Raja Ampat - Liveaboard or Resort

[cetacean]

@Luko

"My point is that when you are going on holidays to a resort it's not like you're going to a church, the owner beliefs are not supposed to impact on your vacation time. I would understand that if you were in a family homestay with very limited staff but not at this price level (one of the most expensive around) for a fully equipped resort catering to a well-off crowd."

Your fairly arrogant view highlights the issue. Max didn't start building on Kri for the resorts nor start any of the conservation efforts in the region (including teaching the locals about shark finning or overfishing) for you (or anyone else). He was exploring the region, interested in finding WW II remnants, and realized it would be overrun by commercial interests quickly if not carefully looked after. Every other resort in the region benefits from what he started (in short, there would be no other options if he hadn't invested time/$/effort to start these conservation programs).

The fact you won't stay at either Sorido Bay or Cape Kri means nothing to them. You are clearly not their target audience...
That doesn't make it a scam. Max was kind enough to sit down w/me for several hours to answer my questions, discuss the state of the expanded MPA (coming), the economic pressure to enable more tourism (incl. the consideration to turn Sorong into the next international airport in indonesia), etc.

If people are surprised there is no boat diving on Saturdays, then they clearly didn't do any research (or read the information from the resort during the booking process). You calling that a "scam" helps no one. Lose the dramatization - you don't like it, that's fine. After 5 trips to RA (one by LOB) Sorido Bay was easily the most comfortable land based op and best run dive operation we've experienced (better than R4D, better that Raja Explorers, not quite as good as Misool). BTW - this is why we booked more than a week stay - so we could dive either side of a Saturday without concern.

Re: where are people coming from when they book Sorido Bay & Kri - we spent many evenings talking with the GMs of the resorts (same couple looks after both resorts) - we've known then for a number years (met them in the Seychelles), they were the ones who gave us a view of where their guests primarily come from. Interestingly, the fastest growing market for Kri (post pandemic) is actually India - with the burgeoning middle class starting to travel more.

 

[Luko]

If you have an early morning departure they can/will arrange transfers in the afternoon the day before (if you would like). Makes it easy to catch the morning flight to Jakarta.

Seriously? Doesn't it look stupid -even to you-as a suggestion.
Losing one day more that you already paid in exchange for transfer time, what a fantastic idea!

And then after you order food with Grab and you can walk to the airport... pfffff.... you made my day.

Your fairly arrogant view

And you're a connaisseur in that respect! Aren't you?
Everybody knows Max Ammer's story, he started looking for WW2 wrecks or military scraps and setup a dive camp on premise which was the base for Kri Eco.

The fact you won't stay at either Sorido Bay or Cape Kri means nothing to them. You are clearly not their target audience...
Every other resort in the region benefits from what he started (in short, there would be no other options if he hadn't invested time/$/effort to start these conservation programs).

That' s the Walt Disney version.
Another version is that it also opened up the mess that is now Central Dampier. How can you say nobody would have (Edi Fromenwiller did in his own) that' s complete speculation and a very naive view. Sometimes you should ask yourself about being gullible, that' s the beginning of reasoning.

In the meantime MER are still on their own in Misool.

If people are surprised there is no boat diving on Saturdays, then they clearly didn't do any research (or read the information from the resort during the booking process). You calling that a "scam" helps no one.

Arrogant did you say?
All the people who didn't know thank you so much. You've been very helpful.
Well I might be wrong but that's not an information you mentioned in your so glorified and so informative report. Are you there for informing or bragging?
What's the information value for the OP of your latest comments?

we spent many evenings talking with the GMs of the resorts (same couple looks after both resorts)

Hope it's not the same guy I talked with some years ago on a sales show. (it was a saturday btw)
While I was informing him about the new resort building in Triton bay, he told me very confidently there would be no chance that this resort will be open given the situation or that it would be closed within a year.
We were talking about Triton divers 4 mths before they opened.
What a visionary person! ... you certainly drank all he said : don't go to Triton divers, according to your favorite resort it doesn't exist.

best run dive operation we've experienced

Wow, looks like you're coming a long way.

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Pls do the readers a favor and learn to use the quotes when you're citing. Not that difficult.

 

[Scott from LongIsland]

Hey @Scott from LongIsland thanks for the brief review. The resort looks really beautiful, but how was it not having AC?

Sure, thing. I would be happy to provide a more lengthy review if you are interested. We were fortunate to be there in Feb 2020 just before or just as Covid was starting.

The lack of AC was not an issue for us. The rooms are on the shoreline and the crosswinds through the cabin provided ample breeze to cool things off. The temps dropped quite a bit at night. I would say that if you are a person who likes to take naps in the day time then it may be hot in there. We were out diving and snorkeling all day every day…or looking for the birds of paradise. I have done a liveaboard in the area and they are both great…but having local guides who knew the waters like the back of their hand was impressive. I mean, these guys knew some great places that we did not hit on the liveaboard. One nice thing would be that each night at happy hour or dinner, we discussed what we wanted to see the next day and dive sites were determined that way. If we wanted to see mantas we saw mantas that day, if we preferred muck diving, we did that. Or both. That never seems to be an option on a liveaboard. You go where they go and that’s that. For example, one of the guides knew I liked to find small stuff and things that are rare or endemic to the area. So one day, he took me 1:1 to a site where we found all sorts of things that I had never seen before. We also did a dusk dive to see the mandarin fish…I was not offered that on our liveaboard. The schedules were customized every day.

