Ideal length of stay in Lembeh

[AlMitch]

If you have 15 days and Lembeh was your main destination then I'd stay 10 in Lembeh and 5 on Bangka.
Or you could see if Blue Bay divers (on Bangka) LOB called the Sunshine...I think...is heading up to the northern islands over that time. Might be an interesting trip.

 

[Centrals]

We hate Lembeh but love Bunaken, none of us are photographer,
Two Fish has operation in both places.
Just concentrate on Manado and save the air fare for another trip to eg. Bali, Komodo etc etc.

 

[billt4sf]

Lembeh is great if you love seeing things on your computer screen.

You're in Indo in Feb for 125 days and no Raja Ampat?

- Bill

 

[billt4sf]

We hate Lembeh but love Bunaken, none of us are photographer,
Two Fish has operation in both places.
Just concentrate on Manado and save the air fare for another trip to eg. Bali, Komodo etc etc.

FINALLY someone agrees with me! Go, Centrals! I knew you were cool....ha ha ha

- Bill

 

[Centrals]

FINALLY someone agrees with me! Go, Centrals! I knew you were cool....ha ha ha

- Bill

Three of us went to Lembeh several yrs ago to see what the fuss was all about. And we had the most miserable diving experience of our life! None of us were interested to spend long time looking at featureless black sandy bottom searching for critters! And if something interesting was spotted by the guide then you can rest and sure that there would be a queue of divers anxiously waiting to take picture. Actually it was quite funny to watch them jockeying for best possible angle. We were the only divers that surfaced after 50mins and with 100bar!
Thank you very much Lembeh but never again!

 

[AlMitch]

Centrals I know that muck diving is a love it or hate it sort of thing....and you have clearly stated which side of the line you sit on...BUT the Op clearly stated that they LOVE muck diving. Given that piece of info then Lembeh is pretty close to "as good as it gets".

Tippytoes I'm 99% sure you will absolutely love Black Sands!! We did! And you wont get the bad experience that Centrals got. We had 2-3 divers per guide and there was no one "jockeying" or "anxiously waiting". While I was taking pics of one amazing critter the guide would find something else for the other divers to oggle at. There is just so much to see! I honestly cant remember seeing anyone else underwater...except at Nudi falls and possibly one or two others dives.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Ya, Black Sands, I loved it there. Well, except for the stairs, lol

 

[Dan]

Centrals I know that muck diving is a love it or hate it sort of thing....and you have clearly stated which side of the line you sit on...BUT the Op clearly stated that they LOVE muck diving. Given that piece of info then Lembeh is pretty close to "as good as it gets".

Tippytoes I'm 99% sure you will absolutely love Black Sands!! We did! And you wont get the bad experience that Centrals got. We had 2-3 divers per guide and there was no one "jockeying" or "anxiously waiting". While I was taking pics of one amazing critter the guide would find something else for the other divers to oggle at. There is just so much to see! I honestly cant remember seeing anyone else underwater...except at Nudi falls and possibly one or two others dives.

I saw electric clam for the first time in Nudi Falls. I thought that was an electricity flashing across the clam, but then I learnt that it's just a white fleshy edge of the clam waving at you. Fascinating.

 

[Cali_diver]

I will find that damn hairy octopus one day.

We found it on our 4th trip.. and 14th consecutive day diving there!! But we had also found one in Alor earlier this year as well!!

Love Lembeh and you will enjoy it no matter how many days you stay there @Tippytoes12 My advice to everyone is to take the time to watch behaviors of critters. So many people just snap pictures and move on to the next critter. They miss so much like cleaning, predation, and breeding.

 

[billt4sf]

My advice to everyone is to take the time to watch behaviors of critters. So many people just snap pictures and move on to the next critter. They miss so much like cleaning, predation, and breeding.

Always true - even for larger critters, I mean those you can see.

- Bill