From the category archives:

Scuba Diving

Where to Go Next For Diving?

Most of us have a wish list of places that we want to visit in our lifetime. I have one too and it’s really long. But to be honest, I’m not too sure whether I would have visited all of them in my lifetime. I hope I will!

As for diving, I have my wish list for dive destinations too. They’re all within the South East Asia region because here we have one of the best dive sites in the whole world. I feel really lucky for this. Cheaper flights, cheaper accommodation, cheaper food and all the additional budget can be channeled to diving expenses.

As of writing (April 2010), I’ve only been to Lembeh Straits. I’ll be diving in Anilao in a few weeks time, so that makes it two. I’ve dove many other places, but if I have an unlimited budget for diving, these would be my only places to dive. I’m planning to dive at these places at least once in the next 2-3 years.

1. Lembeh Straits (North Sulawesi, Indonesia)

Bernard & Wife at Lembeh Straits - © Bernard Loke

Top of the list would be Lembeh Straits, better known as the macro heaven or the heaven for underwater photographers. There are just so many wonderful, unique, rare, tiny, ugly, you-name-it creatures in the waters of Lembeh Straits.

Some of my friends even came up with a list of creatures they want to see (and it runs to hundreds) during their trips. And they won’t give up going to Lembeh Straits again and again just to see everything on the list.

I was there back in December 2009 but I only managed to dive there for 2 days. My other 5 days was spread between diving in Manado and Bunaken National Park. That’s obviously too little and not enough. The next time (very soon) I’m going back there, I’ll be diving exclusively in Lembeh Straits. There are a whole bunch of creatures on my list which I’ve not seen yet!

2. Anilao (Batangas, Philippines)

Corals at Anilao, Philippines - courtneyplatt@flickr

Anilao is another macro heaven for underwater photographers. It’s one of the favorite dive destinations for many of my diver friends especially those who are into underwater photography like me. One of them even dove there more than 10 times and he is still not bored of it yet. So how can I not dive there for at least once?

I’ll be there in a few weeks time, so I’m really looking forward for it.

3. Raja Ampat (West Papua, Indonesia)

Raja Ampat Islands in Indonesia

I’ve heard of Raja Ampat even before I started diving back in 2008! Some of my friends were saying, You’ve to go to Raja Ampat when you have the chance!, and I was like, where the hell is this place?

For most divers in the South East Asia region, Raja Ampat is among the top 3 destinations for them besides Lembeh Straits. Some would call it the excotic dive destination. The good (and bad) thing about Raja Ampat is that it’s mostly accessible via Live-on-Boards (LOB) which are usually 6-8 days. And that would mean I’ll be disconnected from the hectic world and it’s just diving all the way!

4. Komodo Island (Indonesia)

Komodo Island - thejerk@flickr

Komodo Island made it to the headlines in 2008 when 5 divers got lost from their group during their dive. It became even scarier when they came face to face with the Komodo dragon, the world’s largest lizards.

Diving in Komodo Island is usually via Live-on-Boards (LOB) which would bring divers to some of the most secluded and exotic dive sites.

5. Pulau Sipadan (Sabah, Malaysia)

A School of Barracudas at Sipadan

Ask any Malaysian diver whether they’ve been to Pulau Sipadan and you’ll probably get yes for an answer. Rightly so. Pulau Sipadan has always been the forefront of scuba diving in Malaysia since it was mentioned as one of the top 10 dive destinations in the world quite some time ago. And since then, divers have been flooding the island until a point that they need to close down the resorts in Pulau Sipadan and moved them over to the nearby Pulau Mabul to preserve it’s ecosystem.

Wait. Why have I not been there? I’ve actually planned to go there. I’ve my air tickets booked and almost booked my accommodations. But I decided to give it a miss so that I can go to Lembeh Straits.

The reason?

There are only two things that you won’t see in your Lembeh Straits trip (including Manado and Bunaken) compared to Pulau Sipadan – school of barracudas doing the famous tornado and jacks. Other than that, Lembeh Straits has a lot more – Rhinopias, Mimic Octopus, Flamboyant Cuttlefish, Electric Clam just to name a few.

