Hi All
I recently made a 10 night trip in Alor with Damai Liveaboard - loved it! Started in Maumere, headed south around Adonara then to Waiwawong and into the pantar strait, down to Beangabang and then took a long cruise to Kupang - where we got stuck for the night due to the Bali airport closure.
I think if people are looking for big stuff then they will be disappointed, especially in comparison to Raja Ampat. We saw really healthy corals, some sharks and some fish schools - particularly around Adonara - but within the pantar strait itself our dives were mostly macro focused. We hit the new moon on our first day within the strait but no hammerheads, maybe not 100% in the correct spot but the cold upwellings had most of us wishing to stay in the shallows! our trips there in April/May we did spot a mola mola at Kal's Dream
That said, I thought Alor was fantastic, I've been twice before as cruise director, but the critters we found in the region are outstanding - loads of rhinopias, tiny frogfish, seahorses, octopus, ghostpipefish (halimeda variety was a first for me), over 100 nudis were identified, also pipehorses, cuttlefish, mandarin fish, lady bugs and those weird tongue parasites in anemone fish. Great variety and certainly rival other critter locations in Indonesia, but you have the added benefits of variety in the dive sites too.
The piers at Waiwawong and Beangabang are totally stunning with loads of soft coral encrusted around the supports.
One of the best things was the lack of other divers. Only at Pak Jan's Village on Pura island did we see another group, and even then only the cross over from their end and our beginning. The rest of the time it was just our group. The Blue Manta was around but we were never diving the same spots at the same time, which can happen in Raja Ampat.
My advice is to go there!
