Trip Report to Indonesia, October 24 - November 22, 2004

Summary:
A wonderful month of diving in Indonesia with 2 weeks on the Pelagian
in the islands between West Timor and Papua (Irian Jaya), 4 days at
the Lembeh Lodge in Lembeh near Manado, and 5 days at Froggies on
Bunaken Isle near Manado.

Air Travel:
Outbound routing was Ottawa - Toronto - Hong Kong - Denpasar (Bali -
overnight) - Kupang (West Timor).
Local flight Sarong (Papua) - Manado.
Return routing was Manado - Jakarta - Hong Kong (overnight) - Toronto -
Ottawa.
The Toronto - Indonesia flights were on Cathay Pacific using their
All-Asia-Pass special. This fare included the add-on to Ottawa.
They are an excellent airline with good food and service. They re-fuel
in Vancouver without pasengers leaving the plane, so we were on the
plane for 21 hours Toronto - Hong Kong, and 16 hours on the return.

Pelagian: (45 dives).
This was a 14 night trip in the islands of Eastern Indonesia travelling
mainly north from West Timor - Alor - Banda - Raja Empat - Papua.
The diving was good to very good with healthy corals and lots of reef
fish and creatures. Some memorable dives were:
Gunung (between Wetar and Banda) - Snake city - surrounded by sea
snakes swimming within inches of us.
Banda - Mandarin City - dusk dive in harbor with mating mandarin fish.
Wagmar (Rajah Empat) - Gloria Reef - lovely reef covered in blue
glaucidae nudibranch (1 / sq ft).
Water temperatures were cool near Alor (73 - 77) then mainly 81 - 82.
Most of our dives were 60 - 70 mins and we used nitrox.
Because of a last minute cancellation we had the master cabin on the
Pelagian, this is a cabin to measure all other live-aboards against.
It was huge, a queen size bed, dressing room, large bathroom,
armchairs, TV (which we used to check our photos and video).
The only negative was the food was not great, often over-cooked and
only served warm, otherwise a great boat with excellent service.

Lembeh Lodge - Lembeh Straits: (9 dives).
This is a fairly basic resort on the west end of Lembeh Isle.
We were here for the muck diving that the area is famous for, and we
were not disappointed. Three 70 - 90 min dives / day in 80 - 81 temp
water with very good guides.
We did a dusk dive on the house reef and saw frogfish, sea horses, ghost

pipe fish, octopus, pygmy cuttlefish, barramundi cod, plus more.
A lovely cabin on the top of the hill (151 steps !), again the food was
not
great, but the service was very good and the diving great.
Cold showers only though.

Froggies - Bunaken Isle: (7 dives).
A fairly basic resort on the island that encourages long slow dives.
Two 70 - 90 min dives / day for me in 82 - 83 temp, my wife's dives were

much longer(one was 2 hours 6 mins). A mixture of lovely reefs with
excellent visibility and some muck diving. Again very good service and
great diving with OK food (a 22 oz beer was 12000 rp - about $1.25 US).
Cold water from a jug for a shower though.

Hotels:
We stayed overnight in the following places, and all were satisfactory:
Grand Bali Beach Hotel - Sanur.
Kristal Hotel - Kupang.
Minahasa Hotel - Manado (we had a 7.00 AM flight - too early for the
boat
trip from Bunaken isle).
Eaton Hotel - Hong Kong.

Opinion:
The Pelagian is a great boat with very good service and diving, and I
hope
to return on board. Lembeh Lodge and Froggies are also great places with

similar service and diving. Their comfort is less but their costs per
dive
are about 1/2 of the Pelagian. All 3 places have a different type of
diving,
and I am happy to mix the different types to give me a longer vacation.
This area of Indonesia is world class diving.
All three places are used to handling camera and video equipment.