Trip Report - Blue Bay Divers - Bangka Island - July 2013

[gee13]

Great report AM, Im quite pleased to say Ive had the pleasure of diving Sahaung and around Bangka, just great memories and beaches.. I must say hats off to you for travelling with the kiddie.. all I wanna do on dive holidays is to dive dive dive..no kids of spouses around hehehh

 

[Searcaigh]

Nice report, I have just returned from Lembeh this morning but straight into work so no time to write anything up yet. Bangka is on my "to do list", nice to have some wide angle opportunities as well as macro.

 

[Luko]

Great report AlMitch, not sure BBD is for me though, I have my comfort and all my friends at Murex.

Did you get the chance to dive Batu Pendita like I advised you? I mean it's really a wow site for color and the fish life, but the current as well as the coral profusion can compare with a Komodo site or a Weh spot on steroids.


Batu Pendita panorama by Luko Gecko, on Flickr

 

[AlMitch]

Great report AlMitch, not sure BBD is for me though, I have my comfort and all my friends at Murex.

Did you get the chance to dive Batu Pendita like I advised you? I mean it's really a wow site for color and the fish life, but the current as well as the coral profusion can compare with a Komodo site or a Weh spot on steroids.

RATS!!! I completely forgot about Batu Pendita!!! I was just on zombie auto pilot during the trip!! Just concerned about keeping the baby happy and then blowing bubbles.
Oh well yet another excuse to go back. But as a consolation we had a few dives at Sahung which were brilliant.

I suppose once you have found a place you like or are comfortable with its hard to try something new. I heard reports that Murex Bangka resort was looking a little tired and needing some maintainence/ updating and that it was not managed very well (manager not on site therefore service slipping a little), what is your unbiased take on the resort?

---------- Post added August 7th, 2013 at 07:58 AM ----------

Not sure about the lack of pelagics off bangka.... our guests at Nomad Divers Bangka reported a pod of pilot whales coming through the bay in mid July.

Yes and there are the ever elusive Dugong swimming around, apparently guests at BBD saw one the day before we arrived. But the whales and Dugongs are very seldomly seen and there is basically zero chance you will actually be able to dive with them. So they dont really count. And as far as I'm concerned my comment about Bangka lacking big stuff still stands.

---------- Post added August 7th, 2013 at 08:00 AM ----------

Nice report, I have just returned from Lembeh this morning but straight into work so no time to write anything up yet. Bangka is on my "to do list", nice to have some wide angle opportunities as well as macro.

Thanks Seacaigh. Would love to hear about your Lembeh trip.
And yip having both the macro plus WA opportunites is exactly what I like about Bangka.

---------- Post added August 7th, 2013 at 08:07 AM ----------

Great report AM, Im quite pleased to say Ive had the pleasure of diving Sahaung and around Bangka, just great memories and beaches.. I must say hats off to you for travelling with the kiddie.. all I wanna do on dive holidays is to dive dive dive..no kids of spouses around hehehh

Gee13 it was an adventure with the kiddie but we had the helper with us so it was MUCH easier. That is another benifit of living in Singapore, you can actually afford a helper here.
My wife loves diving as much as I do so I dont have to choose between diving and family time !! ha ha

 

[Luko]

I heard reports that Murex Bangka resort was looking a little tired and needing some maintainence/ updating and that it was not managed very well (manager not on site therefore service slipping a little), what is your unbiased take on the resort?

Murex is the oldest built resort in the area, therefore wooden chalets would probably look more tired than new ones, they sometimes have issues with toilets not flushing and all sorts of usual problems but I must say whenever a problem was occuring, it was solved in a day.
And as for comfort :
- the white sand beach is also very nice,
- they provide electrical power all night from 5PM to 7AM,
- they do have aircon in the room and warm water shower.
For diving :
- they are the first op in Bangka, so they know intimately the reefs around, unlike some newer operations. (one of the guides has been diving Bangka for 17 years!)
- Probably they shouuld improve their boats, BBD and Mimpi Indah have better and more powerful boats... that said, everytime I saw the boats of their challengers they were loaded with too many divers.

I like the way they are self managing their op, I have already seen resorts in N/sulawesi (and not the less exepnsive ones) where western dive centre managers were nothing more than bothers, messing what had already been adressed by the indonesian staff. Of course, it doesn't look sometimes as "professional"

I think Dr.Batuna, Murex owner, has one a great job by letting his staff facing customer responsability, it is a change from many operations where Indonesian staff have no responsability at all. (You should also try a few nights at Murex Manado, it's really a superb operation, although Bunaken and Manado bay diving is not up to Bangka's )

 

[AlMitch]

Luko, ooo aircon and warm showers, yip that would have gone down great at BBD.
Personally for me to say BBD is the best resort on Bangka all they need to do is have electricity right through the night. I can deal with the mandi washing as I know they have limited water supply AND I dont really need aircon but when that fan kicked off at midnight you would wake up instantly and toss and turn for a while getting used to the heat.
As for the BBD (and we had the same with Mimpi a few years ago) dive boats we had the boat to ourselves for most of the time we were there, max guests on board was 5 plus two DM's. So I'd hardly call that crowded, especially considering how big the boats are.
And BBD has been there for nearly 10 years so they know the reefs pretty well too.
In conlusion as BBD does not have electricity through the night it really is a toss of the coin between Mimpi, BBD and Murex. All good resorts where you will have a good time diving great reefs.

 

[Wingy]

Ahh thank you Luko - Batu Pendita is the site I had a wild current ride on - I found the cabins on Murex more than adequate, only complaint from one of the other divers staying there was a tongue in cheek - "Ocean was a bit loud last night" - and because we were the only three there perhaps food was a bit same same. We went fishing with the locals on a surface interval and got a small plate of sashimi between three of us for a reward. Diving makes up for it though I do firmly believe Murex should improve their boats hence why I would try somewhere else next time. The mainland cabins are just gorgeous and worth a chill day alone wandering around the gardens. I think part of the charm of Bangka is no 24 hour electricity or air con. The more ''natural'' the island is kept the better IMO.

 

[AlMitch]

I think part of the charm of Bangka is no 24 hour electricity or air con. The more ''natural'' the island is kept the better IMO.

Then BBD sounds like the place for you ha ha

 

[gee13]

I think I dived Pendita.. it was amazing current..50m +viz.. found Pontohi there.. have to check my log

 

[AlMitch]

I think I dived Pendita.. it was amazing current..50m +viz.. found Pontohi there.. have to check my log

Now I'm even more annoyed I forgot to go to Pendita!! Thanks Gee!!