Parla
Registered
After following and reading trip reports for many years, here is finally my first one 
We flew SIN-MDC with Scoot on Friday morning. No hassles, it just took us one hour to get through the VOA (Visa on arrival) and immigration as it was a full plane. The driver was waiting for us and took us in one hour to Black Sand Dive Resort.
What a luxury: We were the only guests at BSDR during our stay until the last morning.
The bungalow was spacious and it had plenty of storage space in the walk in closet (with doors you can close so you don’t have to look at your stuff). There was an AC and fan, a big bottle of drinking water as well as coffee and tea. The bathroom was semi open and spacious.
After a 3-year break, we had our first dive with DM Abner. As there was another boat already at the dive site he had planned, we changed to another one where we were the only ones. This was luxury during all our dives: having the dive site all to ourselves. It also allowed me to practice taking photos in peace without having to worry about divers lining up behind me. We did 12 dives in 5 days, all with Abner. Etmo joined us for a couple when we were looking for the mimic and coconut octopuses.
Abner was an excellent DM. All dives were easy with no current and they were all over 65 minutes. I had my brand new Olympus TG-6 (my first underwater camera) and Abner helped me with the settings and the strobe set up. He was also excellent at spotting the critters. Abner was very gentle with the octopus and although they were disturbed, they didn’t seem terrified of us humans. We had long encounters with long-arm octopus, mimic octopus, coconut octopus and mototi octopus. Besides that we saw plenty of familiar critters and others we had not seen before (we have been diving quite a lot in Philippines, and some in Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, and Thailand).
As most of the dive sites were really within a few minutes’ boat ride, we enjoyed being back at BSDR between the dives. We rented most of the gear and they were all of very good quality. It was our first time in a camera room so can’t compare that to other ones.
At breakfast, we ordered our lunch and dinner from the a la carte menu. The portions we big enough even for a hungry diver, and very tasty. In the afternoon, we got a nice little snack, oh those chocolate rum balls were the best. And the coffee was really good (my husband works in coffee so we are used to having nice coffee at home).
All the staff were very friendly. Linda was in charge of the resort while we were there. When my strobe broke down, she helped me order a new one from Jakarta to be delivered to our next destination. She even went into town to change our USD and make the payment. And I got a really nice cake for my birthday.
All in all, we were very pleased with our stay, and next time will add a couple more days to our stay (now we had 5 days). BSDR also took us to Likupang by car (2 hours) for our pickup to Gangga Island.
Gangga Island was the white sand part of our holiday, and more a combo of beach holiday and diving. We stayed at Gangga Island Resort in a Deluxe Minahasa Bungalow right by the beach. The room was spacious with lots of place for laptop and books but less storage space. The bathroom was also large and had shampoo, conditioner, soap and shower gel so no need to carry those.
We enjoyed different types of dives with the white sand bottom and more corals that were all very healthy. We dove with DM Rano who was also excellent at spotting the critters. He also helped me with my camera. Mostly it was just my husband and I diving with Rano, a few times one more person. Again, lots of critters but also more fish than at Lembeh Strait. We did a day trip to Bunaken and saw tens of turtles (much more than we saw while staying there in 2007). Rental gear was good. Gangga Island Divers did two dives out. Travel time to dive sites was up to 30 minutes (except Bunaken). There was plenty of fruit, cake and coffee and tea served between the dives.
Breakfast was buffet style. For lunch and dinner there was a menu to choose from. Head chef Simon (sp?) was very keen to know your opinion on the food and adjusted the dishes accordingly. One evening we had a great seafood buffet dinner. Again food was very good (although some of the local dishes were clearly spicier) and the portions were big enough.
On the beach there was a cabana for each bungalow and two loungers. There was a salt water pool and a deck with more loungers.
As our flight MDC-CGK was at 8am, we stayed our last night in Manado as there was no transfer available at 5am. We chose Four Points by Sheraton (Gangga Island recommended Novotel Manado Golf Resort which is close to the airport). Our hotel was in the centre of town, but there is not much to do or see in Manado (and difficult to get beer in the local restaurants), so you are probably better off at the Novotel.
We enjoyed being in a remote place without hearing any motorbike, dog or construction work. Loved the fresh air and the easy diving. We would definitely return to Black Sand Dive Retreat, but not sure Gangga Island Resort was worth the higher price. My photos are unedited as I only have my first Lightroom lesson tomorrow (and I have no Flickr or other account yet), just wanted to post the photos at the same time with the text.
