Trip Report - NAD Resort - Lembeh - October 2011

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AlMitch

Contributor
Messages
991
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504
Location
Singapore
# of dives
200 - 499
In Oct 2011 my wife and I and a good friend spent four nights at NAD Resort on Lembeh Island.
None of us had ever been muck diving before and my expectation levels were not very high going in,
BUT we were all BLOWN AWAY!! We loved it. Muck diving in Lembeh is like this super chilled super relaxing treasure hunt.
The critters you spot are mind boggling.

To keep this report quick let me break things down.

Travel:
We live in Singapore so it was a quick 3hr flight to Manado. We were picked up at the airport by a
resort driver and driven to Bitung harbour The drive is scenic and it took us just over an hour.
After a little wait at Bitung harbour we were whisked to the resort on one of the spacious dive boats.

NAD Resort:
Simon (the owner) runs a really friendly, cozy, well run resort. You get great bang for you buck here.
The food is good, the beer is cold. We stayed in one of the bungalows and I would recommend staying
in one if you go to NAD. They are more private and have a cozier feeling to them. The cheaper rooms
(our friend stayed in one) are clean and practical but you right next to your neighbour. All rooms have AC, which is helpful.
The camera room has sufficent room for a number of big rigs.

Diving:
We arrived at about 4pm and were dead keen to get wet ASAP. SO Simon arranged a night dive for us at Nudi Falls.
What an amazing first dive at Lembeh, swimming eels, crabs of every kind and colour, tiny juv. boxies, tiny squid,
cuttlefish, octopus... etc etc. It was a great big WELCOME TO LEMBEH! We were hooked!
Over the next two days we dived an number of the usual muck spots, TK 1 & TK 3, Hairball, etc....
The majority of the dives are on black sand slopes. Depth was max 20m but most of the time was spent at 12m or less.
Dive times average 70min, with one lasting 80. Viz wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be, it averaged about 7-10m which is perfectly do-able.
Right here's the list of critters that got me really smiling: Hairy Frogfish (man what an amazing creature), painted frogfish,
ornate and robut ghost pipefish, Ambon Scorpionfish and a ton of other types of scorpionfish, a 2m long banded seasnake
(that got quite interested with my focus light), coconut & longarmed & mimic & motototi (excuse spelling, a small octo with two blue rings) octopus,
star gazer snake eel (during the day), juv cow fish, 3 different coloured pygmy seahorses, two other kinds of sea horses, tons of bright and
colourful nudi's, electric clams etc etc
On the last day we decided to take a break from the black sand and took a trip out to the northern point of Lembeh Island and dove a
very pretty pinacle with a big school of unicornfish and my mate saw a blacktip shark. We then dove a really colourful wall, with big fans
and two caves to explore, my highlight was a small family of long-nosed hawkfish.

Dive boat and crew:
The boats are all comfortable and spacious.
The dive crew... simply brilliant. You told them once what you wanted to drink after a dive and after that it was waiting for you once you
were towled down and ready for it. They were always helpful and always cheerful.
We had Marcel (AKA Princess Leia) as our dive guide the whole trip and he did a great job finding all the super camoflaged critters.

In all I would highly recommend NAD and Lembeh in general.

You can find a few of my pics (and one or two are my wife's, it was her first trip with a camera in hand and she did brilliantly for her first time)
from the trip at the following flickr page:
Lembeh Dive Trip - Oct 2011 - a set on Flickr
(If that didn't work then search in Flickr "Lembeh Dive Trip - Oct 2011"
 
AlMitch: Cajun Diva & I share your opinion of muck diving. It was our first experience also and we too were blown away. Thanks for the great trip report......you lucky dog, living just a 3 hour flight away from Lembeh.

ps. thanks again for all the Singapore info which made our return home trip such a pleasure!
 
Yep ditto for Lembeh, one of my favourite destinations. Did you manage to see the harlequin shrimps? We got lucky when Johann brought us down on the last day and found them! I was the only diver at that spot with him so got lots of shots :cool2:

AlMitch werent you also going on some liveaboard to R/A? Was it the Indo Siren?
 
It seems stupid to get so excited about something so simple, but at the risk of sounding like a geek, I just LOVED the electric clam! That was the most fascinating thing I've ever seen :blinking:
 
Gee13 yip we are boarding the Indo Siren in Sorong harbour in 6 weeks and counting!! CAN NOT WAIT!!
CajunDiva & Diver, Singapore is a great city and we love showing it off to people, so it's my pleasure. That electric clam is just crazy!! We stared at it for ages!! And yes you did sound like a bit of a geek, ha ha ha :wink: but my wife and I have a whole set of identification books including a telephone directory sized nudibranch identification book, so we are definitely big time geeks! :dork2:
 
I'm going to offer up a somewhat different view of NAD, or at least NAD since Simon assumed ownership a year ago. I stayed there in July '10 while Mike was running the place and loved it...so much so that I immediately referred 4 friends there and that when I was able to come back to Lembeh this year, I didn't even think of staying elsewhere. During the booking process, I wasn't initially given a discount that was listed on the website until I brought it up, and was given a somewhat difficult time on when I could begin diving that wasn't a problem when Mike was there, but again I didn't think of staying anywhere else. As I was in a remote area of Maluku at the time without reliable phone or internet, I'd asked Simon to have someone call one pharmacy on my behalf in Manado to see if they had a prescription I needed, as a couple of hours in Manado was going to be my only day in a semi major city for a month or so, and the medication might have to be ordered, etc. While an unusual request, it was an easy one, and one that Simon said that he would do. Weeks passed and I followed up a couple of times when I had an internet connection, but I could never really get an answer as to whether a call was made, so I politely reminded him, and one occasion finally he said he did call, but the pharmacy was closed and he would try again, but I heard nothing. It was now just a day before my arrival and I was in the airport in Makassar and emailed again, this time more frustrated. Simon, who had become rather rude in the last couple of emails, emailed me this time that I "must be off my meds" and that he was now going to cancel my reservation! This left me stranded with no reservation in Lembeh the night before I was supposed to arrive.

