Dive Review of Papua Explorers in
Indonesia/Raja Ampat

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Papua Explorers: "Raja Ampat - Gam Island", May, 2024, by Henry O Ziller, CO, US ( Top Contributor 40 reports with 21 Helpful votes). Report 12964.
Photos Submitted with this Report Click on an image to see an enlarged version and captions
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Raja Ampat: To get to Raja Ampat you go through Jakarta Airport for a direct flight to Sorong or have a connection in Makassar (Ujung Pandang airport). From Sorong it is by boat to Raja Ampat to any of the resorts on various islands. We chose Papua Explorers after reading reports from Undercurrent. We were coming from Sandakan Airport in Sabah Borneo on Malaysia Airlines thru Kuala Lumpur, continuing to Jakarta, with our bags checked through. Only 20 kgs (44 lbs.) per checked bag is allowed without paying additional fees. Lisa at Weaver’s Dive and Travel Center in Boulder, CO. (weaversdive.com) prepaid for 5 more kgs., per bag. I believe it was less than $10 USD for each. Carry-on is limited to 15 kgs, but they never weighed our carry-on bags. The flight to Jakarta leaves from G concourse and the only food available is Dunkin Doughnuts and Starbucks. We arrived in Jakarta at 11:05 PM. Indonesia now has an electronic customs form, no longer any paper forms. Once you have filled it out online at [ecd.beacukai.go.id link] you receive a QR code. Take a picture of the QR code, print it, or keep it on your phone and present it to the customs officers and you are done with customs. Our only issue was you can’t fill out the information on the electronic form more than 48 hours before arriving in Indonesia. We were not sure of having good WIFI in that 48-hour time frame. But it worked out for us with WIFI in Kuala Lumpur Airport. The direct flight to Sorong leaves Jakarta at 12:30 AM (arriving Sorong at 6:40 AM) we needed to stay overnight in Jakarta. We stayed in the Anara Airport Hotel in Terminal 3 on the Mezzanine level. Check-in time ends at midnight. We barely made it. Contact the property directly for late check-in. Our flight to Sorong was out of Terminal 2. The train is free and runs every 15 minutes to all Terminals, but it was not running at 9 PM when we needed to go from Terminal 3 to Terminal 2. There is a free bus that will take you there, but the wait was too long. We grabbed a cab for 150,000 rupiah ($9.41 USD). There is a hotel in Terminal 2 that might have worked out better for our flight. The Anara Hotel was nice, and breakfast was included. There are plenty of restaurants in Terminals, some familiar like Johnny Rockets, A & W, and many more. The ATM in Terminal 3 would only give rupiah up to 500,000. In Terminal 2 you could get 2,500,000 rupiah ($153.00 USD) Our flight to Sorong was on Lion Air, but the Batik division of Lion Air. The flight was 4 hours, and they gave us a jam sandwich and a cup of water. Upon arrival in Sorong, we were greeted by Papua Explorers staff, and they took us and our bags by van to the Aston Hotel and Conference Center and bought us a nice buffet breakfast in the restaurant, and a comfortable place in the lobby to wait for their boat to arrive for the 2-hour ride to Gam Island where the resort is located. Divers were from Europe, North America, Asia, and Australia. When we arrived the resort staff were serenading us, a nice touch. We were taken to the open-air restaurant and given the orientation, and then lunch. Meals are all buffet and included a good variety of Western and Indonesian. Sometimes a local chef from a village would prepare and serve a specialty dish. We were given room keys, and our bags were already there. We were in bungalow #2, which had WIFI service in the room although it was not strong, it worked for email. I put my dive gear in the basket provided and it was taken to the dive shop at the end of the pier. The resort was built by locals using local materials. The room was quite large and had a king bed with a mosquito net. After the first night we opted to keep the net open. The ceiling fan was not directly above the bed, so you need the small desk fan and ceiling fan. There are a couple of loungers in the room along with a desk and one chair. There were shelves and a cabinet for hanging some clothes. The bathroom had a shower, sink and toilet. There was no smoke or CO detector. I always bring one and place it as high as I can. On the deck along with a couple chairs and a small table there was another lounger. Then on the lower deck there were two sun loungers. The bungalows are all over the water and with