pelan-pelan
Contributor
We have travelled fairly extensively between Java and Manado. Really good advice to sleep at Jakarta airport. We were there earlier in the year and it is airy and new. This is where you get rid of any fatigue and allows you to have extra hours to make the connection. It is amazing how quickly the hours mount up if anything goes wrong. (Like we were delayed at London on the runway for 4 hours because someone was ill and needed off-loading and finding their luggage and getting their luggage off.) And the traffic in Jakarta is bad off the scale.
A friend from NY travelled the route you proposed and found Tokyo to be the biggest hell. From time to time posts here have considered flying the other way, ie east. Or the route we took one time which was via Australia! It's not just the time on the aircraft, it's the possibility of foul-up at each change.
You are right - travelling between locations in N Sulawesi is going to lose you time. We have stayed at Lembeh a few times. It is wonderful. NAD was great - the owners are right there all the time and will give you all help and guidance. We have saved time by travelling from Lembeh across to Manado and dived with operations such as LumbaLumba and Tasik Ria. Either end will arrange the road transfer. If you want en route you can use it as a land tour. We have dived the morning in Lembeh and the evening in Manado = 2 dives per day. Manado-side operations can take you across to Bunaken every day (strong possibility of dolphins on the way across) and there is some amazing muck and low wall diving on the Manado (mainland) side. Rhinopias, Flamboyant cuttle fish, blue ring octopus etc. And there are house reefs at both Lumbalumba and Tasik Ria but I am not sure what their policy is on solo diving. Certainly at Lumbalumba they are happy to provide you with a guide - just you, it doesn't have to be a group.
Solo diving and travelling - I have done both in these areas and never missed a beat. Food - I love the local Minnehasan food - spicy - just let them know, they will be thrilled (otherwise they will assume that you can only manage very bland "American" food and try to make you welcome in that way). When I said I liked the local food they even tried out special little dishes on me at NAD, and then ramped it up when they saw how the other guests were diving into my dishes.
And we have dived both sides in February and had no problem with weather, sea conditions, temperatures and the variety of fish life.
A friend from NY travelled the route you proposed and found Tokyo to be the biggest hell. From time to time posts here have considered flying the other way, ie east. Or the route we took one time which was via Australia! It's not just the time on the aircraft, it's the possibility of foul-up at each change.
You are right - travelling between locations in N Sulawesi is going to lose you time. We have stayed at Lembeh a few times. It is wonderful. NAD was great - the owners are right there all the time and will give you all help and guidance. We have saved time by travelling from Lembeh across to Manado and dived with operations such as LumbaLumba and Tasik Ria. Either end will arrange the road transfer. If you want en route you can use it as a land tour. We have dived the morning in Lembeh and the evening in Manado = 2 dives per day. Manado-side operations can take you across to Bunaken every day (strong possibility of dolphins on the way across) and there is some amazing muck and low wall diving on the Manado (mainland) side. Rhinopias, Flamboyant cuttle fish, blue ring octopus etc. And there are house reefs at both Lumbalumba and Tasik Ria but I am not sure what their policy is on solo diving. Certainly at Lumbalumba they are happy to provide you with a guide - just you, it doesn't have to be a group.
Solo diving and travelling - I have done both in these areas and never missed a beat. Food - I love the local Minnehasan food - spicy - just let them know, they will be thrilled (otherwise they will assume that you can only manage very bland "American" food and try to make you welcome in that way). When I said I liked the local food they even tried out special little dishes on me at NAD, and then ramped it up when they saw how the other guests were diving into my dishes.
And we have dived both sides in February and had no problem with weather, sea conditions, temperatures and the variety of fish life.