Dissapointed in RAJA(!?)

[Joneill]

Blue magic, cape kri and Mioskon can get crowded. These dives are mostly about schooling fish against the reef (and trevali on the hunt) but you also never know what youll see in the blue. I was there a few months ago and had the dive of a lifetime around a new moon. Sharks, rays, schooling bluefin trevaIli,
and massive schools of fish in every direction. Unfortunate to hear about the bleaching

Definitely check out fam islands. Mind-blowing coral and reef fish.

Yup - I just got back from Indonesia on Monday. We did a 10 day LOB (Misool- FakFak- Triton Bay and then 1 week up land based North of Kri on Pulau Pef. Fantastic diving - amazing amount of life (Fish and corals). Fam was great: Melissa’s Garden is crazy good!

Folks on our LOB had been at Sorido Bay the week before and, unfortunately, said that the area around Kri had experienced a significant bleaching event that started in December and was quite bad. So it appears to be bad luck for the OP in choosing that area at this time as the rest is still simply amazing.

While I like to dive anywhere and will continue to dive in the Caribbean, it can’t even remotely compare to Indonesia as most of what you see is dead in much of the Caribbean and the Biodiversity is tiny compared to Raja. However, as with most things, luck can come into play - last trip to Aruba in November had a large Manta swim by and a previous trip had a whale shark.

Here is a quick clip from last week at Fam Islands on a full day trip from Pef. This level of Fishiness was typical:




And this from near Kaimana a week earlier:


Indonesia over-rated? Hardly - you just had bad luck!

 

[Joneill]

I’ve read that Melissa’s Garden is unbleached. Mike’s Point might be good, too

I can confirm for Melissa’s Garden as I was there last week!

 

[Cali_diver]

It kinda sounds like maybe the op you are diving with isn't interested in giving you the best experience in Raja or they are limited by time or distance. We just got back from Raja on Damai 2 and they went out of their way to make sure we dove with the least amount of divers on each dive. We tried to communicate with the other dive boats and did some not as popular dives and had mind blowing dives. We dove cape kri (which should always be done with some current) and had 100s of sweet lips and snappers (which are always there down deep) We also had huge schools of Spadefish, barricudas, and huge school of jacks up shallow. So I think you just had a bad dive or a bad guide. We spent the least amount of time in the central because of the bleaching and because it gets so crowded. We dove Sawandarek and the guides and divers from other boats would not stop tapping... it drove us crazy! Misool is lovely because they only allow one boat at a time on the main dive sites and the north has great dives as well.. Keep diving and dive with an op that doesn't want to dump you on a site with too many other boats. Raja is amazing in the off season as well and there are far less boats to contend with!

 

[Joneill]

I think the angels of the Caribbean: Queen, French, Grey and Rock Beauty, stack up favorably against anything I saw in the Pacific and Coral Triangle.

I would strongly disagree. While the Queen and French are quite nice in Carribean, the angelfish in Indonesia are more diverse, beautiful and plentiful and many are much larger. We saw Emperor, Regal, Blue-Girdled, Six-Banded, Blueface, Semicircle and Blue-Ring among others.

 

[scubajet]

Raja Ampat is huge and it sounds like you've done 4 dives in one spot with a bad group. If you want to write off all of RA due to that that's fine by me, more space to dive for the rest of us.

"Any tips about what to do? I am on Kri, Arborek on Sunday."

So that was my question. I do call tbe thread 'RAJA" since than everybody knows what area i am talking about.

Sorry if this was to hard for you but you cannot please m all.

 

[scubajet]

Absolutely agree (you can keep your horse). Too many people are loving Raja to death, IMHO it is becoming like Cozumel. I had a similar experience at Blue Magic and the surface interval was on an island with at least 300 of my closest friends

If you can spend a week, check out Triton Bay. Fly from Sorong to Kaimana, then a 60 minute boat ride. You will see no other divers. As a bonus, dive ( not snorkel) with whale sharks

Thank you! Thats a good advice, i will dive in it. Any tips on dive op/Homestay overthere?

 

[scubajet]

Blue magic, cape kri and Mioskon can get crowded. These dives are mostly about schooling fish against the reef (and trevali on the hunt) but you also never know what youll see in the blue. I was there a few months ago and had the dive of a lifetime around a new moon. Sharks, rays, schooling bluefin trevaIli,
and massive schools of fish in every direction. Unfortunate to hear about the bleaching

Definitely check out fam islands. Mind-blowing coral and reef fish.

Thank you, i will continue to travel further i guess....

 

[scubajet]

Yup - I just got back from Indonesia on Monday. We did a 10 day LOB (Misool- FakFak- Triton Bay and then 1 week up land based North of Kri on Pulau Pef. Fantastic diving - amazing amount of life (Fish and corals). Fam was great: Melissa’s Garden is crazy good!

Folks on our LOB had been at Sorido Bay the week before and, unfortunately, said that the area around Kri had experienced a significant bleaching event that started in December and was quite bad. So it appears to be bad luck for the OP in choosing that area at this time as the rest is still simply amazing.

While I like to dive anywhere and will continue to dive in the Caribbean, it can’t even remotely compare to Indonesia as most of what you see is dead in much of the Caribbean and the Biodiversity is tiny compared to Raja. However, as with most things, luck can come into play - last trip to Aruba in November had a large Manta swim by and a previous trip had a whale shark.

Here is a quick clip from last week at Fam Islands on a full day trip from Pef. This level of Fishiness was typical:




And this from near Kaimana a week earlier:


Indonesia over-rated? Hardly - you just had bad luck!

I have no idear what you are referring too but since i started this thread:

I never stated "Indonesia is overrated".

So, good for you if you want to take the time to talk about your own happy times in the Caribbean. We are divers, we know, things might happen, its never a guarantee.

I was just venting my dissapointment about the first few days of diving here and asking for advice. Thats all.

So, bad luck it can be, and i recieved some tips to find my luck elsewhere. Thats what the forum is for, right?

 

[scubajet]

Blue magic, cape kri and Mioskon can get crowded. These dives are mostly about schooling fish against the reef (and trevali on the hunt) but you also never know what youll see in the blue. I was there a few months ago and had the dive of a lifetime around a new moon. Sharks, rays, schooling bluefin trevaIli,
and massive schools of fish in every direction. Unfortunate to hear about the bleaching

Definitely check out fam islands. Mind-blowing coral and reef fish.

Thank you, i will have a look into that. It will be either Misool or Fam. Did 2 s
Dives again this morning and still very little schools of fish.

 

[cetacean]

@scubajet

When you say "still very little schools of fish" are you referring to a type of fish you are not seeing? (like barracuda, jacks, or sweetlips?). We dived Cape Kri multiple times last summer and these fish were present (at depth) in very large numbers. This vis could have been a little better, but the fish were definitely there.

It might help if you explained what you were expecting to see(?)