This trip was a covid delayed trip that was supposed to happen in 2020. I apologise for how long the report is, it was such a great trip that I didn’t know what to leave out!
I got in contact with Scuba Republic late in 2022 to book this trip (reminding them that they still had my deposit). The rebooking appeared to go smoothly. They require a minimum of two people to guarantee departure. I was so determined that I would be going that I told them that if they didn’t have a second person, I would pay double.
I then made arrangements to dive in Padang Bai afterwards, booked flights etc.
I emailed my original contact at Scuba Republic a few weeks out from the trip find out arrangements for paying the balance and asking a couple of extra questions. The response was that they had overlooked my booking in company re-organisation, and they had fully booked the boat without me! They were proposing to have me do some day dives and then put me on their bigger boat, but this would have required me to rearrange my flight back from Labuan Bajo to Denpasar and my time in Padang Bai. My response was blunt. I made it clear that you don’t bump the buy who booked first, and many months before anybody else. The issue got punted to the new management in Labuan Bajo, who apologised profusely and assured me that I would be on the boat, as planned. I presume somebody else got inconvenienced, but in the end, there were three of us on the Busy Girl.
I flew Garuda from Sydney to Denpasar on Friday, Oct 13 and spent the next day chilling in Sanur.
Sunday, Oct 15th I took a Batik Air flight to Labuan Bajo after breakfast. Batik says 20kg checked luggage limit. I had 25kg and nobody blinked. They also did not weigh carry-on. The flight was uneventful and Scuba Republic picked me up at Labuan Bajo airport and deposited me at my hotel, the Blue Ocean Hotel. It was cheap and simple, but centrally located and with decent wifi. The only issue was many very steep stairs, with a heavy bag of dive and personal gear! It was fine for a night. I wandered up the street and found Scuba Republic and established that I should be there at 11am the next morning for departure (all the correspondence up to this point had suggested 8.30am).
Monday morning, they picked me up at 10.55am and I met the other guests, a young couple from Hawaii. He was a dive instructor with over 12,000 dives. She was a relatively new diver, but had was very comfortable in the water. They both worked on tourist boats in Hawaii, were friendly, full of stories and excellent companions for the next six days. We also met out local dive guide / trip director Jhogant (Joe), who did a great job of looking after us both above and below the water.
Then we headed off to the boat. The Busy Girl is small; just two cabins. Apparently, she was built in 1946 and was a fishing boat in Australia. She was refitted as a dive boat in 2011. She was full of character, if occasionally showing signs of her age. Cold water showers (and we were asked to only have one proper shower a day) but air con in the cabins. The generator did not run all day, but it ran at night for the aircon and they would put it on whenever one of us asked for charging etc. I thought she was an awesome boat, and we got to giant stride straight off the side of her. Apart from Joe, there was a crew of 4, who spoke very little English, but were all friendly and helpful. The cook, Andi was great.
That first day, we did two dives, the checkout dive at Sebayur Kecil and then a second at Siaba Besar; simple, shallow, pleasant dives in coral gardens. Turtles, cuttlefish, mantis shrimp, nudies.
Second day we dropped into the water at Siaba Kecil at 7am into the most serious current I have ever dived in, by some order of magnitude. We flew along and my heart was racing and I was very grateful to be diving a 15L tank, which emptied quite rapidly over the first 14 minutes, until we ended up in a nice coral garden and the adrenalin was able to dissipate.
Second and third dive we did Tatawa Kecil and Mawan, where we saw mantas. One of them had a huge hook embedded in it, trailing a line that was wrapped around a coral head trapping the poor creature. Jhogant got in and managed to remove it and was hence crowned ‘Saviour of the Mantas’.
Day three we did the first dive at Tatawa Besar, which was big current again and then did the amazing Batu Bolong, where every fish in the ocean was hanging out. In the afternoon we went looking for mantas again at Makasar Reef, without success.
