In March of 2009 my daughter and I flew to Kaimana to board the Damai I for a trip to Triton Bay and then onto Misool. The trip got off to a rocky start because pirates were not allowing boats to go into Triton Bay so that part of our itinerary was deleted. Unfortunately the first two days of the trip were then spent cruising to the Misool area where the real good diving got underway. We did do some diving in route, but it was not all that great.

Much has been written about the actual diving in this area and you can see my region review elsewhere here. I also highly recommend the Burt Jones book on Raja Ampat diving. They had this available for sale on the boat and it is fantastic. It gives very detailed description of diving at each site and we used it throughout our trip to know what to expect.

The Damai boat is beautiful and at the best in the world class. The two cabins in the back (we had one of them) have balconies out the back. If you want to combine a honeymoon and a dive trip together, this would be the best. The bathroom was also enormous. All of the toiletries were great, kind of unusual for a dive boat.

The food was very good with a lot of variety. We had at least two choices for every meal with lots of fruit and salad items to go with the main courses. They had great post-dive snacks which were warm, chocolate, and tasty.

The Damai had two skifs for taking divers to dive sites. They were each designed to make it especially easy for divers to get in and out of the boat. If I am still diving at 80, I would want to dive on these boats. Safety was a big concern at all times and the divemasters always went out to each site before we dove to make sure that currents were acceptable. Even with that caution, currents in this area change quickly and we did have some strong challenges in the Misool area.

One of the real treats on board was that the boat offered pretty much open access to the on board massage service. It was great and my daughter got about two per day.

Because the boat only has 10 passengers, the groups were always small. We had one divemaster for each group of 4 or 5 people. They spent most of their time looking for pygmy seahorses or some other small things.

Tanks and gear stayed on he boat (designed by divers I am sure), so you never had to carry anything back and forth to the boat. As a result, the dive deck was calm and civilized.

Laundry was done every day and the boat would always wash anything that you wanted. It really cuts down how much you have to bring with.

Pretty much everyone on board was an underwater photographer and the boat had a large room with personal space for everyone. It was the best that I had ever seen on a boat. Of course, the subject matter under the water is simply the best in the world.

The ending was also nice. we had one bill which covered everything including airport taxes. So we didn't need to do anything but get our butts on the plane once we left the boat.

The first good thing about the Manado/Lembeh area is the ease of getting there. While many of the best Indonesian diving requires multiple flights and layovers, the flight from Singapore to Manado is just a couple of hours on a nice Western standard plane. The previous time we were in the area, we took a non-stop from Jakarta to Manado on LionAir and that worked great as well although the accommodations on board were spartan to say the least. Whatever way you go, you will be greeted on the other side of customs by a representative of the Lembeh Resort hotel. Nothing like a friendly face when you land in a remote spot.

After a 2 hour drive and a half hour boat ride, you arrive at a lovely resort pasted up against a vertical wall. I happened to be here during the Japanese tsunami, and we had alerts, but no waves which was a relief. The resort rivals Anse Chastenet in St. Lucia for vertical drop, so be ready for a walk. I stayed in cabin #1 which is on the far right hand side of the resort. It was very private but a long walk and a lot of stairs to get to. There are several cabins that are lower down, but not many. If you don’t like stairs, I would go to KBR which is much flatter (I have not been there). The room was spacious and had a great view. A non-diving spouse would do just fine here. The bathroom and shower was outside which was fun and private.

Food was very very good. A European/American breakfast with lots of egg dishes and standard hotel fare. Lunches and dinner were more Indonesian with lots of chicken, fish, and vegetarian options. One never went hungry and even the deserts were very nice. We only had to pay extra for soft drinks and beer.

The hotel has a very lovely pool, but it does get crowded at times, especially if there are non-diving groups there. It wasn’t a place that I frequented, but it was nice for an afternoon dip and sunning.

The dive operation was absolutely first rate. They had an entire building for underwater photographers with a resident camera expert. I had some troubles with my camera and they rigged a fix that was clever, free, and kept me snapping the whole time. Any other place on the planet and I would have come home without photos. You really are left to dive according to your plan and dive computer. We always waited for those lucky enough to have air to stay down for up to 75 minutes. Several of the dives got fairly deep and a prize pygmy seahorse was at about 120 feet.

Of course, people go here for critter diving and it delivers. No guarantees but we saw mandarin fish, blue ring ottos, rhinopias, seahorses, ornate ghost pipefishes, wonder pus and coconut octopus which are really cool. It has to be the best mandarin site on the planet. They have little guys trained to ignore big camera lights.

Several of the coral sites are pretty good too. California Dreamin is a very good coral reef dive with lots of pretty soft coral. You have to ask to go there because it is a bit further away and most people want to see critters. OF course, don’t miss a night dive. We didn’t get to see a bobbit worm, but I did see some the most amazing octopus behavior ever.

Lembeh has a special program with the Manado airport that includes expedited service. I think it was $25 extra and it was worth every penny. Hopefully they continue that service

Half the fun of this place is getting there. The road that turns north towards the shore starts out as a normal Indonesian rode and gets progressively more remote as you go. Farmers would use the road to lay out blankets and dry their crops in the sun. We had to go around mules pulling logs and even had to work our way through a wedding celebration march that used the road we were on. You definitely get a "We're not in Kansas anymore" feeling by the time you get to the dock where it is then a 45 minute boat ride to the island.

The Gangga Island Resort is a small island with 15 bungalows, each with two rooms. The resort itself is quite spacious with a good size pool and a nice set of core buildings for the patrons. Some of the rooms are a pretty good walk to the central resort, so look at a resort map and choose carefully if you don't want a five minute or more hike each way. The paths were dark and not real well lit.

