ekapoo
Registered
We just completed a 13 night stay at Lembeh Resort and loved every second of it. When we first arrived, we were a bit nervous we'd be bored for two weeks in one place doing only muck diving. But by the end of the trip, we wished we could add another two weeks. We had never been to Indonesia before and it was a long trek from the US, but this resort, the staff, and the diving made it all worth while.
We flew Dallas to Tokyo Narita (on AA), Tokyo Haneda to Singapore (on JAL), Singapore to Manado (Silk Air). The return trip was Manado to Singapore (Silk Air), Singapore to Hong Kong (Cathay Pacific), Hong Kong to San Fransisco (Cathay Pacific), San Fran to Dallas (AA). This was our first time on Cathay Pacific. We were told what a great airlines it was by many people, but we were very disappointed in Cathay Pacific. Both flights with them were on very old airplanes and the service was the worst we received of any of the airlines we flew this trip.
After a nice drive through Manado and Bitung, we took the short boat ride over to Lembeh Resort. We stayed in room 10. There were a lot of steps (which we fondly called Mt. Lembeh), but it really wasn't that many more than the Minihasa style rooms on the other side of the resort. We just looked at it as a great way to get a little exercise. The room was a nice size and the view from room 10 is definitely the best of all the rooms. We loved sitting on the deck between dives to warm up and enjoying the sunsets at the end of the day.
My only complaint (and it isn't big) about our entire stay was the bathroom. It does take some adjustment. We have had outdoor showers at other resorts in the past, but this bathroom has a shower, tub, and toilet all outside. There is a ledge over the toilet and tub to protect them from rain. But every morning we came into the bathroom to find leaves and debris on the ground and in the shower (the bathroom is built into the side of the hill, so trees and bushes are actually overhead). Not a big deal, as the housekeepers cleaned it all up every day, but it was aways a bit interesting going to the bathroom, never really knowing what you would find out there (including finding giant millipedes and geckos on the toilet roll!). But we were able to quickly overcome our fears and enjoy the jungle experience.
The diving was fantastic. We found something unique on every dive. There was current on approximately 50% of our 31 dives, but nothing major. They tried to go to the sites at times the currents weren't as much of a factor. Favorite dive sites included nudi falls, TK 1-3, and California Dreaming. The house reef was quite nice as well. We saw a lot of great critters in the shallows along the wall next to the resort including Harlequin Shrimp. The dive staff is extremely accommodating to any requests for dive sites. They had a max of 3 divers per dive guide, but 90% of our dives were just two per guide. We had Ramly and Opo as dive guides and thought both were fantastic. We told them what we wanted to see and amazingly they found it all. All the critters on my long list were found in our two week stay. Kerri who co-manages the dive shop is very also helpful and fun to dive with. She was always quick give up anything she was videoing to let us photograph the critter.
The staff at the resort is all fantastic. Being there for length of time we were there allowed us to forge relationships with the staff. Helen, one of our waitresses even took us on a tour of her village on our last day which was worth the trek over for. We also had a lot of fun with Deky, Mey, Aprilia and Jacksil at the bar.
The food was very good. We are foodies and are pretty hard to please. We were quite surprised by the quality and variety of the food. Breakfast was pretty much always the same, which was a bit boring after two weeks, but we enjoyed the variety at lunch and dinner. There was a soup, two salads, 3 entrees, and two desserts to choose from at lunch and dinner. Every meal had a different menu. After a few days we had a few favorite dishes which they were always able to make for us when we requested, even if they weren't on the menu for that particular meal.
There were mosquitos when we were there (end of Nov to beginning of Dec), so bring your deet. They were particularly pesky at dawn and dusk, which made showering after a long day of diving a quick event to avoid being bitten.
Now, one of the best parts of our trip, which is your reward for reading this entire review.... is that we saw Tarsiers from our room almost every day of our stay! No need to go to the National Park when you stay at this resort! One of our first nights at the resort, we were sitting on the deck enjoying the sunset when we saw a small brown blob jumping in the brush next to the deck. I thought originally it was a toad, but then a second one came through and actually climbed up a small tree. We shined the flashlight on the object and realized it was a Tarsier! After talking with Steve the staff photographer/videographer, we realized they probably take the same trail each day since they tend to feed in the same trees nightly. From that point on I made it a mission to wait on the deck every night at sunset to photograph them. This turned out to be quite a difficult task, since they are quick and usually just kept jumping on through, but they did follow the same path. I also realized about half way through our trip that they probably also came down from their nightly feeding on the same path in the morning. Sure enough, one morning (5 am) I heard them talking to each other and ran outside to see them jumping back down through the brush. Now I was monkey hunting every dawn and dusk, and just diving to pass the day! Only on two occasions was I able to get any photographs that were worthwhile, once at dusk and once at 5am. Some of my pictures of the Tarsiers are on the resort website: Small Resort Residents Spotted! - Lembeh Resort - Critters at Lembeh in North Sulawesi, Indonesia
Overall it was a great trip and would recommend the resort to anyone in a heartbeat.
