Indonesia Trip Round 2! This Time North Sulawesi - Opinions Please

[krukster86]

My wife and I spent our honeymoon diving Nusa Lembongan and Gili Trawangan last year and we fell in love with Indonesia. We are in the planning stages of a return trip this summer and have narrowed our focus on diving in North Sulawesi. We are trying to determine if we want to stay in Bunaken or Manado. We are currently looking at the following dive resorts for a 6 night, 6 day (5 diving days + one offgas day) trip:

• Froggies
• Living Colours
• Murex
• Two Fish
• Thalassa
• Tasik Ria
• Lumba Lumba

Some Questions:

1. I figure that we should do at least 1 day of muck diving since we are in the area. Is it worth it to look at a trip to Lembeh Strait (if possible)? Is the muck diving in the Bunaken area OK for a taste of muck diving?
2. Manado or Bunaken? We are primarily looking to dive as much as we can during our stay here, so nightlife/beach bumming is not a concern. Which location in your opinion is better for diving?
3. Any experience with the dive shops/dive resorts listed above?
4. I saw that some shops indicate that they use DIN tank valves. Should I leave my yoke regulator at home?

Let me know if you have any other tips/lessons learned from past experiences.

Thank you!

 

[highdesert]

You might consider Bangka for serveral reasons ...

- Because of its central location between Bunaken and Lembeh, you can arrange day trips by boat to both of them.
- World class soft coral dives literally within minutes. You could spend your whole stay there and not get bored with the diving.
- With an illegal mining operation, blessed by the corrupt North Sulawesi government, about to commence on Bangka, the amazing diving there may not be so amazing for much longer. It is possible that this may eventually also affect the diving at Bunaken, Manado, Poopoh, Siladen, Gangga, Pulisan, and Lembeh. More than likely a local government official is lining his pockets by sanctioning this operation, at the risk of damaging the very lucrative dive tour industry of the entire area, and that apparently outweighs the long-term effects.

Since the dive resorts and dive sites on Bangka are all clustered on the southern tip of the island, you can stay there now and be unaffected by and unaware of this activity. But as I write this, the heavy equipment brought to the island a few weeks ago is now busy cutting roads and developing infrastructure for mining. Come next rainy season, it is difficult to imagine that there will not be significant erosion and run-off into the surrounding waters.

 

[Wingy]

Bangka without a doubt. For all the reasons highdesert has mentioned plus it is a very very special place. The diving is great, better than Bunaken. I try not to dive the same place as I like to explore as much as the world as I can but I will be going back to Bangka ASAP. I am disgusted with this mine.

I stayed at Murex and loved the cabin but did find the boatman and young guide a little ..could have been better. Having said that, I was diving there in absolutely low season when there was only one other guest at the resort and the food got a bit bland, but Murex is one of the founding operations in the area. I tend to look at longevity of a business when choosing who to dive with, they ticked that box.

Id also ad going for a walk (with boots and trousers on) and checking out the topside as well on a short walk. The biodiversity on this island is quite amazing. The diving is excellent. You can always combine with Lembeh and Bunaken.

Dont miss Bangka, its on borrowed time.

 

[krukster86]

Wow, thank you for bringing this information to my attention. I know that Murex has a location on Bangka. I will look into that as well. Very sad news about the mining operation.

 

[highdesert]

Some more information about the mining operation ...

1) Bangka Mining (English) - YouTube

2) Message from Kaka Slank: Stop mining on small islands. Save Bangka - North Sulawesi! - YouTube

 

[Tippytoes12]

We stayed in Bunaken Cha Cha and cannot recommend it highly enough. It is beautifully located away from the other resorts, the bungalows are really nice and you eat family style if you wish....with the other guests and the owners ....a lovely Japanese lady and her Irish / Italian husband. ....guests get the bets of four cultures. The food is extremely good and well you haven't lived infill you have heard some of Rafs great stories.....the diving by the way is awesome.

 

[pughio83]

Personally I would say spend your time in lembeh or Bangka. Bunaken diving in my opinion is good but not great and gets very samey. I saw very little here compared to lembeh. Bangka I hear is great and you can dive all three places if you want, but locally has great coral pinnacles and lots of macro ( see other review from people like Luko). Lembeh is the best macro place I have been and you will be amazed. Bunaken 1-2 days max. I can recommend twofish divers for low cost decent digs and lots of dives! And it looks like it's a case of dive Bangka before it's ruined which is very sad to say :-(

 

[krukster86]

Personally I would say spend your time in lembeh or Bangka. Bunaken diving in my opinion is good but not great and gets very samey. I saw very little here compared to lembeh. Bangka I hear is great and you can dive all three places if you want, but locally has great coral pinnacles and lots of macro ( see other review from people like Luko). Lembeh is the best macro place I have been and you will be amazed. Bunaken 1-2 days max. I can recommend twofish divers for low cost decent digs and lots of dives! And it looks like it's a case of dive Bangka before it's ruined which is very sad to say :-(

Interesting. Bunaken was the place my Indonesian buddy told me to go to for diving. How does it compare to Nusa L or Gili T? After reading these posts, I am also looking at staying in Bangka. Murex has a resort located there, so I contacted them about quotes.

Edit: Any other resorts in Bangka that I should be looking at?

 

[pughio83]

Nusa lembongan is nice, with fantastic healthy corals but limited macro and large fish shoals. The best thing there is for overall beauty and fun drifts, the highlights being the mola mola (July-nov with aug sept oct best) and mantas (year round). Plus the island is so laid back. True island feel. Gilli islands are lovely, diving is good but not great. Macro limited, odd shark or very occasional manta. The islands themselves are great though. Lots of turtles there. Good place for a week and less intensive diving. Depends what you like at the end of day. I like searching for rare creatures and macro or super macro photography hence lembeh suits me better. In fact bali tulumben region is excellent for this also. I spent an entire week in bunaken and did what seemed like the same dives over and over. Nothing big seen, one turtle, hard corals excellent soft corals less so, but just seemed devoid of much fish, crustaceans and nudis. Maybe I just had a bad week but I probably wouldn't go back. I have spent 3 weeks diving lembeh in total and have seen so much. Plus there are coral sites there so not just black sand.

---------- Post added March 13th, 2014 at 09:41 PM ----------

Maybe check out Gangga island as well. People say it's an excellent resort and again located very centrally. Not cheap though!

 

[matts1w]

If you are going to travel all the way from Chicago to Sulawesi, is it possible to find a way to pull the triger and visit where you truly want to be? (R4 or Komodo)