East of Flores (incl. Alor)

I've just booked a "last minute" (early Nov) trip from Maumere to Alor and then back to Maumere on a liveaboard.

I've dived several parts of Indonesia before (Sangalaki, Lembeh, Bunaken, Bali, Wakatobi, Moyo) but haven't been to any of the eastern part of the archipelago.

From what I've read the macro should be pretty good - what about any wide angle in this region?

Any other advice?

FYI - I really wanted to go to Raja Ampat, but couldn't find a boat w/any availability (last minute) that also didn't conflict w/Halloween (need to be home for the kids), Thanksgiving (need to be home for the wife), Christmas (need to be home for me... need some new camera gear

Well it depends on the boat and who's running it. Alor has some nice WA spots, especially in the channel among the islands of Pantar and Alor. Viz can be crappy but can also be awesome. I'd keep the FE and a 16-35(35mm equiv) in the bag for sure. In fact, there's a dive that goes round a pier where MANY kids are swimming daily... if you ever wanted kids sunball shot, that'd be the place. Just hope you go when school is out.

As Drew said - check with the 'Cruise Director' directly if you can. When i was running a trip out there, the guests had been promised all sorts by the marketing department, with promises made and no information was passed to me or the crew, leaving me right in the s***.

It is a beautiful part of the world though, the kids at Pantar are great. Have a great time.

I spent a week diving in Alor in November last year (not liveaboard, but with a resort on Pantar island). From your previous Indonesian experience, I would say that the closest is probably Bunaken: beautiful walls, great macro life (all sorts of frogfish, rhinopias, leaf fish, blue ring octopus, wonderpus, etc.), and nice schooling fish; there are also plenty of muck sites similar to Lembeh.

We were also treated to a few eagle rays, grey and white tip sharks, massive groupers at Kal's dream, a couple of passing whales, huge schools of dolphins (100s).

An interesting area is a site call clown fish valley I think where there is a carpet of sea anemones with all sorts of anemone fish - With decent visibility, you could get great wide angle shots.

Have a blast, it's a beautiful part of the world