Getting to Labuan Bajo from Bali
Got to stay a night in Bali to catch the morning flight to Labuan Bajo. There are no afternoon flights from Bali at all. So I made use of the time to visit the Uluwatu Temple I have missed in previous trips.
I was quite skeptical when the skies at Kuta were cloudy at about 5 pm but that did not stop me despite the expensive ride that cost me (IDR400,000). The sunset was the most beautiful in Bali I have ever seen. Had a quick dinner with the driver, Philippe and sent me back to hotel when I had to charge batteries and get my stuff ready to board the boat the next day.
Arrived at he airport at 6 am for the 7.30 am flight to Labuan Bajo.
Komodo Dive Cruise
Arrived Labuan Bajo where I was picked up to the Komodo Dive Cruises office to board the livaboard Mona Lisa. The boat which could fit my schedule instead of those which we have to follow.
I met up with our Divemaster, Rinaldi who appeared as a fine young man with five months experience diving Komodo. I was skeptical about his knowledge on the dive sites especially spotting unusual critters. I was right. We had breakfast together while waiting for the rest of the guests to arrived.
There came two Swiss guys, one with 80+ dives and the other a fresh open water diver. I thought there is a criteria of a minimum of 50 dives to dive Komodo ... Anyway we met and went up the boat with high aspirations that we're going to have the whole boat and the divemaster to ourselves!
Finally after waited from 8 am to 11.30 am approx., we walked toward the back of the office to the beach where we took a thirty minutes ride on the speedboat to the livaboard.
We checked in to Mona Lisa and were disappointed with the bunks. The room is small though fit for two but I felt it's a bit too cramp. The shower/WC sits right next to the bed, if you happened to take the lower bunk. And the shower head was replaced by the toilet spray. Shampoo and body wash were provided anyway. The first night was sleepless with the endless noises from the generator and every wooden furniture seem to be shaking, toilet flushing and the itchy bed sheets. After 3 nights, two couples from Australia and France joined us.I was glad to have changed to a room right at the end. It was much quieter except that the AC was not cool enough.
Diving
The first check out dive in green water was disappointing. Following that the night dive was the best for the whole week.
On the second day we dive Cauldron where we had to fight the currents in order to get over to the other side. We were not briefed about this and I was not mentally prepared for it. It is a passage where we drift from the east to west passing reef slopes and sandy bottom. The view was beautiful but we were drifting too fast enjoying the ride but missed the view.
Diving the Castle Rock and Crystal Rock was exhausting. They had the most vicious currents. We had to dive against the currents and use a reef hook to stay in position and watch the sharks swim by. Diving Manta Point or Makassar Reef was almost the same kind of dive. Got to hook on or you get drifted away from the show. Visibility at these 3 dive sites was about 10 meters plus the bubbles from the divers blocked the view.
Videos could not be filmed with a flawless blue water background and the mantas were too far for a decent picture. Sometimes I thought bringing the whole camera rig down was a waste of time.
Videos could not be filmed with a flawless blue water background and the mantas were too far for a decent picture. Sometimes I thought bringing the whole camera rig down was a waste of time.
Most of the dives I was trying to stay close with the group, fighting currents than taking time for pictures. There were no schooling fishes such as those I encountered in Raja Ampat. I could barely spot a barracuda close enough for a picture. I could feel the best fishes and creatures have gone into hiding due to our bubbles. I have got a shot of the Napoleon anyway. I have missed hunting for critters nor did the divemaster spotted any nice ones except for a tiny robust ghost pipefish he borrowed my camera to shoot. But I was glad to have at least taken some nice wide angle shots.
