Dive Review of Eco Divers/White Sands Beach Resort Lembeh in
Indonesia

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Eco Divers/White Sands Beach Resort Lembeh: "Great Week of Muck Diving", Aug, 2023, by Claire Rausch, HI, US ( Reviewer 3 reports with 3 Helpful votes). Report 12755 has 1 Helpful vote.
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Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	My dive buddy and I had been reading about the muck diving of Lembeh and viewing photos/videos from this part of the world for years and decided to take the plunge on this dive trip. Our 18 hour Philippine airlines flight through Manila into Denpasar was uneventful and after clearing Indonesian customs we overnighted at Asta House, a small, but adequate place near the airport. Our Lion Air Flight into Manado the next day had been changed to an evening departure a month prior to our trip (changed from 2:30PM departure to 18:30) allowing for notification to White Sands Resort who kindly accommodated our late night arrival. I was disappointed that we would be arriving after dark, but our driver meet us at the airport as arranged and whisked us the hour and a half across the island per the impressive toll road to Bitung. Given the late hour the driver didn't fall asleep, thank goodness, and we were dropped off in the dark at an unlit pier in Bitung where the boat to White Sands awaited. Seems Bitung port is pretty quiet at night which was lucky for us as for our crossing to Lembeh Island one of the staff with a flashlight stood on the front of the boat serving as the boat's running light for the uneventful 1/2 hour crossing to the resort. The jetty for our arrival and for diving was located in a little bay on the backside of the resort. We’d finally arrived alive and ready for our muck diving experience! The staff carried our bags up and down a small hill which separated the jetty and the nearby located generator from the rest of the resort (eliminating noise of tanks being filled.) We were shown to our very nicely appointed and comfortable cottages to get settled in. Also, we were advised that we should put our dive gear into crates placed on the front porch/lanai in anticipation of diving the next day, what time breakfast would be served, and what we could anticipate for the diving routine the next day. After a great night’s sleep we awoke the next morning opening the cottage's room darkening curtains to reveal the beautiful view of the white sand beach and Lembeh Straits outside our floor to ceiling windows. We took the sidewalk path to the open-air restaurant where Susan, the gracious and competent manager, got our check-in paperwork completed. We ordered breakfast (choice of eggs, rice, pancakes, French toast, cereal, fruits and fruit juices, toast, coffee, teas – usual offerings) while admiring the tropical mural of Hornbills on the side of a building next to the restaurant, the nearby pool, and once again, the views of the beach and the Strait offshore – what a beautiful place! Well fortified from the great breakfast we grabbed our underwater camera gear and headed up over the hill to the jetty to meet our dive guide for the week, Rikko, who had a great eye for the small, weird and unusual stuff frequenting the underwater environment which I would’ve missed if not for his sharp eyes. The visibility was reduced at many of the sites we dove over the next week and a person definitely needed to keep their fins off the mucky bottom or risk making it worse irritating the other divers and photographers – it was definitely muck diving, but worth it! As this was Indonesia with a port city nearby, we’d anticipated some of the dive sites being pretty trashy, but this seemed to be the perfect home for tons of different kinds of rare and unusual flora and fauna and was fantastic! We saw so many different kinds of Nudibranchs and tunicates that I’d only seen in books before, a variety of octopi (coconut, blue-ringed, mimic, wonderpus), frogfishes including a hairy frogfish, scorpion fishes including a hairy Rhinopias, devil fishes, leaf fishes, lots of different shrimps (harlequin, Donald duck, Crinoid, imperator, peacock mantis) and varieties of crabs, pipe fishes (so many ornate ghost pipe fishes that they became commonplace after awhile), seahorses, cuttlefishes, including flamboyant cuttlefishes, bobtail squids, eels (sand eels, ribbon eels, etc.), flatworms, banggai cardinal fishes, sea moths, flying gurnards, blue spotted stingrays, juvenile and adult oriental SweetLips, coral catfish herds, an electric clam, and lots of different types of shells. It was wonderful for macro photography/videography if you could overlook the trash and the reduced visibility. My dive buddy, who normally does not like to go back to the same place twice, enthusiastically said, “I’d come back here again!” We were very happy with what we saw and photographed/videoed during our Lembeh muck diving adventure! The dive boat staff were professional and attentive to the divers wants and needs. Although their website notes a boat capacity of 12 divers maximum and four divers to one guide maximum there were usually only six to eight divers on our boat, and only once did we encounter having the 4 divers to 1 guide ratio during our week of diving with Eco Divers. The boat deck inside was a little slippery when wet, which was most of the time. A marine head flushable from a bucket of seawater was available and additionally a fresh water dip tank on the boat was available for camera/lighting and dive computer equipment which were all handled respectfully. Nitrox was readily available along with a 15 liter scuba tank when requested. Back rolls off the side of the boat were the norm and upon returning a easily manageable step ladder was hanging off the side of the boat with staff assisting as needed. The dive boat staff would set up dive gear and analyze gas mix with those diving with nitrox upon departure from the jetty. I soon realized that