Pulau Weh

[billt4sf]

+1 for crossing + RA.

 

[Wingy]

I have been on five different tours of RA and I am nowhere nearly tired or bored of it.

- Bill

Bill I know you think I'm always dissing Bali and Indo - not the case. scubajunkie and I have similar "where have you dived" profiles and throughout PMs I know he likes sharks big stuff, biomass as much as biodiversity and big currents and remote diving, I wrote An article the other day questioning if Raja is remote anymore...ie is the diver driver demand for wifi and wide menu choices turning what was once an area of true exploration into a sometimes overcrowded hotspot. A damn fine hotspot, but lets be honest here, more and more boats every year = boats ontop of boats waiting to drop divers, new boats being built, established boats seeking new itineries because Raja is not new. I have the Apr/May 1997 edition of Sportdiving magazine on my lap..on the cover spotlight on 'Raja Empat'. If you have ever dived a site named Edies Black Forrest it was named back then by Edie owner of the Pindito. The title of the article is exploring the unexplored.

Some people discover a place and go there every holiday all their lives, some do it over generations, and that's fine too - some of us are just always looking for something "new".

When you first came to Indo after Carib diving your mind was blown - I love seeing first timers to the coral triangle taking it all in. Geographically, this is my hood so to speak, my closest warm water diving (other than Ningaloo) is Bali which is cheaper to get to, dive, eat, have a nice resort than a return flight to say The Yongala.

I transitioned from freediving and surface support in PNG. The bar was set high from the beginnning. I don't know where the best diving in the world Is, what you like and what I like are probably two different things. I'm not "over" Indo, I just have a personality type that pushes me to look for bigger, better, faster, more

 

[billt4sf]

Bill I know you think I'm always dissing Bali and Indo - not the case. scubajunkie and I have similar "where have you dived" profiles and throughout PMs I know he likes sharks big stuff, biomass as much as biodiversity and big currents and remote diving, I wrote An article the other day questioning if Raja is remote anymore...ie is the diver driver demand for wifi and wide menu choices turning what was once an area of true exploration into a sometimes overcrowded hotspot. A damn fine hotspot, but lets be honest here, more and more boats every year = boats ontop of boats waiting to drop divers, new boats being built, established boats seeking new itineries because Raja is not new. I have the Apr/May 1997 edition of Sportdiving magazine on my lap..on the cover spotlight on 'Raja Empat'. If you have ever dived a site named Edies Black Forrest it was named back then by Edie owner of the Pindito. The title of the article is exploring the unexplored.

Some people discover a place and go there every holiday all their lives, some do it over generations, and that's fine too - some of us are just always looking for something "new".

When you first came to Indo after Carib diving your mind was blown - I love seeing first timers to the coral triangle taking it all in. Geographically, this is my hood so to speak, my closest warm water diving (other than Ningaloo) is Bali which is cheaper to get to, dive, eat, have a nice resort than a return flight to say The Yongala.

I transitioned from freediving and surface support in PNG. The bar was set high from the beginnning. I don't know where the best diving in the world Is, what you like and what I like are probably two different things. I'm not "over" Indo, I just gave a personality type that pushes me to look for bigger, better, faster, more

Ha ha Wingy I don't feel that you have dissed RA, maybe I missed something .

We may be different personality types (I think it would be cool to meet actually) but I was just saying that RA doesn't get old. At this stage of my life, I do want predictability if it's GOOD, I am actually struggling a little to want to go anywhere else. I suppose that, too, will pass. Seems to me there are a number of people who have their checklist and if they've been to a place, it's over for them.

The only thing saving RA at this point is that it's a PITA to get to! And that it's pricey as hell. And a large area. And Misool ER is controlling things to a certain extent.

Peace.

- Bill

 

[Wingy]

If I can get up to Indo when it's not full of bloody Australians I will catch up with you and Emily one of the things I love most about diving - the huge diversity of people I get to meet.

 

[billt4sf]

If I can get up to Indo when it's not full of bloody Australians I will catch up with you and Emily one of the things I love most about diving - the huge diversity of people I get to meet.

That's be cool.

For some reason, we see many French and we seem to get along well with them. But I agree with you about the bloody Australians....oooops!

- Bill

 

[Cali_diver]

You just have to watch out for the ones with Bo Derek braids and Bintang wife beater tank tops! Oh yea and anyone in Kuta!!

 

[billt4sf]

Fortunately there aren't so many damn Northern Californians.....Ooooops!

 

[Cali_diver]

No kidding...Nothing worse than getting on a LOB and finding out it is filled with Americans!!

 

[billt4sf]

No kidding...Nothing worse than getting on a LOB and finding out it is filled with Americans!!

Damn right!

 

[Dan]

Discussion seems to drift way eastward from Weh, Bali, Raja Ampat, Solomon and now Northern California. Before drifting further east to Texas, I post a video of diving in Pulau Weh, that I thought would be good to watch. As mentioned earlier, the diving seem to be OK. I don't see much of soft corals as I saw in East of Indonesia. No shark!


I think I'll skip it & go to Maldives.