Indonesia’s Lembeh Strait is renown for its amazing marine life, with a welter of rare and unusual underwater creatures on its black sand dive sites. It’s also remarkably scenic above land and easily affordable – there’s no reason not to go!

Two things you always hear about Lembeh Strait, located at the northern tip of Sulawesi in Indonesia – 1) it’s got an abundance of weird and wonderful critters underwater that make it a macro diving paradise, and 2) its black volcanic sand makes for easier creature spotting but fairly ugly aquatic scenery. 

What isn’t apparent from this often repeated shorthand summary is that Lembeh Strait itself is really quite beautiful, with tall, verdant mountains rising either side of the water giving a protected feel with their cloud catching peaks. Surrounded on all sides by the dense green foliage of the hills and the blue of the sun and sky, it’s an idyllic spot complete with white sand beaches. Not even the presence of the deep water port at Bitung further down the Strait can spoil the sense of scenery.  The various dive resorts located at Lembeh – 9 in all, I think – are not cheek by jowl along one stretch of beach, either – each inhabits its own secluded bay along the craggy coastline, and even those next door to one another seem in a world of their own.  In short, Lembeh is very easy on the eyes above the surface.

A Lot Of Different Dive Sites
The Strait’s 12 km length provides nearly 50 dive sites, and while black volcanic sand is certainly what you’ll see on the majority of dives in the area, there are plenty of white and grey sand sites too, some with big pinnacles covered in soft and hard corals, rather than just the black sand slopes which have become an icon of Lembeh. These coral sites have plenty of the usual tropical fish suspects, from sweetlips to angelfish to the omipresent clownfish.  By crisscrossing back and forth from dive sites along the Sulawesi mainland and those scattered  along Lembeh island itself, there is a good variety of dive environments which helps keep the black sand monotony at bay. To be sure, there are quintessential muck diving sites, trash-strewn with flat black sand, but they only make up a small part of Lembeh’s big choice of dives.

More Critters Than You Can Fit On Your Memory Card
What could never be called monotonous is the sheer variety of underwater creatures that call Lembeh home. It’s quite easy to reel off a wishlist of seemingly preposterous demands to the dive guides for impossibly exotic creatures you want to see – mimic octopus, hairy frogfish, blue ribbon eel, ornate ghostpipefish, pgymy seahorse, clown frogfish etc etc – and within a couple of days have seen all of them plus several species you didn’t even know existed. It’s a marine biologist’s wet dream, a living, breathing education in just how incredibly inventive evolution can be.  Every dive is a constant demand on your attention, because as soon as your eagle eyed guides have found you one creature, they’ll already be banging their tank to show you another. If you take photos, bring very big memory cards. My hapless dive buddy spent a lot of time reviewing and deleting due to the lack of an extra card.

Lembeh Really Does Live Up To The Hype
You can find hundreds of trip reports and articles about Lembeh’s marine life online already, so I won’t rehash it here, except to say that it is pretty much all true. Diving in Lembeh really is as good as everyone says it is – if you are fond of seeing small and unusual creatures, you are going to be in hog heaven. Indeed, it might make future diving a bit disappointing because few other places can match the sheer abundance of what you can find here.

Here is a rundown of some of the photos I took over my 5 days at NAD Lembeh resort – these are just a handful of the critters I saw and of which I managed to get a half decent photo: 

 
Ornate ghost pipefish

Leaf Fish

Nudibranch closeup

Nudi

Nudi with egg ribbon

Nudi closeup     

Well disguised demon stinger

Small lionfish

Ghostpipefish mimicing its surroundings

Banggai cardinalfish

Chunky frogfish

Blue ribbon eel

Spearing mantis shrimp

Nudi 

Very small cuttlefish

Octopus hiding inside a shell

Ornate ghostpipefish

Clown frogfish!     

Lembeh NAD resort 

NAD Lembeh Resort – A Quick Overview
I stayed at NAD Lembeh resort, which is located centrally in the middle of the strait. NAD has been in operation for around 18 months as of August 2008 and is currently managed by Sandra and Joe, a Spanish couple who have built up the resort’s infrastructure and reputation. It’s an excellent budget resort, providing all-inclusive packages for accommodation, diving and food. I paid $US 503 for 5 nights air con accommodation, 11 dives and 3 meals a day, plus 24 hour coffee, tea and water.

Accommodation
There is currently room for 25 guests – when I was there in mid August, there was a brief lull with only around 7 guests, but from September through to Christmas it was booked solid.  There are air con and fan room options – the majority of rooms are arranged in a crescent terrace around a picturesque garden and built of concrete with wooden ceilings, well shaded from the day’s heat. There is a powerful, gas-heated hot shower and toilet in each room, with tiled floors and basic but comfortable bedding and cover sheet.  There are 2 or 3 well constructed wooden bungalows available too which are located a little further up the steep slope of the mountain for privacy. There is no real beach to speak of, but the garden provides a nice sunbathing area with a couple of loungers.

Food
Food is served up buffet style in the pleasant dining and relaxing area, which has sofas as well as table and chairs.  There is a impressive mix of tasty Western and Indonesian dishes, with lots of veggies as well to offset the meat and fish dishes.  Fresh fruit is the default dessert.  You are very unlikely to go hungry or find nothing to your taste.

Both the accommodation and the food at NAD are excellent examples of budget diving done well –  a lot of thought that has gone into how to provide the most pleasant environment to the guest without breaking the bank. By adding together a comfy bed, hot shower and good food NAD have provided exactly what most people need to be comfortable. 

