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Just two hours underwater in Maui
I especially love the dive holidays where you can leave home in flip-flops and arrive at the dive destination in flip-flops (or slippahs where I went). Los Angeles to Maui is one version of the flip-flops only necessary dive holiday.
I had a short trip ahead of me, three nights, more for personal reasons than diving. Theoretically I could dive three of the days, but realistically probably only one. I did not hesitate though as to whether I should pack my equipment or not. But I have done it so many times that I know if something is missing, because each item has a specific spot in my suitcase or backpack. This includes my camera gear. However, I still had to run through the routine of pre-trip equipment check as it had been over a year since my last dive.
On top of it I had procrastinated, so when it came time to reserve dives with a boat, only one of my three days was available. Although potentially with some extra effort, I would have been able to dive each day from the shore. But I knew the boat I wanted to dive with: Mike Severns.
This group is big on showing you animal behavior rather than running you around underwater showing you a lot of critters. They can find most of what you ask for, for sure, but they would rather show you fewer animals, but ones displaying interesting behavior. Furthermore, some of their people have been there a long time and have their own interesting histories. I have dived with Pauline a few times over the years (although she didn’t remember me) who has her own obsession with nudibranchs inhabiting Hawaiian waters. Her website is called seaslugsofhawaii, and you will hardly notice it, but she carries a small point and shoot to document new critters that she might find. Our other dive guide/instructor, Warren, used to practice dentistry.
Note to self: it is possible to leave your life of logic for “another way of living,” as someone on a dive boat once said to me.
It is a confusing way to start your dive day. A trip out to Molokini requires an early start time in order to avoid the afternoon trade winds that make the sea rough later in the day. We were up in the dark with the moonlight still above us, and flashlights (thank you iPhone) to fill out our consent forms. But the sun showed up before we left the harbor at the small Kihei boat ramp. The opposite of a night dive (and a bit like a Norwegian winter day on the walk to work).
At this time of the year, the search for marine life begins as soon as the boat leaves the breakwater. Humpback whales are in Maui to give birth, court, and breed from perhaps as early as December through April. Some females will begin their journey back to the north, pregnant and without having eaten a thing for their entire time (months) in Maui.
So you are immediately on the look-out for whales spouting, breaching, or just chilling on the surface on the way out to Molokini. At first you think you are imagining the poofs of water vapor here and there, but once you see a body attached to it, a very long graceful one, and a tail, you realize that what you are seeing is real. Our special treat on the way out was a mother and a calf perhaps nursing at the surface.
Hawaiian waters are not necessarily so warm, even in summer. I wasn’t happy to have to put on a 7mm wetsuit so near the equator, but below 26°C is too cold for me in 3 mm. Pauline gave me a straight answer when I asked for the temperature, which was even lower than they expected (20°C). However, 7 kg of weights easily fit into my integrated weight pockets, and I did not need a hood or gloves.
We jumped and made our way down the mooring line to the sandy bottom on the inner side of Molokini. The endemic Hawaiian garden eels as I remembered them welcomed us. Unfortunately with the same behavior as anywhere, it is impossible to approach them before they discreetly disappear into their sandy hole.
You never know what you will find. Maui for sure is different than coral diverse areas like Raja Ampat, but there is always something on a dive I have never seen. Pauline found the blenny (huge, huge blenny by the way; gargantuan I think) that she had described in the dive briefing; the male would be found with the eggs, which would be yellow if recently laid. And near the end of the dive over the coral reef, something caught my eye. Another eye – an octopus which apparently is not commonly seen there. For all of you Incredibles (a.k.a. Indonesian dive guides), I have been paying attention. In between were colorful fish, mostly the Hawaiian version of something I have seen elsewhere.
You never know what you will be obsessed by. The second dive, Wailea Point, was shallower and more of a macro dive. Pauline had told us that baby frog fish were in season (to view of course) and sure enough, she spotted a bright speck of yellow, smaller than her thumbnail, navigating the sandy bottom. Black sea cucumbers looked as if they had just been randomly strewn about. And as anyone knows, they are a unique habitat, especially for crustaceans, that might be called for example, the sea cucumber crab. Once you turn a sea cucumber over, you have to look quickly before the crab/shrimp slips away to the underside of the animal again.
