jeremyl
Contributor
A MUCH delayed TR for my trip to N. Sulawesi. (I swear I started this twice, but here it is...)
I met my friend Gilda in Singapore for a couple days to decompress after the long flights (from Oregon and Peru). Recommend having some idea of what to do there - we spend most of our time trying to figure out what to do - and I got a nasty cold the first night (which lasted most of the trip) and we were on very different sleep schedules - so this two days was just a blur anyway... although not quite as blurry as the F1 cars as they raced around the track - we happened to be there during the race.
Silk Air took us to Manado where a 2fish rep picked us and another up from the airport to go by car/boat to the "resort". I am fine with eco/budget, but this was fairly underwhelming. Not to go into too many details, as there are plenty of 2fish reviews, but within 2hrs Gilda was asking if we could switch resorts. Obviously the logistics of this are impossible, so we decided we were there to dive and we had a bed and food - so for 4 nts we would deal. This would be a novel if I tried to write/remember everything so here are some key points: No AC is "OK" - it was HOT and sleeping in mosquito netting is not that fun. COLD showers are not that pleasant after days of 3/4 dives when you get the chills. Food was not plentyful, but often was pretty flavorful with local spices. One boat took all the divers (8ppl in 3 groups I think - another boat took students out). So we all dove the same spots. There were some repeat dive sites and some guests skipped the dives as they didnt feel like repeating. That gives you a sense of the place. If I travel for 24hrs to dive and dont want to go on a dive there is something wrong! We did have a dive guide just for us - Ely - and he was very good and pretty nice/friendly. (OK - he was really good - in fact once I dropped my mask getting on the boat and he dove down without gear for several minutes and came back with my $80 mask!).
They tend to stay in a fairly confined location around the resort. Some sites were pretty damn nice, but others were disappointing. We did get them to take us out on a longer trip the last day - but some several sites were "out" due to currents. We did do the Mandarin Fish Dive - which was awesome. Oh yeah - flys were kinda bad. One poor woman got eaten alive their first day. Always flys around the table - breakfast and dinner. These are probably fed by the cess-pool/swamp just outside our cabin.
OK - so I know this is the jungle and it is an eco-budget resort. Having not stayed other places on Bunaken I cannot compare - I just want people to be aware. If you have ever stayed somewhere "cheap" and said "I wont do that again" - dont go here. Frankly the vibe of the place was just kinda "ho-hum". There were plently of cool people there during our stay. I think if the staff wanted to they could make this into a much more enjoyable place to stay without that much effort. But for me it didnt cut it.
Ok - off to Lembeh to stay with NAD for 8nts. Boat/Car/Boat. Car was fun - Indo roads have 3 lanes - one in each direction and one in the middle for whoever claims it. Of course sometimes 3 lanes are as wide as 1 should be. Whoever honks the most wins!
We arrive at NAD ~7p. Immediately greeted by Mike with a quick rundown and getting us settled in our room. This place looks like a 4 star resort compared to 2fish. We are happy. Dinner is in progress so we dump our stuff and go to eat. Food is plentiful. Some highlights... minimal flys. AC. Hot water (although too hot in our shower as min setting on hot-water box is more than I can bare - but way better than cold). Clean roomy rooms. Camera/computer room. Internet was pretty spotty for our trip (But it was almost non-existant at 2fish as well - and they charge there). We were teamed up with one single french woman and our guide. A boat just for the three of us so we could go where we wanted. Our guide (and boatmen) were awesome. Usually 3 staff on boat for 3 divers! As soon as we return from the water hot tea was handed to you - and fresh snacks (not the same packaged biscuits on 2fish - not complaining - just showing how a little attention to detail makes for a much more pleasant trip). Our guide was great! Found cool stuff. Interacted with us. Took us where we wanted to go.
Last day we went onto mainland to see the monkeys. Pretty cool trip - although we cut it short as Gilda had some issue and actually fainted). NAD arranged everything. As soon as we were dropped off I realized I left my binoculars and WALLET on the shuttle boat that returned us (a rented boat at the dock as all the NAD boats were out diving). Simon immediately launched a small boat for me to hunt down this fishing boat - <10min I had it back. Simply amazing considering we were searching the waters of Lembeh straits with a flashlight for a boat that looks like 100 other boats. Of course no charge or anything.
