Bangka: Bangka (July 2022)
Bangka was stop 2/3 for my July trip and I spent 5 days doing 17 dives (skipped 1 last night dive due to feeling too cold). Bastianos arranged the transfer from airport -> Lembeh -> Bangka -> Bunkan -> airport for EUR105pp. The transfer did take up a whole half day, for both moves I did 2 morning dives then lunch, and left around 2pm and arrived around 6pm in time for dinner. You could squeeze in a night dive so you only lose 1 afternoon dive on transfer day. The drive takes ~2.5 hours and the boat another 30min. I was the only guest on Bangka for again half my stay, overlapping w 1 American couple for 2 days.
Bastianos Bangka is beautiful and by far the newest and nicest of the 3. From the moment you arrive at the dock the water is crystal clear and you can easily see corals, fish etc from the surface. The whole walk down the dock reminded me of Tetamanu in Fakarava South, it was super scenic and pretty. The house reef which I did as a last dive is really good (not as good as Sahaung but great for a house reef), and you can see several metal structures (the largest of which is shaped like a car and 3 years old) that Barney built to grow the coral. There is actually quite a current and lots of fish by the house reef.
The resort is bigger and nicer than Lembeh in every way. The pool is open but alas not the spa. The restaurant is very grand looking and very Bali-esque. Rooms were bigger and newer but sadly the shower was fully outdoors, and you need to turn the water on for at least 5min before you get hot water. Pressure was not as good as at Lembeh but still pretty decent. There is again no wifi in the room, but pretty fast wifi in the restaurant, and very weak to no 4G signal.
The camera room is up A LOT of stairs, so I didn’t end up using it until my housing started leaking and I needed to use the air gun. It’s pretty illogical placement, it’s so far from the dive shop. We sometimes went through the dock (which entailed a pretty long walk) and sometimes the boat was able to dock right on the beach. It does take the crew quite some time to park the boat every time.
Food is not as nice as at Lembeh but they do give you a bit more. In general I felt the staff was less happy/enthusiastic compared to Lembeh, and service not quite as good.
Dive logistics is pretty similar to Lembeh - but dives are capped at 60min and sites generally a bit farther away. I dove with Albert (had a private guide without asking or paying for it) the entire time and he was great too. We did 1 dive every morning at Sahaung along with another wide angle dive, and did macro for the afternoon and night dives. Macro was very diverse but the density of critters / speed he was finding them wasn’t as nearly high as Lembeh. Special orders (for pontani pygmies) did pull through and there was loads of frog fishes, nudis, and octopuses (mostly coconuts). Sadly my ask for harlequin shrimp fell through again.
Bangka is really pretty and very fishy - lots of sites with gorgeous soft corals surrounded by tons of fish. We even managed to see 2 mantas on one dive (tho they were quite far away). It’s honestly puzzling why so few people come to Bangka and opt for Bunekan instead (Bastianos Bunekan was FULL) - Bangka is just so much better for general reefs, corals, fishiness - only thing Bunaken wins on is turtles. I think 5-7 days is about right for Bangka tho, as it’ll probably feel repetitive after a while. I found myself taking photos of the same corals/groups of fish at Sahaung from the same angle after a few days and only realising after in Lightroom. Tanjong Husi is the other one that really stood out and we did multiple times.
Would highly recommend and would definitely come back.
Bunekan: Bunaken (July 2022)
I don’t have much to say on this one, it was by far my least favourite and least pleasant experience. I only stayed 2 nights and did 2 dives - because it was the most well-known one I assumed it would have the best internet for my last day of remote work while I off-gassed, but this one turned out to have equally weak 4G/wifi (none in rooms).
Diving was good for turtles (you see 10+ every dive) but otherwise I found the walls lacking of color - there are healthy corals but it’s not the pretty kind. Tubbataha was way prettier for wall dives.
Sites are super crowded (2-3 boats) relatively speaking and divers were pretty fresh (lots of flailing about in the water). Dives capped at 60min again
Resort is fine - bbq night was great - but I had a big issue with no working shower in my room (the $125/night premium one…) Staff was completely inattentive and I came back from a dive sitting outside for an hour while having no clue what was being done for my shower. Found one person, asked them, they say someone is looking into it and go back to their phone, 10min later no update, find another person, repeat etc. Resort manager was utterly useless and unhelpful. I finally had to shower in another room and the shower was still not fixed when I left 2 days later. Absolutely nightmare.
Spa was open but the massage was pretty horrible, easily the worst one I’ve had yet. Plus they forgot about it until I showed up. (Contrast this with Mina the Lembeh resort manager who really tried her hardest to arrange for an external one to come...)
I will not be going back to this one and I’m honestly baffled why it’s so popular (resort was full!). Bangka >>> Bunaken was a sentiment that was shared by Barney and Mina when I asked whether I should move some days around too. This one is way overhyped imo.
