MikeOWaterloo
Registered
We dived in Bangka and Bunaken in North Sulawesi in the first half of March 2025. In this thread I had promised a trip report, so here it is.
March 1. We flew into Manado in North Sulawesi from Bali on Lion Air. We hadn't planned our trip that far in advance, and Bangka accommodation was unavailable until March 3. This turned out to be a good thing since we visited Tangkoko and saw the park, so even though non-diving its worth saying a few words about it.
Tangkoko
Lion Air was about 6 hours delayed so we arrived in Manado late at night instead of 3 PM as originally scheduled, but we had prearranged private transport to Tangkoko Sanctuary Villa. We had a nice unit but right at the top with great view and AC.
We did two guided hikes into Tangkoko. The first was early AM for crested macaques, couscous bear and hornbill: awesome. The private guides were excellent and brought telescopes on tripods. Then we went back in the evening for the tarsiers (palm size bug eating monkeys that come out and dusk), whuch were really cool.
Bangka
March 3. We arranged pickup at Tangkoko to the jetty for a private boat to Nomad Divers on Bangka Island. ND is a small family-run place with a few friendly staff. It's isolated from the other resorts on Bangka. Good Indonesian food, eaten in common family-style. There's a fridge with beer and drinks on the honour system. In the end, we paid the full bill via Wise.
The main building at ND serves as the dining room and lounge. It is is almost at the waters edge. There is wifi and charging there. The bungalows (there are only a handful) are a short walk behind the main building and behind the mangrove swamp. They are simple and have power on until some time at night (10 PM?), so we mostly used them for sleeping and showering.
We went on some short night hikes to listen to the jungle. We heard tarsiers but didn't spot them. We did see some cool river snakes.
The only negative: some of the rental equipment was a bit old. On one dive, my rented BCD sprung a leak. An improved equipment rental unit was under reconstruction, so hopefully this situation is only temporary and the owner will upgrade the equipnment as well.
We did 13 dives over 5 days, including a night dive. Mostly these were short boat trips (20 minutes, often around the island past the other resorts Coral eye and Murex). Mostly easy dives but there were moderate currents on a few dives. The visibility varied depending on rain. It was usually quite good, but at times, but could be affected by rain and runoff.
The diving was a mixture of beautiful coral with small fish and muck diving (which I am less keen on). We saw spinner dolphins from the dive boat. Other critters: moray eels, stingray, stonefish, lionfish, cuttlefish, spiny lobster, crocodilefish, scorpionfish, batfish, anemone crab (night dive on ND house reef), pygmy seahorses, varicose wart slug.
On March 8, we did two morning dives in Bangka, mostly muck. Saw a robust ghost pipefish and a swimming mantis shrimp. Also a melibe bucephala nudibranch (weird!) and some sea moths.
Then we took the boat back to the Sulawesi mainland and private transport to the jetty for the pickup to Bunaken and a short (20 minute) prvate ferry.
Total cost at ND for 2 people, including 5 days food and accommodation, 13 dives each with rental equipment and the private transfers was $2000 CAD (1400 USD) according to my Wise logs.
Bunaken
We stayed at Happy Gecko, which is built on a steep hillside that runs right down to the water. We stayed in bungalow #3, which has a nice view but longer hike uphill than #1. There was a balcony with a hammock and a great view, but we mostly used it for sleeping and showering. The bungalows were a bit more spacious and comfortable here than at ND.
There's also a large common restaurant/lounge building with fantastic view over the bay. The dive shop is on the lower floor at sea level. The rental equipment was in good shape. There was good food, Indonesian style. And of course beer. And the lounge was stocked with very good books of nudibranch and other sea life. HG is next to large fancy resort (Oasis), but I think HG had more customers! As at ND, there was not a lot to do: Eat. Chat. Sleep. Dive. But this suited us just fine.
Bunaken has amazing wall dives with fine coral on top of the wall. So, so many turtles: at least a half dozen every dive, often resting in nooks on the coral at different depths. Usually there were schools of medium-sized fish such as oriental sweetlips and open mouth mackerel in large schools ("fishier" thank Bangka). Other critters: yellow frogfish, crocodilefish, octopus, scorpion fish, white tip reef shark, black snapper, orangutan crab, giant mantis shrimp, bumphead parrotfish, leaf scorpionfish. And the largest giant clam I have seen. On the night dive we saw crabs camouflaging themselves with sponges.
