Black Sand Dive Retreat
Black Sand is a fairly small-scale operation with 6 bungalows, which is great for the guests because we were given so much care and attention from our hosts. Bruce, Fung and Rustam couldn't have been more gracious with their time, enthusiasm and attention to our needs. Bruce (always accompanied by his two dogs) will come and sit, eat and share stories with the guests every evening, often helping us to identify some of the many critters that we had photographed but couldn't put a name to.
Lunch and evening meals are selected after breakfast. It's a somewhat limited choice but that's to be expected and the meals were always more than satisfactory, with a choice of European and Asian fare.
The bungalows are very comfortable with spectacular views of the bay. The bathrooms have four walls but no ceiling.
The dive operation is very professionally operated. Nitrox is available and there is a room dedicated to camera maintenance. There is a maximum of 4 divers plus guide to each boat. We just needed to request a particular critter of our excellent guide Robin, and he would invariably take us to an appropriate site and show it to us. All of the Lembeh dive sites are amazing and we returned from each dive with massive smiles on our faces.
After washing your equipment, you can forget about it until you're ready to gear up on the next dive. We paid for 7 nights/ 17 dives, but the resort is very amenable to any requests for additional dives. You also get one free dive of the House Reef per day and it's definitely worth repeated visits.
All in all, a great resort, and one that I am quite confident that I will return to.
