TheNitroxinator
Contributor
So, I got back from my Tasik Ria/KBR combo stay last Thursday, ending a wonderful first year and first 150 dives.
Diving at Tasik Ria:
From Tasik Ria, it would take about an hour on a fairly comfortable boat to make it to Bunaken. They do 3 dives a day at Bunaken 3 days a week, and 2 dives plus one dive on the house reef 4 days a week. My scheduling was such that I only did 3 dives in Bunaken 1 day, it was 2+the house reef two other days. I additionally did the one day trip out to Bangka (a very long round trip plus a $20 fee), that only included 2 dives. For all days, a night dive is available on the house reef, but it costs an extra $20.
Personally, I thought the diving was good, although not nearly what I expected. I saw only 1 white tip shark (back in a cave no less), and no other big fish. I did see 2 huge sea turtles (over 4' across). But other than that, it was small fish (keep in mind I've been to Palau, that may be skewing my views a bit). I was really expecting to see a few more big fish; however, there were a lot of cool smaller fish to see, and the coral was very nice on a few dives (Celah Celah was my favorite in terms of the wall, Lekuan 1 was the best with the wall plus the turtles). The guides were cool, but my buddy and I were usually going much slower than them so we could investigate the nooks and crannies; I thought the guides took too fast of a pace, and I know for a fact that they were missing things that my buddy and I saw. The guides also had the poor tendency to go real deep looking for stuff, wasting air and building up extra nitrogen consumption (fine for them doing 2 dives a day, not fine for me doing 4 dives a day). The guides are also just that - guides. Get rescue certified if you want to be on the safe side.
As for the house reef, it was an excellent day and night dive. Its actually a muck dive, and there were sufficient critters to make every dive interesting (squid, cuttlefish, lionfish, frog fish, an ornate ghost pipefish, crinoids, crustaceans, ...). There is one problem with it - garbage. I got a shigella infection (i.e. diarhea) - it may have been the food, but I'm guessing it was the polluted water. My buddy also got sick, probably the same thing.
Diving at KBR:
I live in So. Cal., so most of my local dives are basically beach muck dives. The joy of KBR is that there is a ton to see. I loved the diving at KBR. From Tasik Ria, you can spend $20 and do one days worth of diving at KBR. Everyone I talked to who did that said they would consider doing that *every day*. After diving KBR, I agree, I would spend my money to stay there, and maybe look for a way to do a day or two in Bunaken (or better yet, North Sulawesi around Bangka). I didn't dive all the sites, but actually Angels Window had quite a bit of coral on a sort of mini wall. Some of the other sites may similarly be non-muck dives, I'm not sure. I'm not going to bother listing what I saw, just go to my gallery (http://www.scubaboard.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=22298&password=0
). As of right now (6/28/04), it only has my last 3 days of diving, but it will eventually get pics from Tasik Ria.
Tasik Ria hotel:
The rooms were very good, and had air conditioning. They *spayed* for mosquitos on a nightly basis, and I think I only got 1 bite while I was at Tasik Ria. At the end of the jetty, they had the jetty bar where I was able to watch the Lakers get humiliated twice, and others happily watched the euro cup. The dining was basically a buffet, although they could cook special meals. I thought the food was quite good. As for alcohol, I don't drink much while I'm diving so I stay hydrated, bintang beer was good enough for me on the nights where I watched the Lakers. The grounds were clean, the pool was nice. For the money, it was actually an excellent value. They had a very poor internet hookup, maybe that will change in the future.
KBR hotel:
No air conditioning, and I also don't think they sprayed for mosquitos (I got bit constantly). They also lacked a decent internet hookup. There is still a little construction going on, but not so as you notice it unless you looked for it. I guess they still have a spa under construction behind the pool. The rooms are very nice - they just require you to open windows and let the mosquitos in to get sufficient airflow to be comfortable at night (even with the ceiling fans on). Food was cooked to order, and was good enough. My shigella infection had picked up steam by the time I got to KBR, so I didn't really get to enjoy everything they had on the menu (I had to keep it light and easy, I missed one day of diving due to, um, major stomach problems). What I did have was very good. If they would take care of the mosquitos and air conditioning, KBR would be an excellent resort.
And, one last problem:
My laptop fried. The good news in my view is I got word that my first 7 days of photos are recoverable. The bad news is that the laptop fried in the first place. The problem came up in the otherwise excellent KBR camera room. I'd recommend bringing a surge protector to plug in any equipment (although I'm not positive my problem is related to a power surge, that's just what I suspect).
As for eco-divers:
Eco-diver's management at both Tasik Ria and KBR seem to be concerned with preserving their respective diving environments. The problem is that they are not out on every dive watching the guides. On one dive, one of the boats decided to re-anchor. The problem was they did this about 15' from my buddies head - they should have seen the bubbles! Additionally, they threw the anchor down into one of the very few patches of coral at that particular KBR site. My buddy also took a picture of one of the guides (with "eco-diver" running down his suit) halfway out of the water by standing on a piece of coral. In all cases, they were constantly using their tank bangers to sift through coral, anemones, sand, etc. If you bring it to the attention of the management, they'll look into it, but my guess is the guides haven't fully gotten the "eco" concept just yet. I'll give 'em some credit, other dive groups came through a couple of times, and their dive guides were just like the eco-diver dive guides. They are good at finding stuff, but, as noted earlier, I'd watch your computer and make sure you stick with a profile that is appropriate to YOUR diving day, not THEIRS (usually 4 dives versus their 2 in my case).
