Dive Review of Papua Explorers in
Indonesia/Raja Ampat

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Papua Explorers: "10 great days in Raja Ampat", Mar, 2015, by Fred Drennan, WA, US ( Reviewer 6 reports with 2 Helpful votes). Report 8174 has 1 Helpful vote.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Garuda Air flights arranged online between Bali and Sorong went off without a hitch. Upgraded to business class just for luggage issues, but got told that in general sports [=diving] equipment not surcharged. Picked up at Sorong airport by Putri [staff], taken to SwissHotel for about 2 hours, then onto boat for 2 hour trip to Gam island and resort. New resort [about 5+ years old] with overwater individual pondoks- lots of space, good light overall, mosquito netting on bed and extra fan in room. Bed very comfortable. No safe in room but no concerns. Multiple outlets in room including a 6 plug charger [but need 2 pin connectors for US plugs, 220-240V standard]. 5 gallon water jug in room. Showers are slightly brackish water, not potable, but acceptable on an island without lots of fresh water. Coffee available at dining room at 6:30am, breakfast at 7 included eggs/omelets/breads/fruits and some Indonesian food on request [burbur ayam, nasi goreng]. Lunches and dinners were varied including vegetables/ meats [no pork as one owner is muslim]. Bintang beers cheap, marginal wine expensive. Limited other alcohol, bring your own if desired. Soft drinks/ tea always available. Owners came onsite during our stay and were incredibly gracious and friendly. Tunc’s wife Selen was also the primary email contact during arrangements, and was accessible and very helpful. We also enjoyed our dinner conversations with Tari [on site manager] who was very well informed about Indonesian politics and culture. Laundry was free, clothes take 2 days to return. Towels changed about every 2-3 days, but hard to get them dry in the humidity. Diving from several boats with no more than 6-7 divers separated into 2 groups. We had 4 people on our boat divided into 2 groups of 2, each with separate dive guide. Backroll off boat, no mooring routinely. On boat was captain and one additional staff to help lift BCs/weight belts out of the water before you come up a ladder on the side. Nitrox free, usually 30-32% full fills. Had both DIN and yoke valves. We brought our own equipment but theirs [Aqualung] looked in good condition. Diving is walls and reefs for the most part. No real muck sites [we dove at ‘Putri’s Pool’- unusual but not memorable] and Arborek Jetty- combo of deeper reef and pier was very interesting. Plankton bloom in area of Cape Kri made viz poor [perhaps 30 feet or so] so we dove a bit more on west side of Gam Island with 75-100’ viz. Long day to The Passage included full lunch and fresh water shower at a homestay location. We dove The Passage at slack tide [nice] as it might have been a bit of a roller coaster with some of the currents we had. Also snorkeled in mangroves- very interesting cardinal fish. Overall some current, but manageable without reef hooks for the most part except at manta sites. Surface intervals on deserted islands or other piers with water/ juice/ tea/ fruit/ breads. Photo room on pier had lots of chargers, compressed air and lots of table space. On boat had cushioned dry box for cameras. Staff good with camera management. After dive you dip suits into water with disinfectant [Detol] then hang, staff manages BCs and regs. Weights a mix of # and kg- a bit confusing. Dive team run by Ross, a Brit with phenomenal eyesight for tiny stuff who is leaving for a liveaboard in April. Other dive guides variable in their spotting or interaction [or English]. Site briefings on pier before we left were sometimes not followed. Dives included sharks [reef and wobbegongs, and an epaulette shark under the dining room nearly every night], reef and oceanic mantas, turtles but no dugong [very rare]. Cuttlefish/ squid on many dives. Smaller stuff included multiple types of pygmy seahorses, many mantis shrimp, orangutan crabs and hairy squat lobsters, skeleton shrimp and tons of nudis. And tons of schooling fish both big [napoleon wrasses and barracuda] and small [coral obscured by glassfish/ cardinal fish/ anthias]. It felt like there were ‘rivers of fish’ underwater at many sites. We did not see any ghost or robust pipefish, blue ring or mimic octopus. Mandarin fish dive off pier had mild current, but I did see 2-3 small ones [2cm] crawling on the rocks. Snorkeling in area is really very good, and there was a group of 5 Americans before us who only snorkeled [and had their own boat- no interference from divers!]. They went to The Passage as well and had a good time. Snorkeling off the pier looked really good as well. Each pondok has steps to the water so that at high tide you can snorkel right from your room.
Websites	Papua Explorers
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Indonesia, Fiji, PNG, Hawaii
Closest Airport	SOQ	Getting There	Garuda
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, rainy, cloudy	Seas	calm, currents
Water Temp	80-82°F / 27-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	30-100 Ft/ 9-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	[Unspecified]
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	Squadrons
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	[None]

Report currently has 1 Helpful vote

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Dive Review of Papua Explorers in Indonesia/Raja Ampat

Papua Explorers: "10 great days in Raja Ampat", Mar, 2015,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Papua Explorers in
Indonesia/Raja Ampat