cleung
Contributor
I was on the Lady Denok liveaboard for my first dive trip in Raja Ampat this past late November to early December, 2024. I’ll give my observations on Raja Ampat diving in general and then move onto my review of the Lady Denok liveaboard.
Raja Ampat Diving
This was my first trip diving in Indonesia and I’ve wanted to come here to either Raja Ampat or Komodo for a long time. Scheduling turned out to be better for a Raja Ampat for this trip since both Raja Ampat and Komodo liveaboards run on different seasons.
As expected, the travel from Canada was brutal. It was two days of straight flying with stopovers starting in Toronto, connecting in London and Singapore before finally making it to my destination. Flying economy all the way, I barely slept for the two days of travelling.
I took the overnight red eye flight from Jakarta to Sorong which is the port town where Raja Ampat liveaboards usually run from. The town of Sorong itself is a dump with very poor infrastructure and I saw piles of garbage along the way during the drive from the airport to the dock where the Lady Denok crew was waiting. I know some fellow divers on this trip stayed either a night before and/or after the dive trip in Sorong but there’s really nothing to do there so if possible, I would suggest just flying into Sorong the day of the liveaboard departure although there is always the risk of missing the boat if the flight is delayed or cancelled. However I was told that Garuda Indonesia is the most reliable domestic airline there which is the carrier I booked my Jakarta-Sorong return flights with.
In any case, I knew that the travel for any Raja Ampat trip would be brutal since we are going to a fairly remote area in Indonesia. It’s not a main tourist destination like Bali. But like most of the best dive destinations in the world, it’s pretty well given that traveling to remote and less touristy areas will give us the most pristine dive sites.
The Lady Denok trip I took was a week long trip that went through mainly central Raja Ampat area. This liveaboard offered four dives (three daytime and one night dive) daily which gave us a good variety of diving. I can confirm that the diversity of marine life in Raja Ampat is probably the highest anywhere in the world with so many different types of fish and coral observed.
I thought Little Cayman was high in marine life diversity and by Caribbean standards, it still is the highest for that region by my diving experience. But Little Cayman pales in comparison to Raja Ampat. Not only is the diversity of marine life higher, the sheer number of fish observed during most of the dives is also significantly higher. The size of the schools of fish are also bigger compared to what I saw in the Caribbean as well as at Galapagos with the exception of sharks.
Certain fish species found in the Caribbean were also more numerous in Raja Ampat. For example although I’ve seen clown fish before, I’ve never seen so many of them than here at Raja Ampat. Of course, lionfish were also higher in numbers here which is expected.
One difference I noticed with many Raja Ampat fish is that they tend to be less afraid of divers. Many Caribbean fish are quite skittish if you get too close to them. I came across many fish both large and small who didn’t swim away whenever I got closer to them. They often just stayed put and looked right back at me which I found extremely entertaining.
As expected, I saw many marine species that I’ve never seen before diving in other parts of the world. For example, wobblegong sharks were new to me and I got to see several of these weird looking sharks and got quite close to them too. There were many special dive moments like meeting trio of big cuttlefish just hanging out and even witnessed two sharks mating.
Water temperature was pretty constant at 28 to 29 degrees C by my dive computer and a 3 mm wetsuit was more than adequate although I did wear a beanie cap for most of my dive week. Some dives sites like those in the Dampier Strait had pretty strong currents. These were drift dives but unlike typical drift dives like those in Cozumel, there were often times when it was necessary to stay in one place rather than just go with the current because there was a huge school of barracuda, jacks or an entire community of different size fish just hanging in place against the current. This was something I’ve never seen before.
The divemasters claim that the currents were bringing in food so the fish were feeding but it seems to me that these fish were also enjoying the feel of the water rush past them. It was almost like they were getting some sort of current massage as different species of fish were all hanging in some sort of bliss. I was able to come right beside a school of barracuda enjoying this current and like all the other fish doing the same thing, they didn’t seem to care whether I was there or not.
Needless to say, it was a bit of a challenge to stay in place given the strong currents. We tried hanging onto rocks whenever possible but we also used reef hooks several times which was something very different compared to your typical relaxing Caribbean drift dive like those in Cozumel.
I was less impressed with the night dives here but our divemaster did find some very interesting nudibranchs, seahorses and shrimp. Many fish seemed to be sleeping within the rocks at night at least from what I saw.
A four dives per day schedule for an entire week is very intensive and there are only two ways to dive Raja Ampat - either by liveaboard or by staying at some eco resorts. Our boat passed by a few of these resort which were located in very remote islands. If staying on these eco resorts, don’t expect comforts of a five star Caribbean type of operation. Hydro is probably by generators and amenities will be quite spartan, not to mention the mosquito action. Either way, Raja Ampat is still pretty unspoiled which is reflected in the diving. Not all dives during the week were spectacular but most of them were way above the Caribbean average.
Like most Raja Ampat trips, we had one shore excursion hiking to the top of a lookout platform. The view was just breathtaking and to realize that this is a destination that the vast majority of tourists out there will never get to see because of its remoteness as well as main focus on liveaboard diving was really something.
So if you are willing to rough it out in the long journey required to get there especially if you are from the Americas or Europe, Raja Ampat is totally worth it. My Raja Ampat trip turned out to be half the price of my Galapagos liveaboard trip but of course we’re seeing different marine life. I know for me, my future dive travel dollars for the Caribbean will be in serious jeopardy even though it’s so much closer to my home base in Canada.