Dive Setup

This is particularly apparent on the dive boats — guests barely have to do anything for themselves besides fall in the water.  Dive gear is set up by the boat boys who are always on hand to help with fins and cameras, while the dive guides provide short and sharp briefings that belie how attentive they are to their charges underwater. We had one dive guide to two divers during our stay, which was fantastic, although if the resort is full I guess this would be nearer to 4 divers per guide. Water, coffee and tea is served inbetween dives along with Indonesian cookies – every day is a new sweet surprise.  The dive boats themselves are spacious wooden affairs with a partial cabin to protect guests from rain and wind and with space to sunbathe too.

For those with big camera rigs, there is a rinse tank on each boat and the boat boys are adept at handling camera gear with care and placing it directly in the rinse tank after each dive.

(Full disclosure: I was a paying guest at NAD Lembeh rather than on a journalist trip).

How Long Do Should You Spend At Lembeh?
The five days I spent at NAD Lembeh were hard to fault – it’s an operation that runs very smoothly. (Our last night was incredibly noisy due to celebrating Indonesian Independence Day, but even that closed down by midnight). There were a couple of Austrians who were at NAD for two weeks, and I envied them their length of time to explore the area – there is certainly enough in Lembeh to repay such attention. There is also the Bunaken national park nearby, an hour or so away by boat — every Lembeh resort can organise transferring you to Bunaken if you want big wall dives. Bangka, located inbetween Lembeh and Bunaken, has also become a personal favourite of mine after a liveaboard there on the Ocean Rover – in short, you could spend a lot of time here and not get bored.

How To Get To Lembeh Strait
Lembeh is relatively easy to get to, thanks to flights into Manado city from Singapore with Silk Air and from Jakarta with Garuda. It’s a 90 minute transfer from Manado airport to any Lembeh resort, with a hour car ride and then a boat trip from the Sulawesi mainland to your resort. Manado is also the jumping off point to explore Bunaken marine park, Bangka and take liveaboards to the Sangihe archipelago. You can compare Manado flight schedules and prices at Kayak – the airport code for Manado is MDC and for Singapore SIN

Other Lembeh Resorts
There are several other resorts in Lembeh catering to a wide range of budgets. If you google these or search on Scubaboard.com you can find quite a few trip reports of the different resorts.

• KBR (Kungkungan Bay Resort)
• Kasawari
• Lembeh Divers
• Eco Divers
• NAD
• Bastianos
• Two Fish
• Froggies

Sunset view from NAD Lembeh resort

Palau Weh is a tiny island at the tip of Acer in Indonesia. It’s not easy to get there but it’s renown as a spectacular dive spot that survived the tsunami and continued to flourish. Ayesha Cantrell describes her experience of this hidden gem

My unrequited love affair with the small Indonesian island of Pulah Weh started many, many years ago when I first hoisted a backpack to my shoulders. Come hell or high water it was the one place on my planned trip that was not to be missed. Unfortunately that’s exactly what happened on that and my subsequent attempt to visit. My first attempt was a not long after Sept 11th when the ensuing conflict made it unsafe to travel across the war torn and troubled province of Aceh to Pulah Weh.

My second attempt was planned for January 2005 – just after the tsunami hit on December 26th 2004. Pulah Weh was only miles from the epicentre and the area was devastated. Aceh Province has always suffered more than its share of trouble and as I watched from afar my desire to visit grew. Over the years I’d jealously listened to many people talk about their experiences on this hidden gem and every story re-enforced my initial research ; a little known diving paradise where you are as likely to see a sun fish or megamouth shark as you are whale shark or manta ray, unpredictably magnificent, unspoilt and to many beyond description.

Cat Fish

Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Pulah Weh isn’t easy to get to and that fact alone will probably keep it a secret delight for years to come. The closest airport to the island is in Banda Aceh where a short taxi ride will take you to the ferry terminal but with only two ferries a day you’ll be in for a long wait or an overnight stay depending on your luck. You can fly direct to Banda Aceh from Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and now possibly Penang which will all probably involve a couple of flights. Check with the dive centre for the latest transport updates and tips.

Medan, the Capital of Sumatra, is your gateway to Aceh, you can fly there from most places in Asia. Come from Europe and you will have to fly into Asia before connecting to Medan and then to Aceh. I flew from Penang in Malaysia to Medan to Aceh and caught the afternoon ferry to Pulah Weh and managed it all in one long day. Visas can be applied for before your trip but a visa on arrival is possible but only with Indonesian currency. If you arrive without, like we did, you will be promptly escorted to a cash machine !

Cuttlefish

Isle Be Quiet
There’s very little evidence of the havoc caused by the tsunami. An inconspicuous blue line marked high on the dive centre wall quietly affirms the height to which the water rose. If you know what you are looking for you can see signs of water damage to the land and some houses still stand derelict but life has certainly carried on. The island itself is basic and quiet, heavily wooded and hilly. There are no reliable banks on the island so a careful eye on the cash flow is required. Being Muslim, there’s no alcohol either so you are in for a relaxing, detoxifying dive vacation. Now there’s something you don’t hear every day! Food is local, simple and tasty. On the beach you have your choice of basic local food, lovely barbecued chicken and, by request, freshly caught fish. There is a small pizzeria for those craving a bit of western nosh and Mama Doughnut will be by everyday to satisfy your sweet tooth.

