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PART TWO: Wakatobi dive resort – 2014
How the diving works at the Wakatobi dive resort:
Yes, we are not here at Wakatobi for the food and rest. We are here to dive! So dive we did!!
– The Waka boats (3 now) are set up to go at 7:30a.m. sharp. If you are not on it you are not going on the boat. Period! I love the no “rubber time” (Jam karat) that Indonesia is well known for. Breakfast starts at 6a.m. and you get to the boats around 7:15. You are assigned a “dive box” and a Waka boat. Your box will go on your boat unless you have “x” your name on the board for that dive or dives. All your gear is on your Waka boats. What is a “waka” boat? It is your dive boat. One of the best I have seen in the dive community. Your tanks and gear are on it. You dive off of it and it holds upwards around 16 guests. had about 12 on our boat.
Two dives in the morning. Sometimes the boat comes for a quick 10 minute visit to the resort between dive one and two. Sometimes not. You will know at the start of the day. After dive two you grab a great lunch at the restaurant and are on Waka boats at 2:15p.m. sharp or before. Don’t be late!
The boats will come back around 4:30p.m. There are only 3 dive off the boat each day.
The reefs are fabulous to dive. Sometimes current swept you away at a good speed along the wall. But most of the time you can “hide” in the crevasses and catch a few underwater shots if the current was swift. Most of the time the current was not bad and half the time there was no current at all. This was great since I brought my underwater camera to get some great pictures.
My underwater cameras:
On our Waka boat there were about four underwater photographers. I had a new and cool set up on my camera. I purchased a neat Sea&Sea housing for my Cannon DSL 100 camera. I love wide angle so I used a wide angle port. Two great strobes. i want to give a huge shout out and thank you to Andy Salmon who helped me get /find this wonderful set up! Thank you Andy!! On the top of the camera housing I did not go with another camera strobe or a video strobe. instead I mounted the Black 3plus go pro. That was sooooo cool! I took amazing video with this go pro. I also had two filters (thanks to a great American guy, who was taking a group of divers with his wife, from Cali that was on this trip to help me put the filters on the go pro on!) placed on the go pro. I had the 20 to 50 ft and the 50ft onwards on as the two filter options.
I am for sure a novice underwater photographer. I have no desire to become a pro at this. I have used a sealife camera and totally love it! It is so easy to use. I call it the plug and play of underwater photography which fits me perfectly! But I wanted to graduate from grade school and go up to junior high when it comes to underwater photography. Hence my new set up. But don’t worry, SeaLife. I have you as my back up and will be purchasing the newest two strobe SeaLife shortly since I flooded my back up SeaLife on this trip at Wakatobi.
House reef diving:
You don’t have to dive off the boats. Wakatobi has a fabulous house reef. I didn’t dive most of my afternoon dives when I stayed at the resort for 7 days. I dove the house reef a total of 8 times. Sometimes there is current. Well, most of the time there is current. But the wall house reef is awesome!
Another reason I love diving at Wakatobi:
You get to dive unlimited dives at the house reef. But also the dive masters want you to be underwater for max time. Here are some of the things they do to make your dive experience perfect:
- Yes, for sure they are all about safety first. But they always follow the current. This way you get to conserve your air. This means more bottom time and that for a diver is paramount. Deepest dive is the first dive and we always follow the computer times and safety stops. So most of my dives were between 50 to 70 minutes.
- You can also dive with Nitrox. This allows for better diving in time and keeps you from being tired at the end of the day.
- They also fit you with the dive guide that best fits your request/experience. The dive guide had no more than 4 to 5 divers and they were all good. But I had a personal dive guide so I was extremely spoiled.
- Lastly, after each dive they would ask what they could do better to make your next dive better. Basically, they were not there to hurry up with the dive. They were there to make your dive experience the best you could ever expect. And they did perfect on this!
What makes Wakatobi awesome? Everything I have shared here. But what I thought was amazing was how I felt after the dive. Here I have just dove an amazing dive. Took many pictures where I felt two of those many pictures would be worth sharing with you all. But here is the kicker. I was excited to get back to the resort. Why? Great place to take naps at the bungalow and veg and superb meals. Yes, diving was only part of the excitement at Wakatobi. The service from the Wakatobi Team from A to Z was literally, “to die for!” In fact, I said to my new found dive friends that it will be hard to go back and eat at home where I will have a choice one dish out of one dish to make. Ok, it isn’t that bad at my house but for sure I don’t have all the great choices at home that Wakatobi dive resort restaurant has. But hey, that is what dive vacations are about. Right? To get spoiled!
OK. So I have told you all how amazing Wakatobi resort is for diving, for meals, and for service. It won’t surprise you then that this great dive resort does come with a steep price then. It does!! In fact it is the most expensive dive resort that I know of in Indonesia. I would equate the price as equal to Fiji and just under the Four Seasons at the Maldives.
- Private dive guide each day is very steep. Why did I get a private dive guide? I had a new camera and they help you with it. You get personal service for all the diving you want to take from 6a.m. to 10p.m. It is well worth it! I promise!!
- Food is fabulous. Do I need to say more!
- Service is amazing! As an American I am sad to say that the service I received at Wakatobi is way better than most places in America, including non diving places.
- All in all you are waited on hand and foot and the only care you have is to keep your ears from becoming water logged.
The end:
Well, it wasn’t the end of diving for sure. But it was the end of my 7 day stay at the resort.
The first part of my 12 day stay at the Wakatobi resort came to a close too quickly. I did 15 dives and loved every one of them. Now I am off to my 5 day Wakatobi liveaboard (dive boat) and her name is “The Pelagian.”
Cheers from a very happy diver. Diving Doug
PS: Thank you all at Wakatobi dive resort in Wakatobi and in Bali for making my dive vacation one to remember for a life time!!
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