We flew SIN-MDC with Scoot on Friday morning. No hassles, it just took us one hour to get through the VOA (Visa on arrival) and immigration as it was a full plane. The driver was waiting for us and took us in one hour to Black Sand Dive Resort.
What a luxury: We were the only guests at BSDR during our stay until the last morning.
The bungalow was spacious and it had plenty of storage space in the walk in closet (with doors you can close so you don’t have to look at your stuff). There was an AC and fan, a big bottle of drinking water as well as coffee and tea. The bathroom was semi open and spacious.
After a 3-year break, we had our first dive with DM Abner. As there was another boat already at the dive site he had planned, we changed to another one where we were the only ones. This was luxury during all our dives: having the dive site all to ourselves. It also allowed me to practice taking photos in peace without having to worry about divers lining up behind me. We did 12 dives in 5 days, all with Abner. Etmo joined us for a couple when we were looking for the mimic and coconut octopuses.
Abner was an excellent DM. All dives were easy with no current and they were all over 65 minutes. I had my brand new Olympus TG-6 (my first underwater camera) and Abner helped me with the settings and the strobe set up. He was also excellent at spotting the critters. Abner was very gentle with the octopus and although they were disturbed, they didn’t seem terrified of us humans. We had long encounters with long-arm octopus, mimic octopus, coconut octopus and mototi octopus. Besides that we saw plenty of familiar critters and others we had not seen before (we have been diving quite a lot in Philippines, and some in Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, and Thailand).
As most of the dive sites were really within a few minutes’ boat ride, we enjoyed being back at BSDR between the dives. We rented most of the gear and they were all of very good quality. It was our first time in a camera room so can’t compare that to other ones.
At breakfast, we ordered our lunch and dinner from the a la carte menu. The portions we big enough even for a hungry diver, and very tasty. In the afternoon, we got a nice little snack, oh those chocolate rum balls were the best. And the coffee was really good (my husband works in coffee so we are used to having nice coffee at home).
All the staff were very friendly. Linda was in charge of the resort while we were there. When my strobe broke down, she helped me order a new one from Jakarta to be delivered to our next destination. She even went into town to change our USD and make the payment. And I got a really nice cake for my birthday.
All in all, we were very pleased with our stay, and next time will add a couple more days to our stay (now we had 5 days). BSDR also took us to Likupang by car (2 hours) for our pickup to Gangga Island.
Gangga Island was the white sand part of our holiday, and more a combo of beach holiday and diving. We stayed at Gangga Island Resort in a Deluxe Minahasa Bungalow right by the beach. The room was spacious with lots of place for laptop and books but less storage space. The bathroom was also large and had shampoo, conditioner, soap and shower gel so no need to carry those.
We enjoyed different types of dives with the white sand bottom and more corals that were all very healthy. We dove with DM Rano who was also excellent at spotting the critters. He also helped me with my camera. Mostly it was just my husband and I diving with Rano, a few times one more person. Again, lots of critters but also more fish than at Lembeh Strait. We did a day trip to Bunaken and saw tens of turtles (much more than we saw while staying there in 2007). Rental gear was good. Gangga Island Divers did two dives out. Travel time to dive sites was up to 30 minutes (except Bunaken). There was plenty of fruit, cake and coffee and tea served between the dives.
Breakfast was buffet style. For lunch and dinner there was a menu to choose from. Head chef Simon (sp?) was very keen to know your opinion on the food and adjusted the dishes accordingly. One evening we had a great seafood buffet dinner. Again food was very good (although some of the local dishes were clearly spicier) and the portions were big enough.
On the beach there was a cabana for each bungalow and two loungers. There was a salt water pool and a deck with more loungers.
As our flight MDC-CGK was at 8am, we stayed our last night in Manado as there was no transfer available at 5am. We chose Four Points by Sheraton (Gangga Island recommended Novotel Manado Golf Resort which is close to the airport). Our hotel was in the centre of town, but there is not much to do or see in Manado (and difficult to get beer in the local restaurants), so you are probably better off at the Novotel.
We enjoyed being in a remote place without hearing any motorbike, dog or construction work. Loved the fresh air and the easy diving. We would definitely return to Black Sand Dive Retreat, but not sure Gangga Island Resort was worth the higher price. My photos are unedited as I only have my first Lightroom lesson tomorrow (and I have no Flickr or other account yet), just wanted to post the photos at the same time with the text.