Leaf Fish

Where To Stay
This is not a busy tourist spot and is very much a local place, only two beach areas offer accommodation in any number and the choice is fairly limited. Lumba Lumba is the place to dive, a small dive centre direct on Gapang beach with a sleepy relaxed air to it. There are a number of beach huts and wooden bungalows for you to choose from. They are basic, power frequently fails and the bathrooms are standard Indonesian cold water troughs and buckets. Ton and Marianne, Lumba Lumbas long standing owners, do have a number of bungalows directly behind the dive centre and these are by far the nicest. Whatever you choose, Ton and Marianne will help you with arrangements.

Octopus

It is advisable to contact them and book in advance as weekends can be busy with NGOs from the mainland. The dive centre do take credit cards, when the phone line works, and for some accommodation, they are happy to take your credit card payment and pay the accommodation on your behalf. This will certainly help your cash go further but do check this in advance. Another small beach is a half hour walk from Gapang and makes a nice change one evening. More bungalows are available here and Lumba Lumba will collect you on the way to the dive site – this does involve you swimming from the shore though!

Eel

The Dive Centre
The dive centre itself is small, without nitrox, but otherwise fully equipped. It’s a great place to hang out between dives with a large comfortable deck, lots of reading material, cold drinks and the all important hammock! Internet is sporadically available but make yourself comfortable and dont try anything too taxing. The dive centre operates like a home for all divers with long stayers often using the kitchen to cook meals for everyone some evenings, its a real family atmosphere.

The divemaster staff are very experienced local guides, great fun and good spotters. The team includes just a couple of instructors and a number of divemaster trainees who have been wise enough to choose paradise in which to do their training. Boats go out twice a day for single dives where your maximum dive time is one hour and sites are no more than 30 mins from the shore. Shore diving is accessible to you at any time. The boats are very simple local wooden boats with slatted benches, your gear is tightly packed in with you leaving little room but once you are in the water any discomfort will be long forgotten.

Friendly Pufferfish

The Diving
After travelling all day I was too tired to dive so my buddy and I went snorkelling from the shore instead. I’m not one to snorkel for long but I found I couldn’t leave the water. It was exactly like I had been told. Shrimp fish bobbing around, sea snakes, so many different types of butterfly fish and trigger fish – a true myriad of colour. I couldn’t wait to dive.

The diving is erratic and can be turbulent with strong currents. To give you an idea one of the dive sites is called Arus Balee which roughly translates to ‘bastard current’! It was a mass of moving colour, streams of fusiliers and endless life – I was dizzy. Batty Tokong, (“don’t stay too long”), was one of my favourite dive sites with so much to see, more species of moray eels per square foot that was truly fair. It’s nudibranch heaven too, the eagle eyed will spot so many colourful critters. On one particular dive we were really dodging the current, even the fish were hiding in our slipstream, but the dive masters expertly guided the dive in sync with the current.

Wilco and scorpion fish at Sabang Wreck

The Canyon too was an amazing dive, I saw a monster tunafish, fatter than me ! The site is as grand as the name infers and only two days before our arrival, a sunfish had accompanied a cold water belt into the site. The shore dive is a great relaxed dive with ghost pipe fish, friendly puffers, demonstrative cuttlefish and plenty of colourful distraction swimming around you. Scorpion fish hide beside rocks where you will find octopus pulsing and shying away. I even saw a crocodile fish as big as my little finger nail. The place is literally teaming with life.

Telegraph of the Sophie Rickmers

As a wreckaholic, the Sophie Rickmers was high on my list of places to visit. She sits upright and was scuttled at anchor by her crew after she fell into enemy hands. She’s deep, the deck runs 42-50m, and 134 m long, the props are gone but amazingly the telegraph still lies on the deck. Due to the depth,the dive crew are very particular about dive practices. Only the experienced with deep dives logged can go and then only after a number of preceding dives and a deep dive check. If you like wrecks, she’s well worth a visit. Another, less challenging wreck, lies shallow in Sabang harbour. A small wreck but with quite some life and the ever present scorpion fish. A chance to dive hot bubbling springs is also offered if you can get past the stink of the sulphur.We saw white tip sharks, tons of jack fish, turtles and were truly surrounded by abundant life on every dive.

Wilco at Sabang Wreck

Seeing The Sites
We stayed 10 days in this beautiful location and could’ve stayed longer, but we were quite happy with the quietness of the environment. Dive sites were repeated in the schedule over this period but, to be honest, the first time you see them you will be that dazzled that a second or third outing to the same site just improves the experience. There are 19 dive sites available but not all within the distance of the normal daily schedule. We were lucky enough to be able to join a full day trip to see the sites further afield. Full day trips will run if enough people want to go and are a good fun day out including 3 dives. We were treated to sharks, turtles, barracuda, napoleon wrasse, humphead parrot fish, lion fish and more.

10 days was a good time to spend here, a week is too short given all the travelling to get there and after 2 weeks you might be running out of cash and maybe want a little more life and a cold beer! The diving was amazing and it you are the type of traveller to take the bumps in your stride then you too will love it here. After waiting to get there it certainly wasn’t an anti climax and offered a truly varied dive experience. I’m biding my time to go back.

Indonesia’s Raja Ampat islands have become one of the most famous places to go diving in all of Asia thanks to the area’s pristine coral reefs and incredible diversity of marine life.

In February 2008 I went on the MSY Seahorse’s 11 day diving liveaboard from Raja Ampat to Triton Bay, exploring the amazing underwater world of western Papua.

Here’s a rundown of what it’s like on the MSY Seahorse, followed by pictures and descriptions of the scuba diving through our liveaboard trip from Raja Ampat to Triton Bay.

