Trip report two fish lembeh trip no2 may 4th-18th

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pughio83

Contributor
Messages
481
Reaction score
113
Location
Nottingham
# of dives
200 - 499
Ok so this was my second trip to twofish lembeh and most of the accomm details are in my first trip report. Emirates flight uk-Dubai-Singapore no issues, with overnight stay in singapore, at best western jayleen 1918 which for £100 incl breakfast offers decent digs next to Clarke quay so good location and only 30mins from airport in traffic. Nb Laotian food at indochine forbidden city restaurant at Clarke quay was excellent! And we'll priced! SilkAir flight to manado following day at 9am arriving manado 12.15pm, collected by twofish guys with 2hr car trip to bitung to get to the resort, boat taking 12mins max! Hats off to SilkAir who had no issues with the 90kg luggage taken between 2people! (Complimentary 15kg pp for dive gear). Didn't have any issues with emirates also!

Resort was excellent as previous. Lovely staff and well run by Matt and dani. Food good but a bit samey after the 2weeks and I did crave some western food, but quality wise was v good. Superior cottage clean, fan only, en suite bathroom. No probs at all n made to feel at home. new addition of tea and coffe station on balcony welcomed, hammock great as before! Small rodent creature never seen frequently entered and chewed a few bits of toilettries, but the cottage was well set in the forested area so explains the noises from tarsiers and birds as well, plus monster spider in bathroom! View of the bay and well maintained.

Wifi now up and running in bar area despite being a bit slow, which was a welcomed addition. Bigger bar stock also and now some snacks also available. Plenty DVDs around, more hammocks and beds to lay on. Grounds well maintained, no litter at all. Beautiful like last time.

Dive boats basic but tea and biscuits and fruit between dives. Happily visit sites on request or based on the critter list you give, even if far away sites, which usually was a max of 30mins. Our dive guide was Gerry for the 2weeks - guy was v good and found loads of cool stuff and a lot of my critter list - massive effort was made and would highly recommend. Not a bad word to say. Had own gear but their stock seemed newish and well maintained.

Weather in may supposed to be sun n v hot. Had 2 full rain days, 5cloudy with intermittent sun days and 7roasting sunny days. Most rain at night. Water temps 28-30C whole week.daily temps 30C plus when sunny.

Diving wise immense..... Standouts include

Cephalopoda - mimics, wonder pus, long arm, v octo, starry night, blue ring, bobtail squid, flambouyants, broad club and Pygmy cuttlefish, sepia, Pygmy squid. Mototi seen but not by me, no hairy octo seen in those 2weeks. Also algae octo and Pygmy wolf octo seen by other group.

Seahorses etc - common, bargibanti yellow and pink, Denise 2 variations, severns, Pontohi and Satomi's seen, plus short snout pipe horse, lembeh sea dragons and a yet to ID pipehorse.

Pipefish- robusts green and brown forms, ornate ghost pipes incl harlequin form, blue stripe cleaner pipe, Schultz, network, orange lined, delicate ghost pipe, unidentified red with white snout pipefish, juvenile winged pipe many banded and banded pipes. No halmeda or velvet or red setter or rough snouts but season to pick up in July aug time

Crustacea- tiger shrimp, little green shrimp, Saron, bumblebee, colemans, whip coral shrimp, Xenia shrimp, starfish commensals, urchin bumblebee shrimp, harlequins, imperial, hairy algae shrimp in green and brown, porcelain crabs, Xenia swimming crab, decorator crabs incl sponge carrying and arrowheads, skeleton, hinge jaw shrimps, tiger/pink eared/smooth/carinates/peacock/lizas mantis shrimps, candy crabs, plus many more

Odds and sods -bobbit worm, star gazer, cockatoo flounder, yellow short fin lion fish, crocodile snake eel, napoleon snake eel, banded snake eel, file snake, banded Krait, ribbon eels all forms excl white, various morays, Jenkins whip tailed ray, giant trevailly, inimicus, stonefish, velvet fish, Ambon scorpionfish green and red, leaf scorpionfish white and red forms.

Frogfish- giant, painted, sargassum, hispid, warty, hairy

Nudis-plenty. No solar powered seen though.

List goes on.

Also 2dives at Palau dua and tanjung dolong on east side wall dives- viz 60m plus amazing, decent walls. Some jacks but nothing much big. Didn't make bangka as other group last minute letdown.

Overall great trip, any qs then welcome pm me, photos to follow once sorted computer. Highly recommend diving in may weather and critter wise.
 
Satomi's seen
...
hairy algae shrimp in green and brown,
Excellent! I have yet to add those two on my spotlist.
 
Wow, had never heard of Satomi's in Lembeh. Two Fish is awesome..since I discovered them I've never looked to stay anywhere else.
 
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Reactions: hui
Ocdiver - twofish so well run and offer good prices, maybe next yr I look at the 50%off buddy promo between jan-march, or try go in August peak.

