Kanawa Island Dive Resort - Indonesia
Kanawa Island dive resort is located near Flores Island in Indonesia. This is a low budget resort that offers great access to diving in Komodo National Marine Park. Kanawa Island itself is a small island about 1 hour boat ride (very slow local boat) from the main town of Labuan Bajo.
Getting there: this place is somewhat difficult to get to if you are not from Indonesia: first you must fly into Jakarta, find a local flight to Denpesar (Bali) and once you get there, you must find another local flight to Labuan Bajo. Often times sketchy men will approach you telling you that they can get you tickets, but it is best to deal with official looking booths. Once you fly into Labuan Bajo, you must take a taxi or ojeck (scooter taxi) to the port where the resort staff has a boat that will take you there.
Accommodations: I went on this trip in winter of 2012 and the accommodations available at the time were very basic, you had the choice of a bali bali, which is a beach side straw tent platform that has a comfortable mattress and a mosquito net on it. You can upgrade to a standard cabin and have more space, bathroom and a ceiling fan! However, even the deluxe cabins did not offer AC which is sorely needed! Bali Bali dwellers use a shared bathroom and shower outside. They provide electricity from sunset till 11pm so you cannot charge anything during the day.
Food: They provided complementary breakfast but it was nothing too special. Lunch and dinner were very reasonable prices for the area (5-10 USD) per meal and you had many choices of local fish/lobster, chicken, curries and pizzas. I did get sick from the food one evening but it might have just been me because no one from my group got sick. If you have special dietary restrictions, it might be a good idea to contact them because they get all their food daily by boat.
Diving: Phenomenal!!! Even the house reef was very impressive with pygmy sea horses, Cuddlefish, turtles and octopus. House reef dives were very reasonable and they even allowed us to dive it on our own since we had a dive instructor with us. As for the rest of the park, you can pay around $100 USD for an all day 3 tank dive (with gear rental and lunch). The boat was fairly comfortable and spacious, the crew was very nice but spoke little English. However, the DMs that come with you are typical American or European, therefore, they communicate well and are very aware of the local dive conditions. The best dive site we went to was Castle Rock, which was a pinnacle with extremely strong currents on either side. The amount of coral, reef fishes and healthiness of the coral was astounding. Manta Point was another drift dive where we got to see half a dozen manta rays in close proximity. Post dives, they provided you with coffee, water and snacks and at lunch, they provided a pretty tasty meal. There is only one dive shop there and it is ran by an Australian man I believe and he is a very nice guy. The shop cleans all your gear for you because they are very limited on fresh water.
Overall, I was satisfied with the resort. It was a bit on the pricey side but it is an island worth visiting. However, you must be okay with rural conditions as you do not get AC and many creature comforts that most people expect from a "resort". If you are on a tight budget, do not mind roughing it a little and just want to dive amazing dive sites, I would recommend this place. If however, you want all the comforts, then I would look elsewhere.
OH- bring bug spray... mosquitoes were rampant but that's expected for Indonesia in general.