I found myself behind again photographing… sea urchins. Sea urchins? They are everywhere – black ones, red ones, striped ones. It is a real wonder how the pencil urchins develop, but more of a mystery is how do they move around. They look stuck and you wonder, do they develop in the hole you find them in and are lodged there for life, or do they move around somehow despite their large solid spines? Edward Scissorhands underwater went through my mind.
The real magic of these dives though is something that you can not even see. It is what you hear (or you think you hear): humpback whale songs. They still are going through my head, like an ethereal recording playing in a shop selling incense meant to transform you into a peaceful state. A minor inconvenience is that you have to breathe, which makes an obstructive noise over the background of the whale song. I was told that each whale song lasts 20 minutes, and of course you have no idea exactly how many animals you are listening to at any moment. I wish I had tried to make a video of just anything, even the blue, to prove the music was real.
Time (and air) goes fast under water. When you have only two hours to dive, it seems to go even faster. Before I knew it, my time was up, and I had to drag myself, weights and all, up the stairs behind the dive boat. The sun was out from the clouds and hot by then though, and with a few views of spouting whales on the way back, the trip was not over until we reached the shore. A mere test dive day, perhaps, but packed nevertheless.
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In January The Scuba Place visited Ambon, Raja Ampat and Lembeh hosting a group of friends and divers, and what a blast they had! They stayed at some amazing spots and saw some amazing things! This is their trip report on their third and final stop in Lembeh.
There are well-known diving destinations, and then there are places that have a reputation on a level all on their own. For critters and all things small, weird, and wonderful, there is no place better known than Lembeh.
Lembeh is a small island sitting off the north-eastern coast of Sulawesi, accessed by Manado Airport, then an hour’s drive. Getting to Manado is easy –flights from Jakarta, a major international hub, are direct to Manado and Garuda Indonesia airline gives divers 20kgs of checked baggage plus another 23kgs for scuba equipment, free of charge! What could be better than that?!
Arriving in Manado is civilised – this is a sizeable airport and well-organised. Our baggage came out promptly, and we were met by our resorts’ drivers, popped into lovely, air-conditioned SUVs, and off we set on our journey to Dive into Lembeh. The first 30 minutes or so of the journey was on the new main road to Bitung – after having navigated the local traffic surrounding the airport of course. Then, we were in the hills and the rural landscape replaced the city buildings.
Passing through the final village, Kasawari, you soon arrive at the resort where a warm greeting from the staff, bearing cold flannels and a tropical punch, awaits! While we sat and chatted and drank our much-needed cold punch, our bags were swept away. We were then escorted to our rooms, and WOW! – they were beautiful!
The rooms are in three categories – Long House, Sea View Bungalows, or a larger Suite. The Long House is exactly that – a terrace of three rooms in one building and is set back in the gardens. The Long House rooms are twins or doubles and have a shared deck with views toward the sea. The Suite is an oversized room with a bedroom and lounge area and a huge open-air shower room.
We stayed in a Sea View Bungalow. They are at the front of the resort and overlook the water and a few are in front of the beautiful swimming pool too. Each bungalow has a canopy bed (king or twin configuration), a neat storage area with wardrobes and shelving, a day bed for extra storage or a third occupant, and a huge desk with power points with a stocked mini fridge below. There is also an indoor/outdoor bathroom with a walk-in shower.
The rooms are beautifully finished – authentic wood floors, walls, and woven ceilings and all the bungalows and the suite have their own deck to the front with table and chairs, plus the real surprise – a lovely Japanese-style style hot tub. This is, and trust us, the perfect place to sit with a cold beer after a full day of diving!
The swimming pool is beautiful, and the terraces surrounding it look directly over the strait to the island. If you get any downtime, this is the place to be! Or there is always the bar! The bar is in the central building together with a comfortable lounge area and of course the restaurant. Cold beers are plenty, but let the expert barman make you a cocktail – the Lembeh Mojito was superb! Imagine a normal mojito and add fresh lemon grass, fresh ginger, and chilli peppers … amazing!
This leads nicely into the food. – a very important part of any dive trip! There is, simply put, loads of it, and it is delicious!
