Dive Review of Dewi Nusantara/Scuba Seraya in
Indonesia/Komodo, Alor, Wakatobi

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Dewi Nusantara/Scuba Seraya, Sep, 2012, by Kathy Granger, AZ, US ( 1 report). Report 6717.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	TRIP REPORT Dewi Nusantara/ Komodo/Alor/Wakatobi/south tip of Buton and Scuba Seraya We flew Cathay Pacific through Vancouver and Hong Kong to Bali where we overnighted at the Hotel Puri Bambu. This is a very inexpensive hotel that is close to the airport that has free shuttle service to and from the airport. We got 1hour and 1/2 massages here for apx. $12 US. They are very friendly and efficient and made us a take away breakfast since our flight left at 6 am. This was our 3rd time staying here. The price has jumped from around US $40 to US$85 since we stayed there last year. They are still great! We had an excellent experience on Cathay Pacific there and back. ( read more details in the thread "domestic flights from Jakarta to Sorong) We flew Aviastar airlines from Bali to LBJ and were picked up by one of my all time favorite head stewards from the Komodo Dancer and the former Paradise Dancer..Sebastian! He is a twin of Hendrich!! We arrived on the beautiful Dewi Nusantara and spent the first day relaxing and getting our gear ready. The Dewi is an amazing ship with a stellar crew! The cruise director " Wendy Brown" is one of our all time favorites! She is a witty, fun, no nonsense girl who LOVES diving and has excellent eyes! Asst. Director , Yan Alifan, is an amazing diver that has eagle eyes! The dive team is rounded out with Andre and Risko who are also fantastic!!! The rest of the crew is just wonderful including Hendrich, the head steward, that remembers your every wish after the first day. All of the guests were repeat customers except for 2 people. It was the 3rd time for a lot of us! What does this tell you about the operation? A lot of us brought gifts for Wendy and the crew with Wendy liking milk chocolate and the Vit. C drink mixes from Costco and Yan liking jelly beans! The crew likes Dvd's of action movies that they like to watch on long crossings. All of the crew are hard working and very fun loving guys! The captain is a hands on guy that was there to greet you after all of the dives and loved when you came up to the wheel house where he freely shared his maps and information. After each and EVERY dive you are given a hot towel and a wonderful back massage! Fantastic! The camera room is large and the dive deck is MASSIVE! We ate outside this time for every meal as the weather was awesome. You can not beat the Indonesian sunrises and sunsets. The first day of diving was at Gili Lawa Laut and the highlight dives of the day were Shotgun where we had quite a ride and another highlight was Spanish steps where we saw many spanish dancers , pgmy wolf octopus, saron shrimp, and the usual suspects. Water temps for most of the day were 27. The next day we were at Padar where we spotted many sea apples! We capped off the day with a walk to Pink Beach which is always a crowd pleaser. Water temps ranged from 22-24. Brrrr. On Day 4 we started the day with an early morning and very exciting walk on Rinca. I must say that we liked this walk a LOT better than our walk on Komodo Island many years ago. The place was hopping with us spotting 12 dragons including a baby in a tree and a fight with 2 females. There were many holes with eggs in them and one female got too close to a hole and was attacked by another dragon. We had to get off of the trail several times so the dragons could walk by us while we moved off into the trees! It was ,to say the least, spectacular! The highlight of the diving for that day was Sebayor with a wonderful night dive! We then moved slowly on to Maumere and then Lembata Island. Here we macro divers were in our glory with a dive site named "Sizzler." It lived up to its name with lots of baby leaf fish, and the mother lode of pipe fish with 12 on one dive! On day 8 we experienced a "HIGHLIGHT" of my lifetime while viewing the Komba volcano erupt after the 3rd dive of the day. It was SPECTACULAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We got there around 4 pm and it was erupting around every 10-15 minutes. ( and I mean erupting!!!) As it got darker the whole thing was glowing red and the rocks would roll down and