November in Indonesia

[outofofficebrb]

Tough one.
I tried different ones, I didn't like Blue Marlin at all despite their speed boat, they had very mundane bule guides. I am not especially keen on people overplaying the "everything is so cool" act when they don't deliver, probably my X-generation self surfacing.
My favor would go to Dragon Dive at the time they had a speedboat as well, I think they don't operate it anymore. Their place is also nice to stay.
I usually I don't do liveaboard but IMO it's still the best way to dive Komodo since you can't daytrip to the south, they have plenty of cheap and short liveaboards (4-5 days) that would allow you to cover many more spots than with daytrips, especially in november.

Blue Marlin uses freelance guides. I dived with them for almost a week recently and on one of the days, unfortunately, we got a pretty bad guide. It was the first time they used him. You could tell he was uninterested, not engaging, didn’t care to do much or anything at all but the bare minimum. It was awkward. Needless to say, that guide won’t be back. They asked us for feedback after and we were brutally honest. I think some of the staff on board relayed this information to management before we even had the chance to say anything. Thankfully, he was the exception for us.

 

[maat1976]

Very interesting ideas here. If I were to do a shorter liveaboard, and recommendations for that? I’m in ideas mode

Also it is likely Alor will be my last stop. I’m told each of the two resorts on the island are quite different in what diving they are good for, is this correct?

Thanks.

 

[Luko]

Very interesting ideas here. If I were to do a shorter liveaboard, and recommendations for that? I’m in ideas mode

There are so many operators. I went once 4days with LoB with Dragon Dive, that was august so we dived only the northern part, south was out of reach, out of season. At the time they had a small boat, now they operate a bigger one.
Many if not every dive center have their own LoB : check out UberScuba, Dive Komodo, Dragon Dive... etc. You'll need to shop around.

Also it is likely Alor will be my last stop. I’m told each of the two resorts on the island are quite different in what diving they are good for, is this correct?

There are more than 2 resorts.
My favorite/always go to is Alor Divers on Pantar.
I don't like the location of Alami, La Ptite Kepa is closed for diving that said I think you can stay there and dive with Lazy Turtle, Alor Air is a local operation.

 

[maat1976]

I knew this group would know! Amazing advice and ideas. I don’t need to go thru bali. Maybe I just book to Jakarta or Singapore and figure it out later.

 

[Luko]

we got a pretty bad guide. It was the first time they used him. You could tell he was uninterested, not engaging, didn’t care to do much or anything at all but the bare minimum. It was awkward. Needless to say, that guide won’t be back. They asked us for feedback after and we were brutally honest.

Same profile I had some years ago except I had to pay him private guiding surcharge + he was the senior instructor at BM (certified in Koh Tao FWIW... ) When diving with him, a DM on internship even asked me why I was paying as his instructions were "you lead I'll follow you".
That guy didn't show me anything, I only knew he was diving with me when I started checking underneath a seacucumber for an emperor shrimp with my stick, and he took my stick off. I signaled him the dive was over and voiced him of the bad I thought about him on the boat, especially that he was smelling alcohol from the morning and that he probably knew more brands of beer than names of nudibranches. He wasn't even aware of what was an emperor shrimp.

When I complained to the manager about the guide she assigned me (I had booked a private guide and exeplaned what I was exepcting several month before hence it was not like short notice), she told me he was the best instructor they had and their indonesian macro guide was diving with other people. So when I canceled for the day after she applied cancellation fees and kept my money . B*tch.
That's for Blue Marlin.

 

[Diver Rick]

I recently flew both Garuda and Batik/Lion and Garuda was clearly a better airline. Newer planes, better staff & flight attendants etc.

 

[maat1976]

Right, I think I've come up with an itinerary I'd like some thoughts on. I can also skip Bali if either Komodo / Alor is worth adding to. Is there enough to keep busy for this whole time in these two locations? Seems a lot of faffing to get back to Bali.

Nov 3 LHR -> Arrive Nov 5th Labuan Bajo
Nov 6-11 Dive Komodo LOB
Nov 12 - Off
Nov 13 - Fly to Kupang
Nov 14 - Fly to Alor
Nov 15 - 21 Alor Divers
Nov 22 - Off
Nov 23 - Fly to Bali
Nov 24 - 26 - Dive Padang Bai or Tulamben
Nov 27 - Off
Nov 28 - Fly to LHR

Thanks.

