Prize Trip with Sedona
FiNS reader Eileen Tan won a dive trip with the new Hotel Sedona Manado at our year-end Divers’ Night party in December 2006. She recently found time to travel to Manado, had a great trip, and posted her thoughts to her blog, the contents of which we’ve reproduced here with her permission.
MANADO TRIP WRITE-UP
Eileen Tan
Finally have the time to collect my thoughts and complete this.
Firstly I’d like to thank FINS for organising the FINS Divers’ Night, in which I won a 3D2N trip to Manado, which was extended to 5 days/ 4 nights and 9 dives, including Lembeh. (31 May - 4 Jun 2007)
First Impressions
When our 3-hour SilkAir flight slowly landed into the runway of Manado Airport, I was quickly mesmerised by the view - patches of green paddy fields with foggy blue mountains in the background. The sky was drizzling before, so the air was refreshing.
My buddy and me were picked up by the resort’s bus. Yes, a twenty-four seater bus. The journey to Hotel Sedona took about 45 minutes, and from the bus, the city looked charming and full of colours. Houses, shops, schools and churches all built closely together, with cloudy hills on one side and distinctive alleyways that cut out toward the Sulawesi Sea.
Five-Star Treatment
The area that belongs to Hotel Sedona was huge. It took about six minutes to ride from entrance gate to the secluded resort where the beautiful lobby came into view. As the resort was in its soft launch, everything was relatively new and shiny, and it was not crowded at all, making the place very peaceful and relaxed.
Food from their restaurant was quite delicious, and their service was pretty good, but it was a tad expensive and the resort’s location made it hard to go out to eat. During the weekend evenings, they even had piano performances at their lounge, and the bar provided a panoramic view of the sea and the colourfully lit swimming pool and palm trees.
Dive Centre
After check-in, we took their golf cart to transport our dive gear to the Euro Divers dive centre. The dive centre was very well-built with camera room, personal gear storage, big rinsing tanks, showers and toilets facilities. Dive centre manager Moel was there to welcome us personally. He provided a lot of good advice on the dive arrangements (Thanks for the extra Lembeh dive, Moel!). The whole crew provided a friendly and relaxed atmosphere for diving. Our gear was set up for us, and washed and changed to new tanks between dives. Between dives, warm sweet tea was served. The dive guides were very dedicated in bringing us to see the most interesting creatures underwater. On six out of 10 dives, we had two guides to ourselves.
Diving
Here are the brief details of our dives. I’ll try to keep to the highlights, as there was just too many strange and bizarre creatures that we saw. Day 1 and 5 were non-diving days, so they are omitted.
Day Two (Bunaken)
Dive 1 - Timor Point
Wall drop-off. Marine life aplenty. Anthias, Fusiliers, Damselfishes. Not used to taking pictures while drifting in the current. During the safety stop, we saw a group of 4 spotted eagle rays gliding around us. Depth 28.8m. Dive time 60mins.
Dive 2 - Lekuan I
Wall drop-off. Currents. There were many reef fish here as well. All kind of shrimp and decorator crabs; Cleaner shrimp, commensal shrimp, sea star shrimp, orangutan crab, majid crab, porcelain crab, spider crab. We also spotted a giant green turtle, bigger than me, resting against the crooked wall. Depth 23m. Dive time 61mins.
Dive 3 - House Reef I
The house reef, situated just outside Sedona’s private lagoon, surprised us with its abundance in life. Giant and whitemouth morays, ribbon eels, mantis shrimp, harlequin crab, tasseled scorpionfish, juvenile pinnate batfish, pipefishes and a crinoid shrimp that looked exactly like its unique yellow-black-white feather star home. Depth 16.2m. Dive time 66mins.
Dive 4 - House Reef II
Night Dive. Lionfishes all came out to play. Along with razorfishes, scorpionfish and the usual mix of unusual shrimp and decorator/ hermit crabs. Depth 13.7m. Dive time 61mins.
Day Three (Lembeh)
Dive 1 - Nudi Retreat
First-hand experience of the famous Lembeh Strait. Now I fully understand its reputation as a world-class dive destination. Nudi Retreat starts out from a small-protect cove. There was always something eye-popping if you looked closely. Flying gurnard, cockatoo waspfish, bunch of Banggai cardinalfish, Winged pipefish, very peculiar dragon seamoths walking across the seafloor and a flame file shell that displayed lightning flashes across its skin. Depth 23.7m. Dive time 61mins.
Dive 2 - Teluk Kembahu (T.K)
Gentle slopes. Practically no current. Snake eels, devil scorpionfish, spiny devilfishes (Confusing huh~), painted frogfish, hairy frogfish, spiny waspfish, flying gurnards, fingered dragonet, seahorses. Depth 17.6m. Dive time 67mins.
Dive 3 - Aer Perang
Just 10 mins into the dive, the dive guide pointed out the purple-splashed Rhinopias eschmeyeri, also named paddle-flap scorpionfish. Made acquaintance with a fimbriated moray eel. Depth 20.4m. Dive time 64mins.
Dive 4 - Nudi Falls
With a colourful miniwall, this site is famous for its large variety of nudibranchs and pygmy seahorses. Depth 18m. Dive time 64mins.
Day Four (Manado Bay)
On the way to the dive site, we had a very rare sighting. We saw migrating pilot whales! It was quite a sight to see a group of about 25 smooth jet-black pilot whales gliding at the surface not far from our dive boat.
Dive 1 - Black Rock
Sandy Slope. Madarinfishes, yellowbarred jawfish, leaf scopionfish, coconut octopus, yellow boxfish and juvenile barracuda. Depth 13.7m. Dive time 81mins.
Dive 2 - Manado Bay infront of Mega Mall
Sandy Slope. Reef stonefish, waspfish, diamond filefishes and harlequin ghost pipefishes. Depth 13.9m. Dive time 76mins.
Conclusion
Having only been diving in Peninsular Malaysia before this, this was definitely the most luxurious and pampered diving I have ever done!! The dives at Lembeh were truly spectacular. Currently, Euro Divers are offering a 15% discount for their repeat customers. How can I not revisit this fascinating dive destination again?!
Editors’ Note: See more of Eileen’s trip photos on her Flickr page.