Bali and Sulawesi

[fkleibrink]

We will be in Bali and Sulawesi in August and September. Does anyone have advice on dive locations / schools?

Secondly, what is the best chance to see Manta rays and/or whalesharks in Indonesia in general (location and month)?


Many thanks

 

[maccajim]

do a search for "Bunaken island" one good outfit is froggies only divers can stay there and they have Nitrox.
Have you booked your tickets from bali as sometimes hard to get economy get stung for business class wich is double we said no and the travel agent told us we will have to wait 3 weeks for ecoonomy tickets. As it was the Bali or indo version of NYE

 

[calypsonick]

fkleibrink,

Coming at you from East Timor. I agree with maccajim that Froggies is a good outfit, having stayed there for a week last October. As for Bali, I have not been underwater there, yet. I have heard from those who have been that the southeast, Nusa Dua area should be avoided as there is little to see. Go to the northeast for the better stuff.

If you have the chance, add a few days on to your itinerary to come here to East Timor where the corals are magnificent having experienced relatively little damage compared to Bali and Bunaken. Although we saw a few more fish in Bunaken, the coral was nowhere near as abundant and vibrant as what you can experience here!

Come dive with us in Timor. You'll love it!!
FYI - Merpati airlines comes here once a day from Bali for ~$260 r/t.

Nick

PS - We saw this Manta last Sunday. He had ~2m wingspan !

 

[clownfish]

I was in Bali last september and I recommend going northeast to Amed to dive. There are some excellent shore dives there and its near to the USS Liberty (which is a wreck NOT TO BE MISSED) at Tulamben. No whalesharks or mantas but lots of small stuff... harlequin ghost pipefish, pygmy seahorse, nudibranchs too many to mention... I thoroughly recommend Eco-Dive at Amed. The people and staff are friendly and extremely helpful. Don't feel embarassed when a tiny local girl picks up you and your buddy's sets of scuba gear to carry down to the beach/boat... its all included in the price (but tipping doesn't hurt).

I also dived on Nusa Lembongan which is only a short boat ride away from Bali. Great vis 35m+ on some dives! And thats where I saw Mola-Mola twice... once on a safety stop and the other at 30m (at a divesite called Manta Point, where they see mantas, but not in september). There were about 6 schools on this small island and we plumped for one that gave us the best deal. no frills but decent, I think it was called Lembongan Adventures.

 

[davidlkh]

Good thing about Bali it is not all about diving. It has excellent diving and excellent top side site seeing.

Manado probably has great land tours too, but not as well developed compared to Bali.

If you really really want to see Mantas, then you have to go to Sangalaki in East Kalimantan. For some unknown reason they seem to hang out there.

Whale sharks? Hmmm generally they have a migration pattern. For Malaysia they seem to appear Feb to April. Not sure about Bali or Manado.

 

[Nemo]

Generally agree with Clownfish. I dove with World Diving on Lembongan, we saw 8 mantas on one dive out at Manta point (November). Tulamben is a must dive for anyone diving on Bali! Another options out of Manado is Dive Lembeh (www.gb.diving-on-sulawesi/gb/) great little operation on Lembeh Island!

 

[ninjamuzo]

I went last year and dove with Bali-Hai. The trip was planned so we could see the Sunfish and we did. A rare sight and these magnificent creatures are worth the dive. From memory you have a 2 day window either side of the New Moon July-October to catch these fish coming up for a cleaning. First dive in the morning appears to be the best.

 

[tangfish]

would you guys say that diving off of Bali is even comparable to Manado? I will be doing a triangular dive trip, Taipei - Cebu - Bali - Taipei (not diving just my anchor point). Is it worth the extra time and effort to get out to Manado or should I just stick around Bali and the nearby islands, Lombok, Komodo, etc.?

 

[rgo]

For Bali:
I'd recommend Aquapro Bali, based in Sanur area. I've been living in Indonesia for more than 4 years now, and done more than 15 diving trips to Bali with different operators during that time. I'd say Aquapro is the most professional outfit, with good gears for rental and great divemasters (Pras, Sabre and Ena) all of whom know the sites around Bali very well. Tulamben (Northeast of Bali) has the great Liberty wreck, and I'd recommend a stay at the Mimpi Resort. Amed, about 30 minutes drive from Tulamben has some great, rarely dived sites. Candi Dasa has sharks and some currents. Menjangan Island to the Northwest has nice walls and you can take a day trip in the national park. Nusa Penida, to the southeast of the island and near the tourist areas of Kuta/Sanur/Nusa Dua/Seminyak, has great current rides, the sunfish, etc.
You could do a spot in Bali and stay a few days and wouldn't be disappointed, and the island has plenty of other offerings. Or you could do a safari, and over a week hit all the different dive areas for a day or two each and get a varied experience. Aquapro Bali office is: +62 (361) 270791 and they can also arrange your hotels at very competitive prices in addition to the diving. If you're going for the mola/sunfish, do Nusa Penida in August, and bring at least a 5mil suit, as the temperature drops to about 18 celsius or lower.

Bunaken in North Sulawesi is great, too, but whereas Bali has other, non-diving attractions, Bunaken is basically diving. I'd back up recommendations for Froggies, having stayed there twice for a week at a time during the past two years.

I've recently started going to Central Sulawesi, though, and found the diving also quite nice. There's an outfit in Tanjung Karang, on the west side of the Sulawesi island and an hour away from the provincial capital of Palu. Prince John Resort +62 (457)71710 or +62 811455147 is run by a German couple and has great bungalows overlooking the house reef (spanish dancers, twinspot lionfish, croccodile fish, great variety of nudibranchs, etc). My most recent trip there was last week (May 19-28) and visibility was only 10-15 metres, but water condition started improving towards the end of the trip and I had a great 35m+ vis at one shark-filled underwater mound (Pasi Pome).

 

[rgo]

would you guys say that diving off of Bali is even comparable to Manado? I will be doing a triangular dive trip, Taipei - Cebu - Bali - Taipei (not diving just my anchor point). Is it worth the extra time and effort to get out to Manado or should I just stick around Bali and the nearby islands, Lombok, Komodo, etc.?

Bali, in my opinion, is as good a dive destination as Manado/Bunaken, and may offer more varied landscapes (not primarily walls as Bunaken). It's not that easy though to jump over from Bali to Komodo. If you take a liveaboard from Bali to Komodo, it'd be pretty expensive and time consuming (at least a week to ten days). If you want to do Komodo, which is definitely worth it, then I'd say fly to Labuhan Bajo and take a shorter boat trip to Komodo areas.
Lombok I think is pretty much bleached out, and the best stuff is below 35 metres around the Gili islands (Meno, Trawangan and Air). Plus Trawangan has become a hippie-ish hangout...