99 replies to this topic

[secretsea18]

I am interested in the longer trip. I have never been Muck Diving, and definitely want to experience that as well as the more traditional reef diving. Too far to go for me to not try and see it all. I am also looking into a side trip option. http://www.manadosaf...rs_tangkoko.php
I am waiting on feedback from a few places that I sent an info request in to. From what I have seen, there are different options available. A morning trip to the park to see the wildlife and surroundings, the evening trip to see the monkeys and try to see the Tarsier Spectrum after dark, and the overnight option. Please let me know if anyone else would have an interest in something like this.

Ed

The tarsier tour in Tangkoko is offered by all of the resorts. A minimum of two persons are required.

Sadly, I have not had the opportunity to go, because my friends who were scheduled to accompany me became sick (bad belly) on the day we were gonna go (last day in the afternoon after morning diving). As the flights leave at 1:30pm ish, most folks do two tanks in the morning, and often go on this tour in the afternoon, while the gear is drying out. I have heard that the 8 hour afternoon hike and visit to the tarsiers is plenty. It is hot and the hike is somewhat strenuous.

There are also tours to traditional Minahasa villages and to the fish market in Bitung that are good, I hear. Haven't been on them, cause I haven't wanted to waste a day not in the muck.

[Diver Ed]

Hello Robin, Thank you for your input. By the way, where in NY are you from. I grew up in Smithtown on L.I. Ed

The tarsier tour in Tangkoko is offered by all of the resorts. A minimum of two persons are required.

Sadly, I have not had the opportunity to go, because my friends who were scheduled to accompany me became sick (bad belly) on the day we were gonna go (last day in the afternoon after morning diving). As the flights leave at 1:30pm ish, most folks do two tanks in the morning, and often go on this tour in the afternoon, while the gear is drying out. I have heard that the 8 hour afternoon hike and visit to the tarsiers is plenty. It is hot and the hike is somewhat strenuous.

There are also tours to traditional Minahasa villages and to the fish market in Bitung that are good, I hear. Haven't been on them, cause I haven't wanted to waste a day not in the muck.

[secretsea18]

Hello Robin, Thank you for your input. By the way, where in NY are you from. I grew up in Smithtown on L.I. Ed

Ed,

I live in Manhattan, but am not really from here.

I consider Queens and Brooklyn on L.I., for example.

Robin

[Lady Liz]

I am interested in the longer trip. I have never been Muck Diving, and definitely want to experience that as well as the more traditional reef diving. Too far to go for me to not try and see it all. I am also looking into a side trip option. http://www.manadosaf...rs_tangkoko.php
I am waiting on feedback from a few places that I sent an info request in to. From what I have seen, there are different options available. A morning trip to the park to see the wildlife and surroundings, the evening trip to see the monkeys and try to see the Tarsier Spectrum after dark, and the overnight option. Please let me know if anyone else would have an interest in something like this.

Ed

I am interested in the longer trip too. What is the Tarsier Spectrum? Lady Liz

[WreckWench]

More about diving in Lembeh (From the Dive Operator's Website & Correspondence):

Lembeh Strait and Kungkungan Bay Resort is simply the best place in the world for macro photography! Lembeh plays host to a cornucopia of weird and wonderful creatures to be found here and here alone. We moor over shallow black sandy slopes, where seahorses and nudibranchs are in abundance. Then there are the Inimicus devilfish, dwarf lionfish, scorpionfish, pufferfish, octopus, pegasus sea moths, frogfish, ribbon eels and flying gunnards. Truly a one-off opportunity for all photographers and anyone looking for the unusual and unseen, you're sure to see something that you have never seen before, no matter how experienced you are.

The exceptional year-round weather conditions provide a variety of diving experiences, from "muck dives" on pure black volcanic sand to colourful coral reefs and enticing historic wrecks. Whatever your pleasure, Lembeh is always sure to offer fascinating and exciting underwater discoveries.

Kungkungan Bay Resort (or just KBR to its many fans) is located in the very heart of the Lembeh Strait, giving access to fifty dive sites, all within fifteen minutes of our private jetty. An intimate and exclusive resort, Kungkungan is staffed by a friendly, professional team who will look after your every need from the moment you arrive to the moment you depart.

All rooms are sea facing, with three categories of spacious accommodation to choose from. Our unique over-the-water restaurant inspires visitors with its spectacular views of our exclusive house reef, the Lembeh Strait and the nearby tropical islands.


Lembeh Dive Sites:

With good visibility, minimal currents and clear water (and superb instructors!) KBR and the Lembeh Straits is an excellent place to learn to dive or enhance your scuba skills. Iif you have never dived before, come and spend a fun couple of hours Discovering Scuba Diving – an introduction to diving which will show you why we all get so excited about it. It’s ideal for the non-diving partner.

