Raja Ampat

My fiance and I are considering going to Raja Ampat for our honeymoon in June 2009. We got engaged underwater, so we figure a diving honeymoon completes the theme

Has anyone dove the Misool area of Raja Ampat? If so, what are your thoughts about this area, the diving, and biodiversity?

Although the Misool Eco Resort is not yet open, can anyone speak for the management of this upcoming dive operation?

Would Raja Ampat be better dove from a liveaboard? If so, which ones?

Where is the best place to see Mantas is Raja?

Thanks in advance for your advice!

Hi

Andrew Miners is one of the main managers/owner at Misool , i have never met him personnally but a lot of my friends grew up and went to school with him and nobody i know has a bad word to say about him

so due to this fact i bought a couple of weeks with the misool eco resort

they have put the opening date back to october 2008 but for very good reasons

andrew and the rest of the management/owners wanted to make sure it was all finished and up and running properly as a world class diving centre

you can find out a lot about misool here , i can't wait to get over there

http://www.misoolecoresort.com/

vinny

I've visited the resort (which is opening Oct 5). I can't give you a review of the place since there was only one bungalow up and the rest in construction.

The area around Batbitim is great for diving. Some of the best pelagic sites in the region are about 20 mins from the resort.

I know Andy pretty well. He was the cruise director on my chartered liveaboard trip in the area in 2001. He's a good guy and the resort has very lofty aspirations in conservation. There are various Manta areas all over R4.

Just a caveat, it's a PITA to get to. 4-5 hours by speed boat and 14 hours by ferry boat from Sorong. It's pretty remote. I could dive 4 particular sites for months and not get sick of it. But I'm boring that way.

Just watch out for the cornish humor.

I've been to Raja Ampat several times and think the best way to dive it is by liveaboard. Go on a good one and you have more flexibility to do different sites. If you search the forum, you'll find a lot of information on Raja Ampat. When I go, I book on the SMY Ondina. It is a Spanish-owned boat and I think they do a great job. I've been watching the development of Misool Eco Resort for a while. It has been a slow process and I'll be interested to see the final product. I've not seen a manta in Raja Ampat, but I don't go looking for them, either. I went to the Revillagigedos Archipelago a few years back and got my manta fix there at The Boiler . . .

Mike

Getting there is quite a journey but the diving is well worth it. Be prepared to play plenty in excess baggage. A live aboard is definetly the best option in this region.

I do agree to get the best variety out of the area like doing the mangroves then caves then mantas then reefs, a liveaboard can't be beat. But a landbased resort has the advantage of being able to sit on an awesome site and just see the wonderful changes as the tide changes and moonphases and how it affects the sealife.

The area where MER is has a few such sites. My last charter I wanted to sit on those sites we had to continue on for obvious reasons. Once in awhile sitting on a hot site is a great thing.

I do agree to get the best variety out of the area like doing the mangroves then caves then mantas then reefs, a liveaboard can't be beat. But a landbased resort has the advantage of being able to sit on an awesome site and just see the wonderful changes as the tide changes and moonphases and how it affects the sealife.

The area where MER is has a few such sites. My last charter I wanted to sit on those sites we had to continue on for obvious reasons. Once in awhile sitting on a hot site is a great thing.

This is a good point. It all depends on what you want to do. If you want a lot of variety and you want to see different things, then the flexibility of a liveaboard is great. If you want to park on one site and get to know it, then the land-based option is probably better. Another option (not sure if MER (or a liveaboard operator) could do this, but you might consider trying to combine the two. Get on a liveaboard and when you're on the way back, have them drop you at the resort. You keep diving, they steam back to Sorong harbor in the evening. I'm going back to Raja Ampat in a couple months. We're going to do a trip around Halamahera and the boat is dropping us off at Diver's Lodge in Lembeh. They'll pick up their next batch of passengers there. Don't even have to dry our gear in between!