billt4sf
Contributor
Banda is nice. Good diving. A great combination of really relaxed, yet very competent dive operation.
Blue Motion good op. Very flexible to meet your needs, for me that's gearing up close to the jump point so I don't have to walk with the gear on, and taking my gear off in the water. They take care of our gear all week, there are no more than four divers plus dive guide with a group, good briefings, they take you deep if you want to look for big stuff but then end each dive with a long time on a shallow (and usually very nice) reef, air only at this time, food is decent / good but not more than that. Two hour surface intervals - it's a LONG way from anywhere if you get bent. Nice place to sit out after the dive and have a snack (provided) with your dive buddies. A great combination of really relaxed, yet very competent dive operation. Glad I went with them. There is another dive op, but I'm not sure if they are ready for prime time.
Nice mix of reefs and big stuff -- tuna underneath us, bumphead parrotfish, giant trevaly (sp?), some saw hammerheads but I have not -- yet! Seems to me that some of the reefs are highly impacted by bleaching but I am not an expert, definitely there was a fair amount of dead coral. Water temps are 30 - 32. Mostly walls, some with like caves..
Far more people (divers) than I expected! I thought it was a small out-of-the-way place -- but it is on the tourist circuit now. There were 20 - 30 divers each day with Blue Motion. You better reserve ahead -- even more so for accommodations as a boat comes in twice a week, but no one can leave until the NEXT day. Two dive boats, one small and fast, one large and slow. We did not find the reefs too crowded. We passed other groups from our dive boat most dives, but I never experienced anything remotely resembling a clusterf**k. We did two dives / day, you could do a third night dive, too.
We stayed at Celu Bitang which is the "best" place in Banda, I think we paid abut 350K/night. Includes 24-hr electricity, aircon, decent (not great) food, Rafa at Blue Motion can fix you up with the accommodation choices. Be aware that if you stay close to the mosque, you are going to get blasted four ties a day starting at 4:30am. I enjoyed the recitations from our hotel as it is far enough away.
The ride over from Ambon is a PITA but what are you going to do. Some would like it I guess. You might want to "splurge" for the VIP section in the ferry -- seats are more comfortable, aircon more functional, but they do play movies (we saw an American "get the radical terrorists" thing) and Indo music videos. They were WAAAAYY loud at first, we asked them to turn it down and they did. I had to literally crawl on hands and knees for about 2m to disembark. Bring some snacks for the long ride.
Banda over and out!
- Bill & Mark
Blue Motion good op. Very flexible to meet your needs, for me that's gearing up close to the jump point so I don't have to walk with the gear on, and taking my gear off in the water. They take care of our gear all week, there are no more than four divers plus dive guide with a group, good briefings, they take you deep if you want to look for big stuff but then end each dive with a long time on a shallow (and usually very nice) reef, air only at this time, food is decent / good but not more than that. Two hour surface intervals - it's a LONG way from anywhere if you get bent. Nice place to sit out after the dive and have a snack (provided) with your dive buddies. A great combination of really relaxed, yet very competent dive operation. Glad I went with them. There is another dive op, but I'm not sure if they are ready for prime time.
Nice mix of reefs and big stuff -- tuna underneath us, bumphead parrotfish, giant trevaly (sp?), some saw hammerheads but I have not -- yet! Seems to me that some of the reefs are highly impacted by bleaching but I am not an expert, definitely there was a fair amount of dead coral. Water temps are 30 - 32. Mostly walls, some with like caves..
Far more people (divers) than I expected! I thought it was a small out-of-the-way place -- but it is on the tourist circuit now. There were 20 - 30 divers each day with Blue Motion. You better reserve ahead -- even more so for accommodations as a boat comes in twice a week, but no one can leave until the NEXT day. Two dive boats, one small and fast, one large and slow. We did not find the reefs too crowded. We passed other groups from our dive boat most dives, but I never experienced anything remotely resembling a clusterf**k. We did two dives / day, you could do a third night dive, too.
We stayed at Celu Bitang which is the "best" place in Banda, I think we paid abut 350K/night. Includes 24-hr electricity, aircon, decent (not great) food, Rafa at Blue Motion can fix you up with the accommodation choices. Be aware that if you stay close to the mosque, you are going to get blasted four ties a day starting at 4:30am. I enjoyed the recitations from our hotel as it is far enough away.
The ride over from Ambon is a PITA but what are you going to do. Some would like it I guess. You might want to "splurge" for the VIP section in the ferry -- seats are more comfortable, aircon more functional, but they do play movies (we saw an American "get the radical terrorists" thing) and Indo music videos. They were WAAAAYY loud at first, we asked them to turn it down and they did. I had to literally crawl on hands and knees for about 2m to disembark. Bring some snacks for the long ride.
Banda over and out!
- Bill & Mark
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