Raja Ampat Dec 2023 trip report

[dirtfarmer]

@rayaa3 you mention liking the muck dives at night. If you haven't been Lembeh is fantastic for muck diving. Tulamben also has great muck, along with Anilao which of course is in the Philippines not Indonesia.

 

[Pressurehead]

That is frustating. I has a similar guide on my recent liveaboard in Indo (in Banda Sea not RA). He always seemed to be diving into the current. On our second dive like that I tapped on the shoulder and gestured something equivalent to WTF and gestured I wanted to drift with the current and that seemed to the do the trick. On the surface we got on the same page that I didn't want to do long dives if it meant just swimming into the current the whole time.

I did just that on a trip last year, I could see the relief on the faces of the other 3 in our small group, one said 'why were we fighting it?' on the boat after the first dive.
Sorry for going off topic as it was not Raja Ampat , it was on the GBR , same story though.

Edit: Usual typos.

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[living4experiences]

The liveaboard had a fee we paid online (booked through liveaboard.com). They also had a port fees - which had to be paid when you get there in IDR. It was 3,500,000 IDR- (around 220-230 USD per person) per person. This covers your Raja Ampat marine park permit - something I'm accustom to from other destinations - and "port fees". Port fees are something between an unofficial fee and shakedown that the boat gets every place they want to stop/anchor/take you diving. We would go some place and at some point a little outboard boat would come up with some folks from a local village/island community and they would negotiate a fee. It's a weird practice to my point of view, but it is how they do it. I'm not arguing the virtue of why they do it. If you are a local village and you see a luxurious boat coming with 12 people that paid 3-4k USD to be on the boat - and you are looking around saying "hey that's my reef, they are on my villages reef - but my kids don't have good infrastructure for school/healthcare/etc" maybe you get in a boat ride out and explain to the captain that your dive site is going to cost something. --- My approval or not --- this is the custom, and that's what your port fees cover, above the marine park pass: and that's why I bring it up. If you are wondering why this is being charged to you, it's because your operator doesn't wrap it into their fees - and the reason you have to pay in IDR is because those rupiah are going to get rolled to someone while you are out on your trip.

I agree it's a shakedown of sorts and I don't think it's going to the villages. When I was on the Damai II, they were charging 2,200,000, but you could pay IDR cash or credit card at the end of the trip. I think the liveaboard operators just pick a number and put a label on it as to what it's for. The truth is the marine park fee is 1,000,000 IDR, and you get a card that's good for one year. I may have this backwards, but the math is 700,000 IDR goes to "reparations" for the villages and 300,000 IDR goes to the tourism department of the government, which is supposed to oversee the care of the marine park. I learned this from the dive manager at Sorido Bay during my stay before getting on the Damai. So, there's no reason to pay even more to the villages when it's already included in the 1,000,000 IDR, and I refused to pay the extra 1,200,000 IDR.

In addition, why do the liveaboards charge you extra but the land-based resorts don't? They're all dive tender boats visiting the same sites and jetties, but Sorido Bay didn't tack on any extra fees. It's a scam.

When my liveaboard trip was interrupted for 3 days with no diving because we had a diver that died, do you think the Damai refunded some of the $250 fuel surcharge when we didn't go anywhere for three days or refunded those extra "village visit" fees? Heck, no!

Now here comes my criticism of the dive operation:

Our boat had 4 groups with 4 guides. 2 Guides were Indonesian...one guide was an older guy, a few years older than me - near retirement - he put it. The 2 other guides were an American guy - the main cruise director, and a French lady - the other cruise director. Later we would find out - they had been with this liveaboard - in Indonesia - less than a year. About 6 months - and in that 6 months the boat had been in Komodo until 3 weeks ago. So the dive guide planning our dives had 3 weeks of time in Raja Ampat. It took a few days to piece together that people were having very different dive experiences based on guide. The older indonesian gentleman had people coming back all smiles and having seen many things. I was coming back happy to have survive. My dive guide liked to go out to the split, in the deepest part of the dive off the reef and look out into the blue for mantas or sharks. Sometimes he would see some - usually the rest of us didn't. The vis in Raja Ampat was 30ft/10meters at best, so at 100ft/30meters depth you have lost a lot of light - and usually the guide was 20ft in front of us - so he would see something out in the deep - come back really excited about it - mostly in those moments I saw his fins. A few times I saw a darkness in the water or perhaps tail fin. This guy was young, 27-29 years old, and was in the kind of shape we usually are in at 27-29. He was leading dives where we would have to follow him and fight the current a lot. Many times in the briefing he would tell us - if you need to - you can climb across the bottom. By the last 2 days my wife switched over to the group with the older gentlemen - so we could compare notes on the same dive site...after comparing my dive to hers on the first day - I joined her and the older gentlemen on the 2nd day, our last day of diving.

I learned while on the Damai that most of the staff had been working there for 10 years, and they were all retained during COVID. Our cruise director was from Austria and had been there for 5 years, and he was also serving as a dive guide when one of the guides went on holiday. He was every bit as good as the local guides that knew all the sites. The CD loves diving and loves guiding, and I really enjoyed following him around. The Damai rotates guides every day to different groups, and all the guides did a great job. Because of the wicked currents, I now understand how important it is to know how experienced the guides are to the area and to be able to pay attention to the skills of the divers so they have a good time without struggling.

We had 11 divers and 5 of us, including me, started having ear problems. I've never had a problem with my ears, but on the last day, I woke up with an earache and soreness. I immediately started using antibiotic eardrops as part of my "what-if" med kit, and by the time I got home, it was nearly cleared up. Ocean water is, by no means, a clean environment, but Indonesia's waters are very, very polluted, and I think that may have something to do with it. The ocean is their trashcan.