Raja Ampat to Triton Bay Liveaboard Update

In 2017 I did the same Raja Ampat to Triton Bay liveaboard trip again – read my trip report to compare it with my first trip 9 years previous, detailed on this page. I wrote separately about diving Triton Bay as there was a lot more to talk about, including the unexpected surprise of the Triton Bay whale sharks! I also did a podcast with Jimmy Thai, co-founder of Triton Bay Divers, about what makes Triton Bay so special.

See also my summary to help you plan your Raja trip – Diving Raja Ampat: A Quick Guide

Other Raja Ampat trip reports on Divehappy:

• Raja Ampat Liveaboard Trip Report December 2019
• Raja Ampat Liveaboard Trip Report May 2018
• Raja Ampat to Banda Islands and Ambon Trip Liveaboard Report February 2016

MSY Seahorse Quick Facts:
The Boat: MSY Seahorse – beautiful wooden hulled Indonesian pinisi-class schooner that’s been well-equipped for diving. Maximum of 16 guests. Big sundeck, large table area for cameras at front of boat, comfortable air conditioned mess area for taking meals. Back deck as well if you want to get away from everyone else for a while.

Departure Schedule and Pricing
Raja Ampat is unsurprisingly incredible popular with liveaboards often sold out months in advance. Compare liveaboards available for trips to Raja Ampat.

Dive Routine: 4 dives a day. Wake Up / Light Breakfast / Dive 1 / Breakfast / Dive 2 / Lunch + siesta / Dive 3 / Snack / Night Dive / Dinner / Bed. Divers split into two groups and are taken to dive sites in small tenders. Backroll entry. Divers buddy up and stick with the guide for critter hunting or do their own thing.

Free Nitrox! Nitrox and air compressors on board

The dive routine is quite relaxed. Divers can stay down as long as they like – 75 minutes is the average bottom time. This tends to make the dive schedule flexible, with some of the last day dives turning into dusk dives.

Departs From: Sorong

Ends In: Kaimana

Price: From $3800 USD for a 11 nights cruise – all food and soft drinks included. Free Nitrox.

Accommodation: Very comfortable wooden cabins with double or twin beds. Air conditioning. Marine toilets. Hot showers. Portholes.

Food: Pretty hearty – lots of red meat and other solid fare. Roast lamb and tiramisu to die for. Vegetarians and those who like their food light might find it hard going. The boat is fully open to dietary requests, so emailing beforehand and specifying exactly what you want

Booze: Beer and wine are available and quite expensive, as they have to be purchased from Sorong, which itself has to fly everything in from mainland Indonesia. Beer is around $3.50 a can and wine $35 a bottle. You are welcome to bring your own.

Crew: Both Alberto and Jesu, the Spanish co-owners of the MSY Seahorse, were on board this trip. Usually it’s just one of them. Both are great guys, very knowledgable, helpful and sociable. Siestas are mandatory and Alberto may share his red wine with you if you’re lucky. CiCi is the boat organiser – she ensures cabins are cleaned, food is served and guests are happy. She speaks fluent English and is the only woman amongst the 15 strong crew. The dive guides Gusti and Adnan are excellent. Gusti is one of the most experienced Indonesian guides in the entire country. The boat boys are also great – they speak a modicum of English but are very anticipatory of divers needs. Boat handling for pickups is expert and the crew are also very careful with handling expensive camera gear. I would trust them to put my camera on the boat without damaging it than I would trust myself, put it that way. (Update: Alberto has now left MSY Seahorse and now owns MSY Damai, another Indonesian liveaboard.)

Laundry: Yes – done for free

Travel arrangements: Seahorse can arrange your Indonesian domestic flights to get to and from Sorong and Kaimana. They charge 10 per cent commission on the flight price to do this. Personally, I think it’s worth it to avoid the huge hassle of booking the tickets yourself. Also, if things go wrong (like getting diverted at 3am due to heavy rain, like we did), Seahorse’s team are there to figure out new flights and arrange hotels. They turned what could have been a pretty miserable situation into something that was handled efficiently and with minimum grief.

Onto the exciting stuff: the diving!

Raja Ampat and Triton Bay Diving: We visited four main areas on the 11 day cruise along western Papua in Indonesia: Raja Ampat’s Kri and Misool islands, Fak Fak and Triton Bay. All of these places are justifiably famous for jawdropping coral reefs and fish life. The Bird’s Head Peninsula of Western Papua (the sticky out bit in which Sorong is located) has been scientifically assessed to have the greatest marine biodiversity in the world. For divers, this means it’s an unparalleled experience in terms of the sheer overwhelming number of marine species you can spot whilst diving. Indeed, scores of new species have been discovered here, some so new they still don’t have names, and some so bizarre you’d think the scientists are making it up, like the walking shark.

While Raja’s remoteness used to mean it was a deeply obscure destination, the word is now out. Hardly a month goes by without a rave review in one of the dive magazines. Despite requiring multiple flights on domestic Indonesian airlines to get there, Raja has seen a big growth in liveaboard and resort operators in the last couple of years. Max Ammer, the former Dutch paratrooper who pioneered Papua Diving‘s Kri resort has now opened the deluxe Sorido Bay resort in the Kri area, while the Misool Eco Resort is due to open later in 2008. UPDATE: Misool Eco Resort successfully opened.

The good news is that despite Raja’s newfound popularity, its big enough and still remote enough to not encounter other divers or even other boats. This is especially true once heading out of Raja Ampat proper down towards Fak Fak and Triton Bay.

