Indo in November

Getting married at the end of October. Thought we might head to Tonga for our honeymoon, but now my fiancée's parents are taking us to Korea at the end of November to meet extended family and essentially get married again (something about me riding in on a horse...oh boy). Anyhow, it makes more sense for us to honeymoon somewhere a bit closer to Seoul. So, Indo is the new idea, with 3-4 few days in Bali and then 7-8 days in Sulawesi or Komodo or Raja Ampats or the Togeans for diving. I've been reading threads about Bali and the other islands, muck vs. big animals, molas, etc. Lots of good info. But I'd specifically like to know if there's anything about November in Indonesia that should steer us in one direction or another. It'd be great to do some muck diving to take in the area's biodiversity, but I'm a sucker for megafauna and also wouldn't mind having the option of snorkeling/freediving from the beach and getting the most mileage out of my 20D at all hours of the day. Neither my fiancée nor I have ever seen a manta while in the water, so they're probably at the top of our must-see list. We'll consider liveaboards, but would prefer to be sleeping onshore in fairly rustic (read: inexpensive) conditions. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

- Dan

Dan

Congrats on the wedding. November is at the end of the intermonsoonal period between the SW and NE monsoon. This is the time when many liveaboards do the Banda Sea crossing (The other period is April).

I've always found the macro life to be more prolific in the fall. If you are into megafauna like Mantas... I suggest you check out Derawan and Nabucco resorts in the Sangalaki area.That place is manta galore and very decent macro life. The Maratua channel is a nice pelagic place and the Kakaban salt water lake has jellyfish like Palau. The eco system there is worth looking at.

To enable the best of the area, I would do 3-4 days at each resort so you don't have to sit on long boat rides for the interisland rides. There is a resort on Sangalaki but last I heard it was closed.

If you want to stay away from liveaboards, then Bali could also be a good option. Padang Bai/Tepekong is good for a bit of megafauna as is Lembongan/Penida. The muck sites around Bali are top notch. Then you can go up to Ubud for some Ayung river romance. It's a perfect place to stay for 10-12 days without having to take a plane. For more secluded travel, try Alor Divers in Alor. PITA to get to but nice diving and away from everything.

My experience in the Togians was that of barren of megafauna.

Thanks, Drew. We'll definitely look into those suggestions.

If you want way out of the way, there's Ambon and Bandaneira too(both run by Maluku Divers). But I think for bang for buck diving with good chance for mantas and others, Bali is probtably your best bet.

Derawan and Ambon sound like a great mixture of dive types, but it does sound like Bali might be more economical and easier logistically. It's gonna be tough to narrow things down. But it sounds from your posts like Sulawesi is not at its best in November?

Ambon diving is great but the resort is VERY basic. As is Bandaneira. Derawan/Nabucco is more luxurious.

I love Lembeh straits. But for megafauna you'd be hard pressed to find stuff like that in Bunaken/Ganga/Bangka.

I suggest you ask the fiancée. I'm willing to put money down that she'll pick Bali for the spas,, romance, ambience and shopping. The diving is great and it's not that expensive.

Nah. The fiancée is not that into shopping, at least not when she has my grumpy-old-man routine to contend with. And she's already been to Bali (and Flores and Kimodo, for that matter). I think we're looking at a few days in Bali and then a week in either Ambon or Derawan. We're both pretty used to bare-bones accommodations (she did 'round-the-world backpacking and I did Peace Corps), so we'd rather spend money on diving and airfares than a/c and private pools. And we'll be force-fed by Korean relatives when we hit Seoul, so we'll be eating light in Indo.

After weeks of procrastination and airfare searching, we've decided to go to Korea first and then to Bali for a week at the end of November, around 11/26. I've been getting some great tips and info by searching the Bali threads here. If anyone would like to chime in with "must see" or "must dive" advice that is specific to late November and a short stay, I'd appreciate it. We definitely want to dive at least twice a day and see a wide variety of sites and animals. I'll be giving my 20D and Ikelite housing their first taste of warm, clear water.