There are other destinations on my list as well, like Maldives, Tubbataha Reef in southern Philippines, Malapascua for sharks, Bali for manta rays and moola moola, Palau in Micronesia..and the list goes on and on.

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Finally My Own Complete Gear!

by Bernard · 0 comments

in Scuba Diving

I finally took the plunge yesterday and bought the final piece of my own scuba diving gear, the regulator set. Got it from my usual local dive shop, Scuba Dynamics in Desa Sri Hartamas.

I’ve actually been looking for a regulator set for sometime now and finally they arrived to our Malaysian shores last week. Previously, most of the dive shops that I went to survey the price ran out of stock for this brand and everyone was telling me, “Come back mid January…”.

So I got myself a Mares Prestige 12S regulator, Mares Rover octopus and Mares Mission 1 gauge (I’ve got a D4 dive computer, so the pressure gauge is sufficient).

Why Mares and not others like Atomic, Sherwood, Apex, etc..?

The main reason is because of it’s Vortex Assisted Design or VAD. I’m not going to dwell into how VAD works as it’s going to take some explanation to do. Simply put, it makes breathing easier. Less work is needed to breathe in the same amount of air on other regulators. As the tagline says, As Regular & Natural As You Breathe.

I actually made up my mind on the Mares Prestige 12S regulator one month ago when I haven’t even seen it. But when I was at the dive shop, there was also the Mares Abyss 22 and Mares Proton Metal 42 on display. And this didn’t help in my decision making.

Which one should I take? I thought I’ve made up my mind, but now what happened?

The Proton Metal 42 certainly looks good. Too good in fact. The weight and size of the MR42T first stage is half of the MR12T for Prestige. That itself is very tempting. And to make things even worse, the Proton Metal 42 second stage looks real good with it’s metal finishing and smaller size.

And it costs around 80% more than the Prestige. That’s a big No-No.

Took my time and toyed around with all 3. Went home. Thought about it for the whole night and finally went for the Prestige 12S as decided earlier. It’s good enough for my style of diving and most importantly within my budget. The price difference between the Prestige 12S and Proton Metal 42 could buy me another dive computer for my wife in the future, which in my opinion is a wiser idea.

Now, I can’t wait to try out these regulators and see how natural they breathe underwater!

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Diving With Laras Casse Resort in Manado

by Bernard · 1 comment

in Asia, Scuba Diving

It’s been a few weeks now since I came back from diving in Manado. I did wrote something about the trip but most of them are only photos I took with a few lines.

So I thought I’d write more about the trip.

It was actually planned mid of 2009. We planned to be there from Christmas right up to New Year’s day. At that time, I didn’t know whether I could make it or not looking at the nature of my job. Since I’m writing about it now, that means I made it to Manado.

There were 10 of us in the group. A group big enough for us to have a boat and 3 dive guides to ourselves. We stayed and dove with Laras Casse Resort in Manado. But why Laras Casse and not others?

One of the reasons is that the diving prices in Manado are almost 50% cheaper than those in Lembeh Straits. We did made it to Lembeh though on 2 days. It would take about 1.5 hours drive from Manado to the port in Bitung town. Another 1.5 hours drive back to Manado, with everyone in the van sticky and stinking like a fish.

But that’s not the main reason they chose Laras Casse Resort. It was because everyone wanted to dive with the best dive guide in that area, Noldy Rumengan. His ability to spot the tiniest critter in second to none. In 2007, he discovered a new species of seahorse while doing his safety stop in Lembeh Straits. Today, the seahorse is named after him, Kyonemichthys Rumengani.

We weren’t so lucky though. Out of 6 diving days, we only got to dive with Noldy on one day in Lembeh Straits. It was because the famous underwater photographer, William Tan was around at that time too. Noldy is his personal dive guide, so everyone has to give way.

Personally, that didn’t matter so much to me because my dive guide, Melky was good enough to spot all the critters for my camera too.