Dive Travel Services -Indonesia 2011 Trip Report

This trip to Indonesia covered a huge amount of territory and offered us many different types of diving…we started in Manado, North Sulawesi, and traveled four hours south by van through coconut plantations and around volcanoes, past winding rivers and through picturesque villages. Buyat Bay is the site of a former gold mining operation which closed a number of years ago. Recently, giant expanses of various species of hard corals were found to exist in the Bay area. Small outcropping-type islands with names like “Poison” and “Antidote” were thought to have kept the commercial fishing boats away from the region, allowing the beautiful corals the ability to grow and proliferate.

Lodging at Buyat Bay is “dive camp” at best! Individual cottages there are clean, air-conditioned and offer ensuite bathrooms but modest by comparison to some of the Lembeh properties. Our hosts for the 3 nights were the critters@Buyat staff who picked us up by dive boat in a nearby harbor and delivered us to Buyat Bay. The dive boat is well-equipped for travel down to the area from Lembeh Resort and offers plenty of luggage storage, a head, comfortable protection from the sun and a top-notch dive staff! Our three days of diving featured pinnacles, reef slopes and mini-walls. Due to the extremely warm water temperature for the previous three months, we did see giant stands of various coral species, but significant coral bleaching was occurring which deterred from the beauty of the hard corals. Soft corals and schools of fish were prolific. Food at Buyat Bay is prepared by a local staff and served family or buffet style. It was plentiful and fresh but not overly inspiring…we were not disappointed because we knew the area to be more of a “dive camp” atmosphere than a luxury resort!

The usual mode of transfer to Lembeh Resort from Buyat is via the dive boat….stopping along the way for a dive or three…it’s a seamless transfer up into the Straits and the crew handled the camera gear, dive gear & luggage so we just stepped onboard the dive boat and voila, a few hours and three dives later, we arrived at Lembeh Resort for our 2nd leg of our adventure!

We’ve done Lembeh Resort several times before (and we’re going BACK in 2013!) so it’s great fun being greeted upon arrival by the warm & friendly staff…welcoming us “home”! Since our last visit in 2009, the lower cottages have been totally updated with top-line bedding and plans are in the works to update some of the furnishings in the lower cottages as well; the owners’ aim is to keep the property “fresh and inviting”. As usual, the dive staff performs in exemplary fashion! Diver:guide ratio on the “critters” boats is 3:1 so everyone arrives with a critter “wish list” and the staff strives to help you check off your critters! The critters staff has recently added a wonderful photo pro, Steve Fish, to the staff and he’s a WHIZ at camera repair, photography lessons and he’s an amazing underwater photographer as well! He’s also the creator of a new iPhone app called “Nudibranchs” that helps you identify those gloriously beautiful creatures that are so prolific in Lembeh Straits!

During our five diving days at Lembeh, we spotted mimic octopus, wonderpuss, blue ring octopus, scorpionfish of various species, different species of frogfish, seahorses, shrimp, cuttlefish, mating mandarinfish and, of course, unique nudibranchs. Lembeh Straits is every underwater photographers dream destination, but even the non-camera divers love the variety of species and wonderment found in that black, volcanic sand environment! Five dive days is NOT enough in the Straits, but our itinerary scheduled us to move eastward so we headed into Manado for the night and grabbed a Lion Air flight very early in the morning to Ambon. Ambon and eastward is the region in Indonesia commonly referred to as the “Spice Islands”. The Dutch, French, English & Spanish all battled each other over and over through the 1500-1600’s for control of the Spice Islands. The Dutch prevailed in most of the region and built huge forts to protect their territory. Bloody battles were fought on many of the islands for control and the local population was on the losing end of most of the battles. A good portion of the Indonesians left the region for a number of years and moved westward to Java. The remaining locals were conscripted by the Japanese during WW II while battles raged in the region. Finally, a goodly number of them have returned to their native lands and have re-established local villages and cities. Some of the spice plantations are still in existence and produce wonderful nutmeg, cinnamon, almonds, mace and other exotic spices.

We boarded the luxurious MSY Damai in Ambon and spent 1-1/2 days “muck” diving there. The signature Ambon dive is their main pier in the harbour, two resident fishing boats moored there with soft corals growing off the keels…don’t get much fishing done from them these days, I assume!

Our 11 nights aboard the Damai featured up to four dives per day, free NITROX, luxurious accomodations, beer and wine and soft drinks as well as a fabulous cappuccino machine in the salon! Oh, yes, there’s an on-board masseuse to work out all those kinks you get from carrying a SCUBA tank on your back all day! Cabins are huge with beautiful teak walls and furniture, spacious bathrooms and luxurious toiletries. Food onboard is served by two well-trained stewards named Kadek & Ketut, either of whom would fit easily into a 5-Star restaurant setting! We had 3 chefs onboard who created amazing meals every single day. Like your food spicy, got it! Don’t like spices, got it! Can’t eat seafood, got it! Just let them know your preferences and you’ll be happy!

From Ambon we traveled east to Air Laut, Banda, Koon, Momon and then Triton Bay on the southeast coast of what used to be called Irian Jaya or Western Papua, now officially called Eastern Indonesia! Dive sites ranged from muck, coral slopes, coral walls, hard coral gardens, reef slopes, bommies and slopes! Oh yes, we were onboard when the earthquake and tsunami occurred in Japan and got a call on the sat phone that we needed to go out into deeper water until the tsunami warning was over…we had flat calm seas, by the way!

For the 10 guests that the Damai holds, there are 2 dive tenders and 4 dive guides. We were broken up into 4 groups who followed one another to the dive sites so that each and every one of us had the dive sites almost to ourselves! The eyes of the dive guides were amazing and Ketut, Chris, Inyo and Mike all found us lots of interesting creatures large & small. This region of Indonesia features commonly seen woebbegong sharks, epaulet sharks, and lots of unique creatures. We also dove off shore from a volcano that erupted into the ocean in 1988 and since then has been a unique dive site featuring a magnificent hard coral garden that defied their existence to scientists for many years. The lava flowed right into the sea and general consensus is that the minerals in the lava flow contributed to exacerbated growth of many different species of hard coral in one relatively small region…it was amazing!

Triton Bay is a new diving region and the hard & soft corals there were magnificent…we again saw woebbegong sharks, pygmy seahorses, blue ring octopus, schools of jacks and batfish…a wonderful tunnel swim-thru right near the top of a bommie and other magnificent dive sites. On our way to Kaimana at the end of the trip, we were able to visit and swim in a gorgeous waterfall and then got up close and personal to ancient red hieroglyphics etched 30-40’ above the waterline from centuries ago.

Captain Alwi and his crew; Mike Veitch, our cruise director, and his dive staff; our amazing chefs and stewards all work in harmony to make each guest's holiday a memorable one…Lots of images were shot, many, many awesome dives were logged and wonderful memories created in those 11 days aboard the Damai….we can’t wait to get back onboard in November of 2011 in Bali!

Dive Travel Services, 29480 Ten Mile Road, Farmington Hills, MI 48336