Raja Ampat Diving
This was my first trip diving in Indonesia and I’ve wanted to come here to either Raja Ampat or Komodo for a long time. Scheduling turned out to be better for a Raja Ampat for this trip since both Raja Ampat and Komodo liveaboards run on different seasons.
As expected, the travel from Canada was brutal. It was two days of straight flying with stopovers starting in Toronto, connecting in London and Singapore before finally making it to my destination. Flying economy all the way, I barely slept for the two days of travelling.
I took the overnight red eye flight from Jakarta to Sorong which is the port town where Raja Ampat liveaboards usually run from. The town of Sorong itself is a dump with very poor infrastructure and I saw piles of garbage along the way during the drive from the airport to the dock where the Lady Denok crew was waiting. I know some fellow divers on this trip stayed either a night before and/or after the dive trip in Sorong but there’s really nothing to do there so if possible, I would suggest just flying into Sorong the day of the liveaboard departure although there is always the risk of missing the boat if the flight is delayed or cancelled. However I was told that Garuda Indonesia is the most reliable domestic airline there which is the carrier I booked my Jakarta-Sorong return flights with.
In any case, I knew that the travel for any Raja Ampat trip would be brutal since we are going to a fairly remote area in Indonesia. It’s not a main tourist destination like Bali. But like most of the best dive destinations in the world, it’s pretty well given that traveling to remote and less touristy areas will give us the most pristine dive sites.
The Lady Denok trip I took was a week long trip that went through mainly central Raja Ampat area. This liveaboard offered four dives (three daytime and one night dive) daily which gave us a good variety of diving. I can confirm that the diversity of marine life in Raja Ampat is probably the highest anywhere in the world with so many different types of fish and coral observed.
I thought Little Cayman was high in marine life diversity and by Caribbean standards, it still is the highest for that region by my diving experience. But Little Cayman pales in comparison to Raja Ampat. Not only is the diversity of marine life higher, the sheer number of fish observed during most of the dives is also significantly higher. The size of the schools of fish are also bigger compared to what I saw in the Caribbean as well as at Galapagos with the exception of sharks.
Certain fish species found in the Caribbean were also more numerous in Raja Ampat. For example although I’ve seen clown fish before, I’ve never seen so many of them than here at Raja Ampat. Of course, lionfish were also higher in numbers here which is expected.
One difference I noticed with many Raja Ampat fish is that they tend to be less afraid of divers. Many Caribbean fish are quite skittish if you get too close to them. I came across many fish both large and small who didn’t swim away whenever I got closer to them. They often just stayed put and looked right back at me which I found extremely entertaining.
As expected, I saw many marine species that I’ve never seen before diving in other parts of the world. For example, wobblegong sharks were new to me and I got to see several of these weird looking sharks and got quite close to them too. There were many special dive moments like meeting trio of big cuttlefish just hanging out and even witnessed two sharks mating.
Water temperature was pretty constant at 28 to 29 degrees C by my dive computer and a 3 mm wetsuit was more than adequate although I did wear a beanie cap for most of my dive week. Some dives sites like those in the Dampier Strait had pretty strong currents. These were drift dives but unlike typical drift dives like those in Cozumel, there were often times when it was necessary to stay in one place rather than just go with the current because there was a huge school of barracuda, jacks or an entire community of different size fish just hanging in place against the current. This was something I’ve never seen before.
The divemasters claim that the currents were bringing in food so the fish were feeding but it seems to me that these fish were also enjoying the feel of the water rush past them. It was almost like they were getting some sort of current massage as different species of fish were all hanging in some sort of bliss. I was able to come right beside a school of barracuda enjoying this current and like all the other fish doing the same thing, they didn’t seem to care whether I was there or not.
Needless to say, it was a bit of a challenge to stay in place given the strong currents. We tried hanging onto rocks whenever possible but we also used reef hooks several times which was something very different compared to your typical relaxing Caribbean drift dive like those in Cozumel.
I was less impressed with the night dives here but our divemaster did find some very interesting nudibranchs, seahorses and shrimp. Many fish seemed to be sleeping within the rocks at night at least from what I saw.
A four dives per day schedule for an entire week is very intensive and there are only two ways to dive Raja Ampat - either by liveaboard or by staying at some eco resorts. Our boat passed by a few of these resort which were located in very remote islands. If staying on these eco resorts, don’t expect comforts of a five star Caribbean type of operation. Hydro is probably by generators and amenities will be quite spartan, not to mention the mosquito action. Either way, Raja Ampat is still pretty unspoiled which is reflected in the diving. Not all dives during the week were spectacular but most of them were way above the Caribbean average.
Like most Raja Ampat trips, we had one shore excursion hiking to the top of a lookout platform. The view was just breathtaking and to realize that this is a destination that the vast majority of tourists out there will never get to see because of its remoteness as well as main focus on liveaboard diving was really something.
So if you are willing to rough it out in the long journey required to get there especially if you are from the Americas or Europe, Raja Ampat is totally worth it. My Raja Ampat trip turned out to be half the price of my Galapagos liveaboard trip but of course we’re seeing different marine life. I know for me, my future dive travel dollars for the Caribbean will be in serious jeopardy even though it’s so much closer to my home base in Canada.
