Lembeh Resort, Aug, 2007,by Michael Emerson, MN, USA (![]() |
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Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best): |
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Accommodations | ![]() |
Food | ![]() |
Service and Attitude | ![]() |
Environmental Sensitivity | N/A |
Dive Operation | ![]() |
Shore Diving | ![]() |
Snorkeling | N/A | ||
Overall Rating |
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Value for $$ | N/A | ||
Beginners | ![]() |
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Advanced | ![]() |
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Comments |
Getting There--This was way more exciting than what we had hoped for. We had even built in a buffer day to get there and we used that and then some. Our plane was broken in Minneapolis so we were five hours late and as a result, made it to Tokyo instead of Singapore on day one. But our real excitement came when we were denied entry onto the plane to Manado because I didn’t have a totally blank visa page in my passport. So we raced off to the U.S. embassy and got more pages added. We then got a standby flight to Jakarta (three hours in a smoke infested airport was more than enough) and got a Lion Air flight to Manado. Thanks to the help of the GM at Lembeh Resort, we finally got into our bed about 2:30AM on the same day that we had planned to be there 12 hours earlier. The Resort--The resort was basically a liveaboard on land. We had a spacious and comfortable bungalow whose only negative was that it was perched with a beautiful view about 15 meters above sea level, so lots of steep steps. It had a beautiful balcony for reflecting on what dive to do next. The scenery was beautiful as well and watching the sun go down behind a large volcano was beautiful every day. The food was a good solid B+ and they were quite willing to accommodate my son who is a very picky eater. It definitely was a dive resort and everyone who was there was a diver or was at least aspired to be one. It had a very nice pool and a recently opened spa which we did not try. The Dive Operation--I consider this to be the best land based dive operation that I have ever experienced. We never had more than 5 or 6 divers on a boat and we always had one dive guide for two of us. The dive guides spent their time looking for the critters that we came to see and they were very good at it. We would agree on the top priorities to find at a particular dive site and they would take it as a challenge to find what we were looking for. They took care of all of our equipment and cameras both coming and going. Each dive began with a nice briefing and we were treated like adults (even my young son!) and allowed to dive our computers until it was time to end the dive. They were personally disappointed if they did not find everything on our list. The Diving--the best that I can say is that it was as advertised. A bout half of the dive sites were pure wide open black sand with only a few scraps of garbage and coral rubble to interrupt the view. These were great sites to play detective and find the most interesting creatures. Nothing quite like being startled by the appearance of an ornate ghost pipefish or a wonderpuss to interrupt the black send. Several sites were classic South Pacific coral landscapes that were as pretty as anything that I have seen in Fiji or the Solomons. And for variety, some of my favorite sites were Nudi Falls and Nudi Retreat where we had a little bit of everything. We also visited a Japanese freighter wreck, the Malawi, which was very interesting as well. We saw nearly everything that we came to see including the elusive flamboyant cuttlefish which nearly eluded us for the week. The rinopias were amazing, lots of nudis, and a very showy wonderpus that was the highlight of the trip. We saw several nice sized seahorses and several pygmy ones and we saw an ornate ghost pipefish and his/her baby one. Our only missing targets were the blue ringed octopus (which was spotted the day after we left) and a harlequin shrimp which the staff admitted was a long shot to find. |
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Reporter and Travel |
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Dive Experience | 251-500 dives | ||
Where else diving | Galapagos, Solomons, Fiji, Burma, Costa Rica, Caymans | ||
Closest Airport | Getting There | ||
Dive Conditions |
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Weather | sunny, windy | Seas | currents |
Water Temp | 80-82°F / 27-28°C | Wetsuit Thickness | 3 |
Water Visibility | 40-80 Ft/ 12-24 M | ||
Dive Policy |
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Dive own profile | ? | ||
Enforced diving restrictions | Dive your computer | ||
Liveaboard? | no | Nitrox Available? | N/A |
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 | ![]() |
Large Pelagics | ![]() |
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Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best): |
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Subject Matter | ![]() |
Boat Facilities | ![]() |
Overall rating for UWP's | ![]() |
Shore Facilities | ![]() |
UW Photo Comments | See belowh |
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