Raja Ampat Liveaboard vs Misool

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I have been to Raja Ampat about 8 times including staying in MER and 2 other resorts in Dampier strait & several liveaboard in Raja Ampat & crossing from Ambon to Raja Ampat.

If I were you and have never been to RA, I would go with liveaboard first to see what RA has to offer.

I have been to Lembeh twice and Ambon once for muck diving. There is some great muck diving and relatively unknown to most in RA, Algae Patch in Batanta that you could go by liveaboard, as shown in my video, below (also many other RA diving sites by going to my YouTube channel: Dan Tirto)



Magic Mountain in Misool also offer oceanic manta cleaning station.



Don’t worry too much about COVID-19. If you have been vaccinated and follow the protocol, you’ll be fine. I went to 8 liveaboards and a dive resort during the pandemic, got COVID-19 tested about 14 times and never contracted once (knock on wood)

When I sailed crossing from Ambon to RA, including Misool, I flew from Jakarta to Ambon and flew back to Jakarta from So-wrong.
This is quite something to say: "Don’t worry too much about COVID-19. If you have been vaccinated and follow the protocol, you’ll be fine."
At the moment 81 million of the Indonesian population of 277 million has been vaccinated with two shots. Mostly with Sinovac. Nobody knows in how far the people which have been vaccinated longer than 6 months ago still are protected against severe disease and death by Covid-19. Antigen and PCR tests can give both false positives and false negatives. No fun if you get a false positive test result at an airport here. Or if your dive buddy had a false negative. If this pandemic should have taught us one thing, it should have been that we cannot predict the developments more than 30 days ahead. The current situation in the Netherlands is a nice example. And as we know, regulations can change last moment in every country. There is not much reason to assume that Delta will be the last variant of concern. If there would be a new and maybe worse wave of Covid-19 in 2022 in Indonesia, visitors could find themselves in very unpredictable circumstances. I am longing to read one single logical reason why this cannot happen.
 
This is quite something to say: "Don’t worry too much about COVID-19. If you have been vaccinated and follow the protocol, you’ll be fine."
At the moment 81 million of the Indonesian population of 277 million has been vaccinated with two shots. Mostly with Sinovac. Nobody knows in how far the people which have been vaccinated longer than 6 months ago still are protected against severe disease and death by Covid-19. Antigen and PCR tests can give both false positives and false negatives. No fun if you get a false positive test result at an airport here. Or if your dive buddy had a false negative. If this pandemic should have taught us one thing, it should have been that we cannot predict the developments more than 30 days ahead. The current situation in the Netherlands is a nice example. And as we know, regulations can change last moment in every country. There is not much reason to assume that Delta will be the last variant of concern. If there would be a new and maybe worse wave of Covid-19 in 2022 in Indonesia, visitors could find themselves in very unpredictable circumstances. I am longing to read one single logical reason why this cannot happen.
What’s your problem? If I don’t have the virus & have been fully vaccinated, statistically, I don’t think I’ll be a threat to anyone.

In addition to that, I bring income to much needed folks over there.
 
Raja Ampat is known for its rich coral and fish-soup dive, mantas are common in the north but not so in Misool, and macro/muck is just not a subject here.

MER is a nice resort, but like many in RA, their speedboat only brings you to a handful of dive sites nearby, as Misool is a huge area, some of the best spots (like Daram) will be missed out.

For first time visitors, it's good to start with a north-to-south lob to see what each part of RA has to offer, and usually I prefer boat that brings less than 10 guests like the Carpe Diem and Manta Mae to name a few.
 
What’s your problem? If I don’t have the virus & have been fully vaccinated, statistically, I don’t think I’ll be a threat to anyone.

In addition to that, I bring income to much needed folks over there.
No problem for me at all if people from abroad want to come here. Would be great for us. I tried to explain that it is not only about the risk that you might infect somebody here or get sick yourself. As it looks now, these risks are small indeed. But traveling international while this pandemic is still going on can let you face very unexpected and unpredictable problems.
 
Just about anything in life, we want to balance between the risks and rewards. I tell what happened to me with my real life data without fear mongering speculation and fake news. Here are my diving trip reports and one written by @scubadada (who was my dive buddy on that trip to Malpelo so I didn’t bother to write one and just post a trip video on his trip report) during the pandemic. I don’t count a couple non diving trips (skiing in Utah and hiking in Big Bend National Park) . I had 14 Covid testing before and after the trips with all negative results. I am fully vaccinated with Moderna, including a recently a Pfizer booster shot without contracting the virus during the pandemic, knock on wood:

Trip Report - Diving in Cocos Dec. 2020 Trip Report








I would have gone to Cocos on Argo (planned for 2 years ahead) for last September but the trip got cancelled due to one of the guest in the trip before mine tested positive so Undersea Hunter grounded the whole crew and operation for my trip.

Stay tune for my next trip report after my next trip to Palau in December.
 
Raja Ampat is known for its rich coral and fish-soup dive, mantas are common in the north but not so in Misool, and macro/muck is just not a subject here.

MER is a nice resort, but like many in RA, their speedboat only brings you to a handful of dive sites nearby, as Misool is a huge area, some of the best spots (like Daram) will be missed out.

For first time visitors, it's good to start with a north-to-south lob to see what each part of RA has to offer, and usually I prefer boat that brings less than 10 guests like the Carpe Diem and Manta Mae to name a few.

Like anything in life, you may be lucky in one and unlucky in another. My last experience in Daram was disappointing and with manta in Magic Mountain in Misool is magical.


 
Just about anything in life, we want to balance between the risks and rewards. I tell what happened to me with my real life data without fear mongering speculation and fake news. Here are my diving trip reports and one written by @scubadada (who was my dive buddy on that trip to Malpelo so I didn’t bother to write one and just post a trip video on his trip report) during the pandemic. I don’t count a couple non diving trips (skiing in Utah and hiking in Big Bend National Park) . I had 14 Covid testing before and after the trips with all negative results. I am fully vaccinated with Moderna, including a recently a Pfizer booster shot without contracting the virus during the pandemic, knock on wood:

Trip Report - Diving in Cocos Dec. 2020 Trip Report








I would have gone to Cocos on Argo (planned for 2 years ahead) for last September but the trip got cancelled due to one of the guest in the trip before mine tested positive so Undersea Hunter grounded the whole crew and operation for my trip.

Stay tune for my next trip report after my next trip to Palau in December.
Here another look at so many trips each year: The travelers who are turning their backs on airplanes
 


A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

Let's keep this thread on topic please. The question was about resort at Misool vs Liveaboard for a first time experience at Raja Ampat.

It is not about other locales in the world.
 

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