Triton Bay is a new area of Papua for diving – the visibility here is generally quite poor (5 to 10 metres) due to the incredibly nutrient-rich water, which means that it has tremendous soft coral growth and lots of schooling fish. One of Triton’s dive sites is named Larry’s Heaven in honour of Indonesian dive pioneer Larry Smith who sadly died in March 2007. Larry made two trips to Triton and proclaimed to be in love with the diving here. High praise from a man who had dived pretty much all of Indonesia.

A Word On The Photos
I’ve included quite a few of my photos below, but I’m not a particularly good photographer. (I’m currently at the “got all the gear but no idea” stage with my DSLR). As such, my pix don’t really do justice to the beauty of the corals. Still, I hope they give a taste of what it’s like. There are some great videos of Misool’s reefs on the Misool Eco Resort website (scroll to the bottom of the page). You can also see a stunning Raja Ampat National Geographic slideshow by legendary underwater photographer David Doubilet. UPDATE: You can also see a fantastic collection of Raja Ampat pix taken by Michael Aw on his website. He was on the MSY Seahorse a couple of weeks after me with some scientists from the Woods Hole Institute and I have to say, his pictures really capture the trip and how I saw it in real life.

Kri and Misool areas of Raja Ampat
Kri and Misool have scores of sloping reefs, walls and plateaus to explore thanks to the clusters of small limestone islands here. Many of Kri’s sites are covered with massive gorgonian fans. Stick with your guide and you might find the tiny pgymy seahorse, which is no bigger than the top of your little finger and merges perfectly into the gorgonian fans they call home.

Misool in particular has, without any hyperbole, stunningly beautiful coral life – every site here seems to boast a lush carpet of soft corals, with sponge corals in particular growing a couple of metres across, alongside equally big table corals. There are hundreds of fish species crowding around these pristine reefs – you’d need a notebook underwater to remember them all. With so much concern about the state of coral reefs worldwide, it makes you feel extremely fortunate to be able to see reefs like Misool’s in such great condition. The Misool Eco Resort is due to open later in 2008 and their engagement with the local community to help protect the waters around Misool will hopefully ensure these reefs remain as pristine as we saw them.

Kri Manta Rays
While the Kri area does not compare to Misool for coral life (few places do), there is a lot more big pelagic action – especially the chance to encounter giant manta rays at Kri’s Manta Point, which is a famous cleaning station. As you can see from these videos, the mantas are not particularly shy – the third video is a manta ray flyby with it passing right over my head (you can tell the bit where I thump into the sand because the camera jolts).

httpv://youtu.be/L5WpIj7PXG0

httpv://youtu.be/JCyUHAbrPJg

httpv://youtu.be/tMCqo5l7m9s

Misool’s Blue Water Mangroves
One of the unique aspects of Misool are the blue water mangroves, where the rainforest meets the reef quite literally. There are corals growing on the mangrove roots and the reef starts almost immediately just below them. Archer fish, with their “spit to kill” policy of hunting prey, also lurk amongst the roots. (See this New Scientist article for an explanation and this YouTube video to see the archer fish in deadly saliva action.

Misool Night Dive
The night diving in Misool was fantastic – our hour long dive seemed to go by in about 5 minutes, there was so much to see. here’s a few of the critters we encountered:

Fak Fak
We eventually left the Raja Ampat area and headed towards Fak Fak, diving at Palau Pisang (or Banana Island). There was some more great dives around here on sloping reefs that had a greater preponderance of hard corals. There was good viz here as well, whereas in Raja it had been quite variable.

Seeing The Walking Shark!
Due to strong currents in the afternoon, we skipped Fak Fak’s usual sites did our third dive as an “exploratory dive” in a sheltered bay. There wasn’t too much of interest down there – although there were some pretty nudibranches – but at the end of the dive Alberto made a fantastic discovery that had us jumping back in the water – within a huge carpet of staghorn coral, Alberto had spotted a walking shark! Admittedly it wasn’t walking, just keeping still in its hole and waiting for the idiot divers to go away. Even so, seeing the epaulette shark, as it’s properly known, was a real thrill and Alberto managed to get this photo – pity he’s an even worse photographer than me. More info on the epaulette shark at Wikipedia.

Giant Nudibranches
We also found these beautiful nudis, some of them 3 to 4 inches long, during our Fak Fak dives

Triton Bay
The dive sites we explored in Triton Bay follow a similar profile – stay shallow around the base of small limestone islands. The visibility tended to be pretty poor (around 5 to 10 metres) although on our last dive it was crystal clear went we went in early in the morning. The viz doesn’t matter – the soft corals are explosively colourful all the same, with flaming reds, purples and oranges everywhere you look, along with a forest of black coral too. There are also scores of fish here, especially schools of glassfish moving in spectacular synchronicity, and also an absolutely whopping great wobbegong shark lazily basking in full view on the sand.

There is also the Triton Bay Treasure Hunt to keep you entertained. One dive site has been named David’s Rock after legendary underwater photographer David Doubilet, who managed to lose a state-of-the-art and extremely expensive underwater camera on the site a couple of years ago. It’s reckoned the camera may well still be intact and waterproof – if only someone could find it…

Triton Bay Night Dive
Unsurprisingly, night diving in Triton Bay is superb, with a cavalcade of critters to be seen. My favourite amongst these was the decorator crab that had completely covered itself in fronds of seaweed. When Gusti, the dive guide, first pointed it out to me I thought it was simply seaweed tumbleweed and wondered what he was so excited about. It was only after watching the crab walk forward, looking like an extra out of the Lord Of The Rings, that I realised what it was. Besides the other, always entertaining hermit crabs and the giant spanish dancer we discovered during our safety stop, I also spotted the biggest parrotfish I have ever seen anywhere, nearly a metre in length. It’s good to know the fish stay around long enough to get this big. Although let’s hope they don’t start getting pushy with it.