 

[maat1976]

Other Option:
Nov 3 LHR -> Arrive Nov 5th Labuan Bajo
Nov 6-12 Dive Komodo LOB + local
Nov 13 - Off
Nov 14 - Fly to Kupang
Nov 15 - Fly to Alor
Nov 16 - 25 Alor Divers
Nov 26 - Off
Nov 27 - Fly to Bali
Nov 28 - Fly to LHR

 

[Darnold9999]

Probably not doable but I would do Bali first or even local diving in Komodo before the liveaboard if possible. Take a day or two to adjust to the climate, and time zone at a significant discount over the daily rate on a liveaboard. Otherwise you are doing all that adjusting your first two days on the liveaboard and my experience is you will hardly even remember those couple of days.

I would go with the second option. Bali is really nice, but that is a lot of travel to dive there and Alor is as nice or better. My limited experience is that Tulamben has slightly better muck diving than Alor, but not much better. I have only been to each once so others may have a more informed opinion. Not sure exactly what Alor Divers do to get you to the muck diving at Alor however. My understanding is that they only dive in the bay (where the muck diving is) once a week so if you were really wanting to do more muck diving than the one day in the bay then diving Bali for a couple of days would be a good option. In 9 days you may get into the bay twice with Alor Divers, but you will need to ask what their schedule is to find out for sure.

I would also double check the day you plan to arrive for Alor Divers with them. They do mid week transport from the Airport on Thursdays which would be the 16th. Your option of arriving on the 14 or the 15th might not work. (Their web site is not really clear as in one place it says Wednesday is the transport day and somewhere else it says Thursday.) I am doing a Thursday arrival in October. Just worth checking with them to be sure.

Last thought would be to get to Kupang and Alor a day earlier and not take the full day off between the liveaboard and the flight. Not sure what time the flight is, but often the last day on a liveaboard is a short dive day so you can leave on a flight the next day and not lose any diving. There is nothing to do in Kupang so you will have lots of time to take a break from diving while waiting for the flight to Alor. Gives you an extra day to dive somewhere.

 

[maat1976]

Probably not doable but I would do Bali first or even local diving in Komodo before the liveaboard if possible. Take a day or two to adjust to the climate, and time zone at a significant discount over the daily rate on a liveaboard. Otherwise you are doing all that adjusting your first two days on the liveaboard and my experience is you will hardly even remember those couple of days.

I would go with the second option. Bali is really nice, but that is a lot of travel to dive there and Alor is as nice or better. My limited experience is that Tulamben has slightly better muck diving than Alor, but not much better. I have only been to each once so others may have a more informed opinion. Not sure exactly what Alor Divers do to get you to the muck diving at Alor however. My understanding is that they only dive in the bay (where the muck diving is) once a week so if you were really wanting to do more muck diving than the one day in the bay then diving Bali for a couple of days would be a good option. In 9 days you may get into the bay twice with Alor Divers, but you will need to ask what their schedule is to find out for sure.

I would also double check the day you plan to arrive for Alor Divers with them. They do mid week transport from the Airport on Thursdays which would be the 16th. Your option of arriving on the 14 or the 15th might not work. (Their web site is not really clear as in one place it says Wednesday is the transport day and somewhere else it says Thursday.) I am doing a Thursday arrival in October. Just worth checking with them to be sure.

Last thought would be to get to Kupang and Alor a day earlier and not take the full day off between the liveaboard and the flight. Not sure what time the flight is, but often the last day on a liveaboard is a short dive day so you can leave on a flight the next day and not lose any diving. There is nothing to do in Kupang so you will have lots of time to take a break from diving while waiting for the flight to Alor. Gives you an extra day to dive somewhere.

Thanks so much for this thoughtful reply.

I've been diving in Tulamben probably 10 times. Love it. However I'd like somewhere new with 3.5 weeks to use. Dive Komodo is working with me for exactly the reason you mention. You are right on jetlag. We are discussing itinerary to do a few day trips before a 6D 5N LOB. Alor Divers has also been in touch, they can accommodate the pickup thankfully. I tried to get the Kupang and Alor flights on same day but people above and from the resort tell me this is not possible as the advertised afternoon flight never happens.

I can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!