We dove all six days we were on Bunaken, and most days the current was zero or low. Usually when we turned a corner on the wall, if we hit some mild current - strong enough that it was tiring to swim against - the DM just turned us around and up, so we would zigzag up the wall. This was the case 5 days out of 6. On the last day (full moon!), however, we went out and the currents were much stronger, certainly the strongest that I have encountered (although I have not been to famously "currenty" places like Raja Ampat, Komodo or Palau). It wasn't strong when/where we dropped in, but later. At one point, there were bubbles all around our heads and I thought there were divers below but it was actually the downcurrent pushing our own bubbles back. We got up on top of the wall, but it wasn't any better, with strong currents driving us along the wall at high speed. Dangerous because there were boats overhead, the top of the reef wasn't that deep (<5 m) and it was tough to maintain constant depth, so the DM ended the dive early. I think this was all due to the outgoing tide draining out of the shallows and rushing down the wall. I am assuming we hadn't encountered this previously because of the different tide times on the other days, as well as the full moon. Surprised and disappointed that the DM didn't anticipate this, however.
The cost was similar on a daily basis, or perhaps a bit cheaper, than ND at Bangka.
Overall, though, Bunaken was wonderful. If you were pressed for time, you could see much in 4 or 5 days of diving instead of the 6 that we did, because, apart from the currents on the last day, we did revisit a few sites twice.
(Lion Air was again 4 or 5 hours late getting back to Jakarta. Don't book a connecting flight the same day - we stayed in Jakarta for a night)
Bonus: Orangutans in Kalimantan
I will just mention that after Sulawesi, we did an amazing side trip to Kalimantan for a 4 day river cruise on a private housebout to see the orangutans, and other critters: proboscis monkeys, rhinoceros hornbill etc. Amazing if you like wildlife, but all above water. (Except for the enormous crocodile we saw from the houseboat). DM me if you want more details of that.
March 1. We flew into Manado in North Sulawesi from Bali on Lion Air. We hadn't planned our trip that far in advance, and Bangka accommodation was unavailable until March 3. This turned out to be a good thing since we visited Tangkoko and saw the park, so even though non-diving its worth saying a few words about it.
Tangkoko
Lion Air was about 6 hours delayed so we arrived in Manado late at night instead of 3 PM as originally scheduled, but we had prearranged private transport to Tangkoko Sanctuary Villa. We had a nice unit but right at the top with great view and AC.
We did two guided hikes into Tangkoko. The first was early AM for crested macaques, couscous bear and hornbill: awesome. The private guides were excellent and brought telescopes on tripods. Then we went back in the evening for the tarsiers (palm size bug eating monkeys that come out and dusk), whuch were really cool.
Bangka
March 3. We arranged pickup at Tangkoko to the jetty for a private boat to Nomad Divers on Bangka Island. ND is a small family-run place with a few friendly staff. It's isolated from the other resorts on Bangka. Good Indonesian food, eaten in common family-style. There's a fridge with beer and drinks on the honour system. In the end, we paid the full bill via Wise.
The main building at ND serves as the dining room and lounge. It is is almost at the waters edge. There is wifi and charging there. The bungalows (there are only a handful) are a short walk behind the main building and behind the mangrove swamp. They are simple and have power on until some time at night (10 PM?), so we mostly used them for sleeping and showering.
We went on some short night hikes to listen to the jungle. We heard tarsiers but didn't spot them. We did see some cool river snakes.
The only negative: some of the rental equipment was a bit old. On one dive, my rented BCD sprung a leak. An improved equipment rental unit was under reconstruction, so hopefully this situation is only temporary and the owner will upgrade the equipnment as well.
We did 13 dives over 5 days, including a night dive. Mostly these were short boat trips (20 minutes, often around the island past the other resorts Coral eye and Murex). Mostly easy dives but there were moderate currents on a few dives. The visibility varied depending on rain. It was usually quite good, but at times, but could be affected by rain and runoff.
