Diving Indonesia

By Mary LePage

Four Under Sea Adventurers, Linda Ianniello, Bob Weybrecht, and Larry & Mary LePage made their way to Kungkungan Resort (KBR) in the Lembeh Straights.  After 30 hours of travel we were anxious to hit the water and the day after our arrival we did four dives.  Our cabins were not air conditioned nor were they screened, however, each evening before dusk we closed our windows against things that flew in and the overhead fans provided enough air movement to make the room bearable. Two couples, or a couple and friend could in one cabin although our photographers wouldn’t have enough level surfaces to store all their equipment without the extra bed.

T h r ee dives a day were scheduled with an optional night dive. Our BCDs and regulators were left on the boat ready for every dive. A mesh bag was provided in which we kept our fins, masks, etc.  After each dive all we had to do was rinse our wetsuits and hang them up to drip until the next dive.

The water jarred our senses awake and our first dive began with a bit of disappointment as we finned over the barren bottom, thinking to ourselves, what could possibly be in this silt. The disappointment changed into a sense of awe as one unusual, sometimes beautiful, creature after another was discovered at each dive site.

The first dive site was TK1. Most dives were ‘20 Indonesian meters’ which translates into anywhere from 45 to over 90 feet.  Here we discovered (or uncovered) many kinds of lionfish, frogfish, nudibranchs, anemone fish, crabs hidden in the sand and in anemones, ribbon eels, plus various kinds of scorpion fish. During our next dives at Magic Crack, Tanjung Kubur, Kapal Indam, Pantai Parigi, Hairball 2, and the Police Pier to name a few, we encountered these and more.  Sea horses, cuttlefish, pygmy seahorses, octopus, pipefish, and mantis shrimp filled hours of video and compact flash cards. I had seen one mandarin fish previous to visiting KBR. Our guides took us on a dusk dive where the little critters were scooting all around us, however, the fish did not feel amorous nor did they care for high-powered video lights.

Breakfast and lunch were buffets.  Here we could pick and choose without gambling on our selections.  Dinner was ordered off the menu and, through trial and error, we found dishes we liked.

Late in the week we were joined by a 5th USAer, Deborah Kaddah.  She managed to in get a few days of diving at KBR. Alas our time at KBR ended and we made our way to the airport in Manado to join up with Ronnie Farr, Nils Jacobsen, and Chary Lynn to fly to Bali enroute to the Pelagian and a new adventure.

We felt like celebrities when we were being shuttled to the boat with other guests being shuttled to Wakatobi.  The captain and crew, in dress whites, greeted the eight of us onto the boat while the big wooden boat continued onto the resort.  After a tour and briefing we settled into our new lodgings. Most of the rooms were bigger than we were accustomed to on live aboards and we were able to stow our clothes, toiletries and soft pieces of luggage. We had to maneuver around non-collapsible pieces of luggage that we piled up as best we could.

Our first dives, much to the delight of a few of us, were more muck dives off the island of Buton. Ten guests were divided into two groups, five in each dingy, and carried off to the Asphalt Pier where we saw ghost pipe fish, frog fish the size of a quarter, lots of nudibranchs, mantis shrimp, and, my favorite, orangutan crabs. We dove Buton for two days also visiting Dermaga and Buton Beach. Our favorites were the Asphalt Pier and Buton Beach so we dove them again and discovered other neat things.  We headed to Wangi Wangi where we began to enjoy diving lush walls.  There we encountered current. Our pre-dive briefing instructed us to keep the wall on the right (or left depending on the current) and if that didn’t work we just switched shoulders and went the other way.  We moved on to Twin Peaks at Kaleupa then Hoga where we dove Buoy 1, the North Wall, Outer Ridge, and Outer Pinnacle. On these dives, in addition to the lush soft corals and beautiful hard corals we came across bumphead parrot fish, angels, butterfly fish, grouper, sweetlips, Moorish Idols, triggerfish of all sizes, surgeon fish, anemone fish, damsels, beautiful wrasses, flatworms, nudibranchs, Pygmy seahorses, and crabs indigenous to that part of the world.  Continuing to Karang Runduma we dove the Runduma Wall and encountered ripping current which reversed as we got up to twenty-seven feet.  Moving to Palau Avano we dove Tanjung Anano and Jewel Ridge where we did a night dive. There was no current and we dove among huge table corals on top of the reef.  We continued on to other islands where we dove among scores of fish that, when the current kicked up, would rise into the water column to feed.  It looked like a fireworks display with yellow and black sergeant majors, colorful orange or blue anthias, silver and blue rainbow runners, and hundreds of triggerfish moving in schools up and down the wall.  This was a time to just absorb the beauty that surrounded us.   We continued on to dive at Palau Kentiole and Karang Koka where, on a night dive at Koka Mountain, we encountered a cuttlefish that was easily 19 inches long and a tiny white cuttlefish.  We found squat lobsters in the crinoids, many beautiful little yellow sea cucumbers, crabs, and a tongue worm that fascinated me as it withdrew into its tube. We headed back to Tomia where we started and dove the Wakatobi dive sites.  There we dove down to 110 feet and saw purple and green pygmy seahorses on their sea fan homes. At Pinkies Wall there were Six Banded and Yellow Mask Angelfish and Yellow Margin Triggerfish among the Sweetlips. Some of the many fish we saw we were able to capture with our cameras. We all found that the fish were willing to swim with us, but the minute we pointed our cameras at them they hid in the coral.

