Bunaken Island, Indonesia

Bunaken Island, Indonesia ... sounds quite exotic being so far from home. Our trip was planned here because we had heard great things about the diving and the small stuff that you could see here. We chose Froggies divers on a recommendation from some other divers and had confirmations from others that the resort/dive operation was very good. With Froggies you email them and they make a reservation for you, very informal and no cash exchanging hands. Our airline tickets were bought on the internet at www.ebookers.nl where we have purchased many tickets before, its easy and quick.

We reconfirmed with Froggies a number of times regarding our intentions to come and received emails back that everything was fine and that were expecting us. Since no money had been sent we were a little anxious that everything would work out.

On December the 25th we left Schiphol airport for Singapore. The flight was long but the service on Singapore Airlines is probably one of the best I have experienced. We landed on December the 26th and wandered around the airport for 3 hours while waiting for our next flight to Manado. Our shopping at the airport consisted of film and batteries only. The prices here are not in anyway cheaper than Holland.

We left Singapore on Silk Air for Manado with no delays or problems. On arrival we picked up our luggage and were met by Froggies outside the arrivals area. We were then taken on a short taxi ride into Manado and boarded our boat for the hour ride to Bunaken Island. (Bunaken is pronounced 'Bun' 'nah' 'kin'). The town of Manado is very dirty and run down. In my opinion it is not a place were you would want to spend anytime sight seeing or walking around.

Describing the Island as having basic but nice accommodation would be as close a description as I can get. The bungalow that we stayed in has electricity but no running water. A shower is taken by pouring water over yourself with the small hand buckets that are provided. The toilet is normal but it is flushed by pouring water into it. We have a large balcony which overlooks the water, very restful.

Everyone eats in a central area, staff and guests. Food is mainly rice, fish, meat, vegetables, and the local fruit. It also seems that most of the staff know how to play the guitar because someone is always singing and playing an Indonesian tune in the background.

On with the dive reports:

27 Dec - Negrero I

As with all the dives a fast long boat is used to take you out to the site. Once you kit up, a backward roll off the boat takes you into the water. The first dive was a little busy at the surface as we were doing buoyancy checks and trying to get the camera's from the crew. This was made difficult as the current was quite strong. By the time we submerged I knew my air would not last long. Large schools of Bannerfish, and Butterflyfish everywhere, sponges galore with fantastic colors.

Almost immediately we saw 3 or 4 different types of nudibranches and shrimps, unbelievable the diversity. Out after a short 37 minutes we had gone through 200 bar like nothing. Our guide still had 150 bar left! Talk about embarrassed.

Likuan II

A nice wall dive similar to the last one with more of everything, nudibranches, shrimps, boxfish, eels, blacktip shark, scorpionfish, and leaf fish. This time we stayed under for a more normal 57 minutes.

28 Dec - Alung Banua

A quick boat ride of 10 mins or so found us at this site. We descended immediately to about 20 meters and Vitro our guide pointed out a couple of brown leaf fish and a partner goby. He was using a long collapsible car antenna to tease the gobies from their holes, quite funny to watch. When he wiggled the end at the hole the fish would dart out and try to bite it. Further on we watched him tease a black ribbon eel out. Swimming along the wall with all the sponges and coral was very nice. Nudibranches and schools of Pyramid Butterflyfish everywhere. Other things we saw, Longnose hawkfish, scorpionfish, and big puffers.

Raymonds

Dropped off the boat and cruised around the wall taking a few of the usual pictures. A few minutes into the dive and the current picked out and the visibility dropped. Just in for the ride we saw 2 turtles and a few more leaf fish.

29 Dec - Tanjung Pisok

We specifically went here to find Pigmy Seahorses which Vitro found almost immediately. Very small and difficult to see any features on them at all. While Vitro was searching for the sea horses we were busy looking at a black and white snake eel searching for lunch among the coral. Also spotted on this dive were small furry spider crabs and Skunk anemonefish.

Mandolin

Very fast drift dive with 2 turtles and at the end of the dive a White mouthed moray.

30 Dec - Lukuan I

A nice sunny day with a bit of wind and fairly good visibility. Picked out a white and yellow leaf fish but could not get a picture as they were not very accessible. Marlies pointed out a very nice anemone shrimp and halfway through the dive we spotted a large turtle resting on a ledge. It let us get quite close for a few pictures before swimming off. Our first lobster was also seen here wiggling it antenna in the current.

Bualo 

Huge pink nudibranch (Chromodoris)

Fukui

A three dive day and this site although fairly devoid of any good coral provided us with 2 ghost pipefish, an eel, and the usual nudibranches.

31 Dec - Bunaken Timur 

2 Chromodoris snails, eels, and a large Potato grouper.

Pangalingen 

Robust Ghost pipefish, school of Batfish, Fusiliers, Anemone shrimp, Lobsters, Baby stonefish, and a large Jellyfish.

Mike's Point

Sea snake, White tip shark, blue ribbon eel, Crinoid clingfish, Emperor shrimp, Scaleworm.

