Too much stuff

We're going to Indonesia for 3 weeks in August and I want to take my video AND still gear, but combined with all the rest of the gear, I'm afraid it may be too much. We're flying first class so I'm not worried about the big flight, but I am worried about the transport bewteen Bali and Lembeh. Anybody have experience with hauling tons of crap ?

The funny thing is that for a while I was going to take rebreathers as well, go figure.

Hola,

You should not worry at all... Fron Bali To Manado/Lembeh (usually with a stopover in Makassar) you will fly a medium size aircraft (120-160 passengers).. So no problem with extra-lugagge. You will be requested to pay for it, but, once again, no special worries: extra lugagge fees in indonesian domestic flights are cheap....ç

Good luck

Matetes

We just returned from Lembeh (Lembeh Resort). We had no problems bringing lots of heavy luggage on Silk Air. We had 4 large suitcases, 50 to 65 pounds each; a rolling carry on, 25 pounds; backpack, 15 pounds; and a camera bag and camera vest. We didn't have to pay any extra charges since we stayed below 70 pounds per checked bag.

We took 3 SLR's with housings (film SLR never got used :-), 6 strobes, 2 dome ports and 2 flat ports, CD burner & CD's, batteries and battery chargers. Plus some lenses for land use. We used bathing suits and t-shirts to pad it all.

And we had a GREAT time! Hope you do also.

Kathy

Excellent, thanks all. Kathy, any dive sites or things you would recommend for Lembeh Resort?

Hmmm, my favorite dive sites were Nudi Falls and Nudi Retreat. Aer Prang and Jahir II were good also.

Ask to see the purple pygmy seahorse at Nudi Falls. At Nudi Retreat there is a red clam that flashes electric blue in a crack in the wall. Aer Prang had Mantis shrimp and some really colorful box fish. Jahir II had flambouyant cuttlefish. There were frogfish everywhere. I never took so many pictures of ugly fish in my life! And get Andy to take you on the dusk dive to see the Mandarin Fish mating on the house reef.

Although we did not take advantage of this, we heard from another guest that the resident masseuse was very good. The food is excellent, but sometimes the fish/meat was under-cooked. Check before eating. Also some entrees were spicy, which we liked but some might not.

Randy wished he had a video setup when he was watching a hairy frogfish trying to catch a flounder. Also when we say the flambouyant cuttlefish in the egg, trying to get out. Back and forth, back and forth trying to pierce that egg membrane. Very cool!

If you have any other questions you can contact me offline at kathymm@hotmail.com.

Have a great time!

Kathy

I went via Singapore to Manado on Singapore Airlines and Silk Air. I had 130 pounds of gear and no problems. As long as you let the domestic carriers know you are on an international flight, they should let you carry this much. I split the heavy stuff into two big suitcases and took the laptop and camera on a big carry on. I liked most of the dive sites with the exception of police pier (we entered the water through an oil slick with 15 foot vis-there were two nice orange frogfish on that dive but its no where near as good as the other sites in my opinion) I'm consulting the dive log here...here are my favorites:

Hairball (I saw three different hairy frogfish on one dive including one that was bright yellow)

TKII (Six different pipefish and 15 different nudibranchs on one dive)

Nudi Falls (A combo muck-reef dive with 75 foot vis on the reef part)

KBR house reef (every species of clownfish found in Indonesia can be found here with ok vis)

P.S. If you are going to KBR, avoid the Minhasan curry...mine had a very obvious piece of chicken foot in it that killed my appetite for the week

Ugh, chicken foot isn't high on my list of prefered dishes either. We're staying at Lembeh Resort so hopefully no chicken feet. Thanks Divedoc.