Indonesia

Manado (by David Cumber)

Way up there in  the best diving I have ever seen. It's in quite a remote area so can be hard to get to, but if you can THEN GO. Manado is in the north of Sulawasi, and going here means you could combine a trip to the Togian islands. You can fly to Manado from Singapore, so getting here is okay, but expensive. Most of the diving is around Bunaken island, a 30 min boat ride from Manado. There are dive shops that offer dive trips from Manado, but you can stay on Bunaken and be only 5 mins from a lot of the dive sites and have amazing snorkeling on your doorstep. The accommodation tends to be quite simple, but comfortable. You tend to have, shall we say,  'all inclusive' places to stay. When I say this, I mean your meals are included in the price of the room (this will be fish, caught locally). The diving is extra, and some of the shops charge extra for gear. You won't get watersports here, or entertainment, but you will get the odd power cut. Not a place for great comfort, but the diving is fantastic.

This would possibly be my favorite dive location, except for one reason, dive site variety. Manado is almost totally wall diving. Big wall diving!  There are some sloping reefs, but you do have to travel for these. Also, sometimes the seas are to rough to venture to far from Bunaken, so you may be limited to the dive sites around the island (but there are plenty of these). Now I like wall diving, but it's nice to have a choice. Water temperature varies between 24-30C, visibility can be 30+M, but can go down to as little as 7-10M.

Lekuan, is a dive site that is divided up into three parts I, II, III. All the Lekuan sites are steep vertical walls, with large cracks. The bottom isn't visible, I was told it was about 200M, so you are just hanging out in the blue. With such deep depths involved, and no bottom to give you any reference it's very easy to go too deep. While I wouldn't say you need to be an expert to dive here, you must be comfortable with your buoyancy. Also, sometimes the currents can be downward here. Every dive center will send you out with a guide, who knows the local sites. Keep in sight of them and listen to what they have to say on the briefings. Lekuan III, was may favorite site. At the start of the dive are some pinnacles and canyons, with some large barracuda cruising around. The wall  here has some breaks in the vertical drop, with some flat areas before the wall drops off again. The coral is amazing. I saw ten's of varieties of branching corals, in pristine condition. The colors were striking: blue's, green's, red's, yellow's, pink's. No words here can pay justice to it. Hanging off the vertical sections are large gorgonians and barrel sponges. The fish life is also great, butterfly fish, jacks, schools of bat fish. You can get really sucked into just staring onto the wall. If you do you will miss the bigger schools of fish that cruise away from the wall, in the big blue behind you. Sharks (whitetips and blacktips), eagle rays and manta's are seen here. So you need to drag your view away from the wall from time to time to check out what's going on behind you.

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Lekuan I and II, are very similar dive sites. The best bit on the sites are when you are cruising along the wall, and the wall decides to do a right angle. Walls on two sides, with the corner a refugee for juvenile fish among the large gorgonians. really striking topography on these sites. A turtle on most dives, and blue spotted stingrays. This two sites are where the sharks tend to hang out, and while I didn't see it, a group of about ten blacktips are seen here it was reported to me. Saciko, another wall. In nice condition. Is on the north side of Bunaken, but the site comes round the north east tip, where it tends to flatten out a little. Big stuff cruising from the deeper water on strong currents can be seen here, eagle rays really common. Large barrel sponges and sea fans. Not as much coral as other sites, but can be quite a ride on the current.

Fukui, is a slope. Nice alternative to the giant walls. the slope is very gentle in the shallower water, and as you come away into deeper water, it gets steeper. Canyons and ledges are formed by this, encouraging the coral and fish life. Cabbage and plate coral plentiful, as well as staghorn. Fish life...active. Lots of schools, including jacks, snappers and bat fish. Liked this dive site a lot, and took every opportunity to dive it. One thing to moan about, is that the site has several giant clam's. It looks as if somebody has moved four of these clams together, as they lie in a very neat line on a flay sandy patch. I also saw the guides handling a lot of the coral, and they didn't seem bothered about the negative comments I heard from other divers towards this. There is also a wreck here, called The shipwreck. No name, as there is very much known about it, except that it was believed to be Dutch and sunk 40+ years ago (well that's all I could get out of the dive guide). The wreck is closer to Manado than it is to Bunaken, so you can incorporate it with a trip into town or a two dive trip as there are other dive sites close by. Lying on a sandy bottom at 30M, it is upright and quite striking. Probably a wreck you could penetrate, but it is deep and medical facilities here aren't the best. The dive centers do tend to set up a spare tank for the safety stop, so they are conscious of safety here. The current can be quite strong, but a descent/ascent line is attached to the wreck. There was supposed to be a lot of black coral round this site, but this has all been removed for sale, shame really. Bunaken is a designated marine park, hopefully this can be inforced.

There are well over 25 sites around this area, all well worth a dive. Bit of a divers paradise. The snorkeling is also world class.