Erwin Poliakoff
Contributor
My wife and I just returned from a wonderful trip to Indonesia. We arrived in Jakarta and stayed at the FM7 for 3 nights just to get over jet lag and get acclimated. It was a good idea, although we could have cut out one night with no problem. From there, we flew to Ambon, where we went to the Maluku Dive Resort. This was our third time at this resort, and we enjoyed it tremendously. The idea for the trip was to get a good variety of diving, focusing on muck diving in Ambon, and then continuing to Misool Eco Resort for the beautiful reefscapes. So we dove for 5 days in Ambon, and the diving was everything we expected. The resort was very well run by Nus, and the staff and dive guides were excellent. Conditions were not perfect, but not bad. There was a fairly strong surge on some days, which made the photography a little tricky, but still feasible. We typically did 3 dives per day, and some of the guests were doing four dives per day (including a dusk or night dive). The assortment of critters in the rubble was fantastic, and the dive guides were great at spotting things for us. The resort was comfortable, and the food and service was really good.
After 5 days of diving at Ambon, we flew to Sorong, and stayed overnight at the Swiss Bel Hotel. I strongly recommend getting to Sorong a day early, even though the majority of the guests take the red-eye flight into Sorong. It is pretty exhausting to go that route, based on what I have seen. We had just been to Misool Eco Resort in November 2017, so we had a clear recollection of how everything worked. The diving there was fantastic, much better visibility than in our November trip, although the anchovies and the mobula rays had cleared out (as expected. Also, there were fewer mantas on this trip than the one last year. The variety of fish and the density was amazing. I had never seen so many Napoleon wrasse previously, for example. We typically did 3 dives per day, though more were offered. The food and service were great, and the water cottage we stayed in was beautiful and comfortable.
Here are some pics from the trip. First, here are a few from Ambon.
001_adj_DSC_7332 by Erwin Poliakoff, on Flickr
002_adj_DSC_7483 peacock mantis shrimp with eggs by Erwin Poliakoff, on Flickr
006_adj_DSC_7569 by Erwin Poliakoff, on Flickr
043_adj_DSC_6906 by Erwin Poliakoff, on Flickr
and here are a few from Misool in Raja Ampat
001_adj_DSC_7640 by Erwin Poliakoff, on Flickr
003_adj_DSC_7880 by Erwin Poliakoff, on Flickr
027_adj_DSC_8349 batfish near Boo Window by Erwin Poliakoff, on Flickr
037_adj_DSC_8182 schooling barracuda by Erwin Poliakoff, on Flickr
and here is the whole set from Ambon: Muck diving photos from Ambon
and here is the whole set from Misool: Reefscapes from Misool
-Erwin
After 5 days of diving at Ambon, we flew to Sorong, and stayed overnight at the Swiss Bel Hotel. I strongly recommend getting to Sorong a day early, even though the majority of the guests take the red-eye flight into Sorong. It is pretty exhausting to go that route, based on what I have seen. We had just been to Misool Eco Resort in November 2017, so we had a clear recollection of how everything worked. The diving there was fantastic, much better visibility than in our November trip, although the anchovies and the mobula rays had cleared out (as expected. Also, there were fewer mantas on this trip than the one last year. The variety of fish and the density was amazing. I had never seen so many Napoleon wrasse previously, for example. We typically did 3 dives per day, though more were offered. The food and service were great, and the water cottage we stayed in was beautiful and comfortable.
Here are some pics from the trip. First, here are a few from Ambon.
and here are a few from Misool in Raja Ampat
and here is the whole set from Ambon: Muck diving photos from Ambon
and here is the whole set from Misool: Reefscapes from Misool
-Erwin
