Lembeh Island
North Sulawesi    2005

 

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DAVE & JAN'S DIVING DIARY

           and is updated constantly.  17 September 2006

 

View of Volcano  Bitung 01 view from boat View from our cabin  View across Straights Lembeh Dive Lodge Boats

We flew from London on Qatar Air via Doha to Singapore where we had an  overnight stop, we had been to Singapore several times before on other trips and had previously stayed at the Phoenix Hotel situated at Orchard Road and Somerset, very central and close to shopping and restaurants. Our flight out was on Silk Air who fly regular flights to Manado in Northern Sulawesi, the flight takes about 3.5 hours.
Jan 001 Jan 09 Jan beach 0011 Jan beach 3911 Lembeh 00002

At the airport you have to pay a "airport" tax, i think it was $20usd, you have to pay this on the way back out as well. Sulawesi is part of Indonesia who now operate a visa entry scheme, we fell foul of that on our last trip in June when we flew into Tarakan in Kalimantan but thats another story, anyway, Manado is one of the designated ports of entry where you CAN get a visa on entry for $25usd. You should check your visa requirements when travelling to Indonesia. The "International" airport at Manado is quite small, it reminded me of Kota Kinabalu in Sabah, when we arrived we were met by Donald, Divers Lodge Lembeh had organised our transportation across the mainland to Lembeh, it was at Divers Lodge that we were staying for the first part of our trip.
Blue Ribbon Eel 24 Bubble Crab 4463 Cockatoo 008 Cockatoo 3728 Cockatoo 3729

As soon as we got out of the airport i was struck by just how much like Bali it all looked. The road was narrow and there were lots of mopeds all over the place, unlike Bali, there was a complete lack of religeous shrine's to be seen. It took about 1.5 hours in the car to get from Manado to Bitung on the other side of the mainland, we made our way to a jetty that was away from the main area of Bitung where a boat was waiting for us. The Straights were a mile or two across, the distance varied depending where in the Straights you were. We were staying on Lembeh Island, Lembeh is about 12 miles in length and covered in forest and vegitation, there are i believe three dive resorts on the Island, Lembeh Dive Lodge is situated at the southernmost part of the Island, which meant the boat had to travel up the Straights each morning for our diving, the boat ride was not a problem and we never felt that it was anything else other than a pleasant and relaxing boat ride "home".
Cuttle fish 4269 Devil Scorpion 3716 Devil Scorpion 3720 Devil Scorpion 3736 Devil Scorpion 4097
The resort is owned and operated by Rob & Linda Sinke, i think Rob is from Belgium originaly, i know that he has worked extensively in this area of the world for quite a few years. The resort has five bungalows that are hidden up in the forest, one bungalow cannot see another bungalow so everything is quite private. The restaurant, kitchen and lounge are all one building with the lounge and dining area open air, there is a roof but no windows. There was no "dive center" in the traditional sense, neither was there a reception that greeted you when you got of the boat, you had to climb a fairly steep set of steps to get to the lounge area.
Flambouyant Cuttlefish 3915 Hairy Frogfish 00024 Frogfish 0027 Frogfish 3664 Frogfish 3788
Any dive equipment had to remain on the boat overnight as there was nowhere to hang wetsuits or regulators, it was not practical to carry dive gear back to the room, camera equipment was not left on the boat for obvious reasons. There were several boats of good size with plenty of room on board, the boats had a camera rinse tank and an inverter for charging strobe batteries, i found this very useful when out diving all day, they also had a "European" toilet which was a very pleasant.The Bungalows consist of (if they are all the same ?) one room with a tiled floor, double bed, a wardrobe, chairs and tables etc we were not short of space at all, the shower room was fine, tiled with flush toilet, clean and plenty of hot water.
Frogfish 3893 Frogfish 4022 Frogfish 4024 Hairy Frogfish 4066 Hairy Frogfish 4072
You can view for yourself      http://www.diving-on-sulawesi.com  if you are seriously thinking about visiting Lembeh i dont mind answering any questions you may have,  mail me and i will try and answer any questions. The diving here was great, every single dive was an adventure, finding new creatures every few minutes was awesome. Some of them i did'nt manage to get a decent photo of, like the Ambon Scorpion, and crabs so tiny. We had a boat and guide all to ourselves for the duration of our stay, we paid a little extra for this but it was well worth it. Nitrox is also available allthough we dont use it, a benefit when staying down as long as we were, virtually every dive was over an hour and sometimes 80 minutes.
Imperial Partner Shrimp 3669 Esturine Stonefish s33 Flambouyant Cuttlefish 3813 Flambouyant Cuttlefish 3815 Flambouyant Cuttlefish 3834

 

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