Shasta_man
Contributor
After a recent trip on the Paradise Dancer, can't recommend it enough.
I had a fantastic time. Diving was excellent, with some amazing places with VERY prolific fish life. These were places that you could watch the whole feeding cycle go on with silversides, walls just walls of them, in huge morphing schools enveloping and splitting around you, while schools of fusilers swam around and mackeral zoomed through, and mobulas swam by then swooped through the silversides. On one site, suddenly a huge school of big jacks came shooting through, making me wonder if they were tuna, zooming toward the surface, and then circling back around and right by my camera, taking my attention away from the seasnake I found. I had so many great experiences I just remembered that one while writing this. We saw the whole id book from fish of all descriptions to mantas, mobulas, eels, octopus, shrimp, nudis, etc, etc. Most dives were on rocky islands among chains of islands, diving either right, literally right next to the island perusing the deeper areas before ending up on the shallower shelf, or in channels along walls. Incredible color with soft and hard corals in great profusion. A few places were just off the scale in the lushness of the coral and fish.
The cruise director was Wendy and she knows her stuff, and she took care of everything and is a great dive guide as well with her pink tank. The dive guides were excellent and very experienced. I got to go with the incomparable Yan, someone you could trust to guide you anywhere in any currents, and immeasurable knowledge was
gained. As usual, the Indonesian crew was happy and friendly, and always smiles and "pagi!" (pronounced Pa-gee = morning!). Indonesia is a very cool place. Take the time to talk to and appreciate the crew and thank them for their hardwork. They'll repay you a thousand fold in smiles and greetings after the dives.
The boat was really beyond compare. 90% of the time, you couldn't tell you were on a boat. It's center of gravity is so low that there is very little motion. In the strongest seas we encountered, it was a mild side to side rocking, and most of the time very little. Everything about it is so much room. THe rooms were huge.
Food was great, with a mix of Western and Indonesian to choose what you like.
Weather was about 60/40 cloudy/sunny, not as good as we hoped but not raining that 60% either. Some very beautiful days, and watching the whiteout come at you is interesting too. After coming up from an amazing night dive including hunting morays, we marveled at the luminesence, then the stars, before drinking buckets of rain on the ride back to the boat, then sliding into a delicious dinner.
I flew to Jakarta, then to Sorong. I'd highly recommend this route as it minimizes using different "domestic" flights, merely being a continuing flight through Makassar rather than changing planes and risking missing your connecting domestic flight back to Bali for example, since there is high likelihood of flight delays out of Sorong. We had no problem coming in but my and an earlier flight were delayed 2 hours each on flying out of Sorong. THe earlier group left for the airport two hours before we did but were still there when we got there, then our flight was also delayed 2 hours. And come to the airport prepared for the heat because it's a big building with a metal roof with only part with fans, and sorry to say, little efficiency in it's workings. One of our group almost passed out from dehydration just in the short time waiting to check in for the flight. It's easy to do. 10 people behind the counter and only two doing anything. And I can't overemphasize the value of using a local rep to get you through. Unless you look the part and speak the language, you will be subject to
prioritized processing and you won't be a priority. And you'll witness the amazing ability of the human body to adapt to the conditions as you sit sweltering in shorts and T-shirt while looking at the locals in long pants, shirts, sweaters and even coats on in 85 degree 80% humidity weather.
So gush, gush, gush...my short note has turned into a page.
Oops, did I mention the after dive massages?! Watch out for Karim, I called him Clamps.
Trip report to follow sometime, with HD video and yes, pics too RobinT.
I had a fantastic time. Diving was excellent, with some amazing places with VERY prolific fish life. These were places that you could watch the whole feeding cycle go on with silversides, walls just walls of them, in huge morphing schools enveloping and splitting around you, while schools of fusilers swam around and mackeral zoomed through, and mobulas swam by then swooped through the silversides. On one site, suddenly a huge school of big jacks came shooting through, making me wonder if they were tuna, zooming toward the surface, and then circling back around and right by my camera, taking my attention away from the seasnake I found. I had so many great experiences I just remembered that one while writing this. We saw the whole id book from fish of all descriptions to mantas, mobulas, eels, octopus, shrimp, nudis, etc, etc. Most dives were on rocky islands among chains of islands, diving either right, literally right next to the island perusing the deeper areas before ending up on the shallower shelf, or in channels along walls. Incredible color with soft and hard corals in great profusion. A few places were just off the scale in the lushness of the coral and fish.
The cruise director was Wendy and she knows her stuff, and she took care of everything and is a great dive guide as well with her pink tank. The dive guides were excellent and very experienced. I got to go with the incomparable Yan, someone you could trust to guide you anywhere in any currents, and immeasurable knowledge was
gained. As usual, the Indonesian crew was happy and friendly, and always smiles and "pagi!" (pronounced Pa-gee = morning!). Indonesia is a very cool place. Take the time to talk to and appreciate the crew and thank them for their hardwork. They'll repay you a thousand fold in smiles and greetings after the dives.
The boat was really beyond compare. 90% of the time, you couldn't tell you were on a boat. It's center of gravity is so low that there is very little motion. In the strongest seas we encountered, it was a mild side to side rocking, and most of the time very little. Everything about it is so much room. THe rooms were huge.
Food was great, with a mix of Western and Indonesian to choose what you like.
Weather was about 60/40 cloudy/sunny, not as good as we hoped but not raining that 60% either. Some very beautiful days, and watching the whiteout come at you is interesting too. After coming up from an amazing night dive including hunting morays, we marveled at the luminesence, then the stars, before drinking buckets of rain on the ride back to the boat, then sliding into a delicious dinner.
I flew to Jakarta, then to Sorong. I'd highly recommend this route as it minimizes using different "domestic" flights, merely being a continuing flight through Makassar rather than changing planes and risking missing your connecting domestic flight back to Bali for example, since there is high likelihood of flight delays out of Sorong. We had no problem coming in but my and an earlier flight were delayed 2 hours each on flying out of Sorong. THe earlier group left for the airport two hours before we did but were still there when we got there, then our flight was also delayed 2 hours. And come to the airport prepared for the heat because it's a big building with a metal roof with only part with fans, and sorry to say, little efficiency in it's workings. One of our group almost passed out from dehydration just in the short time waiting to check in for the flight. It's easy to do. 10 people behind the counter and only two doing anything. And I can't overemphasize the value of using a local rep to get you through. Unless you look the part and speak the language, you will be subject to
prioritized processing and you won't be a priority. And you'll witness the amazing ability of the human body to adapt to the conditions as you sit sweltering in shorts and T-shirt while looking at the locals in long pants, shirts, sweaters and even coats on in 85 degree 80% humidity weather.
So gush, gush, gush...my short note has turned into a page.
Oops, did I mention the after dive massages?! Watch out for Karim, I called him Clamps.
Trip report to follow sometime, with HD video and yes, pics too RobinT.