Rob669
Registered
I went to Nusa Penida first to Scuba Junkie’s new dive centre which is close to Toyapakeh and managed by Dani and Matt. For the second part of this trip I went back to Scuba Junkie Komodo that's managed by Lydia and Ewen. I hope this short review will help and inspire you if you are considering travelling to Indonesia. I'm from the UK and I flew to Indonesia with Garuda on a direct flight to Bali.
Nusa Penida
I wanted to stay on Nusa Penida so I could dive the island every day after visiting before on day trips when I have stayed at Padang Bai. I stayed at the new Scuba Junkie dive centre at Toyapakeh and dived some of the sites on the east coast, but the best places for me are the north coast sites that are dived via a slow drift. Scuba Junkie do three dives a day from their large new fibreglass boat. The highlights of the trip included seeing so many more manta rays and in a variety of sizes than I’d seen before either here or in Komodo. There were lots of colourful soft corals, loads of small reef fish, good hard coral areas where I found mantis shrimps, various morays and leaf scorpion fish in the nooks, plus turtles, trevallys and several Napoleon wrasse.This time though I couldn't find any sea snakes.
The water was mostly very warm, 28 to 31 degrees, but I dived in a full 5 mm suit because there were thermoclines on most dives which chilled the water to as low as 24 degrees (especially at Crystal Bay).
Crystal Bay again had some interesting currents going on during the dive and a cold water thermocline that made me hopeful of seeing something unusual, like mola mola. I didn’t see them though this time. Be warned, there was another drowning at Crystal Bay and three other people had to be rescued who got into difficulties. These incidents all involved people that had gone snorkeling from the beach and didn't wear life vests.
I also don’t recommend hiring a scooter on Nusa Penida as the roads are not yet finished and they are quite narrow in places. I saw several roadside casualties, and hit my arm hard against a passing people carrier leaving me with a bad bruise and several cuts. Plus there are decent places to eat within walking distance from the dive centre so transport isn’t really required.
Scuba Junkie has nice clean rooms with aircon and also a dorm. I liked the dragon fruit and pancakes for breakfast and the Bintangs were very cold for the evening. Altogether I thought this was a great trip and everything worked out just fine. The fast boats to and from Sanur operate efficiently, I got the early morning boat back over to Sanur for my flight to Komodo at 1120. Scuba Junkie booked the boat and taxi for me to the airport.
Komodo
This was my second time staying at Scuba Junkie Komodo. It's about an hour by boat heading south from Labuan Bajo. They do three dives a day here sometimes leaving quite early in the morning for some distant sites (e.g. 0645 hours departure). The breakfast every morning was very good on the boat. I dived at sites including Secret Garden in the south and Crystal Rock in the north in the Komodo National Park. The highlights of this dive trip included seeing some fairly large grey reef sharks, a number of white tips including four baby white tips, lots of colourful soft coral, lots of the usual colourful reef fish, and a number of eagle rays and manta rays. I dived The Cauldron/Shotgun which was good fun and it was really nice just hanging there in the strong current on the edge watching all the white tips down below.
I used a 3 mm full suite with a hooded vest but at sites in the south the water temperature was a chilly 23 degrees, in the north it was a much more tolerable 28 or 29 degrees. My flight back to Bali was cancelled at the last minute by Wings, but they helped me transfer onto a Nam flight leaving the same day and I got a cash refund. That’s all part of travelling in Indonesia at times so I accept it and always try to have a plan B.
I’m looking forward to my next trip in August. I'm thinking of a Komodo and Alor split or perhaps just Alor as I'll only have 10 diving days.
Nusa Penida
I wanted to stay on Nusa Penida so I could dive the island every day after visiting before on day trips when I have stayed at Padang Bai. I stayed at the new Scuba Junkie dive centre at Toyapakeh and dived some of the sites on the east coast, but the best places for me are the north coast sites that are dived via a slow drift. Scuba Junkie do three dives a day from their large new fibreglass boat. The highlights of the trip included seeing so many more manta rays and in a variety of sizes than I’d seen before either here or in Komodo. There were lots of colourful soft corals, loads of small reef fish, good hard coral areas where I found mantis shrimps, various morays and leaf scorpion fish in the nooks, plus turtles, trevallys and several Napoleon wrasse.This time though I couldn't find any sea snakes.
The water was mostly very warm, 28 to 31 degrees, but I dived in a full 5 mm suit because there were thermoclines on most dives which chilled the water to as low as 24 degrees (especially at Crystal Bay).
Crystal Bay again had some interesting currents going on during the dive and a cold water thermocline that made me hopeful of seeing something unusual, like mola mola. I didn’t see them though this time. Be warned, there was another drowning at Crystal Bay and three other people had to be rescued who got into difficulties. These incidents all involved people that had gone snorkeling from the beach and didn't wear life vests.
I also don’t recommend hiring a scooter on Nusa Penida as the roads are not yet finished and they are quite narrow in places. I saw several roadside casualties, and hit my arm hard against a passing people carrier leaving me with a bad bruise and several cuts. Plus there are decent places to eat within walking distance from the dive centre so transport isn’t really required.
Scuba Junkie has nice clean rooms with aircon and also a dorm. I liked the dragon fruit and pancakes for breakfast and the Bintangs were very cold for the evening. Altogether I thought this was a great trip and everything worked out just fine. The fast boats to and from Sanur operate efficiently, I got the early morning boat back over to Sanur for my flight to Komodo at 1120. Scuba Junkie booked the boat and taxi for me to the airport.
Komodo
This was my second time staying at Scuba Junkie Komodo. It's about an hour by boat heading south from Labuan Bajo. They do three dives a day here sometimes leaving quite early in the morning for some distant sites (e.g. 0645 hours departure). The breakfast every morning was very good on the boat. I dived at sites including Secret Garden in the south and Crystal Rock in the north in the Komodo National Park. The highlights of this dive trip included seeing some fairly large grey reef sharks, a number of white tips including four baby white tips, lots of colourful soft coral, lots of the usual colourful reef fish, and a number of eagle rays and manta rays. I dived The Cauldron/Shotgun which was good fun and it was really nice just hanging there in the strong current on the edge watching all the white tips down below.
I used a 3 mm full suite with a hooded vest but at sites in the south the water temperature was a chilly 23 degrees, in the north it was a much more tolerable 28 or 29 degrees. My flight back to Bali was cancelled at the last minute by Wings, but they helped me transfer onto a Nam flight leaving the same day and I got a cash refund. That’s all part of travelling in Indonesia at times so I accept it and always try to have a plan B.
I’m looking forward to my next trip in August. I'm thinking of a Komodo and Alor split or perhaps just Alor as I'll only have 10 diving days.