double checking my dive gear myself was a good idea after one dive where I was underweighted. I am fussy about drying and securing the dust cover on the first stage of my regulator myself, but otherwise the staff took care of changing, rinsing and storing dive gear. Despite the 77 -79 degree F (25-26 degree C) water temps I wore a 3/2mm wetsuit over a 1mm wetsuit and a long-sleeved rash-guard top with leggings (I hate getting chilled underwater) which I would rinse and dry myself in my cottage shower as I dislike getting back into a cold, wet wetsuit. Dive sites were usually a short boat ride from the resort or occasionally longer if heading to a site north in the Strait; the waters were usually calm to a slight chop. Currents at the dive sites were usually minimal. The shade covering on the boat was much appreciated as we only had one or two partly cloudy days. Tide changes in this part of the world are noticeable; some afternoons during our week there the reef out in front of the resort would be very exposed with locals, kids and dogs out on it, otherwise these tide changes affected our diving with only slight visibility and/or slight current changes being noticeable. We did not avail ourselves of any snorkeling opportunities on the reef in front of the resort so I cannot comment on the reef’s health. The regular dive day consisted of two dives in the morning, then back to the resort for a late lunch buffet with a choice of a couple of different entrees. Then an afternoon dive for those of us addicted to diving/underwater photography/videography and wanting to get the most out of each dive day. Night dives off the boat were a special treat for those hardy, energetic divers who couldn’t get enough with the three daytime dives, and like usual, the trashier the site the more weird and wonderful the creatures we’d find. Wine, beer or cocktails were available in the late afternoon/evening from the Blue Ray Bar at the restaurant. Dinner entrees could be ordered off the menu and were of sufficient quantity and variety for my tastes although my buddy noted he felt the food offerings were overwhelmingly slanted towards Indonesian types of food. We enjoyed these evening cocktail hour times for meeting, talking to and reviewing special photos from the day’s dives with some of the other resort guests who were from Europe and the States. The resort had a well-equipped camera room which we didn’t use. While we were there another wall mural of Tarsiers and Macaques in a tropical forest was being painted on the wall of the camera room by a couple of Indonesian artists who we were told were internationally known for their wall murals. These two artists also applied the finishing touches to the wall mural of the Hornbills near the restaurant which we thought was pretty spectacular already. My buddy and I were Impressed by their talent and the resulting murals added a nice touch to White Sands Resort. As noted previously in this report the cottages at the resort were very comfortable and well appointed with a hot and cold fresh water dispenser and room darkening floor to ceiling curtains. A negative to this curtain set-up in my cottage was that the track and the attachments for these curtains weren’t conducive to the easy opening and closing of them; my buddy noted he didn’t have this problem in his cottage. There were adequate outlets for electrical items and recharging of batteries although I always carry a converter device and Type EF plug adapters for Indonesia. The porch/or lanai of the cottage was an especially wonderful place for relaxing while reviewing photos and enjoying the sunset. Another cottage feature I especially liked was the open air shower in the bathroom of my cottage. At night I could enjoy looking up to see the stars and the waning moon. One morning I found a 7 -8 cm green katydid in my bathroom which stayed around for three days. The next morning some kind of yellow-breasted small bird fly in and out of the open air shower area as I was brushing my teeth, maybe looking for a katydid to eat. Weird and wonderful creatures we’d find above and below the water. Overall White Sands Beach Resort was a great place where I would’ve enjoyed staying longer. Diving with Eco Divers was a great muck diving experience well worth the time and expense involved with getting there. I’d definitely do it again!
Websites	Eco Divers White Sands Beach Resort Lembeh
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	Hawaii, Fiji, Palau, Marshall Islands, Pohphei, Kosrae, Saipan, Rota, Tinian, Guam, Egypt, Philippine Islands, Bali, Komodo Nat'l Park, Borneo
Closest Airport	Manado	Getting There	Fly to Jakarta or Denpasar, Bali. Then fly onto Manado on Lion Air, Batik Air or Garuda, but watch for changes in flight times. Some flights transit Makassar, but avoid if you can. Resort will arrange a driver to meet you at Manado airport for transfer to Bitung and the boat to White Sands Beach Resort.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, dry	Seas	calm, choppy, no currents
Water Temp	77-80°F / 25-27°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	20-40 Ft/ 6-12 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	Follow Dive Guide - No Decompression Diving
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	1 or 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish	N/A
Large Pelagics	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	A fresh water dip tank on the boat was available for camera/lighting equipment only. The resort had a well-equipped camera room with individual cubbies and compressed air for drying equipment.

Report currently has 1 Helpful vote

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Dive Review of Eco Divers/White Sands Beach Resort Lembeh in Indonesia

Eco Divers/White Sands Beach Resort Lembeh: "Great Week of Muck Diving", Aug, 2023,

Photos Submitted with this Report

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 Eco Divers/White Sands Beach Resort Lembeh in
Indonesia