Last month I set off for Indonesia to meet up with one of my now regular Indonesia buddies @outofofficebrb (Jen) with yet another return trip to Villa Alba in Tulamben, Bali.
However I wanted to do some diving elsewhere, and during the planning phase when Jen was in Dubai last February, I decided on Komodo, specifically Blue Marlin as they have fast day trip boats out to the North and Middle Komodo dive sites.
I figured four days diving with three dives per day would be fine, and duly booking flights from DXB-DPS-DXB to cover the whole the trip period on Emirates, and the side trip to Flores DPS-LBJ-DPS on Batik Air once establishing availability at Blue Marlin Komodo’s establishment at Labuan Bajo.
The plan included overnight at the Novotel airport hotel at DPS on arrival from DXB and similar on my return to DPS from LBJ. Something I really appreciated, and although a bit of a walk from both International and Domestic arrivals, it worked well and the timing was perfect for the flights I had booked.
Once the flight bookings were in place I then had to provide a 25% payment to Blue Marlin to book the accommodation and first day of diving, and this was requested using “Wise”, which apparently is not unusual, and as a business practice totally understandable.
The only issue I have is that I am unable for open a Wise account because it doesn’t allow this with a UAE bank, and my other overseas bank accounts are linked to my UAE address. Credit card payment was not an option!
The person at Blue Marlin insisted that this was the only way to transfer funds. I insisted several times for their bank details for a direct transfer, something I’ve done with Murex and this was supplied eventually.
When attempting to make the transfer though, the details of their bank account could not be located in any of the drop downs in the UAE bank, and I was getting rather frustrated.
To be honest, if I hadn’t already booked the flights, I would have canned the trip to Komodo and made alternative diving arrangements. As it was, Jen made the transfer for me and I paid her through my UK bank account.
The one hour flight from DPS to LBJ was pretty straightforward, no frills on Batik Air, I had to pay for 15Kg additional baggage (USD44) each way.
Accommodation at Blue Marlin was slightly above basic, I was in room number 1, which has a decent balcony but it’s not quiet and next to the kitchen where they prepare stuff early to send to the boats for the day trips. No hot water at the sink though for shaving.
The bar / restaurant above the rooms was fine, and the staff very helpful. The food was also very good. Highly recommend the pork croquettes and a Bintang when back after a day’s diving. I did eat out at a couple of places, and one I will not recommend is Made in Italy, lousy service, overpriced and nothing special.
On return to shore after my third day’s diving I received a message from Batik Air informing me that my return flight to DPS was cancelled and I had been booked on an earlier flight, which compromised my 24 hr SI before flying. At that stage I had already paid for all four days diving, and in the end I had just over 21 hrs SI before the flight so it worked out.
The diving was from one of Blue Marlin’s fast boats, Toby, with one boat driver and two crew. There were usually four “western” guides and I dived with Sandra (Austrian) on three days and with Karik (Finnish) on my third day. No complaints.
One of several octopus we came across on Day 1
We would all meet at the Blue Marlin office by 07:00 and walk to the jetty, which took about 10 mins. All the dive gear was loaded and set up on the boat. Gas was analysed on the way out and was 28-30%.
Latest we hit the water was 08:49 (north end) and 08:20 (middle), all dives were no less than 60 mins and we dived in a group of four / three (on my last day) with one person being a BM guide.
All dives were generally done by 14:00-14:15 and back at the port by 15:00 to walk back to the Blue Marlin office. Gear went by truck and cleaned and dried for the following day. Highly organised and efficient.
On my first day we saw the one and only manta of my four days, at the north end at the dive site called the Cauldron / Shotgun, which was a fairly benign drift until you actually got to the Cauldron and use of a reef hook was necessary. The other two sites we did on day 1 were Castle Rock and Crystal Rock. Lots of octopus around on all three dives.
During the first SI coffee and donuts were served and a decent lunch was of rice, meat and veg was served after the second dive.
Dives on the next three days were at Mid Komodo with some really fast drifts at Siaba Kecil, which we did on two days. Plenty of turtles around, cuttlefish, blacktip and whitetip sharks but the latter were distant and nothing came close to photograph.
The cuttlefish appeared to be okay with close encounters
There were also plenty of nudis, but I was shooting wide angle plus there was this thing called current!
I had just missed manta season, but was duly informed a couple of days ago that Mantas were seen on all dives the week after I was there, bloody Murphy!
Would I recommend Blue Marlin? Yes but the drawback for me is their prepayment requirement to used Wise, that was almost a dealbreaker. As I mentioned earlier, had I not already paid for the flights to LBJ, then I would have looked at an alternative plan.
