Feb in SE Asia: Manado, Lembeh or Milne Bay?

[PeterMukiwa2]

In life you must make sometimes difficult choices.

A friend an I will have about 10 days free in SE Asia, and we are wondering what would be the best choice:i

Manado, for Lembeh and Bangka Island combo, Mabul/Sipadan, or Milne Bay. We are both experienced divers looking for diversity in diving (muck, coral, pelegics and even a wreck or two.) We are concerned that this may not be the best time for any of these areas. Your comments and advice would be appreciated

 

[AlanWald]

Assuming you can get to Manado City easily (from Singapore, Jakarta or Bali) Lembeh is your best value.

Milne bay is very much more expensive to stay and dive (and expensive to get to) and NOT exactly Southeast Asia, you are closer to Australia than SE Asia and and proabably has a capacity for few divers compared to Lembeh/Bangka where there are several good operators.

Mabul/Sipadan is also more expensive than Lembeh but can be reached easily from Kuala Lumpur or Singapore but involves a number of flights/bus/boat.

Where are you leaving from?

Manado area is the rainy season, but it is wonderful diving. I dove with http://twofishdivers.com/ in Sept. Oct 2004 and 2005 for a month both times. They now have a dive op on Lembeh Island as well as Bunaken Island. They also make long day trips to Bangka on request if there is minimum number of people. I highly recommend then. They have a low ratio of divers to guides and are generally low cost. Their guides are excellent, very enthusiastic. Also no limit on dive time. Some dive operators have a one hour limit. Last trip all my dives were 70 to 100 minutes with most around mid 80s.

http://www.aaudivers.org/manado.htm is my trip report for 2004, I am still working on the 2005 trip report.

 

[PeterMukiwa2]

Thanks Alan. In the Manado area I was considering diving with Murex, as they operate out of the Lembeh resort and also out of Bangka Island. I am told sea conditions can be rough at that time of the year. Has anyone on the board dived there in February?

 

[Indah]

The area around Bangka can be rough indeed from December until April. In Lembeh Strait some of the spots (Hairball, Nudi Retreat, Pantai Parigi)can be affected by an incoming swell. But most of the time you can dive all spots. Would not advice a live aboard during these months. The good thing about this period is that we also dive at the very nice ocean side op Lembeh Island.
Merry Christmas and a good start of 2006. Rob, Divers Lodge Lembeh