Help me with planning a dream trip

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I can see why you might not have liked the Tulamben area. It is excellent for muck-critter diving. The reefs are ok but yes there's much better elsewhere in Indo. When I dive Tulamben I'm mainly diving the muck sites shooting photos of critters.


Muck is okay.. In Komodo I got to see a flamboyant cuttle fish and other such stuff and loved to (pigmy sea horses are too darn small to get excited about). In Tulamben we saw a couple of fab painted frog fish. That said we saw more of the same in other areas of Indonesia as well as tons of other stuff which meant that from my perspective Tulamben still doesn't rate the effort when there are other better places nearby
 
For the deep in Tulamben, similar stuff to the shallows but more of it, also bigger schooling fish were deeper


Other locals. Thailand and malapascu in the Philippines I wouldn't go back to, and put them on the same list as Tulambem

Misool, Komodo and Nusa Lembongan so far in Indonesia were great and I'd go back

The Maldives were good and worth a repeat

The Red Sea, I learnt to dive there so obvious your first dives are special, the last trip was yet okay, I think the Red Sea has been over dived (sour then Red Sea) then again fir me to get there from Dubai it takes 15 hrs, if it only took the 5 hrs it takes from the UK my perspective might be different

My local is the Mussandam, the northern tip of Oman in the strait of Hormuz. Not always great vis (it us at this time of year) loads of great hard and sort coral lots of life that we take for granted that others get e cited about on other trios. whales sharks we see most months. Local fishing is just by small boats and no dive industry to ruin the place.


Still want to explore the South Pacific and want to see dolphins underwater and schools of hammerheads the glapagos is a $20k trip and cold water diving (for us) so not on the radar as yet, but lots of other places are. We just want decent diving to match the effort expended

If you want to see schools of hammerheads for less than $20k trip & not so cold water diving, check out this video:

 
Lorenzoid, add RA into your bucket list.

Oh it most certainly has been on the bucket list for years. My wife and I briefly considered it, but we opted for Bali earlier this year. It's just SO much less expensive to dive in Bali and even Komodo. From what I've seen, those RA liveaboards and resorts are incredibly expensive.
 
Oh it most certainly has been on the bucket list for years. My wife and I briefly considered it, but we opted for Bali earlier this year. It's just SO much less expensive to dive in Bali and even Komodo. From what I've seen, those RA liveaboards and resorts are incredibly expensive.

Have you seen this Grand Komodo Liveaboard:
Schedules & Rates

The company is owned by Balinese. He also has a very reasonable resort (with AC), Raja Ampat Dive Lodge.(RADL) I've been in their LOB in Komodo twice, Raja Ampat once. Also stayed in RADL once.
 
Have you seen this Grand Komodo Liveaboard:
Schedules & Rates

The company is owned by Balinese. He also has a very reasonable resort (with AC), Raja Ampat Dive Lodge.(RADL) I've been in their LOB in Komodo twice, Raja Ampat once. Also stayed in RADL once.

Okay, that's a lot of boats listed, and good prices. I have not done my research.
 
Have you seen this Grand Komodo Liveaboard:
Schedules & Rates

The company is owned by Balinese. He also has a very reasonable resort (with AC), Raja Ampat Dive Lodge.(RADL) I've been in their LOB in Komodo twice, Raja Ampat once. Also stayed in RADL once.


Which of the boats were you on? What's the comfort factor?
 
Which of the boats were you on? What's the comfort factor?

Thanks for asking. I didn't want to hijack the thread. What is the difference between these boats, which charge something like US$2300 for an 8D/7N Sorong-Sorong itinerary, and the "luxury" boats (e.g., Aggressor) that charge upwards of US$3000? My wife and I don't need massages, etc., but we do need a comfortable private stateroom with ensuite toilet, and good food (Indonesian food is just fine with us).
 
Which of the boats were you on? What's the comfort factor?

I was in MV Tarata twice in Komodo (2008 & 2011) & in MV Temukira once in 2010.

Comfort factor is very subjective. I'm easy to please (I had a blast going hiking in the woods, staying in a tent, w/o shower in a week, like when I hiked up Kilimanjaro). You may not. However, back to the topic of the LOB comfort factor, their bed is comfortable. The ensuite bathroom is clean. They clean the room every day like in hotels. AC works. Camera table is available. Food is mixed of Indonesian & western cook and it is delicious. I get a good value for my hard-earned money.

Crews are eagerly want to please us. Couple of examples. I wanted to connect my laptop to the dining room flat-screen TV so we could share the underwater pictures that we just took in previous dives, one of the technician drilled excess hole in the back of the boat wooden wall to the TV video connector. Another example, one of the diver 6'3" tall guy has a high air consumption. The air compressor technician made sure to give him enough air pressure in his tank up to 3300 psi I remembered seeing.

DMs are very experience & have sharp eyes to point to critters that I wouldn't have a clue to see them. I'll be lucky to spot half as much on my own. One of them will check the dive sites for current & direction to make sure the sites are safe to dive. My group ranges from newbies with 50 dives in his belt to 30+ yrs of experience with 1000+ dives all came home safe with big grins on their faces.

Unfortunately the boats don't have Nitrox. So my next LOB was with another boat with Nitrox because when I want to dive 3-4 X / day for 12 straight days, I need Nitrox to keep my energy up. That's why I went with La Galigo 8 months ago & will come back with this LOB next year for the 13-day crossing trip from Ambon to Sorong.
 
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No hijacking just great info! So many options. We really like Raja and our only concern is the current. Is there a better time of year or time of month when it may not be as bad? This is our ultimate dream trip and we want it to be the standard all others are judged by. Thanks for all the input and keep it coming. Bill
 
image.jpeg
The currents in RA, same as in Komodo, are not bad. They mostly occur in channel / straight between island during tide change. Experience DM will know the right time to go in & check how bad it is first by getting into the water w/o BCD before letting us jump in. If it's less than 2 knots & you are comfortable with it then you just follow the DM. Otherwise, skip the dive. There will be plenty of no / very little current dives later.

One note to mention about diving in the current, however. My most fun dives were diving in the current. That is where the pelagic are in actions, like in Manta Ridge. I just hook myself on a rock & let the leash in a bit of tension by putting a bit of air in the BCD when the current is not so fast & to free my hands for taking pictures like you see above.

The current dives that you need to worry about is the down current to the abyss like in Crystal Bay, Nusa Penida, Bali. I haven't experienced such down current happens when I was in RA nor in Komodo.

I would love to get into any current dives in RA & Komodo.

My next bucket list of diving in a current is to go into the current alley in Alor. You have to get into it with negative entry with no air in BCD & fin down hard against the up current. I tried that once in my rookie days & failed. I think I'm ready now after doing some practice when I was in Nabucco diving into the channel of Maratua Atoll in East of Kalimantan (Indonesian side of Borneo)
 
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