Manado help

Has anybody been to Manado (indonesia)? We are planning a trip there in august/ september. Is it ok for photography? Macro, WA ?

Every bit of info is appreciated.

Mike.

Has anybody been to Manado (indonesia)? We are planning a trip there in august/ september. Is it ok for photography? Macro, WA ?

 

Every bit of info is appreciated.

Mike.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Is it "OK" for photography? Hmmm...

North Sulawesi Diving overview

The area around Manado is one of the top dive destinations in the world! If you've heard of Lembeh Straight (macro critter heaven!), that's only a short drive from Manado. And Bunaken has a broad range of fantastic diving (including some great WA).

It sounds like you're just going to "happen" to be in Manado, whereas most of us go to great lengths to go there solely for the diving! IOW, YES, it's OK -- MORE than OK -- for uw photography! If you do some searches on "Manado", "Lembeh" and/or "Bunaken", you'll get an idea of how much there is to see/photograph there. It will likely be some of (if not THE) best diving of your life!

Hope that helps, and have a great trip!

I loved Lembeh, but Bunaken was a disappointment in terms of visibility. (July) It all depends, as anywhere on the time of year (not that Lembeh will ever have good vis). There was a lot of garbage in the shallows of Bunaken island itself, and nothing large, if that's your fancy. Siladen was sublime, and pristine, and great for macro. There are some resorts on Siladen you might want to check out. Plus there's the newest pygmy seahorse there!

Cheers,

Marli

Manado is the town, Lembeh is the jewel. Check out my slideshow.

http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewshow.h...l=2430476&alb=0

Joe

We went on the Ocean Rover and would go back in a heartbeat.

Way cool stuff, nice H2O temps.

Macro heaven.

Being based in Singapore, Manado is at my doorstep, so to speak B)

I go there a couple of times every year. The diving in Manado is great and quite varied, with walls in Bunaken marine park and neighbouring islands (Siladen, Manado Tua, Nain, etc.), and muck diving near Manado itself. There's also the Molas Wreack near the bay that's pretty nice.

Lembeh Strait is a couple of hours drive from Manado. It offers world-class muck diving, and is best dived from Lembeh itself (as opposed to commuting from Manado daily).

There are lots of resorts in Manado, and 3 or 4 in Lembeh. I've personally liked my stays at Tasik Ria in Manado, and at Kunkungan Bay in Lembeh as their operations are run very professionally and with safety in mind, but you'll likely get good reports on other resorts too from other members.

Cheers,

Mat

Two Bigs Thumbs Up - like everyone else says. I enjoyed Bunaken: there is quite a bit of variety: macro, walls, coral gardens. But for sheer, hell's-teeth-what's-that macro stuff, Lembeh is just awesome.

I can heartily recommend Tasik Ria Resort at Bunaken: relaxed, comfortable liveaboard-sized day boats and very good DMs; and Kungungan Bay Resort at Lembeh. The DMs at KBR must have hyper-vision as, on occasion, I was struggling to see the micromillimetre long thing they were pointing out. Just amazing stuff. The 5 days I spent there was just not enough.

Curiously both are manged by Jim and Cary Yanny who also have dive operations in the Red Sea. An excellent couple who know who how to run a dive operation and resorts. They do it with a nice mix of style and friendliness.

One other thought that might be of help: as far as I could tell, most people seem to travel to Manado via Singapore using Silk Air. I was living in Banda Aceh for a few weeks late last year - and made enquiries about using Garuda Indonesia. I found them significantly cheaper. A round-trip Jakarta-Manado-Jakarta was only around $270 (Rps 2.7m) for the three and a half hour flight. And they wern't in the slightest bit bothered that I was carrying about 50kgs of gear. Friendly service too.

Hi,

My wife and I have dived in and around Manado a few times

during 2004 and 2005.

There is something for everyone in terms of dive sites and

photography oppurunities.

I think the best thing to do is research the various areas

and sites so you know where you should be going before

you arrive, rather than the dive centre deciding what's best

for you ( they are not all like that, but a few individual guides we

encountered thought they were going to have a routine

daywith some 'tourist divers' just off the house reef -

here is a link to some of the more reccent articles I have written

on the area

http://www.bsactravelclub.co.uk/where/indonesia.htm

Enjoy,

Steve Parry

BS-AC Travel Club Correspondent/ South & East Asia

Oh,

And I forgot- on our last trip we found a bathy pelagic in the shallows

(just dead) This was a Cohen's Rat tail and normally found down at

800 or so metres. Photo confirmed and authenticated by Smithsonian

Institute.

So, I'd be suprised if you did not see something new !

Steve

I am planning a trip overthere for the second half of april.

What will the wat.temp. be like?

I did a google search and found temps van 24'C to 30'C, that is a couple of neopreen mm difference

Water would be around 28ºC, with some local thermoclines down to 26ºC along the walls of bunaken.

A 3mm suit should be sufficient for most people.

... Is it ok for photography? Macro, WA ?

I found Bunaken to be good for Wideangle (a bit like the Red Sea), but very little macro critters on the walls (although more than the Red Sea has to offer).

Bunaken is just pretty, not more but definitely not less.

Lembeh is the Mekka for macro-lovers - It's like an underwater zoo with as much to photograph as your memory card can handle - the film limit of 36 exposures is good for 10 minutes on a Lembeh dive - the place is amazing!

There is no coral on Lembeh dive sites (a little on Angels Window and there abouts), so if you are only going there, leave your wideangle kit at home. Just pack focus lights, macro lens, assist strobe etc.

That's just what I thought,

Fred

i would not go so far as to say there is no macro on the bunaken side, in fact there are a number of sites where you can v good small critters, or example (or at least that was the case on oct 05) (issue is i don't have the site names in front of me, will get them as soon as i get back home and post in this thread):

- the pontohi pygmee seahorse has been seen on the house reef at thalassa (exit the marina and turn right, abang point i think is the name)

- there is a site where you can see mandarin fish during the day and that slope has many sea pens open in daytime with tons of little crabs and other smaller denizens

- the site that is in front of the manado mall is an entire muck site again with many seapens and other little clumps of coral/rubal where critters live

- on one of the walls of siladen again there have been sightings of the pontohi

- ornate and robust ghostpipefish are to be found on the walls (i saw them on lekuan 1 or 2)

- also the walls of all the sites should provide you with many nudies of various sorts

all in all i would not discount using the macro lens on many of the dive sites in bunaken, but certainly the walls lend themselves to wideangle and the top of the walls also are prime candidates for the magic filters.

that's my 2 cents...