The experience and setting of our North Sulawesi trip was a stark contrast to our previous Papuan trip . We stayed for only three nights in an older Manado resort privileged with soft king-size beds, ac, and real showers. The comfort of luxury was nearly forgotten by then. Manado, a highly populated city with high rise and vehicular traffic, could be seen from the pier of our resort. It is an established diving locale where there are more resorts strung along the beaches than there are visiting divers.

    We dove the famous Bunaken wall and found its beauty preserved through efforts of conservation by the government. One late afternoon, we entered the water only to discover an adult napoleon swimming around the boat. Our boat crew were smart enough to feed it leftover rice and chicken from our lunch. We anchored ourseleves to the bottom and watched to see this creature feasts with hundreds of reef fish that joined in.

    Manado Bay, literally in front of our resort, was a pleasant treasure chest. The muck critters that reside there were so fascinating and we couldn't get enough of them. The highlight of Manado Bay for us was a night dive right in front of the resort's jetty. It was such a shallow dive that our air lasted longer than our guide's dive light. We encountered many types of scorpion fish, a couple of stargazers, cuttlefish, hermit crabs, a juvenile sweetlips, and the list goes on

resort • m. bay/ resort dives • m. bay dives • bunaken dive

    Of course the trip, brief as it may, wouldn't be complete without trying out the famous Lembeh Strait. An hour car ride took us to Bitung harbor, located off Lembeh strait, where we boarded upon our rented boat. The water was very cold, like always. We dressed in layers and put on hoods, but they seemed to do no good when we first jumped into the water. However, it was all soon forgotten once we started encountering the critters of Lembeh Strait. We realized then why the place has been referred to as the "muck diving capital of the world." Everything we found were so weird and fascinating. Our two guides were very good at spotting these critters that blend so well with the surrounding. A tiny octopus tried to hide from us by sucking a leaf and covered its body with it. Some critters were covered in thick algae, perhaps because they don't move fast enough. A dive site called Hairball contained an array of hairy critters much to our amazement. In the end of the day, whe did a dive to see the shy mandarin fish mating in piles of broken corals.

     Jo had a blast taking photographs at Lembeh Strait, so much so that she decided to come back the next week by herself. All of us were intrigued by Lembeh and certainly look forward to the next return, complete with a thicker suit

lembeh dives 1 • lem. dives 2 • lem. dives 3 • lem. dives 4

Where have you dove? We'd love to read your story in our guestbook!