Dive Review of
Kungkungan Bay Resort and Miniahasa Lagoon in
Indonesia/Lembeh Straits and Poopoh

Papua New Guinea, Red Sea, Palau, Phillipines, Chuuk, Hawaii, Bonaire,
Cayman Islands, Solomons, Fiji, Tuamotus, Galapagos, Florida, Great Barrier
Reef, Coral Sea, Thailand, Ponape, Indonesia's Raja Ampat, Alor, Komodo,
Wakatobi and Bali areas.

Dive Conditions

[Unspecified]  

Overall, the KBR dive guides and boat crew we encountered were very
experienced and careful in handling camera gear. Dedicated rinse tank and
dunk tank to test camera setup. Well lighted and provisioned camera room
with both 110V and 220V battery charging stations. Dedicated towels for
cameras were provided. Air tank for cleaning and/or drying camera and
accessories. Screen door to block out mosquitos and other unwanted
critters. Bathroom adjacent to camera room. Dive guides are superb and kind
off treated like 'rock stars' at KBR. We rarely encountered other non-KBR
dive groups in the water during our 10 days there. But, when we did,
invariably, other divers seemed to recognize the KBR label on the dive
guides' wet suits and proceeded to follow us around. Generally, we had one
guide to the 2 of us, until we got joined. Nevertheless, the KBR guides are
very gracious and professional about this. Our special appreciation is to
Ade and Iwan who spent the most time with us, and to Liberty who saved J.
from being impaled by a giant, ugly, and well camouflaged stone fish while
filming a pair of nudibranchs.  

Overall Rating

The best muck diving dive adventure we've had, thus far! Meeting
practically all of Ed's expectations and more, since this year's dive trip
is muck and only muck. There were only a few small critters on our list
that we did not encounter that we did see in other trips to Indonesia and
PNG. Thus, we were not disappointed except for the Bobbit Worm. We saw that
monster once on a night dive on our 2000 KBR stay, but not this time. We
saw wonderpus, mimic octopus, giant octopus, long arm octopus, blue ring
octopus, coconut octopus, harlequin ghost pipe fish, ornate ghost pipefish,
robust ghost pipefish, ambon scorpion fish, many devilfish with
multi-colors, electric clams, cat and bamboo sharks, numerous nudibranchs,
comet fish, crocodile fishes, many shapes, sizes and colors of frogfishes,
pigmy seahorses, many cockroach shaped mini-shrimps and crabs on crinoids,
sea cucumbers and melabys, mandarin fish, sea snakes, stargazers, harlequin
shrimp, squids and so on and on and on breathlessly....WOW!

Our host at KBR, Steve, was very helpful and accommodating, even when he
was too busy. Every guide was superb, they were waiting nearby with the
next critter when we finished filming one. Every night dive was fantastic
with new and unencountered animal when we thought we had exhausted the
possibilities. And, we did a night dive every day we were there in addition
to the 3 day dives. 

Minahassa Lagoon was more laid back for diving, but the hosts were very
accommodating and our dive guide was knowledgeable. When we challenged him
with finding us a mimic octopus and ambon scorpion fish to see if he can
match the KBR guides, he did indeed find both at Poopoh on the first day!
And he also located a brilliantly pink leaf scorpion fish. He spent a
patient 3 days with us. The setting here was luxurious and the dive pace
was not as hectic as KBR. A great place to wind down with a slightly
different flavor of muck diving after an intense 10 days at KBR.

We plan to return to KBR in a few years to hunt for the illusive Bobbit
worm. 

What others have to say about Undercurrent
And get immediate access to ALL 493 dive reviews of Indonesia
and all other dive destinations immediately!