Bunaken and Lembeh, Indonesia, September 2007

by Dave Martin

Getting there.

The overall shape of this trip taken by myself and my wife was that, having departed on Singapore Airlines from Heathrow to Singapore and then on Silk Air onto Manado, we spent 7 days on Bunaken Island diving the marine park and then 9 days on Lembeh diving the Straits. The return journey was the same but on the way back we stopped off for 3 nights in Singapore.

This I would highly recommend especially if you have (as we did) the benefit of a local person to take you off the tourist trail. Many thanks to our friends Joseph and Karen for this.

The first thing to say was that we had some pre travel difficulties trying to clarify whether or not the airline gave free additional luggage allowance for divers. Phone calls to the airline suggested clearly not but all other sources led us to believe that we could get an extra 10 kilo free. In the event we decided to risk it and went through check in just assuming the extra allowance and we were never challenged. So my advice would be that, if the worst comes to the worst and you can afford to pay, then try to blag your way through. The flight was fine especially if you want to catch up on all of the Ocean Eleven or Pirates of the Caribbean series. Transfers having been swift and relatively painless, we arrived at Manado to be picked up by staff from Two Fish Divers who were to be our base for the first part of our trip. There was a quick trip from the airport and then a 40 minute boat ride across calm seas to the dive resort.

Two Fish Divers. Bunaken Island.

On arrival we were welcomed by the centre manager who gave us the low down on all the hotel aspects of our stay....the lay out of the resort, meal arrangements etc. This was followed by a briefing on the dive arrangements of which more later.

The place was lovely and had all one would wish for. We had a more than adequately spacious wooden bungalow on stilts that overlooked a pleasant and well manicured garden and beyond that the shore line of sand and mangroves. There were 6 or 7 such bungalows and a more budget option of rooms in a shared block. There was neither air conditioning nor hot water but there was a fan which did all that we needed of it and in the near equatorial temperatures who needs hot water. The bathroom had wc, shower and hand basin and there was a water dispenser in the bedroom. There was also a multi regional plug strip which, as a photographer, proved invaluable in keeping all of my bits and pieces fully charged. Electricity was pretty reliable although there were a couple of points in the day when it went off as they changed from there own to the villages generator. This was appropriately timed however to avoid disruption. Each bungalow had its own porch overlooking the garden with a drying facilities, table, chairs and hammock.

All in all whilst not boasting the height of luxury it was in a beautiful setting, well laid out, well organized and had facilities well above rock bottom basic. Above all it had a really friendly and relaxed atmosphere with staff that clearly enjoyed their work and seemed to have a genuine desire to ensure that you had the most enjoyable stay with them possible.

When we arrived the British owners, Nigel and Tina, were away for a couple of days but when they came back they wasted no time in introducing themselves and reinforcing the welcome and 'we are her to ensure you have a good time, if you need something then just ask' message.

The clientele was a mixture, including those who were there for stays up to a month, a number of youngsters who were on the grand tour or doing DM or instructor training, and more 'mature' couples (such as us) from the States, UK and Thailand. A number were repeat visitors which has to tell you something! Meals were at set times and taken in an open sided dining area around communal tables. Very much in keeping with the overall atmosphere of the resort and leading inevitably to some protracted after- meal sharing of diving tales and photo viewing, lubricated by a few beers.

The Diving at Two Fishes.

The diving was from 3 boats which were organized around a daily schedule according to the needs of different guests. They were well equipped, comfortable and more than fit for purpose. There were 3 boat dives per day with the option of night or dusk 'mandarin fish' dives on request. On arrival we were allocated our dive guide, Kris, who was a local man with considerable diving and marine life knowledge. He was to look after my wife and I for the week. This started with him unpacking our dive gear and putting it into a box, putting it daily onto the appropriate boat, setting it up, leading us through the dive and doing some superb fish spotting, unloading the gear and washing it at the end of the day and washing and drying it at the end of our stay. We could not have wished for a better service. Indeed it included bringing a family member from the village on one afternoon to give me a really great massage.

The diving was mainly wall and reef diving but there was also the option of some muck diving. Dives were always to a max of 25m or so with an approx 60 min maximum dive time. Journeys to dive sites were never more than 20 mins through some of the most beautiful volcanic island scenery that one could imagine and the sea was normally flat calm.

