Top 3 Indo!

[gee13]

Hi Guys

Im very interested in running a survey for those who have actually toured extensively through Indonesia to rate their Top 5 dive areas. In terms of category diving based on Visibility, Coral Health, Marine Bio - Diversity. Please rate only if you have actually dived the area. If you dont have 5 that's fine. Just list where you dived and what you rate. Look forward to the responses.

An example would be:

1) Raja Ampat
Viz 4*
Corals 5*
Marine Life 5*

 

[ncchuck]

Komodo Dancer Route
Vis 4
Corals 4
Marine Life 4

Lembeh
Vis 3
Corals 3
Marine Life 4

Raja Ampat
Vis 4
Corals 5++++
Marine Life 5

 

[Andy_from_Germany]

Alor:
Vis: 5 (during my dives - approx 50 during 5 visits - always > 20 meters)
Corals: 5 (all intact, huge coral gardens)
Marine Life: 5 (both, small and large in huge quantities)

Lombok (the Gilis):
Vis: 3 (around 10 to 15m)
Corals: 1.5 (most of them broken due to dynamite fishing and natural causes)
Marine Life: 3 (apart of large quantities of turtles not much)

Lombok (South, "Magnet"):
Vis: 2 (< 10m)
Corals: 2 (it's a rock, therefore not many corals)
Marine Life: 2 (but Hammerhead Sharks ;-) )

Flores (Labuan Bajo towards Rinca):
Vis: 4 (15 to 20m)
Corals: 3.5 (some places good, some with less corals)
Marine Life: 3.5 (lots of Mantas)

HTH,

Andy

 

[silent running]

Alor:
Vis: 5 (during my dives - approx 50 during 5 visits - always > 20 meters)
Corals: 5 (all intact, huge coral gardens)
Marine Life: 5 (both, small and large in huge quantities)

Lombok (the Gilis):
Vis: 3 (around 10 to 15m)
Corals: 1.5 (most of them broken due to dynamite fishing and natural causes)
Marine Life: 3 (apart of large quantities of turtles not much)

Lombok (South, "Magnet"):
Vis: 2 (< 10m)
Corals: 2 (it's a rock, therefore not many corals)
Marine Life: 2 (but Hammerhead Sharks ;-) )

Flores (Labuan Bajo towards Rinca):
Vis: 4 (15 to 20m)
Corals: 3.5 (some places good, some with less corals)
Marine Life: 3.5 (lots of Mantas)

HTH,

Andy

Hello Andy, on a 0-5 rating system, I second your Alor rating:

Viz: 5, best I've ever seen, well over 100ft most sites, except in the bay, which can't be helped.

Corals: 5, fantastic hard coral and soft corals, huge variety, as healthy as any I've seen, including Papua New Guinea.

Marine life: 5, big and small, plenty of sharks, big tuna, dolphins, frog fishes, mandarin fish, coconut octupus, rhinopias, etc...


Komodo

Viz: 4, some bad viz down south on both trips, in both seasons, 2 trips.

Corals: 4.5, not quite as much variety of hard and soft corals as Alor.

Marine life: 4.25, not as many big apex predators as Alor and not as much variety of small life as Alor or Ambon, but more mantas than Alor, Ambon or Bali.


Ambon

Viz: 4.5, mostly very good, but some inshore viz was not so great, probably because of the rainfall runoff and mountainous nature of the island.

Corals: 4.5, healthy and good variety. But way too much trash in the water.

Marine life: 4.75, plenty of sharks, lots of giant trevally, large schools of fish, even saw a dead whale in the harbor, but not as much variety as Alor. Small stuff was amazing, best I've seen in Indonesia-rhinopias, cockatoo waspfish, inimicus, many types ghost pipe fishes and scorpian fishes, some huge decorator crabs, excellent night diving right off the resort.


Bali

Viz: 3.5, the farther from Bali, the better it got, with farthest point of Nusa Penida being excellent.

Corals: 3, a substantial amount of bad, silted, dead areas near shore and on the near side of Nusa Penida, but over all, some good variety and some very healthy areas on the far side of Nusa Penida.