The first breakfast is toast and cereals, juice, and hot drinks. This is available all day every day! The second breakfast is served after the first morning dive, and this is an awesome meal. A good blend of Western and Indonesian offerings, with eggs cooked to order. Manado porridge, a local dish of savoury oats was delicious, and supported by nasi goreng, mi goreng, rice noodles, waffles, pancakes, and good old bacon. Everything was cooked beautifully, and we were spoilt! Fresh fruit was plentiful and with numerous lime, mango and soursop trees on the property, getting your 5-a-day was easy!
Lunch started with the most amazing soups freshly made each day. Three or four main meal selections were served with rice, noodles, potatoes, and tofu – the choice was amazing and the food delicious. Dessert would be fruit at lunchtime and a more substantial offering, normally with ice cream, at dinner, following another amazing main meal!
The chefs are genius – the food is exceptional, and of course, supplied with a choice of hot sambals and chilli relishes ranging from the tongue tingling to the head-melting inferno versions only for the brave (or daft!). The highlight of our week was a hog roast – served with all the trimmings. We had guests with dietary requirements and vegetarian preferences in our group, and they were well catered-to.
After our afternoon dive, we were greeted at the dive centre with hot ginger and lemon grass tea or hot chocolate alongside donuts, cakes, or biscuits. Eat, sleep, dive, and repeat – it is a real way of life here!
The lounge and bar area are also a venue for some presentations. Our dive guide, Agust, studied marine biology at university and is a bit of a nudibranch specialist. He delivered a great 40-minute presentation on his favourite subject. And then Ben, the dive boss and professional photographer of international standing, gave an inspirational talk on creative lighting using torches. A few of our gang ditched their strobes and tried out some of the techniques Ben taught us with some exceptional results!
The camera room has rinse tanks and airguns outside, with personal cubby spaces and plenty of power points, towels, and storage – the perfect setup for underwater photographers and videographers. Between dives, you do what you need to your camera, and then pop it into a basket back in the rinse tank and it is automatically taken to the boat in time for your next dive.
The dive centre is as close to the water as you can get and provides each diver with space for a gear basket and plenty of hanging space. There are rinse tanks right next to the kit room, showers, drying racks, and plenty of benches for pulling on those wetsuits and boots. Your BCD awaits you on the boat, so absolutely no humping of kit anywhere!
The diving – at last, I hear you say! Sorry not sorry – the resort is amazing, and it needed to be said! Packages at Dive into Lembeh can be based on two dives a day or three. We say book the three-dive package – you will want to do every possible dive there is, and it is a little cheaper to book in advance than it is to pay for extra dives in resort. Nitrox is available in the resort ($7 per fill or $20 per day) and guided night dives are $35. Spend a few pennies and do a night dive! Octopus, bobbit worms, moon head sea slug, nebulose moon snail, stargazers, frogfish…we saw so much!!
07:30 is dive one, 10:30 the next, and then the third is at 230pm. The house reef is open all day in daylight hours too and is well worth a dive or three! From the boat, you drop in on muck, black sand, or a sloping seabed with coral bommies and then get your eyes into focus…. there is so much to see.
Lembeh is famous for critters – all things weird and wonderful and is well known for frogfish and various species of octopi. Every dive captures the simply amazing nature of the Lembeh Strait. We saw hairy, striated, painted, and warty frogfish of all shapes and sizes – from the smallest imaginable to the pretty huge.
We encountered mimic, wonderpus, reef, long-armed, blue-ringed, and coconut octopus. There are shrimps of every variety – emperor, Coleman, hairy, skeleton, harlequin, and tiger!
And crabs – porcelain, pom-pom, candy, and squat lobsters galore, including the amazing purple hairy ones you can find on barrel coral! We found scorpion fish, sea moths, Ambon scorpionfish, flathead and crocodile snake eels out hunting. And then nudis – hundreds of them! And seahorses and pygmy seahorses and and and and! The list is endless, and we will let our galleries do the talking, but it is safe to say that Lembeh delivered – in buckets!
The best dive? Getting to spend 45 minutes watching a coconut octopus decide on a new ‘house’ – a bigger and better shell than it was in, and watching it move from one to the other, and then disposing of the old shell by carrying it away from its territory! Just magical.