Oh yeah - the diving was ridiculously cool for me. We were spoiled as our first dive as we saw tons! Beautiful soft coral, seahorses, frogfish, rhinopias... crazy. Next day we started the "muck" and it was more searching and finding the occasional cool thing - more like I expected. But we did find pygmy seahorse (and several others types), several ghost pipefish, lembeh sea dragon (seriously guys - this is just a floating weed... it has to be. Oh wait - it has eyes!), tons of nudies, plenty of frog fish, mimic octopus, blue ring octopus, wonderpus, several flamboyant cuttlefish... so much more. Only the hairy frogfish eluded us.
So - Bunaken I am done with you for a while. If you like walls and have the time, by all means go - but for my money I would spend a couple bucks more and opt for something less bare bones than 2fish (I think this sentiment was shared by all that stayed while we were there). Lembeh is cool! Mike and Simon run NAD just like you would hope for. If you are used to 5 star resorts or want luxury go down the street (strait) and stay at KBR or something (and pay 2X). But if you want a very good price on a well run and much more than "sufficient" resort - NAD is the place. People return here (a nice couple was staying for 21 days on a repeat trip while we were there). I will be back. (OK - if you want me to complain about something we did feel the food - although plentiful - was less flavorful than 2fish and could do with some spicing up - and sometimes meat seems dry... again this is not luxury living and we were not here for fine dining, but some attention could go into food prep and make this place even better).
Oh - and I had a camera (well a combo of a G9 and a D200). After every dive I whined I didnt get any good shots - probably because I am my own worst critic and I am harsh - and Mike and Simon have their awesome work all over to make me feel inferior
... and I felt I didnt (couldnt) capture on film (err, flashcard) what I felt when I was underwater... but thats just my lack of skill... but after way to many hours going thru the ~1000 pics / 30+GB - here are some I am kinda happy with (of course they look better RAW):
Picasa Web Albums - jlubkin - Indonesia - T...
And here are some more if you are bored:
Picasa Web Albums - jlubkin - Indonesia - D...
I am ruined. This was my first Indo trip (I did dive Okinawa recently and was also WOW'd) and I am hooked on S.E. Asia... which sucks as it is 24hrs and many $$$'s away, but I will return as often as I can. Already scheming up a trip (3-4wks) for this fall.
--Jeremy
I met my friend Gilda in Singapore for a couple days to decompress after the long flights (from Oregon and Peru). Recommend having some idea of what to do there - we spend most of our time trying to figure out what to do - and I got a nasty cold the first night (which lasted most of the trip) and we were on very different sleep schedules - so this two days was just a blur anyway... although not quite as blurry as the F1 cars as they raced around the track - we happened to be there during the race.
Silk Air took us to Manado where a 2fish rep picked us and another up from the airport to go by car/boat to the "resort". I am fine with eco/budget, but this was fairly underwhelming. Not to go into too many details, as there are plenty of 2fish reviews, but within 2hrs Gilda was asking if we could switch resorts. Obviously the logistics of this are impossible, so we decided we were there to dive and we had a bed and food - so for 4 nts we would deal. This would be a novel if I tried to write/remember everything so here are some key points: No AC is "OK" - it was HOT and sleeping in mosquito netting is not that fun. COLD showers are not that pleasant after days of 3/4 dives when you get the chills. Food was not plentyful, but often was pretty flavorful with local spices. One boat took all the divers (8ppl in 3 groups I think - another boat took students out). So we all dove the same spots. There were some repeat dive sites and some guests skipped the dives as they didnt feel like repeating. That gives you a sense of the place. If I travel for 24hrs to dive and dont want to go on a dive there is something wrong! We did have a dive guide just for us - Ely - and he was very good and pretty nice/friendly. (OK - he was really good - in fact once I dropped my mask getting on the boat and he dove down without gear for several minutes and came back with my $80 mask!).
They tend to stay in a fairly confined location around the resort. Some sites were pretty damn nice, but others were disappointing. We did get them to take us out on a longer trip the last day - but some several sites were "out" due to currents. We did do the Mandarin Fish Dive - which was awesome. Oh yeah - flys were kinda bad. One poor woman got eaten alive their first day. Always flys around the table - breakfast and dinner. These are probably fed by the cess-pool/swamp just outside our cabin.
