Diving in Irian jaya (Indonesia)

[Erwin Kodiat]

Dear all,
I will be assigned to work in Irian Jaya for at least 3 months. Can you guys provide me any information about diving in Irian Jaya, including teh dive sites, the condition, dive center and of course about the security matter.
So far I try Google and only found Irian Diving (http://www.iriandiving.com) and Kararu (http://www.kararu.com). Is there another local dive center there? Thanks in advance

 

[jamespitt]

erwin,
firstly, what are you doing for 3 months in IJ? and how can i get up there??????
i am sure you have heard of Raja Empat - they reckon its got the most diverse fish and coral life in the world. plus wrecks. so u dont need to go anywhere else!
are you indonesian? i spent 4 months in aceh province, sumatera, and was fine, but dont know about IJ. i am just really jealous.
have a great time.
James

 

[Erwin Kodiat]

Hi James, thanks for your reply. I'm Indonesian living in Bali and diving here a lot but never been outside Bali for diving. The reason I will stay at least 3 months is I'm assigned to work for a mining company there.
Will find info about Raja Ampat as you told me. Thanks.

 

[dlarbale]

Thanks for the links - when you get there be sure to post and let us know how much your paying per dive, the prices on the web sites are extortionate!!

I too was in Northern Sumatra with James and have also done some diving in Tulamben, Bali. I've done 150+ dives in Indo and never paid more than $10 US with most of them being free because I was DM'ing. So spending $100US+ a day seems very steep!!!!

Have fun - Dave.

 

[tris]

Hi Erwin

I spent about 2 months in Jayapura in 95. I dived around the area quite alot, but unfortunataly alot of the reef is damaged mostly by destructive fishing techniques.

There was a swimming pool/club/restaurant which also had a dive operation attached. The set up was quite unclear. I think the owner was x military or something, anyway it was more a dive club than centre. Most of the diving seemed to be focused around hunting or even collecting fish for aquariums. I think the owner was called Alamsa. (At the time you get in contact with him through the biggest & most organised travel agent in town, which if I remember correctly was run by Jimmy)However they were very welcoming and we even started down the route of trying to help them develop some diving activities for tourists in transit to the highlands. However we never found anything great around Jayapura.
the gem of the trip was diving in Cenderwasih bay (not sure of spelling). Where we managed to spend a week diving around. This was a proposed marine park, I dont know if it was ever formally recognised as such. Great diving although again some damage from poor fishing techniques. If you cant find any info about the area (I may have spelt it wrong) check with WWF office in Jayapura.

sorry this all so vague but you can email me directly for more info.

 

[Rob Sinke]

It is funny to hear and read that everbody always wants the best for the local people. But do not want to pay for it. Operating an diveresort far away from everything in Irian Jaya is not an easy or cheap thing to do. Just start calculating and you will find out that a base so far away in the most expensive part of Indonesia simply has to calculate this prices if they want to pay their staff an honest salary and offer good service. Not to talk about the risk you take as a businessman to invest in this part of the world. And the diving was indeed worldtop when I made about 150 dives there.
If you want to dive as good and pay less you can check http://gb.diving-on-sulawesi.com But then you will miss the very kind Papua people. Although I am not sure they will be as nice to Indonesian as they are to foreigners. Specially the Javanese are not that popular. That answers also a little bit the question about safety. If you look as a javanese Sorong could be tricky.
Best regards from North Sulawesi

 

[Erwin Kodiat]

Thanks all for the precious info I got from you all. A friend who lives in Timika will arrange a trip for me on October. It is not confirmed yet whether I have to go to Irian or not.

 

[Erwin Kodiat]

Hi Rob, I understand that setting up a business in a remote area is not cheap. Even in well-known place like Bali, it is not cheap as well. I have a friend who just operated a dive shop in Bali for 1.5 years, he had to invest a lot while maintaining a good customer relationship and marketing effort. So I will pay for reasonable price that meet my budget. That's why I'm looking for the best service but meet my budget. If I found that diving Irian Jaya beyond my budget then I won't dive there. Will contact you if I interested in diving Sulawesi.
Thanks for the info about Javanese situation in Irian Jaya especially Sorong, will consider it as a safety precaution although I do not look like a Javanese.