2 weeks of diving and exploring - Sulawesi, Komodo or somewhere else?

[Juli124]

Murex at Bangka have just upgraded their facilities and it's a really chilled out place to stay. Last year me and my buddy were first to use their new bungalows behind the old ones and it was magnificent as they had just opened after Covid.

You can chill on the beach and go snorkelling and shore diving at will if you skip a boat dive.

I stayed at Siladen back in 2015, they did have fresh water issues back then, which I assume should now be resolved, perhaps someone can verify this. The food at Siladen Resort was outstanding and is run by a Portuguese couple Ana and Miquel, who previously ran Lembeh Resort for a few years up until 2014.

No shore diving from Siladen though!

I would do both islands again though.

Very helpful, thank you!

And thanks to everyone in this thread! This really is by far the best and most knowledgable community, I've come across.
I think we're heavily leaning towards Sulawesi and saving Komodo for when we either both feel confident enough or my husband has clearly decided against continuing his scuba "career".

Ideally I would love to do Bunaken for 2-3 days and then Bangka for a week or so, maybe 5 days. But that might not leave enough time for explorations before/after. I also really enjoy that feeling of "feeling at home" at a dive shop/resort. And that has so far always taken some 3-4ish days at least. We'll see.

 

[Manneca]

I have stayed and dive with Alami Alor twice and am booked for next June. It is great diving. I love the couple running the place, lots of fun. Lots of flexibility with the diving too. Last November, there were divers who wanted to do currenty dives and some that didn't so we got to choose which boat we went on. several dive buddies chose different boats (me and my buddy for instance) and that was fine. No more than 4 divers per guide. It can be cold. First time there we saw thousands, and I do mean thousands, of dolphins in the water. It was November and at the full moon. this year, in October we saw a blue whale, actually there were three in the bay. The food is good, they do fish a lot but if you get tired of fish, you can have chicken. Alami Alor is at the top of my list for great diving. (I don't care whether I see big stuff or not, I love little stuff.)

 

[CWK]

Saw a drone video of 3 orcas on AD housereef (apparently today or yesterday) : any chances?

That was a few days befor I arrived. I met the guests who saw the orcas,

 

[Plutonist]

I’m at Alor Divers now. The two Dutch dive managers are relatively new, having been with Alor Divers since March this year.

Hi, in this forum one always reads that Alor should be dived land based because of the experience with dive conditions vs. liveaboards that pass only twice a year. Did you feel that the recent change in management had an impact in this regard?

I'm eyeing Alor, but am somewhat anxious concerning the extreme currents one reads about. We did a few reef-hook dives in Raja Ampat and drift dives with negative entry are fine, but I wouldn't want to swim against current at 30+ m. I would hate to travel all the way to Alor and then be restricted to macro dives because the wide angle dives are "too much".

Thanks.

 

[CWK]

Hi, in this forum one always reads that Alor should be dived land based because of the experience with dive conditions vs. liveaboards that pass only twice a year. Did you feel that the recent change in management had an impact in this regard?

No

 

[MacroFan]

Re Komodo recommend also Scubajunkie, who has landbased operation but within the park so a bit closer to the dive sites and has that remoteness feel rather than being in the mess of LBJ.

 

[Alexa vancity]

Hi, in this forum one always reads that Alor should be dived land based because of the experience with dive conditions vs. liveaboards that pass only twice a year. Did you feel that the recent change in management had an impact in this regard?

I'm eyeing Alor, but am somewhat anxious concerning the extreme currents one reads about. We did a few reef-hook dives in Raja Ampat and drift dives with negative entry are fine, but I wouldn't want to swim against current at 30+ m. I would hate to travel all the way to Alor and then be restricted to macro dives because the wide angle dives are "too much".

Thanks.

I stayed at Alami Alor and Savu in South Alor ( a week in each back to back due to availability ). More macro and muck in Alami but Savu had more variety. We were in Alor for two weeks and didn’t dive more then once place twice. The topography was so different between the two places too even though only 45 minutes apart. Highly recommend either resorts but if I were to go back I would do Savu Resort. No one likes current we avoided them frequently and changed dive sites daily. Staff at both resorts knew the exact times and days to go where. There is a definite science to it. We never got “Alor’d” but 2/3 dives out of 36 we experienced a mad shift in current so not bad. I wouldn’t let it deter you if you have had experience. I had been to RA before too and all months being equal I would chose Alor again over RA. We rarely went to 30m either so many great things to see at 20m. We only did four dives in the blue ( same sites twice ).

 

[Juli124]

Thanks everyone! I just wanted to update this, in case someone runs across this post later on.
We've decided on Sulawesi for this trip.
We already booked the the international flights to/from Jakarta and are figuring out our trip plan. The rough sketch is:
- Makassar with day trip to Rammang Rammang and Leang Leang cave
- Toraja
- then off to Manado
- visit Tangkoko national park on the way to Bangka
- finish off with a week at Murex Bangka

If anyone has done a similar trip, I'd love to get input on the land based part, especially the logistics of Makassar-Toraja-Manado. We haven't yet decided on forms of transportation and how to split the time we have so that we see as much as possible but also don't rough it too much. Don't want to arrive at Bangka and be sick and exhaustet. ^^

 

[hedonist222]

Murex dive resort has dive resorts in both Manado and Bangka.
They have a package where they take you from either location to the other by boat. The best part is you do two dives along the way.
The whole trip is only 3 or 4 hours including two dives.

But this way you don't lose half a day commuting on a boring highway followed by a boring boat trip (between mainland and Bangka island).

 

[Juli124]

Murex dive resort has dive resorts in both Manado and Bangka.
They have a package where they take you from either location to the other by boat. The best part is you do two dives along the way.
The whole trip is only 3 or 4 hours including two dives.

But this way you don't lose half a day commuting on a boring highway followed by a boring boat trip (between mainland and Bangka island).

Ah yes, I thought about doing that but with only about a week reserved for diving, that would have been too stressful, after a relatively "on the go" first week. So we opted to choose and stay longer in one place to really wind down.