Above The Water in Raja Ampat and Triton Bay
Topside, the topography is fairly similar throughout the 600 mile length of the cruise – beautiful limestone islands covered with dense jungle vegetation and tall, thin palm trees along with endless tiny paradise-perfect beaches at their base. Secret lagoons with crystal clear water wait amongst the limestone islands, along with mysterious cave drawings that have been recently exposed by the ocean’s erosion. The cruise at the end of the trip after the last dives are done along the edge of Triton Bay’s deserted coastline is quite magical.

Verdict:
As a way to get a taste of what Indonesian Papua has to offer, this trip is hard to beat. You could spend a week easily in each dive area – Kri, Misool, Fak Fak and Triton Bay – so hoping to cover each of them in depth in 11 days is just not feasible. This trip provides a great orientation to the region and paves the way for doing future trips to Papua, because it’s unlikely that once you’ve been you won’t want to come back. (One American couple on our trip had been to Raja 10 times in two years!). The boat makes a big difference to this kind of cruise experience – it wouldn’t be half as much fun if you were on a shoddily run boat. Thankfully, the MSY Seahorse provides friendly, expert service and a touch of luxury without being over the top. You feel well looked after and also that you have some personal space on the boat too. It’s not cheap, but I considered it good value for money, especially with the free nitrox.

Raja Ampat Diving Guides and Info

For an overview of what to expect when diving Raja Ampat and useful tips on how to get there and what to bring with you, see our Diving Raja Ampat: A Quick Guide and listen to the Divehappy podcast episodes on Raja Ampat. Misool Eco Resort and Triton Bay. For practicalities on getting there, see How To Get To Raja Ampat, Sorong Airport Guide and the Liveaboard Packing List

Raja Ampat Liveaboard Trip Reports

• Raja Ampat Liveaboard Trip Report June 2023
• Raja Ampat Liveaboard Trip Report December 2022
• Raja Ampat Liveaboard Trip Report December 2019
• Raja Ampat to Triton Bay Liveaboard Trip Report February 2017
• Raja Ampat to Banda Islands and Ambon Trip Liveaboard Report February 2016
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• Triton Bay Whale Sharks
• Triton Bay podcast with Triton Bay Divers resort

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Indonesia’s Komodo island is home not only to the famous Komodo Dragon but also some of Asia’s most spectacular diving. Experience the smorgasbord of different dive conditions and incredible underwater life within this still largely unexplored marine park.

[This article first appeared in slightly different form in the June 2007 issue of Scuba Diver AustralAsia magazine. All photos on this page were taken by me using a Canon IXUS 800 – follow the link for my review of the camera]

It’s like diving at the edge of the world. Diving Komodo may no longer be true frontier diving since the first Indonesian dive pioneers began discovering the areas’ amazing dive sites a couple of decades ago, but it certainly feels like an intrepid adventure all the same. For a week on a liveaboard, there’s not another boat and barely another person to be seen — just the stunning blue of the wide open sky and sea, with silent, sun-scorched, red earth islands providing the backdrop to spectacular scuba diving.

Komodo is home of the fearsome Komodo Dragon, the world’s largest lizard which can kill a human with a single bite from its bacteria infested, razor sharp teeth. The Dragons are the nearest thing we have left on the earth to a dinosaur and a still-living throwback to an age seemingly long gone. Komodo’s unique environment has led it to become a UNESCO World Heritage site and to be the heart of the 1817 square kilometre Komodo National Park. (For more about the Komodo Dragons, see my article on Travelhappy).

On the day long voyage from Bali along the mountainous islands of Lombok and Sumbawa, it’s hard not to entertain the fanciful idea that you’re venturing into a real life Jurassic Park, a part of the world still largely unexplored, especially underwater. After all, the Komodo Dragons themselves were first seen by Westerners only at the turn of the 20th century thanks to the remoteness of their home island in the Indonesian archipelago. Who knows what else still lies out there both above and below the water?

There was a fair amount of anticipation about our first dives at the island of Satonda off eastern Sumbawa, just outside the Park’s outer limits. Komodo diving itself tends to veer towards the more subtle delight of small creatures. Manta rays and sharks are known to appear in the environs of the national park, but they are more a bonus than a mainstay of Komodo’s incredibly rich underwater habitat. Highlights of our four dives at Satonda included a mantis shrimp almost as big as my fist, a bandit ornate ghostpipe fish, and — a first for me – the vivid blue and white swirls of a juvenile emperor fish which refused to stay still long enough for a photo as it fluttered around the eponymous Magic Rock. On top of that, there was a mass of coral life clashing and collapsing into one another in explosive colours on these sites – waving feather corals, shag pile rug corals, skyscraper shaped corals and towering minarets — it was all here. I couldn’t quite believe I’d seen all of this on the first day before we’d even got to Komodo’s star attractions.