Re the satomi, twofish have seen them twice. They are minute. I took a photo which basically has a satomi ( agreed upon by twofish staff and managers as being satomi given size shape and hydroid host thing it sits on), sitting next to a larger hairy shrimp with eggs. The one they found before was the same looking on the same type of plant., maybe it's juvenile? Or other unknown species? Will post soon and u guys can check.

Almitch - my list was big lol!! Plus the guide I had went on a proper mission. Forgot to include Adams zebra crab and Donald Duck shrimps and juvenile pinnate baitfish to the list of finds! But to be honest the majority of all that is always around. My guide went to specific sites for specific things, asked other guides who he is friends with from other resorts as well to get locations. Needless to say he got a good tip! Hopefully twofish open up in Ambon!!

---------- Post added May 21st, 2013 at 06:38 AM ----------

Ps wisnu yes 60m viz at pulau dua on east side, maybe 50m, hard to accurately say. Flat sea, sun out, felt like could see for miles. Even the guides had said never seen viz there like that before. Tanjung dolong viz like 40m. Either way it was weird having just done a 8m viz dive on a muck site where I found a hyperdermic needle, toy plane and a dog skull the day before!!
 
Forgot to include Adams zebra crab and Donald Duck shrimps and juvenile pinnate baitfish to the list of finds! But to be honest the majority of all that is always around.
Now you are just showing off!!
 
Hahaha true true! Now I need a new list and a second strobe and I am back in business for next yrs mucky adventure!
 
Damn pughio this is an awesome list! I am going to reread it when I update my own critter list :wink: as you have several on here I missed on my return to Lembeh last summer, including the pygmie squid, little green shrimp, green and brown hairy shrimps, Pygmy wolf octo (had to look this one up) and Satomi pygmie seahorse (also had to look them up). We were skunked on hairy octos also (late Jul timeframe), but saw mototis several times (mostly the same animal) and we saw a little rhinopias (weedy) which I take it has vanished again.

Thanks for the awesome report. Nice to get weather details as well. I still hope to make it to the E side coral sites one day - we did ones at the mouth of the strait, one of which was very beautiful.

I think you have good karma to pull off 90 kg of luggage.

Look forward to your photos, thanks again for sharing the detailed report!
c2

Dive boats basic but tea and biscuits and fruit between dives. Happily visit sites on request or based on the critter list you give, even if far away sites, which usually was a max of 30mins. Our dive guide was Gerry for the 2weeks - guy was v good and found loads of cool stuff and a lot of my critter list - massive effort was made and would highly recommend. Not a bad word to say. Had own gear but their stock seemed newish and well maintained.

Diving wise immense..... Standouts include

Cephalopoda - mimics, wonder pus, long arm, v octo, starry night, blue ring, bobtail squid, flambouyants, broad club and Pygmy cuttlefish, sepia, Pygmy squid. Mototi seen but not by me, no hairy octo seen in those 2weeks. Also algae octo and Pygmy wolf octo seen by other group.

Seahorses etc - common, bargibanti yellow and pink, Denise 2 variations, severns, Pontohi and Satomi's seen, plus short snout pipe horse, lembeh sea dragons and a yet to ID pipehorse.

Pipefish- robusts green and brown forms, ornate ghost pipes incl harlequin form, blue stripe cleaner pipe, Schultz, network, orange lined, delicate ghost pipe, unidentified red with white snout pipefish, juvenile winged pipe many banded and banded pipes. No halmeda or velvet or red setter or rough snouts but season to pick up in July aug time

Crustacea- tiger shrimp, little green shrimp, Saron, bumblebee, colemans, whip coral shrimp, Xenia shrimp, starfish commensals, urchin bumblebee shrimp, harlequins, imperial, hairy algae shrimp in green and brown, porcelain crabs, Xenia swimming crab, decorator crabs incl sponge carrying and arrowheads, skeleton, hinge jaw shrimps, tiger/pink eared/smooth/carinates/peacock/lizas mantis shrimps, candy crabs, plus many more

Odds and sods -bobbit worm, star gazer, cockatoo flounder, yellow short fin lion fish, crocodile snake eel, napoleon snake eel, banded snake eel, file snake, banded Krait, ribbon eels all forms excl white, various morays, Jenkins whip tailed ray, giant trevailly, inimicus, stonefish, velvet fish, Ambon scorpionfish green and red, leaf scorpionfish white and red forms.

Frogfish- giant, painted, sargassum, hispid, warty, hairy

Nudis-plenty. No solar powered seen though.

List goes on.

Also 2dives at Palau dua and tanjung dolong on east side wall dives- viz 60m plus amazing, decent walls. Some jacks but nothing much big. Didn't make bangka as other group last minute letdown.

Overall great trip, any qs then welcome pm me, photos to follow once sorted computer. Highly recommend diving in may weather and critter wise.
 

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