Day four we continued the tradition of starting the day with ripping current and did Cauldron/Shotgun. There were mantas in the Shotgun so we used reef hooks (my first time) and watched them for ages, hanging in the current. We then did Castle Rock with almost no current and Crystal Rock with variable currents. They were both great dives with trevally, sharks and dog tooth tuna, as well as the usual suspects on the reef.
Day five we did Siaba Kecil again. Jhogant reckoned the current was even faster than the first time, but we must have got a bit use to it, because while it felt very fast to the rest of us, it did not have the heart pumping as seriously as that first dive on day 2. We also did Batu Bolong again, which was great for the first 40 minutes and then lots of other boats turned up and their were divers raining down on us. For the afternoon dive we did Turtle Point, which was a simple little dive where we saw the first barracuda of the trip. We then did a trip to see the Komodo dragons. We saw both of them. It was pretty underwhelming.
On the morning of our final day, we did one dive at Pengah. This was a very simple site, with mild current but it exceeded my expectations and was a really nice dive, poking around for nudis. On the safety stop three or four eagles rays flew past at a leisurely pace.
We then headed back to Labuan Bajo.
Loved the boat, food was simple but great and plentiful. Crew were nice. Guide was good. The new managers were still getting things back under control, to the point that I had to tell them that I had not yet paid the balance of the trip, what I had to pay and what deposit I had already paid! But they gave the impression that they would get it all under control quickly, they seemed to have plenty of experience running dive shops in other places, and were nice people, so I would go back and dive with them again. And I love that little boat.
I was unsure how I would go with the big current sites, (middle aged diver with less than 400 dives and little current experience) but I managed and if you follow the dive briefings and the in water directions of the guides I think you will keep out of trouble.
I overnighted at the Bingtang Flores, outside of Labuan Bajo, which is a ‘proper’ resort hotel and enjoyed a soak in the pool and a nice meal in the restaurant.
The next day (Sunday 21st) I flew out to Denpasar after breakfast.
That afternoon I did my first dive (just me and a guide) at Blue Lagoon where we saw ornate ghost pipefish, Harlequin Shrimp, Orangutan crabs, Devil Scorpion Fish, sea horse and Gunard lionfish. I was so regretting that I only had the Gopro 12 and not my trusty old TG-4!
On Monday 23rd I joined a couple of ‘senior’ dive buddies (fellow Australians, but in their 70’s) for a triple dive at Gili Biaha, Gili Mimpang and Gili Tepekong. I discovered that one of them is a part owner of Absolute Scuba and the pair of them were fun dive and dinner companions. We were really hoping for Mola Mola, but the water was quite warn and it was not to be.
On Tue 24th I had hoped to go down to Crystal Bay, but they didn’t have other divers to do it, so I went up to Tulamben (just me and a guide) and dived the wall and the wreck for the first time in nine years. The wreck looked more wrecked to me, but it was a fun day. That night I did a great night dive back at Blue Lagoon with all sorts of critters, including big crabs and a spanish dancer.
Finally Wed 25th I hit Gili Mimpang and Gili Tepkong again in the morning (still no Molas) and then White Sands in the afternoon, which was another great critter dive.
Thursday night I was on the Garuda red eye flying back to Sydney. I left Padang Bai after lunch and had booked a day room at the airport Novotel for 6 hours so I could have a nap and a shower before strolling through the magic door connecting the hotel to the departures area.
All in all, it was a fantastic trip and I would happily go on the Busy Girl again and use Absolute Scuba again (but with both Gopro AND TG-4).
Komodo
I had originally booked for five nights on the Busy Girl liveaboard, which was originally operating under the 'Current Junkies' brand, although my deposit was paid to Scuba Republic. I originally picked this boat for two reasons; 1) maximum of four guests and 2) to learn to dive in strong current, which was the Current Junkies specialty. Nowadays the Busy Girl just appears on the Scuba Republic website, and they are explicit that they will no longer always be chasing the biggest current. The very well regarded expat dive guide who everyone used to rave about on the Busy Girl is no longer there.I got in contact with Scuba Republic late in 2022 to book this trip (reminding them that they still had my deposit). The rebooking appeared to go smoothly. They require a minimum of two people to guarantee departure. I was so determined that I would be going that I told them that if they didn’t have a second person, I would pay double.
