Carlos Diver
Contributor
Spent two weeks in Indonesia with three night in Tulamben at Liberty Dive resort before traveling on the Seahorse the first week of December, 11 days/10 nights Raja Ampat. Long review, so I will break it up so you can skip parts you dont care about.
Getting there:
Traveling from the East coast of the U.S. this is a haul. I made the big jump from SFO through TPE to CGK on EVA Air. Excellent flights, with great flight attendants and solid catering. This airline is awesome. I then jumped to Bali on Garuda to start my vacation in Tulamben. Garuda doesnt believe in leg room, but the plane was new and they fed and watered us on the short flight from CGK to DPS.
Tulamben:
The trek from DPS Airport to Liberty takes about 2.5 hours. Their driver was waiting for me at the airport and escorted me to the van. I crashed hard in the shuttle and slept 95% of the trip. We got there about 2230 and I was shown to my room where I crashed for the night. The next morning I was able to get my first look around. Liberty is a nice little dive hotel. Three pools with big, clean rooms. Very attractive and well-kept ground. Restaurants was solid and cheap. Quick walk to other restaurants and down to the ocean. I would recommend a visit to Chops and Hops down the road. Really good food at a great price.
Diving Tulamben:
I did five shore dives, two on Liberty, two on Drop Off and one on Coral Gardens. Did the morning Liberty dive to see the Bumpheads and they were fun to look at. Had a nice school of about 20 escort us from the ship at the end of our dive. All the sites had plenty to keep you busy and were all easy dives. Shore entries can be tricky because of the loose-rock composition of the shore line, but not too bad. I loved the black sand bottoms.
Getting to Sorong:
The trek back to DPS wasnt as fun since I was awake. That is some... interesting driving and road conditions. Also, while the views of the country side are very nice, some of the views can make you very appreciative of the luxuries we have in life. DPS airport is sweltering. Connected through Makassar and stayed for a few hours at the Ibis Budget. Not the best, but for $28 its better than lounging in the airport for 8 hours. I did the Gaurda bid upgrade for the hop from DPS to UPG, and had business to myself. They were both fine for short-hop flights.
Sorong:
Finally, Sorong. When I arrived, Seahorse had reps waiting for me at the airport. They have a list of guest arriving by times and as soon as the other Seahorse guest (same flight) appeared they put us in a cab and off went. We were transported to the boat by one of the large and spacious aluminum dive tenders.
The Seahorse:
This boat has a bit of a dark cloud over it on this board from a previous misadventure. However, that was several years ago and under a different company. The new company Wallacea Cruises runs a great operation and put a lot of time and money into this boat. The cruise director and part owner Akim, even took the time to show me the photos of the overhaul. He is very proud of the work they have put in and the results from that hard work. They stripped this boat down to the hull and completely renovated it. She looks fresh and they work very hard to keep it that way.
The rooms are spacious for a liveaboard and cleaned twice daily. Linens are changed every three days or on request and towels are changed every few days as well. I know they actually change the towels because the colors change just slightly and they are numbered. She can be a noisy girl, most wooden boats are, and nothing earplugs couldnt fix. I am also a very light sleeper, so that plays into it. I like it cold when I sleep and the AC runs COLD.
They are safety conscious. All charging is to be done in the dedicated camera room and they were very thorough with the safety briefing and procedures before we left port.
The food is hot and plentiful. I would rate it as good to very good. A few meals were excellent including the beach BBQ. Considering you are serving 16 divers at a time from six different countries, it can be very tough to get meals right, and they do it well.
The crew is very helpful and always smiling. I think that says something when your employees actually smile. They work hard, but you can tell they arent run into the ground like some operations do with their boat crews. They also have dedicated sleeping quarters and crew areas.
We also made all the usual shore excursions, the views of Heart Lagoon and Wayag and the small villages across the islands. Very nice and much needed on an 11-day cruise.
The guest for this trip was a combo of Europeans, Australians, Americans and Chinese. I was little disappointed my western counterparts didnt make more of an attempt to socialize with the Chinese guest. Its your vacation, you can do what you want. (Soap Box time) but I guess saying how worldly and loving of diversity you are is far easier than actually making friends with someone different than you. Their loss though, since Bao and Wong had the best tea on boat
.
THE DIVING:
The most important part. The diving.
