ClairevL
Registered
When we were in Indonesia (September 2015), we also went to Nusa Lembongan. We stayed at Two Fish Divers for 4 days and did 2 dives a day. The main reason I write this report is because there was a huge contrast between Two Fish divers (excellent company) and the other company on Nusa Lembongan we went diving with (probably the worst dive shop I have ever experienced).
At Two Fish everything is so well organized! They have a whiteboard that mentions for each boat to which site it goes, and who will be on board. They divide the divers into small groups based on experience and each group (max 4 persons) has a guide.
In the morning they serve a delicious breakfast. Then the dive briefing starts. They show a code of conduct video so that people know how to behave when mantas or mola molas are around. I think all companies should show this video, in order to preserve the beautiful underwater life.
The dive briefings were clear and the guides were good! The maximum group size is 4 and inexperienced divers were usually in groups of 2 with a guide. Despite the currents, they told me they felt really comfortable with their guide.
The dive boat was good with plenty of space on the dive deck. In between the two dives they offered cookies and fresh fruit and after the dives there was a delicious lunch.
Furthermore, I saw one of the instructors teaching an Open Water course, and she did such a great job. She explained everything very thoroughly, she was very patient and took time to improve all the skills. I had never seen such a high quality Open Water course before.
The rooms were beautiful, clean, and spacious and also offered a nice small terrace with comfi bean bags to sit on. There's a tap for drinking water in the room and in the resort you can get free coffee and tea or buy sodas.
The hotel also had a beautiful garden with a pool and the location was excellent, a 3-minute walk from Jungut Batu beach, where many restaurants are situated.
The dive sites varied in my opinion from horrible (Crystal Bay as I will explain below) to beautiful. The visibility was great (30+ meters), the coral was beautiful, and there was lots of fish life. I think Crystal Bay must have been an amazing place to dive, excellent visibility and a high chance to see mola molas in the right season, since it's a cleaning station for them. However, we were not the only ones who wanted to see the mola molas. The first time we were there, there were about 100 divers. Many of them are very inexperienced and are held by guides in order to dive 'safely' in the current. We saw a few people panicking under water as well. At some point apparently a mola mola appeared, so everybody started to swim in one direction. In stead of seeing a mola mola, we only saw a huge wall of bubbles and divers. Then a few days later, we gave Crystal Bay a second chance, since we really wanted to see mola molas and we thought we just may have been really unlucky the previous time. But again, there were so many divers. There were many boast from dive shops on Nusa Lembongan, but also from Bali. This must have been a great dive site, but now I think it's just spoiled by all the divers.
We went to Manta Bay and didn't see any mantas, but this is always a matter of luck anyway. Although I have to say that at the different Manta spots in Komodo, we saw so many of them. Some other dive sites, such as Toyapakeh, I really liked. Still beautiful and great visibility, but not too crowded. We also saw 2 mola molas there. However, this is not a cleaning station for molas; so it's less likely to meet them here and when you do, they won't stick around too long.
Overall, I really enjoyed diving around Nusa Penida/Nusa Lembongan and I would really recommend Two Fish Divers! I'd like to go back at some point, but I'm not sure if I will ever go back to Crystal Bay.
At Two Fish everything is so well organized! They have a whiteboard that mentions for each boat to which site it goes, and who will be on board. They divide the divers into small groups based on experience and each group (max 4 persons) has a guide.
In the morning they serve a delicious breakfast. Then the dive briefing starts. They show a code of conduct video so that people know how to behave when mantas or mola molas are around. I think all companies should show this video, in order to preserve the beautiful underwater life.
The dive briefings were clear and the guides were good! The maximum group size is 4 and inexperienced divers were usually in groups of 2 with a guide. Despite the currents, they told me they felt really comfortable with their guide.
The dive boat was good with plenty of space on the dive deck. In between the two dives they offered cookies and fresh fruit and after the dives there was a delicious lunch.
Furthermore, I saw one of the instructors teaching an Open Water course, and she did such a great job. She explained everything very thoroughly, she was very patient and took time to improve all the skills. I had never seen such a high quality Open Water course before.
The rooms were beautiful, clean, and spacious and also offered a nice small terrace with comfi bean bags to sit on. There's a tap for drinking water in the room and in the resort you can get free coffee and tea or buy sodas.
The hotel also had a beautiful garden with a pool and the location was excellent, a 3-minute walk from Jungut Batu beach, where many restaurants are situated.
The dive sites varied in my opinion from horrible (Crystal Bay as I will explain below) to beautiful. The visibility was great (30+ meters), the coral was beautiful, and there was lots of fish life. I think Crystal Bay must have been an amazing place to dive, excellent visibility and a high chance to see mola molas in the right season, since it's a cleaning station for them. However, we were not the only ones who wanted to see the mola molas. The first time we were there, there were about 100 divers. Many of them are very inexperienced and are held by guides in order to dive 'safely' in the current. We saw a few people panicking under water as well. At some point apparently a mola mola appeared, so everybody started to swim in one direction. In stead of seeing a mola mola, we only saw a huge wall of bubbles and divers. Then a few days later, we gave Crystal Bay a second chance, since we really wanted to see mola molas and we thought we just may have been really unlucky the previous time. But again, there were so many divers. There were many boast from dive shops on Nusa Lembongan, but also from Bali. This must have been a great dive site, but now I think it's just spoiled by all the divers.
We went to Manta Bay and didn't see any mantas, but this is always a matter of luck anyway. Although I have to say that at the different Manta spots in Komodo, we saw so many of them. Some other dive sites, such as Toyapakeh, I really liked. Still beautiful and great visibility, but not too crowded. We also saw 2 mola molas there. However, this is not a cleaning station for molas; so it's less likely to meet them here and when you do, they won't stick around too long.Overall, I really enjoyed diving around Nusa Penida/Nusa Lembongan and I would really recommend Two Fish Divers! I'd like to go back at some point, but I'm not sure if I will ever go back to Crystal Bay.
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