IMO, naming the operator is not trashing them. You are relaying truthful facts, and the readers here learn from each other about the good and not-so-good about liveaboard operators. There's about 40 liveaboard companies in Indonesia, so picking the right one for a bucket list trip is difficult when there's not a central repository of information, like a Tripadvisor for liveaboards. I'm the poster that wrote about the diver's death in my trip report and had no problem talking about the Damai because I was relaying my experience.

I missed 3 days of diving to some great sites. I'm booking on the White Manta for February of 2025. I emailed the owner before booking and inquired about his guides being local or from outside Indonesia, and he said all of them are locals that have been with him for many years, and they were all on the payroll during COVID. I hope that's true, because I've made the non-refundable deposit.

Thanks for writing a great report and sharing your experiences!

 

[Dan]

I'm booking on the White Manta for February of 2025. I emailed the owner before booking and inquired about his guides being local or from outside Indonesia, and he said all of them are locals that have been with him for many years, and they were all on the payroll during COVID. I hope that's true, because I've made the non-refundable deposit.

You picked a good boat. I was in White Manta in August 2022 for Sangalaki route. The DMs were all experience ones. I’m coming back to White Manta in January 2025 for Misool-Fak Fak-Triton Bay crossing. Looking forward to the trip.

I guess you are aware of the 20% additional charge for a single supplement. It used to be 10% before Covid.

 

[rmorgan]

We had 11 divers and 5 of us, including me, started having ear problems. I've never had a problem with my ears, but on the last day, I woke up with an earache and soreness. I immediately started using antibiotic eardrops as part of my "what-if" med kit, and by the time I got home, it was nearly cleared up.

L4E, were your drops OTC, or prescription?

IMO, naming the operator is not trashing them. You are relaying truthful facts, and the readers here learn from each other about the good and not-so-good about liveaboard operators. There's about 40 liveaboard companies in Indonesia, so picking the right one for a bucket list trip is difficult when there's not a central repository of information, like a Tripadvisor for liveaboards.

Thanks for saying this. I very much agree, although I understand @Rayaa3’s concerns. By way of counterpoint, a fellow passenger and I posted reports on another forum within a day of each other. Mine was positive, while explaining some issues (notably, a gathering typhoon); theirs was scorchingly negative. Had we not both identified the operators, readers would have been unable to see the two perspectives of the same trip.

 

[living4experiences]

You picked a good boat. I was in White Manta in August 2022 for Sangalaki route. The DMs were all experience ones. I’m coming back to White Manta in January 2025 for Misool-Fak Fak-Trito Bay crossing. Looking forward to the trip.

I guess you are aware of the 20% additional charge for a single supplement. It used to be 10% before Covid.

Yeah, I noticed that during my initial searches for liveaboards in Raja in 2020, but it's better than the 65%, 70%, and 100% single penalty with the other companies.

 

[living4experiences]

L4E, were your drops OTC, or prescription?

Thanks for saying this. I very much agree, although I understand @Rayaa3’s concerns. By way of counterpoint, a fellow passenger and I posted reports on another forum within a day of each other. Mine was positive, while explaining some issues (notably, a gathering typhoon); theirs was scorchingly negative. Had we not both identified the operators, readers would have been unable to see the two perspectives of the same trip.

Ear drops are called Phendex and contains lidocaine, ciproflaxin, and hydrocortisone. I got it in Cozumel from a pharmacy. I was really impressed at how quickly it started working and giving me pain relief.

 

[matts1w]

I use ear beer every trip, especially on muck trips here in Indonesia. If you have ever been to Lembeh and Ambon, you know why. Plain and simple...when I use ear beer, I do not get infections.

Get a little dropper bottle and mix up 50% rubbing alcohol and 50% vinegar. At the end of each diving day, I lay down on one side, fill up an ear canal, and let it marinate for about a minute or two. I then repeat on the other side. The alcohol kills bacteria and dries things out, and the vinegar changes the ph enough to make it difficult for things to take hold. The downside is one smells like an easter egg for a few, but it beats the heck out of outer ear infections.

Note- ear beer will not heal infections; it is only a preventative.

I also dump a splash of drinking water in each ear after every dive. I figure that cant hurt.

 

[Luko]

Protect your ears as mentioned above but if you can't stand the vinegar smell, use a 3%mix of boric acid + 70% Alcohol for preventative action.
One of my first shopping stops whenever I'm diving in Indonesia : find an Apotek (pharmacy) ask for OTOPAIN, they will sell it over the counter for 4-5$, it has always been effective whenever it is too late for my ear. I got this tip 10 years ago thanks to Aswar, a guide from Bangka now in Bali/Padang Bai, who's mentioned in another thread.

 

[living4experiences]

I use ear beer every trip, especially on muck trips here in Indonesia. If you have ever been to Lembeh and Ambon, you know why. Plain and simple...when I use ear beer, I do not get infections.

Get a little dropper bottle and mix up 50% rubbing alcohol and 50% vinegar. At the end of each diving day, I lay down on one side, fill up an ear canal, and let it marinate for about a minute or two. I then repeat on the other side. The alcohol kills bacteria and dries things out, and the vinegar changes the ph enough to make it difficult for things to take hold. The downside is one smells like an easter egg for a few, but it beats the heck out of outer ear infections.

Note- ear beer will not heal infections; it is only a preventative.

I also dump a splash of drinking water in each ear after every dive. I figure that cant hurt.

I have exactly that in my med kit...a dropper bottle with 50/50 alcohol and vinegar, plus the Phendex, plus lots of Q-tips, plus Doc's Pro Plugs, plus EarShield (used before jumping in with dry ears). I also will use the hair dryer to gently get some air in there. I use all these during a dive trip, except the Phendex, which was the first time an infection took hold.