Manado Trip Report
April 2006
Just back from a five day trip to Manado. We stayed with Celebes Divers at their two resorts, Mapia and Onong and dived Bunaken and Lembeh.
In short Celebes Divers provided simple, comfortable and clean accommodation with great dive guides who where fantastic at pointing out macro-critters. Resort is small and personable. Food was good and plentiful during meals but a bit too much on the European side for our liking (we like to eat Indonesian food in Indonesia!). The resort and dive operation is well run and they are very accommodating to requests. DMs and other guests were friendly, but we suffered a bit due to the language barrier (most other guests were Italians with little English and we unfortunately dont speak Italian!).
Diving Lembeh has fantastic got to see both the red and yellow pygmy seahorses and many other macro-critters. Bunaken had fabulous walls, great visibility and great macro and good reef life but few pelagics.
Would we go again? Back to Lembeh certainly for its uniqueness perhaps staying at KBR or some other Lembeh based resort this time. Bunaken is nice but if we were diving walls we would prefer to go back to Sipadan where you also get pelagics and large schools of fish (a bit more exciting!). Cant fault Celebes divers you get what you pay for and they run a decent operation, its just that if we were to go back we would want to focus on Lembeh.
Now for some details:
Getting There
Easy-peasy. We flew with Silk Air from Singapore to Manado, leaving at around 9am in the morning. The trip takes about 3 hours. Celebes Divers was there to pick us up at the airport and drove us in a four wheel drive through Manado to the resort. Transfer takes 1 hour.
Accomodation
We stayed at the Mapia and Onong resorts, both owned by Celebes Divers. The resort is run by Italian/German owners and most of the guests are Italian/Spanish/German. The owners speak Italian/German/English/French/Spanish. The resort is small (around 10 chalets at Mapia and 6 or so at Onong).
Mapia resort is based on the mainland, just on the outskirts of Manado. We stayed here at the beginning and end of our trip. The chalets are a good size and air conditioned, comprising a bedroom with a sitting area, porch and bathroom. The chalets are built in the Minahasa style basically of dark wood. This can make it seem a little dark inside, but there are plenty of bright lights fitted in the interior. The bathroom is huge, running the length of the chalet, with cupboards and tables to store your things. There is hot water but the water pressure can be variable between chalets (Puring chalet had decent pressure, Kemuning less so). The beds are comfortable and in the sitting area there is a coffe table and a few chairs made of bamboo perfect for downloading the days photos and writing log books.
Mapia resort also has a nice pool large enough to swim in (i.e. not just a plunge pool), restaurant area and little covered sitting area next to the beach. The beach here is pebbly and has black sand shore dives are basically muck dives similar to the under-water scenery in Lembeh. There isnt much of a beach if you are into sunbathing, but there are plenty of deck chairs around the pool.
We also stayed at the Onong resort on Siladen Island, which is the island right next to Bunaken. The resort here is smaller and more basic. Rooms are in the same style as Mapia but a little smaller and not air-conditioned. Water is a precious resource here so the showers are little more than dribbles at times again there is hot water available (although I did wish there was a large water container and bucket to bathe Indonesian style better lots of cold water than tiny bit of hot!). We were lucky enough to be given the family room as the resort here was quite full it had a double and a single bed, both covered with mosquito nets. There was also a fan in the room one of the floor-standing, moveable kind.
There is a nice beach in front of Onong resort, with yellow sand. Shore dives from Siladen are great swim out and there is a wall down to about 15-20m or so. Nice little reef good coral growth and plenty of little reef fish.
They provide you with two towels at both places and a small bar of soap. Bring your own shampoo and things!
It was really easy to transfer between resorts you just let them know when you want to. This may have been because we were there when the resort was relatively empty. Everyone had opted to stay on Siladen so all the rooms there were full (about 12 people) but there was no one at the Mapia resort and we were the only guests staying here. Lots of people want to stay on Siladen for the desert island feel and the beach, whereas people stay at Mapia for trips to Lembeh or the air-con and pool.
Food
Breakfast comprised toast, cheese slices, various jams, fresh fruit, tea, coffee and orange juice (powdered kind). Self service usually at 7-8am.
Lunch is either taken on the boat (if you are in Lembeh) or on Siladen (if you are diving Bunaken). Lunch is served (i.e. not self-service) on Siladen and is usually Indonesian style rice, grilled fish, fried vegetables that sort of thing, with fresh fruit for dessert.
Dinner is also served. Usually Italian style: first a starter (maybe prawn cocktail salad), then pasta course (carbonara, arrabiata etc), then mains (roast chicken, roast pork, roast fish, pizza etc). There is also plenty of bread home made foccacia which is really yummy. Food all tastes very good, particularly if you like Italian food. Unfortunately I like eating Indonesian food when Im in Indonesia (I get plenty of excellent Italian food in Europe where I live anyway) but the cook was also very accommodating and made me nasi goreng whenever I needed an Italian food break.
Between dives they provide fresh fruit (papaya and pineapple), tea, coffee and local biscuits.
All in all the food is decent and there is usually plenty during meal times (harder to find in-between meals) although we were really hoping to have more local food! Perhaps it is because we went when the resort was only half full. Apparently when the resort is more full they do both an Italian and an Indonesian option.