As for the marine life on offer, we were not disappointed. On the larger side there were blacktip, white tip and bamboo sharks, tuna, Napoleon and every other type of wrasse, bump head and other parrot fish, barracuda, hawksbill turtles, eagle rays...the list goes on and will not leave you wanting.





Ditto with regard to the smaller stuff......cuttlefish, lion, scorpion and stone fish, various morays, octopus, pygmy seahorses, sea crates, robust and ornate ghost pipe fish, frog fish, sea moths, gurnard and an impressive variety of nudibranchs..... again etc etc etc.

We did 19 dives with Two Fishes and loved every one. Our time, however, flew past and we had to move on. Had we known that the option existed, we may have chosen to remain in their capable hands as they now have a second base on the Lembeh Straits and they will gladly arrange a 2 centre stay. We were however booked into another resort and had to transfer.





















Lembeh Dive Resort

A quick trip by boat back to Manado and we were picked up by the Lembeh Resort who drove us across the island (about 1 hour), 10 minutes on a boat and we had arrived. The place was stunning...a dozen luxury bungalows set into the hillside surrounding the core of the resort which lay in a small bay. We were greeted with cold towels and a much appreciated drink by the resort manager, Les, who briefed us on the resort and all it had to offer.

Then on to the introduction to the diving activities by Johan, one of the dive centre managers. In our discussion with him he asked us to think if there was anything specific we wanted to see as they would do their best to find us any particular critter missing from our Eye Spy book of God's uglier marine life creations.

The resort had everything we could have wished for...a fully resourced bar, and open air balcony restaurant, TV room, pool, library, shop, camera room and a first rate dive centre. Breakfast and lunch were buffet style with a huge choice of local and western fare and dinner was al la carte with menu choice being made over lunch. Again a marvelous choice of superbly prepared and presented cuisine. We were allocated bungalow No.1 which we were proudly told was the pick of the bunch (although I'm confident that none would disappoint). It was huge and fully equipped with air conditioning, an open air bathroom (with shower and bath), fridge, water dispenser etc etc. The icing on the cake is that it had a huge balcony with a 270 degree view over the Lembeh Straits and volcanic island panorama not to mention sunsets to die for.





The resort was also developing its spa facilities and at I had a massage and my wife, a full facial (not that this was remotely necessary I hastily add) at a remarkably reasonable cost.






Diving at Lembeh.

The dive centre was run like clockwork. There were 4 boats that between them took the 20 or so guests on up to 3 boat dives a day with the option of dives on the house reef as well as night and mandarin fish dives. There were several people, though not including us, who regularly did 5 dives per day. The name of the game was photography and although non photographers were by no means left out, the facilities for divers were state of the art. A fully equipped camera room with individual work/charging bays and 3 large camera rinse tanks. No surprise that there were professional and keen amateur snappers there from across the globe with camera kit worth the equivalent of the GNP of a small 3rd world country.



As with Two Fish, all of our kit was taken care of from the moment we arrived to the day we packed to leave. Also we were allocated a dive guide for the two of us, Dimpy, who was a local young woman with an awesome knowledge of the dive sites and what they had to offer. In addition to every conceivable size, shape and type of pointer she had a wipe-clean dive slate on which to tell us what it was we were looking at underwater. Indeed on many occasions given the nature of the critters and the environment she had to point out that there was something there in the first place.

As for the diving itself it was predictably mainly muck diving on grey sand punctuated by small oases of coral, rubble and a fair amount of what can only be described as rubbish. That said there were many dives that concluded on large expanses of pristine hard and soft coral with some of the prettier of what evolution has had to offer. Dives were usually in the 25 m region with 60 min dive times.



As newcomers to muck diving we were keen to see the critter equivalent of the African safari 'Big 5' which we were reliably informed comprised of the weedy scorpion fish (rhinopia), flamboyant cuttle fish, pygmy sea horse, hairy frog fish and wonderpus. This proved to be no problem to Dimpy and in our 25 dives we quickly clocked up the lot, plus most of the other weird stuff that some may wish to add to the above list. We saw mimic, hairy, coconut and mohoti octopus, every sort of frog, pipe, wasp, scorpion and cuttle fish, electric clams, Bobbit worms (what are they all about?), morays, snake and ribbon eels, sea moths, gurnard, dragonet, and an awesome array of shrimps, crabs and nudis.