Dive Travel Services

Maluku Divers in Ambon

2011-11-26T20:39:00.000-08:00

Our departure from the Damai on 22NOV was accomplished by the dive boat from Maluku arriving at the Damai and our gear being transferred onto their dive boat! The Damai tenders later delivered our luggage to the Resort and when we arrived at the Resort after our two morning dives, everything was already in our cottages!

Maluku Divers Resort is a two-year old property on the south side of Ambon just outside a major harbour. It's comprised of 10 guest cottages, a lovely outdoor covered dining/reception area, huge camera room with lots of space to set up your camera gear. They have a covered lounge area with lots of comfortable seating and an outdoor seating area to enjoy sunsets from. They have 3 dive boats and can accommodate 20 guests at a time. Their dive storage/preparation area is well organized as well and they handled unsettling gear issues with organized competence and we had some major personal gear issues on this long trip! Marcel is the Manager there with a staff of 37, and his partner, Lili, was our dive guide for our 3 days of diving there, and what critter eyes she has! The first thing she asked us was "would you like to see a rhinopias"? and away we went! We had 9 wonderful dives with her at various sites that were muck slopes, mini walls, diving under the fishing boats at the big pier and a lovely wall across the bay. We saw more on each dive individually than we've seen on many, many, many dives combined. Ambon is "muck heaven" as far as we were concerned!

We left Maluku on the 26th and flew back to Bali for one night...tonight is our Bali departure and the five weeks I've been here in Indonesia have literally flown by! All of the dive operators here have been top-notch and we've had so many wonderful dives....thank you Scuba Seraya; MSY Damai and its fabulous, marvelous crew; and Maluku Divers for a wonderful ending to our Holiday. Can't wait to come back and do it again and again and again! Terimakasih from my heart to everyone!

MSY Damai

2011-11-26T20:11:00.000-08:00

I have to say that this was the easiest arrival to a dive boat we've ever had! The plan was for the Damai to sail up the east coast of Bali from Benoa Harbour and have the tenders come right to Scuba Seraya and pick us up and it worked to perfection! After our 2 morning dives on 08NOV, we just bundled each of our dive gear set-ups into a neat package and left them right at the edge of the dive area; the tenders motored in from the big boat and loaded dive bags & camera boxes along with dive gear and took them off to the boat! We stepped into the tenders and disembarked right onto the boat...dive gear already situated in our individual dive stations! We didn't have to break down camera set-ups; we just carried camera/housings right onto the boat like we were returning from a dive....can't get any better than that!

We set sail for Satonda but currents were running against us in the Lombok Strait so we ended up doing our first 2 dives the next morning at Moyo Island with a dusk dive at Satonda...then we headed for Bima. We covered 2200 nautical miles in 14 nights from Bali to Ambon, diving muck slopes, pinnacles, walls, exploratory sites and even 4 dives off of Komba Island which is an ACTIVE volcano! Imagine waking up one morning and looking out your cabin door to a volcano erupting 1/4 mile away! We enjoyed its rumbles, belches and burps all day long! We could see the ash trailing down the mountain slope which got greyer and greyer as the day went on but it was spectacularly impressive as dusk set in! A bunch of us opted to skip the night dive and just watch the volcano from the upper deck....erupting with showers of red sparks, ash and lava flowing down the slope about every 30 minutes. The image I'm including is courtesy of Linda because she pulled her camera out of the housing to catch the spectacle! How many of you can say you've been diving next to an erupting volcano?

We were lucky enough to be able to spend 2 nights in South Komodo in Horseshoe Bay, home of Cannibal Rock and many other signature dive sites there. The water was unusually warm (79 degrees instead of being in the 60's....brr) so we had some awesome dives there....I was able to find again and again the tiny ladybug amphipods that are ONLY seen there at Cannibal Rock, along with sea apples that had the amphipods on them and were profusely feeding. I wish we'd had more time to spend in the South/North Komodo region and we all hated to leave there, but we had a lot of territory still to cover! We were even able to get close to the beach to see the Komodo dragons walking along the shore!

Another signature dive was Gunung Api which means volcano (or fire mountain) in Indonesian. It's famous for its immense population of sea snakes, green ones that we'd never seen before and the "usual" banded sea snakes. We dove with dozens of them over 3 dives that day.....I have to say, they were very curious and came right up to our masks and camera ports and it was a bit unsettling at times, but it's another signature Indonesian dive site and we all managed at least two dives with the snakes!

Our crossing across the Banda Sea was absolutely fabulous with dives at atolls, walls and islands along the way. We had flat calm seas, light breezes and sunny days...and knew we were very fortunate because they are heading into the rainy/windy season and it could have been very uncomfortable for us. Our final dives were at Ambon before we disembarked and again, had a tender transfer with our gear to Maluku Divers Resort...how cool is that?

Our 4 night stay in Ambon will be in the next post update!

Ubud to Scuba Seraya

2011-11-06T06:29:00.000-08:00

On Saturday we traveled from Ubud to the NE Coast of Bali....visiting a local village doing loom weaving, entering another of the nine major Bali temples called Goa Lawah (Bat Cave Temple), a Bali Aga traditional village and Tirta Gangga, a water garden that used to be part of a Royal Palace.....ending up at Scuba Seraya.

Today we did 3 dives, first one to the Liberty Wreck, second to a site called Coral Garden and last to do a dusk dive on the house reef, Seraya Secrets. All three were awesome with a huge school of jacks off the wreck, nudibranchs, frogfish and soft coral on top of the wreck and Coral Gardens lived up to its name....lots and lots of soft corals....many with resident soft coral crabs....delightful! We also saw a robust ghostpipefish, crinoid squat lobsters, many varieties of shrimp, juvenile Emperor Angelfish and lots of other cool critters....even two ribbon eels in the same hole...one blue and the other almost changed over to yellow.

Seraya Secrets had more nudis, coconut octopus, two giant black-spotted moray in a big cleaning station, more juvenile Emperor angelfish and too many other subjects to list! We can't wait to dive again tomorrow! Bob, Dave and Roberta will finally complete the group; Mike & Linda arrived safely this afternoon....enjoy the images!

The Serenity of Ubud

2011-11-04T03:50:00.000-07:00

If one can't find their inner spirit in Ubud, something is wrong! Alam Indah is a gorgeous, small boutique-style hotel set in the rolling hills just outside Monkey Forest and away from the craziness of City Centre Ubud. This is a family owned property with an attentive, caring staff. Their meal offerings are simple but superb and there's restaurants and cafes within a few minutes walking distance (shopping too!)

After a restful sleep last night, we were up and raring to do some shopping today! The Ubud Market is a conglomeration of vendors selling everything from t-shirts to food items to high quality handcrafted wooden carvings, handmade woven items and textiles...it's more than enough to make your heads spin! Bargaining with the vendors is a learned art and Loretta mastered it very quickly....we all decided to let her negotiate our pricing for us! After we were shopped out, we walked along Monkey Forest Road gazing into the "regular" shops; designer clothing, art galleries, silver shops, and lots of restaurants and cafes. We decided to stop at Cafe Wayan, also owned by the same family that owns Alam Indah and lunch was delightfully delicious. We just wished we'd had more time to spare because they offer traditional Balinese cooking classes there and that would have been something we all would have loved to try.

Next on our agenda was the spa across the street from the hotel...traditional Balinese massages, reflexology, facials were enjoyed by all and after returning to the hotel and a relaxing swim in the pool, dinnertime is approaching.

Tomorrow is, fortunately and also unfortunately, a day of travel. We'll sadly be leaving Alam Indah but traveling along the East Coast of Bali, visiting some "not to be missed sights" on our way to Amed and Scuba Seraya. Over the next three days we'll start our diving and the rest of the group will join us....our pick up by the Damai is on the 8th of November so our Bali "land time" is drawing to a close......

Mengwi to Ubud

2011-11-03T06:11:00.000-07:00

Deni, Loretta, Mardel & Michele all arrived safely on the 1st of November and joined me at Puri Taman Sari....they loved the villa and the private pool! After a quick dinner, it was off to bed for them because I had a big day planned for the 2nd! I strongly feel that anyone visiting a new country should at least absorb a bit of the culture and at 8:30 the next morning and we were off!

First stop was a silver gallery where we watched silver jewelry being made....one must have very good eyesight to be able to work on the tiny pieces of silver they were etching and carving out in the workshop. After a quick stop in the shopping area, off we went again! Next stop was a batik factory and we got to watch the ladies hand applying the wax to the fabrics in preparation for dyeing. There was also a lady working a foot loom weaving gorgeous fabric that could be made into tablecloths, napkins, placemats, etc. Some serious shopping was accomplished here! Third stop of the morning was the woodcarvers studio. There was a lovely elephant carving that was about 5' tall and maybe 2' wide...wonderful detail. They told me that it would take one man 4-5 months to carve such a beautiful piece.

We also visited the family temple of the Resort Owner, Pura Taman Sari, which is the only temple on Bali surrounded by two moats...one outside the main walls and another one just inside the temple walls. We couldn't visit inside the temple walls of this one, just walked around the walkway and were able to look in to see the beautiful temple buildings and carvings.

After a FAST lunch back at the Resort, we were off to Uluwatu Temple, which is another of Bali's nine main temples surrounding the island. Uluwatu is situated up on a very high cliff overlooking the beautiful ocean. The temple is "guarded" by some very naughty, aggressive monkeys! Everyone is advised to remove their glasses and hang onto their bags/backpacks. We spotted several monkeys grabbing sandals and shoes off of folks and jumping up onto the rooftops! They are bribed by bananas to throw the stolen objects back to the owners!

We then proceeded from the temple area into an arena area where the traditional Kecak Dance was performed, accompanied by a chorus of 70 men chanting throughout the performance. Long story short, the guy gets in the girl in the end, but the costumes and dancing are a fabulous introduction into the culture.

Today brought us to a coffee plantation where we sampled Bali cocoa, Bali coffee, ginseng coffee, lemongrass tea, white ginger and red ginger tea. We were able to also sample the Luawk coffee which is the "poop" coffee...the animal eats the red coffee beans and once they are digested, the beans are harvested off the ground, cleaned & dried & roasted and honestly, I was amazed at how delicious the coffee tasted! Deni and Loretta bought a couple of bags to bring home! Indonesian coffee is traditionally very, very strong coffee....

Enjoy the images...we're shopping the markets of Ubud tomorrow and getting massages in the afternoon. Alam Indah is a 10-room property just outside of Monkey Forest and it's our beautiful home for the next two nights....sweet dreams!

Menjangan to Mengwi

2011-10-31T04:13:00.000-07:00

Early this morning Nyoman picked me up at Mimpi and we headed east and then south; first another beautiful temple overlooking the sea...and lots of silver monkeys to guard the temple. Most of them were nice but a few were naughty and I got some close attention from a bunch of the babies...I don't think they were happy that I wasn't feeding them!

We headed south near Singaraga and visited the Munduk Golden Valley Waterfall which is beautiful...it's 246 meters from the road...down dirt and bamboo steps! Thankfully the young man at the entrance gave me a walking stick...helped a lot with no rails!

We also visited two crater lakes at the top of the mountain...one facing east and just across a fairly narrow stretch of land, another facing west...very beautiful with the mist on the top of the mountains and the blue, blue lakes.

We stopped to visit another gorgeous temple which is also on the water and then arrived at Puri Taman Sari, my home for the next three nights. It's located in Mengwi and was the palace of a royal family and has been turned into a 5-Star Property. They put me in a 4-bedroom villa with a private pool...good thing some of the group is arriving tomorrow to share this beautiful place with me. The private infinity pool overlooks a love rice terrace as well....I think I'm in heaven!

Diving in Secret Bay

2011-10-30T02:02:00.000-07:00

Secret Bay was discovered a number of years ago by a well-known photographer and he was so captured by its amazing diversity that he kept it "secret" for a long time, but word is out and it hosts small numbers of divers daily. Today it was ONLY Anton & I....amazing! It's near the ferry port of Gilimanuk, which is the crossing point between Bali & Java and it has good water flow so it's a bit cooler water (like 77 degrees today!).

It's an easy shore entry and they have a nice shore support facility right there with bathrooms, showers, camera and gear rinse tanks and benches in the shade so it's a simple dive. It's also shallow...our maximum depth for both dives was only 25' so we had lots of bottom time....the only problem, of course, is that I got cold so we limited both dives to 60 minutes and I came back with chattering teeth & lots of air left in my tanks!

It's a dark sandy bottom with bright green algae covering a lot of the sand...lots of places for critters to hide! The algae is large-leafed like Romaine lettuce and quite attractive as a photographic background I found! It's also good perches for nudibranchs and other small critters.

They also have put out concrete "structures" with holes in them which are covered in sponges and offer safe haven for schools of striped catfish, shrimp, cardinal fish and lots of other creatures.

We saw three different species of pipefish including a Halameda ghostpipefish in only 5' of water on our way back to shore after the last dive....it's a beautiful green and did some lovely posing for our cameras! All the nudibranchs we saw today were new species for me and the other "usual suspects" like dragonets, lionfish, anemonefish, fang blennies inside of bottles...you name it, we saw it...except for any frogfish which are usually present here...oh well, maybe next time! Enjoy the images, I'm back to land touring tomorrow and won't be diving again until we get to Scuba Seraya near Ahmed on the 5th of Nov.

2011-10-29T16:36:00.000-07:00

QUICK BALI UPDATE!
I'm going diving in Secret Bay today with my long-time friend and dive guide, Anton Kusmayanto...here's a few images from the past two days. I'll update with some critter images later today...this is supposed to be "critter heaven"!

Bali's NW Coast

2011-10-28T17:04:00.000-07:00

Upon my arrival on Bali on Wednesday, I was met outside the arrivals area by my driver & guide, Nyoman Dana. I also was able to meet up with Agung, the adminstrator extraordinare for Dive Damai! He's been working with me for months on practicing my Bahasa Indonesian and it's great to finally meet him face to face!