Another reason that I enjoyed the resort was that the food was excellent and all local Indonesian food. I know everyone is different but I don’t really want turkey dinner on thursday if I am in Indonesia, i want Indonesian food. I still crave those noodles for breakfast and the fresh juices and teas.

I never once felt like i wasnt diving enough or to enough varied sites as I would be on a liveaboard. We did up to 4 dives a day and always had access to the house reef…which is exceptional.

 

[AlMitch]

Excellent thanks for the info. You mention that cross wind and that really is the key...but should it die down though I'd imagine it would stay pretty toasty!

Yes on a LOB you are pretty much boxed into the itinerary...but lets be honest the itinerary is not bad! ha ha!
And yes you have once again shown the difference between LOB vs resort.

 

[cetacean]

@Luko

"Losing one day more that you already paid in exchange for transfer time..."

Or take a later transfer the next day - you are not losing anything. They transfer after any scheduled dives. You seem very concerned that you are being ripped off or cheated somehow. The point was simple - you can make a transfer the afternoon before your flight (to catch an early flight) or take an AM transfer if your flight is later that day (or for you, take the ferry back to Sorong - it's an option)

"Everybody knows Max Ammer's story..."

That's excellent. Although not everyone has had the opportunity to sit down for an afernoon and chat with him. I knew of him before visiting Sorido Bay, but I didn't really know him or the full story.
Clearly you think you do... (that's your arrogance shining through). BTW - many argue that the Pindito is part of the problem as much as it was part of the initial solution. However if you want to compare the contributions to conservation of both Edi and Max that might be interesting (although it would be fairly one sided). Talk about drinking the cool aid..

"Hope it's not the same guy I talked with some years ago..."

I'm guessing not given the current GMs have only been at Sorido/Kri for about 7 months. You seem to base a lot of your thinking on things that happened years ago for you. Change must be very hard for you to accept...

"Wow, looks like you're coming a long way."

That's your language challenge again. I said "best run dive operation we've experienced" referring to those listed earlier in the sentence, the dive resorts we've previous dived with in RA.

You continue to struggle. You might want to just stop.

 

[Centrals]

Home Stay is the answer.
You made your own flexible schedule.

 

[cetacean]

@Centrals

A home stay doesn't change the transfer requirement. It makes your overall stay potentially much cheaper (with potentially a change in service/food, etc.).

Luko was whining because he might not get the full value of what he paid for if he opted to take the transfer the afternoon the day before to make an early AM flight out of Sorong.

 

[Dan]

How can you fly at 8 AM when you leave a Dampier strait resort on the same day?
Transfer at 3 AM in the morning ?

Most of the resorts in R4 advise not booking a flight earlier than 11AM. Cove Eco resort which is west of Dampier recommands booking flights after 2 PM.
Hence you can easily tuck two morning boats dives in (even a third if you haven't been on deco. NoFly will be 18h. )

I thought the boat ride from Sorindo Bay to Sorong & taxi to the airport only take 2 hours, plus an hour check-in to the gate that would make 3 hours before departure, so leaving from the resort at 5am, not 3am.

If you take the later flight after 11am, there won’t be a nonstop flight to Jakarta in 4 hours and you may end up staying overnight in Jakarta for your international flight connection.

If 5am or earlier is too early for you, then your choice is to stay overnight in Sorong, take the next morning nonstop flight to Jakarta on the next day, arriving in Jakarta at 10am, which is still early enough to make the international flight connection or take the long flight after 11am with a stop in Makassar and stay overnight in Jakarta for your international flight connection, as I explained it in more detail in the other thread (post #20, page 2) of high cost of domestic air travel in Indonesia.

 

[Centrals]

@Centrals

A home stay doesn't change the transfer requirement. It makes your overall stay potentially much cheaper (with potentially a change in service/food, etc.).

Luko was whining because he might not get the full value of what he paid for if he opted to take the transfer the afternoon the day before to make an early AM flight out of Sorong.

Home Stay is my suggestion to the OP.
I could not care a bit of the others.

 

[Luko]

If you take the later flight after 11am, there won’t be a nonstop flight to Jakarta in 4 hours and you may end up staying overnight in Jakarta for your international flight connection.

If 5am or earlier is too early for you, then your choice is to stay overnight in Sorong, take the next morning nonstop flight to Jakarta on the next day, arriving in Jakarta at 10am, which is still early enough to make the international flight connection or take the long flight after 11am with a stop in Makassar and stay overnight in Jakarta for your international flight connection, as I explained it in more detail in the other thread (post #20, page 2) of high cost of domestic air travel in Indonesia.

Sorry Dan but you need to read me.

I don't need to take any flight early morning that was your own speculation not mine.
I don't care flying to Jakarta as well, I'm going to Bali.