Diving in Raja Ampat and Lembeh Strait were on my bucket list. Lori and I went to both this December. Our friend Deb joined us, as did our old dive buddies Murray and Jen from Chicago and Paul and Bonnie from Vancouver.
While in Lembeh Strait, we stayed at the Lembeh Resort, which turned out to be a fine resort with good food, service, and diving. For Raja Ampat, we cruised with Blue Manta, which was quite a step up from the Aggressor fleet (sorry Waynes). We not once had to pick up and walk with our tanks, and the rooms have plenty of room so that more than one person can walk around at a time. And the boat has a large camera room!
After enjoying the captions below, you can view larger versions of the photos by clicking on them. This will open a new tab in Google Photos. Use its menu to start a slideshow, or select a photo and press the Info button to view captions and maps.
The video of the diving aboard the Blue Manta was created by PJ Widestrand. He graciously allowed me to load it to YouTube for viewing by friends and family only. To respect his wishes, if you would like to see it, please send your request by email and I'll send along the link. By the way, it's great!
Drone footage shot by fellow diver Bader Al-Kazmawi.
Lori and I got lucky and didn't have anyone in the seat between us for the 17(!) hour flight to Singapore aboard a Singapore Airlines jet. The seats were comfortable. We didn't use our butt pads. We spent the night at the Crowne Plaza in the airport, where we met up with Paul and Bonnie.
We lost a day crossing the international date line. We started the day in the hotel with a beautiful buffet breakfast with all sorts of international things.
Immigration is wholly automated at the airport, so there weren't any lines at the time. Further, they locate the security checks at each gate. This has the effect of eliminating long security lines. Each gate has a water station beyond security.
After a relatively short (3:15) flight from Singapore to Manado, we circled once to let a squall pass through. As it was, it was pouring at the airport. We were met at the airport for our 1.5 hour drive to the resort. The last bit was by water taxi. About 10 of the Lembeh Resort staff greeted us at the dock including managers Tarkan (Afghan who lived in England) and Kathrin (from Germany) and dive shop manager Gita (also from Germany). We checked into room 1, which was very nice.
We organized our dive gear and attended a dive briefing followed by a good video about the dos and do nots of diving in Lembeh Strait. Murray and Jen showed up at dinnertime.
Looking up to the view cottages of the Lembeh Resort |
Our boat Arlena of the Critters at Lembeh Resort dive center |
Looking down at the dock at the Lembeh Resort |
Our deck at the Lembeh Resort |
Room #1 at the Lembeh Resort |
View from our deck at the Lembeh Resort |
View from our deck at the Lembeh Resort toward the volcanoes and port |
Inside our room at the Lembeh Resort |
Lori lounges inside our room at the Lembeh Resort |
Indoor/outdoor bathroom at the Lembeh Resort |
The outdoor shower at the Lembeh Resort |
The dining room at the Lembeh Resort |
The pool, dive storage, camera room, and dive shop at the Lembeh Resort |
Our dive locker at the Lembeh Resort |
We made three muck dives. Interesting stuff. We dove Nudi Falls, Hairball, and Aer Bajo I. I didn't want to get my wet suit wet, so I dove in my bathing suit. I finally started to get a bit cold after the third dive. Our dive master, Vadly, wrote down the names of each living thing he identified on a slate. This was incredibly useful for later identification!
We found the food at the resort to be excellent, plentiful, and spicy!
The map of the Lembeh Strait dive sites |
Vadly briefs the dive at Nudi Falls |
Barramundi cod |
Anemone |
A four-armed starfish |
What looks like a very small sea cucumber |
Redline flabellina |
Dwarf cuttlefish |
Robust ghost pipefish |
Bubble coral |
Bullock's hypselodoris |
Colorful tunicates |
Anna's chromodoris |
A clownfish charges |
Blue dragon |
Thorny seahorse |
Painted frogfish |
Hanging with a jelly at the safety stop |
Check out the psychedelic eyes on this shortfin lionfish |
Hairy frogfish |
Hairy frogfish |
Tunicates and the garbage of Lembeh Strait |
Strapweed filefish |
Ornate goby |
Star puffer |
Thorny seahorse |
Spotted porcelain crab |
Common seahorse |
Twospot dwarf flounder |
Peacock-tail anemone shrimp |
Striped catfish |
Snowflake moray |
Shortfin lionfish |
Emperor shrimp |
Jellyfish carry crab carrying an upside-down jellyfish |
Sea cucumber |
Orangutan crab |
Cockatoo waspfish |
White-eyed moray |
Magnificent anemone shrimp |
Upside-down jellyfish |
Flamboyant cuttlefish |
Pink-eared mantis |
Murex snail |
Shortpouch pygmy pipehorse |
Crested nembrotha |
Anemone hermit crab |
Common seahorse |
Although a few of us went for a morning dive, it was an off-gassing day for us. We dried our gear and I took photos of the resort. And we had more awesome food, packed, and had a nice sundowner party on our deck at #1 before dinner.