After loading all my gear, we headed out of Denpasar with a quick stop to visit a long-time friend and dive guide, Anton Kusmayanto, who now owns Bali Dive Travel. We spent a short while having tea and catching up but with traffic picking up, it was time to head north! The road north out of Denpasar is called the Sunset Road, but there's so many buildings and so much construction going on, I haven't a clue how one could possible see the sunset from that road! Traffic on Bali is tremendous and short looking distances on a map take forever to travel. My first stop on Bali was Medewi Beach Cottages, about a 3 hour drive north of Denpasar. Medewi Beach is known as a hot surfing spot with a famous "left-hand" wave. There were a few surfers waiting to catch a wave but the sea was pretty calm while I was there...needless to say, the surfers from around the world were slightly disappointed!

Thursday's drives included a stop at Bunut Bolong, a huge Banyan-type tree that has had a road carved through the middle of it...looks very healthy and has put out many, many more roots outside the roadbed so it's thriving!

We then headed farther north to one of Bali's nine seaside temples which surround and protect the Island. Pura Rambut Siwi is made up of six separate temples all situated on a cliffside overlooking a peaceful stretch of black sand beach. One of the temples is actually located down many, many steps right at the water's edge.

Next we headed further north to Pura (Temple) Gede Perancak, another of the seaside temples. It's closed to visitors right now because of ongoing refurbishment, but my "find of the day" just past the temple was a whole fleet of Javanese-style fishing boats! These fishing boats are all painted in vibrant colors and all sport decorated icons on their masts...it's a gorgeous spectacle to behold and I was able to speak (through Nyoman, of course) to some of the fishermen. They go out at least 50 miles to fish for "small tuna"...each boat holds 60 men! The catch for his boat the night before yielded 20 ton of fish! As a diver, such huge harvests makes me sad to think they do this night after night? Soon there will be NO fish left in our oceans!

Friday morning's drive was 1-1/2 hours north to the NW tip of Bali, driving through Bali Barat National Park. The park is over 74,000 hectares plus over 7,000 hectares of protected coral reef offshore. The Park is home to many birds, 200 different species of plants and lots of wildlife. We saw lots of macaque monkeys sitting by the side of the road but none of their signature "mouse deer" but it was the middle of the day and hot, hot, hot there! It's the end of the dry season on Bali so it's quite dry up in the Park, not as lush as farther south where it's a more tropical climate.

Today's plan is a 2-tank boat dive with Mimpi Divers here at Mimpi Menjagan Resort. I have a lovely walled villa with a private natural hot spring pool in my courtyard! It will be something to look foward to jumping into after my dives today.....

Back to Bali, Indonesia

2011-10-22T09:53:00.000-07:00

I'll be back in Bali on October 26 and the first 5 days will be spent with a guide and my cameras, exploring the NW coast of Bali....including diving at Menjangan! I'll be visiting temples and other cultural areas and trying to immerse myself in their culture...can't wait! The rest of the dive group arrives on November 1st and we'll do more temple visits, Barong & Kecak dance performances and let them learn about the fabulous Balinese culture that I so love! By the 7th of November, the whole group will be gathered at Scuba Seraya, on the East Coast of Bali, doing some signature Bali shore dives and awaiting the arrival of the MSY Damai, our home for FOURTEEN fabulous nights! We'll be traveling from Bali, through the Komodo/Rinca (Cannibal Rock) regions and end up on Ambon so follow along and share the adventure with us!

2011-04-13T07:30:00.000-07:00

Sea the World Scuba Center is diving from Scuba Club Cozumel this week and they tell me the weather is hot & sunny! Diving has been great and Mike K sent me a few images to share with you....enjoy!

2011-03-15T18:41:00.000-07:00

Eleven days of heaven onboard the Damai! It's a 5-star floating hotel with beautiful rooms, a crew of 18 to cater to the 10 guests' needs, 4 dive guides for the divers, food that could easily be served in any fine restaurant anywhere in the world! Wow, it was an amazing trip!

From the black sand "muck" dives in Ambon right under the main pier with eels, frogfish, shrimp, gobies and lots of other critters to the schools of jacks and snapper circling around us....then on to Air Laut & Banda to dive coral slopes, sheer walls, hard coral gardens and more sandy rubble slopes looking for critters! Off the island of Banda we dove the volcano lava slope. The hard coral gardens there are acres and acres of gorgeous, unbleached, corals. Scientists have been amazed at the sheer amount of the numerous varieties of hard corals that have covered this slope in a little more than 20 years since the last eruption! While on Banda, Paul & I took a break from diving to visit the little town of Banda Nasaira and a lovely spice plantation, the local Museum and the Dutch fort built in the early 1600's! We saw cinnamon trees, nutmeg trees, almond &cocoa trees and other amazing growing spices. I bought a bag of nutmeg, mace, cinnamon and nutmeg candy for just under $10!

After leaving Banda we visited Koon, Run (roon), Momon and then finally arrived at Triton Bay. We visited a fabulous waterfall along the shore, saw petroglyphs carved into the limestone wall 40' above the waterline from many hundreds of years ago and, of course, did our last 3-1/2 days of diving the fabulous dive sites there. Larry's Heaven, GT Rock, Tim Rock, Davids' Rock, Little Komodo and a few exploratory "green wall" dives were logged in Triton Bay. Lots of critters were seen, huge schools of fish including some of the largest varieties of sweetlips surrounded us at times and the hard and especially soft corals were gorgeous. Everyone was excited to see "wobblies" (woebbegong sharks) under a lot of the coral heads, some blue-spotted stingrays and too many creatures to name. Another one of the highlights was a great encounter with a blue ring octopus as well. You name it, we saw it here! It's not easy to get to/from but the diving is amazing!

Yesterday was a long day of travel...from Kaimana to Ambon to Makkasar to Manado..none of the flights are longer than 1-1/2 hours but the waiting times in hot, un-air-conditioned airports make it seem longer! We were happy to get back to the Novatel in Manado last night and snuggle into a comfortable bed after a long, cool shower! This morning we're just hanging around the hotel until late morning when we all make our way back to the Manado airport for our flight to Singapore and then we'll all split up for our homeward journeys. It was a wonderful group to spend 3 weeks with...we had a lot of fun, good food, great drinks and amazing diving! Next trip onboard the Damai is this coming November and we can't wait to get back!

Terima kasih to Capt. Alwi; our always smiling First Officer, Sofian; Chief Engineer Joko; our 3 wonderful chefs, Rudy, Wayan, & Brida, our skiff drivers Udin, Sabang; our masseuse Hendrik; our 3 engineers Indra, Achmadun & Holan who kept our rooms cool and the compressors running smoothly; our wonderful "restaurant stewards", Ketut & Kadek, who remembered all our weird meal requests and served us always smiling; our fabulous dive guides Ketut, Chris & Inyo (with the AMAZING critter eyes) and, of course, last but not least our Cruise Director, Mike Veitch! You dealt with all the little and big glitches seamlessly and with great Canadian humour! See you all again in November...sempa jumpa lagi!

Transit Day!

2011-03-03T17:34:00.001-08:00

This morning we left Manado on a 6:45 a.m. flight to Makassar and then will travel onwards to Ambon. Garuda has a wonderful lounge here in the brand-new Makassar airport so we're hanging out here for a few hours in between our flights. Final destination today is Ambon and the beautiful MSY Damai....can't wait to get there and get onboard!
Our itinerary for the next 11 nights will be diving Ambon's black sand muck, the Banda region and onwards to Koon where the signature dive site is called "Too Many Fish", and then ending up in Triton Bay for 4-5 days! These are all new areas to us so we are anxious to explore and share our findings with you.....

Last dives at Lembeh!

2011-03-02T06:18:00.000-08:00

Well, today we finished our diving at Lembeh...two wonderful wide-angle morning dives...first one at California Dreaming and 2nd one at Nudi Retreat, which is a mini wall that is covered in huge sea fans and soft corals. Last dive was a "muck dive" of course...can't leave the Straits without finishing off in the black sand! We weren't in the water 2 minutes and our guide, Iwan, found us another wonderful Wonderpuss! This one hung around until all the photographers got their fill...it was fabulous! Then the guys found us not one, not two, but THREE hairy frogfishes! Last but not least was a juvenile zebra batfish...they are spectacularly gorgeous....what a way to end a great week at Lembeh!

Tomorrow we're off to Manado for the night and then an early, early morning flight to Ambon on Friday morning to board the Damai. Thanks for a wonderful time, Lembeh Resort and the critters@lembeh crew. You make it so easy to have so much fun...can't wait to come back again...and again...and again!

Mandarin Fish Dive

2011-03-01T14:24:00.000-08:00

Lembeh Resort has a house reef with mandarin fish living on it but they found a new dive site just two minutes out into the Straits so they are currently giving their "own" mandarin site a rest. We hopped onto the boat and quickly arrived at the dive site. The corals there are rubbly, which is what the mandarin fish prefer for a habitat, but there were some very pretty encrusting pink sponges as well so there was some contrast. We departed the dock at 4:45 so it was still very light and as soon as we dropped into the water and swam down to the corals, we could see the mandarins already starting to roam the reef to do their courting ritual. For over an hour in 16' maximum depth we watched them court....it was amazing! These are large males, a lot of them were 5" long! I had lots of opportunities to capture close-up images which was lots of fun! There was only one actual mating that I observed and this pair only rose a couple of inches into the water column, rather than the 15-18" we've observed before, so catching them "in the act" was difficult. I managed two shots but they were out of focus, darn it!

As well as the beautiful mandarin fish, the reef there is covered in various varieties of cardinal fish, including the colorful pajama cardinals! We also saw lined pipefish and a very, very cool orange Tiger mantis shrimp peeping out of his hole watching all the action...I'm sure he managed to snare a few cardinal fish for dinner!

Today is our last day of diving in the Straits..we're going a bit north to California Dreaming and Angel's Window for some soft coral and wide angle diving...more later!

Lembeh Days 3 & 4

2011-03-01T05:07:00.001-08:00

We've been so darn busy diving that I haven't had time to do any posts...sorry! Flamboyant cuttlefish, tiger shrimp, frogfish in different colors and shapes....we've been having a BLAST! We did the mandarin fish dusk dive this evening and we had the biggest mandarin fish running around the reef in front us that we've ever seen! Four dives yesterday including an amazing night dive; four dives today....we hardly have time to eat & sleep! We have 3 more dives scheduled for tomorrow including some wide angle soft coral dives in the morning and then it's time to dry the gear for our flight to Ambon early on Friday morning....I'll try and update the blog one more time before we lose our internet connection!

Lembeh Day 2

2011-02-27T00:43:00.000-08:00

Selamat siang (good afternoon) from Lembeh!
Three dives so far today and each one has gotten BETTER! What's on your wish list today??? Blue ring octopus? Check....part of the group saw one on the 1st dive today! Nudibranchs? Check! Cuttlefish? Check! Wonderpuss?????? CHECK! It seems like we saw everything on that third dive...mating bullocki nudis with yellow eggs, white ornate ghostpipefish, baby cuttlefish, 2 pairs of Pegasus sea moths, orange mantis shrimp, WONDERPUSS and then at the end of the dive in the shallows, Mandarin fish running all over the reef...at 4:00 in the afternoon in the SUNLIGHT! We all came up from the dive "whooping" at the wonder! Enjoy the images...more tomorrow after tonight's night dive....

2011-02-26T02:36:00.000-08:00

OFF TO LEMBEH STRAITS!
Today after breakfast we headed out of Buyat Bay and turned north towards Lembeh. Even though the morning was clear and sunny, it was decided that we'd travel about two hours to do our first dive to get most of the "open water" traveling behind us before the winds picked up. We were traveling in a covered dive boat that sheltered us from the sun. (The pink boat image is NOT our dive boat; it was just a local-type ferry vessel!) All luggage is loaded into the bow hold and it was a piece of cake for us to move everything...the crew did it all!

First dive site was a beautiful island in the middle of the Molukka Straits; 2nd dive site was called Pulau Dua..."Two Islands"...and after a leisurely lunch and another 1/2 hour journey, we were into Lembeh Straits "proper" with mainland N. Sulawesi and the Port of Bitung to our left and Lembeh Island to our right. After a quick check-in, it was time for our 3rd dive of the day. As I type, the rest of the group is off doing their first Lembeh Straits night dive...I'd be with them but I need to play a bit of "catch-up"!

Here's a couple of images from our journey today, including our beautiful Lembeh Resort cottage....heavenly room with outdoor bathroom and hot, hot shower!

2011-02-26T02:07:00.001-08:00

BUYAT BAY, N. SULAWESI, INDONESIA
One of Mother Nature’s still well-hidden secrets, a few years ago the critters@lembeh staff brought some select underwater photographers to this gem of an area to evaluate its potential for the diving market and everyone was blown away by the pristine stands of massive old-growth corals! Getting here isn’t easy, but when is getting to Paradise ever easy? It’s a four-hour drive up and down and around the volcanic region of N. Sulawesi and the Minahasans’ beautiful homeland. After a long international flight, it might be a consideration to stop overnight in either Manado or up in the highlands at Gardenia Lodge, but we opted to just “push on” and go straight to Buyat. Our driver dropped us off at the Port of Belang where the critters boat picked us up and took us the last ½ hour over water instead of the longer route by vehicle.
CRITTERS@BUYAT is based out of an old mining camp and it’s being billed as “dive camp with awesome diving” so folks are prepared for basic accommodations. Everyone has their own air-conditioned cottage with private bath and shower and veranda overlooking the gorgeously landscaped grounds. The gold mining operation ceased to operate over 10 years ago and numerous tests have been done over the years for ground and water quality in the region. For some reason the commercial fishermen left this area totally intact so the corals weren’t affected by over fishing and/or fish bombing as was prevalent throughout this region for many years, thus leaving pristine diving conditions for us to enjoy! Maybe the locals’ naming of some of the islands like “Poison”, “Bone” & “Antidote” had something to do with that! Meals are prepared family style in the large dining area equipped with a commercial kitchen. A compressor is on site so that tanks can be easily filled rather than bringing everything down by boat from Lembeh as was initially done.
Diving is, to say the least, untouched by diver impact. They have, however, for the past few months had extremely high water temperatures due to this year’s El Nino in the Pacific and some of the corals are definitely showing signs of stress from the prolonged hot waters and are bleaching. Some areas show much greater effect than others. The sponges and sea fans are gigantic and surrounded by massive schools of sweepers and cardinal fish. The sandy slopes are a treasure to discover…shrimp gobies, mantis shrimp, snake eels, flatheads, crocodile fish & pipefish to name just a few are commonly seen in different settings and as photographers, we’ve enjoyed our diving down here. It’s disheartening to see the effects of Global Warming and in no place is it more evident when you see thousands of years of coral growth slowly losing its color (and life) because of the high water temperatures. Our guides are encouraged that this phase is coming to a close because the water temperate has dropped 2 degrees in the past few weeks. One of the more encouraging signs is that corals are apparently learning to adapt to higher temperatures and if the water doesn’t stay too warm for too long, damage can be reversible. As divers, it’s incumbent upon us to continue to educate the world as to the fragility of our oceans and our basic food chain.
Thanks, Buyat Bay, for 3 days of splendid diving! Our guides Andi & Fandy have had “awesome critter” eyes and we’ve thoroughly enjoyed their company and their guidance…..NOW, off to Lembeh!

