Raja Ampat trip report, Gaia liveaboard, January 2020

[outofofficebrb]

Erwin, have you been to the Red Sea? We are considering Raja Ampat or possibly going to Egypt for Red Sea Liveaboard and then tour the archaeological sites. The liveaboards in the Red Sea are sooo cheap, it seems hard to believe. Any experience diving there? The videos and photos from the Red Sea look great also. Thanks.

PBI. I spent about 3 weeks diving the Red Sea, 2 of which were on liveaboards totaling 45 dives. Southern routes including Brothers, Daedalus, Elphinstone, Rocky, Zabargad, St Johns, Fury Shoal. I’ve spent a lot more time in Indonesia across Komodo, Raja Ampat, Banda Sea including Alor, plus Lembeh, Ambon over 150 dives and mostly liveaboards.

Ideally, as mentioned by others and I agree, you should see the Red Sea first, followed by the Philippines (Tubbataha!), then do Indonesia last, especially if you intend on seeing Komodo and Raja Ampat. You will be blown away by each if you do it that way. You’ll still enjoy it if you do it differently as I did but you may always reflect on Raja or Komodo and compare it to that as your standard. If you intend to do muck diving like Lembeh or Ambon I’d say it doesn’t matter when you do it though generally people enjoy it more as they spend more time diving and do it later in their “dive career”, so to speak. Red Sea is my top 3 for reef diving. Indo takes 1 and Philippines 2.