Bunaken Cha cha resort

Kungkungan Bay Resort to Bunaken Cha Cha and Back in exactly 24 hours. You wouldn’t believe the mission.

In the morning we were taken on a market tour and school tour with one of the ladies from the KBR (Kungkungan Bay Resort), nutty that she was we saw a lot of things you wouldn’t normally get a chance to see if you just stayed on resort. For those who are interested, and have a strong stomach there are some pictures of a certain mans best friend, which appears to be food in this country. The fish market was great, all the local fisherman go out on a 12 hour shift at 6.00pm and arrive back in port in the morning with whatever they caught and trust me they caught a lot.

The primary school we visited seemed a little military but you can see where the Indonesians get their discipline from. Very strict, I think we might have got some of them in trouble for not facing the front, they were much more interested in the two white men who had come to visit. Tourists don’t often visit, which in my mind just isn’t good enough, don’t come to these countries and not experience the local life, you will just be visiting a resort and you might as well stick to the package holidays and save yourself the flight time.

After KBR have seen us off we are off to Bunaken Cha Cha ( BCC ) the notes that follow were made on the following morning and I make no excuses for not editing them, I refuse to re-write a review of the place.

Drive to Bintang - Change money and Apoteka, funny how some of the latin still makes it through to these far off cultures.

Arrive Manado Port

Boat waiting.... wooden, tidy, not what we expected perhaps.

I was in the mood for a bit of adventure, Tom wasn’t too sure about putting customers on a boat like this, but this is Ultimate Diving, only for the adventurous though.

Wet landing at Bunaken Cha Cha, easy peasy and the resort looks beautiful, set in a forrest of Palm Trees. Having some difficulty focussing on the direction of conversation already and feeling a little lost.

Random is the word that sums it up so far. Not too sure what the pitch is here.

Arrived to coconut drinks on a veranda which is a fantastic view of the bay. 2 3/4 hours of conversation in a montage leads us to start to question where we are and why there are currently no guests.

For paradise, which ultimately is what you find when you visit BCC there seems to be some trouble that we cant quite put our finger on, the staff don’t seem as happy as the other resorts we have visited though the facade is as good if not better than the other resorts we have visited, as you scratch the surface you find irritations that not even Toms wonderful Tiger Balm will stop you wanting to itch.

There is something about travelling to these places and diving that involves trust, consistency, professionalism all of which are detached from the resort, it's staff and it's sustenance. It is the brand leader which drives the customer experience overall and what we have ended up with is the perfect location, which is being spoilt, not from lack of effort from staff, not from poor food, certainly not from lack of quality, this is the one resort on Bunaken island which has HOT water. But it isn’t a place we want to stay, we don’t want to dive here, we don’t want to send customers here.

Under new management, this place would be a diamond site for those willing to take that extra step. Well worth the visit and a jumping board to some of the amazing dive sites of Bunaken National Park. In its current state I wouldn’t recommend it. Any PADI qualified Diving Instructor willing to confess to putting divers through a difficult dive swimming into current because they kept him up the night before, is not somewhere we would ever want to send customers to and certainly not someone I want to dive with. My foot is firmly down on that one.

First thing in the morning we are busting a groove. Toms left his mask at KBR so we will head back that way and try to get over to Gangga Island, let’s find the normality of Indonesia we have come to expect, happy staff, safe diving and less of the "let me tell you why"

That sums it up…. No more needs to be said about BCC. Good bye and good luck.