Off to Indonesia!

2011-02-16T09:18:00.000-08:00

We'll be diving Buyat Bay, Lembeh Straits and then off to Ambon to board the Damai on March 4. Traveling from Ambon to Triton Bay, we'll be diving some of the richest ocean in the world! Follow along starting next week!

2010-05-17T00:59:00.001-07:00

From Puerto Princessa, Palawan 90 nautical miles to Tubbataha Marine Reserve, 5 full days of diving there; onwards 200 nautical miles to Apo Island, Dauin off Dumaguete, Balicasag and Caibalao and then "home" to Mactan Island, it was a fantastic 14 days aboard the beautiful Philippine Siren. The ship is gorgeous and well laid out, the crew was a combination of Thai, Indonesian, Filipino, a Dutchman and an American! The ship has only been here in the Philippines for about five months now. It sailed from Bira, Indonesia where it was built with a Thai captain and combination Indonesian and Thai crew. They have been training the Filipino crew and are in the process of turning over all responsibilities for the operations to the local crew. Everyone works well together and gets along great, even given a little bit of language difficulties amongst themselves!

We dove sheer walls, sand slopes, black sand "muck", over fields of gorgeous hard and soft corals and even identified some new fish and critters on this trip. Almost all diving is done from the inflatable "dinkies" with the exception of two dives where we were moored directly over gorgeous hard corals. Diving is generally drift diving with some swift currents and most moderate to mild.

The food on the ship was exquisite....Thai, Indonesian, Filipino; a Japanese dinner as well as the last night barbeque! The head chef, Ivan, is an Indonesian who sailed over with the ship and is leaving with us to head back home after seven months away. He's leaving the kitchen to two very talented Filipino chefs, Jimmie & TaTa, both of whom also contributed daily to create the amazing entrees. I'm sure going to miss my nase gorem at breakfast and my fresh mangoes daily!

Well, the internet connection here is slow, slow, slow & won't let me upload any images again....bye, bye, Philippines!

2010-05-14T21:01:00.000-07:00

We're now at Cabilao Island for the last two days of diving. This afternoon the Siren will be hoisting the sails for a bit and we'll also do some sailing inbetween dives! I'm using the iPhone connection so this will be brief! It will not grab images from my phone library but I posted some images to the Facebook page!

2010-05-11T21:40:00.000-07:00

It’s been a week since we got onboard the Philippine Siren and we’re now at Apo Island and connected!

We spent five days diving at Tubbataha Marine Park out in the middle of the Sulu Sea. It’s 90 nautical miles southwest of the island of Palawan and in the middle of “nowhere”! There’s a Ranger Station on a sandbar that’s manned 12 months a year, 24 hours a day and they patrol the Marine Park looking for illegal fishing activities. Their tour of duty is two months, no matter the season. The Ranger Station looks like a squat stucco longhouse with very, very thick walls mounted on squat legs, painted a bright white. They have covered porches outside, a small commons area with a television; bunks stacked neatly and a small kitchen with a little garden and laundry drying area outside. They rely on a regular supply boat for food and water, but they do have collection barrels to catch the rain as well.

Tubbataha is divided into the North and South Atolls. There are continuous dive sites along the atolls, sloping reefs into sheer, sheer walls. The walls are covered in fan corals, some soft corals and lots of hard corals. The reefs are teeming with fish of all varieties. Signature dives feature schools of barracuda, schools of horse-eyed jacks, giant trevally cruising the reefs, some saw a manta or two, turtles on every dive and sharks….reef sharks, whitetip reef sharks, several “leopard” sharks were also spotted. The water temp ranged from 82-84 degrees so it was pleasantly warm. Large grouper were prolific….

We dove Washing Machine, Sea Fan Alley, Shark Airport, the Malawan Wreck, the Delsan wreck, Hans Reef, Wall Street, Southwest Wall, Sweetlips X-press and many others. Nightly moorings were on the leeward side of the atolls so it was calm and quiet to sleep.

This is a beautiful vessel. It’s an Indonesia Pinisi-style with spacious cabins, plentiful closets and cupboards, beautiful polished wooden floors and cabinets. Every cabin has a computer desk with a computer that’s wired into the main computer in the salon. The salon features a flat panel big screen ideal for viewing slideshows & videos.

Food has been amazing; we have an Indonesian chef and two Philippine chefs so we’re getting a taste of many cultures! Fruits and veggies are plentiful at every meal. Chicken, fish, shrimp, pork, beef, squid are featured on a rotating basis, two main meat/fish courses per dinner plus a vegetarian entrée. The crew is friendly and wonderfully competent. Almost all diving is done in inflatable tenders but a couple of the dives have been off the dive platform into a site directly beneath us.

We had a 30+ hour sail from Tubbataha to Negroes Island and then offshore to Apo Island to dive here and start our way back towards Cebu…we started our diving again this morning with a great macro dive along the east side of Apo Island at a site called Rock Point East. Here’s a few images from our Tubbataha diving….internet connection is slow, slow, slow so uploading might be problematic!

2010-05-03T04:19:00.000-07:00

Sunrise at 5:00 a.m. - sunset at 6:30 p.m. with a trip to the Underground River in between! It's a two-hour drive across Palawan to Sabang Beach and the beginning of the World Heritage Site Underground River. The highest point in the caves is 65 meters and it's a totally awesome experience! There are over 64,000 bats that live in the caves, 8 species in all. The colors of the marble are incredibly beautiful and it's quiet except for the paddling of the driver and the chattering of the bats! They limit the timing in between the boats so you truly get to experience feeling like you're all alone deep inside the beautiful caves...it was quite the experience!

We also spent some time on Sabang Beach until our permit time, got to enjoy watching the local kids fish and play in the water. Today was the Philippines Labor Day so families were out enjoying the beautiful day.

Tomorrow we board the Siren after lunch and internet contact will be limited so this will be our last post for several days at least.....

2010-05-02T15:33:00.000-07:00

While you are eating dinner, I'm walking the beach at 5:00 a.m. watching the pre-sunrise! What a gorgeous morning....low tide again so after taking a few shots from our balcony while Bob was snoozing away, downstairs I went and picked up a cup of coffee and headed outside to sit and watch Mother Nature at Her finest! And since the tide was so low again, I could walk about 1/4 mile out to where the fishing boats were just barely in water....enjoy!

2010-05-02T06:08:00.000-07:00

Look at the 1st photo in the previous post with the two mangrove trees in the water...these were taken about 45 minutes after sunset tonight...facing East with a very, very low tide! Sometimes the most beautiful sunset shots are AFTER sunset...enjoy!

We're doing the Underground River tour tomorrow...photos to follow later in the day!

2010-05-02T00:54:00.000-07:00

Cebu & Palawan, Philippines are two beautiful islands! We enjoyed a short stay on Mactan/Cebu Islands on Saturday and did a Cebu City tour in the early afternoon. First a visit to Lapu lapu where the locals massacred Magellan and a magnificent Mactan warrior shrine there; then onwards to where Magellan's Cross is preserved, a beautiful monument depicting the history and heritage of Cebu itself, a tour of the Casa Gorodo home which has been turned into a beautiful museum and then a visit to the Basilica Del Stores Nino which is the oldest Cathedral in the Philippines. Last stop was the San Pedro Fort and then back to the hotel where we enjoyed a little beach time yesterday and watched a beautiful sunset as well.

This morning we packed our bags and headed off on Cebu Pacific to the Island of Palawan in the southwestern region of the Philippines. We have a day today of relaxation and then we're touring the island including a cruise along an underground river. Tuesday after lunch we're scheduled to board the MY Philippine Siren. Sunset here along the beach today should be magnificent...

2010-04-28T08:27:00.000-07:00

We're off to the Philippines! Follow us on the blog or on the Dive Travel Services Facebook page while we tour Cebu, Palawan and then board the gorgeous Philippine Siren for 13 nights diving Tubbataha National Park, Apo Island, Dumaguete and Siquijor, Panglao & Balicasag Islands, ending back in Cebu!

I'll try and update the blog as often as I have internet access...here's some images of the Siren to entice you! Wish you were joining us.....

2010-01-02T18:38:00.000-08:00

Trip wrap-up:

MALE, MALDIVES

Well, the diving part of the trip is at an end…we are now back in Male Harbour and dive gear is dry and packing has begun! Yinnie & Andrea had two dives this morning because they are not leaving until later on Sunday but since we have a 2:30 a.m. flight from Male to Dubai, the rest of us finished our diving on Friday. The weather has been beautiful so books are being read up on the beautiful sundeck and we had a chance to visit another island earlier today…this one is MUCH larger than the village we visited last week. There are actually streets of shops carrying the usual Maldivian wood carvings, cloth sulus, many types of jewelry and other craft items. This village didn’t give us the same “local” feel as the one earlier in the trip so we just picked up a few items from the Mango Shoppe (“largest souvenir shop in the Maldives”) and headed back to the ship!

Tonight will be our farewell dinner and group and crew photos taken. This has been a fabulous boat with a wonderful crew. Our many thanks go out to Moosa, our Cruise Director and overall very funny guy & amazing diver. He makes every guest feel like the Manthiri is their home and his crew shares his enthusiasm. Hassan also dove with us; Dhonbe captained the “big” boat, Manthiri, while Razaq captained our dhoni dive boat. Saif (Mr. Nitrox) and Mohamed helped us with our gear and cameras off and back onto the dhoni. Smiling Manju took care of all our dining needs and refilled endless cups of tea, coffee and water. I can’t say enough about our chefs, Amadey & Hemanthe…..the food that came out of that small kitchen was incredibly varied, most plentiful and delicious. Our only complaint was that they cooked SO MUCH food for every meal…it seemed a shame to waste so much but in this climate, food spoils very quickly and they just don’t have enough room for refrigeration for left-overs! Fruits and vegetables were so plentiful, it was amazing! The other Mohamed took care of our cabins…fresh bedding, fresh towels and laundry were his responsibilities. The cabins are very comfortable and have great storage as well.

This is one of the most comfortable boats we’ve ever been on. Because all diving is done from the dhoni, there’s never any compressor noises on the “big” boat. The dhoni pulls away from the big boat to recharge tanks. And since all traveling in the Maldives takes place during daylight hours, all nights are spent inside the atolls in extremely calm waters so no rocking & rolling in the beds either! The salon is spacious with couches and loveseats to curl up on with a book or space to work on photos. The large dining tables make up the other half of the salon and all meals are served family-style. Behind the salon is the very large, well-equipped camera room with lots of shelves for camera bits & pieces and plenty of charging stations. No one feels cramped in there either. The kitchen is tucked in next to the camera room….it’s amazing the food that comes out of that small space!

The upper deck consists of the bridge and a covered deck with comfortable cushioned chairs and a sundeck with padded lounges. Today our sundeck looked like a garage sale up there with all the gear strung along the rails to dry!

We can’t thank this fabulous crew enough for the best dive spots, every attempt to get us on the dive sites precisely and time the currents and patterns this unique diving destination demands. Unfortunately, even though we saw whale sharks and manta as promised, we all would have loved to have even longer and more frequent encounters, but lots of dives were logged and this is the “fishiest” place on the planet, bar none! So long, Manthiri, until next time!

2010-01-02T18:26:00.000-08:00

Playing catch-up while we're in Dubai...really poor wireless coverage once we left S. Ari Atoll...here's the 2nd week:

Monday, December 28

Today’s 1st dive was along the whale shark area again but overcast skies and rolling seas made them difficult to spot from the boat. We jumped in and found a nice leopard shark lying on the sand so that was a great start to the dive! More schools of fish, eels in cleaning stations, big grouper cruising the reef and lots of bannerfish….a great early morning dive.

2nd dive was at the manta cleaning station area but again, no mantas! Conditions are just not right for them right now, we guess. We cruised along the reef until we found the giant school of blue-lined yellow snapper and immersed ourselves inside the school….this dive also featured schools of Oriental sweetlips and schools of the Maldivian bannerfish which are quite large for bannerfish.

After a two-hour cruise we arrived at our night time anchorage at West Ari Atoll. This dive was everyone’s favorite of the trip (so far)! It’s called Table Top and is a coral pinnacle with slopes down to the sea floor at varying depths with caverns covered in soft corals all along the way around the pinnacle. The schools of fish were immense and we were able to see a huge school of chevron barracuda that swirled into a ball out in the blue…then as we proceeded up along the reef, Moosa was waving madly at me….needless to say, I swam up to him quickly and he was pointing out a very large Crown jellyfish floating above the reef with beautiful colors and dangling tentacles. I filled my viewfinder & dome port with it and shot away…it was absolutely gorgeous! Then our attention was drawn to the top of the reef….and we learned why the site is called Table Top…the whole reef top is fabulous table colors of varying colors and textures with colorful reef fish floating just above the reef….what a spectacular dive it was!

