Wakatobi Wannabe

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Moved from Introductions & Greets forum.
 
FrançoisD:
I would have to admit that I am a Wakatobi wanna be too. You 2 guys, Joe and IKE never got my Email???


François


I got your correct email address from your wife.....the one you gave me was wrong.
I found it tonight and am sending it to Ike. How did your pictures come out? I had some good ones, lots of so so ones.
I send you a real email soon.
BTW...glad to see you on the board.

Joe
 
ikepharm:
Hi,
New to Scubaboard, please pardon the gaffs. I'm heading for Wakatobe in Sept. and have read a bunch of pro's and cons. What is the skinny? Have done Komodo Dancer a couple of times and the cost factors are about the same. Pelagics are not a big issue but Vis and Bio-Diversity is. Will I be disappointed? Any tips on especially good sites to aim for. Can I get my 50 Dives in on an 11 day trip? Even with a stay over in Denpasaar it seems easier to get to than Kavieng.
I am also considering "Golden Dawn " next year in Eastern Fields. I would appreciate a bit of input.

Thanks

As it happens, there's been quite an intense discussion of the pros and cons of Wakatobi recently. Check this page: http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=97356
 
I spent 10 days at Wakatobi for $2860.00USD and Lorenz was hosting a pair of special guests (Swiss and German doctors) which meant 11 divers were assigned to one dive guide for ALL days of diving. Since 9 of the 11 in our group were not photographers they strictly told us that we had to wait (forming a queue) until each of the 9 had seen the objects before we could photograph them. This wasn't so bad on the first dive of each day as they take you out to the large wall on the fringing reef and we could drift apart from the DM.
Note - DO NOT MISS THIS dive, it is the best during the day.

Oddly enough this walled area and the Wakatobi house reef are vacant of fish and sharks which should be numerous in this habitat.

I just returned from KBR ($1450.00 for 10 days) where we never had a dive group larger than 3 guests for each dive guide. The guides were attentive and identified creatures very difficult to see. They made sure EACH photographer got the shot they wanted (difficult tasks with small stuff like crinoid shrimp, soft coral crabs, etc) and even serviced requests for critters to find for photography.

Wakatobi refuses to use local dive masters and has a high turnover of staff.
Then again, several others on this board have had wonderful trips at Wakatobi but mine was dissappointing. I've been to Indonesia on 5 dive trips and Wakatobi was the worst.

See my other posts regarding the poor air quality, and further complaints about how Wakatobi's marketing machine did not accurately portray their operation.
 

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