Enjoying a sundowner drink on our deck at the Lembeh Resort |
Up at 4. Caught the flight to Sorong, aided in the airport by our handler hired by the Lembeh Resort. We were picked up at the airport by the blue Manta crew, and they took us in three buses to the marina. We were introduced to the boat and the crew and drove out to our first checkout dive site (Red Light District) which had lots of great animals. We then motored overnight towards Misool.
Egoi's dive briefings were unique. He showed the dive site on Google Maps. He left the waypoint for each dive site enabled so we could see our movement across the region.
Rather than draw the dive site on a white board like other organizations, he created a diorama, incorporating Vaseline, toasters, cookie boxes, Lego characters, rolls of tape, towels, and other items from the boat. It was creative, and fun.
Here are the dive sites, as listed by Egoi. His comments, not mine :-).
An overview of all of our dives in Raja Ampat |
Sorong to Misool |
Misool Island of Raja Ampat, where we started our diving in Raja Ampat |
Misool to Batanta and Piaynemo |
The northern section of Raja Ampat, which includes our first dive and our last days of diving |
Gam to Sorong |
The Blue Manta |
Our spacious room on the Blue Manta |
Lots of room! |
Nice head! |
Lori and Deb enjoy the rainbow |
Krystal enjoys the rainbow too |
The Lego divers are ready to roll into the water at Barracuda Rock |
This photo of Nudi Rock clearly shows how the dive site got its name, and that Vaseline is a necessary ingredient for dive site dioramas |
Heron ardeadoris |
Swollen phyllidia |
A commensal bubble coral shrimp in bubble coral |
Beautiful red gorgonian sea fans |
Lovely red soft coral |
Multi-colored soft corals are my favorite thing |
Barrumundi cod hides behind these lovely corals |
Crinoids, sea fans, and soft corals oh my! |
Giant barrel sponge |
Lampert's sea cucumber |
An unidentified blenny pokes out of the coral |
Spotted hypselodoris |
A white sea fan, which we'll soon learn, is the home of a white pygmy seahorse |
An orange sea fan, which we'll soon learn, is the home of an orange pygmy seahorse |
Denise's pygmy seahorse |
Lori checks out the blue and yellow fusiliers |
Blue and yellow fusiliers |
Yellowmask surgeonfish |
Unfortunately, at this point the water alarm in my camera housing went off so I aborted the dive and didn't take any more photos under water.
The board on the dive deck listing the names of the crew, the groups of divers and their divemaster, and dives for the day showing the departure order |
An island near Yulliet where we snorkeled with baby sharks |
A relaxing spot on the bow |
Bonnie and Paul hang out on the bow |
An aerial shot of me (in the bright yellow shirt in the upper right) picking up garbage |
Departing for a lagoon tour |
Egoi and Bonnie stare into the clear waters of the lagoon |
Lori and Deb snorkel |
We exit the lagoon |
Bonnie and Paul watch the drone |
Dinghies and snorkelers |
A very hidden beach |
Very clear water |
Another lovely sunset |
Tay and Deb go for their apres-dive shower |
Lori and Egoi are all smiles |
Egoi shows that Two Tree Island is really a toaster |
Looking in the direction of the Two Tree Island dive site |
Krystal paints |
Another very secluded beach |
Lori and Deb having fun |
An overhead shot of us on a hill on Piaynemo |
Peter, Krystal, Deb, and Lori on the way to our short climb at Piaynemo |
My panorama of Piaynemo |
Me and Lor at Piaynemo |
The crew and passengers of the Blue Manta |
A Christmas selfie |
The crew sings on Christmas |
Lori sings too! |
Bonnie and Deb getting a massage between dives, because hanging out on a boat in Indonesia isn't relaxing enough |
Murray and Jen enjoy the tasty ginger tea after a dive |
Lori and Deb back from their last dive of the trip (with divemaster Batman) |
When are you going to put that thing away? |
A typical yummy lunch buffet served by Yusuf and Heriff |
The gang enjoys another scrumptious lunch |
The awesome camera room aboard the Blue Manta (where PJ tirelessly edits his video) |
The upstairs bar and dining area |
The well laid-out dive deck |
PJ introduces his video |
The Jakarta airport features murals of divers that incorporate fire extinguishers as their tanks |
Jen, Deb, and Bonnie show off their new outfits |
Woke up a little earlier than usual for a light breakfast, said our goodbyes to the crew, and boarded our Garuda flight to Jakarta with Bonnie, Paul, Murray, Jen, Krystal, Keith, and Alice (who we met on the boat). I thought I'd have to pay extra luggage as Lori and I had a combined 53 kg in three bags instead of 40 kg. As I had read in the DAN Raja Ampat article that a 23 kg bag of dive gear was free, I said that two of the bags were dive gear. We did not pay extra fees.
We said our good-byes to Murray and Jen and Krystal in Jakarta, and boarded our Eva Air flight to Taipei, where we then said our good-byes to and Bonnie and Paul. We endured lots of heavy turbulence on last leg home to San Francisco. Surprisingly, I actually slept for most of the first 7 hours. And then watched Ad Astra.
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Copyright © 2020 Bill Wohler Last modified: Thu Jan 30 20:43:48 PST 2020 About photos |
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