Fortunately I was able to find accommodation at Bastianos next door. As I was leaving Manado they ran me by the pharmacy and they had my medication in stock...they also mentioned to me that they were open 24 hours 7 days a week, so Simon clearly never called. A 2 minute request from a repeat customer led to all this!! I found out while at Bastianos that Mike had left when Simon took over, and the head dive guide, I think his name was Nan...also one of the best guides I've ever been with, was just about to leave as well.

Now are you going to have this same exact circumstance with NAD..of course not. But if you are someone who had a great experience while Mike was there under the prior owner, just be aware from my illustration that Simon clearly does not have the same attention to service that you might be used to. And cancelling a booking like that last minute was inexcusable.

Sorry to hijack your thread...I'm glad you enjoyed Lembeh, it's my favorite place in the world. I believe it letting people know when you have a great experience and also calling people out and having them be responsible for their actions if one doesnt...something I told Simon in my final email to him, so that's what I'm doing in a small way here...
 
Hey Ocdiver1.
Your story sucks! I'd be pretty bleak if I went through that myself!
BUT from my experience I can not say a single bad thing about Simon or the way he runs the resort. His emails responces were alway prompt and courtious, and we never had any issues during the 5 days we were there. We had a few long chats with Simon and his wife while we were there and they are a fantastic couple and great hosts.
OC you should have started your own thread on this issue, it would probably get more airtime that way. Any ways I'm sure every single resort will disappoint one or two customers sooner or later.
 
Glad you had a different experience...to me from almost the first email it seemed as if NAD had become a much different place under the new ownership. Mine was the most bizarre experience i've had in a lifetime of travel!
 
Hi Alex,

Thanks for the nice review, were happy that you had I nice time and took the time to write on here, hopefully we'll see you again soon :) We just found a wonderpus with eggs which was awesome. Hopefully you guys can head back in January and find the Bluerings? (They started appearing already).

Sorry to do a hi-jack, but unfortunately in this day and age of online forumming I feel a response should be made...

Dear Alan,

Firstly, I think it is wonderful that you had a great time in Lembeh. Obviously we do not want to get into an online argument, but I feel it would be appropriate for me to reply with something from our side :)

Secondly, yes we agree is was one of the strangest experiences we've ever had.

The first time you stayed, Mike and I were both running the resort, I was on vacation when you visited. We had made you a very fair offer for your 2nd stay, but we had had to charge you a single supplement. Mike made you a wonderful offer for your first stay that unfortunately we could not repeat at that time of the year. I think that happens throughout the world, especially in the economic downturn.

For the Medications (as outlined in my mails to you at the time), I was in Jakarta in the few days before you arrived and had tried to pick up the medications in two different pharmacies but they would not give them to me (Senayan Mall, Central Jakarta), based on the usage that had been described to me by you (their use in Indonesia, and online is very different to what you described them for). All strong drugs of that type are 'prescription only' in Indonesia and not something anyone can arrange on your behalf. I believe from your communications in the aftermath that you had found them in the pharmacy we recommended in Manado, but in the pharmacies in Bitung (closed on sundays) we could not get a clear answer from the girl on the phone as to their stock levels for prescriptive drugs. We directed you to the place where they stocked them, but could not make a promise on stock levels as this info is not available to the public over the phone.

It saddens me that it has led to all this, but we tried very hard to get hold of them on your behalf, but after trying twice in the capital and Bitung (whilst receiving frequent emails as to the status of your request) with the medications in question we felt it better that you take the standard procedure of visiting the doctor/pharmacy yourself, when this was not well received I did something that I have not had to do in 10 years of working in hospitality, and turn someone away. It is deeply regrettable that we had to take that action, but with me being away and my wife carrying my first child back in the resort I felt it to be the best course for all parties concerned. Of course, we both could have handled things better, and this bizarre experience is something we continue to learn from.

I see that you lived up to your promise to damage us online, I am very sorry that it came to this.

Hopefully we can both take something from this and move on, we are all very pleased that you enjoyed your time in Lembeh even though, in the end, it was not with us.

Best Regards,

Simon

**EDIT** - Just for clarity, the first request for a room was in the morning on Saturday, 5th March, with the help/meds request hitting out inbox at 17.57 the same day. For a stay starting on Tuesday the 8th March.
 
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If i needed Medications on a trip i would bring plenty with me.not possible to find out total stock levels at Pharmacy,medication where prescription is not needed at home UK may need one in US or in this case Indonesia,more so in a place like Indonesai,I would imagine the medication was ok to take and still dive,right

Cancelling at the last moment was very harsh indeed,staying next door i would of took the opportunity to visit to sort that one out.I am sure it is regrettable on Nad side to do anything like that and strongly think that this can be sorted out offline and maybe no S/Supplement next time as a bonus.

Back to diving, AlMitch good time was had then and all you saw on your list,what i have not seen from it and seen plenty of them but not a family of long nose hawkfish,that would of been cute to see.was hoping there was a pix but you can only find one pix whichever way you look.which is nice shot,see you use G11.i use G11 and G12 but i don't use strobe as i feel it scares the creatures,does that mean i am a geek too. But i can still get some very nice shots will add a link soon from my Papua trip.
 
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