Indonesia
Diving
Summary
Bali: Mola Mola & possibly Manta Rays; Tulamben - Liberty Wreck;
Menjangan - colorful corals and fish; may be more crowded than other
places - May want to stay at Nusa Lembongan for an early start to beat
the day trippers from Bali to Mola Mola sites
Nusa Tenggara: Komodo highly rated for abundance, pelagics - better on
a live aboard;
Sulawesi: Bunaken - nice walls, abundance of life; Lembeh - small world,
interesting/strange critters in the muck
Papua: Raja Ampat Islands for pristine reefs & abundance of life; far
Sumatra: Banda Aceh/Palau Weh - off the beaten path, very interesting
sea scapes, pelagics, wilder, less crowded
Kalimantan: Derawan - Manta rays, sharks, a lot of current
~>scubaboard.com > Forums > Indonesia > 278758-best-dive-sites-indonesia
+ - Bali
Reputable Dive Shops
~>scubaboard.com > Forums > Indonesia >
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~>scubaboard.com > Forums > Indonesia > 286448-best-dive-locations-bali
+ - Mola Mola
@ Nusa Pnida, Nusa Lembongan, Crystal Bay
+ - Manta Point
~>
+ - Nusa Tenggara
+ - Komodo
~>scubaboard.com > Forums > Indonesia >
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~>
Kalimantan
+ - Sumatra
+ - Palau Weh, Banda Aceh
~>lumbalumba.com > Divesites
~>scubaboard.com > Forums > Indonesia >
248044-pulau-weh-trip-report-august-2008-a
Originally Posted by Manta Man View Post
Hi ZebraxOR,
We dived at Sea breeze too, excellent. Is Terry & Diana still running
the place? Anyway, more interested in Banda Aceh- Palau Weh, apart from
the Canyon & that deep dive, what the rest of the diving like there in
terms of coral & abundant or not fish life life. Sharks or Rays on any
of the other dives? Would you say it was as good or better than Bunaken?
Thx
Manta Man
Hey MantaMan.
Yup! Terry and Diana are still running the show. Terry is actually in
the process of building a new house on the mainland, and refurbishing
the dive centre. They plan to knock down the old one in the next year or
so, and build something entirely fresh/kick arse.
Good question about Banda Aceh (and the island of Weh).
I think Weh is better for "big things", in generally, but, that being
said - we went to a lot of sites there:
Divesites n photos, Lumba Lumba Diving Centre, Pulau Weh, Sumatra,
Indonesia
In Weh, we saw the largest Moray Eel's we'd ever seen. Like, enourmous.
So large, you couldn't fit arms around them style enourmous. The
creatures there are very different. We saw some of the most unusual
types of eel we'd ever encountered. Strange black and white ones, with
hexagonal honey-comb patterns, black ones, blue ones, and snake-like
ones. Really spectacular, and seemingly, almost friendly! Sharks were
more abundant at Weh. Rays were actually a bit irregular. I saw one in
the time I was at Weh.
The coral on some of the more sheltered dives, and fans are quite
stunning too, but for sheer coral species, I actually thought Bunaken
was better.
I think overall, Bunaken offers more enjoyable/relaxing diving, but Weh
is more of an adventure, where you go big, see big things and have
jaw-dropping sea scapes.
If I were a diver into "colour", I think bunaken is where I'd be. If I
liked blue-water and rocks/enourmous fish, maybe Weh. That being said,
some of the huge trevalley and bump-head Wrasse we saw were
predominantly hanging in Bunaken too...
Both good. Just different. I will say that, Bunaken's hosts made it feel
more like home to us. Terry is a lovely guy. Weh, at Lumba-lumba did
feel slightly "corporate", despite being very remote, and VERY comfortable.
+ - Sulawesi
+ - Bunaken/Lembeh
Lembeh for rare, interesting, weird critters in the muck
Bunaken ?
