PADI Dive Courses - we have very experienced European PADI instructors who offer the full range of dive courses from beginner level (PADI Open Water) through to professional level (PADI Divemaster and Instructor). All courses are run on demand in small groups, and all course-dives take place on real dive sites around Bunaken - it is not uncommon to see turtles and shark on your training dives, and one of our open water students even spotted a dugong and an eagle ray on her first open water dive!
Instructor Courses - check out our IDC schedule for May and September every year.
Two Fish Lembeh - we have a small resort on Lembeh Island, right in the middle of the Lembeh Straits. Bunaken and Lembeh are only 2-3 hours apart, so you can dive two special areas with one dive operator - exploring the award winning reefs of Bunaken Marine Park and hunting for amazing critters in Lembeh Straits, the muck diving capital of the world. Find out more about diving in Lembeh Straits.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Dive Relax to Bunaken
Travel In Bunaken
If you are really serious to be a diver and want to have an unforgettable scuba diving travel, I suggest you to visit Bunaken in North Sulawesi,Indonesia. I think, if you are great diver, I do not have to explain so much about this great Marine Park because I believe that you have already known that Bunaken Marine Park has approximately 3,000 different varieties of reef fish and large numbers of pelagics; including barracuda, sharks, whales, dolphins, giant manta rays and turtles that call the steep walls home. On the east coast of North Sulawesi lies the incomparable Lembeh Strait, a macro photographer's Paradise and Muck Divers heaven. Their motto is " If you can't find your macro critter here, it probably doesn't exist."
In Bunaken, you can have a great stay, beautiful view and of course, you can have your professional pic-taken there with various sea creature and the best thing here is, you can be in the nearest destination (more than you expect) with the school of fish. Mm…What a great Scuba Diving Travel,especially if you are in your cheap honeymoon with the one you love.
ps.bunaken also has many great souvenirs so, do not forget to purchase one
Paradise Lose, Bunaken Sea
Do you wanna see some kind of Heaven under the sea? If you say yes, then you’re on the right track by reading this. :D
I would like to introduce the famous Indonesia Marine Park, called Bunaken. This place is the real heaven for underwater lover, especially the one who loves diving. Bunaken area, which consists of 5 islands (Manado Tua, Bunaken, Siladen, Mantehage, and Naen) has the highest levels of marine biodiversity in the world.
The waters of Bunaken National Marine Park are extremely deep (1566 m in Manado Bay), clear up to 35-40 m visibility, refreshing in temperature (27 to 29 °C). More than 70 genera of corals (Hawaii for example, only have 10), 2,700 species of fish, around 10 species of giant clams, live in this 75,265 hectares area of warm tropical water.
Scuba diving lover, will have unforgettable moment while dive in this marine park. There’re 20 main dive spots, the deepest spot is around 1344 meters under sea level. But don’t worry, if you can’t dive, you can still enjoy the beautiful of this park by snorkeling around the surface.
Remember, you’ll never see another marine park in the world that have this high level of marine biodiversity. Come to this spot, and you’ll know that it’s a real paradise.
Water In Bunaken
We installed our first hot water system into Standard Cottage 1. This is just a trial for now, we want to see how the loading on our electricity is affected. We installed a new & larger generator a few months ago but the power need of a hot water unit is very big and so can affect the rest of the resort.
If all goes well, we will be putting in hot water into Bunaken in the first quarter 2009. This will make night dives much more enjoyable!
Bunaken Sulawesi Indonesia
Alright just wanted to post a quick note (Internet isn’t the best here). We arrived safely in Manado three days ago, boy what a flight, I really do hate flying. This side of Indonesia is pretty nice, much better than Banda Aceh on the west side of Indonesia! We were picked up at the airport in Mando and taken to our boat for the 45 minutes to the island we will stay on for a week right in heart of the Bunaken Marine Park! Oh we had a one night layover in Kuala Lumpur thankfully we had enough time to download a few episodes of Heroes, House, Prison Break and Chuck. We need something to do when we aren’t diving! The resort here in Bunaken is pretty nice, way better than Pulau Weh. The rooms are not as nice as Pulau Weh but the food and dive boats are much better. The diving is pretty nice too! The view from the resort at sunset is fantastic, nice volcano which the sun sets right next too! Plus we can freely drink beer and eat during the day!! Much different than Pulau Weh! We will be here till Friday and then off to Lembah Straits which is the other side of the island we are staying on. There we will meet up with about 8 people we dove with in Koh Tao so it should be a pretty nice reunion! We will try to post more in a few days also maybe actually respond to some emails!! Miss you all!
