It's a bit late but I thought I share my experiences with you...
After many hours travelling from the UK, via Dubai and Jakarta, we finally arrived in Manado and were pleased to be greated by two smiling faces, cold water and cold towels! The journey to Tasik Ria Resort gave us an insight into the area as we drove through Manado and surround villages.
Arriving at the beautifully landscaped resort put at ease that we'd made a good choice and we waisted no time making us of our free jet lag massage at the beautiful spa.
As we were slightly off season the dive boat went out the next day for just us! Taking the hour long ride out to Bunaken for some fantasic wall dives followed by a great hot buffet lunch and then the third dive at a local site.
The wall dives didn't quite match up to past experiences at Sipadan but there some lovely dives. What surprised me the most was the standard of the local dives - muck dives where we were lucky enough to find harlequin shrimp, ghost pipefish, madarin fish and the funny little orang-u-tan crabs.
As we were'nt far away we took a day trip to the other side of the island to Lembeh Straits - what a fantastic experience and a MUST do!
When you first enter the water you are surrounded by black sand, broken bottles, old shoes and other rubbish! Give yourself a few minutes and your eyes start to adjust - porcupine fish hide in the shoes. Small clumps of soft corals support huge arrays of reef fish, shrimps and crabs. Funny looking sea moths and flying gurnads walk the bottom. Sea fans full of pgymy sea horses - we spotted over 10 on one fan, including tiny baby ones!
The local food of mixed rice eated out of a banana leaf whilst sitting on top of the local wooden boat hired for our day trip just made it!
After 7 days at Manado and Lembeh we were looking forward to the main pull for the trip - Raja Ampat!
Thankfully the transfer to Sorong went smoothly with an overnight stay in a local (basic) hotel before we set off. That overnight stay allowed the necessary delay time for half of the group that didn't quite have the smooth transfer we experienced! But the resort staff that met us (Thoban & Andy) were not phased and expected those hicups.
The 5 hr boat ride over to Missol Eco Resort was an experience in itself - through the beautful limestone island groups, escorted by dolphins and stopping for the toilet at the last village (1.5hrs into the journey) and being greeting by hoards of village children.
The resort itself is even more beautiful than the photos! Really worth the extended travel! The food was fantastic! I'll never understand how I didn't put on weight after eating 5 times a day?
Little breakfast...early morning dive...big hot breakfast...mid morning dive...lunch...afternoon dive...afternoon snack...night dive...evening meal!
The diving was breath taking - I have never seen such beautiful walls full of soft corals -sea fans covering every inch of the wall as far as the eye and see and such a density of fish!!! Every dive was fish soup the real aquarium sensation!
There were plently of little stuff too - nudi's, tiny file fish, loads of pgymy seahorses - even on the house reef! Some guests have even seen the tiny blue ringed octopus but we weren't so lucky.
Two of the local treats were the walking epaulette shark (seen regularly on night dives) and the large and strange looking tassled wobbygong shark (see at two of the dive sites)! Lots of black and white tips, some grey reef sharks and turtles - unfortunately we didn't get to see any mantas. To guarantee to see them you probably need a liveaboard or less luxurious Kri resort.
All in all an amazing holiday - finished off my an overnight stay in Jakarta and city tour!
Thanks goes to Zain from Discover Indonesia (on this forum) who arranged all elements of the Indonesia elements of the itineray for us!
After many hours travelling from the UK, via Dubai and Jakarta, we finally arrived in Manado and were pleased to be greated by two smiling faces, cold water and cold towels! The journey to Tasik Ria Resort gave us an insight into the area as we drove through Manado and surround villages.
Arriving at the beautifully landscaped resort put at ease that we'd made a good choice and we waisted no time making us of our free jet lag massage at the beautiful spa.
As we were slightly off season the dive boat went out the next day for just us! Taking the hour long ride out to Bunaken for some fantasic wall dives followed by a great hot buffet lunch and then the third dive at a local site.
The wall dives didn't quite match up to past experiences at Sipadan but there some lovely dives. What surprised me the most was the standard of the local dives - muck dives where we were lucky enough to find harlequin shrimp, ghost pipefish, madarin fish and the funny little orang-u-tan crabs.
As we were'nt far away we took a day trip to the other side of the island to Lembeh Straits - what a fantastic experience and a MUST do!
When you first enter the water you are surrounded by black sand, broken bottles, old shoes and other rubbish! Give yourself a few minutes and your eyes start to adjust - porcupine fish hide in the shoes. Small clumps of soft corals support huge arrays of reef fish, shrimps and crabs. Funny looking sea moths and flying gurnads walk the bottom. Sea fans full of pgymy sea horses - we spotted over 10 on one fan, including tiny baby ones!
The local food of mixed rice eated out of a banana leaf whilst sitting on top of the local wooden boat hired for our day trip just made it!
After 7 days at Manado and Lembeh we were looking forward to the main pull for the trip - Raja Ampat!
Thankfully the transfer to Sorong went smoothly with an overnight stay in a local (basic) hotel before we set off. That overnight stay allowed the necessary delay time for half of the group that didn't quite have the smooth transfer we experienced! But the resort staff that met us (Thoban & Andy) were not phased and expected those hicups.
The 5 hr boat ride over to Missol Eco Resort was an experience in itself - through the beautful limestone island groups, escorted by dolphins and stopping for the toilet at the last village (1.5hrs into the journey) and being greeting by hoards of village children.
The resort itself is even more beautiful than the photos! Really worth the extended travel! The food was fantastic! I'll never understand how I didn't put on weight after eating 5 times a day?
Little breakfast...early morning dive...big hot breakfast...mid morning dive...lunch...afternoon dive...afternoon snack...night dive...evening meal!
The diving was breath taking - I have never seen such beautiful walls full of soft corals -sea fans covering every inch of the wall as far as the eye and see and such a density of fish!!! Every dive was fish soup the real aquarium sensation!
There were plently of little stuff too - nudi's, tiny file fish, loads of pgymy seahorses - even on the house reef! Some guests have even seen the tiny blue ringed octopus but we weren't so lucky.
Two of the local treats were the walking epaulette shark (seen regularly on night dives) and the large and strange looking tassled wobbygong shark (see at two of the dive sites)! Lots of black and white tips, some grey reef sharks and turtles - unfortunately we didn't get to see any mantas. To guarantee to see them you probably need a liveaboard or less luxurious Kri resort.
All in all an amazing holiday - finished off my an overnight stay in Jakarta and city tour!
Thanks goes to Zain from Discover Indonesia (on this forum) who arranged all elements of the Indonesia elements of the itineray for us!
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