With the length of the cruise we were able to hit all the hot spots. South to Misool and north to Kawe and back down through the Dampier Straight. 31 dives were offered. I did all 31.
Divers are broken into four groups, with four divers per guide. All diving is done from the fast, aluminum tenders. The crew lugs your gear from the spacious dive deck to the tenders and back again at the end of the dives. You rotate guides every other day. I wasnt really a fan of this since I liked my first guide the best.
All of the guides are safety minded and very good at finding the macro life. However, by dive 27, you dont need to call me over from what I'm looking at to point out a nudibranch. Also, we missed a few drops. One of the guides seemed very picky on where he wanted dropped, often having the pilot move the tender after he picked where he wanted us to be, and he wasn't exactly correct in his calculations. That being said, he was a good guide once underwater.
Overall, the guides are very good, and keep a close eye on you under water. They are also very personable and friendly top side.
As for sites, some of my favorites were Shadow Reef (Magic Mountain, which we got to hit twice), Four Kings, Eagle Rock and Mayhem.
The colors, the fish, the schools, the diversity. Everything that I read Raja Ampat would be, it was and more. Some of the sites, I was just blown away. It was amazing diving.
It would take hours to list everything we saw, but some of the highlights included Black-Tip, White-Tip, Carpet and Wobblegong sharks, octopuses, mantis shrimp, seahorses, Bumphead parrotfish, angelfish and anemonefish (two of my favorites), crocodile fish, leaf scorpionfish, school after schools of jacks, cudas, trevally, turtles, large crabs and giant clams.
Also, how can you leave out the Oceanic Mantas! Magic Mountain was awesome. I was probably four to five feet away from a beauty of a manta. I did what I was told. Just hover and dont move, and it just kept getting closer and closer to me. Amazing to see one so close that I could actually see it moving its eye to watch me!
Another treat, on the next to last day, was something I was really hoping to find. A blue-ringed octo! As we were preparing to ascend, safety stop completed, a guide flashed us over. We hovered above a shell on the sand bottom at about 10 feet when suddenly it popped out of the shell and walked across the seafloor. It was as interested in us as we were of it (well, maybe not that excited about us) and gave us a nice show for about five minutes. The guide was even really good at waving people off once he felt the octo was over us. As we moved away, one diver choose not to listen and he was quick to cut them off and point back to the dingy. Such a cool animal to see.
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Getting there:
Traveling from the East coast of the U.S. this is a haul. I made the big jump from SFO through TPE to CGK on EVA Air. Excellent flights, with great flight attendants and solid catering. This airline is awesome. I then jumped to Bali on Garuda to start my vacation in Tulamben. Garuda doesnt believe in leg room, but the plane was new and they fed and watered us on the short flight from CGK to DPS.
Tulamben:
The trek from DPS Airport to Liberty takes about 2.5 hours. Their driver was waiting for me at the airport and escorted me to the van. I crashed hard in the shuttle and slept 95% of the trip. We got there about 2230 and I was shown to my room where I crashed for the night. The next morning I was able to get my first look around. Liberty is a nice little dive hotel. Three pools with big, clean rooms. Very attractive and well-kept ground. Restaurants was solid and cheap. Quick walk to other restaurants and down to the ocean. I would recommend a visit to Chops and Hops down the road. Really good food at a great price.
Diving Tulamben:
I did five shore dives, two on Liberty, two on Drop Off and one on Coral Gardens. Did the morning Liberty dive to see the Bumpheads and they were fun to look at. Had a nice school of about 20 escort us from the ship at the end of our dive. All the sites had plenty to keep you busy and were all easy dives. Shore entries can be tricky because of the loose-rock composition of the shore line, but not too bad. I loved the black sand bottoms.
Getting to Sorong:
The trek back to DPS wasnt as fun since I was awake. That is some... interesting driving and road conditions. Also, while the views of the country side are very nice, some of the views can make you very appreciative of the luxuries we have in life. DPS airport is sweltering. Connected through Makassar and stayed for a few hours at the Ibis Budget. Not the best, but for $28 its better than lounging in the airport for 8 hours. I did the Gaurda bid upgrade for the hop from DPS to UPG, and had business to myself. They were both fine for short-hop flights.
Sorong:
Finally, Sorong. When I arrived, Seahorse had reps waiting for me at the airport. They have a list of guest arriving by times and as soon as the other Seahorse guest (same flight) appeared they put us in a cab and off went. We were transported to the boat by one of the large and spacious aluminum dive tenders.
