Manado to Sorong Need Advice

[TightLines]

I'm currently planning a trip for March / April and need some advice on getting from Manado (after a few days at Lembeh) to Sorong to grab our liveaboard.

We need to be on the liveaboard on 3/16 for a departure on the morning of 3/17.

The flight we had intended on taking from Manado to Sorong would arrive at 5:15 pm on 3/16 but the boat is instead suggesting that we we fly into Sorong a day earlier (3/15) and overnight in Sorong. Now, from my limited understanding, Sorong is a place that you should spend as little time in as possible.

Can someone with more experience (preferably someone that has done the same trip) comment on this?

Our original trip did not include Lembeh and had us flying from Bali to Makassar with an overnight then Makassar to Sorong on 3/16. In this instance, the overnight makes sense seeing as the connection adds some uncertainty to the flights.

Since it is a straight flight from Manado to Sorong I just want to make sure an overnight in an undesirable place such as Sorong and making an already short stay in Lembeh even shorter is absolutely necessary.

Thanks in advance for any input.

 

[Bali Diver]

Arrive 5.15pm imagine that is Lion Air.Simple really if your flight is camcelled for any reason will the LOB come back to Sorong the following day to pick you up.if not arrive day before.Myself would arrive the day before,thats how i do things.Sorong is in a 3rd world country.its not great.think people should remember that you are in a 3rd world country and in a fairly remote area.for just a overnight stay don't think its a big deal really

 

[Darnold9999]

The hotel across the street from the airport in Sorong is a comfortable place to overnight.

In my fairly limited experience with domestic Indonesian flights to and from Sorong (two trips) "on time" means at least 60 minutes late and out of nine flights in and out of various locations in Indonesia including Monado to Sorong only two were "on time". The rest were late - anywhere from 1 to 9 hours. Again with limited experience it seems the later in the day the flight the more likely it will be significantly delayed. Something like your doctors office - the delays throughout the day accumulate.

IMHO you would be crazy to schedule an arrival at 5:15 PM the day the boat was to depart. The chances that you will miss the boat are significant. If you were arriving at noon or before then you might want to take a chance, but that late in the day with a very small margin for delay I would not.

 

[highdesert]

Why 3/14? It looks you maybe meant to say 3/15, correct? In any event, you have "fair" (somewhat less than "good") odds of your Manado-Sorong flight arriving at a reasonable time. The real catch is your return flight ... it's not uncommon for a flight departing Sorong to be 2-3 hours late, maybe more. That's the direction where you need to build in extra time, IMO.

 

[TightLines]

The hotel across the street from the airport in Sorong is a comfortable place to overnight.

In my fairly limited experience with domestic Indonesian flights to and from Sorong (two trips) "on time" means at least 60 minutes late and out of nine flights in and out of various locations in Indonesia including Monado to Sorong only two were "on time". The rest were late - anywhere from 1 to 9 hours. Again with limited experience it seems the later in the day the flight the more likely it will be significantly delayed. Something like your doctors office - the delays throughout the day accumulate.

IMHO you would be crazy to schedule an arrival at 5:15 PM the day the boat was to depart. The chances that you will miss the boat are significant. If you were arriving at noon or before then you might want to take a chance, but that late in the day with a very small margin for delay I would not.

Just to clarify the first night on the boat is 3/16 but the boat does not depart the port until 3/17.

My previous thinking was that since the boat was overnighting in port that would provide us with our safety margin.

Either way, consensus is to play it safe and get in on 3/15 and overnight nearby.

Now, the obvious follow-up question. Anyone have any suggestions on how to kill a day in Sorong?

 

[TightLines]

Why 3/14? It looks you maybe meant to say 3/15, correct? In any event, you have "fair" (somewhat less than "good") odds of your Manado-Sorong flight arriving at a reasonable time. The real catch is your return flight ... it's not uncommon for a flight departing Sorong to be 2-3 hours late, maybe more. That's the direction where you need to build in extra time, IMO.

Yes, I meant 3/15.

