Indonesia is Open...sort of

[GF99/99]

Are you CCR diver?

yup

 

[Dan]

yup

Cool. You really get close encounter with the fishes then, unlike most of us bubble makers and Darth Vander noise makers.

 

[GF99/99]

Cool. You really get close encounter with the fishes then, unlike most of us bubble makers and Darth Vander noise makers.

Yes makes for an amazing diving experience. I really enjoy it!!

For example just teaser from yesterdays encounter with a live nautilus. Sorry for the bad quality video the Paralenz is not very great quality (or maybe its operator error ) and adds a strange red filter when you light things up close. Also videos, video editing, and computers are not my specialty. Sometimes its a mission for me just to get the video from the Paralenz to my phone and computer

 

[Dan]

Yes makes for an amazing diving experience. I really enjoy it!!

For example just teaser from yesterdays encounter with a live nautilus. Sorry for the bad quality video the Paralenz is not very great quality (or maybe its operator error ) and adds a strange red filter when you light things up close. Also videos, video editing, and computers are not my specialty. Sometimes its a mission for me just to get the video from the Paralenz to my phone and computer

Amazing! Seeing swimming nautilus is one of my dreams.

 

[Diver1967]

We have gone ahead and booked Misool, Banda Sea, Lembeh and Bunaken for Sept, Oct, Nov 2022. All word is that Indonesia will open up for fully vaccinated travelers by first quarter 2022. Barring any disaster like what is happening in Europe right now I think it is very good probability we will be back diving Indonesia in 2022. If there isn't clarity by April 2022, I will just reschedule the trip to 2023.

 

[Indah]

Fully vaccinated could mean by then 3 shots (2 when J&J). March could mean that Indonesia is in the full next wave. Or maybe your planned trip will be great. Which we all of course wish you.The current situation showes how unpredictable this pandemic is.

 

[Diver1967]

Yes, it is a bit of a gamble. The worst case we reschedule to 2023. I am cautiously optimistic that by late spring Indonesia will open up for fully vaccinated travellers.

 

[Mahadley]

You are free to travel domestically. If you are flying then you need proof of vaccination 1st shot (can be a foreign one, last time I was in the US picked up the Pfizer shot so I could get into the EU and the little print out from CVS is all I show and I have had no issues traveling around Indonesia) and Antigen test taken 24hr be for your flight. Check Traveloka (local Indonesia version of Expedia, skyscanner, etc.) for latest flight info but there are tons of flight all over Indonesia radially available. Diving is great!!!! Just yesterday I had an amazing encounter with a live nautilus, and over the past month have seen several hammerheads sharks, thresher sharks, mola mola and even a rare snaggletooth shark. This trip I have been here since July and have been averaging about 6-10hr a week of diving since I have been here. I even did an epic 1.5 month expedition to a remote area of SE Sulawesi for some cave diving exploration and laid a lot of new line. Pretty much every major dive area in Indonesia land based or liveaboard has diving available if you want to dive someone can help you. Several really good deals on liveaboards right now for Raja as its that time of the year. Earlier there were lots of good Komodo deals also. For price reference the Misool trip I booked was 2,200 Euro for 10n 11d but that was with a group of friends.

In July when the Delta variant hit Indonesia hard you could not get O2 but now O2, Helium, and Sofnolime is readily available so no issues there as well. For price reference last month I bought a G of helium and it was IDR 5.6mil (about USD$400) which for Indonesia is really good. And sorb as always is expensive as hell. Last two tubs I bought were IDR 3.8mil per tub (about USD$270)

Only difference between normal be for corona and now is that there are far less tourist which is actually very very nice reminds me of how Bali use to be 10 years ago. Yes lots of diver centers are closed but there are still several open as there is still quite a bit of diving going on. I don't think there is a single place you can not dive I even had a good friend make a trip up to UnaUna 2 months ago to give you and idea of how remote you can get and still go diving. Remember international tourism is a very small industry for Indonesia as a whole. So really only Bali some of Lombok and very select dive destination think Labuan Bajo, Manado, etc. are affected by the lack of tourist. The rest of the country continues on with regular business. Also there is still a very very large amount of local tourism, there are tons of rich Jakarta tourist that do long weekend diving trips to all the same places foreigners go and some very very high end liveaboards.

Hi! I’ve seen your video of the snaggletooth in Bali, would you mind sending me a message (I’m new to this forum trying to collect some data on snaggletooth and don’t have messaging privileges yet )? A fellow scientist is researching snaggletooth in the region and would like to know which dive site, date of the sighting, and if she can use your video as data for the publishing. You would get full credit and if there’s a dive center that you would like to credit that can be added too. Thank you in advanced.