Tuesday, December 29
We did Table Top again the 1st dive today and loved it just as much. Then we changed to our macro lenses and did it again and it didn’t disappoint. There were also small white tip reef sharks cruising the top of the pinnacle, an eagle ray out in the blue and more Napoleon wrasse, the school of chevron barracuda as well as all the small stuff we were looking for.

After leaving Table Top we headed to another manta aggregation area. 2nd and 3rd dives were there and we saw 6-7 manta underwater on each dive but visibility was hampered by the plankton in the water so it was not rewarding photographically. The highlight of the day was the 50-75 manta swimming in three different groups at the surface all around the boat during our surface interval between the 2nd and 3rd dives! There was quite a surface current so the food was being funneled directly into the manta masses…their wing tips kept breaking the surface and we all enjoyed the show! Andrea grabbed her snorkel gear from the dhoni and hopped in to swim with them…it was a LONG swim because the surface current was pushing her away from them. Several times the crew got into the small skiff and ferried her back to where the manta were feeding. Marsha, we knew that you would have been right out there with Andrea as well!

Wednesday December 30 & Thursday December 31
We spent all our dives these two days looking for manta at cleaning stations as well as manta feeding stations. The currents have been such that our SCUBA bubbles are pushing the plankton away from us and towards the manta so they don’t have to even come near us to feed…we saw lots of sharks, marble rays, Napoleon wrasse, schools of snapper and sweetlips….all the “usual Maldivian subjects” but no manta on the dive sites. Oh well, Mother Nature has her own agenda and it’s not meshing with ours this week! We’ve had great dives with more schools of fish than we’ve seen anywhere else in the world…more sharks on every dive than is usually common to us and other interesting things to watch and enjoy!

The crew put on another fabulous buffet for dinner tonight. We all toasted one another with cocktails at sunset and watched the full moon rise over the resort just a short distance away from the Manthiri. Beautiful sunset photos were captured and we enjoyed hearing the music from the Resort’s bar while we were out on deck. It was a lovely way to end 2009 and we’re all looking forward to more great diving in 2010!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, Everyone! Friday, January 1, 2010
Dives 1 and 2 again today were in the same general area as yesterday’s dives. Moosa and Hasson are trying their darndest to get us some more underwater manta sightings but to no avail. We did, however, see the most beautiful giant anenomes on these sites. Their base is a pumpkin orange color and with the orange Maldivian anemonefish in them, they are quite stunning to behold, especially when the anemones ball up to feed. On the 2nd dive Bob & I were paced by three batfish…one of whom was absolutely in LOVE with Bob’s yellow fins! He followed us along the reef for at least ten minute…circling Bob and trying to get close to his fins! I wonder what type of animal he thought Bob was????

We’re just about ready to embark on our 3rd dive of the day and last dive of the trip….37 dives in all for those who chose to make all of them. I think Bob & Mike are the only two to do every single one of them….after the last dive the crew will wash all our gear and bring it on to the main boat so we can dry it out before packing it tomorrow afternoon. Where in the world have the past two weeks flown to? Lots of good dives, great meals, a beautifully appointed Liveaboard and a magnificent crew…who could ask for anything more?

Tomorrow, another village visit before we head back to Male and then home!

2009-12-27T07:41:00.000-08:00

Sunday, December 27, 2009
We awoke this morning to the most gorgeous sunrise…we took it as a GOOD omen that today would be a whale shark day! Dives on the Manthiri start early….briefing is at 6:30 a.m. and the winds and seas were calm. Off we went to the dhoni to get geared up. We were only just out of the harbor and one of the dhoni crew spoke excitedly….Moosa and Hassan translated…”they’ve seen a whale shark”! Everyone got their gear on and we cruised along the reef wall for a bit. Apparently the whale shark had surfaced and then headed into the deep. After 5-10 minutes of cruising, the guys decided it was time to get into the water in the same general area where the shark had been sighted…..

No sooner did my body break the surface of the water and I started descending, Hassan looked at me and told me to turn around….the whale shark was slightly above us and heading right towards us! It was a juvenile…probably 20 feet long…it stayed on a steady course towards us for a few moments and then started heading out into the blue, descending slightly. We swam hard but it’s difficult to keep up with an animal of that size…they look like they’re barely moving but we’re huffing & puffing to try and catch up! It wasn’t a long encounter, time for a shot or two, but we finally had a close-up encounter! They are gorgeous animals…so giant and gentle in the water….what a beautiful start to the 2nd week of our trip!

During our surface interval between dives #1 & #2 the Manthiri was cruising along the reef in about 40’ of water and everyone was watching over the rails and all of a sudden the crew gave out a shout and a good-sized whale shark appeared just off our port side! It cruised along next to us for a few minutes just below the surface and then turned and headed out towards the blue….TWO whale shark sightings in less than 3 hours made us very, very happy!

Dive #3 was delayed because the seaplane schedule got off track and Andrea and Yinnie were arriving to join us for the 2nd week. Since it was so late in the day, we switched to macro lenses and hopped in again. This time we looked for small stuff and were rewarded with a beautiful deep blue snail sponge and then a less than 2-foot long baby whitetip shark under a coral head. Lots of butterflyfish and trigger fish and even an adult whitetip shark cruising in the distance. Soon it was almost a night dive so up we came!

This will be our last night near the wireless tower so internet access will be limited again for at least a few days…..I’ll start the log again and update when I can!

2009-12-26T07:15:00.000-08:00

DAY 7 - South Ari Atoll

Hello from the South end of the Maldives! We did three dives here again today - the first one looking for whale sharks...no luck; the second one at the manta cleaning station....no luck; and the 3rd one off a beautiful little island with lots of schooling fish!

Although we got skunked on both whale sharks and manta today, we had 3 beautiful dives! Eagle rays, mobula rays, large stingrays, white tip reef sharks, blacktip reef sharks, thousands of blue-lined yellow snapper and loads of other beautiful creatures. The first dive site was covered in fantastic table corals...some of the largest we've seen anywhere in the world.....

We'll try again tomorrow looking for whale sharks. Actually, while we were off on the first dive off the dhoni, the Manthiri was out along the reef as well and found a small one not too far behind us! It's the luck of the draw, of course, nothing is guaranteed in Nature and it's a darn big ocean...that whale shark could have been 100 yards behind us the whole dive and we might not have even seen it anyway....cross our fingers and hope for better luck tomorrow.....

And we had the prettiest sunset we've seen in a long time so enjoy the photos from today's adventures everyone.

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM SOUTH ARI ATOLL!

2009-12-25T07:21:00.000-08:00

Okay - the connection is really crummy but I've been keeping a log & will try and upload it and then see if I can add some pictures too....here's hoping!

SUNDAY, December 20
SOUTH MALE - Dive #1….a bommie (pinnacle) with a purposely sunken fishing boat near it that is covered in hard corals and a “fish haven”. Water temp ranged between 84-86 beautiful degrees and visibility was about 60’. This dive site is used as a “check-out” dive so everyone can check their weighting and make sure all gear is functioning properly. There were lots of fish and corals so it makes for a beautiful first dive!Second dive was at 4:00 and as dive time approached, more and more of us were crashing! Jet lag has a tendency to do that to you and as most of you know, diving when tired is not a good idea so only Bob, Mark & Mike, along with Moosa and Hassan did the 2nd and final dive of the day. They made it a good long one….just about 90 minutes and it ended as pretty much a night dive by the time they were done! There were Napoleon wrasse, a purple frogfish, robust ghost pipefish and cleaner shrimp tidying up an eel!
After a delicious dinner with incredibly delicious fresh mango for dessert, everyone “hit the hay” for a good night’s rest!

MONDAY, December 21
Today’s first dive was at 6:30 a.m.! We dropped into the most beautiful deep blue ocean imaginable. Today’s visibility was in excess of 100 feet. It started out as a quick drift along the reef edge with schooling anthias, flasher wrasse and some beautiful anemones with their anemonefish guarding them. Out in the blue we spotted several whitetip sharks and a good-sized blacktip, but they all kept their distance and we admired them from afar. Much too far away for any photos! As the current slowed down we were greeted by a HUGE school of fusiliers – beautiful blue with a silver horizontal stripe. We also had a few giant trevally cruise by us, more Napoleon wrasse, some honeycombed eels tucked into the coral and Moosa found a very large stingray resting in the sand under a ledge.

We’re now completing our first open ocean crossing and chairs have been tipping over and books falling off the shelves! Thank goodness we have good sea legs! Next dive is around 11:00 so time to get ready and see what King Neptune has in store for us……

Dives #2 & #3 were cruising along an outer reef wall into the channel leading back into the atoll. Schooling fish, sharks at the perimeter, lots of red-lipped triggerfish and UMS…”usual Maldivian stuff” as Moosa calls it! Five eagle rays in formation cruised just off the reef in the blue.

TUESDAY, December 22
Obviously we aren’t in wireless range yet, so I’ll just jot down bits and pieces from the dives and when the opportunity comes, upload the whole thing at once!

We’ve moved on to the Felidhe Atoll for today’s dives. Most of the dives this week in the south will be along the outer reef walls and into the channels. All so far have featured many varieties of schooling fish, triggers and unicorn fish in the hundreds, schooling bannerfish, anthias and some swift drift dives. The last dive on Tuesday was at a “signature” dive site called “Cherry Caves”. There are spectacular reef structures and overhangs dripping with soft corals. The wall is a sheer, spectacular structure with loads of life on it. No current on this dive so everyone “puttered along” enjoying the sights. A school of 7 eagle rays flew overhead and a large school of jacks swirled below the divers…at about 150 feet! Visibility was excellent but they were too deep for good photographs.

WEDNESDAY, December 23, 2009
Everyone loved Cherry Caves so much, it was the 6:30 a.m. dive this morning. We spotted two huge Napoleon wrasse cruising along the reef but they are extremely shy and difficult to photograph. Sharks cruising in the blue, swirls of schooling fish around us, more jacks below us, beautiful corals along the reef wall and then we ended up on top of the reef with lots of beautiful anemones with the indigenous Maldivian anemonefish in them. They’re a golden orange with a single stripe on the sides of their faces with a black underside and black fins….very beautiful!

Dive #2 was Cherry Caves again, by popular acclaim…this time the current had picked up considerably so we cruised by the soft coral overhangs and tucked into the reef to watch the swirling jacks below us while a beautiful white tip reef shark cruised along side of us. After drifting up over the top of the reef for a while, we settled down again over a large patch of hard corals that were totally covered by schooling bright yellow snappers and brim. Then a baby turtle decided to pay us a visit! The reef top was covered by many other varieties of fish as well…it was a pretty, pretty dive.

THURSDAY, December 24, 2009
Early morning dive was beautiful as was the 2nd dive – both with virtually no current and lots of chances to stop to photograph the marine life. Then we had a 2-hour sail to the next dive site. In the Maldives, transits are done during daylight hours because of all the shallow atolls between the main atolls. The water is at least a dozen shades of blue while we’re transiting!

On our 2nd dive we were paced along the reef by a HUGE Napoleon wrasse! They are magnificent creatures but extremely shy and hard to photograph. Luckily he swam from the reef top towards the blue right in front of me so I was able to get a couple of good images! These reefs in this atoll are teeming with eels of all shapes, varieties and sizes. On our 3rd dive we found TWO together in one hole and then a bit farther along the reef came across one with two giant coral-banded shrimp and a peppermint shrimp doing some cleaning on him!

Tonight is our big Christmas dinner. We got back from the 2nd dive and the salon was decorated with bunting and balloons. When we came in from our 3rd dive, more tinsel was decorating the ceilings, the rubber tree was decorated with icicles and strings of lights had been added! Our camera room counter has been turned into the buffet table and the gang is in there right now putting together a fabulous fruit & vegetable centerpiece! I can’t wait until it’s dark outside so we can turn on all the lights and see how beautiful it becomes! Photos to follow!

Dinner was FABULOUS! The buffet set-up was gorgeous as well…they did a fantastic fruit/vegetable sculpture centerpiece and had various salads, smoked salmon, sauted eggplant, a wonderful beet salad along with roast turkey and roast duck. At the vegetable end were these lovely looking pears…only to find out that they were sculptured mashed potatoes….these chefs are amazingly talented! Other yummy vegetables were served, giant prawns and fish….the dessert end was loaded with goodies galore and we were all stuffed! It was a memorable Christmas dinner, that’s for sure…..OH, and to boot, Santa paid us a visit too! We thoroughly enjoyed our Christmas celebration and the crew LOVED having Santa visit!

Friday, December 25 – MERRY CHRISTMAS, everyone!
We awoke to pouring rain and dark, dark, dark grey skies. All of us opted to skip the 6:30 a.m. dive and just sit and drink tea or coffee and relax, so we headed south for our 3-hour transit to South Ari Atoll. It was a very smooth crossing and everyone absorbed themselves in their various novels. Once we arrived at S. Ari, Moosa did our dive briefing…..we have now arrived in the WHALE SHARK area! The area that the whale sharks frequent runs parallel to the outer reef so we swam between 40-50’ over huge table corals and other hard corals. We saw several turtles and lots of carpet anemones filled with anemonefish but our focus was in the blue….hoping, hoping, hoping for a gentle giant to swim our way! Well, after 60 minutes of watching, tanks were starting to get low on air so we ended that dive. We have another one later this afternoon and then again in the morning. We’ll be down here in S. Ari for a few days and will alternate between the whale shark area and the giant manta areas so we’re greatly looking forward to more dives “hunting big creatures”!

MALE, Maldives

2009-12-19T19:15:00.000-08:00

Good Sunday morning, from Male!
It's a quick 3-1/2 hour flight from Dubai to Male...in the middle of the night so you get to watch sunrise at landing through the plane's nose camera...how COOL was that?

The airport is on a separate island and Male itself it a 25-minute ferry ride away. We stayed in a small local b&b hotel on Hulhumale which is connected to the airport island with a coral roadway!

