Summary of trip
Trip Start
Sep 06, 2008
1
14
Trip End
Sep 13, 2008
Singapore, Singapore
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Expenses:
Air Fare - SGD$742 for two pax
Travel Insurance - SGD$78 for two pax
Dive package - USD$1300 (SGD$1800); inclusive of free rental of equipment, 3 meals per day and accommodation
Airport Tax - Rupiah200,000
Marine Park Fee - Rupiah300,000
Meal at airport during departure - Rupiah92,000
Total - SGD
Comments on Diving and overall experience in Manado
This was my first time to Manado for diving. I had heard a lot about diving in Manado, the wonderful marine creatures you would see and the good visibilty of the water. So i thought i had to experience it myself.
Manado is a Christian town in Indonesia and majority of the population are Christians and Catholics. There are lots of Churches along the street, even up high in the mountain area in remote areas. Some churches' architecture are so nice that they cannot be compared to Singapore's.
From the airport, we took around one hour to reach the resort (La RaCasse Resort). Actually it is not far from the airport, just that the traffic is a bit congested with 'taxis' stopping anywhere and everywhere to pick customers up.
The resort is a very nice one. There are so much facilities as compared to other resorts we had stayed in. The resort has pool table, cable TV, Wi-Fi Service and in the room, there is an attached bathroom, a king-sized bed, a fridge and a big cupboard. A really good place to relax in, even if you are not diving. The food at the resort are very nice too. We had steamed fish twice and chilli crab. They are fresh and they were cooked in a deliciously manner.
The staff's service were very good as well. (except for the initial part when there was some misunderstanding on the payment)
Manado is a place famous for macro marine creatures and muck diving. At first, i had thought that i would see nothing on a sandy dive site but i was so wrong. We had our first checkout dive at the House Reef and the marine creatures we saw, could win Tioman and Aur's waters a hundred time. There were too many creatures to see, that i had lost count of the species we saw.
The next few days were spent diving wall dives. The reef are beautiful and colourful, and even at 3 m we could see lots of colourful and fanciful marine creatures. The first two dives of a day were always spent diving wall dives and the third dive was mostly muck and shallower waters.
During one of the morning when we were on the way to our first dive, we evem saw groups of pilot whales and accompanied them were a few dolphins. Wow, a really un-describeable image.
Manado is a good place to dive if you had a camera with you. If not, it will be a wasted trip as most creatures you see are marcro and with naked eyes, you can barely see anything. So with a camera, all images can be recounted numerous of times.
My favourite marine creature this trip is an orang-utan crab. GOD has created this creature so wonderfully. The head of the crab looks exactly like an orang-utan. You can find the picture of this crab in my earlier blogs.
This trip was really a relaxing trip for me. Good food, good company and good diving.... I would definitely go back again.