The food was buffet style for all meals (it's not like you had anywhere else to go!) and it was very good. As a matter of fact the food was great--the best that I have had at a dedicated dive resort. The owners are Italian so that tilts the food in that direction. As a matter of fact, the entire resort is heavily tilted towards European travelers and families. We were there in August which is the height of the vacation season so there were a lot of European families with children. We only saw one other American couple the time we were there. That didn't bother us, but some folks might like more Americans.

The diving facility and dive photography facility was spacious and first class. The entire dive operation was extremely well run. They had 4 or 5 boats that would go to different sites each morning.

The diving was quite a bit more controlled due to the nature of the clientele which were generally less experienced than at most dive resorts. (I think Lembeh tends to attract the serious divers compared to here) Strict one hour limits were enforced and we were required to stay in a small group. Since I was there with my 13 year old son, this was OK with me.

The diving nearby was very good, although some of the sites were not reachable because of windy weather when we were there. Several of the sites near the resort had typical pretty coral reefs with small reef fish and an occasional eagle ray and turtle. We also went back to the mainland of Sulawesi for some dives that were a bit more Lembeh like. We did find a nice mandarin fish dive and they had a boat that went there every evening at sunset. We went twice because I forgot to have my strobe plugged in inside my housing the first time! We looked for pygmy seahorses but did not find them. We did see lots of angel fish and a couple of interesting octopuses.

We went to Bangka Island twice during the week were there and it was very good coral reef diving. Not quite as good as Raja Ampat, but still very good. For extra charge, we did a day trip to Bunaken which was actually a bit disappointing. Very pretty topography, but not a lot of fish. The resort did an all day trip to Lembeh a couple of times a week. We had just been to the Lembeh Resort, so we skipped that.

While a dive resort, this place had a multi-purpose feel to it as opposed to Lembeh which was kind of a liveaboard on land. Most people went diving, but not every day like we did. We did get paired with a specific divemaster who appreciated that we were more serious than most divers there. He helped me with my photography and kept a good eye on my young son. He was probably the best divemaster that I have ever had on a trip.

This is a great family destination where some dive and some don't. The only other place like it was the Cousteau Resort on Fiji. Kids will be happy in the pool. Teens will be happy in local diving. Divers will have lots of options as well. This is a place that more Americans should visit. There are plenty of local sites for five days or so. It makes a great extension onto a Lembeh Resort visit and gives a very nice extension to the muck diving of Lembeh.

The Nai'a was an unusual trip for me in that I went alone. Being a lone traveler was a bit different because you don't have that go to person on the boat or underwater. It tends to amplify the importance of the details.

First, getting there is great. It is the easiest place to get to of the far away spots outside of the Caribbean. An overnight from LA and you are in Nadi and a 1 hour drive and you are ready for the boat. I stayed one night at a Nadi hotel to catch my breath and ended up meeting half of my future boat mates.

The boat is most luxurious that I have been on, even compared to the Indonesian boats which are bigger, but in a more casual way. The owners make sure that you feel like royalty when you step on board. When the boat was first built, the owners created a deal where each return visit would get a slightly larger discount. They were more successful that they had hoped and ended up with a lot of very regular repeat visitors. I was one of only 2 or 3 out of 18 that had not been on the boat before.

The food is the best you can get on a liveaboard dive boat. They have chefs come in and design a 2 week menu that rotates for each night. White table clothes and fine place settings. Meals are a big focus of the week.

The water temps in Fiji vary quite a bit through the year. I was there in early November and the water was a bit cool, especially towards the end of the week after 20 or so dives. If you go in our summer, the water can be very cold while Feb and March are very warm. Be prepared.

We divided up into two groups for the week and the dive operation was very hands off once they were comfortable with your skills. I passed their muster and was left to kind of do my own thing with my camera. Because I didn't have a dive buddy, I was almost too alone at times. The good thing was that water visibility was always very high and we could see a long ways. We were also left to dive as long as our air and computers would take care of us.

The camera facilities were more limited than what is now current standard. I would not be surprised if they have updated their UW photography benches. Equipment has gotten a lot mroe common and bulky over the past few years.

The diving is very good from start to end. The Namena marine reserve has a half dozen world class sites. I dove there from the Cousteau Resort a few years earlier, but it was a long ways removed from the hotel and boat only went there twice a week, wind willing.

Chimneys is a pair of volcanic pinnacles which are really nice with schools of fish from the bottom at about 100 feet all the way to the surface. All of the reef tops in Fiji are full of colorful hard coral garden and the Chimneys were beautiful. Kansas is another amazing dive with fields of beige soft coral flowing in the current to make it look like, well Kansas. North Save-A-Tack is also an incredible dive in the right conditions. Schools of fish and a handful of sharks were everywhere.

Nigali Passage has to be one of the best dive sites in the world. Very similar to Ulong Island in Palau. It is a mile long channel between two bodies of water and at the right current conditions it fills with the entire food chain from the eaten to the eaters. A dozen sharks, 50 or so big groupers , and schools of bait for the big guys. They set up like a wall of feeders and you just watch the action happen. It is almost worth the trip for that dive alone.

Also spectacular is E6 which is a bit pinnacle out in the blue. While some divers said that this site has been hurt by El Nino is the late 1990s, it seemed pretty amazing to me.

Fiji did lack the huge variety of places like Solomons and Indonesia to the immediate west. We did not see the exotic creatures that one sees there.

One other side note, I did befriend an elderly woman diver who had logged 12,000 dives in her career and she was retiring after she left the boat. She was most famous for being the blonde on Sea Hunter who always needed to be rescued by Beau Bridges. She had many stories to tell about the creation of the dive industry over the 1980s and 1990s. For an avid diver, her stories were great. And she still kept up with the group!