Another night of cruising brought us to into the Komodo National Park itself, and the island of Gili Banta. Here we had to miss out on diving at one of Komodo’s most famous sites, GPS Point, because the currents due to the recent full moon were simply too strong. Diving Komodo requires schedule flexibility to avoid the infamous Indonesian riptides which will wreck a good dive and should never be taken lightly. We had a mild taste of how powerful Komodo’s currents can be at Pantai Merah, where after dropping onto the reef we were treated to an impromptu drift dive which felt a little like entering hyperspace a la Star Wars. I can’t say I saw much of the reef during that dive, but the exhilaration of speeding across it was just as much fun.

To make up for missing GPS Point, we dived K2 twice. There was a huge contrast between the brown volcanic mountains that make up Gili Banta and the brightness of the already savage early morning sun and the coldness and gloom beneath the water. Like most of the diving close to Komodo, a 5 mm wetsuit was needed for comfort, while the sites further away from Komodo were much warmer. The visibility was down to around 10 metres and the water was slate grey, as if there was a storm overhead. K2 yielded another first for me as I spotted a Demon Stinger, like a cross between a stonefish and a crab, the stuff of your worst nightmares — but thankfully only about eight inches long. I spent a good 10 minutes hovering around this mesmerisingly ugly creature as it impassively made its way along the sand.

Our arrival at Komodo island the following day brought us face to face with the infamous Dragons, also unlikely to win any beauty contests, but hard to stop looking at for their sheer size and distinct air of malevolence. We spent two full days diving around Komodo and Nusa Kode, just off the island of Rinca, where we got to explore Komodo’s other “don’t miss” dive site, Cannibal Rock.

Supposedly named after a Komodo Dragon that was seen devouring one of its own on the shore nearby, Cannibal Rock is a big anemone-covered mount that drops from the surface to around 30 metres. Any misgivings about the poor visibility — around 8 metres – soon disappeared on arriving at the Rock. Frankly I wasn’t quite sure where to look first. Within seconds I’d had one of the biggest frogfish I’d ever seen pointed out to me, wedged in under a rock canopy, its mournful expression perfectly complementing its dour light grey colour. Considered rare in most dive locations, frogfish were so plentiful in Komodo as to become almost commonplace.

Over our two dives here, I found huge nudibranches at every turn, some up to six inches in length and explosive in colour. I couldn’t stop marveling at the size of these nudis, their giant size making it even easier to see their exquisite markings — and, as with the frogfish, they were to be a common sight on many of Komodo’s sites. While staring at one of them, I suddenly realized there was a big thorny cuttlefish nestled into the coral patch just besides the nudibranch, its colours blending perfectly with the background with only the occasional ripple of its skirt to give away its position. However, the main event for many of our dive group was a resplendent pygmy seahorse sitting in a fan coral, around an inch high and just about visible to the human eye but hard work for any but the most macro of camera lens to capture.

One reef that was impossible to miss was Yellow Wall, an absolutely staggering vertical expanse of wall to wall soft corals that is indeed vivid yellow. There’s not a single inch of this craggy drop off that drops below 35 metres that isn’t suffused with vibrant, vivid coral swaying in the current, stretching in every direction as far as the eye can see.

All too quickly it was time for the boat to swing back towards Bali and take in the dramatic diving at the still active volcano of Sangeang. Hot Rocks features great visibility, lustrous reefs and black volcanic sand through which streams of bubbles continually emerge, gassing off from the volcano itself. The dive site’s name comes from a cluster of rocks where you can literally warm your hands against one of the heat vents of the volcano. It is ridiculously pretty diving, a marked contrast to Cannibal Rock, with the volcano slope leading down to pygmy seahorses and white ghostpipe fish at around 30m. The abundance of reef is breath taking – swathes of soft corals with clouds of brightly coloured fish. It’s a picture postcard scene, complete with that saturated colour feel – but this is for real to the naked eye, not a trick of photo magic. The dive concluded with the riveting sight of a black and white banded sea snake shooting up the reef wall from 20 metres to 5 metres in as many seconds, and then breaking straight into the blue and heading for the surface.

Sangeang’s Bonto Reef was another excellent example of Komodo’s superlative night diving. A whole new critter collection appeared after dark – lots of crabs, lobster, cuttlefish, moray eels and a juvenile boxfish hiding in the rocks, as well as several spearing mantis shrimp lurking in their holes. Indeed, Komodo’s night dives got rave reviews from our liveaboard’s group of divers every time they stepped back onto the boat — besides the usual suspects being continually spotted, some gems like an orangutang crab, which really is as hairy as its name, and a conch, slowly moving its beautiful shell with its sucker foot, made for happy dinnertime conversation. The biggest talking point was the Stargazer, a bulbous fish with an almost human looking face that lies half buried in the sand waiting for a meal to pass unsuspectingly overhead before it explodes upwards to catch its prey and then almost instantly reburies itself.

Our final dives were back at Satonda, where spending some time with the jet black and orange tipped form of a juvenile batfish on my final dive provided a suitably spectacular finale. In seven days, I’d experienced a smorgasbord of different diving, from the bubbling warmth of Sangeang to the murky coldness of Cannibal Rock, and thanks to these different diving conditions, I’d got to see a plethora of bizarre and beautiful sea creatures with whom I thought I’d never come face to face. Komodo is one of those trips that stays long in the mind after returning to dry land and, more tantalizingly, a seven day liveaboard felt like it had just touched the surface of what could be seen down there. If ever you feel jaded about diving, go to Komodo — I guarantee it will restore your sense of wonder both above and below the water.

