Uli Kunkel
Contributor
Ambon Trip Report Maluku Divers, Indonesia
April 12 April 22: Diving time 9 days
Got back from Ambon a while ago and I have been meaning to write this trip report ever since, just been busy!
The Diving:
All dives are either done from a small diving boat with probably an 8 or 10 person max capacity, or from the shore directly in front of the resort. Boat entries required a short wade to the ladder.
The diving itself was very good to excellent. I only did muck dives in Ambon Bay, however there are a few reef sites to dive around the island. The guests that went to dive these sites seemed to be quite happy with their days- which included three boat dives at the outer sites.
The muck dives within the bay were mostly centrally located around the Maluku divers resort. The longest we spent traveling to a site was about 15 minutes maybe? They vary from rocky, debris strewn bottom- silt/sand with intermittent algae and coral growth- to mixtures of all. I was surprised at the amount of coral around some of the dive sites, as I expected most of the dives to be strictly black sand. The bottom is different than Lembeh- I would say that its a little harder to spot the abundant critters here because of this. No worries though, as the guides are definitely hard working, and constantly have something interesting to show guests. The guides and all of the boat staff are friendly and hard working.
There were no other dive boats here. Just us! Its quite a treat if youre tired of crowds. The dives were quite relaxed, and there was quite a bit to see. Night dives included a wide range of critters to spot- especially crustaceans on the house reef. The amount of macro life was quite impressive on the house reef at night. As for a list of critters, the only thing I DIDNT see was a hairy frogfish, all the other critters were present and accounted for.
The only downsides to the diving aspect were the lack of dive sites at the time. I stayed for 9 diving days and thought that returning to the same sites 3 or 4 times was a bit too much. I can only assume that they are exploring more areas and will constantly increase the number of dive sites.
Accommodations:
The 9 (or 10?) concrete bungalows at Maluku divers were virtually brand new. Located within a stones throw from the waterfront, they offer a constant breeze which moderates temperatures and provides a soothing atmosphere. Spacious, clean, and well decorated, they definitely make for a comfortable stay. The beds!! They're HUGE. Ive never slept on such a comfortable mattress either. The rooms are fairly big and spacious. They had a powerful fan, aircon and hot water. They werent 5 star accoms, but definitely very comfortable considering the location.
Getting there:
There are a few ways to get to Ambon, although you will need to fly on domestic indonesian airlines. The route we took was unnecessarily long and torturous especially with AirAsia- which apparently likes to cancel/move flights three to four hours BEFORE their scheduled departures on a whim. (This is why we had such a long route we had to reschedule our flights around their mistake)
Please, for your own sanity, avoid AirAsia. It may be cheaper, but the extra few bucks you save ends up costing you in sanity when you start to wonder when/if they will fly to your destination the next day.
Here are a few pics I took!
If anyone has any questions don't hesitate to ask!
April 12 April 22: Diving time 9 days
Got back from Ambon a while ago and I have been meaning to write this trip report ever since, just been busy!
The Diving:
All dives are either done from a small diving boat with probably an 8 or 10 person max capacity, or from the shore directly in front of the resort. Boat entries required a short wade to the ladder.
The diving itself was very good to excellent. I only did muck dives in Ambon Bay, however there are a few reef sites to dive around the island. The guests that went to dive these sites seemed to be quite happy with their days- which included three boat dives at the outer sites.
The muck dives within the bay were mostly centrally located around the Maluku divers resort. The longest we spent traveling to a site was about 15 minutes maybe? They vary from rocky, debris strewn bottom- silt/sand with intermittent algae and coral growth- to mixtures of all. I was surprised at the amount of coral around some of the dive sites, as I expected most of the dives to be strictly black sand. The bottom is different than Lembeh- I would say that its a little harder to spot the abundant critters here because of this. No worries though, as the guides are definitely hard working, and constantly have something interesting to show guests. The guides and all of the boat staff are friendly and hard working.
There were no other dive boats here. Just us! Its quite a treat if youre tired of crowds. The dives were quite relaxed, and there was quite a bit to see. Night dives included a wide range of critters to spot- especially crustaceans on the house reef. The amount of macro life was quite impressive on the house reef at night. As for a list of critters, the only thing I DIDNT see was a hairy frogfish, all the other critters were present and accounted for.
The only downsides to the diving aspect were the lack of dive sites at the time. I stayed for 9 diving days and thought that returning to the same sites 3 or 4 times was a bit too much. I can only assume that they are exploring more areas and will constantly increase the number of dive sites.
Accommodations:
The 9 (or 10?) concrete bungalows at Maluku divers were virtually brand new. Located within a stones throw from the waterfront, they offer a constant breeze which moderates temperatures and provides a soothing atmosphere. Spacious, clean, and well decorated, they definitely make for a comfortable stay. The beds!! They're HUGE. Ive never slept on such a comfortable mattress either. The rooms are fairly big and spacious. They had a powerful fan, aircon and hot water. They werent 5 star accoms, but definitely very comfortable considering the location.
Getting there:
There are a few ways to get to Ambon, although you will need to fly on domestic indonesian airlines. The route we took was unnecessarily long and torturous especially with AirAsia- which apparently likes to cancel/move flights three to four hours BEFORE their scheduled departures on a whim. (This is why we had such a long route we had to reschedule our flights around their mistake)
Please, for your own sanity, avoid AirAsia. It may be cheaper, but the extra few bucks you save ends up costing you in sanity when you start to wonder when/if they will fly to your destination the next day.
Here are a few pics I took!
If anyone has any questions don't hesitate to ask!
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