Indonesia April/May

[shafan1234]

Ok its time again to plan my next dive trip... and im thinking Indonesia again... I have dived Pulah Weh in Sumatra pre-tsunamai and that was unbelievable.

This is my thinking:

1 week @ Raja Ampat
1 week @ Manado

1) Can anyone offer me a better intinerary for diving for 2 weeks???
- I like out of the way places (not Bali).
- I like Indonesia best diving (not Wakatobi).
- I like big fish (difficult to find in Indonesia?)

PS> Does any one want to come with???!!??? From Europe including hotel, food, diving, flights, tax is roughly £2000 all in!

Thanks in advance for all your help.

 

[jcclink]

It might be hard to do Raja Ampat in 1 wk. Its a large area. Are you thinking about land based or liveaboard? I did RA 2 yrs ago then dove Bunaken for a few days. I was not impressed with the dive sites at Bunaken compared to RA. I'd suggest you go over to KBR or Lembeh Resort if you're into muck diving. Thought about Komodo? Some great dive sites there.

 

[Mr_Pyro]

I'm also planing to go to RA at the end of Mars begining of April.
Is there any options to liveaboards if you want to dive RA?
We're kind of a budget :-(

I did Komodo in late October 2005, a lot of bigh fish, schools of mantas, a few sharks and turtles.
Biodiversity is excelent pygmy seahorses, frogfish, nudibranchs.....
Wisibility wasn't that great but it was begining of the monsune period so it was expected, still the best diving of my life.
We dived out of Labuanbanjo with Dive Komodo. The place was semi deserted due to the Bali bombings, don't Imagine it to be that crowded during normal circumstances....
We did a few daytrips into the archipelago and a overnight stay on the boat to reach the more distant divesites. It was me and my girlfiend and a crazy american and the dive guide, excelent service.

/Mr_Pyro

 

[jcclink]

Liveaboards in RA about US$250-300+/day, at least the ones I know about. Did a Nov trip on the SMV Ondina which was a comfortable boat.
http://www.thebestdivingintheworld.com/ENG/index.html

 

[Bora_Horza]

Another recommendation for Komodo National Park. I was there last March/April, some photos in my tagline. I based myself in Labuanbajo, and did daytrips out to the good divesites, and went with http://www.reefseekers.net/ Another diveshop in Labuanbajo is http://www.komododiver.com/index_en.html

You can fly from Bali to Labuanbajo (Merpati or GT Air (Germania Trisilia Air)), or another option might be to get yourself to Lombok and take the Perama tour boat to Labuanbajo - see http://www.peramatour.com/ There are other operators doing boat trips to Flores, but I don't know much about them.

 

[Allison Finch]

I will be able to tell you more about RA in a month. Check out the liveaboard Odyssea 1. She is brand new and built for diving and photographers.