Photography:

The dive staff at the resort are pretty keen on their underwater photography (to put it mildly!). Some of us have invested our children’s inheritance in camera gear. Others have just sold their souls to Nikon and Subal. Please feel free to fire any questions at us. We are always delighted to talk about lenses, housings, strobes, cameras and software......

We can arrange to get items of Sea and Sea equipment for you at VERY competitive prices. We can also arrange for Inon equipment to be sent to you directly by the manufacturer to your home before you visit KBR. (you must be booked to visit KBR to use this facility). We can also get you Canon and Nikon equipment.

We have a Sea and Sea digital camera for rental (FX-1G) with a strobe. And we can rent strobes (Inons) to you if you want to try one out – or if you are having problems with your own. We can burn DVD and CDs for you at short notice and help with downloading. In fact, anything photographic is worth asking us about.

Nitrox:

Nitrox is avaiable.

Safety:

Safety is always of the utmost importance to us and we provide a great level of support to our clients:

* All of our Indonesian guides are trained by KBR to PADI standards
* All guides are trained in Emergency First Response, to provide care in an emergency
* We carry oxygen in our center and train our staff to administer it
* We offer Nitrox* and the PADI Enriched Air Specialty to reduce nitrogen uptake
* We have access to an excellent recompression chamber 90 minutes drive away in Manado. In the event of an emergency you can be certain that resort staff will look after you and accompany you
* surcharged

Conservation:

We are very committed to conservation, to help sustain the livelihoods of our local community. We sponsor various conservation activities, just a few example being:

* School marine conservation education program
* Regular beach clean-ups
* Rubbish collection campaign
* Kungkungan Bay has limited its room capacity, specifically to minimize the impact of divers on this relatively unexplored area of the ocean. However, as the Lembeh Strait has been discovered by divers from all over the world, our efforts to minimize environmental impact are not enough on its own.
* Kungkungan Bay Resort fully supports the efforts, goals and methods of the North Sulawesi Watersports Association (NSWA) and urges you to support its efforts. Since its inception Kungkungan Bay Resort has supported the NSWA with funding and assistance in formulating a set of by-laws for dive operations using the strait.

Environmental Responsibility:

We promote environmental responsibility and awareness for our staff and guests:

* We follow the Lembeh Straits policy of not allowing gloves when diving (unless there is a certified medial condition)
* We promote a no-touching policy
* We encourage frog-kicking rather than fin-kicking to cut down disturbing the sand.
* We dive in small groups, 4-guests-per-guide, for more environmental control
* We can provide check-out dives to iron out the buoyancy wrinkles
* Discover Scuba Dives for uncertified divers are only conducted in the pool and on sandy areas of reefs
* We recycle paper in our office and always aim to reduce our usage
* We use energy-saving light bulbs and switch off all office equipment when not in use

[weescot]

It is a dilema deciding muck vs reef/wall, but you really can do both on this trip. I had only done a couple of muck dives before I went to Lembeh and I was really taken back by the incredible biodiversity. Plus Lembeh Straits/Manado is right in the middle of the Coral triangle - so it is pretty much guaranteed that you will see some of the things in the picutres - giant frogfish, flamboyant cuttle fish. I dive reefs and walls all the time, but there really is as much to see in the sand - you just have to move a bit more slowly and look more.

But Bill is right - do both if you can. It really is one of the better places to dive in the world and offers huge variety a few miles apart.

[Diver Ed]

I am interested in the longer trip. I have never been Muck Diving, and definitely want to experience that as well as the more traditional reef diving. Too far to go for me to not try and see it all. I am also looking into a side trip option. http://www.manadosaf...rs_tangkoko.php
I am waiting on feedback from a few places that I sent an info request in to. From what I have seen, there are different options available. A morning trip to the park to see the wildlife and surroundings, the evening trip to see the monkeys and try to see the Tarsier Spectrum after dark, and the overnight option. Please let me know if anyone else would have an interest in something like this.

Ed

I am interested in the longer trip too. What is the Tarsier Spectrum? Lady Liz

Hello Liz,

From my researching online, this is what I have found. Tours are offered through the resorts. The most popular tour is about 6-8 hours long, leaving in the afternoon, and the tour last until after dark, when the Tarsier Spectrum comes out of hiding.
It is the worlds smallest primate. It is a trek into the jungle, so there are monkeys, birds plants, etc.....to be seen along the way as well. Kamala should be posting some pricing options for this if people are interested. As Robin mentioned, the last day of diving has a couple of morning dives, and most people do this tour that afternoon / evening, prior to their flight home the next day. Of course, we will need to see if our schedule has us flying home from here, or transfering to the next dive location. That may effect some scheduling. Ed

[rkymtwy]

Wow, this looks like a great trip.

