KBR Lembeh Dive Resort
Kungkungan Bay Resort (KBR) just outside of Bitung, Indonesia, which is a city famous for processing tuna, was the third stop for me in Indonesia on a so-called swimabout in 2013 and 2014. So my travel route was a transfer from Gangga Island Resort by boat/car, and the switch took place at the Manado airport. It is a 1.5 hour scenic drive after that to Lembeh Strait. Silk Air flies into Manado several days a week so in fact you can book an itinerary all the way through on Singapore Airlines which makes Lembeh/North Sulawesi a highly attractive dive destination in addition to all of the other reasons related to marine life.
The dive day started at 8:15, and we would dive again at 11:15, and 14:45. But if you want, you can have all the shore dives that you would like. If you are awake for that. Each dive is preceded by a dive briefing that is accompanied by an illustration on a white board. The guides describe the general geography of a site, sandy slope, wall, rubble, and indicate what kind of critters we might find. When the dive guide got to the part where he told us how long it would take to arrive at the dive site, we laughed every time because usually it was only five to seven minutes and sometimes less.
Lembeh Strait is famous muck diving so you spend a lot of time on the bottom, which might include digging through some local refuse, and yet Lembeh is on most divers’ wish list because all sorts of fabulous, unusual and even colorful creatures, with sometimes whirling parts (that may be their eyes), live there. Many probably have yet to be discovered. Why they do live in such a habitat is a mystery to me-it is a busy and sometimes noisy area-but for some reason they seem to love to inhabit the rubble or the garbage that floats into the sea and reproduce in it. The trash in Lembeh Strait however is relatively moderate compared to Ambon (2010).
As a well-read diver, you can arrive at KBR with a long list of creatures that you want to see. There is a wish list board at KBR and some critters are 100% guaranteed, like pygmy seahorses, whereas others are not, such as a hairy frogfish or harlequin shrimp. I do not like to make lists of critters because I feel sure then that I will not see them. But KBR is really like a make-a-wish place for divers. The guides will say there is no guarantee-they are always saying this-but they pretty much can find whatever you have read about.
Sea creatures tend to be territorial and in the case of KBR, so do the dive guides. My dive guide for part of the week was Ade who has been working for the resort for nearly 18 years, his colleague, Liberty, almost 19! Together they have logged over 25,000 dives. I am not sure who expects to see whom underwater. The critters may themselves have special names for these two. It was always fun to dive with them because they still like to do it, and they do it with a sense of humor.
Secretly however, I did have a list…one creature that I had never seen was the blue-ringed octopus. After many years of diving muck sites, on my first dive in Lembeh, the 8:15 dive at Pulau Abadi, a blue-ringed octopus went gliding across the bottom in front of us. It became routine to see them. I had a second wish…to see a Lembeh sea dragon. One day at Nudi Retreat 3, Ade made his underwater call, and when it was my turn to look, a Lembeh sea dragon was bouncing around in the water in front of me, like a tiny rubber band attached to something at one end. I do not know how often the guides find the sea dragons, but I am glad I was with Ade on one of the days that he did.
Early December seemed to be a shoulder season of sorts for the resort (perhaps I should keep this observation a secret!), and the management bumped me up to a deluxe bungalow on the beach. Extremely luxurious accommodations, especially for a single traveler.
The area, though, has a high density of resorts so sometimes we had to go to another dive site because there already were boats from other resorts. Once, however, the guides scheduled a dive to Angel’s Window 15 minutes ahead of time to beat the other boats, but there are also plenty of incredible dive sites so you are never disappointed. There is always a plan A, B, C, D etc. which are in essence always an “A” plan. The only dive that did not work was the mandarin fish dive. Plenty of some of the largest mandarin fish I have ever seen, but no mating pairs. The lights of the two divers I was with probably interfered with the mating ritual. I still had my own dive guide for most days, and one day I was completely alone on the dive boat for three dives. For only two days did I have to share Ade with one other guest.
The only disappointment (besides having to leave) was that there was no nitrox the week I was there. Some of the dives are deep (25 m), to see the Coleman shrimp or Denise or Bargibanti pygmy seahorses, so we were a bit rushed to look and take a photo.
Accommodations & Food
KBR was the first resort built in Lembeh. I was in a deluxe beach bungalow which was incredibly luxurious and spacious. Lembeh Strait is a busy area so the boat traffic is constant during the day, but there is no industry in Kungkungan Bay and you have a view of the sunset. The food is a mixture of Western and Indonesian dishes. It is not fancy but it is well prepared. Their version of fried banana with melted cheese is to die for.
Diving
It is muck/reef diving and the macro life is rich. The guides have been there forever and seem to have infinite powers to find something you have never seen before at any dive site, even in the bleakest looking ones. The schedule is strict-three times a day-starting at 8:15, unless you do shore diving which is unlimited. Dives are generally 25 m and above, and 60 minutes passes in a microsecond.