 

[Darnold9999]

Missed the departing the next morning part. In that case you would probably be safe - as long as the departure was after the first flight in the morning arriving from Monado. I would probably stay diving in Lembeh the extra day, but it is a significant risk. The flight could be cancelled and then you are looking at hiring a water taxi to get you to the boat. Assuming you can contact the boat and find out where it will be.

 

[Captain-Hook]

I lived and worked in Raja Ampat for several seasons on a few different liveaboards, most recently earlier this year. In my experience picking up plenty of guests at the airport in Sorong (and having plenty of friends doing the same on other boats), the flights from Manado make it the day they are scheduled (even maybe if "a little late", whatever that means in Asia).

Several years ago in Sorong the big problem wasn't so much the flights arriving late (or not at all like in some other Indonesian outposts), more that many of the guest's heavy diving bags were left behind in Manado for a day, leaving the operators to hang around nearby to Sorong doing the first days diving and juggling speed boats to pick up the bags the next day. But that wasn't this year because the airlines have upgraded to "larger" aircraft. I've seen entire plans loaded full of divers arrive many times WITH everyone's luggage. Even this season I know of a boat that was offering guests to arrive a day early and stay on-board free of charge to make sure everything went off smoothly. They have since cancelled that service, stating that the flight reliability has improved dramatically in Sorong so guests should arrive the day of departure.

I don't know what boat you are on or what the specific itinerary is, so my knowledge is limited, but will tell you that the most 'usual' schedule is to leave port late on the departure date (the 16th, or early the 17th for you) and motor overnight to either Kri (if the boat plans to stay North), to Batanta (if they plan to go South to Misool), or even straight down to Misool the first night if they are daring enough to use the Salawati Straits. Any of those scenarios really leaves plenty of time for you to step on-board by 7 or 8pm. But then again I have no idea why they are suggesting you fly a day early and sleep in Sorong on your dollar. Maybe they have some special plans or know something I don't, which could very well be the case. But NO operator to my knowledge has EVER left a guest behind because of their flights (maybe for other reasons but that's a different story), and I think it would be an absolute outrage if they did.

Worst case scenario is your plane is late and can't land in Sorong because there's no runway lights and has to turn back (hasn't happened in a long time as it costs the airline loads of money), or your bags are left in Manado. Either way the boat will just have to rearrange their schedule to accommodate the change in plans.

So, you could voluntarily lose a day of diving in Lembeh + add a day in SoWrong, chance it and lose a day of diving + a little traveling story, or run with it and enjoy the riskier side of life out in the last frontier...you never know in Indo, things always seem to work out in the end...

And Lembeh is pretty awesome.

Whatever you do, good luck and enjoy your trip.

If you're looking for any other info on the area/diving/places to stay, etc, just let me know.

 

[rusti999]

Was on a liveaboard last month where some guests were scheduled to arrive from Manado on the afternoon flight on the day of the departure, with the liveaboard originally scheduled to go to Batanta that night on the way to Misool. However, their flight got delayed until the next morning, the primary reason being that the runway at Sorong airport is not lighted, so no flights after it gets dark. So we ended up doing the first day's dives near Sorong (not comparable to the rest of Raja Ampat), skipping Batanta, and while the plan was to originally do Misool and then Mansuar/Kri, we ended up doing Mansuar/Kri first, and then Misool. I think one day in Misool was lost because of this.

 

[rusti999]

I would probably stay diving in Lembeh the extra day, but it is a significant risk. The flight could be cancelled and then you are looking at hiring a water taxi to get you to the boat. Assuming you can contact the boat and find out where it will be.

Also, on the assumption that there is a morning flight from Manado to Sorong on 3/16, another alternative is to stay in Manado the night before and take the morning flight to Sorong on 3/16, since from my understanding some resorts in Lembeh might decline to transfer you to the airport very early in the morning. Definitely more risk than getting to Sorong the day before, but I would think overnighting in Manado would beat overnighting in Sorong. You should check if such a flight is available though.