Maluku Dive Resort: "Maluku Dive Resort", Apr, 2015,by Lynn Phillips, CA, US (![]() |
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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 | N/A | Environmental Sensitivity | ![]() |
Dive Operation | ![]() |
Shore Diving | N/A |
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 |
Of course, Ambon is famous for its muck diving, some of which is pretty "mucky," but a lot of which is on sandy slopes with little coral outcroppings, and pretty clean. I had been to Ambon before, but on a liveaboard and had only 4 dives there and wanted to go back. This time I spent 10 nights there. This is a place that you can find every weird critter on your list: Wonderpus, Blue Ringed Octopus, Frogfish, Ghostpipefish, Harlequin Shrimp, Tiger Shrimp, Bumblebee Shrimp, lots of weird crabs, cowries, and of course nudibranchs. We saw over 90 different species (and April is not the best month for nudibranchs here). Maluku Dive Resort is only 10 minutes from Ambon airport; and the resort has an airport agent to meet and escort you to and from the airport. It is, for the most part, a very well set up resort. There are about 10 rooms which are large, mostly separate bungalows that look out over the gardens and ocean from a big covered porch. They are really big, with high ceilings, ceiling fan, AC, big bathroom, very good hot water and water pressure, two large desk areas, coffee making facilities, and a fair number of electrical outlets. This is a buggy place; however, it seems that they have the mosquito problem mostly under control from outdoor spraying. Still, there are ants everywhere inside the rooms. The rooms are stocked with insect killing spray, insect repellant, mosquito coils, etc. There is a loud club right behind the resort which sometimes plays music in the the early morning hours. Food is OK and, except for breakfast which is buffet and to-order eggs, other meals are served plated. Sometimes food for the three of us arrived spaced way apart and some of us might be finished eating before the first course was served to another person. They accommodated vegetarian and vegan diet requests. The dive area is well set up with separate bins for gear and lots of covered drying areas for wetsuits, etc. as well as dedicated rinse tanks for different types of equipment. There are showers, but they are cold. The only toilet available for dripping wet divers is inconveniently located up some stairs and through the salon and dining area. This is the same toilet used by dry people when they are in those areas. We heard there used to be toilets in the dive area, but they were removed to put in a bar. The camera room is conveniently located and spacious. There are three scheduled dives a day with optional night dives at an additional cost. There is a dock, ramp and floating dock where the boats are kept. The divemasters help with cameras, each of which is stored in a soft sided, buoyant, storage bin. No rinse tank on the boats. The divemasters are dedicated to finding anything on your list. There were three of us and we had our own boat, two crew and one divemaster. Dives are supposed to be 75 minutes, but most were 80-90 minutes. Nitrox is expensive here and not really necessary as most of the dives are pretty shallow. We just used air. Yes, we had to pay a lot more attention to our computers during the beginning deeper parts of the dive, but we still came up with half a tank of air after 80 minutes or so. Some of the dive sites are actually under big, docked fishing boats with a lot of garbage, but have a lot of strange critters and swirling schools of small fish. All in all, this is an excellent resort. Although, FYI, the managers who had been there for three years were leaving right after our trip and new managers are there now. |
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Reporter and Travel |
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Dive Experience | Over 1000 dives | ||
Where else diving | Everywhere with warm water--multiple times. | ||
Closest Airport | Ambon | Getting There | From a variety of locations in Asia where Garuda, Lion Air, or Batik Air fly from |
Dive Conditions |
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Weather | sunny, windy, rainy, cloudy, dry | Seas | calm, currents, no currents |
Water Temp | 83-85°F / 28-29°C | Wetsuit Thickness | 3 |
Water Visibility | 30-60 Ft/ 9-18 M | ||
Dive Policy |
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Dive own profile | yes | ||
Enforced diving restrictions | No restrictions. | ||
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 | Good rinse tanks and camera room. Guides are familiar with elaborate photo equipment and know how to handle it and how to assist photographers above and below water. |
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