Trip Report Raja Ampat, Live Report, Nov. 7-Dec. 7, 2023
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sefuchs
Contributor
I agree with JonnieB comments.
For me it was just much more relaxing and comfortable but still able to enjoy some of the best dive sites that RA has to offer. My wife is not a big fan of LOB's so really had to work on her to go back to RA. I agreed to "compromise" by finding a land-based resort in RA at Sorido Bay. She's ready to go back again so a BIG win for me! I'll elaborate on my preferences.
1: I really appreciated the very comfortable bed and accommodations.
2: We pretty much had our choice of dive sites. If sites were busy, we'd go elsewhere. Sorido Bay would prepare a recommended schedule but was extremely accommodating to other sites or tweaking time if we requested.
3: Very limited number of divers per boat. Most dives it was just my wife & I, sometimes I went by myself, the most divers we had on the boat was 4. Almost always had 2 DM's even when I went by myself.
4: Sorido did a fantastic job of grouping divers experience and/or interests (muck, reefs, walls, etc.).
5: Always able to dive your tank w/o time restrictions.
6: Had a 1-2 hour window for breakfast & lunch. Dinner had a smaller window but you could eat as a group or not if you didn't want to socialize. Meals were buffet style, but most meals were fantastic. Always had a meat, fish and vegan entree choices.
7: Enjoyed having a house reef. Great for snorkeling and so-so for diving.
Cons:
1: Don't get quite as many dives in per week compared to LOB's. Sorido Bays default schedule is 2 morning/1 afternoon dive and a night-dives on request.
2: Some dive sites can be a long boat ride. They would always ask if we wanted to go to sites if they were very far away.
3: No booze, I love my evening cocktails so had to bring our own bottle. Wine/beer very limited and expensive.
4: Sorido Bay shuts down on Saturdays, no boat dives. They have tanks available for diving the house reef, have birding tours and use of canoes/Stand-up Boards but it's pretty dead on Saturday.
OP
Hey, folks, I only posted my trip cost as a data point in the overall trip experience and not to be analyzed with your opinion. I like to do these trip reports to help others in making decisions about travel to the destinations I've experienced. If you have questions about my posts so far, please feel free to ask, but please refrain from commentary about what you would do.
OP
Continued Trip Report.
To add a little more about the diving, every dive was 60 minutes or more. The list of dive sites are as follows:
Cape Kri
South Cape Kri
Friewenbonda
Sorido Blue Hole
Lumba Lumba
Ransiwor
Batulima
Saporkren
East Mansuar
Yenbuba
Sawandurek
Mioskon
Mike's Point
Blue Magic
Melissa's Garden
Pam's Slope
Lau Lau
Chicken Bay
Otdima
Everyone dived on Nitrox, so the dive profiles were not deep enough to see critters at 120 ft. or more. However, there was plenty of magical and interesting fish and critters to see well above that. I enjoy diving in 60 ft or less and I have not been disappointed yet. The only variable was some days had better visibility than others.
Wifi. It's free but unreliable. It was down for 5 days out of the 10-day stay.
Tipping. SBR has a strict policy for tipping in a pool system only. You are not allowed to give any staff cash. You can, however, give them non-monetary gifts. If a staff member receives cash, they are required to add it to the pool.
The entire employee roster comprises 55 employees, and every person shares in the pool of tips.
IMO, this method disincentivizes employees to do a good job because everyone gets an equal share. Payment is made to the employees from the tipping pool once every 3 months. So a slacker employee can do a poor job and still get paid an equal share of the pool. For instance, the housekeeper did not follow my requests, and I had to talk to management twice to address the issue.
The information given was a 10% guideline for tipping. But the question among guests was 10% of what? The mix of guests were from Russia, Netherlands, Germany, U.S., Canada. Some people had the all-inclusive, unlimited diving package and others, like myself, did the ala carte diving. I paid U.S. prices in a third-world country, so I'm not going to tip on the U.S. prices. In the end, I brought non-monetary gifts for staff that I interacted with that did a great job.
More to come....
To add a little more about the diving, every dive was 60 minutes or more. The list of dive sites are as follows:
Cape Kri
South Cape Kri
Friewenbonda
Sorido Blue Hole
Lumba Lumba
Ransiwor
Batulima
Saporkren
East Mansuar
Yenbuba
Sawandurek
Mioskon
Mike's Point
Blue Magic
Melissa's Garden
Pam's Slope
Lau Lau
Chicken Bay
Otdima
Everyone dived on Nitrox, so the dive profiles were not deep enough to see critters at 120 ft. or more. However, there was plenty of magical and interesting fish and critters to see well above that. I enjoy diving in 60 ft or less and I have not been disappointed yet. The only variable was some days had better visibility than others.
Wifi. It's free but unreliable. It was down for 5 days out of the 10-day stay.
Tipping. SBR has a strict policy for tipping in a pool system only. You are not allowed to give any staff cash. You can, however, give them non-monetary gifts. If a staff member receives cash, they are required to add it to the pool.
The entire employee roster comprises 55 employees, and every person shares in the pool of tips.
IMO, this method disincentivizes employees to do a good job because everyone gets an equal share. Payment is made to the employees from the tipping pool once every 3 months. So a slacker employee can do a poor job and still get paid an equal share of the pool. For instance, the housekeeper did not follow my requests, and I had to talk to management twice to address the issue.
The information given was a 10% guideline for tipping. But the question among guests was 10% of what? The mix of guests were from Russia, Netherlands, Germany, U.S., Canada. Some people had the all-inclusive, unlimited diving package and others, like myself, did the ala carte diving. I paid U.S. prices in a third-world country, so I'm not going to tip on the U.S. prices. In the end, I brought non-monetary gifts for staff that I interacted with that did a great job.
More to come....
OP
OP
OP
It's got you now!
scubayinzer412
Contributor
i never piched my nose under the shower and never got any problems.
to avoid creditcard problems i alwys take cash and change to a realy fare rate at jakarta airport.
to avoid creditcard problems i alwys take cash and change to a realy fare rate at jakarta airport.
Thanks for all of the great reports and back and forth banter. It is all appreciated. We've been several times and look forward to going back. All of your information will help in the next planned trip.
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