Marine Life: 3.75, some really nice big stuff-Big mantas at Manta Point, saw dolphins underwater there too. Good small stuff at some sights, plenty of fish, especially in the far side of Nusa Penida.


Lombok, Trawangan

Viz: 4, mostly very good

Corals: 2, near shore, mostly silt covered and broken, and not much variety, some healthy stuff farther from shore. Probably related to the high number of divers going there.

Marine life: 2.5, not terrible in terms of numbers of fish, but nothing big and not much variety.


Always nice to take a trip down dive memory lane, -Andy

 

[kkfok]

Sangalaki/Maratua/Kakaban/Derawan - Borneo
Visibility : 3-4
Coral : 3
Marine Life : 4.5, a good mixture of macro stuff and big stuff. I saw 3 types of pygmy seahorse, many nudibranch, mandarin fish, leaf scorpion...
and at the same time there were lots of turtle, barracuda, jackfish, eagleray, sharks and some manta. There is also a jellyfish lake at Kakaban.


Bangka/ Gangga - North Sulawesi
Visibility : 4
Coral : 3.5
Maine Life : 3.5, mostly macro stuff.


Bali
Visibility : 3-4
Coral : 3-4
Marine Life : 3.5, manta and mola mola at Nusa Penida, bumphead parrotfish, jackfish and lots of macro stuff at Tulamben/Seraya.
Good corals and fish life, good mixture of macro and bigger stuff at Menjagan island. Menjagan Island is my favourite.

 

[gee13]

Thanks guys keep them coming, we are starting to get a basic picture here, no one tipping Bunaken yet then??

Kevster, Travelsnj, Kathydee I would love your input as well.

 

[kathydee]

Thanks guys keep them coming, we are starting to get a basic picture here, no one tipping Bunaken yet then??

Kevster, Travelsnj, Kathydee I would love your input as well.

I'll offer what I can as there are many places I've yet to visit and conditions change so much with storm, etc its sometimes hard to paint an exact picture of what to expect. For example I visited Bunakan 2 years in a row. The first year we were lucky to have 20m vis, the second year we had a day of what I believe was 40m vis - absolutely amazing.

I'd have to rate Sipadan is perhaps the most amazing place I've been (even though the permitting system is a bit of a nightmare)
Hit it on a 35+ meter vis day (which is rare), it was unbelievable
Corals were nice
Marine life (many sharks/baracuta/turtles)

Lembeh would deffinately rank in the top three
Critter heaven
but overall pretty low vis 10m? and not the most beautiful diving.
But tie it in with a trip to Bunakan for blue water sharks/turtles and nice coral while snorkling and you should feel pretty complete.

Apo Island In the Philippines
Had some of the most beautiful soft coral and well preserved biodiversity I've seen
Lots of small colorful marine life & turtles
Include a stop in Alona Beach to dive Balicasag for a blue water fix.


I like Bali's top side scene the best. Very friendly colorful culture & good diving!

Feel free to skim through my profile and PM me with question on any of the places I've been.

Now I'm wondering about Alor??

 

[Kevster]

Location
Viss
Corals
Marine Life
My Fav Place
Palau Weh
2
3
2
9th
Bali
4
3
3.5
4th
Lombok
3
2.5
2.5
8th
Komodo
5
5
5
1st
Alor
5
4
3.5
5th
Ambon
3
4
5
6th
Papua
3
5
5
3rd
Bunaken
4
3.5
3
7th
Lembeh
2
2
5
2nd

(sorry about the format. I created a table but the format chaged when i created the post)

 

[Wayan]

Difficult to answer this objectively as areas offer different types of diving and thus may not be too every ones liking, walls / coral heads/pinnacles / muck.

Tops for Critters Lembeh

Tops 3 Raja Empat (south) / Komodo / Ambon & Banda

Bali is up there with them all.

Visibility well variable depends on the season and the day. It would be interesting to hear what everyone's definition of this is (I suspect there are a multitude of answers)

Bunaken not in there as I do not like walls