I then made arrangements to dive in Padang Bai afterwards, booked flights etc.
I emailed my original contact at Scuba Republic a few weeks out from the trip find out arrangements for paying the balance and asking a couple of extra questions. The response was that they had overlooked my booking in company re-organisation, and they had fully booked the boat without me! They were proposing to have me do some day dives and then put me on their bigger boat, but this would have required me to rearrange my flight back from Labuan Bajo to Denpasar and my time in Padang Bai. My response was blunt. I made it clear that you don’t bump the buy who booked first, and many months before anybody else. The issue got punted to the new management in Labuan Bajo, who apologised profusely and assured me that I would be on the boat, as planned. I presume somebody else got inconvenienced, but in the end, there were three of us on the Busy Girl.
I flew Garuda from Sydney to Denpasar on Friday, Oct 13 and spent the next day chilling in Sanur.
Sunday, Oct 15th I took a Batik Air flight to Labuan Bajo after breakfast. Batik says 20kg checked luggage limit. I had 25kg and nobody blinked. They also did not weigh carry-on. The flight was uneventful and Scuba Republic picked me up at Labuan Bajo airport and deposited me at my hotel, the Blue Ocean Hotel. It was cheap and simple, but centrally located and with decent wifi. The only issue was many very steep stairs, with a heavy bag of dive and personal gear! It was fine for a night. I wandered up the street and found Scuba Republic and established that I should be there at 11am the next morning for departure (all the correspondence up to this point had suggested 8.30am).
Monday morning, they picked me up at 10.55am and I met the other guests, a young couple from Hawaii. He was a dive instructor with over 12,000 dives. She was a relatively new diver, but had was very comfortable in the water. They both worked on tourist boats in Hawaii, were friendly, full of stories and excellent companions for the next six days. We also met out local dive guide / trip director Jhogant (Joe), who did a great job of looking after us both above and below the water.
Then we headed off to the boat. The Busy Girl is small; just two cabins. Apparently, she was built in 1946 and was a fishing boat in Australia. She was refitted as a dive boat in 2011. She was full of character, if occasionally showing signs of her age. Cold water showers (and we were asked to only have one proper shower a day) but air con in the cabins. The generator did not run all day, but it ran at night for the aircon and they would put it on whenever one of us asked for charging etc. I thought she was an awesome boat, and we got to giant stride straight off the side of her. Apart from Joe, there was a crew of 4, who spoke very little English, but were all friendly and helpful. The cook, Andi was great.
That first day, we did two dives, the checkout dive at Sebayur Kecil and then a second at Siaba Besar; simple, shallow, pleasant dives in coral gardens. Turtles, cuttlefish, mantis shrimp, nudies.
Second day we dropped into the water at Siaba Kecil at 7am into the most serious current I have ever dived in, by some order of magnitude. We flew along and my heart was racing and I was very grateful to be diving a 15L tank, which emptied quite rapidly over the first 14 minutes, until we ended up in a nice coral garden and the adrenalin was able to dissipate.
Second and third dive we did Tatawa Kecil and Mawan, where we saw mantas. One of them had a huge hook embedded in it, trailing a line that was wrapped around a coral head trapping the poor creature. Jhogant got in and managed to remove it and was hence crowned ‘Saviour of the Mantas’.
Day three we did the first dive at Tatawa Besar, which was big current again and then did the amazing Batu Bolong, where every fish in the ocean was hanging out. In the afternoon we went looking for mantas again at Makasar Reef, without success.
