Moyo Island Diving

I ll be staying at Moyo Island, Sumbawa, Indonesia during first two weeks of September 2013.

I would be interested to hear any related experience or hints the community members might have such as essential dives to be made, lenses to be taken to the trip etc.

I presume that you will be staying at the Amanwana Resort?

Yes you re right

I spent a couple of weeks on Moyo back in 2010. The resort was very quite so I had a one on one with the dive guides, Kaz and Elias, which made my photographic opportunities excellent.

Viz was good, and a wide range of critters from pigmy sea horses to blue spotted rays. The coral is very colourful with some really large barrel sponges.

The only issue I had was the weight of luggage flying in from Bali. I bought an extra seat both ways just in case so that i could carry all my gear. In the end it wasn't a problem as we were the only passengers on the plane.

Have a great trip

Cool pictures. I understand that mostly macro objects are present there. After checking the transport section of Amanwana website i did the same and bought an extra seat in the plane. :-)

How many dives a day could day organize? I also would prefer a one to one and very often i even pay additionally if this is an available option.

I dived two dives each morning so that I could enjoy my lunch!

Because the resort was quiet and I was the only one diving I had a guide to myself for the vast majority of dives. Hopefully you will get similar

I would make sure that you do some wide angle photography as the coral colours are stunning but you are right there not many pelagics or larger fish.

Have fun.

Mehmet, sent you a PM.
Most of the macrolife is on the walls or reefs, so choose your lenses accordingly. If you want a bit of muck diving, the Japanese wreck site is a bit mucky. Saw seamoths and white v octopus. It's pretty deep though. I really like the Amanwana and have been quite a few times. The diving isn't fantastic though, just good enough to keep you busy for half a day. Definitely do the Mata Jitu waterfall trip. If you are bored with diving, the trek to the bay during low tide use to have juvenile black tip sharks messing around in the shallows. I spent a few hours trying to take pics of them. You can ask the staff for some fish guts to chum the water to bring them closer. Don't bring it back to the tent otherwise you will risk sleeping outside when the better half smells the dead fish!
Definitely bring a fisheye along for the nice coral growth. You may wish to use a mini-dome for that closeup look.

Gordon, Drew

Thank you very much for valuable information.

I would never be able to find such specific and useful hints somewhere :-)

Oh yes and ocean tent if you like waking to crashing waves. Jungle tents are just as nice inside but you get the macaques jumping over the roof sometimes, and one did sneak into the room cos I left the door open. I'm not a big AC fan and it does get down to 24 or so at night during winter/fall (jun-nov).

I already made my choice and preferred crushing waves to jumping macaques. I hope i ll be happy with that choice. :-)

Stayed at Amanwana with my family for a week three years ago. Loved the resort... and the diving was very good (good enough we're going back next year on our way to Komodo).

Along with the comments from others, I would also add that Amanwana has one of the best night dives anywhere - their sea wall at night is an incredible dive. I liked it so much I did it 3 nights in a row... lots of interesting critters, and available right off the dock.

- Matt

As another planned vacation is approaching as usual i got prepared to post on this forum. Even though this website is a valuable information source for me i am not actively posting other than consulting regarding future vacation plans :-/

Probably this is due to the fact that being a vacation "scuba diver- u/w photographer" i am having a busy life during my long surface intervals.

Anyway, while i was being prepared to make a new post regarding my planned short vacation in May i just have seen this post from year 2013.

Following the valuable information i received in this forum i stayed in Moyo island and had perfect time.

I thought that even though a considerable time has passed since above messages were posted, i could also provide some feedback for whomever a stay in this wonderful island might be interesting in the future.

The stay in the island was a perfect combination of staying in an untouched jungle with the comfort of an upscale resort.

As also mentioned in the above posts we were waken up by the sound of breaking waves and monkeys jumping on the roof of our tent early in the morning.

Wild deers were frequent visitors of the resort. At night time we could hear the wild boars walking around our tents.

In low tide the dorsal fins of blacktip sharks patrolling infront of the resort were visible from our room.(tent)

Food, SPA and all other services in the resort were in upscale level.

Diving activities were organised privately.

We made majority of the dives in the house reef right in front of the resort.(when the below photos were shot)

The night diving and night snorkelling in the house reef were stunning.

1. Monkeys on top of our tent

DSC_2864 by Mgungen, on Flickr

2. A baby together with mother right next to our tent

DSC_2879 by Mgungen, on Flickr

3. Dusk at Moyo

DSC_2932 by Mgungen, on Flickr

Dusk at Moyo Island, Indonesia by Mgungen, on Flickr

1270509_10151685088657523_2098678059_o by Mgungen, on Flickr

1274637_10151685091882523_1436752749_o by Mgungen, on Flickr

4. Deers next to our tent

1294267_10151665675462523_199370817_o by Mgungen, on Flickr

921374_10151667520407523_1355977565_o by Mgungen, on Flickr

5. and some U/W Photos shot mostly at the house reef

DSC_6350 by Mgungen, on Flickr

DSC_6376 by Mgungen, on Flickr

DSC_6735 by Mgungen, on Flickr

DSC_6754 by Mgungen, on Flickr

DSC_6562 by Mgungen, on Flickr

DSC_6154 by Mgungen, on Flickr

6. Couple of more u/w images from Moyo

DSC_6266 by Mgungen, on Flickr

DSC_6435 by Mgungen, on Flickr

DSC_6580 by Mgungen, on Flickr

DSC_6658 by Mgungen, on Flickr

DSC_6849E1 by Mgungen, on Flickr

DSC_5755 by Mgungen, on Flickr

This one was shot through the window of the tent :-)

1269650_10151685088407523_528957855_o by Mgungen, on Flickr

Bolshoe spasibo for the update (sorry I can't type in Cyrillic ).

It is a nice place to stay for a bit. The diving isn't great but as a getaway, it's very nice. Did you try get the blacktips in the shallows?

Dear Drew,

I have been quite busy recently and have not been visiting in this forum.

In the beginning of May i visited the island once more. Even though it's not a top diving location together with the comfort of the resort and peaceful nature i enjoy to be there.

Did not shoot the blacktop in the shallows yet. Perhaps this is a good reason for a future visit. :-)

Here are a couple of photos from my dives around Moyo this year.