Where to go? Raja Ampat, Komodo, Sipadan, ???

[jeremyl]

After a 2wk Bunaken/Lembeh trip last fall the waters of Indonesia are calling me back. But to where? I am coming from Western US, so travel is a pain - so I plan on a good 3wks of diving. Dont want to rush around much either, so for now limiting to two destinations. My thoughts so far are center around the following areas:

Raja Ampat, Sipadan, Komodo, Alor.

This trip will be somewhere between this Sept - Dec... I am pretty flexible on this.

I have ~100 dives and not a lot of high current stuff (never used a reef hook - dove ~4Knts in Cozumel.) so some places of these scare me a tad, but I am 35 and fit, and people do this every day, so I figure I am being paranoid and should not let this affect my decisions.

All of this is expensive - so for now I am not having cost as a primary concern... but as this will be a long trip cost is going to come into play.

I will (probably) be a single traveller. I have no qualms about sharing a room with a random person though, and I think most LOB's will match you up with someone so you dont pay single-penatlies... and I imagine some resorts will do so as well (or fees are low)...

So - to get to the point... where to go? And LOB or Land based? RA really intrigues me as far as the "sheer volume of fish and coral" goes. I love the little stuff, but I also love soft colorful coral and schools of fish. I would choose critter hunting over pristine fields of soft coral over possible encounters with big guys, but I love it all.

The same things that draw me to RA make me want to check out Sipadan, which from what I can tell can be done much cheaper.

A few specific questions:

1) Is there an easy way (travel wise) to do Sipadan on the same trip as RA?

2) Can anyone summarize the pluses/minus's of the various (main) Land based RA resorts?

3) Do the various RA LOB's generally dive the same areas?

I dont want to get into specific decisions on which boats/resorts to do until I figure out where to go. For RA the Land v/s LOB decision is hard as they are both spendy but some of the land resorts look DAMN nice. I would expect to do ~11 day LOB, which is a fair amount of time on a boat (only LOB experience is 1wk on Turks & Caicos Agg.)... but I dont expect to have any issues with this.


For Komodo I would def to a LOB, and then thinking of staying down in Alor for a week since it seems to be popping up on a bunch of "must do" lists.

I am certainly open to other ideas, but I want to get the best out of this trip as it is going to be a pretty hefty time/travel/money commitment.

Thanks!
J

 

[gee13]

To answer your first question, there is no flight out from Tawau direct, the airport in Sabah en route to Sipadan. Tawau only goes via KK, Sandakan and KL. You would have to catch a flight from Tawau-KL, KL-Jakarta, Jakarta-Sorong.

 

[Wisnu]

there's direct flight from KK to Jakarta by AA 3x/week - less than USD 50 oneway.

 

[ncchuck]

I would definately go to RA. I've been diving for almost 20 years and have been many many places but RA is by far the best. I'd also highly recommend a livaboard just because of the number of dives and the wide variety of dive locations.
When we went to RA we stopped in Manado (you'll probably go through there anyway) and did a few days at Lembeh. If I were doing the trip again, I'd do the exact same thing - 4 or 5 days in Lembeh and then 11 days on a liveaboard.

 

[jeremyl]

Is Sept-Dec a good time for Sipadan (Mabul/etc)? How many days to spend there? Seems most trips are on the shorter side (5-6 days) (In comparison I could easily spend 2wks in Lembeh). Seems pretty round-about if I were to combine this with RA (Sing -> Manado -> Sorong -> DIVE -> Jakarta -> KK -> Tawau -> DIVE -> KK -> Sing). But I dont know how much easier its going to be for some other itinerary. So maybe I should as this:

Given I would get to either Singapore or Jakarta with FF Miles, and I were to do ~11 day LOB in RA, where should I go for another ~11 days of diving (factoring in the season).

I could easily be happy spending the time with the boyz at NAD, but I would also like to check out a different part of the region.

 

[highdesert]

Regarding Komodo and Alor ...

We were going to do both Komodo and Alor on the same trip in October, but I've been told by several people involved in air travel there that it is very impractical to travel between the two destinations. They suggest two separate round trips from Bali to do both sites. Lots of duplication of travel ($$$) plus extra no-dive time in order to fly. You could fly Sorong>Manado or Makassar>Denpasar>Labuan Bajo and dive Komodo after your RA trip.

 

[ScubaduoAdventures]

So many great decisions to have to make:_) We have been lucky enough to have been diving to all three areas and we can say that they all are deserving of there claims to fame and all have something different to offer. If we were to rate them though we would have to say Raja 1. followed by a very close Komodo 2. and then Sipidan and though Sipidan has a lot to offer and as you have stated can be a little easier on the pocket book we think that farther south into Indonesia Borneo around the area of Derawan and Sangalaki Islands is also better than sipidan for its diversity ( really do not believe more people on this forum do not bring this area up as it is truly one of the great dive areas of the world for diving with both pelagics, large schools of fish, incredible muck diving and a non-stinging jelly fish lake that rivals Palau)
We strongly suggest you go for Raja and try to take a 12 day liveabord that heads even farther east into what is called Trident Bay which a lot of people think is even better than Raja. this would actually be the only reason we would not say to dive with either Sorrido or Kri-Eco resort as they are very nice and Max the owner and his guides are great showing you the local diving around Raja Ampat ( be aware that Kri is quite basic though comfortable compared to the liveaboards and Sorrido)
Since you mentioned how much you like Critter diving you should consider diving before or after with Maluku Divers which is the new critter mecca and lines up easily with trips out to dive Raja, Here is a link.
Ambon Dive Resort
And even after all this you still maybe be able to squeeze a seven day liveaboard from Bali to dive Komodo if you want, there is some value priced liveaboards that are quite nice though be aware that the currents are quite strong (cozumel is nothing compared to Komodo and Raja Ampat when it comes to current ), but you sound like you already have a lot of dive experince and most of the guides are really good at briefing you how to dive there, just relax and have fun.
One last thing do not try to dive Raja Ampat less than 10 days as it is a ways to travel and is far to good of diving to deserve less!!

 

[highdesert]

My own personal opinion expressed below ... YMMV

We did a liveaboard to Misool and Triton Bay (sorry, not Trident Bay) in late November 2008. It is an 800 mile voyage from Sorong to Triton Bay and return. There were eight of us, four of whom had extensive experience in Indonesia. All eight of us were disappointed in both the amount of marine life and absolutely soupy visibility there. We left after one day on the request of the divers to the captain. Again, you may have a different experience, but I personally would not recommend it.

PS - Misool was great diving ... my comments above are only about Triton Bay.

 

[dh]

Hey Jeremy,

We spent a week at Misool Eco resort in RA in February this year and it was fantastic.

Based on my research before and since our trip I don't think you can go wrong on any of the areas you are considering but I can certainly recommend the Misool property, operation and diving.

...and November is supposed to be excellent.


I posted a brief report on our trip on this board a while back if interested.

It is under the heading:

misool eco resort raja ampat - so good