Hey guys,
I am just back from a couple of weeks of great diving in Indonesia. Since my wife and I are working in the diving industry we have been looking forward to be as guests in a resort and liveaboard.
We live here in Phuket so the choice of airlines was great, we decided to go with Silkair which was great, good food, 20kg baggage and we could check everything all the way to Manado.
In Lembeh we stayed at the Eco cottages and did one day of diving with Eco divers. I have to say I really enjoyed the cottages. At the moment they have just 3 cottages with 3 on suite rooms in each of the cottages. Everthing is very cosy and you not just a number is a big resort. Every morning the ask you what you would like for dinner, so that they can go to the local market and buy everything fresh for the evening.
Now the diving:
We just had one day for Lembeh before we headed to Raja Ampat.
Eco divers have a different concept than other resorts in Lembeh. In the morning you will get tranfered to their big dive boat "Nautica" which is moored in the middle of the strait and the boat is the dive platform for the day.
It feels like diving of a liveaboard with the convinience of a resort in the evening.
The normal day of diving includes 3 dives and if you wish a additional sunset or night dive. After a boat briefing and dive site briefing we went of for our first dive with lots of critters like small crabs, seahorses (6), robust ghost pipefish (4) and beautiful nudibranches.
For the second dive we went to "Nudi retreat 2", which was a nice change to the dark sand. Everybody thinks Lembeh has only dark sand, but the corals on this site are amazing and full of live, like pygmy seahorses, ghost pipefish and spider crabs to name a few.
On top of my bucket list was the ambon scorpion fish, so we ask the guides and for our last dive they picked a site where we would have a good chance. And we have been lucky and spotted 4 ambon scorpion fish and 3 coconut octopus.
What a great way to start your diving holiday. Thanks to all the guys at Eco divers.
To reach the "Mandarin Siren"in Sorong we had to get a early flight from Manado and of course the flight was a bit delayed.
I work for Worldwide Dive and Sail and the "Mandarin Siren" is our smallest liveaboard for only 6 guests so I was looking forward to some amazing diving in Raja Ampat.
Cruisedirector Deidre picked us up at the airport and after 10 min drive and a 2 min dinghy drive we been onboard and it was great to see some old friends like Captain Daeng and dinghy driver Michael again.
The cruise was a special trip, we cruised 7 days the north of Raja Ampat,than we did a long crossing to southern Halmahera and ended our tip back in Lembeh.
I never been to Raja Ampat and was very excited. We started with some great critter dives and found a mimic octopus, rare nudibranches, pygmies and snake eels. Than we moved further north to see the bigger stuff and we have been rewarded with 5 big mantas at "Manta Sandy", a few wobbegons at"Citrus Ridge" and black or white tip reef sharks on nearly every dive.
The best dive spot for me was "Sardines", with just a mild current the fish life was just amazing, lots of bumphead parrotfish, giant trevallies, barracudas, grey reef sharks, black tip reef sharks and white tip reef sharks.
On the longer crossing to Halmahera we just did one or two dives per day, but this was ok and everybody relaxed after 4 dives per day in Raja ampat. The chef Andre created some amazing food and I think all of us gained a few pounds over the 2 weeks.
On our way to Lembeh we visited the small Islands of Mayu and Tifore in the middle of the Molukka sea.
The crew did a phantastic job in pampering all the guests.
I had great holiday with "Eco divers" in Lembeh and the "Mandarin Siren" in Raja Ampat.
Now I am back in the office, but not for long in 10 days I'm off to the "Philippine Siren" and cruising the souther visayas.
Thomas
I am just back from a couple of weeks of great diving in Indonesia. Since my wife and I are working in the diving industry we have been looking forward to be as guests in a resort and liveaboard.
We live here in Phuket so the choice of airlines was great, we decided to go with Silkair which was great, good food, 20kg baggage and we could check everything all the way to Manado.
In Lembeh we stayed at the Eco cottages and did one day of diving with Eco divers. I have to say I really enjoyed the cottages. At the moment they have just 3 cottages with 3 on suite rooms in each of the cottages. Everthing is very cosy and you not just a number is a big resort. Every morning the ask you what you would like for dinner, so that they can go to the local market and buy everything fresh for the evening.
Now the diving:
We just had one day for Lembeh before we headed to Raja Ampat.
Eco divers have a different concept than other resorts in Lembeh. In the morning you will get tranfered to their big dive boat "Nautica" which is moored in the middle of the strait and the boat is the dive platform for the day.
It feels like diving of a liveaboard with the convinience of a resort in the evening.
The normal day of diving includes 3 dives and if you wish a additional sunset or night dive. After a boat briefing and dive site briefing we went of for our first dive with lots of critters like small crabs, seahorses (6), robust ghost pipefish (4) and beautiful nudibranches.
For the second dive we went to "Nudi retreat 2", which was a nice change to the dark sand. Everybody thinks Lembeh has only dark sand, but the corals on this site are amazing and full of live, like pygmy seahorses, ghost pipefish and spider crabs to name a few.
On top of my bucket list was the ambon scorpion fish, so we ask the guides and for our last dive they picked a site where we would have a good chance. And we have been lucky and spotted 4 ambon scorpion fish and 3 coconut octopus.
What a great way to start your diving holiday. Thanks to all the guys at Eco divers.
To reach the "Mandarin Siren"in Sorong we had to get a early flight from Manado and of course the flight was a bit delayed.
I work for Worldwide Dive and Sail and the "Mandarin Siren" is our smallest liveaboard for only 6 guests so I was looking forward to some amazing diving in Raja Ampat.
Cruisedirector Deidre picked us up at the airport and after 10 min drive and a 2 min dinghy drive we been onboard and it was great to see some old friends like Captain Daeng and dinghy driver Michael again.
The cruise was a special trip, we cruised 7 days the north of Raja Ampat,than we did a long crossing to southern Halmahera and ended our tip back in Lembeh.
I never been to Raja Ampat and was very excited. We started with some great critter dives and found a mimic octopus, rare nudibranches, pygmies and snake eels. Than we moved further north to see the bigger stuff and we have been rewarded with 5 big mantas at "Manta Sandy", a few wobbegons at"Citrus Ridge" and black or white tip reef sharks on nearly every dive.
The best dive spot for me was "Sardines", with just a mild current the fish life was just amazing, lots of bumphead parrotfish, giant trevallies, barracudas, grey reef sharks, black tip reef sharks and white tip reef sharks.
On the longer crossing to Halmahera we just did one or two dives per day, but this was ok and everybody relaxed after 4 dives per day in Raja ampat. The chef Andre created some amazing food and I think all of us gained a few pounds over the 2 weeks.
On our way to Lembeh we visited the small Islands of Mayu and Tifore in the middle of the Molukka sea.
The crew did a phantastic job in pampering all the guests.
I had great holiday with "Eco divers" in Lembeh and the "Mandarin Siren" in Raja Ampat.
Now I am back in the office, but not for long in 10 days I'm off to the "Philippine Siren" and cruising the souther visayas.
Thomas