We took the ferry into Male late in the afternoon on Friday after it had cooled down some. We visited the fish market, saw the local fishing boats (who do NOT long-line fish by the way). All fishing in the Maldives is done with a single line & a single hook. The record catch on ONE boat was 40 men fishing and they took in 80 TONS of fish in ONE day!

We toured the town, saw the gardens, beautiful mosques and the huge President's palace which the previous president had built. When the new president was elected, he opted to live in the much more modest "old" Presidental home and has closed the "big" palace and they will be turning it into a school!

I'm going to TRY and upload a few photos from Male...it's a busy little town.

There are over 1,000 islands in the Maldivian country, only a few over 100 are inhabited.

We're off to the boat in a few minutes and our diving journey will begin...I'll be trying to update and upload when we near inhabited islands with cell towers...wish me luck!
Merry Christmas, everyone!

2009-12-18T09:21:00.000-08:00

WOW, what an exciting city Dubai is! We had a great day here..enjoyed the beautiful hotel, walked around a bit and then did the 4-WD Dune Sundowner trip! From camels walking on the beaches to brand-new Chevy Tahoe 4-WD vehicles to take us up & down the dunes, it was a fantastic trip. We also managed to see a group oryx grazing in the desert as well. Then we ended the trip with camel rides for all who wanted one as well as a wonderful dinner in a Bedouin setting....time to rest for a bit and then head to the airport for the LAST leg of our journey...our four-hour flight from Dubai to Male.....stay tuned!

DUBAI

2009-12-17T22:04:00.000-08:00

Our flight early this morning from Kennedy to Dubai was seamless and smooth! Three movies, two meals & a snack and a short nap and it was time to land in Dubai. Cool for Dubai (low 60's at 8:30 a.m.) and sunny greeted us. Our Arabian Adventures guides met us at Passport Control and escorted us out of the beautiful new Terminal 3 expressly built for Emirates Air. It's a gorgeous terminal.

After a short drive through the city we arrived at our stopover hotel, the LeMeridien Beach Hotel right on the Arabian Sea. Beautifully decorated and upgraded rooms were swiftly provided. The only down side to our short Dubai stopover is that today is a Holiday celebrating the Islamic New Year so the historical venues are not open for us to visit. We'll have a relaxing lunch and enjoy the Resort until later this afternoon when we'll be picked up in 4-wheel drive dune buggys to be taken out into the desert for our sundowner dinner!

An update with photos will follow later tonight!

ROCKEFELLER CENTER

2009-12-16T18:57:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas from Rockefeller Center in NYC! Our flight into JFK today was smooth and sunny and uneventful...all bags arrived safely as well...LEG 1 of our journey is complete! After a quick hotel check-in and dinner, Marian, Bob & I got a taxi and Louis, our taxi driver "sped" us into the city...if you count rush-hour traffic on the freeway at 7:30 p.m. as speeding! Anyway, he dropped us off right next to the giant Christmas tree, gave us his cell number and told us to call him 10 minutes before we wanted to get picked up! How cool is that....anyway, it's a bit chilly in New York in mid-December but the crowds in the Center were very manageable. The policeman we spoke with told us, "Don't come down on a Saturday...you can't even MOVE around here and they divert traffic like crazy." After admiring the beautiful tree and the city lights, we headed a bit east along the concourse between the buildings admiring all the beautiful Holiday decorations. At the opposite end of the Center is the Saks Building with electric snowflakes that blink along with the appropriate music. It was a quick and satisfying taste of the Christmas Spirit in New York....off to Dubai first thing in the morning...watch for the next installment coming in a day or so!

MALDIVES 2009

2009-12-16T06:42:00.000-08:00

Whew, where did the last two weeks go? We just got home from Bonaire and now it's time to leave again! Well, this afternoon we're off to New York and then leave early tomorrow morning for Dubai and then onwards to Male, Maldives. We have a less than 24-hour stopover in Dubai on Friday but we're going to make the most of it and cover as much ground as is humanly possible! We board the Manthiri on Sunday the 20th so I'm going to try and post as often as I can get near a wireless tower near the inhabited islands.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays to all....more pictures and adventures to follow!

2009-11-28T11:00:00.000-08:00

It's a blue Saturday...blue skies, blue water and blue hearts because we have to leave beautiful Bonaire early tomorrow morning! Diving is done; all the gear is drying outside on the patios and most everyone is enjoying our last afternoon around the pool....a little birdie told me there's snow flurries in Michigan so that's REALLY making us blue today!

Here's a few images from our early morning sightseeing to the south end of the island....soon our Bonaire Holiday will be just a fond memory!

2009-11-27T10:38:00.000-08:00

After a Turkey Day of rest from the blog, here's some shots from yesterday's dives over at Klein Bonaire. Instead of turkey buffet dinner here at the Resort, we all went to Casablanca for a fantastic seafood dinner...we had fresh mahi mahi with Casablanca sauce (lobster and shrimp)...it was yummy!

Also, ask us to tell you about the wayward tree frog when we get home...hysterical!

2009-11-25T17:53:00.000-08:00

Gosh, it's Wednesday night already! Where is the week going? Another great night dive tonight as well as 3 wonderful boat dives...whew, we're tired so this will be short! Bob found us a 6 foot long grouper sleeping at the top of the reef tonight....it was the biggest marble grouper we've ever seen...and we spent a bit of time watching him and he never budged...guess he was settled in for his long night's sleep!

Here's a few from earlier today...enjoy! HAPPY THANKSGIVING, EVERYONE.....

2009-11-25T12:22:00.000-08:00

Camera & operator are working well today; e-mails MAY not be! Danny, I've sent you two...let me know if you've received them....more pictures later tonight after the night dive!

We saw a marvelous eagle ray off Klein earlier today...will get the pictures off the card and post them later!

2009-11-24T15:11:00.000-08:00

BON B INI FROM BONAIRE ON A TUESDAY NIGHT!

What do you do when your shutter locks at the beginning of the twilight/night dive? You just dive and enjoy the sights! We saw lots of shrimp, sharp-tail eels, 2 tarpon as big as the guys who kept crossing in front of our lights looking for THEIR dinner, a very nice colorful octopus and a beautiful slipper lobster.....our brain memory cards have the images stored permanently but the camera memory card came up empty!

It was another beautiful day on Bonaire...only one boat dive today but several high quality shore dives...here's a few shots from earlier today when the camera/operating WERE functioning properly!

2009-11-23T18:35:00.000-08:00

Gosh, I hate to say it but....another typical day on Bonaire.....warm, sunny, breezy & GREAT diving! Water temp is 82-83 and air temp in the low 80's as well...visibility today was 100+ feet so all is well here!

Three dives today for everyone...1st one this morning over at Klein Bonaire was Rockpile, 2nd was Munk's Haven and then 3rd was Petrie's Pillar. Beautiful hard and soft corals are typical over at Klein Bonaire with schools of blue chromis skimming the top of the reefs. Someone saw a turtle, lots of trunkfish and angelfish, a small barracuda was spotted and some snapper swimming through the group. All in all, fabulous Bonaire diving....keep tuned for tomorrow's update...the bulk of the group is diving the Hilma Hooker first thing tomorrow. Since Bob & I dove it this past February, we're sleeping in and then doing a shore dive in front of the resort to look for the resident turtle!

2009-11-22T12:42:00.000-08:00

It's Sunday afternoon on Bonaire. After a very uneventful flight to Newark, then a bit of a layover there, our CO flight arrived smoothly and on time in Bonaire early this morning! All baggage arrived safely for the group and after picking up our rental trucks, our early morning check-in at Capt. Don's was easy, easy! Breakfast; a little unpacking; 9:00 a.m. dive brief; a lovely shore dive to check out everyones buoyancy skills (we've got a few brand-new divers in this group!) where we saw a couple cute little eels and some big angelfish. After lunch, it was time for the 2:00 p.m. boat dive and now we're back...showered and still tired from the overnight flight. It will be an early dinner tonight and then off to bed! Three boat dives tomorrow...wish you were with us! FISH pictures start tomorrow...too tired to put together the camera & housing today!

2009-11-20T14:00:00.000-08:00

We're off to beautiful Bonaire on Saturday....daily updates starting on Sunday...keep an eye out for great sightings, we hope! Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

2009-10-06T11:49:00.000-07:00

TOBER 2009
"Always the best value in liveaboard diving!"

EXPLORER VENTURES OCTOBER SALE features $500 off the Turks&Caicos 10/31-11/07/09 or 12/12-12/19/09 sailing or $500 off the Caribbean Explorer II's 11/7-11/14 or 12/12-12/19/09 sailings! Take advantage of this limited offer and dive some of the best liveaboard dive destinations in the Caribbean! Call me now to book - airfare, of course, is additional!

2009-08-24T12:25:00.001-07:00

10 Days Left for AKR's 2-for-1 Special!

Extended until Aug. 28, 2009

CALL ME TO BOOK!

888-318-3669

2009-08-24T11:29:00.001-07:00

Deep Blue Resort, Utila, Bay Islands, Honduras is offering you some of the best rates in the Caribbean for all inclusive dive vacations from $765 per week, this wonderful beach front resort offers included in the price.

Unlimited Shore diving

Full American meal plan

3 Boat dives a day

Ocean front accommodation

And Much Much more, contact us for full details, this is your chance to dive the largest barrier reef in the northern hemisphere, and to swim with whale sharks all at an affordable price

2009-08-24T09:19:00.000-07:00

APPLE VACATIONS MONDAY FEATURED HOTEL:

Oasis Palm Beach

All-Inclusive

The Oasis Palm Beach is the perfect place for the family vacation. The all new kid's club creates an oasis for those special family members under 15 years old. The pyramid style beachfront resort, fully refurbished, where ample spaces of relaxation and diversion will provide maximum enjoyment, for a vacation to remember...

Travel Select August – September Departures

3 nights from	$319.99*
4 nights from	$349.99*
7 nights from	$439.99*

*Unless otherwise noted, fares do not include all applicable taxes, charges and government imposed fees. More details

All pricing available from Chicago O'Hare. All other gateways the same or slightly higher.

2009-08-17T09:31:00.000-07:00

ANSE CHASTANET HAPPY DAY DEAL!
For travel August 22 - September 12, 2009!!
BUY ONE @ $1895 per diver; get the 2nd one FREE!
7 nights ROH accommodations including taxes, 12 boat or beach dives, three meals daily & MORE!
Airfare, of course, is additional.

Valid as long as the space is available...call now @ 888-318-3669!

2009-08-14T10:31:00.000-07:00

PHILIPPINE SIREN:

THUMBS UP

The SY Philippine Siren and her guests have enjoyed an amazing few months in Komodo and we are receiving some amazing sightings from Frank and the crew. Dolphin interactions above and below the water, sharks, manta rays, pygmy seahorses, and of course Komodo Dragons are just some examples.
She will soon move full time to the Philippines and will offer some amazing diving year round.

JOIN OUR TRIP MAY 1-18, 2010 and be entered for FREE DIVE GEAR as well!

Photos courtesy WWD&S (copyright Aaron Wong)

2009-08-12T11:14:00.000-07:00

For one month only, APPLE VACATIONS offering super savings on winter vacations to their most popular resorts- Riu, Dreams, Iberostars, Palladiums and more. Prices WILL go up on September 4, so secure the lowest price at your client's preferred hotel now. Plus with "AV-OK Plus" Vacation Security - there's simply no reason to wait! Book now for the best price and availability!

All-Inclusive include roundtrip airfare, hotel accommodations, transfers, all meals, all drinks, all tips and more! Call me before September 4, 2009 to book one of these great properties for your Winter Dream Vacation!

2009-08-11T07:40:00.001-07:00

Introducing our 72-Hour Sale...
Save up to $1,900 per couple on January & February 2010 Vacations!*

72-Hour Sale Details
This sale is not only packed with unbelievable deals but also countless Funjet Vacations Exclusive offers including reduced rates, kids free, and more! Click here to discover truly incredible offers from participating hotels.

Booking Window: Now - 8/13/09 | Travel Window: 1/1/10 - 2/28/10

Call me for details!

2009-08-11T07:13:00.000-07:00

WINDSTAR FLASH OFFER

7-day Wind Surf
August 30; September 20; October 4, 11 & 18, 2009 From $1,399 pp
September 6, 2009 From $1,599 pp
September 13, 2009 From $1,499 pp
September 27, 2009 From $1,299 pp
Sailing from Venice, Rome, Nice, Barcelona

Details

7-day Wind Star
September 12 & 19, 2009 From $1,999 pp
Sailing from Istanbul and Athens

Details

7-day Wind Spirit
September 5, 2009 From $1,599* pp
September 12 & 19, 2009 From $1,299 pp
Sailing from Istanbul and Athens

Details

NEW BOOKINGS ONLY
Non refundable. Full payment required within 24 hours of booking!
Rates valid August 10 - August 16, 2009 only!

2009-07-28T07:20:00.001-07:00

DIVE DAMAI is offering a great discount on their Trip #5

doing Komodo/Rinca. Dates are 24OCT-04NOV2009, 11 nights

from Labuanbajo to Maumere. Cost per person is $3,025 and

includes all diving, all gear, all meals & port fees & NITROX!

This is an 8-passenger boutique-style liveaboard offering

TOP NOTCH service & diving. Call me for more details

and to book! Airfare, of course, is additional!!

2009-07-24T07:37:00.000-07:00

Look what you could win from booking our trip on

the S/Y Philippine Siren!

One lucky person will win the following: Pro QD i3 BC,

Legend Regulator and Octopus, Suunto double gauge

console, full length Aquaflex 3mm wetsuit, Barrier boots,

Infinity mask, Sidedraft snorkel, Sling Shot fins,

Traveler dive bag. How happy would you be

walking away with a brand new set of SCUBA equipment?