OK - so I know this is the jungle and it is an eco-budget resort. Having not stayed other places on Bunaken I cannot compare - I just want people to be aware. If you have ever stayed somewhere "cheap" and said "I wont do that again" - dont go here. Frankly the vibe of the place was just kinda "ho-hum". There were plently of cool people there during our stay. I think if the staff wanted to they could make this into a much more enjoyable place to stay without that much effort. But for me it didnt cut it.
Ok - off to Lembeh to stay with NAD for 8nts. Boat/Car/Boat. Car was fun - Indo roads have 3 lanes - one in each direction and one in the middle for whoever claims it. Of course sometimes 3 lanes are as wide as 1 should be. Whoever honks the most wins!
We arrive at NAD ~7p. Immediately greeted by Mike with a quick rundown and getting us settled in our room. This place looks like a 4 star resort compared to 2fish. We are happy. Dinner is in progress so we dump our stuff and go to eat. Food is plentiful. Some highlights... minimal flys. AC. Hot water (although too hot in our shower as min setting on hot-water box is more than I can bare - but way better than cold). Clean roomy rooms. Camera/computer room. Internet was pretty spotty for our trip (But it was almost non-existant at 2fish as well - and they charge there). We were teamed up with one single french woman and our guide. A boat just for the three of us so we could go where we wanted. Our guide (and boatmen) were awesome. Usually 3 staff on boat for 3 divers! As soon as we return from the water hot tea was handed to you - and fresh snacks (not the same packaged biscuits on 2fish - not complaining - just showing how a little attention to detail makes for a much more pleasant trip). Our guide was great! Found cool stuff. Interacted with us. Took us where we wanted to go.
Last day we went onto mainland to see the monkeys. Pretty cool trip - although we cut it short as Gilda had some issue and actually fainted). NAD arranged everything. As soon as we were dropped off I realized I left my binoculars and WALLET on the shuttle boat that returned us (a rented boat at the dock as all the NAD boats were out diving). Simon immediately launched a small boat for me to hunt down this fishing boat - <10min I had it back. Simply amazing considering we were searching the waters of Lembeh straits with a flashlight for a boat that looks like 100 other boats. Of course no charge or anything.
Oh yeah - the diving was ridiculously cool for me. We were spoiled as our first dive as we saw tons! Beautiful soft coral, seahorses, frogfish, rhinopias... crazy. Next day we started the "muck" and it was more searching and finding the occasional cool thing - more like I expected. But we did find pygmy seahorse (and several others types), several ghost pipefish, lembeh sea dragon (seriously guys - this is just a floating weed... it has to be. Oh wait - it has eyes!), tons of nudies, plenty of frog fish, mimic octopus, blue ring octopus, wonderpus, several flamboyant cuttlefish... so much more. Only the hairy frogfish eluded us.
So - Bunaken I am done with you for a while. If you like walls and have the time, by all means go - but for my money I would spend a couple bucks more and opt for something less bare bones than 2fish (I think this sentiment was shared by all that stayed while we were there). Lembeh is cool! Mike and Simon run NAD just like you would hope for. If you are used to 5 star resorts or want luxury go down the street (strait) and stay at KBR or something (and pay 2X). But if you want a very good price on a well run and much more than "sufficient" resort - NAD is the place. People return here (a nice couple was staying for 21 days on a repeat trip while we were there). I will be back. (OK - if you want me to complain about something we did feel the food - although plentiful - was less flavorful than 2fish and could do with some spicing up - and sometimes meat seems dry... again this is not luxury living and we were not here for fine dining, but some attention could go into food prep and make this place even better).
Oh - and I had a camera (well a combo of a G9 and a D200). After every dive I whined I didnt get any good shots - probably because I am my own worst critic and I am harsh - and Mike and Simon have their awesome work all over to make me feel inferior
... and I felt I didnt (couldnt) capture on film (err, flashcard) what I felt when I was underwater... but thats just my lack of skill... but after way to many hours going thru the ~1000 pics / 30+GB - here are some I am kinda happy with (of course they look better RAW):Picasa Web Albums - jlubkin - Indonesia - T...
And here are some more if you are bored:
Picasa Web Albums - jlubkin - Indonesia - D...
I am ruined. This was my first Indo trip (I did dive Okinawa recently and was also WOW'd) and I am hooked on S.E. Asia... which sucks as it is 24hrs and many $$$'s away, but I will return as often as I can. Already scheming up a trip (3-4wks) for this fall.
--Jeremy
But like u, we liked the guides.
