pughio83
Contributor
Recently got back from an amazing dive trip in Ambon, diving with Dive into Ambon (DIA), based at the Natsepa beach resort and conference centre. Thought i would do a trip report as i normally do to give feedback as i think these reports are useful for people thinking of going to a destination. My fiancé and i flew from the Uk late jan 2015 using Qatar airlines via Doha to Jakarta (arrived around 3.15pm local time) and had few issues here. Qatar gave us 10kg dive allowance each which was useful, and we only had 2.5hrs in Doha to kill. International flights manchester -jakarta return cost £460. Once arriving in Jakarta we went to the fm7 hotel and got a room for a few hours sleep and then had dinner in their fantastic restaurant (honestly the food is really good there). We had to pay for the full 24hrs for the room as it was beyond 6pm, but the sleep was well worth it (cost us £65 for room and for dinner with starter + main + drinks). We then picked up our Batik air flight at 00.20 to Ambon. This was booked very easily via Nusatrip from the Uk using credit card. Our flight with Batik air to Ambon and Garuda back to jakarta cost around £120. With Batik airline we paid around 50,000IDR (£3-4) for excess baggage (was around 5kg excess) and had a hassle free flight to Ambon. I can recommend Batik air which had a decent IFE system. Garuda on the way back flew at 2.40pm and gave us 20kg free dive allowance and hence no excess baggage fee. We arrived in Ambon around 6am and picked up by the DIA guys with air con van, for a 45min transfer to the Natsepa hotel. Check in was earlier than normal check in at 3pm so we had to pay around 30USD for early room check in which included breakfast. The room was clean and spacious, with lcd tv with satellite channels, mini bar, aircon and as it was a deluxe lagoon pool room, the veranda accessed a semi private pool accessible by only 5 rooms. The resort itself is actually quite nice. Not so much of a beach to speak of, small spit by the dive centre but there are decent beaches close by. The views are really nice and the swimming pool is actually nice with lovely infinity type views, and some of the best sun lounges i have laid in. I will mention the none diving stuff first as often the hotel gets bad reviews regarding the food and rooms. Honestly, for the location, and quality of diving, the rooms are nice. Had everything we needed. The food in the restaurant on the whole was very good. Really tasty Indonesian food in the buffet (some nights better than others) but included a range of sambals, rendang, nasi goreng, curries etc. The al a carte western menu was also nice, with decent cheese burgers, lasagnes, carbonaras and meat dishes. Breakfasts did offer fresh cold milk, cereals, pastries, decent bread and indonesia options plus egg/omelette station. We didn't really have a bad meal, except for the meal where the main course never came - 50mins wait only to be told it hadn't come because it was out of stock - the staff didn't really grasp the point of the issue here. And that was the issue with the hotel sometimes, in that the staff can be a bit slow and customer service isn't quite up to what many expect. That said, the staff were generally ok. The hotel in my opinion was great. Its not 5 star caribbean/maldives/wakatobi type but its certainly not shabby, and more than acceptable for this part of indonesia. I would happily give the hotel 4/5. Once we settled in, we met up with Kaj and Barb at the dive centre, sorted out our gear and we did a house reef dive in the afternoon to test our gear/photo setups etc. The general system was 3 dives a day, with the boat out all day for 3 dives. The small or large boat was used based on guest numbers, and given that we pretty much had a private boat and guides for 2 weeks (bar a few days), we often used the small boat. The boats are well designed, with toilets, covered with ample space for gear and seating, especially the large boats. There is room up top to sit or lay and get some sun. The service on the boats was second to none, with our gear well cared for, and we were provided hot towels between dives, coffee/tea/biscuits etc We tended to do a few days diving in Baguala bay (Ambons muck bay) and then some days on the southeast haruku side (blue water sites). This made the diving highly variable and really what made the trip so special. One day you would be diving muck sites looking for all things hairy, then you would be diving crystal blue waters around Pulau Pombo or Hukurila. And there are so many critters on