Day four we continued the tradition of starting the day with ripping current and did Cauldron/Shotgun. There were mantas in the Shotgun so we used reef hooks (my first time) and watched them for ages, hanging in the current. We then did Castle Rock with almost no current and Crystal Rock with variable currents. They were both great dives with trevally, sharks and dog tooth tuna, as well as the usual suspects on the reef.
Day five we did Siaba Kecil again. Jhogant reckoned the current was even faster than the first time, but we must have got a bit use to it, because while it felt very fast to the rest of us, it did not have the heart pumping as seriously as that first dive on day 2. We also did Batu Bolong again, which was great for the first 40 minutes and then lots of other boats turned up and their were divers raining down on us. For the afternoon dive we did Turtle Point, which was a simple little dive where we saw the first barracuda of the trip. We then did a trip to see the Komodo dragons. We saw both of them. It was pretty underwhelming.
On the morning of our final day, we did one dive at Pengah. This was a very simple site, with mild current but it exceeded my expectations and was a really nice dive, poking around for nudis. On the safety stop three or four eagles rays flew past at a leisurely pace.
We then headed back to Labuan Bajo.
Loved the boat, food was simple but great and plentiful. Crew were nice. Guide was good. The new managers were still getting things back under control, to the point that I had to tell them that I had not yet paid the balance of the trip, what I had to pay and what deposit I had already paid! But they gave the impression that they would get it all under control quickly, they seemed to have plenty of experience running dive shops in other places, and were nice people, so I would go back and dive with them again. And I love that little boat.
I was unsure how I would go with the big current sites, (middle aged diver with less than 400 dives and little current experience) but I managed and if you follow the dive briefings and the in water directions of the guides I think you will keep out of trouble.
I overnighted at the Bingtang Flores, outside of Labuan Bajo, which is a ‘proper’ resort hotel and enjoyed a soak in the pool and a nice meal in the restaurant.
The next day (Sunday 21st) I flew out to Denpasar after breakfast.
Padang Bai
I had originally emailed four different dive shops in Padang Bai with a bunch of questions. One of them didn’t get back to me. Two of them replied, but didn’t actually answer most of my questions. One of them replied quickly and answered all my questions very helpfully. That is how I ended up staying and diving with Absolute Scuba. All the advance communication was very smooth until I tried to reconfirm my airport pickup time, when I got radio silence. Eventually I discovered that this was because there had been a change in management in the last few days! But I was picked up without drama and whisked up to Padang Bai in air conditioned comfort.That afternoon I did my first dive (just me and a guide) at Blue Lagoon where we saw ornate ghost pipefish, Harlequin Shrimp, Orangutan crabs, Devil Scorpion Fish, sea horse and Gunard lionfish. I was so regretting that I only had the Gopro 12 and not my trusty old TG-4!
On Monday 23rd I joined a couple of ‘senior’ dive buddies (fellow Australians, but in their 70’s) for a triple dive at Gili Biaha, Gili Mimpang and Gili Tepekong. I discovered that one of them is a part owner of Absolute Scuba and the pair of them were fun dive and dinner companions. We were really hoping for Mola Mola, but the water was quite warn and it was not to be.
On Tue 24th I had hoped to go down to Crystal Bay, but they didn’t have other divers to do it, so I went up to Tulamben (just me and a guide) and dived the wall and the wreck for the first time in nine years. The wreck looked more wrecked to me, but it was a fun day. That night I did a great night dive back at Blue Lagoon with all sorts of critters, including big crabs and a spanish dancer.
Finally Wed 25th I hit Gili Mimpang and Gili Tepkong again in the morning (still no Molas) and then White Sands in the afternoon, which was another great critter dive.
Thursday night I was on the Garuda red eye flying back to Sydney. I left Padang Bai after lunch and had booked a day room at the airport Novotel for 6 hours so I could have a nap and a shower before strolling through the magic door connecting the hotel to the departures area.
All in all, it was a fantastic trip and I would happily go on the Busy Girl again and use Absolute Scuba again (but with both Gopro AND TG-4).