hiss and give a huge splash once they hit the water! It was better than any fire work show that I have ever seen in my entire life! It was surreal to be sitting there eating dinner while watching this thing explode over and over. My best video was on my phone so I won't be able to post it here but the word of the night was WOW..WOW..WOW!!!!!!!!! As we pulled away around 10pm it gave off the loudest and most spectacular display of the whole day! What more can I say? WOW!!!!!!!!!!!! Unreal!!!!!!!!!!! On day 9 we moved to Kalabahi Alor. We did 4 dives on a site called Mucky Mosque! We had one of our best night dives ever on this site seeing everything from A to Z like bob tail squid, baby scorpion fish, baby crocodile fish, 2 starry night octopus, snake eels etc. etc. The next day we did the famous dives on Alor ( one called Clown Valley) where you see the little kids with the wooden goggles and so many anemones of every color in the rainbow that it blows your mind. Water temps were around 24. We moved on to Wakatobi where the highlights were the dive site called Roma( my favorite there) and our night dive on Pastels. Roma was so beautiful with a formation called the Rose and a massive formation of finger coral called the colosseum. What a wonderful dive! Loved it! The night dive included crabs of all shapes , sizes and colors and the halimeda ghost pipe fish as well as many other delightful creatures! On the last dive day on our way to Bau Bau they just stopped the boat in the early am so we could get in a dive and still have our 24 hours before we flew. Yan and the guys took the tender over to the shore and checked it out.They said it looked okay so we suited up and off we went. They had NEVER been here before and there were no marked dive sites around so Wendy hoped that we wouldn't have to name it "Never Again."Our little group of 4 dropped in and immediately found a bommie with 3 beautiful green leaf fish, 3 ghost pipe fish, many nudis etc. All in all we ended up seeing schools of ghost pipe fish, juv. batfish, stone fish, all kinds and varieties of nudis and flat worms, crocodile fish, rays, ribbon eels, a turtle, demon stingers, flying gunnards, etc etc. It was UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!!!!!!! They had a naming contest and we came up with names like "The Mother Lode", Treasure Trove, Thank Goodness, and Dewi's Delight. What a spectacular dive to end the trip with. The Dewi is an amazing LOB and you will not be disappointed if you book a trip on her. We flew Lion Air to Bali.( again see details in that other post.) We were promptly picked up and taken up to Scuba Seraya. We had amazing dives on the Liberty wreck, and stellar macro dives on Seraya secrets seeing critters from A to Z including tiger shrimp, tiger cowries, white ghost pipe fish everywhere, nudis everywhere of all kinds and nudi eggs, all kinds of shrimps and crabs. I kid you not, one crinoid must have had 30 squat lobsters or more in it of all sizes. It was unreal. Our dive guide was Komang and he was awesome! Eagle eyes! Great diver. The food was inexpensive and good, the service was excellent all around. Loved our stay there! Peaceful. We ran into Guido ,who owns the Dewi Nusantara , and spent some time with him. If you have not met him he is hilarious and will entertain you all day long! Loved it!
Websites	Dewi Nusantara Scuba Seraya
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Palau, Mexico, PNG, Phillipines, Thailand, Fiji, Tahiti, Hawaii, Malaysia, Grenada, North Sulawesi, Ambon, Raja Ampjat, Banda Sea, etc.
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm, surge
Water Temp	24-28°C / 75-82°F	Wetsuit Thickness	5
Water Visibility	50-90 Ft/ 15-27 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Usually around 1 hour dives.
Liveaboard?	yes	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	None
Dolphins	Schools	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	Both the Dewi and Scuba Seraya had great camera rooms. On the Dewi, Yan helped you with any problems you might encounter with your camera or equipment.

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Dive Review of Dewi Nusantara/Scuba Seraya in Indonesia/Komodo, Alor, Wakatobi

Dewi Nusantara/Scuba Seraya, Sep, 2012,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Dewi Nusantara/Scuba Seraya in
Indonesia/Komodo, Alor, Wakatobi