Getting there:
Most Komodo liveaboards depart from Bali, and many offer the option to extend the liveaboard from Komodo back into Bali’s waters. Several liveaboards depart from Labuan Bajo in Flores, which is much nearer to Komodo itself. Bali’s Denpassar airport is served by numerous international carriers including Thai Airways and Singapore Air, while Flores Island is served by domestic flights from Denpassar with Merpati Nusantara Airlines and Pelita Air

Entry/ Visa Requirements:
Most nationalities can get a 30 day visa on arrival at Denpassar Airport. The visa costs $25 US Dollars, which is payable in Rupiah, Dollars or by credit card.

Language:
Bahasa Indonesia is the official language of Indonesia. English is spoken widely, especially on liveaboard boats.

Best time to dive:
Komodo can be dived year round. The rainy season runs from November to March, and the seas can get rough from the beginning of January through to March. The dry season runs from April to October.

Currency:
Indonesian Rupiah. US Dollars and credit cards are widely accepted, although check ahead with your dive operator to ensure you take acceptable payment.

Additional information:
The waters around Komodo can vary quite radically in temperature, with some of the southern sites dropping to 22 degrees. A five millimetre wetsuit is essential for comfortable diving on some Komodo sites.

The Liberty Shipwreck is Bali’s most famous dive site, and there are plenty of other great places along the north eastern coast of Bali too, making it an ideal – and cheap – dive destination.

What is the Liberty Shipwreck?
One of the most famous wreck dive sites in the world, the wreck of the USAT Liberty sits submerged on Tulamben Beach in north east Bali. The wreck has been underwater since 1963, and is now home to a huge amount of fish and coral. The stern is at 6 metres and the bow at 30 metres, and the ship itself is 120 metres long, providing a great playground for divers of all abilities to explore. Just behind Tulamben Beach is Mount Agung volcano, which last erupted in 1963, pushing the Liberty off the beach proper and into the position you can see today. The sand around the Tulamben region is black volcanic sand rather than the usual white stuff.

Is the Liberty the only dive site?
Definitely not! The Tulamben coastline has numerous dive sites, of which the Liberty happens to be the most famous. The Drop Off is a dramatic wall dive that goes down 40 metres plus which leads into Alamanda, another equally good dive site right next door, while the Coral Garden is a shallow site that is packed with exotic marine life like blue ribboned eels, mantis shrimp, cuttlefish and leaf scorpionfish, plus huge great clouds of schooling jacks. For photographers it’s extremely rewarding – there is a lot to snap on each dive. There is definitely enough diving around Tulamben to keep any diver occupied for 4 to 5 days at least. That’s just in the north east of Bali too – there are plenty more dive sites further down the coast as well if you want to move around.

[Cuttlefish Closeup video – Dropoff, Bali]

What are the dive conditions like?
The diving around Tulamben is very easy. The visibility is very good – at least 20 metres, although it can be a bit silty. Currents are generally very mild or non existent. It’s a very good place to learn to dive, especially given you can explore the Liberty as part of your Open Water course.

Most dives are shore dives, walking from the resort across the road, down past the grazing goats and onto the pebble beach and then straight into the water. It’s a bit surreal walking down Tulamben high street in 30 degree heat wearing a wetsuit. Your scuba gear (BCD and tank) is carried down for you by the local porters – usually on their heads! You have to be careful on the beach as it can be a bit slippy on the pebbles in full dive gear.

What’s in Tulamben ?
Tulamben is a very small town with about 10 dive resorts and several restaurants. It’s more a strip of shops either side of the road which runs parallel to the beach. All the resorts offer accommodation as well as diving. Internet is available too, but it’s pretty slow, so don’t expect too much. It’s pretty much an eat/sleep/dive routine, but resorts can organise daytrips to some of Bali’s topside attractions like temples and rice terraces too.

How do I get there?
Tulamben is a three hour drive from Bali’s airport at Denpasar. It’s a fairly interesting journey with twisty roads. Resorts will lay on a free pick up and transfer for you to meet you at the airport. Grab some water at the airport before you get in the car. You can stop somewhere up the coast for a meal too if you’re hungry.

Can you recommend a dive resort?
Definitely. I stayed with Tulamben Wreck Divers, which is owned by a retired Australian couple Tony and Dot Medcraft. They are an easy going couple with years of experience who have a casual but extremely well organised dive operation. Their Balinese dive staff are aces at finding all manner of critters on the dive sites and are good fun to be with and always happy to tailor the diving to your individual preference – even if it’s only one person and the guide doing a dive. I went diving really early on a couple of days – 5.30 am start – and Made, my guide, was reliable, enthusiastic and more awake than me on both occasions.

Their resort has a variety of accommodation for different budgets – I stayed in a Superior Room for $US30 a night with ensuite shower and toilet, double bed, tiled floor, fridge with cold drinks and coffee and tea making facilities plus a safe. It’s clean, basic and comfortable. Diving is around US$50 per day for two dives including all gear and guide, plus porter fees. You can get even better rates for doing several days diving as a package. [I didn’t get a journalist freebie, incidentally – I paid all my own expenses at TWB].

Any other tips?
Most nationalities can get a visa on arrival at Denpasar Airport. It costs USD $25 which you can pay in cash dollars or with Visa / Mastercard. There are a clutch of ATMs that accept Visa/Mastercard in the baggage reclaim area where you can withdraw Indonesian Rupiah for your holiday.

You might also want to check out Diving Bali by Wally Saigan and David Pickel, an excellent, richly illustrated book that delivers an exhaustive and entertaining overview of all of Bali’s dive sites. There are scores of them!