Recommend Komodo Liveaboards with best DM to guest ratio?

[Dan]

I am aware of that.
I was merely comparing travelling to destination!
I have never ever paid excess luggage including tec gear. 20kg is all I need to dive in tropical warm water no matter what kind of diving I am doing. BTW, my hand carried also never exceeded 7kg!
I have never ever seen any divers boarding any flight with dripping wet gear.

Some people carry everything including kitchen sink. I’m not talking about packing dripping gears for travel. Who on earth would do that? Damp gear would add a few pounds to already heavy gear bag.

Worse situation of packing damp gears actually is not only adding weight, but also allowing stinky mold, mildew, fungi, other microbes to grow in the damp gear inside dark dive bag during the inbound travel. I rather have salty but dry gears than stinky damp ones.

 

[Centrals]

Some people carry everything including kitchen sink. I’m not talking about packing dripping gears for travel. Who on earth would do that? Damp gear would add a few pounds to already heavy gear bag.

Worse situation of packing damp gears actually is not only adding weight, but also allowing stinky mold, mildew, fungi, other microbes to grow in the damp gear inside dark dive bag during the inbound travel. I rather have salty but dry gears than stinky damp ones.

Hate to repeat myself!
1. Never ever paid excess luggage.

Are you trying to suggest every diver goes home with completely dried gear! FAT CHANCE.
Are you suggesting that living organisms will start to grow inside damp scuba gear/dive bag?
Not that lucky to have experienced that over the years.

 

[Dan]

Wow, can’t get any sleep over this and always try to make snarky remarks? Relax, go to sleep and respond it when you wake up in the morning with clear head.

Hate to repeat myself!!!!!
1. Never ever paid excess luggage.

Who’s talking about you? I travel enough to see some people do that, especially those guys with >$20k DSLR cameras. I guess money is not an issue for them.

re you trying to suggest every diver goes home with completely dried gear! FAT CHANCE.
Are you suggesting that living organisms will start to grow inside damp scuba gear/dive bag?
Not that lucky to have experienced that over the years.

I do. I just came back from Palau with the same or less weight on my 50-Lb luggage (sometime I carry stuff like old wetsuit or T-shirts or medicine that the local want / need). All gears is dry, including my boots in the morning of disembarking the boat. I asked DM to put my boots (the hardest ones to dry) in engine room in the last evening of the trip. Wetsuit can be further dried by hanging in front of the AC vent in the cabin after sundown. By the next morning they were all crispy dry, just like what I did on the other 8 liveaboard trips last year.

About micro organisms growing in a damp dark places, like growing mushrooms, why do you think there are stuff like this sold and some dive operators actually add this stuff in the tub after they are done washing our gears for us to wash & disinfect our wetsuit?

 

[Cali_diver]

Once we were diving in Bali and we did a quick dive in the morning with a flight out the next day to another destination in Indo. The tide was really low in Bali so the dive boat had to wait until the little water taxis were available to offload the gear. We thought we would have our gear in a couple hours. Nope... we got it after 7pm and it was dripping wet with sand all over it. No chance of anything drying before flight the next day. Luckily we were able to find big plastic bags at the hotel and yes our stuff was disgusting when we unpacked on LOB deck. But at least we had fun... Oh and we have to pay extra baggage fees every time we go unless we travel business. It is better if the airline has sport allowance. (I have one of those big dslrs). It is just part of the expense that we always take into account.

For the OP the Damai boats have great guides (or at least they used to pre-pandemic) and ratio to guests. Dewi Nusantara is also another option. And the Pindito is also a great boat just for their amazing knowledge of Komodo and the surrounding area. The diving between Bali and Komodo is pretty meh compared to Komodo so if you can start and finish in Komodo you have a better chance of making it south where some of the best diving is.

 

[Centrals]

Wow, can’t get any sleep over this and always try to make snarky remarks? Relax, go to sleep and respond it when you wake up in the morning with clear head.

Snarky! You asked for it!
Always have clear mind especially when dealing with you because it does not take any effort.

What you do is your own business. Period.

 

[Dan]

Snarky! You asked for it!!!
Always have clear mind especially when dealing with you because it does not take any effort.

What you do is your own business. Period.

LOL Take it easy. You’ll get a heart attack over nothing.

 

[Indah]

Snarky! You asked for it!!!
Always have clear mind especially when dealing with you because it does not take any effort.

What you do is your own business. Period.

Wish you many happy moments in 2022. Here some food for thought for the new year:

“When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: the people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous and surly. They are like this because they can't tell good from evil. But I have seen the beauty of good, and the ugliness of evil, and have recognized that the wrongdoer has a nature related to my own - not of the same blood and birth, but the same mind, and possessing a share of the divine. And so none of them can hurt me. No one can implicate me in ugliness. Nor can I feel angry at my relative, or hate him. We were born to work together like feet, hands and eyes, like the two rows of teeth, upper and lower. To obstruct each other is unnatural. To feel anger at someone, to turn your back on him: these are unnatural.”​

Marcus Aurelius

 

[chillyinCanada]

Just a tip, you have a daily flight now from Labuan Bajo to Surabaya and Makasar so from there you are able to rich easily Sorong, or Manado nearly without any long stopover.

Really and truly, a daily flight? Oh my gosh, I'm gonsmacked

 

[chillyinCanada]

I've been posting in this thread and so can't officially moderate it.

Nonetheless, stop the bickering, stop discussing things unrelated to OPS questions.

This is a thread about Komodo, NOT Galapagos.

Please conduct yourselves accordingly before another moderator has to come in here and do cleanup.

Thanks

 

[DavidGuo]

Just a tip, you have a daily flight now from Labuan Bajo to Surabaya and Makasar so from there you are able to rich easily Sorong, or Manado nearly without any long stopover.

There is still no daily direct domestic flight between Sorong and Makasar, I mean have to connect with Makasar, right? How reliable for those domestic flight like severe delay, cancellation or very short connection time?