high tide you can enter right off the lower deck for nice swimming or snorkeling. Off our deck we saw an eel swimming, baby sharks, needle fish and other small fish and rays An overall dive briefing was given on arrival day at the dive shop. There was a whiteboard at the dive shop and one just before getting on the pier that shows which boat, divemaster's, and mates you will be diving with each day. It also shows any other events of the day. Dive times were 8, 11, and 3. Dives to see the mandarin fish were at 5:45, and night dive was at 6:30. Night dives are on the house reef only and may be done as a shore dive depending on the current. Make sure to bring a reef hook because some dives require hooking in and watching the action go by. The numerous boats are all very similar. You are assigned the same boat and Divemaster for the entire stay. Entry is by back roll and a ladder with round rungs is provided to climb back aboard. You can opt to hand up weights and gear then fins before climbing up. Surface intervals are either on an uninhabited island or at a homestay village where coffee, tea or hot chocolate is served with fruit and pastries. Lunch is back at the resort. Most sites are within a half hour. My camera broke before the first dive, so I don’t have any underwater pictures. Most dives had current that ranged from very light to strong. There were lots of nice coral and tons of small fish. There were also lots of macro stuff such as pigmy seahorses, shrimps, crabs, several varieties of nudis and pipefish, and a blue ring octopus. Visibility seemed limited to about 30 feet to 40 feet on all dives. Cape Kri is where you will need the reef hook. We hooked in at 45 feet and watched as schools of barracuda, trevally, a couple of sharks, large bump head parrotfish, large jacks and a few tunas swam by. We also saw several woebegone sharks. The dive master pointed where he saw a manta ray, but I did not see it in the low visibility. Blue Magic is supposed to be where you see manta rays, but they were not there. The Passage is supposed to be their signature dive with exceptionally fast current that they say will have you tumbling along at high speed. It starts off entering a cave with a very large opening where you surface inside the cave and then go through a small passage to a second cave, however both caves can be accessed from outside so that is what I did. There was a lot of sand being stirred up. Ater the caves you enter the current and it was strong for about 2 minutes, then we had to kick along. Visibility was probably 10 feet, and the passage is maybe 15 to 20 feet wide. The excursion through the passage reminded us of a mini Palau with all the mushroom islands. My wife was snorkeling and there were lots of turtles, five on one snorkel, jellies, pipefish, 2-to-3-foot black tip sharks, needle fish, clams, rays, squid, grouper, clownfish, scorpionfish, and lots of beautiful coral. A detailed information packet is available through their web site www.papauexplorers.com Nitrox is free to those notrox certified. Tipping is accepted but not necessary as the information points out that their employees are well paid. Returning to Sorong airport is the reverse of how you arrived. You may be taken from the boat back to the Aston Hotel if you have a later flight and will be taken to the airport later.
Websites	Papua Explorers [Papua Explorers Eco Resort]
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Throughout the Caribbean and Central America, Hawaii, Micronesia, Indonesia, Philippines, Maldives, Tanzania/Zanzibar, Australia, Malaysia, and Fiji.
Closest Airport	Sorong	Getting There	To get to Raja Ampat you go through Jakarta Airport for a direct flight to Sorong or have a connection in Makassar (Ujung Pandang airport). From Sorong it is by boat to Raja Ampat to any of the resorts on various islands.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy, rainy, cloudy	Seas	calm, choppy, currents, no currents
Water Temp	86-87°F / 30-31°C	Wetsuit Thickness	0
Water Visibility	30-40 Ft/ 9-12 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	Depth and time or when you reach 50 bar.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	1 or 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	N/A	Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	I did not use a camera.

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Dive Review of Papua Explorers in Indonesia/Raja Ampat

Papua Explorers: "Raja Ampat - Gam Island", May, 2024,

Photos Submitted with this Report

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 Papua Explorers in
Indonesia/Raja Ampat