5 top diving spots in Indonesia

Hi Sogrill

You should visit North sulawesi. Where you can find Bunaken island and lembeh strait.

I did my best diving ever on the island Pulau Weh, Sumatra. I dived with Rubiah Tirta Divers, I really can recommend them. Check out here Lumba Lumba, the second dive operator in Pulau Weh, from what I heard they are as good.

I also did awesome dives in West Flores, Komodo National Parc, with the Bajo Dive Club, also very good service. They are based in Labuan Bajo.

I also dived in Pulau Seribu - it's ok, but not as terrific as Pulau Weh and Komodo.

From what I heard in the last eight months that I spent here in Indonesia, other really fantastic dive spots are Gorontalo and Bunaken/Manado in North Sulawesi, Alor in Flores/NTT, Raja Ampat in Papua, Banda islands in Maluku, Bali (for seeing Mola Mola; I'll be there at the end of this month), and, not reallyreally in Indonesia but close, Dili in Timor Leste. I haven't dived in any of this places yet, but sooner or later I will - "problem" is I'm here for work, so I can't just travel around diving as I would like to.....

Bunaken is my choice. Try ecodivers.com (on mainland North Sulawesi), bastianos dive resort (Bunaken island). ecodivers 3 dives/day = Rp 500.000 incl lunch onboard, DM, insurance. exl ; gear rental. bastianos 1 dive = Rp 250.000 exl gear rental. Bunaken has more than 40 dives site in area. Mostly wall dive, drift. From Shark to sea turle, Stingray to Seahorse, Clitters and many more ... event dophin and white whale you may see in Bunaken.

Cheeers,

I have read and heard that the very best dive spots are somewhat more time-consuming to get to, to wit, dive spots off West Papua, and off the island of Banda and off other nearby islands in the Muluku chain, and Sipaden (off Borneo). Secondary to those, the best would be many of the other places listed above: Bunaken and surrounding dive spots as well as Lembah Strait (North Sulawesi), Komodo Island and nearby dive spots. I don't know about Aceh (Sumatra). There are a few dive books which specialize in describing the best dive spots in Indonesia. One of these books (can't remember the title) was really outstanding, but is probably out of print now. It described really out of the way places.

I also thought Bunaken was excellent, the best walls I have seen.

Maybe the book #4 refers to is Underwater Indonesia by Kal Muller. I have the 1992 edition, which seems to be the most recent available on the Amazon UK website. Probably still OK for the actual dives, but no good on prices, accomodation, etc now.

I have seen the book, "Underwater Indonesia" by Kal Muller (a very good and informative dive book), but it is not as good as the other one referenced in # 4 which I saw in a bookstore several years ago. Note: Many reefs in Indonesia have been severely damaged or destroyed since 1992 by a combination of factors.

I best reef walls I've seen were on a 4 day and night trip by boat around the Togian Islands in 1995. There were some walls that were DOUBLE walls that went down down down to the abyss.

Indonesia has wonderful dive areas. I've been to:
Menjengan (Northwest corner of Bali) is excellent for sealife and walls. I dove with "Jos" and they were fine and cheap;
Bunaken (near Manado in Sulewesi) perhaps the best and most diverse coral -- 700 varieties -- I've ever seen. Got to be a "top 10" site worldwide. Dove with Thalassa, I'd highly recommend them
Nusa Lembongan (off the South coast of Bali) has excellent coral and sponges, and if your lucky, Mola Mola (June - September), but you need experience to manage the currents - World Divers is the top operator
Maumere in Flores has some nice, pristine dive sites and a great wrack but again I'd recommend this for experienced divers, as you are likely to be diving alone and with so-so dive guides. I dove and stayed at Sea World Club.
Alor -- never been -- but everyone I've ever met who has been, raves about its sea life, lots of large fish. Dives Alor is the top operator. They are on the web.

I saw a large Mola Mola at close range about 10 years ago, around Nusa Lembongan / Nusa Penida, one of my most memorable diving experiences ever. We also saw lots of reef sharks around there and I think some turtles etc.
A friend emailed this week to say that Mola Mola have been seen there recently.
As you say the currents are quite strong, also the temperature changes can be quite dramatic (especially for me as i don't usually wear a wet suit).

For huge numbers of smaller fish, easily the best I have seen was at Pantia Merah (red beach, a pink coral beach) on Komodo island. There were "walls" of small brightly coloured fish. I was snorkelling there from a private boat, and did not feel that scuba was really needed there. I have no idea how to organise a dive there; I guess a private charter is needed. There is the extra excitement there of looking over your shoulder for any swimming Komodo dragons (I did not see any).