Bali / N. Sulawesi trip - how's this look?

[AlanWald]

Yes, Siladen is pretty expensive.

Everyone dives the same places.

As I have mentioned before, Two Fish Divers quotes their prices in dollars on their web site and has budget rooms available as well as cottages and will pick you up at the airport. however August is a busy season for them and everyone else in the area due to the long European vacations. http://www.twofishdivers.com/bunaken-prices06.html

So I would advise contacting prospective dive operations ASAP to ascertain space availability.

 

[opalobsidian]

Hi Flyboy!

Your itinerary sounds kinda ambitious to me if you are coming into Bali from a far-away land like Amerika. Remember it will take your body a few days to adjust it's time clock to the 13-15 hour diffence. If you are like us and other tourists we know, until your internal systems re-boot you may be feeling like falling asleep at 2 in the afternoon and wide awake at 3 AM. Fighting to stay awake when your body thinks it's time to sleep can make one so delirious I would wonder how it might affect judgement while diving.

Also, time is different in Bali, things happen slower and to go against the flow can be very frustrating. Traffic is slower, domestic flights don't depart on time. Plus, most of the beauty I've found in Bali lies in the little details, if one moves too quickly many delightful things can be overlooked.

Have fun!
Pamela

 

[Bosun]

We stayed in Siladen in May and were very impressed, excellent rooms and the food was great. Great dive operation as well. We would definately return.

 

[Kevster]

thats quite a busy holiday.
I have been to Bali & manado(Bunaken) a few times.
They are both fantastic.
However if it was me i would just do Bali for 2 weeks.

Taking into account jet lag/degassing/travel times etc.
That way you can come back & do Bunaken + Lembeh next time

 

[stevecou1]

Stay away from Scuba Seraya!! All beach dives only. No Boat there at this time!! Resort fine but new construction during day is noisey. No spa!! Look into day trips from east Bali arera. The ALILA Resort at Manassi is great and well priced. Candi Dasa is also a fun village with good accomodations. Get over to Nusa Penido and dive for Mola-Molas at Crystal Bay. Pristine hard coral drift dives. Very cold water ther is 68 degrees!! But Molas come in for that. Good luck!!

 

[Leejnd]

Stay away from Scuba Seraya!! All beach dives only. No Boat there at this time!! Resort fine but new construction during day is noisey. No spa!! Look into day trips from east Bali arera. The ALILA Resort at Manassi is great and well priced. Candi Dasa is also a fun village with good accomodations. Get over to Nusa Penido and dive for Mola-Molas at Crystal Bay. Pristine hard coral drift dives. Very cold water ther is 68 degrees!! But Molas come in for that. Good luck!!

You think that's cold? The last dive I did around here, the water was 48 degrees! LOL! That's gonna feel downright balmy to me.

I just booked three dives out to Nusa Penida with AquaMarine Diving. Two for Mola Mola sightings, and one to Manta Point to see the manta rays. Can't wait to see those Mola Molas!

 

[JenM]

Leejnd - YMMV, but I just want to warn you about our experience with Aquamarine when we did a mola dive with them a few years back. I was never quite sure of what happened, but somehow, on our supposed mola dive, we ended up in a completely different location doing two very indifferent dives with lots of bombed and dead coral and yet still getting charged the surcharge for the mola dives. If we'd gone to Nusa Penida and then been skunked that would have been different, but we didn't go there. We had a GPS so we knew exactly where we were and it wasn't Nusa Penida.

Afterward, when we pointed out that the mola dive surcharge wasn't fair since we hadn't been taken to Nusa Penida, they gave us a very garbled explanation about the boat captain changing the location of the dive and then not telling them. As I understand it, they don't own their own boat, they contract out with local captains so that may be true, but still.... They did refund the surcharge, but they wouldn't have done so if we hadn't pointed it out to them. We also had a few other problems and overcharges from them during the week.

Truthfully, I didn't actually care about any of that, I was just majorly bummed that we didn't even get a shot at seeing the molas. We were there in Sept. so it was prime season and I was very excited about having a chance to dive with them.

Everyone else has always raved about Aquamarine, so I guess we were just unlucky and this was an isolated incident, but since you sound as excited about the molas as I was, I just want to warn you to make sure the boat goes where it is supposed to so that you've got a shot.

 

[Dazzler]

Definately do not miss Manta Point. My first ever dive after getting OW cert was there earlier this month. Swam with approx 30 mantas in just 5 to 12 metres of water. not too cold, I was just in a shorty and no major currents. These mantas were big, easily 3 metres.
Have a blast!
PS Nusa Dua is a lovely place to relax.

 

[Leejnd]

JenM, thanks for the heads up. I'll be sure to watch for that.

Dazzler that's great news about the mantas! There's never any guarantees about what you'll see when you dive, but it's great to know that you had such good fortune. Hopefully I will too.

I just got my plane tickets finalized, so I'm getting pretty stoked! Only five weeks to go till my trip.

 

[nwflyboy]

Me too. In the past 3 weeks a variety of things have materialized that seriously threatened our trip (every other day we had some crisis to deal with that caused us to move to the brink of canceling everything, then a solution would appear at the last minute). We're back on, and now committed (no more crises allowed). Our updated itinerary follows:

Day 0: Arrive in Denpasar early evening, first night relaxing at a beach hotel in Seminyak.
Day 1: Sleep in Pick up by Mimpi resort driver, we're taken to Mimpi Menjangan. Possible orientation/familiarization dive in the afternoon, but mostly another day to unwind and recover from the long flight. Overnight at Mimpi Menjangen
Day 2-3: Diving Menjangen. Overnight at Mimpi Menjangen
Day 4: Dive Menjangen in the morning, afternoon transfer to Mimpi Tulamben. Possible afternoon or evening dive there. Overnight Mimpi Tulamben.
Day 5: Dive Liberty wreck early morning, plus another dive there at Tulamben. Drop-off by driver in Padangbai (still need to pick a hotel there - recommendations?).
Day 6: Nusa Penida dives (mola mola, mantas). Overnight Padangbai.
Day 7: Probably another day diving Nusa Penida (depends on how we're doing, and how the previous day's dives went), overnight Padangbai. OR, if we're ready for a break from diving and some topside time, sightseeing.
Day 8: To Ubud. Topside relaxing/sightseeing/offgassing.
Day 9: In/around Ubud. More topside relaxing/sightseeing/offgassing.
Day 10: Fly to Manado. Pickup at airport, transfer to Hotel Santika. Possible afternoon/evening orientation dive. Overnight Hotel Santika, Manado.
Days 11-13: Diving Bunaken area. Overnight Hotel Santika, Manado.
Day 14: No diving, offgassing and relaxing before flying next day. Overnight Hotel Santika, Manado.
Day 15: Early flight from Manado to Denpasar, afternoon flight from Denpasar to Bangkok.

I'm getting cranked - 2 weeks until departure...