Bunaken Vs Lembeh or both?

[AlanWald]

As TSandM says, Lembeh is like a treasure hunt for the beautiful jewels of the sea. It is like prospecting in black sand and then all of a sudden you see what looks like a living Opal and it turns out to be a flamboyant cuttle fish flashing all kinds of colors. Or a blue ringed Octopus. My guide and some others were ahead of me an must have startled the blue ring octopus it started displaying its blue rings. Very cool. And as I always say, do as many night dives at Lembeh, it is great fun.

 

[pughio83]

Thanks to all for the useful info, i find it much better to hear from other divers than resort websites etc.. will check out divers lodge lembeh and check some stations around manado also. I would like to check out tongkoro national park i think its called!!

 

[Centrals]

Dived Bunaken(Sulawesi Dive Quest) and Lembeh(Two Fish) previously. No problem with them whatsoever.
1. Bunaken: Both of us enjoyed the dive and would not mind to go back again.
2. Lembeh: Three of us vowed "never again"!!! Bored stiffness with the dives. Unique and weird creatures but.....colourless and lifeless. We really felt sorry for them with constant bombardment with strobes and flash lights from the divers.

Will give Bangka Island a try next July.

 

[pughio83]

|Anyone dived lembeh/bunaken in april, if so how wis the weather and dive conditions at that time?

 

[pelan-pelan]

Glad that the info here is of use. The park is Tangkoko and you can see tarsier monkeys there. They are the smallest of the primates. Surprisingly easy to see, you can get quite close.

Manado-side we have dived the sand sites like PohPoh and have seen flamboyant cuttlefish, hairy frogfish, Pegasus sea moths, hairy filefish, blue ring octopus etc. They are still finding more of these sites only minutes along the coast. The best dive was probably watching giant cuttlefish laying their eggs amongst the coral. They seemed to be working as teams, some keeping lookout while others laid eggs. You should have seen their reaction when a barracuda swam over - they all turned dark and dull and oh so gently settled into the rocks and coral. That dive was Bunaken.

We have dived with Lumbalumba, Diving Bunaken / Manado with Lumbalumba Diving, North Sulawesi - Diving Bunaken with us for some years. Dutch run, beautiful cottages and gardens, excellent food and they have a delightful pool. Dive guides are highly experienced and listen to what you want to do. Limit is 4 divers per guide, often less.

 

[pughio83]

cheers again for further info. can you dive lembeh daily with lumbalumba? Do you know how the dive conditions are like in april usually, i hear bunaken is windy nov-feb but lembeh less affected? wow flambouyants and blue ringed, two high up on my wishlist....cant wait to get out there n in the water.

 

[xariatay]

cheers again for further info. can you dive lembeh daily with lumbalumba? Do you know how the dive conditions are like in april usually, i hear bunaken is windy nov-feb but lembeh less affected? wow flambouyants and blue ringed, two high up on my wishlist....cant wait to get out there n in the water.

If you have more than a week (your 1st post says 2), it would be better to split the stay... It is 1.5 to 2hrs ride each way, doing it for 2 days is fine but anymore than that would be quite uncomfortable...

 

[Luko]

Do not overlook the Bangka/Pulisan area, for me sites like Sahaung II or Batu Mandi are the jewels of the area, large gorgonians and corals like you would dream of, much better and denser than Bunaken, clear viz, teemed with fish for Sahaung and cherry on top of the cake, packed with macro like pygmy seahorse and the other usual suspects. It's a perfect mix of coral and macro, very different from one site to the other.

The perfect N/Sulawesi 2 weeks holidays would be for me 1 week Bangka (Gangga island resort is an outstanding dive operation, never seen such dedicated dive centre especially for photogs... expensive though), 1 week Lembeh (many good ops, pick your choice).

As for Bunaken, there is so much better in Indonesia for walls and corals like Komodo for instance that I personally don't see the interest of going back. Wasn't really comfortable staying on the island too (Bastianos), bored and starved to death, the dive centre I used was so-so for convenience (SDQ)...

Oh well, my opinion FWIW...

 

[pughio83]

cheers will look into bangka, and to be honest, i may do a couple days diving in bunaken and maybe thats it, and base myself in lembeh and do some day trips to bangka. More going for lembeh than anything else!!

 

[dirtfarmer]

If I can add question, I'm planning a Bunaken/Lembeh trip in early Nov for two weeks, staying about a week in both spots. I've read the weather starts to change about then and move more into the wet season. Should I go to Bunaken first to take advantage of possible better weather-lower winds which I've read can affect Bunaken? Right now I'm planning to do Lembeh first.
Thanks
Dirtfarmer