April 2006
Just back from a five day trip to Manado. We stayed with Celebes Divers at their two resorts, Mapia and Onong and dived Bunaken and Lembeh.
In short Celebes Divers provided simple, comfortable and clean accommodation with great dive guides who where fantastic at pointing out macro-critters. Resort is small and personable. Food was good and plentiful during meals but a bit too much on the European side for our liking (we like to eat Indonesian food in Indonesia!). The resort and dive operation is well run and they are very accommodating to requests. DMs and other guests were friendly, but we suffered a bit due to the language barrier (most other guests were Italians with little English and we unfortunately dont speak Italian!).
Diving Lembeh has fantastic got to see both the red and yellow pygmy seahorses and many other macro-critters. Bunaken had fabulous walls, great visibility and great macro and good reef life but few pelagics.
Would we go again? Back to Lembeh certainly for its uniqueness perhaps staying at KBR or some other Lembeh based resort this time. Bunaken is nice but if we were diving walls we would prefer to go back to Sipadan where you also get pelagics and large schools of fish (a bit more exciting!). Cant fault Celebes divers you get what you pay for and they run a decent operation, its just that if we were to go back we would want to focus on Lembeh.
Now for some details:
Getting There
Easy-peasy. We flew with Silk Air from Singapore to Manado, leaving at around 9am in the morning. The trip takes about 3 hours. Celebes Divers was there to pick us up at the airport and drove us in a four wheel drive through Manado to the resort. Transfer takes 1 hour.
Accomodation
We stayed at the Mapia and Onong resorts, both owned by Celebes Divers. The resort is run by Italian/German owners and most of the guests are Italian/Spanish/German. The owners speak Italian/German/English/French/Spanish. The resort is small (around 10 chalets at Mapia and 6 or so at Onong).
Mapia resort is based on the mainland, just on the outskirts of Manado. We stayed here at the beginning and end of our trip. The chalets are a good size and air conditioned, comprising a bedroom with a sitting area, porch and bathroom. The chalets are built in the Minahasa style basically of dark wood. This can make it seem a little dark inside, but there are plenty of bright lights fitted in the interior. The bathroom is huge, running the length of the chalet, with cupboards and tables to store your things. There is hot water but the water pressure can be variable between chalets (Puring chalet had decent pressure, Kemuning less so). The beds are comfortable and in the sitting area there is a coffe table and a few chairs made of bamboo perfect for downloading the days photos and writing log books.
Mapia resort also has a nice pool large enough to swim in (i.e. not just a plunge pool), restaurant area and little covered sitting area next to the beach. The beach here is pebbly and has black sand shore dives are basically muck dives similar to the under-water scenery in Lembeh. There isnt much of a beach if you are into sunbathing, but there are plenty of deck chairs around the pool.
We also stayed at the Onong resort on Siladen Island, which is the island right next to Bunaken. The resort here is smaller and more basic. Rooms are in the same style as Mapia but a little smaller and not air-conditioned. Water is a precious resource here so the showers are little more than dribbles at times again there is hot water available (although I did wish there was a large water container and bucket to bathe Indonesian style better lots of cold water than tiny bit of hot!). We were lucky enough to be given the family room as the resort here was quite full it had a double and a single bed, both covered with mosquito nets. There was also a fan in the room one of the floor-standing, moveable kind.
There is a nice beach in front of Onong resort, with yellow sand. Shore dives from Siladen are great swim out and there is a wall down to about 15-20m or so. Nice little reef good coral growth and plenty of little reef fish.
They provide you with two towels at both places and a small bar of soap. Bring your own shampoo and things!
It was really easy to transfer between resorts you just let them know when you want to. This may have been because we were there when the resort was relatively empty. Everyone had opted to stay on Siladen so all the rooms there were full (about 12 people) but there was no one at the Mapia resort and we were the only guests staying here. Lots of people want to stay on Siladen for the desert island feel and the beach, whereas people stay at Mapia for trips to Lembeh or the air-con and pool.
Food
Breakfast comprised toast, cheese slices, various jams, fresh fruit, tea, coffee and orange juice (powdered kind). Self service usually at 7-8am.
Lunch is either taken on the boat (if you are in Lembeh) or on Siladen (if you are diving Bunaken). Lunch is served (i.e. not self-service) on Siladen and is usually Indonesian style rice, grilled fish, fried vegetables that sort of thing, with fresh fruit for dessert.
Dinner is also served. Usually Italian style: first a starter (maybe prawn cocktail salad), then pasta course (carbonara, arrabiata etc), then mains (roast chicken, roast pork, roast fish, pizza etc). There is also plenty of bread home made foccacia which is really yummy. Food all tastes very good, particularly if you like Italian food. Unfortunately I like eating Indonesian food when Im in Indonesia (I get plenty of excellent Italian food in Europe where I live anyway) but the cook was also very accommodating and made me nasi goreng whenever I needed an Italian food break.
Between dives they provide fresh fruit (papaya and pineapple), tea, coffee and local biscuits.
All in all the food is decent and there is usually plenty during meal times (harder to find in-between meals) although we were really hoping to have more local food! Perhaps it is because we went when the resort was only half full. Apparently when the resort is more full they do both an Italian and an Indonesian option.