Finally this part of the trip was finished.  Some of us were going home, others traveling on to Bali for a week.  Our bags were packed and removed from the boat at 6:00 P.M. the evening before our departure.  The homebound travelers counted on getting a change of clothes from their checked luggage before leaving from Bali to Singapore (the best made plans).  Our bags and our bodies were picked up to go to Wakatobi for a barbeque.  That evening, under the threat of rain and sea monsters, we made our way back to the Pelagian in an open boat just big enough for our group.

The next morning we made our way back to Wakatobi to wait for the boat that would take us to the van that would take us to the plane. After a small mishap with the plane where mechanics had to remove the wheels on one side of the plane and make repairs on the brakes, we courageously boarded.  The flight was a non-event but the homebound travelers were rushed off the plane in order to make the first leg of their journey (and hopefully make that change of clothes).

The rest of the travelers, Chary Lynn, and Larry and Mary LePage, met their driver and were taken to the Grand Kumala Hotel in Denpasar for a two-night stay.  On our free day we shopped at the Discovery Mall, watched an international competition of beach soccer, and picked up 100,000 Indonesian dollars at the ATM. Aqua Marine, our guide for the week, picked us up for our trip to the north side of the island. There was a mix up in our itinerary and our driver, after stopping for lunch where we tasted black rice pudding for the first time, drove us right to our hotel in Lovina. We were supposed to visit a temple, rice terraces and a village. We got in touch with Aqua Marine and they promised to make it up to us by taking us anywhere we wanted to go on our free day before departure.  I suggested Sweden but was outvoted.

Larry and Mary had arranged to dive at a new dive site west of Lovina called Puri Jati.  It was another muck dive so Chary begged off. A short drive from the hotel, we parked the van next to the Bali version of a convenience store where the owner and her children, aged 10 and 12, rushed out to assist us.

We had the misfortune to do only two dives.  We should have spent three days there. We saw Ambon Scorpion Fish, three Mimic Octopus, three other octopus, two ghost pipe fish, flat worms, tiny lionfish, three quarters of an inch long, tiny scorpion fish, Wolf Eels, many Emperor Shrimp on segmented worms, shrimp in an upside down jelly fish, seahorses, and file fish to name a few. Also, according to my notes, a weird thing that turned out to be a comb jelly.

The children brought out a plastic tub to rinse our gear and met us each time we exited the water.  The ten-year old boy carried Larry’s tank and BCD from the water’s edge back to the van. The young lady insisted on carrying my fins and mask. After the dives were over, both children helped rinse our gear and rinse us as well. We contributed to their schoolbook fund. We hope.

After the dive we picked up Chary and were off to Tulumben to dive the famous Liberty Wreck (not a muck dive much to Chary’s relief). Our rooms at the Paradise Dive Center were pretty basic but had an air conditioner, hot water and were close to the restaurant and water. We met the next morning ready to dive the wreck.  One after the other we stumbled over the stones en route to the entry point for the wreck.  It was low tide and visibility was a scant twenty feet but the wreck lived up to its reputation.  Whereas the fish were shy up north, here we practically had to beat them away to get a picture.  We would raise the camera and they would be two inches away giving us great pictures of eyes, fins, and scales.  We encountered big Scrawled File Fish, angels, nudibranchs, shrimp gobies, scorpion fish, wasp fish, and garden eels during the dive .We traipsed back over the rubble and over rubble in the opposite direction in order to dive the wall.  The wall was in bad shape because of fine volcanic sand washing on to it but we encountered nudibranchs every four feet in the silt as we swam to and from.

Again we were on the move. This time to the Pertiwi Resort & Spa in Ubud.  Now it was time for serious souvenir shopping as well as a little sightseeing. We were treated to the Barong & Kris Dance, a five-act musical play, representing the eternal fight between good (the Barong) and evil (the Ranga).  We also visited the Bat Cave Temple where thousands of bats inhabit a cave behind the temple.  We spent time visiting silver stores and a wood carving shop.  Being disappointed with the silver shops, Chary asked the guide to take us to a “fine jewelry” shop.  It was a wonderful place for the women and Larry had a great time negotiating for better prices.  At the wood carving shop, we purchased a couple Barongs in order to keep evil spirits from entering our home.  On our way to the airport the next day, we asked to leave early in order to visit the “fine jewelry” shop again. We didn’t need to negotiate. They saw Larry and caved in with good prices.

We’re home and we’ll have fond memories always.

Mary LePage