The diving was a mixture of beautiful coral with small fish and muck diving (which I am less keen on). We saw spinner dolphins from the dive boat. Other critters: moray eels, stingray, stonefish, lionfish, cuttlefish, spiny lobster, crocodilefish, scorpionfish, batfish, anemone crab (night dive on ND house reef), pygmy seahorses, varicose wart slug.
On March 8, we did two morning dives in Bangka, mostly muck. Saw a robust ghost pipefish and a swimming mantis shrimp. Also a melibe bucephala nudibranch (weird!) and some sea moths.
Then we took the boat back to the Sulawesi mainland and private transport to the jetty for the pickup to Bunaken and a short (20 minute) prvate ferry.
Total cost at ND for 2 people, including 5 days food and accommodation, 13 dives each with rental equipment and the private transfers was $2000 CAD (1400 USD) according to my Wise logs.
Bunaken
We stayed at Happy Gecko, which is built on a steep hillside that runs right down to the water. We stayed in bungalow #3, which has a nice view but longer hike uphill than #1. There was a balcony with a hammock and a great view, but we mostly used it for sleeping and showering. The bungalows were a bit more spacious and comfortable here than at ND.
There's also a large common restaurant/lounge building with fantastic view over the bay. The dive shop is on the lower floor at sea level. The rental equipment was in good shape. There was good food, Indonesian style. And of course beer. And the lounge was stocked with very good books of nudibranch and other sea life. HG is next to large fancy resort (Oasis), but I think HG had more customers! As at ND, there was not a lot to do: Eat. Chat. Sleep. Dive. But this suited us just fine.
Bunaken has amazing wall dives with fine coral on top of the wall. So, so many turtles: at least a half dozen every dive, often resting in nooks on the coral at different depths. Usually there were schools of medium-sized fish such as oriental sweetlips and open mouth mackerel in large schools ("fishier" thank Bangka). Other critters: yellow frogfish, crocodilefish, octopus, scorpion fish, white tip reef shark, black snapper, orangutan crab, giant mantis shrimp, bumphead parrotfish, leaf scorpionfish. And the largest giant clam I have seen. On the night dive we saw crabs camouflaging themselves with sponges.
We dove all six days we were on Bunaken, and most days the current was zero or low. Usually when we turned a corner on the wall, if we hit some mild current - strong enough that it was tiring to swim against - the DM just turned us around and up, so we would zigzag up the wall. This was the case 5 days out of 6. On the last day (full moon!), however, we went out and the currents were much stronger, certainly the strongest that I have encountered (although I have not been to famously "currenty" places like Raja Ampat, Komodo or Palau). It wasn't strong when/where we dropped in, but later. At one point, there were bubbles all around our heads and I thought there were divers below but it was actually the downcurrent pushing our own bubbles back. We got up on top of the wall, but it wasn't any better, with strong currents driving us along the wall at high speed. Dangerous because there were boats overhead, the top of the reef wasn't that deep (<5 m) and it was tough to maintain constant depth, so the DM ended the dive early. I think this was all due to the outgoing tide draining out of the shallows and rushing down the wall. I am assuming we hadn't encountered this previously because of the different tide times on the other days, as well as the full moon. Surprised and disappointed that the DM didn't anticipate this, however.
The cost was similar on a daily basis, or perhaps a bit cheaper, than ND at Bangka.
Overall, though, Bunaken was wonderful. If you were pressed for time, you could see much in 4 or 5 days of diving instead of the 6 that we did, because, apart from the currents on the last day, we did revisit a few sites twice.
(Lion Air was again 4 or 5 hours late getting back to Jakarta. Don't book a connecting flight the same day - we stayed in Jakarta for a night)
Bonus: Orangutans in Kalimantan
I will just mention that after Sulawesi, we did an amazing side trip to Kalimantan for a 4 day river cruise on a private housebout to see the orangutans, and other critters: proboscis monkeys, rhinoceros hornbill etc. Amazing if you like wildlife, but all above water. (Except for the enormous crocodile we saw from the houseboat). DM me if you want more details of that.
