I just got back from a 7 nights liveaboard trip to komodo on Peter Hughes "Komodo Dancer". Here is something to share and some comments.
We did a Bali - Bali trip. We spent the 1st day sailing & the 2nd day diving in Satoda (about 1/2 way to Komodo). Diving in Satoda was ok but wasn't "spectacular". If I do Komodo again, I think I will take the Bima - Bima trip so
that we can have more dives & more dives inside Komodo Park.
Diving inside Komodo National park was much much better. Amazing colorful soft coral was what I found most memorable. Fishes lives are very good but we didn't have many "school of big fishes" encounters. Mantas are plentiful and you can expect to see them in 2/3 of your dives. There are a lot of macro & wide angle subject to shoot at. Photographers won't be disappointed.
I was wearing a dive skin and a 2mm vest with hood & I found it "ok" in the northern site but cold in the southern sites.(should be ok if I wear a 3mm long sleeve) My wife was wearing a 3 mm long sleeves wet suit + a 2 mm vest with hood and she found most of the site "cold". On the southern site she went up in 30 min.
Current wasn't strong in most of the dives (except 2-3) and no need to go any deeper than 30 meters.
We have 14 guests on this trip & there are 2 dive masters on board. Most of the time both dive masters would dive with us. But some time we have a 1 to 9 or even 1 to 14 ratio on one of the dives. I think that was no good.
On my previous dives with other liveaboard in other region such as PNG; Similan; GBR they performed much more "checking" on each dives. Your equipments; air; depth ...etc but in this trip I think they expected us to have "high level of independence".
Gillian, one of the dives master, was very good. She always looks very hard to find us things to see and she did that very well. All the guests liked her very much. On the other hand, the other dives master, who was responsible for the making of trip video, spent most of his dives time shooting his video and leaving us behind. We didn't like that very much. I think he should spend more time "looking after" us.
Also, for the video itself, I think he spent too much time on animal scene and many of the clips are from previous video. If I want to buy a video on sea life or Komodo, I would buy one from "blue planet". Not a trip video which supposes to show people faces. I think he missed the points.
Food is OK & service on board is good. Crews are very friendly. I loved the massage service. It cost US 5 dollars for 1 hour.
Rooms are clean. But the guests from the room next to us complained that they smell "fuel" in their room (in the last 2 days of the trip) & they have to open their door to sleep. The trip director said they have had that problem before & were trying to fix the problem.
Also something about the travel agent in Bali. I have asked (while I was on board) peter Hughes to arrange a 1/2 day fishing trip when I get back to Bali and they did arranged that with a local travel agent (who also did the hotel pick for Peter Hughes). The travel agent asked me to pay in full (us 125) on our way back to the hotel and I did so. 3 hours later when he picked me up he told me his boss told him that they would not accept US bill issued in the year of 1996 and asked if I had another $100 bill. He then handed me a 100 dollars bill that look completely fake to anybody. I was pissed & I told him in no way I will exchange that bill with him I want to talk to his boss. He then told me he could solve the problem himself and not to think that he is "dishonest". He then tried again and told me that they would not accept US 20 bill issued in 1993 as well and see I could exchange the 20 dollar bill. I was pissed and ask him, "do I look that stupid".....
In conclusion, Komodo offers excellent diving to experienced divers. It is so beautiful above or below water.
We did a Bali - Bali trip. We spent the 1st day sailing & the 2nd day diving in Satoda (about 1/2 way to Komodo). Diving in Satoda was ok but wasn't "spectacular". If I do Komodo again, I think I will take the Bima - Bima trip so
that we can have more dives & more dives inside Komodo Park.Diving inside Komodo National park was much much better. Amazing colorful soft coral was what I found most memorable. Fishes lives are very good but we didn't have many "school of big fishes" encounters. Mantas are plentiful and you can expect to see them in 2/3 of your dives. There are a lot of macro & wide angle subject to shoot at. Photographers won't be disappointed.
I was wearing a dive skin and a 2mm vest with hood & I found it "ok" in the northern site but cold in the southern sites.(should be ok if I wear a 3mm long sleeve) My wife was wearing a 3 mm long sleeves wet suit + a 2 mm vest with hood and she found most of the site "cold". On the southern site she went up in 30 min.
Current wasn't strong in most of the dives (except 2-3) and no need to go any deeper than 30 meters.
We have 14 guests on this trip & there are 2 dive masters on board. Most of the time both dive masters would dive with us. But some time we have a 1 to 9 or even 1 to 14 ratio on one of the dives. I think that was no good.
On my previous dives with other liveaboard in other region such as PNG; Similan; GBR they performed much more "checking" on each dives. Your equipments; air; depth ...etc but in this trip I think they expected us to have "high level of independence".
Gillian, one of the dives master, was very good. She always looks very hard to find us things to see and she did that very well. All the guests liked her very much. On the other hand, the other dives master, who was responsible for the making of trip video, spent most of his dives time shooting his video and leaving us behind. We didn't like that very much. I think he should spend more time "looking after" us.
Also, for the video itself, I think he spent too much time on animal scene and many of the clips are from previous video. If I want to buy a video on sea life or Komodo, I would buy one from "blue planet". Not a trip video which supposes to show people faces. I think he missed the points.
Food is OK & service on board is good. Crews are very friendly. I loved the massage service. It cost US 5 dollars for 1 hour.
Rooms are clean. But the guests from the room next to us complained that they smell "fuel" in their room (in the last 2 days of the trip) & they have to open their door to sleep. The trip director said they have had that problem before & were trying to fix the problem.
Also something about the travel agent in Bali. I have asked (while I was on board) peter Hughes to arrange a 1/2 day fishing trip when I get back to Bali and they did arranged that with a local travel agent (who also did the hotel pick for Peter Hughes). The travel agent asked me to pay in full (us 125) on our way back to the hotel and I did so. 3 hours later when he picked me up he told me his boss told him that they would not accept US bill issued in the year of 1996 and asked if I had another $100 bill. He then handed me a 100 dollars bill that look completely fake to anybody. I was pissed & I told him in no way I will exchange that bill with him I want to talk to his boss. He then told me he could solve the problem himself and not to think that he is "dishonest". He then tried again and told me that they would not accept US 20 bill issued in 1993 as well and see I could exchange the 20 dollar bill. I was pissed and ask him, "do I look that stupid".....
In conclusion, Komodo offers excellent diving to experienced divers. It is so beautiful above or below water.
