Nusa lembongan with Two fish Divers - trip report and why I didn't like Crystal Bay

[ClairevL]

I agree Crystal Bay is a beautiful dive site. And indeed, at the correct moment it must be great. Maybe going really early in the morning would help. Although it really depends on the tides when you can go out for diving. We never went very early in the morning. We usually went out around 8 or 9 AM.

Furthermore, I was there in September, which is also the high season. So many people come there to see the molas.
Amazing pictures, Luko..especially the thresher shark!

 

[chillyinCanada]

Does Twofish have aircon in their accommodations?

 

[Luko]

Yes, they have aircon for half of their bungalows, others are fan equiped

 

[Manneca]

The last time I was in Lembongan, I requested no Crystal Bay or Manta Point. I'd love to do Crystal Bay and not have to chase Mola Mola. A total waste of time in my opinion. There is so much more there and the reef is lovely.

And I second Two Fish. It's inexpensive but a top notch operation.

 

[Cert1967]

TwoFish, CB, Mantas, Molas and Lembongan

We stayed at TwoFish May 2015. We were there for 4 nights and that was about right for us. Overall, we spent 5 weeks in Indonesia - Bali, Komodo LOB, NL, Gili Islands.

The a/c - no complaints and my wife likes it freezing. Our room was basic, but certainly adequate - clean and comfortable as was the entire resort. Their website is a fair representation of TF. The staff did a good job. Our fellow divers were an entertaining bunch. The staff was very good. Breakfast and Lunch - nothing special, but a good time to chat with your fellow divers and get the day off to a good start.

TF is about 400m from the beach. The photos of the junk are on the way to the beach. Like most of SE Asia nothing really gets cleaned-up. There are a number of eating/drinking spots on the beach - a few were quite good. Likewise the main drag had a few good places to eat and drink. We were forewarned to bring IR - while credit cards were accepted often they could not be processed. ATMs - wouldn't count on them. We paid TF a small deposit and the balance with a credit card on departure. We left a good gratuity and it was appreciated.

The manta dive was well briefed and the mandatory film presentation was informative. BigFish diving was across the alley and had a good manta presentation one night that was well attended.

Our manta experience was good - we were entertained by ~10 mantas at their cleaning station. The site is shallow ~6m, had significant surge, poor viz, and was cold, ~20c. The surge was difficult for most of the new divers. For ~20 minutes we were the only group and the mantas put on a great show for us. And Then - the hoards showed up - replete with dozens of snorkelers dropped on top of the cleaning station. Other dive ops arrived and it was "bombs away" or "divers away" - they came down without regard to the cleaning station location, crashed, corked, swam into the mantas for pictures and soon the mantas were but a fleeting sight.

Diving Overall

It was good, but I would not return. We were at TF for low-season and coupled with high tides and divers with little experience, not all dive sites were a wise choice. TF would not go out for afternoon or night dives while we were there. Tides played a role, but I suspect that our being the only guests for two days contributed to the decision. With just the two of us we visited the more challenging sites during the normal 2tank time window. The challenge was high current drift diving and blue water ascents. TF's decision not to take their "bucket list" divers to these sites was wise. Were those shadows in the distance really molas?

The sites are a tale of two cities - great when its the local boats and jam packed when the Bali day-trippers arrive. TF did a good job managing the diverse group of divers. There were students, new divers and divers returning to the water for a few dives after years' dry - a tough group in a challenging environment.

Boat traffic is heavy - you need an SMB and the ability to deploy it from depth. We launched both of ours on almost all dives.

The water temps vary from rash guard to 5mm. Upwelling cold waters can be stunning.

Their fill station looked good. NITROX was available as were 15L cylinders.

Do not do the dive that ends under the huge catamaran party boat. Its dangerous and not worth it. I can still hear the hum of propellers spinning. The yellow banana boat towed through our surfacing group was an exhilarating moment for all of us. ​

Non-Diving Highlight

We rented the gardener's scooter for an afternoon. He asked for $7, we gave him $20 and a full tank of gas. Clearly the most dangerous part of our 5 weeks in Indonesia was my driving on the island.

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Final Thought

http://www.twofishdivers.com/diving-bali/nusa-lembongan/dive-resort/​