Instant Reader Report on Diving
Kungkungan Bay Resort in
Indonesia/Lembe Strait, No. Sulawesi in
2003/09

 N. California, Mexico, Hawaii, Fiji, Indonesia, Micronesia, Red Sea,
Solomon Islands, Israel 

Dive Conditions

safety stop, approx. 1 hour dive times suggested (but actual times usually
1-1:20.  

[None]  

Overall Rating

The diving in the Lembe Strait is as terrific as ever. New discoveries
(since our last visit in '99) include a new type of pygmy seahorse (white,
narrow body with red/green streaks) and blue-ringed octopus. We saw the
usual cast of great muck creatures including several types of ornate ghost
pipefish, hairy frogfish, clown frogfish, hairy filefish, hairy scorpion
fish, ribbon eels, several types of nembrotha nudis, stargazers, mating
mandarin fish, a variety of octopus (no mimic this time though, alas!),
pygmy and regular seahorses, waspfish, leaf scorpion fish, flamboyant
cuttlefish, and, surprisingly, an enormous, pristine coral field at Batu
Angus.

With the addition of 2 new land-based resorts on Lembe, a Thai liveaboard
in semi-permanent residence plus Manado day-trippers, the Lembe Strait has
become much more heavily serviced for divers. It was not uncommon to see 2
or 3 boats at our dive site, although each boat carried only a few divers.

We stayed at Kungkungan Bay Resort, the largest and oldest (9 years) of
the Lembe Strait dive operations; it was much less crowded then our prior
visit in 1999. We were the only 2 guests for half of our visit, with a
maximum of 4 divers during the rest of our stay. This is both good and
bad--- the pro's being very high levels of service and attention plus you
call the shots on what dive spots & what you'd like to see. The staff
is as friendly and helpful as ever.

Cons are that KBR has laid off over half of its staff from a few years
ago, with most staff working only part-time and the mood is downbeat. Some
former staff work at the other Lembe dive operations. 

The first permanent KBR resort manager since 1999 arrived 2 weeks before
our trip and is working on some of the deferred maintenance issues in the
bungalows, boats and grounds. The new resort manager has extensive hotel
experience in Asia/Pacific and has plans for adding a pool and more
top-side amenitites as well as a number of 10th anniversary resident
photo/bio experts and events for next year. Nus remains as manager of the
diving operations, and is a terrific asset. So far terrorism has not been
an issue in predominantly Christian Northern Sulawesi, and we felt quite
safe in Sulawesi as well as our follow-on stay in Ubud, Bali (where there
were also much lower numbers of tourists). We were told that KBR bookings
are increasing for the fall and I hope things will improve in the region. 

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