Overnight in Sorong or chance AM arrival?

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DivingShane

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Hello all,

Doing a liveaboard in December in RA and it departs from Sorong. There are overnight flights from Jakarta that get into Sorong (SOQ) at 7:30am. Gives plenty of time to get to the boat by Noon/1pm. However, if the flight is cancelled for some weird reason I'd hate to miss the boat (and lose all money). Would you chance it? Or should I come in morning prior and spend one full day and night in Sorong?

Would travel insurance cover cost of liveaboard assuming flight was cancelled? Any reccos if so? Google search finds diveassure but I have no experience with any travel insurance (I never buy it as it seems a waste). But in this instance with a $3k prepaid boat perhaps it is worth it.

Thanks
 
Before my LOB in RA from Sorong I had taken 4 or 5 domestic Indonesian flights and non were cancelled or even late, however, I count myself extremely lucky, as I am told this was rare.

Sorong is a toilet, however, I would still advise to arrive the day before. Its worth spending the extra night rather than chancing it, you can use the time to get over the flying if nothing else.


Stay at the Swiss Bell hotel, very nice, international standard. One of only 2 of that standard in Sorong I believe. Comfy room, niceish restaurant and bar area. Also one of only a small handful of places in Sorong you can get a drink.

I wouldn't even advise leaving the hotel. I am the adventurous type and always like to take a walk around where ever i may be but there is zero of interest in Sorong.
 
Same advice here. I'll arrive in Sorong on March 10th in the morning, even if my liveaboard will depart the day after in the afternoon, which in principle would give me enough time to arrive on the same day in the morning. But I decided not to take the risk of missing my liveaboard, because it's the ultimate objective of this long awaited (and expensive) trip. Thus, although Sorong seems to be boring (as the previous email reports; some people even call the city So Wrong), I'll not mind to spend a whole day there outgassing the nitrogen accumulated in my body during my dive in Manado the previous eight days, and giving a break to my ears, while making sure that I get into the liveavoard.
 
Before my LOB in RA from Sorong I had taken 4 or 5 domestic Indonesian flights and non were cancelled or even late, however, I count myself extremely lucky, as I am told this was rare. Sorong is a toilet, however, I would still advise to arrive the day before. Its worth spending the extra night rather than chancing it, you can use the time to get over the flying if nothing else.Stay at the Swiss Bell hotel, very nice, international standard. One of only 2 of that standard in Sorong I believe. Comfy room, niceish restaurant and bar area. Also one of only a small handful of places in Sorong you can get a drink. I wouldn't even advise leaving the hotel. I am the adventurous type and always like to take a walk around where ever i may be but there is zero of interest in Sorong.
Looks like there are not many adventurers out there or many people who have experienced the array of south asian cities. I'll take the opposite, from what I've seen I wouldn't say that Sorong is a dump compared to many other southeastern Asian cities (let's talk about Maumere or Jakarta in Indonesia, Tawau or Semporna in Borneo, the worst of all might be Cebu city in the Phils, of course I won't even mention Colombo, which is simply above any contest ...I walked all these cities even though Colombo was cut short... ). I have overnighted once at the Royal Mamberamo in Sorong, which btw surprized me with a very good seafood restaurant, while I wouldn't have bet a dime on . Walking around I found a few stalls of local papuan art, nice sculptures and bought a bunch of decorated Kotekas as gifts back home, very handy but maybe not suited to bring for your boss, unless you take the biggest one to flatter his ego. (For anyone who doesn't know, a koteka is a penis sheath )
 
Luko,
I tend to agree with you even if I haven't been there yet. If there's people, there must be a possibility of socializing, I guess. At least that's part of mt travelling philosophy.


Fabian R.
 
Overnight. Don't risk it. We were lucky with our flights and non were late or cancelled, but we weren't going to risk missing the boat. We overnighted at the Marina Mamberano. It was fine. Clean room, comfy bed, great onsite restaurant and bar. Plus it was nice to relax for 24 hours after our journey.
 
I would also suggest overnight, more from baggage not making it rather than you not making it. Swissbel Hotel is a good option in Sorong
 
I don't know the route you are planning but with the volcanic activity at present if you are going via Bali I would echo the advice to add an extra day into your schedule. If a transit airport is closed most airlines will try to re-route you and an extra day could be very helpful. Re Sorong I found the following resource useful, I am actually looking forward to my 30 hours there, if nothing else it is always a huge reminder how privileged we are.

http://www.indopacificimages.com/in...donesia-raja-ampat-what-else-to-do-in-sorong/

Hope the trip goes well.
 
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Doesn't the boat try to have guests arrive on one or 2 flights to minimize missing the boat?

While not a LOB, Misool's taxi boat will wait if you are on one of the 2 flights they book and its late.

And we overnight in Sorong on the way home, should be interesting.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
Imagine yourself sitting on your lob, waiting in the harbor for hours because of a late arriving guests. Chances are you will start to see an unusual sight. It is sort of like a mirage and you'll suddenly be watching numbers fly by like on a gas station pump. Those will be the rupiah it's costing you to sit and wait for late arrivals when you could be headed towards amazing diving. Now imagine the way everyone will be looking at these folks when they finally do arrive. Or they do and their luggage doesn't...

What is not mentioned here is how nice it is to have a little extra down time to check stuff, maybe find some last minute items or supplies, get some rupiah out of an ATM for tips onboard (Aussies can ignore that last :eyebrow:). There is an awful lot of travel between you and the boat, a decent rest stop the night before can make a lot of difference to how things start off.

Sorong gets a bad rap (I believe it's due to being Sorong) but there are stores and shops if needed. Have stayed at the Meridian Hotel before, right across from the airport. Decent enough and comfortable. Domestic air travel in Indonesia is part of the journey, just not always the most reliable part. Could be why Lion Air uses the slogan "We MAKE People Fly!"... // ww
 

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