Bunaken & Lembeh Strait

[divepiggy]

I am going to have 5-6 diving days in Manado area, and would like to cover Bunaken Marine Park and Lembeh Strait. I can't decide if I should start with one of these 2 places, and then move to another resort on the other island or should I just stay with 1 operator and take advantage of the day trips they offer?

Any comment?

 

[Rob Sinke]

In general I think that the service and the quality of the diving offered by the four operators in Lembeh(Divers Lodge Lembeh, KBR, Lembeh Resort and SDQ) is much better than the trips organized from Manado. The small boats The Manado operators hire in Bitung harbour would not be accepted by any paying guest in an other place. And of course the guides of Lembeh are the specialists.
Better do three days Bunaken and four days Lembeh.
Enjoy your trip!

 

[frogfish]

I am going to have 5-6 diving days in Manado area, and would like to cover Bunaken Marine Park and Lembeh Strait. I can't decide if I should start with one of these 2 places, and then move to another resort on the other island or should I just stay with 1 operator and take advantage of the day trips they offer?

Any comment?

If you want to do both I would really recommend changing resort - this way you only "commute" once between the 2 areas and you get the benefits of diving the sites with the experts.
Personally I loved the diving in Lembeh and thought it was much more unique than Bunaken.

 

[TheNitroxinator]

I'm heading out for a similar trip to what you're talking about on Thursday. After doing reseach, splitting time between 2 resorts seemed like the better way to go. I'm doing 5 days at KBR, followed by 5 days at Tasik Ria. I have a feeling this is going to be an awesome trip. You may be a bit more limited if your stuck with 7 days, though. I'll respond once I'm back.

 

[Albion]

I have Just got back from 4 days diving Lembeh straits with Kungkungan Bay Resort (KBR), this is a report i posted on another website, hope it whets yourt appetite

They are in process of upgrading and renovation following the management of hotel and diving being now in the hands of Eco divers of Tasik Ria Bunaken Fame. I dived at KBR last year and it was a bit of a shambles the website promised great diving and great accommodation and service it delivered on the former but the latter left a lot to be desired (US$100 for a 1.5l bottle of white wine (vinegar) does not constitute an extensive wine cellar, would still suggest taking your own).

Unfortunately for my trip the facilities are still being upgraded. Pool 95% complete, they were filling it as I left and shortly plan to have a spa with massage facilities, does look like it will be good, and the place does have a more positive feel to it. Menu still a bit limited, worked our way thru most of it last time so that didn’t help matters this time around. So 3 – 4 stars for that side of things. Rooms have no aircon but the fan keeps things cool and they were kept clean. Families are catered for with free babysitting service during dives or US50 for 4 days worth of 8am to 9pm. Nice touch is the tea or coffee delivered to your door first thing in the morning, nothing like a Sulawesi coffee for kick starting the system.

Diving
If you like the macro stuff and muck then this is a place to go. For those not in the know, muck diving involves rooting around on sandy bottoms in this case black sand in limited viz, it doesn’t sound appertising but once you acclimatize the results are worth it. Police pier is basically a refuse site with all the junk being thrown off the pier creating a home for many juvenile and exotic fish. Deepest dive was 28M but without much current and most of the time spent shallower than 10m we averaged 72 minutes a dive. Did three dives a day returning back to shore after each dive. Cameras are loaded on and off the dive boats for you and there is a camera station with charging facilities behind the dive briefing area. Dive guides were very good and despite our difficult requests they managed to find all we asked for (except the tiger shark but there you go). Despite it being pushed I avoided any night dives heading into the Bintang zone instead

Amongst the list of top sightings
Hairy Frogfish (a couple of not so hairy and one so hairy it was stuck in a seventies time warp), Painted Frog, Warty frog
Devil fish (actually felt one run under my hand brushing his spines)
Waspfish
Cockatoo wasps
Leaf scorpionfish
Flamboyant cuttlefish
Pygmy Cuttlefish
Lionfish too many varieties to list, but we did get Ambon and Dwarf amoungst that lot
Scorpionfish and Stonefish again many many types
Pygmy Seahorse pink bobbly and yellow bobbly
Regular seahorse
Wunderpus
Long armed octopus
(missed mimic octopus it ducked out of sight before guide could show us (but had seen it last time anyway).
Pegasus sea moth
Flying gurnards
Sea robins
Pipefish, various including robust ghost
Snake eels
Ribbon eels
Nudibranchs, loads and loads and loads
Etc etc etc basically if it was ugly and spent time underwater we saw it (resists obvious temptation to make joke referencing other members of fins online)

Top dives
Hairball, was non stop action (if you can describe it as such), we moved from critter to critter in a non stop frenzy. In the first two minutes we had Cockatoo wasps, flamboyant cuttlefish and hairy frogfish all within viz range despite this being limited. At one point we found a small log which contained more exotic creatures than a weekend at Aur

As well as the muck did a couple of reefy type dives, Angels Window is awesome, a small pinnacle at the north end of the channel, you drop down to 27m where there is a swim through, and then work your way up the sloping reef. Plenty of Pygmy seahorse opportunities including the latest find the Hippocampus Denise, saw some last visit but could not find them this time around. Last time I also found a mimic octopus up on the sandy slope. So much life inhabiting this rock, it is a must do dive.