The Seahorse:
This boat has a bit of a dark cloud over it on this board from a previous misadventure. However, that was several years ago and under a different company. The new company Wallacea Cruises runs a great operation and put a lot of time and money into this boat. The cruise director and part owner Akim, even took the time to show me the photos of the overhaul. He is very proud of the work they have put in and the results from that hard work. They stripped this boat down to the hull and completely renovated it. She looks fresh and they work very hard to keep it that way.
The rooms are spacious for a liveaboard and cleaned twice daily. Linens are changed every three days or on request and towels are changed every few days as well. I know they actually change the towels because the colors change just slightly and they are numbered. She can be a noisy girl, most wooden boats are, and nothing earplugs couldnt fix. I am also a very light sleeper, so that plays into it. I like it cold when I sleep and the AC runs COLD.
They are safety conscious. All charging is to be done in the dedicated camera room and they were very thorough with the safety briefing and procedures before we left port.
The food is hot and plentiful. I would rate it as good to very good. A few meals were excellent including the beach BBQ. Considering you are serving 16 divers at a time from six different countries, it can be very tough to get meals right, and they do it well.
The crew is very helpful and always smiling. I think that says something when your employees actually smile. They work hard, but you can tell they arent run into the ground like some operations do with their boat crews. They also have dedicated sleeping quarters and crew areas.
We also made all the usual shore excursions, the views of Heart Lagoon and Wayag and the small villages across the islands. Very nice and much needed on an 11-day cruise.
The guest for this trip was a combo of Europeans, Australians, Americans and Chinese. I was little disappointed my western counterparts didnt make more of an attempt to socialize with the Chinese guest. Its your vacation, you can do what you want. (Soap Box time) but I guess saying how worldly and loving of diversity you are is far easier than actually making friends with someone different than you. Their loss though, since Bao and Wong had the best tea on boat
.THE DIVING:
The most important part. The diving.
With the length of the cruise we were able to hit all the hot spots. South to Misool and north to Kawe and back down through the Dampier Straight. 31 dives were offered. I did all 31
.Divers are broken into four groups, with four divers per guide. All diving is done from the fast, aluminum tenders. The crew lugs your gear from the spacious dive deck to the tenders and back again at the end of the dives. You rotate guides every other day. I wasnt really a fan of this since I liked my first guide the best.
All of the guides are safety minded and very good at finding the macro life. However, by dive 27, you dont need to call me over from what I'm looking at to point out a nudibranch. Also, we missed a few drops. One of the guides seemed very picky on where he wanted dropped, often having the pilot move the tender after he picked where he wanted us to be, and he wasn't exactly correct in his calculations. That being said, he was a good guide once underwater.
Overall, the guides are very good, and keep a close eye on you under water. They are also very personable and friendly top side.
As for sites, some of my favorites were Shadow Reef (Magic Mountain, which we got to hit twice), Four Kings, Eagle Rock and Mayhem.
The colors, the fish, the schools, the diversity. Everything that I read Raja Ampat would be, it was and more. Some of the sites, I was just blown away. It was amazing diving.
It would take hours to list everything we saw, but some of the highlights included Black-Tip, White-Tip, Carpet and Wobblegong sharks, octopuses, mantis shrimp, seahorses, Bumphead parrotfish, angelfish and anemonefish (two of my favorites), crocodile fish, leaf scorpionfish, school after schools of jacks, cudas, trevally, turtles, large crabs and giant clams.
Also, how can you leave out the Oceanic Mantas! Magic Mountain was awesome. I was probably four to five feet away from a beauty of a manta. I did what I was told. Just hover and dont move, and it just kept getting closer and closer to me. Amazing to see one so close that I could actually see it moving its eye to watch me!
Another treat, on the next to last day, was something I was really hoping to find. A blue-ringed octo! As we were preparing to ascend, safety stop completed, a guide flashed us over. We hovered above a shell on the sand bottom at about 10 feet when suddenly it popped out of the shell and walked across the seafloor. It was as interested in us as we were of it (well, maybe not that excited about us) and gave us a nice show for about five minutes. The guide was even really good at waving people off once he felt the octo was over us. As we moved away, one diver choose not to listen and he was quick to cut them off and point back to the dingy. Such a cool animal to see.
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