be entering Indonesia in Bali (from KL), and will spend a few days (roughly one week) there to dive Tulamben / Amed, Lembongan, Menjangan and maybe, Nusa Penida (we have some current experience from Bira and Raja Ampat, but the number of accidents reported there is slightly worrying).
From there, we'll fly to Labuan Bajo and stay for 10/15 days or so doing land based diving of sites in the Komodo National Park, maybe throwing in a couple of nights on expensive Kanawa Island or Seraya island for snorkelling as well.
We've ruled out LOBs because of the price but also mostly because we enjoy being on land in the evening.
We have more time than money, so can rest for a day if one of us is feeling tired, and also like the freedom to walk around, relax, choose our food instead of staying on a boat.
We're planning on doing at least 10 dives in the area (Batu Bolong, Crystal + Castle Rock are high on our wish list), and spacing them out to make up for the long boat rides to the sites.
Bajo Diver Club seems to have one of the largest boats around, good prices and were recommended to us so we'll probably go with them, or Divine Divers.
I'm sure it will be fine, we've seen a lot of mantas on Kri last February so don't really need a manta fix just now, just lots of fish!
I'm more worried about the prices and availability of accommodation in Labuan Bajo, to be honest.
We both really enjoyed Pulau Weh, (stayed at Pak Tua's) so will probably spend a week or so there on the tail end of our trip before catching a flight back from Banda Aceh to KL and grey ol' Europe.
So this has the first three weeks and the last week of our 2 month trip sorted out.
But we still have roughly than a month to fill, and were wondering what you wise people would recommend diving wise.
Would you recommend going to some other sites on Flores? Alor? Lombok? Kalimantan?
Mollukus / Banda Neira look great but it's not the right season apparently.
We've already spent a lot of time in Sulawessi and would like to see something else.
We'll be staying in Indonesia this time, no Mabul/Sipadan/PomPom on this trip, saving this for another time.
Central Raja Ampat in August?
We're seriously considering going back to a homestay on Kri island, even though it's the windy / rough seas season, because we absolutely loved it there.
We already did 20 dives in the dampiers strait, so we'd do less this time, and also snorkel some.
But it's a lot of airfare to get to Sorong, and we don't really know what to expect in August.
So far we're thinking along the lines of saving our money for our next trip to R4 this European winter.
But it's still very tempting, 3 weeks in a quiet off-season homestay... Is diving really that rough in August? I've heard the viz was great, but no mantas which is fine with us.
About us:
we're freshish divers with 60+ dives. We enjoy both big and small stuff, and love it when there's lots of life around us on dives. Which is why we loved the Dampier Straits more than anything we've dived so far...
We've just started getting into UW photography. We like critters but are not ready for low viz muck diving sites yet. We actually like current.
We're diving on a budget, and used to cold water mandi / repetitive fish and rice homestay type of basic accommodation.
This is difficult in high season, but we try to avoid crowds and closed-in resorts. We have our own equipment, suits including safety gear (SMB's etc), everything except BCD's and regs, and enjoy land based, good diving with local dive guides.
Thanks in advance for your help!
ben
My wife and I are off to Indonesia again for two months in July-August. It's our third visit.
So far we've been diving in the Gili Islands, Bunaken, the Togians, Bira, Pulau Weh and last February central Raja Ampat.
This is what we've go planned so far:
This time we'll be entering Indonesia in Bali (from KL), and will spend a few days (roughly one week) there to dive Tulamben / Amed, Lembongan, Menjangan and maybe, Nusa Penida (we have some current experience from Bira and Raja Ampat, but the number of accidents reported there is slightly worrying).
From there, we'll fly to Labuan Bajo and stay for 10/15 days or so doing land based diving of sites in the Komodo National Park, maybe throwing in a couple of nights on expensive Kanawa Island or Seraya island for snorkelling as well.
We've ruled out LOBs because of the price but also mostly because we enjoy being on land in the evening.
We have more time than money, so can rest for a day if one of us is feeling tired, and also like the freedom to walk around, relax, choose our food instead of staying on a boat.
We're planning on doing at least 10 dives in the area (Batu Bolong, Crystal + Castle Rock are high on our wish list), and spacing them out to make up for the long boat rides to the sites.
Bajo Diver Club seems to have one of the largest boats around, good prices and were recommended to us so we'll probably go with them, or Divine Divers.
I'm sure it will be fine, we've seen a lot of mantas on Kri last February so don't really need a manta fix just now, just lots of fish!
I'm more worried about the prices and availability of accommodation in Labuan Bajo, to be honest.
We both really enjoyed Pulau Weh, (stayed at Pak Tua's) so will probably spend a week or so there on the tail end of our trip before catching a flight back from Banda Aceh to KL and grey ol' Europe.
So this has the first three weeks and the last week of our 2 month trip sorted out.
But we still have roughly than a month to fill, and were wondering what you wise people would recommend diving wise.
Would you recommend going to some other sites on Flores? Alor? Lombok? Kalimantan?
Mollukus / Banda Neira look great but it's not the right season apparently.
We've already spent a lot of time in Sulawessi and would like to see something else.
We'll be staying in Indonesia this time, no Mabul/Sipadan/PomPom on this trip, saving this for another time.
Central Raja Ampat in August?
We're seriously considering going back to a homestay on Kri island, even though it's the windy / rough seas season, because we absolutely loved it there.
We already did 20 dives in the dampiers strait, so we'd do less this time, and also snorkel some.
But it's a lot of airfare to get to Sorong, and we don't really know what to expect in August.
So far we're thinking along the lines of saving our money for our next trip to R4 this European winter.
But it's still very tempting, 3 weeks in a quiet off-season homestay... Is diving really that rough in August? I've heard the viz was great, but no mantas which is fine with us.
About us:
we're freshish divers with 60+ dives. We enjoy both big and small stuff, and love it when there's lots of life around us on dives. Which is why we loved the Dampier Straits more than anything we've dived so far...
We've just started getting into UW photography. We like critters but are not ready for low viz muck diving sites yet. We actually like current.
We're diving on a budget, and used to cold water mandi / repetitive fish and rice homestay type of basic accommodation.
This is difficult in high season, but we try to avoid crowds and closed-in resorts. We have our own equipment, suits including safety gear (SMB's etc), everything except BCD's and regs, and enjoy land based, good diving with local dive guides.
Thanks in advance for your help!
ben
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