[deb4diving]

Hey girl,
What would the days be for the shorter trip? I will try to do the longer trip but will have to beg my boss this week since I took 2wks off for the Red Sea trip. If I have to do the shorter trip, I definitely want the muck/macro diving sites if possible. Will know something this week.
Thx, Debra

MUCK vs. WALL DIVING....

or


Lembeh vs Manado


I was getting the impression that many of you could not do a 12-14 day trip (including 2 days in Singapore prior to the trip) so I have been working on a shorter version that shortens the 'Muck' diving portion of the trip. I've rec'd a few emails saying that the muck diving aka Lembeh is WORLD CLASS and that the Manado portion of the trip should be the variable part of the trip for those tight on time.

I can still tweak this but must do so ASAP! So please let me know if you are ONLY planning the shorter version and which part you want shorter?

The shorter version with airfare from CA will be approx $3k and the longer version with airfare from CA will be about $3900. I will try to have sample itineraries and associated pricing for you later today...still trying to figure out the pkgs sent to me.

[ScubaTex]

More about diving in Manado (From the Dive Operator's Website & Correspondence):

Special Trips:[/color]

The special day trips for diving we offer bring you to our other dive areas as well. This makes North Sulawesi so special; within a maximum of 1,5 hours travel, you can visit and dive in 4 completely different underwater environments; The south side of Bunaken National Park, named Popooh and the waterfront side of the city, The Bangka Archipelago in the north and the Lembeh Strait in the east. (SD will be staying there for 2-4 days of diving) You will be amazed by the variety you can encounter, even if you would still stay around the Bunaken area. Try our special mini cruises like the “Critter Tour” and the “Big Fish Tour”. Our guests comment on the “Critter Cruise” that we should call it “bethlehem” an acronym for “better than Lembeh”. (For those interested I have requested pricing and min numbers needed for these add'l tours. I suspect you have to give up a day of diving to do them due to travel constraints.)

I would prefer to dive 4 days [or more if possible] at Lembeh

Bill

Edited by ScubaTex, 11 July 2010 - 07:20 PM.

[Parrotman]

If this trip were in 2011 I would be all over it. Hopefully something similar next year. I have this year all booked out and paid for already.

Jim

[Landlocked Dive Nut]

If this trip were in 2011 I would be all over it. Hopefully something similar next year. I have this year all booked out and paid for already.

Jim

May? June?

[Parrotman]

If this trip were in 2011 I would be all over it. Hopefully something similar next year. I have this year all booked out and paid for already.

Jim

May? June?

either May or June would work for me. I have been looking for an Indonesian trip for next year in May or June anyway. Would rather do a SD trip than go it alone.

Jim

[secretsea18]

If this trip were in 2011 I would be all over it. Hopefully something similar next year. I have this year all booked out and paid for already.

Jim

May? June?

either May or June would work for me. I have been looking for an Indonesian trip for next year in May or June anyway. Would rather do a SD trip than go it alone.

Jim

I may be able to go back to Lembeh next year, but it would need to be end of June/July.

[WreckWench]

Hey gang...a few things...

1. I have hard contracts and deposits for Palau in May 2011 and Truk in April 2011. That does not leave enough time to do another $3-4k trip in the summer. (Unless they sell out quickly and then I'll revisit this statement.)
2. I could arrange for a small group to go as we will have a full time person onboard in the next couple of months to handle those bookings.
3. Actually this whole process has been a nightmare and I am blessed this group has been so patient. I finally have the lions share of the info I need to get this trip out there and hopefully sell enough spots to cover my minimum commitment.
4. Our plan was to do both resorts to experience both types of diving. So unless you can stay 10 to 12 days or so one resort will be shorter than the other. The longer version is currently 1-2 nts in Singapore, 5 nites and 4 days in the Manado and 5 nites 4 days in Lembeh. The schedule was set up this way for flights as well as the overall tone in the thread that not everyone would be excited about 'muck' diving. The shorter pkg is looking to be 1 nite Singapore, 5 nites 4 days diving Manado and 3 nites 2 days diving Lembeh.

I can not make both ends of the pkg variable. Only one end can be variable. I am still trying to lock in the best flight options with min inbound time and maximum time diving. That should be finalized later today. IF YOU THINK MANADO SHOULD BE THE VARIABLE PART THEN SPEAK NOW OR FOREVER HOLD YOU PEACE AS I MAY OR MAY NOT BE ABLE TO CHANGE IT BUT AFTER TODAY I WILL NOT BE ABLE TO CHANGE IT.

Again approx pricing with airfare from CA is $3300-ish for shorter trip and $3900-ish for longer trip. The Singapore pricing is about $1300 and you have the local flights on top of that plus the pkgs. kamala