Hi, this is Rob, owner of Weda Resort. Very unfortunately the Indonesian government decided that large parts of Central Halmahera would be a huge industrial area. This includes nickel mines and related industries. The population increased from 30.000 to 150.000 people. This has devastating effects on the reefs and forest. Magic Bay Rao is not affected by this and the dive conditions are as good as Weda Bay, with better visibility and shorter boat rides. But the season is limited to May - October. As soon as we can afford it we will renovate Magic Bay Rao and open the resort again: Magic Bay Rao, Morotai . For now, my family and I are concentrating on our Divers Lodge Lembeh. We are very happy that we have been able to most of the needed renovations the last months and we are fully operational at the moment. Our website is up to date: Experience Lembeh Strait in the best wayOh that’s a shame about Weda, i think it’s the same owner as Lembeh Lodge? We liked Lembeh Lodge very much. Do you know why they had to close? I was researching some new places in Sali Bay, Kusu Island Resort, so there are on my list now Tompotika, Triton Bay and Halmahera that I haven’t been that interest me in Indonesia. And Banda.
The places I loved the most so far in Indonesia have been Raja Ampat and Alor. Komodo is great and has a lot of reef mantas but the oceanic are in Raja. And Komodo is becoming way too crowded. So personally I like Alor better than Komodo, less crowded and you see many things you don’t see in Komodo, there are just no mantas in Alor but there are eagle rays, mobula, huge marble rays. So next I need to try Halmahera, Tompotika and Triton Bay.