the blue side that i would split my time between the two areas. This is a major advantage over the other dive ops which operate just in the main Ambon bay. DIA has a jetty on the Ambon bay side for easy access. Lunch was sometimes on the boat but often on a white sandy beach with no tourists, only peace and quiet - was lovely! The diving itself was fantastic. The guides were very good, so hats off to Doan, Fadley, Benny and Alan, who all have experience in Ambon, but also Raja, Bunakan and Lembeh. These guys were very keen to know what you wanted to see and go look for you. Dives were always 60-80mins usually and the sea temps around 27-29C in jan/feb. There were some currents on a few sites on certain dives, sometimes making photography hard but generally it was calm and still. I can't really describe everything that we saw, but highlights included Paddleflap Rhinopias, various saron shrimps, hatching flambouyants, unusual nudis and rare shrimps, plus all the usual critters. It was a bit light on rhinopias (i think now there are a lot more) given its reputation but at least we did see one. I will post a few pictures to give an idea of some of the critter action! The weather of the 2 weeks was mainly hot and sunny, maybe 2 rainy days and 2 overcast days in total. Highlight dive sites: -Fadleys point - great coral and load of critters incl solar powerednudi Randalls frogfish, unusual phyllodesmium sp Also saw black tip reef shark, Napoleon wrasse and the 'raja ampat' red/white variant of Denises pygmy seahorse! Plus is the site where they found another Psychadelic frogfish! -Seamount - blue water site - coral sandy sea mount where they had freckled frogfish, flambouyant cuttlefish and solar powered nudis -Hard boiled - cooked an egg in volcanic vents, coral saron shrimps, gorgonain shrimps -Pulau pombo - beautiful coral gardens and great beach for lunch, boxer crab -Kampung Baru - the best muck site we went to - rhinopias, snake eels, ghost pipefish, unusual shrimps and nudis -Twillight zone was interesting under the boats with usual critters, tons of morays -Hukurila - great windows, coral walls, great viz, little green shrimp, sometimes big stuff seen -Alpha point - cave dive with flashlight fish, plus hairy shrimps on coral just outside -House reef night dive - sarons, starry night octopus, weird nudis, coconut octo, snake eels -SS Aquillo wreck - massive wreck sunk by CIA, decent life on it. Laha dive sites and Rhino city for me where actually quite quiet re critter action and we only visited a few times. We did see a mimic here however. DIA is very well setup for photographers, with a fantastic camera room, with loads of space, plug points, compressed air, and towels. The owners Kaj and Barb go out of their way to help you, and are amenable to many requests. It is one of the best run dive ops i have had the pleasure to dive with. The dive guests also get a wifi box for your room which gives you decent speeds for most things. We also arranged through DIA to go visit the Waai river eels and go exploring for a hidden waterfall in the jungle, of which you can swim there though probably only in the dry season would it be safe to venture too far in. This was a great day out and well worth doing on a dry day. there is a fort somewhere north but now occupied by the army so you can't actually get on it. We didnt venture into ambon city for dinner but did try local rujak outside the hotel which was very nice. The trip was paid for in advance by bank transfer which was easy enough and we returned via garuda which was on time and gave us plenty dive gear allowance so no excess baggage. Overall the trip was absolutely brilliant. Ambon compared to lembeh is hard as the diving variety at Ambon is slightly more varied. Maybe the critters aren't quite as dense but Ambon is probably better geared for photographers as less resorts and less divers. And Ambon does have what lembeh has generally, but also has a lot of stuff it doesn't have. We only saw divers on 2 dives in the entire trip of 35 dives! Total cost for 2 weeks in deluxe room with 3 dives daily for 11 days on nitrox, food/drinks/souvenirs+ excursions and internal+ international flights was nearly £2500 per person. Very good value in my opinion. Would highly recommend anyone looking for a great macro destination (muck and coral based) then Ambon is a world class option (up there with Lembeh,philippines, bali etc), and DIA is a great choice. Hopefully a few photos below. Anyone who wants any info just PM me.
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