Bunaken Island, Indonesia Trip Report

[Erwin Kodiat]

Originally posted by Asiandivergal
i forgot to mention Anambas Islands - going for S$690 - quite pricey but v. good diving i heard.

Indonesia actually has quite a few good spots - heard that Lombok, Gili islands is good and cheap - havent dont any research on that yet, but should be worth a trip out. Bali too - but pricey.

Not forgetting Philiipines! actually there's lots of good diving there, just mebbe a little risky

I don't think diving in Bali is pricey. It is depend on what kind of accomodation you expected and which operator served you. I give an example of a diving trip to Tulamben.
The cheap hotel is only IDR 30.000 (USD 3)/ night, the fee for rent complete gear is USD 40, refill USD 2.50. The most expensive site in Bali, I guess, is Nusa Penida, since you have to rent a speed boat to dive there, unless the small machine boat will not be able to catch you up in the strong current condition. Again, the price is only about USD 110 for 2 dives.

 

[Erwin Kodiat]

I plan to dive Bunaken on June or July. I contacted 3 dive centers, Dive Froggies, Nusantara & Murex. All of them offered good dive trip package. Just curious if anybody here know about the mentioned dive shop.
Thanks

Erwin Kodiat =-)

 

[Rob Sinke]

For which safety are you looking if you need extra tanks? For deep diving? Does that mean that you expect to surface after a deep decompression dive with too less air left? What if the boat is not there? Why not look for a divecenter with good guides that stick to the rules of recreational diving? Second confusion: talking about diving in Indonesia and nobody mentions Lembehstrait?

 

[Erwin Kodiat]

I'm not looking for such services, just to confirm the rumours I got. I will expect the service wich adhere to standard procedures, for sure. Not intended to do it. Just curious!

 

[Erwin Kodiat]

Speaking about Lembeh strait, I've heard that it has various unusual marine creature. But since it is quite close to Bunaken than I assumed that we can arrange a trip to Lembeh from Bunaken or Manado. In other words, I will include the question about Lembeh in my Bunaken question.

 

[seaslug]

Guys
If you are still curious about Maldives...I was there in April and while there is quite a lot of dead (or perhaps I should say, REGENERATING) coral from the El Nino in 1997, visibility is generally good (40-50 feet even on the not so good days) and there is a LOT of fish. Schools and schools of them. We were lucky and saw mantas at a cleaning station, but also lots of other big free swimming fish like tunas, jacks, barracuda, eagle rays...
I was told that the optimum time to go is October for whale sharks and mantas in formations....this is technically during the off season (May-Oct) so you get some good bargains then.
I don't think Maldives is over rated...definitely worth going if you get a good flight/resort package.:mean:

 

[Rob Sinke]

If you want to dive in the Lembeh Strait but are staying in
Manado you can join one of the trips that the various Manado divecenters are offering. They bring you to Bitung by car, between one and one and one and a half hour, and then dive from a hired small boat, a so called watertaxi. Four is a crowd on these boats. Not all the guides from Manado really know Lembeh.
Froggies from Bunaken is offering a sleep aboard. Two nights on a simple and small but clean boat. Good guides. The Kungkungan Beach Resort is situated in the Strait. But very pricey. The Benteng Resort is diving in Lembeh Strait almost every day. Situated on one hour by very comfortable boat from the famous Strait. Just two guest with one guide. Yesterday in one dive: 2 ornated ghostpipefishes, 2 frogfishes, 1 thorny seahorse, 2 common seahorses, 2 dragonflies, a couple of mandarin fishes and so on.
For homepages adresses see htpp://minahasaraya.net

 

[Erwin Kodiat]

Just came back from Bunaken (North Sulawesi), if you are interested to see the report, go to Bunaken 2003 trip report

 

[Erwin Kodiat]

Initiated by only two members of Kapal Selam Diving Club who desperately wants to dive Bunaken in the year of 2002, the trips has grown to a bigger group of 9 people but later on the participants cancelled one by one until only four commited divers wanted to go. We were desparately contacting every possible divers we know possibly interested to join. In the end, surprisingly the number of participants become 20 people and most of them become our new members.

The trip itself could be said as one of the finest trip for Kapal Selam, both in terms of number of people and the distance from our base in Bali, Indonesia. Bunaken, Manado, Lembeh and Bangka offer a wide variety of possible encounter with marine life we do not see everyday in our regular diving trip. From pygmy seahorse to school of barracuda. From devil scorpionfish to ornate ghost pipefish. Everything seems quite new for most of us. Bunaken 2003 trip has become one of the most memorable diving experience for everyone participate in it.

Read each report to find who join particular day's trip, who's the guide, what we see and some pictures from the trip. We would like to share our joy in this Bunaken 2003 diving trip !