Trip Report Trip Report - Bali & Komodo on Mermaid I

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jjmochi

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Messages
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Location
Singapore
# of dives
200 - 499
This has to be my favourite dive trip so far. I've been trying to get in the habit of writing these after a few weeks of reflection so I can see past the small things that bothered me.

I've taken a lot of trips in the last 12 months, after moving out of HK last Oct and finally freed from quarantine. I had ~2 years worth of cancelled and rescheduled trip credits due to COVID, and I basically packed everything into this year. Starting from 2.5 weeks in Galapagos in Dec 2021, I then lined up a 6 day liveaboard in Tubbataha at end of Mar, 10 days in Anilao and Puerto Galera at end of Apr, squeezed in a short weekend of diving in Sydney while on a work trip in June, spent 12 days in North Sulawesi (mostly Lembeh and Bangka) in July, and finally a 11 day liveaboard to the Visayas & Malapascua at the beginning of August. By the time I made it to Bali at the end of Aug I was honesty pretty tired of travelling and felt like I had seen so much already I was beginning to question what else could possibly impress.

Part 1 - Bali (Padang Bai) i.e. the failed mola hunt
Photos: Bali (Aug 2022)

We started with a short 3 night stay in Bali, in Padang Bai area at a cute resort called Bloo Lagoon, which had great wifi (router in the room!) that enabled me to work remotely for a bit. They have a free shuttle you can use / call on demand that will bring you to any of the dive shops. Tons of privacy, really great views overlooking the bay, a nice pool, and the BEST massages. Food is decent but nothing to write home about.

We got OW certified in Tulemban back in 2017, and our first 2 dives post OW was to Crystal Bay and Manta Point, where we were lucky to see both the mola mola and the oceanic mantas in the one day we had before moving on to the Gili islands. (In hindsight we were vastly underprepared, looking back my logbook says 35min dives, and I remember holding on for dear life at Crystal Bay where a big down current swept past us). I wanted to try my luck at the molas again now that I was better prepared (250+ dives in w decent current experience, equipped w drysuit, free diving fins, reef hook, and a camera I was comfortable with). I booked with Geko Divers based on recommendations from here, and while they do cut dives pretty short (~45min average, everyone goes up together once someone hits 50bar) I would overall still recommend them.

This was the dive plan and temps for the Bali leg - unfortunately the water was still too warm for mola. Our divemaster did see one mola very far off in the distance on one dive, but I was too far behind (trying to be polite and taking photos of a mantis shrimp another guest was very excited to have found), so I missed out. I was very glad to have the drysuit for the 23-25 degree sites, and it seriously made the dives so much more enjoyable not feeling like I'm about to die from the cold. I was still in shock from the cold that first dive at Manta Point, as my abysmal SAC rate on that dive shows. Manta Point did yield 2 oceanic mantas, which were huge and larger than what I remember, but there wasn't much else to see in the way of corals or reef.
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I wish I spent more time diving Nusa Penida. I only made it to one site - PED. It was really pretty but the current was ripping - on par or stronger than the worst we've experienced thus far. It was impossible to swim against and most I could do was reef hook and pull myself against it slowly, take a quick shot, and let go and drift. We were meant to see Toyapekeh as the second dive on the last day, but because of the fleeting mola encounter on the first dive at Crystal Bay, the other guests elected to try again (no luck). The downside of diving in a group - on my next return I will pay for a private guide, not only to get full freedom of site selection, but also to dive my full tank and not have the dives cut short at 40 min... mind you I was paired with a couple with >700 dives yet one still ran out of air at 40min. Crystal Bay is like a zoo, even if you did see mola the chances are another group will swim towards it and scare it away in an instant. Perhaps I just have bad luck with molas, missed it in Galapagos also although did see many on the surface.

Gili Biaha and Gili Tepekong was a bit disappointing. The highlight of Biaha is a cave/swim through, which I don't particularly care for. I did not see the piles of white tips sleeping in the cave that it's known for. Tepekong had better corals and a few turtles, but was not as fishy or colorful as PED. The highlight of Tepekong was a pygmy seahorse ironically. No molas on either site.

My favourite part of the Padang Bai leg is the macro dives - Jetty, Jepun, and right below the resort Bloo Lagoon wall. Jepun I did as a night dive and it was pretty good with a lot of the usual suspects. Jetty I did as an afternoon dive and it was really good, I had a private guide that day and we did a nice long 75min dive. There were a lot of pretty and colorful sea fans on the pillars (no photos cuz macro lens on), and there was actually a really big school of fish (I think snappers?) that kept swarming around us. A really pretty big purple jellyfish at the end too, which was cool. In the muck there was a TON of blue/red/multicolor dragon nudis. We followed this up with Boo Lagoon wall night dive which yielded some really pretty prawns, cuttlefish, multiple Spanish dancers, and the prettiest frogfish I've ever seen.