~>PICS at the end of page 2
scubaboard.com > Forums > Indonesia >
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Never did Bali but did Bunaken and Lembah last year. It is by far the
best diving I've done. The reefs are the healthiest and the abondant
fish life is amazing. The vis is at 100'+. Bottom times of over 60
minutes. The tops of the reefs in Bunaken are mostly at 15' to 25' so
your saftey stops are looking at critters not the blue. If you are going
to Bunaken you have to do Lembah Straight. I never thought "Muck diving"
would be so intresting but I would do it again in a heartbeat. Have fun!!!
Went to Bunaken and Lembeh over Christmas 2008, having heard about these
"magical" places every since I got certified in 2002 on the Perhentian
Islands off West Malaysia. Stayed at Two Fish Divers at both sites,
started with three days in Bunaken and then four in Lembeh. As someone
already mentioned, Two Fish's Lembeh operations is total shambles -- it
is basically a camp site with a few shacks dressed up as bungalows. And
at USd 25 a night it is not even cheap. But their dive guide Opu makes
up for it all - this guy is just amazing. He found us a baby frogfish
(looks like a tiny nudibranch), the smallest squids and all the other
stuff you hope to see at Lembeh: Ambon Scorpionfish, attacking
Frogfishes, cuttlefish large medium and small sized, and one of our
divers spotted the wonderpuss on an dawn dive when the rest of us was
too tired. They do long dives -- I have one in my log of 94 minutes.
Lembeh is for the lovers of weird stuff. It is basically sandy slopes
with very little coral, but heaps of the cool and weird. I enjoyed it,
but my buddy was a bit offended by the junk floating in the water you
need to get through when you go down -- including, euh, human waste. I
just considered it a matter of timing. If you have some money to spend,
I think the KKB resort is the way to do it -- we looked at it with
healthy envy from our camp site.
It's rainy season in Bunaken around Xmas, so we stuck mostly to diving
around Bunaken island itself. The reefs are very healthy, but I was
surprised that there's not that much fish. Sure there's enough fish to
look at -- but not the big schools of small cute fish you sometime see
elswehere in Asia. Also the variety of fish was a bit dull -- we had
dives (3x a day) when we saw nothing "special". Now I am a spoiled diver
ever since having the opportunity to dive (and stay) on Sipadan, which
has since become my benchmark, and I enjoyed the diving around Bunaken,
but I was not blown away by it. My diving buddy, equally spoiled, felt
the same, as did a very nice couple of dive instructors from the
Maledives who were doing some diving on their own off-season. They
skipped some dives in Bunaken 'cause they didn't see the point. By
contrast, they didn't stop diving in Lembeh.
I'd say that if you are sure you like the muck diving in Lembeh (which
is, in my mind, really cool), then go for that and add a few days in
Bunaken because you are in the neighbourhood anyway. If you are not sure
about Lembeh, then I think, there's more fun places to dive in Asia then
Bunaken, with more flexibilty to see different places. Like someone
said, if you stay on Bunaken -- you'll be confined to your resort. We
stayed at Two Fish on Bunaken Island, which was okay.
For example the Visayas in the Philippines, where you can dive six or
seven different spots in say 3 weeks, all equals of Bunaken but with
their own twist. Pescador Island for the whitetip sharks and the vast
amount of fishes, Apo Island for the beauty of the reefs and the
mandarins and weird stuff close to Dumaguette, Alona Beach because it is
paradise to stay (bars, other people, various restaurants, decent
hotels) and Balicasag Island rivals Bunaken in every aspect, Sohod Bay
because no one goes there and there's whalesharks in season, Malapascua
where you can see the threshers and the sea snakes near Gato Island
which is a brilliant day trip. All within 2/3 hours travel distance from
each other, with Sogod Bay the exception taken the better part of 12 hours.
I went to Bali for surfing after the week in Sulawesi, and did not try
the local diving so cannot comment there. Am off to scout Pulau Weh off
Northern Sumatra over Easter and will report back how it compares to
Bunaken here afterwards.
Dive Shops/Resorts
-Two Fish
Trekking
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