Rules

The rules are simple: Anyone who books via Dive Travel

Services between 1st August and 31st December 2009

will be entered into a draw. During the first

week of January 2010 the draw will take place

and one winners name drawn. The winner will be contacted

directly or via the agent they booked through. The

winner will be awarded their prize on either the

SY Siren / SY Philippine Siren or will have the prize

sent to an address of their choice.

Bookings made between the 1st August and

31st December 2009 must be for either the SY Siren

or SY Philippine Siren. The booking can be for

any of our destinations (Thailand, India, Burma,

Indonesia and Philippines) and the booking can be for

any trip in 2009, 2010 and 2011. The prize will be

awarded to the winner on either the S/Y Siren or

S/Y Philippine Siren at the time of their booked trip.

Should the trip have already been taken having

won the prize, it will be posted to an address of the

winners choice.

2009-07-22T12:59:00.000-07:00

UTILA LODGE

Fall Special
$799*
Per person price for 7 Night dive or vacationer package, includes meals, airport transfers...

Includes double occupancy, air conditioned accommodations, 3 full meals daily, 3 boat dives daily (which includes 2 night boat dives/week) tanks, weights, and belts, kayaks, welcome cocktail, airport transfers.

* Not included: hotel taxes, and $4/day reef conservation fee. Space limited. New Reservations only for travel by Oct 2, 2009.

2009-07-21T09:02:00.000-07:00

Only 10 Days Left!
Just a friendly reminder that Anthony's Key Resort's "Xmas in July" 2-for-1 special will only be available until July 31st, 2009. Take advantage of this great offer to enjoy amazing savings on the experience of a lifetime!

Buy one 7-night Dive, Snorkel or Leisure package in JULY 2009,
For travel in AUGUST - DECEMBER 2009
and get one same 7-night package FREE!

*Offer includes Thanksgiving and Christmas weeks

2009-07-20T08:32:00.001-07:00

WINDSTAR CRUISES!

Receive a $250 per person shipboard credit for any 2010 booking made by Sept. 30, 2009

Wind Spirit 7-Day St. Martin Roundtrip (NEW Itinerary)

December 12*, 2009 - March 20, 2010
St. Martin, Tortola, Jost Van Dyke (overnight), Virgin Gorda (overnight), St. Barts (overnight), St. Martin
From $1,999* per person
Itinerary varies on Holiday sailings

Call Janet at 248-442-2772 to book this promo or email her
at trips@divetravelservices.com for more details.

2009-07-06T07:26:00.000-07:00

AGGRESSOR'S "FALL INTO SAVINGS"
Save up to $700 per person!
Incredible Diving, from the Pacific to the Caribbean, at an Incredible Price!

As our 25th Anniversary Celebration draws to an end, Aggressor Fleet would like to offer our valued guests one last blockbuster special!
Most of their boats are offering savings starting at $700 per person on
designated weeks ..... too many to list here! Call me for details. Airfare, of course, is additional!

NO other discounts apply.

2009-07-03T09:25:00.000-07:00

See the latest offer from Peter Hughes Diving and book now!

Blue Hole Bargains on Sun Dancer II

Starting at $1895 Per Person - Save $700!

Cabins on Sun Dancer II are $1895 or $2095 when traveling between Sept. 5, 2009 and Dec. 26, 2009! That is a $700 per person savings! It's a total bargain price - no special weeks and few restrictions.

2009-06-26T10:54:00.000-07:00

AIR PACIFIC HAS JUST EXTENDED THEIR FABULOUS FIJI FARE SALE!
Tickets now must be booked by July 14, 2009 with travel completed by December 30, 2009.
Call me NOW for a Fantastic Fiji Getaway!

2009-06-05T09:55:00.000-07:00

AIR PACIFIC has just announced a fantastic fare sale to Fiji! Tickets must be issued by June 30, 2009 with travel completed by December 30, 2009. Airfare rate (before taxes) is $565 per person! There are LOTS of great hotels with special DEALS available so call me and we'll get you to Fiji!

2009-05-22T16:49:00.000-07:00

Sadly, all good things must come to an end...we've packed up our dive and photo gear and settled up our bills...it must be time to head home!

We did, however, have 2 fantastic last dives yesterday. We all loved California Dreaming with its breathtaking soft corals. That reef rivals some of the best we've seen from Fiji with yellows, oranges, reds, purples, lavendar and white soft corals. Lots of schooling fish as well as the little stuff. Ronald found us a tiny, less than 2-in boxer crab with eggs....those are the kinds of dives we dream about when we're in the middle of a Michigan snowstorm!

After we finished diving, we took a Resort boat over to Bitung Port and visited a local zoo. It's not very big but it's very clean and well organized. We saw the tiny tarsis monkeys up close and personal, lots of different indigenous beautiful birds, monkeys, baboons, a python snake & a few cobra safely distant in a cage..the really weird looking babi rusa which is a pig with horns! We also got to visit with some of the local children and watch them playing football and just being kids. They love to get their pictures taken so it's fun to show them the photos afterwards and hear the giggles.

We're all packed up and just waiting for the staff to load our stuff in the boat. This staff is the BEST in the world, bar none! From the fabulous dive guides and boatmen to the lovely staff at the Reception desk and in the dining room. The cooks are fantastic and cater to every taste and diet. We couldn't ask for a better land-based experience and we all can't wait to come back again.....join us next time! From Lembeh Resort sampa jumpa lagi (see you next time!)

Terima kasih, everyone......

2009-05-21T15:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's 3rd dive was a number of "firsts" for us....first time we saw all 3 phases of a ribbon eel, first time to actually see the yellow female and lastly and the most fun....first time to ever see a free-swimming ribbon eel! Ribbon eels are about the thickness of a pencil and we generally see anywhere from 1" to 8" of them poking out of their holes in the sand/rubble. Yesterday we were on a mission to see a yellow one. Ribbon eels start out black as juveniles, turn blue with a yellow face and a yellow stripe down their backs as adult males and when the need for reproduction arises, one of the males turns all yellow and becomes a female! We've been told that the females mate once and then after giving birth, die, so they are not commonly seen. Well, yesterday we saw the black, then the blue, then the yellow and then the BANGING started......Abner was rattling his rattle, Bill was pulling on my fins....I knew something awesome had been found!

Bob managed to be "in the right place at the right time"! He found a free-swimming yellow phase ribbon eel out in the open. This one was between SIX & EIGHT FEET long! And if you imagine the Olympic gymnasts with their ribbon routines, that's what it's like watching a ribbon eel swim....they coil and stretch just like the gymnastic ribbons! We all whooped and high-fived each other when it finally decided to find a hole and duck into it.

We also saw two great frogfish on that dive, one was a very unusual orange color so here's a shot of that one as well.

Our diving is now winding down...we have only two dives left on this trip. They've all been fantastic but some are always more memorable than others and the ribbon eel dive rates right up there.

After we finish diving today, it's time to try and dry everything out. We're also going across the Straits to a small local zoo this afternoon. It's hard to believe we've been here 12 days...where do the days go??

2009-05-20T03:22:00.000-07:00

Last night's dive was at one of our favorite dive sites, Nudi Falls and it didn't disappoint us! Lots of critters foraging in the sand for dinner including all kinds of decorator crabs, shrimp, pipefish & even a red frogfish paddling his way about the reef! It's a spectacular wall with loads of colorful sponges and corals and at night when you shine your lights on the reef you see red eyes everywhere from all the shrimp jumping about. 70 minutes is a normal night dive in Lembeh...that's how long the flashlights and aiming lights can hold out...after that, it's dark so it's time to surface.

We had a most interesting 2nd dive today as well. We went a bit farther north in the Straits and the dive sites have more corals than some of the closer sites. We saw the largest patch of beautiful, healthy staghorn coral we've ever seen and it was loaded with schools of at least six types of beautiful cardinal fish, the most striking was yellow with blue eyes! Then we encountered something we've never seen before....a feeding Triton shell. He was almost finished eating a blue sea star. Their usual diet is crown-of-thorns sea stars but we've only seen one crown-of-thorns here on this trip (which is a GOOD thing), so they are obviously searching for other types of sea stars to munch on....it was a huge animal....probably 2-1/2 feet long by 1-1/2 feet tall so it was an impressive shell to say the least. Thank goodness we saw it with its animal still living and prospering, not in a shell shop somewhere!

We're winding down our diving....we only have one more full day tomorrow and then our last 2 dives on Friday morning. We've seen some amazing creatures but there are STILL things on our "check list" that haven't been checked off....maybe in the next 6 dives, but if not - there's always next time!

2009-05-18T15:55:00.000-07:00

Monday's dives took Bill, Susan, Bob & I up about an hour and a half north of the Resort up the Straits to Bangka Island. Rather than diving in the black volcanic sand, we dove coral reefs for a day. The remainder of the group did the same trip on Sunday.

The reefs are prolific up there and there are many different things to be seen. The corals and sponges are healthy & huge! The reefs are swarming with fish....all kinds, sizes & shapes. On one of the dives we dropped in right over a huge bumphead parrotfish. Unfortunately they are very, very shy so as soon as he saw us, he booked out into the blue! We did three magnificent dives up there with lunch on the boat so we had a very full day. We saw this giant frogfish just perched up on the sponge waiting for his lunch to swim by!

Back in the Straits late afternoon, we barely had time for cup of hot tea before heading off to another fabulous night dive! It's amazing the critters that like the dark of night for their food foraging. Benefit is, they're out in the open for all to see!

Sightings last night included a beautiful single squid, red ghostpipefish, crabs, shrimp galore, finger dragonets, ambon scorpionfish, several types of flounder and the highlight of the dive was

the stargazer! An hour just flies by when you're having fun at 70' on a night dive!

Back in the Straits today for all of us....looking for the elusive mimic octopus or wonderpus, more frogfish, harlequin shrimp...we still have critters to "check off our lists" and our time remaining here is starting to diminish!

2009-05-17T15:41:00.000-07:00

Night diving in Lembeh Straits gives NEW meaning to things that go BUMP in the night! You've all seen conch shells in the stores..well here, we watch the animals that live in them inch their way across the sand! Also found an interesting shell animal that I didn't recognize...shell is kinda flat & wavy and the animal moves on it's "foot" which looks like a paddle coming out of the front of the shell below one of its eyes!

We went out for the house mandaranfish dish. You swim out just before dusk to catch them in their "courting". Males & females run through the coral trying to find the right partner for the evening! We saw lots and lots of courting but little mating...guess their signals just weren't meshing last night. When they mate, they choose their partner and come together and move up 6-8 inches into the water column to mate. Their sperm/eggs mix and drift off in the currents, hoping eluding the ever-present cardinal fish who are waiting for an egg dinner.

Yopie led us to a small coral head and pointed out four "strings". Apparently these strings are pygmy pipehorses! Good thing the camera lens has better eyes than I! Any diver would just swim right by and think they were dust or algae hanging on the reefs!

Anyway, it was a great dive ended by a baby hairy octopus right in the shallows off the steps leading up to the dive shop. Don't pass up a night dive in Lembeh...you never know what critters await you!

Off to Bangka today....an hour or so north for some "blue water and soft coral dives".....see you tomorrow with more pictures.

2009-05-15T23:07:00.001-07:00

It's a beautiful day in Indonesia! On the way back from the 1st dive, we passed several longboats all decorated with flags and balloons; we passed lots more on the way to the 2nd dive...apparently today is the last day of the World Oceans Conference in Manado so everyone is coming over to Lembeh for a "Lembeh Festival". Boat parade, market, fair, etc....sounds like a lot of fun for them!

Back to the diving.....we went back to Nudi Falls again (it's MY favorite dive site in the Straits). This time in the daylight and it's a totally different site. Lots of tiny critters. Erwin found us at least ten soft coral cowries, I found a blue ribbon eel and as promised, TWO yellow frogfish! It's hard to pick favorite critters but there's something about frogfish that makes you smile!

Everyone is having a fantastic time. Mike, Linda, Bill & Claudia are doing the mandarinfish dusk dive tonight...Bill, Susan, Liz, Bob & I are going for the full night dive....more tomorrow, everyone. Enjoy the photos...wish you ALL were here with us enjoying this fantastic Resort and its amazing staff. The dive guides here are the BEST in the world.

2009-05-14T23:10:00.000-07:00

Bill & Claudia say "hi"!

Last night was a fabulous night dive at Nudi Falls....I know, diving in the dark on black sand doesn't exactly appeal to a lot of folks, but you feel like a bobblehead while down there...someone is always flashing their lights towards you to tell you they have an awesome "find'! Or else someone is tugging on your fins to get you to look at something wonderful....it was a grand 70 minutes...we saw all kinds of shrimp, lionfish, squid, a fantastic little red dragonet which was unique to us and a spiny devilfish.

Today's second dive found us gazing at a flamboyant cuttlefish. There's no end to the wonders here....back to the dive boat....more later!

2009-05-13T03:48:00.001-07:00

Good early evening from Lembeh....three great dives today and sunny skies...until the heavens opened at lunch and we had a waterfall coming down all the stairways! Oh, by the way, it's 51 steps from the dive centre to our room...and our cottages are on the "lower level"...wouldn't want to be up in #13 where it's 105 steps!

Our third dive today was at a site called Tanjung Kubut....Cemetery Point. No cemeteries in sight, but lots of seahorses....four in fact, all different colors: a pink thorny, a yellow one, red one and brown one...all clinging either to small sponges or just floating along the rubble.

Best sighting today for us was a hairy octopus...very, very cool..first one for us. Lots of clownfish, cardinalfish, nudis, pipefish, gobies and too many more to list. For those of you who know Bob's "love" for flying gunnards, we saw one of those today as well..here's a photo to prove it!

Off to dinner now....5 of the group are out doing a night dive so I'm sure there will be lots more cool stuff to list tomorrow....til then, jumpa lagi!

2009-05-12T02:09:00.001-07:00

Selamat siat (good afternoon!) from Lembeh Resort & Manado!
We had a great travels this time and all flights arrived & departed on time. After a short stay at the beautiful Singapore Airport, our Silk Air flight whisked us to Indonesia across beautiful blue ocean, gorgeous islands and green landscapes.

