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CORALREPUBLIC Komodo
and Bali, 2014
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Trip
dates: |
29 August – 18 September 2014 |
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Boat
/ resort: |
SMY Ondina - Komodo. Tauch Terminal Tulamben - Bali. |
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Dive
centre: |
See Above |
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Photo-friendly?: |
Yes, in both locations. |
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Number
of dives: |
29 over 12 days of diving in total (could have been 41 but I
missed a lot of dives due to a bad cold, see below) |
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Diving
conditions: |
Clear skies in Komodo, a bit of wind but flat seas making all
crossings very calm and relaxed. Full moon period, hence strong currents in
various sites, but manageable. Clear and hot but very windy in Bali. Good
visibility in Komodo North, average in South Komodo and Tulamben.
27°C water temp in Northern Komodo; 24-25°C in Southern Komodo; 28°C in Tulamben. |
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Comments: |
We wanted to come back to Komodo since we loved it so when we
came in 2010. We took a back-to-back offer on SMY Ondina
that was by far the best price offered for this kind of cruise. The Boat
departs from Bima, in West Tenggara and sails via Sangeang and Banta islands to the northern part of
Komodo, ending the six-day cruise at Labuhan Bajo, where you can disembark for your return flight. We
stayed on and did the 5-day cruise from Labuan Bajo
to Bima, diving Rinca,
Manta Alley and a final day around the northern spots (Gili
Lawa Laut, notably),
after which the boat steams straight back to Bima. The flight from Denpasar to Bima can
be booked with Lion Air/Wings Air, or with Garuda Indonesia. We had Wings Air
and had only a 10 Kg luggage allowande per person,
so had to pay about 40 dollars extra each way for our excess baggage. Other
divers on the cruise had come with Garuda and had no such issues (20 Kg
allowance), so my advice would be to try and book with them instead of the
regional airlines. We found the boat comfort and dive organisation quite decent. 4
dives a day were offered except on embarkation and disembarkation days.
Cabins are OK, but the aircon made me get a bad cold on the third day and
this really spoilt things for me big time (I had to stay out on many dives
for fear of hurting my ears, including one full day of diving lost). This is
however, my fault and not the boat’s! On the north Komodo leg, we had a full
boat (16 guests) but we did not feel that cramped (although the camera space
at the stern of the boat was barely enough for the seven of us who had big
cameras. How they manage when everybody has a big camera, I wouldn’t be able
to say). The food was only so-so during this leg. Then for the southern
cruise, we were only 6 divers on board, it felt very calm! The food was
surprisingly much better. As in most Liveaboards, you get first breakfast at
6.30, proper Breakfast at 8 after the first dive, lunch after the second
dive, cakes or fritters after the third dive and dinner after the night dive! We knew there was no hot water in the cabin showers, but this
was not a problem, hot showers on the dive deck were more than enough. The
dive stations are indoors and therefore protected from the winds and this is
an advantage, big for night dives when it’s windy. The boat runs two ribs,
theoretically good for 6 divers each plus dive master, but I would imagine
that many people will be cramped, since you have to get your tank on while on
the rib, helped by the rib driver and dive master. We had a maximum of 4
divers in each rib, which means that in the Northern leg of the cruise, we
had two groups of 4 divers going out, and once they were in the water, the
ribs would come back to fetch the remaining two groups of 4, this made the
diving operations somewhat lengthy, but nothing that caused annoyance or
problems, and the crew demonstrated clearly their strict attachment to safety
at all times. Ricard Buxó, the designer and
co-owner of the ship was with us for the Northern Leg of the trip, and since
he is a long-time veteran of diving and the dive business in this part of the
world, I was pleased to meet him and be able to have a few chats with him.
Clearly, few people know the area – including all the islands eastwards as
far a Raja Ampat and
further afield in West Papua – better than him. He has written various dive
guides and mapped the most important sites. A nice man, very approachable and
knowledgeable. Moltes gracies,
Ricard! The diving was outstanding, as good as Komodo can offer. I do
not feel we took advantage of Sangeang and Banta,
which we did not dive in our previous trip. We did dive Bubble Reef, but
apparently, the best sites were off bounds due to humongous currents. Once in
Komodo, Castle Rock, Crystal Rock, Batu Bolong and others were really the world-class dive sites
they are reputed to be. On the southern leg, we had the chance this time to dive Manta
Alley, which we missed last time due to rough seas making the crossing from Rinca not a good idea. The dives there this time were
really magical. As many as 18 mantas parading once and again in front of us.
Beautiful. The macro dives in Rinca were absolutely
fantastic as well, and of course, we were treated to topside wildlife as
well, with dragons, monkeys and wild boar on the beach! We then flew back to Denpasar and were driven (3 and ½ hours) to
Tulamben. This was my second time there (see 2009
trip to Bali), and I really wanted Paul to dive the USAT Liberty Wreck, which
we did for 2 days. The Tauch Terminal Resort is
basically in front of it, so really convenient for day and night dives on the
Wreck. Unfortunately, there are too many divers on it, even early in the
morning, and I feel that this is devaluating the dive. The locals should take
care or people will stop coming! Definitely, night diving on the wreck is a
chaos of light beams and fins hitting your head. Be warned. I nevertheless
loved it and had the chance – at last – to capture a harlequin shrimp on
camera! The TTT Resort is nice and well-appointed and its restaurant
serves good food for reasonable prices, otherwise we found it to be a bit
dead… silent, muted, don’t know. It did seem to be well-occupied, but it felt
as if we and a couple people more were the only guests… Not a lively place,
but that might be precisely what you are looking for. Finally, we flew back home via Hong Kong, where we did a 2-night
stopover. We landed from Bali in the evening, just ahead of Typhoon Kalmaegi, and were lucky to get a taxi to our hotel just
before the authorities shot down public transport! The morning after, most
everything was closed and we could only visit the street markets in the
afternoon. It was horribly hot and humid after the storm, and these HK people
like their air conditioning maddeningly freezing. It is not nice to be
drenched in sweat from walking the streets and then go inside a shop, a
restaurant or even the metro and have to put on a pullover or risk pneumonia,
especially in my case, since I was still coughing hard, trying to recover
from a very bad cold! I hated Hong Kong for that reason, but I’m sort of
ready to give it another chance. Note however, that Cathay Pacific cannot
compare, in my view, with Singapore Airlines! We have a nice album of topside pics from Komodo and Hong Kong.
If you’d like to have a look, you can see it here. Finally, a word of warning about Bali: The new and grandiose
Denpasar airport is up and running, but there is something quite off in their
scheduling. When we arrived, we had to queue for 2 HOURS before clearing
immigration. This is simply not acceptable. It would seem that a good
bunch of international flights arrived within minutes of each other, so in a
matter of minutes, a couple thousand people were queueing for passport
control. After 2 flights of, respectively, 12 and 5 hours to get there, and a
sleepless night, the queuing was a true nightmare. What is the sense of
spending so many millions on a snazzy terminal if you are going to make
incoming tourists suffer so??? Seriously, the experience has been such that
Bali is off our planning for future trips, till we hear
things work better. Not to finish on such a negative note, I really loved diving
Indonesia again. It is so beautiful, and the people there are adorable. I
still feel so privileged and thankful. I hope you enjoy the pictures. We have
also produced a really nice video of this trip. You can watch it here (redirects to
Vimeo). We think it’s our best so far, so do go check it out! |
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