I will post some of my dive pictures later today.
We flew Dallas to Tokyo Narita (on AA), Tokyo Haneda to Singapore (on JAL), Singapore to Manado (Silk Air). The return trip was Manado to Singapore (Silk Air), Singapore to Hong Kong (Cathay Pacific), Hong Kong to San Fransisco (Cathay Pacific), San Fran to Dallas (AA). This was our first time on Cathay Pacific. We were told what a great airlines it was by many people, but we were very disappointed in Cathay Pacific. Both flights with them were on very old airplanes and the service was the worst we received of any of the airlines we flew this trip.
After a nice drive through Manado and Bitung, we took the short boat ride over to Lembeh Resort. We stayed in room 10. There were a lot of steps (which we fondly called Mt. Lembeh), but it really wasn't that many more than the Minihasa style rooms on the other side of the resort. We just looked at it as a great way to get a little exercise. The room was a nice size and the view from room 10 is definitely the best of all the rooms. We loved sitting on the deck between dives to warm up and enjoying the sunsets at the end of the day.
My only complaint (and it isn't big) about our entire stay was the bathroom. It does take some adjustment. We have had outdoor showers at other resorts in the past, but this bathroom has a shower, tub, and toilet all outside. There is a ledge over the toilet and tub to protect them from rain. But every morning we came into the bathroom to find leaves and debris on the ground and in the shower (the bathroom is built into the side of the hill, so trees and bushes are actually overhead). Not a big deal, as the housekeepers cleaned it all up every day, but it was aways a bit interesting going to the bathroom, never really knowing what you would find out there (including finding giant millipedes and geckos on the toilet roll!). But we were able to quickly overcome our fears and enjoy the jungle experience.
The diving was fantastic. We found something unique on every dive. There was current on approximately 50% of our 31 dives, but nothing major. They tried to go to the sites at times the currents weren't as much of a factor. Favorite dive sites included nudi falls, TK 1-3, and California Dreaming. The house reef was quite nice as well. We saw a lot of great critters in the shallows along the wall next to the resort including Harlequin Shrimp. The dive staff is extremely accommodating to any requests for dive sites. They had a max of 3 divers per dive guide, but 90% of our dives were just two per guide. We had Ramly and Opo as dive guides and thought both were fantastic. We told them what we wanted to see and amazingly they found it all. All the critters on my long list were found in our two week stay. Kerri who co-manages the dive shop is very also helpful and fun to dive with. She was always quick give up anything she was videoing to let us photograph the critter.
The staff at the resort is all fantastic. Being there for length of time we were there allowed us to forge relationships with the staff. Helen, one of our waitresses even took us on a tour of her village on our last day which was worth the trek over for. We also had a lot of fun with Deky, Mey, Aprilia and Jacksil at the bar.
The food was very good. We are foodies and are pretty hard to please. We were quite surprised by the quality and variety of the food. Breakfast was pretty much always the same, which was a bit boring after two weeks, but we enjoyed the variety at lunch and dinner. There was a soup, two salads, 3 entrees, and two desserts to choose from at lunch and dinner. Every meal had a different menu. After a few days we had a few favorite dishes which they were always able to make for us when we requested, even if they weren't on the menu for that particular meal.
There were mosquitos when we were there (end of Nov to beginning of Dec), so bring your deet. They were particularly pesky at dawn and dusk, which made showering after a long day of diving a quick event to avoid being bitten.
Now, one of the best parts of our trip, which is your reward for reading this entire review.... is that we saw Tarsiers from our room almost every day of our stay! No need to go to the National Park when you stay at this resort! One of our first nights at the resort, we were sitting on the deck enjoying the sunset when we saw a small brown blob jumping in the brush next to the deck. I thought originally it was a toad, but then a second one came through and actually climbed up a small tree. We shined the flashlight on the object and realized it was a Tarsier! After talking with Steve the staff photographer/videographer, we realized they probably take the same trail each day since they tend to feed in the same trees nightly. From that point on I made it a mission to wait on the deck every night at sunset to photograph them. This turned out to be quite a difficult task, since they are quick and usually just kept jumping on through, but they did follow the same path. I also realized about half way through our trip that they probably also came down from their nightly feeding on the same path in the morning. Sure enough, one morning (5 am) I heard them talking to each other and ran outside to see them jumping back down through the brush. Now I was monkey hunting every dawn and dusk, and just diving to pass the day! Only on two occasions was I able to get any photographs that were worthwhile, once at dusk and once at 5am. Some of my pictures of the Tarsiers are on the resort website: Small Resort Residents Spotted! - Lembeh Resort - Critters at Lembeh in North Sulawesi, Indonesia
Overall it was a great trip and would recommend the resort to anyone in a heartbeat.
I will post some of my dive pictures later today.