1 Jan 2002 - Rons Point

Most people had a pretty good time at the New Years party. All the staff were singing and playing their guitars. At the stroke of midnight, or a little before, the fireworks were unwrapped and a bit of fun was had shooting them at a few 'victims'.

The dive was pretty good with a big Napoleon fish cruising the reef. Porcelain crabs in the anemone and in the current we saw 4 Blacktip sharks. The usual assortment of nudibranches and shrimps were also around.

Likuan III

Napoleon and Blacktip shark

2 Jan - Panganisan

Last night the weather was pretty rough with torrents of rain and a strong wind. Usually the morning would be a little cloudy then the afternoon would be nice and sunny. Today was a little different with the strong wind from the west still blowing.

On the dive I saw a moray, a very small coral shrimp crawling up the whip coral, a Dragonet Goby, Longnose Hogfish, two brown Glossodoris Stellatus ... one laying eggs the other on the coral, and 2 banded shrimp in a barrel sponge. No video because Marlies forgot to put the battery in, oops.

The boat ride back was very rough, at one point I was airborne, landing on the bench then the floor.

Likuan II

The second dive did not go ahead at 1:30 due to the weather. Rain and wind made it too difficult. Around 2:30 things were calming down and we left shore. Marlies opted to stay back as she didn't like the conditions. This site was quite good with no bottom in site, just blue. The current was kind of crazy with us going back and forth three times before we hit a depth were we could continue on. At the start we spotted a white tip just visible below us, further on another appeared this time much closer. As we swam with the wall turtles would swim out from their hiding places. Salmon our guide picked out a small white coral crab and the usual anemone shrimp, morays, and Butterflyfish. At one point Salmon pointed to something behind me, as I turned around I was in time to see 4 Napoleon fish making their way up the reef wall.

3 Jan - total loss, heavy winds and large amounts of rain made diving all but impossible.

4 Jan - Sachiko's

Weather is not perfect but good enough for two dives. First dive was at Sachiko's where we saw a white mouth moray, a porcelain crab in the anemone, hundreds of small red tooth triggerfish, and a Ianthina nudibranch.

Likuan I

At 30 meters I disturbed a whitetip resting on a ledge. Brown leaf fish, the usual amount of turtles and nudibranches.

5 Jan - Palganisan

The weather last night was very calm with stars visible. Unfortunately as the day wore on the rain came and we could only manage a single dive. In the water we fought to get to the reef and the current did not let up the whole dive. Some interesting huge Trevallys, school of Batfish, a Napoleon, small stonefish, a Rockmover wrasse, Banded sea snake, cushion star, and a juvenile Emperor fish. We were quickly through our air with a dive time of 39 mins.

Hoping for a night dive I came down optimistically with my dive light. Rain pouring down ... no hope.

6 Jan - Ron's Point

Raining but very calm, so we picked a site nearby. Scared a baby whitetip and a turtle off the reef. The turtle was quite close but they quickly move away when approached, unlike Egypt. The usual stuff seen and at the end of the dive a number of spotted garden eels were poking their heads out of the sand.

Likuan II

Still raining, Marlies opts out but I can't turn down the last dive of the vacation. This is one of my favorite spots and I should have taken the macro off because we spotted 4 baby white tips in a hole, a very large white tip cruising the reef at about 10 meters, and 2 medium sized white tips. A large single barracuda and a napoleon swam by at some point and at the same point as before a curtain of yellow and white Pyramid Butterflyfish from 10 to 40 meters.

While doing our safety stop the rain made the top 5 meters cooler than the usual 28 degrees. Salmon my guide was shivering like mad, glad I'm sure that this was the last dive for a couple of weeks for him.

7 Jan

We headed back to Manado then had a minibus transfer us to the airport from there. Very smooth with no hassles at all. The plane from Manado was delayed for a bit due to the bad weather but eventually got underway.

There does not seem to be any advanced landing system at this airport so if there is any abundance of fog, rain, etc, that impairs the visibility then your chances of a delay are almost guaranteed.

Landing at Singapore we had about 5 hours till our flight so we took a taxi into the city and spent a few hours shopping. Very easy to get into the city by cab and well worth the trip to get out of the airport.

The flight back was without any problems and was very short for me as I slept through most of it.

Summary

The flight to Manado is a long one and using Singapore Airlines made it a lot more bearable. I would recommend them to anyone. Froggies was very competent at picking us up at the correct time and dropping us off. They also did all the heavy work of transferring our bags when they needed to be carried to and from the boat.

As far as the weather went, we had a good 7 or 8 days of good or fair weather but since this is the rainy season time you should expect some rain storms. I would however plan to avoid this time of year as it did limit what we were able to do. Specifically we would have liked to go to Lembah Strait which we could not, due to the weather. This advice however is probably useless as the weather is impossible to predict and no matter when you go you might get wonderful or terrible weather.

The resort was a lot of fun and nothing like I have been to before. When you stay at Froggies you feel like more of a guest at someone's house rather than at a resort. Yes, you have you own bungalow but everyone eating together, talking, singing, etc, really adds to the atmosphere.

Diving was great, all the small stuff here is in abundance. Visibility is not as great as the Red Sea but that may change from season to season.