Our guides were exceptional and stayed with us from the beginning of the week to the very end, getting to know our diving styles and preferences and photography skills. Many of the guides have some experience with underwater photography and were happy to hold torches and make suggestions – underwater!! They tried their very best to deliver our bucket list and did so for one diver when they found a harlequin shrimp on our last dive! We were lucky to have one guide for every two divers and we are now ruined forever!
I know that there are those who like big stuff and colourful reefs, and I understand that totally – I am like that too. My first proper muck dive was a few years back in the Philippines, and I have been addicted ever since! The ‘yield’ is phenomenal in Lembeh, that being the amount of magical stuff that you see, and I would encourage everyone to give this a proper go. For photographers, macro lenses bring a little frustration at first and then great results – and using a strobe or a torch brings great colour to your photographs. For me, it doesn’t get any better, and I remain addicted to critters.
And Dive into Lembeh? I am addicted to this place too – it really is, quite simply, brilliant on all counts.
We’re heading back to Indonesia in January 2025 and will be returning to Lembeh after visiting Ambon and Triton Bay. Check out our brochure with full itinerary here. Come Dive with Us!
And our friends Anne and Phil Medcalf of Alphamarine Photography are hosting a Photography Workshop at Dive into Lembeh in August 2026. Click here for more information and drop us a line if you’re interested!
Key Facts:
- Getting there :We suggest flying with Emirates from Heathrow to Jakarta via Dubai. From Jakarta you can fly direct to Manado on Garuda Indonesia. We prefer Garuda with their free 23kg dive equipment baggage policy and the flight is 3 ½ hours. We were greeted at the airport and transported across the island in comfort.
- Air temperature : Lembeh enjoys a tropical rainforest climate – average daily temperature throughout the year is 29 to 31°C. The warmest and driest months are August and September and the wettest months are usually November and December
- Water temperature :An average of 30°C. A 1-3mm full suit or shorty will suit most.
- Visa requirement : We purchased our Visa on Arrival at the Jakarta airport for $35USD (or 500,000IDR) The visa for an initial period of 30 days. Make sure you have pristine bank notes if paying in USD or exchanged GBP when you get to Indonesia. The bills must be unmarked and undamaged to be accepted. The Customs Declaration must be completed online and the provided QR code is shown to the Customs officers.
- Currency : Indonesian Rupiah(IDR) or US Dollar are accepted most places. We exchanged Sterling for Rupiah at the Jakarta airport for an attractive rate.
- Electricity :230V with European style (round pin) two-prong plugs. Our room and the camera room had extension leads with UK plugs so no adapter was needed.
- Internet and Wi-Fi :There is wifi in resort and worked well in our room. We were able to email, WhatsApp and post on social media without issue.
Price Guide: Expect from £2499 per person based on two sharing a long house room for 7 nights with 18 Dives – 3 boat dives and night dives are offered daily, and the house reef is available during daylight hours. Full board basis with amazing food and includes flights and transfers. Extras : Indonesian Visa on Arrival, soft drinks and adult beverages, and tips.
Our Advice: Indonesia is an amazing destination. Dive into Lembeh was the last top on our three-centre trip and we felt it was the perfect ending to an amazing holiday!
Packing tips :
- Rechargeable fan(s) :If you’ve read any of our recent trip reports we recommend these over and over again. Perfect for warm planes, stuffy transfers and still evenings. We can’t believe we travelled without them for so many years! Join the fan club and grab one off Amazon… you won’t regret it!
- Travel laundry line : We find this comes in handy for any mid holiday hand washing and definitely at the end of the trip to hang SMBs, reels, dive socks etc.
- Insect repellent :We’ve made a habit of throwing some repellent in our dive bags every trip!
Sunscreen : Don’t forget to protect yourself when you’re in the sun and on the water!!
Come Dive with Us!
The Scuba Place designs and builds custom scuba diving holidays. With personal knowledge and experience diving in many of our destinations, there is no one better to help build your dream dive holiday. Come Dive with Us!
Call us at 020 3515 9955 or email at reservations@thescubaplace.co.uk
Find us at https://www.thescubaplace.co.uk
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