Diving at Tasik Ria:
From Tasik Ria, it would take about an hour on a fairly comfortable boat to make it to Bunaken. They do 3 dives a day at Bunaken 3 days a week, and 2 dives plus one dive on the house reef 4 days a week. My scheduling was such that I only did 3 dives in Bunaken 1 day, it was 2+the house reef two other days. I additionally did the one day trip out to Bangka (a very long round trip plus a $20 fee), that only included 2 dives. For all days, a night dive is available on the house reef, but it costs an extra $20.
Personally, I thought the diving was good, although not nearly what I expected. I saw only 1 white tip shark (back in a cave no less), and no other big fish. I did see 2 huge sea turtles (over 4' across). But other than that, it was small fish (keep in mind I've been to Palau, that may be skewing my views a bit). I was really expecting to see a few more big fish; however, there were a lot of cool smaller fish to see, and the coral was very nice on a few dives (Celah Celah was my favorite in terms of the wall, Lekuan 1 was the best with the wall plus the turtles). The guides were cool, but my buddy and I were usually going much slower than them so we could investigate the nooks and crannies; I thought the guides took too fast of a pace, and I know for a fact that they were missing things that my buddy and I saw. The guides also had the poor tendency to go real deep looking for stuff, wasting air and building up extra nitrogen consumption (fine for them doing 2 dives a day, not fine for me doing 4 dives a day). The guides are also just that - guides. Get rescue certified if you want to be on the safe side.
As for the house reef, it was an excellent day and night dive. Its actually a muck dive, and there were sufficient critters to make every dive interesting (squid, cuttlefish, lionfish, frog fish, an ornate ghost pipefish, crinoids, crustaceans, ...). There is one problem with it - garbage. I got a shigella infection (i.e. diarhea) - it may have been the food, but I'm guessing it was the polluted water. My buddy also got sick, probably the same thing.
Diving at KBR:
I live in So. Cal., so most of my local dives are basically beach muck dives. The joy of KBR is that there is a ton to see. I loved the diving at KBR. From Tasik Ria, you can spend $20 and do one days worth of diving at KBR. Everyone I talked to who did that said they would consider doing that *every day*. After diving KBR, I agree, I would spend my money to stay there, and maybe look for a way to do a day or two in Bunaken (or better yet, North Sulawesi around Bangka). I didn't dive all the sites, but actually Angels Window had quite a bit of coral on a sort of mini wall. Some of the other sites may similarly be non-muck dives, I'm not sure. I'm not going to bother listing what I saw, just go to my gallery (http://www.scubaboard.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=22298&password=0
). As of right now (6/28/04), it only has my last 3 days of diving, but it will eventually get pics from Tasik Ria.
Tasik Ria hotel:
The rooms were very good, and had air conditioning. They *spayed* for mosquitos on a nightly basis, and I think I only got 1 bite while I was at Tasik Ria. At the end of the jetty, they had the jetty bar where I was able to watch the Lakers get humiliated twice, and others happily watched the euro cup. The dining was basically a buffet, although they could cook special meals. I thought the food was quite good. As for alcohol, I don't drink much while I'm diving so I stay hydrated, bintang beer was good enough for me on the nights where I watched the Lakers. The grounds were clean, the pool was nice. For the money, it was actually an excellent value. They had a very poor internet hookup, maybe that will change in the future.
KBR hotel:
No air conditioning, and I also don't think they sprayed for mosquitos (I got bit constantly). They also lacked a decent internet hookup. There is still a little construction going on, but not so as you notice it unless you looked for it. I guess they still have a spa under construction behind the pool. The rooms are very nice - they just require you to open windows and let the mosquitos in to get sufficient airflow to be comfortable at night (even with the ceiling fans on). Food was cooked to order, and was good enough. My shigella infection had picked up steam by the time I got to KBR, so I didn't really get to enjoy everything they had on the menu (I had to keep it light and easy, I missed one day of diving due to, um, major stomach problems). What I did have was very good. If they would take care of the mosquitos and air conditioning, KBR would be an excellent resort.
And, one last problem:
My laptop fried. The good news in my view is I got word that my first 7 days of photos are recoverable. The bad news is that the laptop fried in the first place. The problem came up in the otherwise excellent KBR camera room. I'd recommend bringing a surge protector to plug in any equipment (although I'm not positive my problem is related to a power surge, that's just what I suspect).
As for eco-divers:
Eco-diver's management at both Tasik Ria and KBR seem to be concerned with preserving their respective diving environments. The problem is that they are not out on every dive watching the guides. On one dive, one of the boats decided to re-anchor. The problem was they did this about 15' from my buddies head - they should have seen the bubbles! Additionally, they threw the anchor down into one of the very few patches of coral at that particular KBR site. My buddy also took a picture of one of the guides (with "eco-diver" running down his suit) halfway out of the water by standing on a piece of coral. In all cases, they were constantly using their tank bangers to sift through coral, anemones, sand, etc. If you bring it to the attention of the management, they'll look into it, but my guess is the guides haven't fully gotten the "eco" concept just yet. I'll give 'em some credit, other dive groups came through a couple of times, and their dive guides were just like the eco-diver dive guides. They are good at finding stuff, but, as noted earlier, I'd watch your computer and make sure you stick with a profile that is appropriate to YOUR diving day, not THEIRS (usually 4 dives versus their 2 in my case).