In summary easy diving nice place to relax post dive and easily accesible from Singapore.

 

[Jensm]

I'll spend July in the Manado area (Bunaken/Lembeh, maybe Togian islands) with my girlfriend. Diving and hammocking, mainly.

Anybody from the board who's going to be there in July?

Jens

 

[sandrascuba]

I'm heading out for a similar trip to what you're talking about on Thursday. After doing reseach, splitting time between 2 resorts seemed like the better way to go. I'm doing 5 days at KBR, followed by 5 days at Tasik Ria. I have a feeling this is going to be an awesome trip. You may be a bit more limited if your stuck with 7 days, though. I'll respond once I'm back.

We will be going to KBR and Tasik Ria in November after a live aboard in Raja Ampat. I'm interested to know what you think of Eco Divers, how the renovations at KBR are going and how you liked the Tasik Ria. Thanks!

Sandra

 

[scorpiofish]

We split time on a 9 day trip in April. I think it would be much easier to just switch resorts.

I was more interested in Lembeh, but I thought my wife might not be thrilled with muck diving, so we spent 4 days in Manado. I was quite surprised when she ended up loving muck diving. We stayed at Lembeh Resort. It was her favorite place to stay, ever. It was my favorite place to dive, ever. She was practically in tears when we left.

Lembeh Resort is hands down better than KBR, except for all the steps. From the dive shop to our huge bungalow, it was 84 steps. It has air conditioning. KBR does not.

Murex runs the dive op and Bruce does an excellent job.

We stayed at Murex Resort in Manado. It's a little long in the tooth. It's age definitely showed. I would choose Tasik Ria or Santika if I were to go again.

The diving was very good. Nice walls, good coral, good vis, some schools, some turtles and much of the macro stuff we saw in Lembeh. The only macro image I got that I didn't get in Lembeh was a pair of Fire Dartfish. We definitely preferred the muck of Lembeh.

Eco Divers, Thalassa and Murex all have good reputations for dive service. If you have a choice, get a lndonesian dive master.

Indonesian Photo Galleries

 

[sandrascuba]

We split time on a 9 day trip in April. I think it would be much easier to just switch resorts.

I was more interested in Lembeh, but I thought my wife might not be thrilled with muck diving, so we spent 4 days in Manado. I was quite surprised when she ended up loving muck diving. We stayed at Lembeh Resort. It was her favorite place to stay, ever. It was my favorite place to dive, ever. She was practically in tears when we left.

Lembeh Resort is hands down better than KBR, except for all the steps. From the dive shop to our huge bungalow, it was 84 steps. It has air conditioning. KBR does not.

Murex runs the dive op and Bruce does an excellent job.

We stayed at Murex Resort in Manado. It's a little long in the tooth. It's age definitely showed. I would choose Tasik Ria or Santika if I were to go again.

The diving was very good. Nice walls, good coral, good vis, some schools, some turtles and much of the macro stuff we saw in Lembeh. The only macro image I got that I didn't get in Lembeh was a pair of Fire Dartfish. We definitely preferred the muck of Lembeh.

Eco Divers, Thalassa and Murex all have good reputations for dive service. If you have a choice, get a lndonesian dive master.

Indonesian Photo Galleries

We are hoping KBR renovations are completed by December when we will be staying there. The only reason we picked KBR (besides it being world famous) is beacuse KBR and Tasik Ria both use Eco Divers. We thought... switch resorts... stay with the same operator... and Tasik Ria comes recommended. We are looking forward to some pampering at Tasik Ria after 3 weeks in Indonesia. As with all things, time will tell if we made the right decisions.

Sandra

 

[scorpiofish]

We are hoping KBR renovations are completed by December when we will be staying there. The only reason we picked KBR (besides it being world famous) is beacuse KBR and Tasik Ria both use Eco Divers. We thought... switch resorts... stay with the same operator... and Tasik Ria comes recommended. We are looking forward to some pampering at Tasik Ria after 3 weeks in Indonesia. As with all things, time will tell if we made the right decisions.

Sandra

That's why we went with Murex, since Murex handled the diving at Lembeh Resort. It's really not a big deal. The only advantage was we didn't have to fill out paper work again.