Bunaken photos
More Bunaken photos in December. Bunaken Dive National park Celebes Indonesia North Sulawesi. Click the photos for zoom
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Scuba Diving in North Sulawesi
Full of natural wonders, and offering an almost unparalleled levels of marine biodiversity, North Sulawesi has become one of the worlds premier destinations for ecotourism and adventure travel in recent years. Today, large numbers of scuba divers travel to this distant part of Indonesia, to sample some of the finest dive sites to be found anywhere throughout South East Asia.
The diving in North Sulwesi is focused in two main areas, the Bunaken National Marine Park and the famous muck diving capital of Lembeh Strait. There are other destinations where good diving is on offer in North Sulwesi, including the dive sites in Sangihe Island and Pulau Bangka, however it is the dive sites in Bunaken and Lembeh which draw large numbers of scuba divers here year after year.
The Bunaken National Marine Park was established in 1991, and the deep waters of the park offer one of the greatest levels of marine biodiversity to be found anywhere in the world. A home to over 70% of all fish species found throughout the Indo-western pacific region, the waters of Bunaken are home to an incredible array of coral and marine life.
The scuba diving in Bunaken is predominantly characterised by the awesome vertical walls which almost surround the island. Along these walls, an array of cracks, caves and crevices are home to a wide range of fish life during the day as well as the night. Dive sites including Fukui Point and Black Rock provide divers with access to stunning corals as well as stunning array of smaller marine life.
Lembeh Strait is widely acknowledged as being the ‘muck diving’ capital of the world, and offers what can only be described as a truly unique experience in diving. The diving itself is shaped by the black sandy bottom of the ocean in the region, which is home to a wide selection of critters and smaller marine life. It is for this reason that underwater photographers often choose to make the longer journey out to Lembeh Strait, to sample some of the finest opportunities for underwater macro photography to be found anywhere in South East Asia. Octopus, flying gunnards, frogfish and dwarf lionfish can all be found throughout the numerous dive sites in the Lembeh Strait.
Diving is possible in North Sulwesi throughout the year, although the best conditions are to be found from late March through to November. From January through to March, heavy rains and strong winds can be found throughout the region, leaving the conditions unfavourable for scuba diving.
Without doubt, the scuba diving in Sulawesi is of the highest standard, and the region fully justifies its claim to be one of South East Asia’s leading scuba diving destinations. The superb dive sites of Bunaken and Lembeh undoubtedly ensure the longer journey time to reach here is worthwhile, and leave you only thinking of when you can return!
Diving in the Lembeh Strait
These pictures are featured courtesy of Ariel, the Little Mermaid aka Chloe Chin. She's hot, lives to dive and enjoys her duck comfit. I thought I'd share these pictures with you as I'm not a diver so I find these sea creatures out of this world! Now we know where Industrial Light and Magic and Stan Winston Studios get their inspirations!
Click the photos for zoom.
A Nudibranch. Check out the stalks for eyes and the 'flower' on it's ass.
These pictures are featured courtesy of Ariel, the Little Mermaid aka Chloe Chin. She's hot, lives to dive and enjoys her duck comfit. I thought I'd share these pictures with you as I'm not a diver so I find these sea creatures out of this world! Now we know where Industrial Light and Magic and Stan Winston Studios get their inspirations!
Box Fish
These pictures were taken a week ago in the Lembeh Strait, North Sulawesi off the coast of Bitung . The sea itself is dirty with garbage, junk and gunk from fishing boats BUT this has created an ecosystem at the sea bed that supports life forms worthy of a Mos Eisley cantina! Although these are little buggers (some smaller than a grain of rice) some of them are poisonous.
Boxer Shrimp
Devil Stinger (side profile)
Devil Stinger (front view)
Frogfish
Who left their shaggy dog at the bottom of the ocean??? - A Hairy Frog Fish
Two Nudibranches
A lone Nudibranch
Ornate Ghost Pipefish
I hope she doesn't read this but I think Ariel's pictures are cool (she'll never let me hear the end of it). Not bad for a hot number cruncher.
As you can see, the sea may be shit but with moments like this it more than makes up from getting fish bones tangled up in your hair.
Porcupine Fish
Rhinopias
Getting to Lembeh