I feel like a proper week+ return trip to Bali is in order, split Tulemban and Nusa Penida. Luckily Bali is only a short and cheap 2.5hour direct flight from SG.

On the last day we finished our two dives at Crystal Bay ~11.30am, and got a car to pick us up at ~1pm to get on the Mermaid, for a 3pm departure. It was a bit tight but doable.
 
Part 2 - Komodo
Photos: Komodo (Aug/Sep 2022)


We were on a 10D/9N trip on the Mermaid I which begins and ends at Bali, diving the whole of Komodo in between as well as a few areas on the way (Moyo, Sangeang, Sumbawa). We chose the boat based on a few recommendations (a friend who was on the same trip back in 2015, a couple I met on other trips who said it was their favourite liveaboard), and folks here seem to speak highly of it as well. The boat is a good size but not super luxurious, and the food was a bit disappointing (I found it a bit bland) but healthy and plentiful. Compared to the similarity priced Philippines Siren the food was not as good and there was no cappuccino machine or cocktails, which is a bit of a bummer. But one of the best things about the Mermaid is the 75min dives (something I've never came across on a liveaboard), really good guides (I had Wayan), and great service & crew.

We had a mixed group from the UK, Australia, HK, Korea, and the Netherlands, and quite a few were return guests. Everyone was pretty experienced except for one girl, who was only OW and had 20 dives. She was in our dive group because with ~130 dives, my husband was the second least experienced guest. I expressed some concerns in the beginning and was assured having her in our group would not limit us to 18m (cruise director Celso was adamant that is a suggestion from PADI and not a real rule), and I can dive my full 75min (she will go up with her buddy and dive guide will stay down with us). She actually did really well, trim was non-existent and she did kick up a lot of muck, but otherwise stayed high up and did not kick the reef. Komodo is not typically a destination recommended for beginners, but she did ok with the currents, as our dive guide Wayan was always super skilled in dropping us where we need to be, so we never had to fight the current for long. With a drysuit and a big camera I also requested no negative entries, and it was completely fine. (Can I just say, Wayan is the BEST - he will do things a bit different from the other guides and make sure we see the best stuff, like dropping into the channel at Manta Ally first while everyone else is at the cleaning station, so once they move on we have the entire cleaning station to ourselves). Ironically the group that fell apart was one with a London guy, 200+ dives, but somehow always ran out of air in ~20min - he ended up getting his own dive guide and the other groups becoming 5-6 vs the usual 4.

There were 2 dive tenders and 4 groups, so we alternated which groups go first every day. Dive deck was pretty spacious, and the crew carried my tank and my camera to/from the tender every time. Service is really good, and everyone is super friendly. There are two showers on the deck where you get on / off the tender, which was nice for rinsing the drysuit zipper. There is always juice, hot ginger tea, or hot chocolate waiting at the end of every dive. Again I was super glad to have the drysuit for the dives in the south, but at 75min even the 27 degrees dives in the north was so much more comfortable in drysuit.

Groups are decided strictly by number of dives vs air/nitrox, so there were mixed nitrox and air groups, which I found a bit strange. My husband and I were on nitrox and the other two in our group was on air, and there was another group with similar split, but they did not group the 4 air divers together. In the end it was not an issue as Wayan let us dive our own profile, and the other two stayed higher most of the time, and did go up early by themselves on a few dives.

Below was our dive schedule - we missed out on 3 dives on the first day due to unusually strong waves pushing against us and falling a day behind. Funny enough what was supposed to be our check dive ended up being our last dive. I was pretty upset about this at the time, as the trip was expensive and this was 1 of 8 diving days, plus Moyo Island was actually really pretty, with lots of soft corals and sea snakes. Celso said it has literally never happened before, and could not provide any compensation or credit as it was weather related. We had engine trouble on the way back also (one engine only spun at 1200rpm vs the usual 1500, we were listing unevenly), but they said the delay on the way over was not due to engine issues. We could not make up the missed dives on the other days because it was already a packed 4 dive/day schedule and 75min each (except night dives which were 60min).
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Not the greatest start, everyone was a bit restless from being stuck on the boat for 2 days with nothing to do, but once we got going it was GREAT. Some of my favourite reef sites were Crystal Rock, Batu Bolong, Tatawa Kecil, Tatawa Besar - there was so much color, really pretty bommies full of soft and hard corals, big schools of fish. Some sites the current was ripping and it was SO PRETTY I was crying on the inside not being able to stop and take photos. So perfect with the colorful corals in the current and huge swarms of fish everywhere. There were a handful of really WOW! moments in the north Komodo sites. It surpassed my previous gold standard for reefs which was Sipadan, by a lot (I made a return trip recently and was quite disappointed after seeing Komodo). The visibility wasn't the best, but OMG was it pretty. The turtles were super friendly too, not shy like the ones at Bunaken, and not sleepy like the ones at Sipadan. They were smaller and so playful, one tried to eat my lens. It was not very sharky, only a few white tips and black tips at Crystal Rock; another group saw a cat shark on one of the night dives but I did not see.

