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For Divers since 1975 The Private, Exclusive Guide for Serious Divers Since 1975 |
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Lembeh Resort: "Another great visit to the muck capital of the world", Jul, 2018,by David E Reubush, VA, US ( Top Contributor 68 reports with 35 Helpful votes). Report 10527.
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No photos available at this time | |||
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best): |
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| Accommodations |  |
Food |  |
| Service and Attitude | |
Environmental Sensitivity | |
| Dive Operation | |
Shore Diving | |
| Snorkeling | N/A | ||
Overall Rating |
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| Value for $$ | |
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| Beginners | |
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| Advanced | |
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| Comments |
This was my fourth trip to Lembeh Resort and the first since 2015. My buddy and I were there to attend “Fish Geek Week” with Drs. Gerry Allen and Mark Erdmann organized by Burt Jones and Maurine Shimlock. Lembeh is my favorite place for muck diving and this year did not disappoint. We saw mimic octopus, wonderpus, coconut octopus, various frogfish, various mantis shrimp, various pipefish and sea horses, flamboyant and other cuttlefish, eels of various descriptions, spiny devilfish and other scorpionfish, various shrimp gobies, nudis of all descriptions, cardinalfish with young in their mouths, etc. etc. All the muck creatures you would ever want to see. Standing out in my mind is Rudman’s Phyllodesmium, the nudibranch that mimics soft coral. I have been trying to find and photograph one for many years. Sandro, our guide, found 3 for us. Also, I have been looking for a velvetfish for a number of years. This year we watched a mimic go down a hole and out popped a phantom velvetfish. A typical day would find us having an early breakfast, followed by a lecture by Gerry or Mark, 2 morning dives, lunch, an afternoon dive, and we finished up with either dinner or a night or Mandarinfish dive and then dinner. I got in 23 dives in the week we were there. If you ever get the chance to dive with Gerry and/or Mark I would highly recommend it. Their lectures were fun and informative and being there to observe the process while they obtained specimens of previously undescribed fish was very interesting. It became obvious that there are still lots of fish at recreational scuba depths that have not been scientifically described, which makes you wonder what awaits at deeper depths. There have been significant changes at Lembeh Resort since I was last there. On the hotel side of the operation they are in the process of rebuilding all the rooms. We were in one of the rooms up the hill from the dining room and it had been totally changed since the last visit. The interior had been reconfigured, it had new furniture, and the bathroom had been moved and redone with new fixtures. I really hadn’t had any complaints about the old room, but this room was outstanding. My only minor complaint on the hotel side was that the chef in 2015 skewed his offerings toward Western food, which would be my preference, this year the chef skewed his offerings toward Indonesian food. On the dive side of the operation the camera room had been redone with individual lights and lots of power outlets at every station. That made working on my camera about as easy as you can get. They also have 2 new, big and very comfortable dive boats in addition to those that were there in 2015. Our group dove from the new boats and getting into and out of the water was a pleasure. I still have my 2 complaints from previous years about the dive operation. When you get back to the resort you have to step off the back of the boat into the water and, as a result, drag sand up into the gear up area. A floating dock would fix this problem, and I saw a long floating dock at one of the other resorts down the strait, so it should be doable. My other complaint is that the “lockers” for hanging up your gear are too small, since there is only one locker for each room. If there was a locker for each diver things would be much better. All in all, my minor complaints won’t keep me from returning in the future. I will also note that the water was cooler than I expected this year. In addition to the 3 mm wetsuit mentioned I also wore a 5/3 hooded vest on dives early in the week and, as the week progressed, a 7/5. It is always good to come prepared for unexpected conditions. |
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| Websites | Lembeh Resort | ||
Reporter and Travel |
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| Dive Experience | Over 1000 dives | ||
| Where else diving | Australia, Belize, Bimini, Bonaire, Caymans, Curacao, Fiji, Galapagos, Indonesia (Wakatobi, Raja Ampat, Komodo, Lembeh, Bali, Banda Sea), Philippines, Red Sea, Solomon Islands, Southern Bahamas, St. Thomas, Turks & Caicos | ||
| Closest Airport | Manado | Getting There | Fly to either Jakarta or Bali and then get a flight to Manado. Jakarta is generally cheaper than Bali and has direct flights to Manado while you may have to make an intermediate stop if you are flying from Bali. You will be picked up at the Manado airport and driven around 2 hours to Bitung where it's a short boat ride across the strait to Lembeh Resort. |
Dive Conditions |
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| Weather | sunny, dry | Seas | calm, no currents |
| Water Temp | 77-82°F / 25-28°C | Wetsuit Thickness | 3 |
| Water Visibility | 25-80 Ft/ 8-24 M | ||
Dive Policy |
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| Dive own profile | yes | ||
| Enforced diving restrictions | Don't run out of air, don't go into deco. | ||
| Liveaboard? | no | Nitrox Available? | yes |
What I Saw |
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| Sharks | None | Mantas | None |
| Dolphins | None | Whale Sharks | None |
| Turtles | None | Whales | None |
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best): |
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| Corals |  |
Tropical Fish |  |
| Small Critters | |
Large Fish | N/A |
| Large Pelagics | N/A | ||
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best): |
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| Subject Matter | |
Boat Facilities |  |
| Overall rating for UWP's | |
Shore Facilities | |
| UW Photo Comments | Big camera room with individual lights and lots of power outlets at every station. Big rinse tanks on-shore. Crew was very careful with cameras and transferred them to and from the boat and placed them in an on-shore rinse tank after the dives. | ||
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Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above. |
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