Lembeh Straits Trip Report

[Colin]

Kasawari-Lembeh Resort Trip Report


We spent the past week diving with the new Kasawari-Lembeh resort, located in North Sulawesi, Indonesia. After landing in Manado, one of the gateway cities for SilkAir, the regional carrier of Singapore Airlines, we were met by a representative of the resort. We got our bags claimed and loaded into vans, and were off for the one hour drive to the marina where the resort’s dive boats were waiting for the final transfer to the resort. This part of the transfer only took about 15 minutes, and was a welcome relief from the potholed and curvy road from Manado’s airport. As a side note, while we were at the airport in Manado, we met Kung, the owner, who also owns the Thai-based liveaboard vessel AquaOne.

The resort has been open about a month, and still shows some minor growing pains, none of which was evident, unless one was really looking for them. As an example, there were no cushions on the chairs near the pool…not a big deal for us, since we came to dive and photograph the marine life, not sit by the pool. Anyway, the resort holds a maximum of 20 people, and has eight “Villas”, which are small houses surrounding a small central area, and two “Kasawari Villas” with a balcony overlooking the water. The villas were very comfortable and spacious, with tile flooring throughout, and a huge bathroom. Each had either a queen bed or two twin beds. There was plenty of storage space in the main area of the villa, with a mini-bar/fridge along with air conditioning and a ceiling fan. The bathrooms had both an indoor and an outdoor shower, with soap and shampoo supplied in dispensers. The beds each have a large and thick comforter, which upon arrival seemed incongruous considering the climate, but after the diving days, were quite welcome. There are photos of the grounds and villas on our website.

The dive operation is quite organized, considering it’s new. When we arrived, we were issued large baskets in which we placed all our dive gear. The crew then picked up all the baskets from the front porch of our villa, and set up our gear on the dive boats. We also got a smaller basket for our cameras. For the entire time we were there we never changed a tank, as the crew did all that for us, along with rinsing our gear every evening. After the diving day was finished, all we had to do was walk up to the large gear storage area, and doff our wetsuits and hang them up. There were large rinse tanks for both suits and cameras. The dive crews would bring up our cameras in the small baskets and place them into the designated rinse tanks for cameras. See the website for the photos of the rinse tanks.

Here is a rundown of the days’ schedule:
6am: a light breakfast consisting of cereals, toast, juices and fruit was available for the early risers.
7:30am: Fist dive briefing, with a 7:45 departure for the first dive.
After the first dive, there was a full breakfast available, with various hot foods, like eggs, fried rice, bacon/sausage, noodles etc. along with all the same items from the early first breakfast.
10:30: Second dive briefing and dive followed by lunch.
2:30: Third dive briefing and dive, with a snack available.
For later dives, we had a choice of either doing a Mandarin Fish dive at 5pm, or the night dive at 6pm. Dinner followed the night dive, or was at 7pm if there wasn’t a night dive. All the meals were served buffet style, and the bar has limited selection of beer and wine, sine they are waiting for their liquor license. 

As far as the diving goes…well, let’s say it is certainly a joy to only have a maximum of six divers on the boat, with two divemasters guiding every dive. We were limited to a maximum of 60 minutes bottom time, but if we were finding lots of critters, the DMs generally led the dive into 70-80 minutes duration. They run the dives just like being on a liveaboard. Water temperature was a consistent 81 degrees, so we were both warm enough in our 3mm Henderson Insta-Dry suits, but there were some on the trip who wore 5mm suits with hooded vests. It’s not that the water is cold; quite the opposite for those of us used to diving in drysuits. It’s the fact that you move very slowly so your body core temperature tends to fall after a few days diving. Hence the need for the big bed comforters. It was truly amazing how the DMs found things….from generally featureless sand and rubble bottoms came finds such as mimic octopus, wunderpus, hairy frogfish, ghost pipefish, banded pipefish, pipehorse, pygmy seahorses, and more.
Once the dive was over, and before heading back to the resort, the boat crews would offer fresh water, fruits, and hot towels! Each of the boats was equipped with emergency oxygen kits. The dive gear was kept on the boat, and the tanks were filled right on the dock in between dives. Visibility ranged from 30 feet to well over 80 feet on some of the outer dive sites.

There were some folks at the resort who had been to this area before and they all said the accommodations and food were much better than other places at which they stayed on previous trips.

Would I go back? Absolutely, for many reasons, including the limited size of resort itself, the limited number of divers per boat per Divemaster, and especially the marine life!

Underwater Photos may be viewed here:
Resort Photod may be viewed here:

Enjoy!

Colin.

[Roger Southwick]

Great pics, Colin!  Beautiful creatures, nicely photographed.