Cannibal Rock was sadly bombed, so we spent a full day at Manta Alley in the south, and it was so good I was fully satisfied and ready to move on after the first dive (we did 3). Countless reef mantas, white and black. Side note - the freediving fins were SO GOOD - I was able to swim in the channel against the current and hang with the mantas (even w the drag from the drysuit and big camera!) Not for very long, but the fins gave me enough confidence to get in the channel knowing I could swim out and won't be swept away. It was fun swimming next to the mantas while everyone else was holding on for dear life. I got super close but the mantas were just chilling in the channel and didn't care. We also saw mantas at a few of the northern sites like GLD passage, but Manta Alley was by far the best. It did make for a very tiring day.

The trip also had really good macro! I used my 90mm macro lens for >1/3 of the trip. Sangeang was really great, as was a few of the southern Komodo sites like Secret Garden. My favourite macro site has to be Bontoh - so many octopus, and so many different kinds! The other standout at Sangeang is Hot Rocks - there's a fluorescent, NEON PINK anemone which is amazing, the photos don't do it justice, it literally glows in the dark. Wayan is also a master at finding frogfish, we saw like 3-4 on dives when the others saw none.

At the end of the trip Celso gives you a dive log, plus all the dive site maps and the aerial photos, which was a great touch: It's compiled across all 4 groups so we didn't see everything on the list, but a decent amount.

There was also a short 1 hour walk on Komodo Island, where we got to see the Komodo dragons. But honestly this was a bit underwhelming for me, we saw only Komodo dragons on the beach, and they were either sleeping or chilling quite lazily in the sun. We didn't see any on the hike itself, only a few deer, and a wild boar. We do see monitor lizards in Singapore quite often (in Botanic Gardens etc) and the dragons didn't look much different, only a bit bigger, so perhaps that's why I'm not so impressed... but a lot of the other guests loved it.

Overall I would highly recommend this itinerary on the Mermaid - just keep in mind the Bali to Komodo crossing may be affected by weather and you may miss a day like we did, but I think the detour to Sangaeng is worth seeing, especially if you're a macro fan. It is quite pricy vs alternatives, we got 10% off early bird discount and still paid EUR4k pp, my friend went on a last minute 11D/10N trip on the Indo Siren (30 dives, also goes to Sangaeng) and got it 50% off only paying $2.5k. But with 75min day dives I think you still get a bit more time in the water w the Mermaid, even tho the trip is 1 day less. Mermaid has a single cabin option which is nice. It's definitely a boat I will keep in mind and consider for future trips.

I only have Raja Ampat left now, 2 weeks in Dec, very excited to see how / if it can top Komodo. But so far this is the best!
 
I've been following your travels and love reading your trip reports- thanks for posting. I'll be interested to hear what you think of Raja Ampat. I'm debating between Komodo, Philippines (probably a Visayas route) or Raja Ampat for 2024.
 
Great report as always. It really has been a lot of traveling for you in 21/22:)

I've been following your travels and love reading your trip reports- thanks for posting. I'll be interested to hear what you think of Raja Ampat. I'm debating between Komodo, Philippines (probably a Visayas route) or Raja Ampat for 2024.
What time of year? RA is still my top 1 (shared with Sipadan, but we went there in 2008, and I've heard things have changed a lot), Malapascua was fantastic as well, but I don't thing a LOB would be the best there. Komodo is great, but not anywhere near RA.
 
Thanks for the trip report. Interesting to hear of cold water on a Bali dive; I tend to unconsciously assume near equatorial sites have warm water year round pretty much everywhere, but as we know from the Galapagos, that's not true.

Since you've dove some Philippines destinations in fairly short order with Komodo, would you care to contrast Puerto Galera and Tubbataha with Komodo? I realize it's an 'apples to oranges' comparison. I ask because for U.S.-based divers, the Philippines is sometimes viewed as cheaper, quicker to get to and 'almost as good' as Indonesian diving, and I'd like to get a 1st hand impression from you about the trade offs involved if one must choose one or the other.

Cheaper is a total trip cost issue, including airfare, and you're out of Singapore, not the U.S., so comparisons may be a bit limited.
 