Water temperatures were a consistent 29C, very pleasant, but we did encounter a couple of cool thermoclines on occasion.
However I wanted to do some diving elsewhere, and during the planning phase when Jen was in Dubai last February, I decided on Komodo, specifically Blue Marlin as they have fast day trip boats out to the North and Middle Komodo dive sites.
I figured four days diving with three dives per day would be fine, and duly booking flights from DXB-DPS-DXB to cover the whole the trip period on Emirates, and the side trip to Flores DPS-LBJ-DPS on Batik Air once establishing availability at Blue Marlin Komodo’s establishment at Labuan Bajo.
The plan included overnight at the Novotel airport hotel at DPS on arrival from DXB and similar on my return to DPS from LBJ. Something I really appreciated, and although a bit of a walk from both International and Domestic arrivals, it worked well and the timing was perfect for the flights I had booked.
Once the flight bookings were in place I then had to provide a 25% payment to Blue Marlin to book the accommodation and first day of diving, and this was requested using “Wise”, which apparently is not unusual, and as a business practice totally understandable.
The only issue I have is that I am unable for open a Wise account because it doesn’t allow this with a UAE bank, and my other overseas bank accounts are linked to my UAE address. Credit card payment was not an option!
The person at Blue Marlin insisted that this was the only way to transfer funds. I insisted several times for their bank details for a direct transfer, something I’ve done with Murex and this was supplied eventually.
When attempting to make the transfer though, the details of their bank account could not be located in any of the drop downs in the UAE bank, and I was getting rather frustrated.
To be honest, if I hadn’t already booked the flights, I would have canned the trip to Komodo and made alternative diving arrangements. As it was, Jen made the transfer for me and I paid her through my UK bank account.
The one hour flight from DPS to LBJ was pretty straightforward, no frills on Batik Air, I had to pay for 15Kg additional baggage (USD44) each way.
Accommodation at Blue Marlin was slightly above basic, I was in room number 1, which has a decent balcony but it’s not quiet and next to the kitchen where they prepare stuff early to send to the boats for the day trips. No hot water at the sink though for shaving.
The bar / restaurant above the rooms was fine, and the staff very helpful. The food was also very good. Highly recommend the pork croquettes and a Bintang when back after a day’s diving. I did eat out at a couple of places, and one I will not recommend is Made in Italy, lousy service, overpriced and nothing special.
On return to shore after my third day’s diving I received a message from Batik Air informing me that my return flight to DPS was cancelled and I had been booked on an earlier flight, which compromised my 24 hr SI before flying. At that stage I had already paid for all four days diving, and in the end I had just over 21 hrs SI before the flight so it worked out.
The diving was from one of Blue Marlin’s fast boats, Toby, with one boat driver and two crew. There were usually four “western” guides and I dived with Sandra (Austrian) on three days and with Karik (Finnish) on my third day. No complaints.
One of several octopus we came across on Day 1
We would all meet at the Blue Marlin office by 07:00 and walk to the jetty, which took about 10 mins. All the dive gear was loaded and set up on the boat. Gas was analysed on the way out and was 28-30%.
Latest we hit the water was 08:49 (north end) and 08:20 (middle), all dives were no less than 60 mins and we dived in a group of four / three (on my last day) with one person being a BM guide.
All dives were generally done by 14:00-14:15 and back at the port by 15:00 to walk back to the Blue Marlin office. Gear went by truck and cleaned and dried for the following day. Highly organised and efficient.
On my first day we saw the one and only manta of my four days, at the north end at the dive site called the Cauldron / Shotgun, which was a fairly benign drift until you actually got to the Cauldron and use of a reef hook was necessary. The other two sites we did on day 1 were Castle Rock and Crystal Rock. Lots of octopus around on all three dives.
During the first SI coffee and donuts were served and a decent lunch was of rice, meat and veg was served after the second dive.
Dives on the next three days were at Mid Komodo with some really fast drifts at Siaba Kecil, which we did on two days. Plenty of turtles around, cuttlefish, blacktip and whitetip sharks but the latter were distant and nothing came close to photograph.
The cuttlefish appeared to be okay with close encounters
There were also plenty of nudis, but I was shooting wide angle plus there was this thing called current!
I had just missed manta season, but was duly informed a couple of days ago that Mantas were seen on all dives the week after I was there, bloody Murphy!
Would I recommend Blue Marlin? Yes but the drawback for me is their prepayment requirement to used Wise, that was almost a dealbreaker. As I mentioned earlier, had I not already paid for the flights to LBJ, then I would have looked at an alternative plan.
Water temperatures were a consistent 29C, very pleasant, but we did encounter a couple of cool thermoclines on occasion.
