Alor ? Best of Indo

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Thanks charlier~
I actually AM going to Alor for a week no matter what. Just looking for another destination close by and easy to get to from Alor to throw in on the vacation. Since I have already been to Bali I was thinking it might be fun to check out another spot- If nothing else works....THEN I'll go back to Bali for the second week!

Have you been to Komodo?
 
No - but is on the list of possible places that our dive op in Alor mentioned!
Would you recommend THAT as a place to go for a second week?
 
Sue, I agree Bali is super easy, but Alor is beautiful and well worth visiting. From Denpasar, we take an early morning flight Kupang with a connecting flight to Alor. Pickup at the airport and 45 min drive to a speed boat that takes us to Pantar Island. You arrive at about 2pm. There are other resorts that have easier access, but we love diving from Pantar Island. The resort provides two dives per day, either two in the morning or one in the morning and another in the afternoon. You will have lots of time at the resort with your group. Non- diving guests can lay around on the beach, walk to little villages on either side of the resort, swim in the morning, and snorkel. You will not see any other bubbles, except from you small group.

Perhaps a good compromise - a week in Bali and a week in Alor.

OK - I'm putting that on my list for when I have an "extra week".


- Bill
 
Oh yeah, really : which part or spots? Was that accessible from a resort or on a liveaboard? Would you recommend anyone Milne bay for the profusion of big fish?

(Anyway, to each their own view, I was also told on this board by an "expert" that Milne bay was only good for muck. Well well well...)

Perhaps the lady at is speaking with her financial mount not her divin mouth? Why would an op that has your business suggest you go elsewhere? Also only muck? Having dived there I can assure you it's not just muck - Laudi yes, but MB has many more sights than Laudi - wrecks to bombies and drop offs.


How big do you want your fish? Whale shark big? Giant Trevallies? Bump Heads? I also found the solitary baras are much bigger than I've seen in Indo PI or FP - especially when they shoot past you flaring their mouth at your face because you stupidly cut your hand and are bleeding while the white tip school about 5m away did nothing lol.

< any ID on the white sea horses at around 5mins??

Deacons Reef below is a hot spot for GTs and Bumpheads.
 
Perhaps the lady at is speaking with her financial mount not her divin mouth? Why would an op that has your business suggest you go elsewhere? Also only muck? Having dived there I can assure you it's not just muck - Laudi yes, but MB has many more sights than Laudi - wrecks to bombies and drop offs.

Far be it from me to "defend" Luko :) but FWIW I have also "been told" that Milne Bay was "just for muck" -- the best muck, the original muck, muck, muck, muck...

I have also tried to make reservations at Tawali and it took....months? to get a response. A VERY long time, anyway! I think that time I "saved" my money and went to RA instead.

- Bill
 
Not a jab at Luko at all Bill - it's a common misconception that Milne Bay is just macro - FWIW it is called the "home" of muck diving or where the term was coined. I was reading through the thread and noticed the information Luko had been given and was looking on YouTube.

TBH I don't know Tawali's dive sites, I've done PNG by private boats only so I've been able to get out a little further perhaps although I do know Tawali do Deacons.

As I said, is it any dive shops interest to tell you to go elsewhere? You generally don't get recommendations for another dive spot in the same geographic area, thus economic competitors for a small market from a dive centre resort or LOB.
 
As I said, is it any dive shops interest to tell you to go elsewhere? You generally don't get recommendations for another dive spot in the same geographic area, thus economic competitors for a small market from a dive centre resort or LOB.

No, I heard it on SB I believe.

I was kidding about the Luko thing.
 
Thanks Bill..now I have heard it through the grape vine stuck in my head lol. Luko is fine in my book - he didn't steal the tikis lol. Perhaps because Milne is the home of muck, Tawalis guide would be doing the same sites over and over (Wetpup - have you encountered this lady?) her view of the general area may have been concentrated on what most come to Milne for - what it's promoted as - muck.

You should start crewing on yachts Bill :wink:

Luko's point about comparing all of PNG to Indo geographically makes a lot of sense. You won't find the same diving at Samurai if they feel like letting you in (very very rarely) as you will in the trobriands.
 
Errh... I'll start all over again, I think there is a misunderstanding on what I wrote or maybe irony doesn't surface clearly enough (we french are too often ironic, I guess).

1- I was looking for feedback/avidces on Tawali 6 months ago, although I had a very trustworthy account from one of my friends who's been a Tawali returner.
2- I read someone on SB board writing that Tawali was mostly muck : since I was not looking for a Lembeh style holiday I wrote back about my surprize to my trustworthy friend who assured me this was full of BS. Well noted, and with the hindsight I'll have to agree too.
3- went to Tawali for a week in march, had great dives & would go back any day (You can read my report in Pacific islands board) although for me Tawali is NEITHER a muck focused destination NOR a big fish destination. They have a worldclass muck site called Lawadi nearby but other than that I was mostly amazed with the coral coverage, zillions of small reef fish and the 40m visibility.
The resort went out of their way to accomodate my requests, i was often with my own boat and 2 guides, sometimes with 3 or 4 other guests on a bigger boat but still with my own guide. My request was to dive as varied as we could : went out for the Tawali classics and to the outer islands.

I still stand (My instructor guide too : 20 years diving in PNG ), that there should be better places than Milne bay for sharks/big fish (like Kavieng or even Walindi) or wrecks (the bomber is located nearby Tufi not Tawali, you can't dive it on daytrips), but in the end Milne bay has its own flavor with more coral spots than muck diving or big fish n the current.
Yes, you will always find a couple of GT on Deacon's, some bumpheads, a few tunas passing in the blue on the outer isalnds, a small school of 'cudas or the ole lonesome one, if you're very lucky a hammerhead down there but it's nowhere like Sipadan for tornados of 'cudas or schools of jackfish, Fiji for sharks and spanish mackerels or Alor for schooling hammerheads.

Of course with a liveaboard almost any place would be good for fish since they're out in the sea, that said if you go from a resort (which is also the only one that is provides diving around) you won't probably see the same things. Also when I discussed with the local diveguides they all told me they (strangely) feared sharks and disliked currents which is usually not the case with guides that have frequent encounters with biggies.

In the end my point is that I would not recommend Tawali/Milne bay for big fish, which was also the advice of the other guests I met that week who had been advocating other places in PNG/Solomons for such diving (ie. big fish).
 
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I think that's pretty much the key - being able to explore by boat. I'm starting to think our promotion of big fish destinations has lead to a huge decrease in biomass everywhere. That's my Aussie cynicism - will keep diving anyway in the hope it's out there...somewhere...
 
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