Excellent trip report! Good Luck & Keep Diving :cool:
 
Terrific write up on the trip. Loved the pics too. Your macro shots are stunning. Thanks for sharing!
 
Thanks for the trip report. Interesting to hear of cold water on a Bali dive; I tend to unconsciously assume near equatorial sites have warm water year round pretty much everywhere, but as we know from the Galapagos, that's not true.

Since you've dove some Philippines destinations in fairly short order with Komodo, would you care to contrast Puerto Galera and Tubbataha with Komodo? I realize it's an 'apples to oranges' comparison. I ask because for U.S.-based divers, the Philippines is sometimes viewed as cheaper, quicker to get to and 'almost as good' as Indonesian diving, and I'd like to get a 1st hand impression from you about the trade offs involved if one must choose one or the other.

Cheaper is a total trip cost issue, including airfare, and you're out of Singapore, not the U.S., so comparisons may be a bit limited.
Yeah last time we dove Crystal Bay in 2017 it was 21-22 degrees - need that for the molas! The local SG GUE group goes to Bali quite often for courses so next year my plan is to play it by ear and book a last minute trip once someone tells me the waters have dropped below 22.

I would say Komodo > Tubbataha > Visayas >> Puerto Galera.

Tubbataha isn't really cheap. I think you can find Komodo liveaboards for just as cheap if not cheaper than Tubbataha. Komodo also gives you the option to do land based which is much cheaper, whereas Tubbataha is liveaboard only. Puerto Galera IS much cheaper but I think it's also a notable step down in terms of reef quality, fishiness, big stuff. I was not that impressed by Puerto Galera (even Verde), outside of 2 muck sites (Montani and Boatyard). PG is also very crowded, and I did not really like the super casual resort diver vibe (1-2 dives a day then beer all day). If sticking to Philippines I think Visayas (Apo Island) is much prettier reef-wise than PG, plus you can combo with Dauin for top-notched macro. Flying into Cebu you can also do the special whale shark snorkel/dive in Oslob, and the sardine dive in Moalboal (both almost guaranteed). Malapascua has the threshers but it's hit or miss, I think better to go land-based and stay longer. There's more special / memorable sites in Visayas for sure. For a solo traveller the private car/boat transfer to PG is also very very pricey, as is the price for a private guide.

Tubbataha has pristine hard coral - it reminded me of Sipadan back in 2019 but more expansive - just stretches of pristine staghorn coral as far as you can see, really beautiful. I'm not the biggest fan of wall dives but it has the prettiest walls I've seen. It also more sharks and schools of bigger fish (barracudas etc) than Komodo. But it is overall not as fishy as Komodo (which has a ton of smaller fish), and Komodo is overall prettier because it is much more colorful due to the prolific soft corals. Tubbataha is supposed to have whale sharks (but I did not see any on the second trip of the season) but no mantas, Komodo is almost guaranteed to have mantas but no whale sharks. Tubbataha has less divers, less current, is overall more chill and relaxed vs the high adrenaline dives of Komodo. It is also a balmy 29-30 degrees vs Komodo's 27-28 in the north and 24-25 in the south, so overall I think much better for newer divers. Komodo has more variety (reef, macro, muck, exotic critters) for the photographer, Tubbataha is all walls which while pretty does get repetitive and boring after a while. 6 days is enough for Tubbataha, I found myself satisfied at the end. At the end of Komodo I wished I had another week there. Komodo is higher on my return visit list. Tubbataha is also on there, but only if Siren has a 50% off sale again for smack dab in the middle of the season, just for another chance at the whale sharks.
 
Great report as always. It really has been a lot of traveling for you in 21/22:)


What time of year? RA is still my top 1 (shared with Sipadan, but we went there in 2008, and I've heard things have changed a lot), Malapascua was fantastic as well, but I don't thing a LOB would be the best there. Komodo is great, but not anywhere near RA.
Nowhere near RA? I can't wait! I've heard similar sentiments from Amy the cruise director on the Indo Siren - RA is her favourite by a mile, she was sad to miss the Komodo season this year (as was temporarily cruise directing for the Philippines Siren) but said there was no way she was going to miss the Raja season. Komodo was just so good I don't know how much better it can get!

You've also convinced me on Alor btw, just decided to pull the trigger and brave the spiders next April. It'll be the last major dive trip pre-kids so figured this would be a good one to cap it off. I originally booked my husband with me on a Banda Sea trip in Oct but he said no more liveaboards (too tiring after this Komodo trip) so I got to use his trip credit and book myself on a Raja - Banda - Alor - Maumere crossing trip in Apr, and will get off a day early in Alor. My husband is now a 1-2 dives a day then relax type, and only wants to dive if he can see something different/new, do you think he will still enjoy Alor after seeing Komodo and Raja?
 
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