The star is of course: Lembeh strait, somebody told me there are over 50 (FIFTY !!!) sites in the strait alone. It's macro, it's pygmy seahorse. I've almost been there *boe hoe hoe...*if only my boss didn't give me warning to come back to office on time - I would have given in to the temptation.
I dove Likuan II, Bunaken island, once. I had never done wall dive before but I thought the wall is fantastic. Visibility was 20-30 meter. I met shark, 2 eels in one hole, three turtles and one huge beautiful angel fish. Later I read it's written as one of the best dive sites in the world.
Prior to that, I did 5 day liveaboard in Sangir-Talaud islands, northern area of Menado. Visibility in general was over 15 m. Many of the islands are volcanoes. There is also an underwater volcano. I stopped by a spring of bubbles and washed my face with warm bubbles. Marine life in general was in very healthy condition. Macro life, corals & sponges, big pellagic - plenty.
Now, if you're interested in corals, Mahangetang is the place (still in Sangir-Talaud islands). The coral surrounding this island does not grow in patches like most places. They grow in 3-5 sqm fields. So in a hot day with crystal clear water, it looked really amazing, a field of cabbage coral - then a field of blue coral, then a field of table coral, a field of staghorn coral. A Napoleon Wrasse had a late lunch there when I dove the place. Too bad it's early evening dive, soon it got dark and we couldn't see anything.
I dove with Murex Liveaboard. The owner, Dr. Batuna is one of the diving pioneers in Menado. They sure know precisely where and when to go. A new DM saw the rare comet fish twice during this trip - till today we're still arguing whether what he saw was comet fish or some other fish.
I saw a lot of things during every dives and I usually banged my tank to show the others my found - sadly only to find that my founds are common. Everybody was nuts about me ;-). Well, 3 white with black stripe nudibranch, flounder fish, catfish digging the sand like dogs, brown-black pipefish, yellow pipefish, yellow fish with purple lipstick pouty mouth, juvenile trigger fish, a shrimp digging a hole with a goby standing nearby guarding the place --- in my place those are called RARE.
Oh yesss - and a lot-lot-lot of puffer fish, I dove more than 20 dive sites and I think I met different colored puffer fish each time.