Over Easter, I travelled together with a group of 12 other Hong Kong-based divers to Ambon, Indonesia for a week of great diving.
Flights
The trip began with a 4 hour flight from Hong Kong to Jakarta, followed by a midnight flight from Jakarta to Ambon (arriving at 6:30am). The worst part about the flights was the midnight flight (no/little sleep) and arriving at 6:30am in the morning but we took a 2 hour power nap when we arrived at the resort and we started diving in the afternoon so it wasn't that bad.
Diving
The divemasters were very experienced. I discovered Samuel was the same divemaster who showed us the Lembeh Straits on the MV Serenade 9 years ago. Djamal was very experienced as he had worked in Komodo, Sangalakki, Lembeh and Bali.
Ambon offers world class muck diving and is basically a macro photographer’s haven. Every dive site offers something exceptional, such as the rhinopias, psychedelic frogfish (newly rediscovered), mimic octopus, mandarin fish, nudibranches, etc.
I would say the dive sites are comparable to the Lembeh Straits of Indonesia or Anilao of the Philippines.
Most of the dives sites were 5 – 15 minutes away by speedboat and we would go out on the speedboat for 2 dives and then go back to the resort for lunch.
For those who are also interested in pelagic, Pulau Tiga (west of Ambon) offers big fish action.
Resort
Most of the resort, from the cook/wait staff/furniture comes from Bali. The cuisine was a mix of European/Indonesian cuisine and I personally thought the food was very good. We ate all meals at the resort and the chef made sure we had a variety of food, ranging from BBQ dinners to pancakes to nasi/mee goreng.
All guests were served by the dish, ie., no buffet. We gave the chef our dietary preferences and the chef did a great job meeting those preferences. We were told that although the resort was near the airport the chef had to purchase provisions from the local markets everyday. Considering the limited variety of meats/produce offered in the local markets the chef did an excellent job ensuring that he did not repeat dishes.
The waitstaff were very attentive and trained at the Bali Hotel school. One of the waiters had even spent time training in Singapore and spoke excellent English.
Non-dive day
We spent the afternoon of our last day in Ambon in the village of Larike. One of the boat boys was from this village where they have large sized eels swimming up to the local river during the daytime. The villagers were delighted to meet a group of Hong Kong divers and escorted us throughout our stay. I think they had a great time watching us lie in knee deep water trying to take photos of the eels!
Trip photos
For those of you who are interested in my trip photos, they have been uploaded on www.flickr.com/wudai. Enjoy!!
