We flew over from LAX (via Taipei) on Eva Air. FYI, no one ever weighed a carry-on, but they were very strict on checked baggage weights.
Stayed in Tulamben, Bali at the Mimpi Resort for our first 5 nights – this was nice enough and gave us access to several major dive sites, including the Liberty shipwreck – I saw the outside of some other adjacent resorts, and they all looked pretty similar from the exterior, though Mimpi had the nicest pool area from what I saw – other resorts are closer to the wreck, but Mimpi was closer to other dive sites that seemed not as crowded during the day - YMMV. You can certainly stay on the beach in the Tulamben area very inexpensively. We got in three solid dive days and one land tour day. The diving was nice, water was blissfully warm (mid-80’s), vis ranged, but let’s say that a bad day there is like a phenomenal day diving in SoCal – so no complaints here!! Some quick-changing and strong currents, though easily manageable. Very prolific pink hydroids in Tulamben – I got a nasty sting on day 1 when the current changed unexpectedly (I had been hovering next to a large hydroid that extended quite far from the structure of the wreck) and had a pretty severe allergic reaction – apparently, this is not unheard of – a guy at Wakatobi actually experienced swelling of his throat and tongue after a pink hydroid sting, requiring an Epi-pen!!! Neat critters in Bali, during the one day I shot macro there, I saw a yellow (female) blue ribbon eel, many male and some juvie blue ribbon eels, assorted nudis/blennies/gobies, bubble coral shrimp, cleaner shrimp, orangutan crabs, pygmy seahorses, and 3 ghost pipefish…other stuff escaping me….
During the first two Bali dive days, I took an individual underwater photo course concentrating on wide angle with Wetpixel mod Mike Veitch. This was booked quite some time ago when Mike was living in Bali – as most of you know, he is now managing/teaching at the NAD Lembeh resort, so I was very fortunate that he was still able to honor our appointment. This two day course was invaluable and (IMO) did and will hopefully continue to make a HUGE difference on my WA stuff. We did some theory in the am, then dove – my course included Mike, me, and my camera. Period. No other students, no other cameras - basically, we swam around, and he’d pick a subject and give me an “assignment.” I’d do the shots, then pass the camera to him, he’d review and make comments on his slate. I chose a few “offhand” subjects here or there, as well. We’d then offgas for a bit, then we’d meet back up for more theory and another dive. After dive 2, I’d load the images onto my computer, and he and I sat with a Bintang (or 3) and went though the raw images together. I am a little shy about showing off pictures – I will often not even bother with editing something (and certainly won’t show it to anyone) unless I REALLY like it, so it was NOT easy to do this, but it was very helpful and not quite as humiliating as I’d thought (admittedly, the Bintang helped
) Mike was awesome – if any of you are ever in Lembeh, take a couple of days and go work with him – he was a great instructor and is a very fun/nice guy, to boot! So – I know lots of people have reviewed Wakatobi resort, and I won’t go nuts doing so again. It was nicely done, great food, lovely bungalows, nice photo room, fab dive boats. They had a guy meet us at the Denpasar airport (pre-immigration) – we didn’t have to wait in any lines – there was no waiting for anything except our bags – I’d heard about this, but upon seeing the chaos at the airport, the value really sank in!! Even without the airport meet-and-greet, the service is really phenomenal – for example, one guest’s Canon 5D basically imploded during his land tour in Bali two days before we were set to fly to Wakatobi, and the Wakatobi Bali office manager found him a replacement camera in Java via a Craig’s List type of thing – they sent a rep to check out the potential purchase and seller, found everything to be OK – so the guest had his replacement awaiting him on our charter flight to Waka. Tough to beat that kind of service!!
As for the diving service itself - also quite nice, if a bit regimented - we did a lot of dives on the house reef. The DM assigned to our small dive group (and all the DM’s we dove with, a total of 4) were fantastic!! Once they saw that we were self-sufficient, we were given lots of freedom - they may have just had bigger fish to fry - there were a few people on our boat that kept them quite busy! I think that it’s worthwhile noting that I did not have any issues with taking photos at Waka, disputing a rumor I had heard a few months ago that likened the dive guides to “nazis” – the dive staff expected you to care about reef health and be mindful of your gear, hands, feet - when needed, I used a poker or a single finger to steady myself without comment from anyone. I only heard of one person getting (privately) scolded, and I didn’t dive with that person (or ever see them underwater) and thus can’t adequately comment on the situation.
Overall, I liked Wakatobi and felt that the service was really amazing – I would recommend a trip there – the diving was pretty, lush and lovely reefs and corals. Fish numbers were pretty low on all but a few dives. No big stuff except below 140 ft at ne site. Would I go back??? Not in the foreseeable future - the critter density was not quite what I had been hoping for, to be honest. I saw more nudibranchs in one day in Bali than I did the whole trip at Wakatobi, for instance - my trip to the Solomons possibly spoiled me for many other places in terms of numbers/variety of strange creature. That said, this is a fabulous land-based resort that has flawless service, great accommodations and pretty darned good food – it would be hard to beat in terms of resort quality, especially given the remote location – but there are lots of places on my list, and unless I win the lottery, I have to choose carefully!
One last note…after 10 days at Wakatobi, we headed back to Bali – we chose to stay one night in Bali before heading home, and we booked a hotel I’d read about somewhere – Travel and Leisure, maybe?? I found very little detailed info on it and just took a chance – it was called the Hotel Tugu, and it was in Canggu Beach. I cannot recommend this place highly enough!!!!!! This was a pricey hotel for Bali, though half the cost of the super-deluxe places in Jimbaran and Ubud – we splurged for the one night (included transport to/from the airport, btw), and it was worth every penny. If you are in Bali for a day or two and have a special occasion to celebrate, I have a hard time imagining that you could improve on this.
Thanks to everyone here who helped with advice and recommendations - and Mike? I'll be booking that trip to Lembeh as soon as my boss' back is turned!
Allison
I mean, I'm comping out work time to study from home....