Bangka was stop 2/3 for my July trip and I spent 5 days doing 17 dives (skipped 1 last night dive due to feeling too cold). Bastianos arranged the transfer from airport -> Lembeh -> Bangka -> Bunkan -> airport for EUR105pp. The transfer did take up a whole half day, for both moves I did 2 morning dives then lunch, and left around 2pm and arrived around 6pm in time for dinner. You could squeeze in a night dive so you only lose 1 afternoon dive on transfer day. The drive takes ~2.5 hours and the boat another 30min. I was the only guest on Bangka for again half my stay, overlapping w 1 American couple for 2 days.
Bastianos Bangka is beautiful and by far the newest and nicest of the 3. From the moment you arrive at the dock the water is crystal clear and you can easily see corals, fish etc from the surface. The whole walk down the dock reminded me of Tetamanu in Fakarava South, it was super scenic and pretty. The house reef which I did as a last dive is really good (not as good as Sahaung but great for a house reef), and you can see several metal structures (the largest of which is shaped like a car and 3 years old) that Barney built to grow the coral. There is actually quite a current and lots of fish by the house reef.
The resort is bigger and nicer than Lembeh in every way. The pool is open but alas not the spa. The restaurant is very grand looking and very Bali-esque. Rooms were bigger and newer but sadly the shower was fully outdoors, and you need to turn the water on for at least 5min before you get hot water. Pressure was not as good as at Lembeh but still pretty decent. There is again no wifi in the room, but pretty fast wifi in the restaurant, and very weak to no 4G signal.
The camera room is up A LOT of stairs, so I didn’t end up using it until my housing started leaking and I needed to use the air gun. It’s pretty illogical placement, it’s so far from the dive shop. We sometimes went through the dock (which entailed a pretty long walk) and sometimes the boat was able to dock right on the beach. It does take the crew quite some time to park the boat every time.
Food is not as nice as at Lembeh but they do give you a bit more. In general I felt the staff was less happy/enthusiastic compared to Lembeh, and service not quite as good.
Dive logistics is pretty similar to Lembeh - but dives are capped at 60min and sites generally a bit farther away. I dove with Albert (had a private guide without asking or paying for it) the entire time and he was great too. We did 1 dive every morning at Sahaung along with another wide angle dive, and did macro for the afternoon and night dives. Macro was very diverse but the density of critters / speed he was finding them wasn’t as nearly high as Lembeh. Special orders (for pontani pygmies) did pull through and there was loads of frog fishes, nudis, and octopuses (mostly coconuts). Sadly my ask for harlequin shrimp fell through again.
Bangka is really pretty and very fishy - lots of sites with gorgeous soft corals surrounded by tons of fish. We even managed to see 2 mantas on one dive (tho they were quite far away). It’s honestly puzzling why so few people come to Bangka and opt for Bunekan instead (Bastianos Bunekan was FULL) - Bangka is just so much better for general reefs, corals, fishiness - only thing Bunaken wins on is turtles. I think 5-7 days is about right for Bangka tho, as it’ll probably feel repetitive after a while. I found myself taking photos of the same corals/groups of fish at Sahaung from the same angle after a few days and only realising after in Lightroom. Tanjong Husi is the other one that really stood out and we did multiple times.
Would highly recommend and would definitely come back.
Bunekan: Bunaken (July 2022)
I don’t have much to say on this one, it was by far my least favourite and least pleasant experience. I only stayed 2 nights and did 2 dives - because it was the most well-known one I assumed it would have the best internet for my last day of remote work while I off-gassed, but this one turned out to have equally weak 4G/wifi (none in rooms).
Diving was good for turtles (you see 10+ every dive) but otherwise I found the walls lacking of color - there are healthy corals but it’s not the pretty kind. Tubbataha was way prettier for wall dives.
Sites are super crowded (2-3 boats) relatively speaking and divers were pretty fresh (lots of flailing about in the water). Dives capped at 60min again
Resort is fine - bbq night was great - but I had a big issue with no working shower in my room (the $125/night premium one…) Staff was completely inattentive and I came back from a dive sitting outside for an hour while having no clue what was being done for my shower. Found one person, asked them, they say someone is looking into it and go back to their phone, 10min later no update, find another person, repeat etc. Resort manager was utterly useless and unhelpful. I finally had to shower in another room and the shower was still not fixed when I left 2 days later. Absolutely nightmare.
Spa was open but the massage was pretty horrible, easily the worst one I’ve had yet. Plus they forgot about it until I showed up. (Contrast this with Mina the Lembeh resort manager who really tried her hardest to arrange for an external one to come...)
I will not be going back to this one and I’m honestly baffled why it’s so popular (resort was full!). Bangka >>> Bunaken was a sentiment that was shared by Barney and Mina when I asked whether I should move some days around too. This one is way overhyped imo.
