Sulawesi - 3 weeks

[rmorgan]

I can see there are two types of night dives. What’s your experience with Mandarin dive and Blackwater dives? Worth it?

The most common night dive is just a dive, at or after sunset, to see a different side of marine life and a lot of animals that are more active, or only come out, at night. Mandarinfish dives--you go down and kneel in coral rubble just before sunset. And wait. Maybe you see mandarinfish which are gorgeous and very shy, maybe not; maybe you see them mate, maybe not. Once or twice a trip works for us (ideally, mandarinfish dives morph into regular night dives when the fairly-brief show is over). Blackwater dives--you drift along under a boat in pitch black water except for big lights strung below the boat, almost always at 5, 10, and 15m, which attract little things which you try to photograph. Very much an acquired taste--you can go the whole dive without seeing anything except once in awhile that the lights are kinda far off, or you can see and attempt to take pictures of all kinds of things. It's about at close as it gets to a spacewalk.

 

[Luko]

having a mix of Bangka and Manado would be better rather than focusing on one location only? Are the two locations really different in terms of diving experience?

Bangka is really an experience on its own. This is the prime location in N/Sulawesi if you ask me (and some other people as well). Best-est coral spot in N/Sulawesi (competing in the Indonesia category ? In the world category?) : Sahaung2, loads of pygmy seahorses, a mix of coral and Lembeh type muck.

I don't really appreciate Bunaken, which I find rather disappointing compared to other Indonesian destinations. Manado adds more variety to diving Bunaken, plus you can couple with landtours if you need a break.

BSDR is black sand dr yes.

 

[Jay_Remi]

Bangka is really an experience on its own. This is the prime location in N/Sulawesi if you ask me (and some other people as well). Best-est coral spot in N/Sulawesi (competing in the Indonesia category ? In the world category?) : Sahaung2, loads of pygmy seahorses, a mix of coral and Lembeh type muck.

I don't really appreciate Bunaken, which I find rather disappointing compared to other Indonesian destinations. Manado adds more variety to diving Bunaken, plus you can couple with landtours if you need a break.

BSDR is black sand dr yes.

Thank you so much Luko, this is really useful. I guess I should thus focus on Bangka and Lembeh for North Sulawesi. I assume you dived elsewhere closeby; any areas you'd recommend I go diving in Sulawesi aside from those two?

 

[Jay_Remi]

The most common night dive is just a dive, at or after sunset, to see a different side of marine life and a lot of animals that are more active, or only come out, at night. Mandarinfish dives--you go down and kneel in coral rubble just before sunset. And wait. Maybe you see mandarinfish which are gorgeous and very shy, maybe not; maybe you see them mate, maybe not. Once or twice a trip works for us (ideally, mandarinfish dives morph into regular night dives when the fairly-brief show is over). Blackwater dives--you drift along under a boat in pitch black water except for big lights strung below the boat, almost always at 5, 10, and 15m, which attract little things which you try to photograph. Very much an acquired taste--you can go the whole dive without seeing anything except once in awhile that the lights are kinda far off, or you can see and attempt to take pictures of all kinds of things. It's about at close as it gets to a spacewalk.

Thanks, this is precisely the information I was looking for.

 

[uncfnp]

Mandarin fish dive is luck of the draw. Ours was a bust. Would I try again? Probably not. Would definitely not do the Blackwater night dive again. Just a “regular” night dive? Absolutely.

 

[Tippytoes12]

My husband and I absolutely love Black Sand Dive Retreat, they have a maximum of four divers per guide, and crucially per boat ! But on the three occasions we have been there every buddy pair got their own guide. The food is wonderful and it is considerably better value than the better known resorts. It also has just seven rooms , so is beautifully quiet. As a pharmacist I have terrible knees, which I control with special Pilates. But with the diving and the very gentle sloping path up to the room I had zero pain all the time there.

 

[Jay_Remi]

My husband and I absolutely love Black Sand Dive Retreat, they have a maximum of four divers per guide, and crucially per boat ! But on the three occasions we have been there every buddy pair got their own guide. The food is wonderful and it is considerably better value than the better known resorts. It also has just seven rooms , so is beautifully quiet. As a pharmacist I have terrible knees, which I control with special Pilates. But with the diving and the very gentle sloping path up to the room I had zero pain all the time there.

Thanks. Will definitely check them out.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Thank you so much Luko, this is really useful. I guess I should thus focus on Bangka and Lembeh for North Sulawesi. I assume you dived elsewhere closeby; any areas you'd recommend I go diving in Sulawesi aside from those two?

The reason that I spend a day or two at Manado, is because the only way to Bangka is by boat, and on the passport, you get a couple of dives on the trip over. They aren't fantastic but good enough.

I've only ever seen the mandarin fish during the day. They're over in a mangle of coral but a bunch of tied up boats hang out there. Lots of garbage in the water, etc. Other than the mandarin fish playing peek a boo with me, which is adorable, I find the rest of the site a bit gross.

 

[Darnold9999]

If you are not a photographer then NAD is possibly not worth the extra $. My experience is that I will pay extra just to dive with their guides. They are excellent and understand photographers needs. I am heading back there for my fourth trip to NAD next October. Guides at other resorts in the straight in comparison are just very good. I have never had a bad guide in Lembeh, just variations from good to excellent, and Lembeh without a guide is not a good idea, particularly your first time.

The description of Black Sands above is perfect. The food is very good, the guides good, their boats are small and fast so you always (almost) return to the resort between dives. The climb up and down the hill to your room and the dining hall gets very tiring multiple time a day. I prefer NAD, but BSDR would be an excellent choice.

Frankly the competition in the straight makes it so that I doubt there is a bad choice.

Blackwater diving is not for everyone. You can see some things you will never see elsewhere, but you can also end up floating in the black and see absolutely nothing. My experience with NAD on three blackwater dives was two fantastic dives with paper nautilus, lots of juvenile forms of common fish and some very strange jelly's, and one not so good dive which was an equipment problem not a dive issue. I will be doing more blackwater next trip.

I have done a Mandarin Fish dive in Lembeh and meh. I saw a couple of pairs while kneeling in front of a pile of coral rubble for 40 min. If you have never seen them then do it, they are very cool fish to see, but in my experience there are better places to see them where you will see several pairs above the rubble and multiple fish within the rubble.

 

[rmorgan]

The reason that I spend a day or two at Manado, is because the only way to Bangka is by boat, and on the passport, you get a couple of dives on the trip over. They aren't fantastic but good enough.

We did a more-or-less Passport, but stayed at Bunaken Oasis. Murex generously moved us from Bunaken to Bangka; We were under cover of a volcanic eruption, so we didn't do the included dives (they gave us credit for them). From Bangka to Lembeh, we did two dives, one just outside of the strait on the western shore, and one a little further south, also on the west side of Lembeh Strait. Both were worthwhile, especially as we could see the progression from the mostly-corals of Bangka, to mixed reefs on the first dive, and pretty much Lembeh standard on the second. We liked it.