We were greeted at the Manado Airport by officials wearing masks and asking us to fill out an H1N1 waiver...first time for everything I guess! Other than loads of folks on the plane with us heading to a conference here, the rest of the passengers were divers like us! The greetings in Manado were much more "showy" as well because of the conference. For this whole week in Manado, representatives from 40 countries are discussing our oceans and environment...this is the "World Ocean Conference" and the American Ambassador to Indonesia is among the guests. Of course, scientists and marine biologists and many news media are here for the conference as well. A band from the Minahasan region greeted us when we cleared baggage claim & Customs.

It's "interesting" to say the least to drive in Indonesia! Horn use is mandatory by all drivers, scooters and motorcycle weave in and around all the cars & lorries...it's best to ride with your eyes closed, we decided! We thanked "Mario Andretti" when we arrived at Police Pier at Bitung Port!

The Resort is beautiful as usual, we were exhausted so after a brief resort briefing, dive briefing and some gear unpacking it was dinner and off to bed!

Two dives were all most of our weary bodies could handle today....a few of the group made three, but we'll be up to snuff tomorrow with more updates and photos! Jumpa lagi (see you later)......

2009-05-08T08:44:00.000-07:00

We're off to Lembeh Straits & Lembeh Resort in Manado tomorrow! Watch the blog starting Monday, May 11 for daily critter sightings and updates...wish you were joining us!

2009-04-13T08:24:00.000-07:00

BELIZE AGGRESSOR spaces available!

One of my groups has the Belize Aggressor chartered from 25JUL to 01AUG09 and they still have 2 spaces left to sell. I was able to obtain FREE Nitrox ($150 per person savings) for this group so if you've got a week free and are looking to dive the fabulous Barrier Reef off of Belize, this is the trip for you!

Call me at 248-442-2772 to book the last remaining spaces on this charter!

2009-04-02T08:20:00.000-07:00

JUST IN FROM EXPLORER VENTURES!!

Individual space available for Galapagos in 2009

Diving will include Darwin & Wolf
A few berths are still available aboard the Estrella del Mar on June 29-July 6, 2009, August 24-31 and Sept 14-21, 2009.

Book this amazing dive vacation now; see some of the most spectacular marine life found anywhere. The Estrella del Mar was one of the first dive boats in the area and accommodates divers’ needs well. Save $hundreds over competing boats while receiving the same diving opportunities and comparable boat amenities.

Call us at 248-442-2772 space is very limited.

2009-04-01T12:16:00.000-07:00

RIDING ROCK RESORT & MARINA,

San Salvador, BAHAMAS

SECOND DIVER DIVES FREE SPECIAL! Save over $400 per Couple!

8 Day/7 Night Island Escape Package: The first diver pays $1,462.00; the second diver only pays the Vacationer Package rate of $1,048.00. The package includes 7 nights Standard Room accommodation (double occupancy), 21 hearty meals, 16 day dives plus one night dive, an island tour, round trip airport transfers on San Salvador and applicable hotel and sales taxes. Deluxe Room packages are also available at the same second diver dives free special rate.

Travel Window: Through May 29, 2009, excluding the week of April 18 – 24, 2009

In addition, we offer special rates of $440 per person for Spirit Air flights each Saturday from Fort Lauderdale direct to San Salvador. Flights depart Fort Lauderdale at 11:32 a.m. and arrive on San Sal at 12: 55 pm. Flights depart Saturday at 1:45 pm, arriving back in Fort Lauderdale by 3:05 pm.

Please note that all dives are computer dives, and that all divers need to have their own computer. Shark lovers will be pleased to hear that San Salvador is home to many shark species, the Scalloped Hammerheads being a favorite with our divers. Since they are most frequently sighted when the water is cooler in the winter and spring months, our sale period is an excellent time to look for an encounter!

Call me at 248-442-2772 to book this special before it's gone!

2009-03-18T12:26:00.000-07:00

FORT YOUNG HOTEL IN DOMINICA

7 Night Spring Break Dive Special!
Travel Window: 04/01/09 - 05/15/09
Spring Break Dive Special Includes:
7th Night & 7th Breakfast FREE
*FREE Whale Watching Tour
Accommodations in an Oceanview, Oceanfront, Deluxe, or Suite
Full Breakfast served daily at the Waterfront Restaurant
Two Tank Boat Dives per day
Marine Site User Fees
Welcome Rum Punch

*Does not apply to bookings in the Oceanview rooms

OCEANVIEW
Single - $1,582
Double - $1,096
Balcony; some rooms have partial sea view, Twin, Double or King bed
OCEANFRONT
Single - $1,906
Double - $1,258
Triple - $1,042
The newest section of the hotel, located on the ocean front with a balcony directly situated over the water. All rooms come with a King size bed. Four of the Oceanfront rooms have the option to inter-connect with adjoining room with 2 double beds.
DELUXE OCEANFRONT
Single - $1,906
Double - $1,258
Triple - $1,042
These larger rooms have lounge area, large balconies over the sea, overhead shower & bath. Offering 2 double beds or one king bed.
OCEANFRONT SUITE
Single - $2,446
Double - $1,528
Triple - $1,222
Substantial suites with two bathrooms, kitchenette (microwave and fridge) dining/lounge area, separate bedroom with King Size bed, whirlpool tub and a large balcony.

This special must be booked by April 1, 2009....**AIRFARE IS ADDITIONAL*** - call me at 248-442-2772 to book!

2009-03-13T08:26:00.000-07:00

Utila LodgeHonduras Bay Islands
Your Little Dive Resort - with HUGE diving
March 13, 2009

New Airfares, New Deals, and Free Nitrox!
from $1470/diver**

Airfare Included**
Aug 22 , 2009 - Jan 22, 2010

(March to May 22, add $100 + 16%,
May 23-Aug 21, add $50 + 16% )
Includes international and domestic air fare from major US cities**. Double occupancy, air conditioned accommodations, 3 full meals daily, 3 boat dives daily (which includes 2 night boat dives/week) tanks, weights, and belts, kayaks, welcome cocktail, airport transfers.
Group incentive: 7 paid, 1 free. 14 paid, 2 free.
**Price varies depending on departure city.
* Not included: $152/person hotel taxes, and $4/day reef conservation fee. Space limited.
New Reservations only.

Call me at 248-442-2772 to book this great special!

2009-03-12T12:56:00.000-07:00

THESE ARE SPECIALS FOR THIS WEEK IN THE CARIBBEAN...call now to book & save $$$

Share Your Secrets and Live Your DreamsEscape to Mexico and the Dominican Republic! Save up to $970 per couple!* Reduced rates up to 45% off PLUS $200 resort coupons!**

Aruba's One Cool Honeymoon! RECEIVE THE FOLLOWING VALUES AT PARTICIPATING HOTELS: Bottle of champagne upon arrival, Souvenir gift, De Palm Tours offers a free-shirt upon purchase of Aruba Safari Off-Road Palm Pleasure Snorkel Adventure, De Palm Island and Fiesta Hopper Party Bus, Free night upon return Anniversary visit. Plus much more!

Candles for Sandals!Receive up to one complimentary candlelight dinner for two and a $150 Red Lane Spa Credit per room.

2009-02-20T05:19:00.002-08:00

LITTLE CAYMAN BEACH RESORT - SPECIAL!!

Free Afternoon Dives and an Ocean Front View!

For a limited time only, the Little Cayman Beach Resort is offering FREE afternoon dives when you purchase the EAGLE RAY ROUND-UP package for a week long stay in one of our beautiful, newly renovated ocean front rooms on the following dates:

April 18-25, 2009
May 9-16, 2009
May 16-23, 2009
May 23-30, 2009
June 20-27, 2009
Package Includes:

7 Nights in an Ocean Front Room
Breakfast & Dinner Daily
6 Days of 2 Tank Dives
PLUS
5 Days of a 1 Tank Afternoon Dive
Airport Ground Transfers
Hotel Taxes & Service Charges

$1821 per person/double occupancy

Offer expires 03/20/09 - call me at 248-442-2772 to book!

2009-02-20T05:19:00.001-08:00

It's Friday morning on Bonaire...diving is done and now the scramble to "see everything" begins! What to do today, what to do today....shopping, the salt piles and slave huts, up North to Washington-Slagbaii National Park, looking for flamingos, shopping, the Cultural Center, land-sailing, windsurfing, shopping? You get the idea! There are tons of land options here on Bonaire and only one free day to do them all...get ready, get set, GO! Everyone is off in different directions trying to do as much as they can today....so, here we go as well...so long from Bonaire this time..it's been a wonderful week.

2009-02-19T03:16:00.000-08:00

Bon bini from Bonaire on Thursday morning...it's a gorgeous day in Paradise!Last night's dive at Salt Pier was awesome....beautiful structures of the pier itself and lots of stuff underneath it. The basket stars were coming unfurled and were great photo subjects. The highlight of the dive was the trip back to shore....Max found an eagle ray feeding in the sand...talk about him making a big mess....sand flying everywhere, but it was a spectacular sight!Yesterday's day dives were Invisible and the second and third reef are really "invisible"...it's a long swim over a sand channel, then we did Karl's Hill over on Klein for the second dive. More seahorses were spotted there. All in all, nice diving yesterday.Today is the last day of scheduled boat dives - I think we're spending our morning over at Klein again. I'm sure a bunch of the group will take off in the trucks this afternoon to get a few more dives in today. Tomorrow everyone is planning on their "shore adventures". I think twelve of them are going "land sailing" over near Rincon...that should be a blast!Until tomorrow, have a great day.....

2009-02-16T03:24:00.002-08:00

Gosh, it's hard to believe it's Wednesday already! Yesterday's dives were Thousand Steps (there are only 87, but we do it from the boat anyway), Capt. Don's Reef over at Klein Bonaire and then Small Wall. Sightings included squid, four eagle rays (hurrah!), frogfish and seahorses. All in all, in spite of the pouring rain, it was an awesome day. And the "up side" of the rain was that the water felt really, really warm yesterday. Funny how cool rain makes 79 degree water feel balmy!

Everyone is having lots of fun...diving, of course, is the main focus but a few folks headed into town for some shopping as well. Folks are already planning their "free" Friday and what they want to do on-island once the diving ends!

Tonight will take us down to the South to dive Salt Pier...report on Thursday! From now, so long from Bonaire...it's time to go diving!

2009-02-16T03:24:00.001-08:00

Bon bini from Bonaire! Tuesday morning dawns a little cloudy. Charlie says it rained for four hours last night...what was Charlie doing awake for FOUR hours last night! They've had more rain here in Bonaire than usual, they tell us. I noticed how green the divi divi trees were when we were driving to the Resort from the airport on Saturday....

Four of our divers just finished their dawn dive! Jerry, Joyce, Matt & Markus woke at the "crack of dark" and jumped in...Jerry tells us it was sharp-tail eel heaven...they were all out hunting in the sand & corals. The rest of the divers are just straggling into the restaurant for breakfast. The first boat doesn't leave until 8:30 a.m. so we can sleep in here a bit (unless you're like the above four and want to pre-dawn dive!)

Yesterday we dove Rappel, one of my most favorite Bonaire dive sites. It's a steep wall covered in hard & soft corals...a gorgeous wide-angle photographer's dream! The sponges are plentiful as well. The second boat dive yesterday was over at Klein Bonaire at Leonora's and it was beautiful as well. After lunch a bunch of the group headed out in the trucks for a couple of the close shore dives. Then, after the Manager's Rum Punch party, where everyone got to meet the actual Captain Don, Charlie took Rafael & Gabriel on their first night dive which they thoroughly enjoyed!

Until tomorrow...enjoy the photos!

2009-02-16T03:24:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone!
It's early Monday morning and some of the group has just finished their pre-dawn dive...not me! Water is a beautiful blue and we're sitting in the restaurant enjoying coffee & breakfast. The resident pelicans are divebombing the baitfish right off the dock and they're hilarious!

The first two days of diving have been fantastic! We did the Hilma Hooker wreck yesterday and the water was blue, blue, blue & the wreck was a great dive. Klein Bonaire was its usual fabulous diving as well...here's a couple of photos from yesterday including one of our brand-new divers, Rafael and his son, Gabriel who completed their open water certification yesterday morning and are on their very first "real" dives! They're both doing a fantastic job as new divers.

2009-02-13T08:12:00.000-08:00

Friday, February 13.....well, everyone is packed and we're ready to head for the airport....quick flight to Houston & then an overnight non-stop to Bonaire! We'll be in the water by 10:00 a.m. on Saturday....wish you were with us! Watch the blog in the coming week for daily updates.

2009-01-03T23:13:00.000-08:00

Well, we have just a few more hours in Singapore! Everyone is finishing up their shopping, gathering their last souvenirs and spending their Singapore dollars!

Yesterday's tour took us to a Balinese neighborhood with a beautiful Mosque, a hundreds-year old Chineses temple, a Gem Factory (gorgeous stuff, by the way!) and a cruise along the Singapore River. After the tour, dinner was along the waterfront watching all the folks enjoying the lovely evening. Our attempts at visiting Chinatown for the Lunar New Year Lighting Festival proved to be impossible! Roads were jammed and closed to traffic, streets were mobbed so we all decided to head back to the 38th floor of our hotel and enjoy the city sights by night with a cold drink in our hands!

Today we visited Sentosa Island which is a 15 minute taxi/bus/tram ride from the center of the city. We went up in the Sky Tower to look at the city from all angles and saw the massive construction going on below us where Resorts World is building a mega casino resort on the Island. According to yesterday's river guide, it's unlucky to only build ONE casino so they are also building a new hotel/casino on the opposite side of the river as well. Everywhere you look you see construction and cranes. The city population right now is 4.8 million in 73 square miles! Everyone lives in multi-generational high-rise apartment/condo towers but the city is green as well. There are flowers and parks everywhere.

We also visited the Underwater World at Sentosa and saw a few critters that we missed in our diving at Sipadan. I've enclosed a shot of a tiny, tiny, tiny mimic octopus! They also have leafy & weedy sea dragons, leopard sharks, guitar sharks, lots of different rays and eels...we also saw a pair of harlequin shrimp, so we had fun at the aquarium!

After an aerial tram ride back from the island, we checked in with Singapore Air for our return flight later tonight and we're back at the hotel resting before we finish packing and check-out! Our flight leaves Singapore just before midnight tonight so we're all planning on sleeping our way west towards Frankfort & New York, with a late Monday morning arrival in New York...I'll be back in the office bright and early Tuesday morning!

That's all for now....see you all soon!

2009-01-02T16:16:00.000-08:00

It's AMAZING what a bit of civilization can do....e-mails fly into the laptop, phone connections sound like folks are right next door and the internet connection is lickety-split FAST! We're in Singapore and having a great time!

Singapore is all about the sights, sounds, smells & SHOPPING! It's a gorgeous, vibrant city that has some of the best food & shopping in the world! We've been heading in various directions since Thursday afternoon...I haven't even seen some of the group since we've arrived, but I know everyone is having a great time! I provided all with a lot of comprehensive information about the sights & highlight attractions of the city so everyone has gone in different directions depending on their interests.

Marsha, Paul, Bob & I headed for the Botanic Gardens yesterday morning, cameras in hand! Bob & Paul acted as our photo sherpas...handing us lenses, etc as needed! What a fabulous place the National Orchid Garden is. They have over 30,000 different varieties of orchids in all shapes, sizes and colors. We spent several hours there wandering amongst the gorgeous gardens and displays.

After we were totally wrung out from the heat/humidity at the Gardens, we hopped on the SIA Stopover Bus which circles the city at regular intervals. It winds itself thru the Indian neighborhoods, Chinatown, the cultural areas, the marina areas and then the SHOPPING areas! Our prime destination this afternoon was the Sim Lim Centre which is a five story shopping mall totally dedicated to ELECTRONICS. Talk about a bunch of photographers being like kids in a cady store! Several (well, many) credit card receipts later, we finally had to drag ourselves away from the centre and we'd barely made it inside the doors! I think we're heading back there again today to see what we missed but we're going to have to be STRONG in resisting temptation, that's for sure.

After a short rest, we headed out again...this time our destination was the Singapore Night Safari. It was the first night safari in the world and it's an amazing experience as well. The Night Safari is located next door to the world-famous Singapore Zoo and the operations are kept separate between the two so as to not stress the animals. The whole venue is located about 45 minutes outside the city centre. It's a smooth ride on air conditioned coaches on fantastic highways bordered in flowers all the way. It's a huge attraction and the city is totally jammed for the New Year's Holiday so it was quite crowded. We needed to queue for a bit before we were able to board the tram for the ride thru the rainforest. Flash photography is prohibited so the animals won't be stressed or aggravated so Bob set his video camera on "night" mode and off we went! We saw lions, tigers, rhino, water buffalo, deer of all species, the Indonesian babbe russa which is a 4-tusked boar, all kinds of pigs, some huge cranes and flamingos and the elusive giraffes! They set food out at dusk so the animals gather quite close to the tramway and are very visible under dim lighting provided. Another option is to do several of the "walks" through the rainforest as well. We enjoyed our time at the Night Safari very much.

Today's schedule has us sleeping in for a change! With 5 days of early dive departures (7:15 a.m.) and a 5:00 a.m. departure from the Water Village yesterday, I think everyone is trying to catch up on a little sleep! We're planning some more browsing/shopping and then have a City Highlights tour scheduled for the afternoon as well. Tonight will find us in Chinatown where they will be "Lighting Up" in anticipation of the Chinese New Year celebrations later this month. Chinatown is exciting to begin with, it should be a fun evening with all the festivities scheduled there, but very crowded, I'm sure.

That's what's happening with us in Singapore....we'll be here until late Sunday evening with a later morning return on Monday to Kennedy. I'll try and update the blog one more time before we leave. Til next time.....

2008-12-30T04:07:00.001-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM MALAYSIA!

It was a FABULOUS party last night! The Pavilion was decorated as a Borneo Rainforest and the staff sang and danced and had tons of games for us to play! A wonderful time was had by all....

Time to get on the plane to Singapore.....enjoy the photos!

2008-12-30T04:07:00.000-08:00

Busy, busy, busy! Too busy diving to edit photos & try and keep the blog updated!

Dives have been done on Paradise 1, Paradise 2, Sipadan Island, Siamil Island and Mabul & Kapalai! Everyone is having a wonderful time....up to four dives a day for some of us! Sightings have ranged from the smallest of nudibranchs to giant sleeping turtles!

Bob & I did a late afternoon dive on Paradise 2 the other afternoon and had a blast finding critters! The best part of the dive was the yawning crocodilefish! I settled down in front of him for a face shot and after the strobes flashed in his eyes, he gave me two HUGE yawns...I think he was trying to scare me away! They don't have any teeth as you can see from the inside of his huge jaw in the photo! I was so excited I squealed underwater and everyone heard me and knew that something "cool" had happened!

Tomorrow is our last day of diving...so sad, but we're all looking forward to the New Year's Eve party and then onward on Thursday to Singapore for our 3 day adventure there! Hopefully once we get to Singapore I'll have time to do some more photo editing!

It's been a quick stay here at the Water Village. Unfortunately you wait so long for the holiday to start and then once you arrive, the time goes so quickly! Hope everyone has a safe New Year's Eve and I'll update again in a day or so!

2008-12-28T04:59:00.000-08:00

Yesterday & today the two boats were able to do three dives at Sipadan Island, so that means schools of jacks, barracuda, turtles, turtles & MORE turtles as well as beautiful hard & soft corals. Dives were done at Barracuda Point, Mid Reef, South Point, North Point and Hanging Garden. Everyone loved seeing and diving with all the fantastic turtles. Sharks cruised in and around the reef and schools of pyramid butterflyfish and unicornfish & red-lipped triggerfish circled us as we swam along the reef.

The weather is sunny and very warm...we had a little bit of rain and some wind and clouds yesterday, but overall it's been fantastic! The staff is working hard at planning the festivities for New Year's Eve and it's hard to believe we only have 2-1/2 more days of diving here...where DOES the time go?

Everyone sends their best regards!

2008-12-25T04:06:00.001-08:00

It's another day in Paradise! We did two dives today at a new place for us...SiaMil, an island about 45 minutes from Mabul. Great dives along a nice wall with lots of stuff to look at. First dive had blue ribbon eels, cuttlefish, TWO pgymy seahorses (1/4") and lots of other cool stuff. Second dive had a giant pink frogfish, peacock mantis shrimp and crocodile fish galore along with lots of hard & soft corals...really, really beautiful!Third dive of the day was over at Maki Point at Kapalai. It was a great dive to start with....robust ghostpipefish, ornate ghostpipefish, mantis shrimp, shrimp gobies and nudibranchs. Bob & I were tailing behind the group and making our safety stop at 15' when Ron, our diveguide, wrote the magic words on his slate..............BLUE RING! Wow, thank goodness we both had plenty of air left in our tanks! It was our very first blue ring and even though we'd seen pictures and knew they were small...it was still hard to realize that it was an octopus! They are only about 2-1/2" long and change colors as they cruise the reeftop feeding...needless to say, our cameras got quite a workout! Enjoy a couple of the pictures!Tomorrow 1/2 of the group will head to Sipadan Island for three dives. It's now a World Heritage site and they are severely limiting the number of divers per day. With almost a dozen resorts in the immediate area, it certainly limits the number of times you can dive there during a vacation, so we'll probably have to be content with only one day of diving there for each diver...which makes all of us sad because it's such fabulous diving, but in the interest of protecting the fragile reefs and the fantastic turtle population, we certainly understand.....

That's all for today...hope everyone's holidays are being spent sharing quality time with families & friends.

2008-12-25T04:06:00.000-08:00

Well, it's Christmas Day in Malaysia....and we had three fabulous boat dives today....Eel Valley, Lobster Wall (no lobster!) and Don King Yama at Kapalai.

Everyone has finally gotten enough rest to be fully recovered from the travel travails & the last two pieces of missing luggage (including dive gear) arrived early today, so we've got some happycampers now! Sightings today included turtles, schools of bream, a juvenile blue ribbon eel still in his black phase as well as a "true" blue ribbon eel just a few feet farther down the reef. Everyone had exciting things to talk about after the dives and lots and lots of photos were taken...it's amazing what some fabulous diving can do to erase the stresses of travel!

Christmas Eve is a much bigger celebratory event than Christmas Day so last night's dinner included turkey & gravy along with some of the other trimmings. A Yule Log was also presented for dessert. Because the Christian staff had the evening off to go into Semporna for Christmas Eve services, our Muslim staffers serenaded us with Christmas Carols. The veranda was decorated with a Christmas tree, snowman & gingerbread houses. The guests all joined in singing the Christmas carols and then some of the staff entertained us with their fantastic dancing skills. We even had a performance from the "Miss Mabul" contestants..some of the male dive staff dressed as dancing girls! Those "gals" sure can dance!

We're enjoying the hot, sunny weather and calm seas...we're also thinking of our friends and family back home in the snow, ice & cold....we wish you were with us! Merry Christmas everyone!

2008-12-24T05:58:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas from Malaysia from the whole gang!

FINALLY!

2008-12-24T01:42:00.000-08:00

Well, planes (not on time), trains (not this time) & automobiles or vans as the case may be, we are FINALLY here! The weather in Detroit on Friday, which we thought had cleared up by the time we arrived the airport on Saturday, delayed our flights, cancelled our flights and then had to be re-routed to get to JFK on Sunday, at LaGuardia instead of Kennedy, by the way, so we could catch our Singapore Air flight out Sunday night. We saw a small portion of NYC traveling from LGA to JFK and then headed east...very east! It's a long, sad story, best left for recalling when the sting of the delays isn't still so painful! But we are all here and ready to have a fantastic diving holiday.....

We arrived here at the beautiful Sipadan Water Village the morning of the 24th, instead of the late afternoon of the 22nd! We were greeted with smiling faces and fruit drinks and as soon as everyone checked into their rooms, off to the Dive Centre we went. First a shore "orientation dive" for those new to the Resort....I think I recall hearing about seeing pipehorses, batfish, cardinal fish, cleaning stations, a school of squid.....those are just a few of the things the "newbies" saw! Lunch came next and then for those still awake, the first boat dive....more to follow on the diving!

Christmas Eve dinner is being set up on the reception veranda with a snowman, lots of beautiful decorations and table settings....pictures will follow tomorrow! For now, Merry Christmas, everyone, from beautiful Malaysia!

Holidays in Malaysia!

2008-12-16T13:17:00.000-08:00

Well, we're off to Sipadan Water Village in Malaysia on the 20th...arrival at the Resort is the 22nd...keep an eye on the blog for (hopefully) daily updates of our diving & Holiday celebrations! Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah & Happy New Year to all!

Please don't open the comment!

2008-04-28T11:03:00.000-07:00

Hello all...I've been told that there's a comment to my posting last week that has been infected with a virus, so please don't open that comment!

I'll update the blog in a few days with some photos of the beautiful Hamanai Resort along with a few more diving photos.....a great time was had by all!

UPDATE FROM GLADDEN SPIT

2008-04-22T18:52:00.001-07:00

Well, internet connection is not the best but here goes!

Monday's dives were more successful than today! We saw a "baby" whaleshark on our first dive....it was between 20-25 feet long and absolutely beautiful! It approached us gradually and actually came directly into both Kim's and Jenny's faces! Talk about a face-to-face encounter!

Today we got "skunked" on our two dives....lots of snapper spawning below us, but no whalesharks to greet us! Some of the group has decided to try again tomorrow....

Weather here is glorious and everyone is having a great time.....will update again when possible!

Off to Belize during Whale Shark Week!

2008-04-17T08:12:00.000-07:00

On Saturday the 19th of April the group leaves for Belize and Hamanasi Resort, http://www.hamanasi.com . Hamanasi is located south of Belize City, in the Stann Creek District, and Hopkins. It's an ultra-deluxe resort located in the rainforest, but more importantly to us divers, it's only one and one-half hours by boat to Gladden Spit!

Gladden Spit is an area in the Belize Barrier Reef zone where several years ago fishermen, divers & scientists found whale sharks congregating during the full moons of April, May & June when the cubera snapper are spawning. The area is now strictly regulated to lessen the impact of too many divers and/or snorkelers and the regulating authority issues permits to dive & snorkel operations during the full moon weeks. The cost per diver for the opportunity to dive in the area is $190.00 each time!

Of course, as with any wild creatures, there are no guarantees of whale shark sightings but we're all hopeful to get several permits next week to dive in the area and have successful sightings!

Keep an eye on the blog during the week...internet access is somewhat limited, but barring any difficulties & success at Gladden Spit, I'll upload some current whale shark photos! The photo here is a shot my husband, Bob, took several years ago in Utila when we had a very briefing snorkeling encounter with this beauty!

Dive Travel Services

Maluku Divers in Ambon

MSY Damai

Ubud to Scuba Seraya

The Serenity of Ubud

Mengwi to Ubud

Menjangan to Mengwi

Diving in Secret Bay

Bali's NW Coast

Back to Bali, Indonesia

Transit Day!

Last dives at Lembeh!

Mandarin Fish Dive

Lembeh Days 3 & 4

Lembeh Day 2

Off to Indonesia!

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM SOUTH ARI ATOLL!

MALE, Maldives

DUBAI

ROCKEFELLER CENTER

MALDIVES 2009

10 Days Left for AKR's 2-for-1 Special!

Buy one 7-night Dive, Snorkel or Leisure package in JULY 2009,For travel in AUGUST - DECEMBER 2009and get one same 7-night package FREE!

FINALLY!

Holidays in Malaysia!

Please don't open the comment!

UPDATE FROM GLADDEN SPIT

Off to Belize during Whale Shark Week!

Buy one 7-night Dive, Snorkel or Leisure package in JULY 2009,
For travel in AUGUST - DECEMBER 2009
and get one same 7-night package FREE!