Trip Review: Maluku Divers

I recently had the opportunity to dive with Maluku Divers in Ambon, Indonesia. Located on the eastern end of the Indonesian chain, close to the island of New Guinea it is about 16-18 hours flying time from the Pacific Coast; A long time in an airline seat but worth the trip.

Maluku Divers Resort is just a 10-minute ride from the airport, and a Maluku Diver’s car and driver contacted us immediately on deplaning from our Boeing 737-400 Lion Air flight. On arriving at the resort we were greeted by Emily and Joe, the managers for the operation. Emily sat with us as she explained the “Whats” and “Hows” of the resort. In the meantime the staff had moved all of our luggage and gear into our simple, neat airy and very comfortable bungalow, one of just ten in the resort.

Maluku is obviously designed and built for divers. After a quick lunch in the nicely appointed dining area, we wasted no time in grabbing gear and heading down for the afternoon dive. Boarding of the vessels (Maluku Divers has three vessels – two 10-meter craft and one 8-meter boat, all sporting twin outboards and heavy duty dive ladders) requires wading out in shallow water and climbing the dive ladder to board. All SCUBA and photo gear is carried out by dive staff and carefully placed aboard. Your gear (photo & SCUBA) is tagged with your name so there is no confusion or mix-ups as I have experienced in some other dive operations.

Cindy and I were blessed on this trip to have drawn Samuel the resort’s senior Dive Master as our guide. With over 20-years’ experience in local waters and one of the original dive guides at Lembeh, Samuel would show us a wide variety of creatures we had never seen before. Our initial check-out was actually on the east end of the House Reef – probably a one minute boat ride to the site. Once buoyancy was adjusted, Samuel began pointing out some of the myriad critters that call Ambon home. Cuttlefish, shrimp, pipefish, ghost pipefish scorpion fish and a couple varieties of octopus were all seen on the first jump and the numbers, diversity and variety of creatures just got larger and better through the rest of our visit.

On returning to the resort landing area I began to appreciate how well the resort is designed to accommodate underwater photographers. Our cameras were the first items the crew carried ashore from the boat. All cameras are placed in heavily padded, insulated coolers (provided by the resort for the duration of your stay) and carried up to the rinse tank area. Four large, deep tanks are available with frequent changes of water. While our gear soaked, we stepped to the other side of rinse tank area where there are freshwater showers, soap, gear drying facilities and personal gear boxes assigned to each diver. After a freshwater rinse and hanging our wetsuit and booties to dry, we had to decide whether to work on our cameras in the nearby camera room or in our bungalow. The camera room has about a dozen work stations that include high intensity spotlights for close up inspection of O-rings, multiple electrical outlets, work pads and towels along with trays to hold additional batteries and cords. But if we wanted, we could do our camera work in our bungalow as each unit has two large work areas with multiple outlets and lights.

After that first day, we dropped into Maluku’s daily dive schedule: Grab breakfast at 07:00 (limited by very adequate choices – omelets, egg scrambles, cereals, or more local cuisine such as noodles or fried rice with an egg topper and of course delicious local fruit), check cameras and suit up for an 08:30 departure for the two morning dives. Back in around Noon-ish, dunk camera gear, shower off, lunch (wonderful soups and different entrees everyday) change cards and batteries in cameras, suit up and be ready to load on the boats at 15:00 for the afternoon dive. For those who wanted (and we did) it was easy to schedule an additional evening or night dive as well. Dinner was at 19:00-ish and was cheerfully adjusted to accommodate those of us who did the later dives.

For all the positive aspects of the resort I do have a couple of issues. The first has to do with getting on and off the boats. Depending on the tide, sometimes it is a bit harder to access the boats or return to the shore due to the cobble and larger rocks that span along the beach. This isn’t a big deal, but it does, on some tides require a bit of caution. The second issue isn’t specifically a resort issue, but a national issue. It has to do with the amount of trash – particularly plastics – that find their way into Indonesia’s local waters. Though I never saw excessive amounts on the resort’s seafront on some tides, looking across Ambon Bay immense, wide swaths of plastic and debris were plainly evident. On speaking with the resort managers about the issue, they mentioned how Maluku Divers work with the local villages to curtail stream and ocean dumping, but even with local support, it is a problem that will require national muscle to address this issue.

That said, the staff and crews at Maluku from the managers to the cleaning folks are very accommodating and in many cases anticipatory of their visitor’s needs. If you are a diver looking for pristine waters and huge, blooming reefs, Ambon is not really for you. If you are a macro photographer looking to find tons of rare, amazing creatures, Maluku Divers will make you a very happy camper. Like they say in their literature – “Creatures without Crowds.”

Captain Patrick Smith

FIJI – MATAVA ECO RESORT, Kadavu

I have to say that I wasn’t quite sure what to expect on my first visit to Fiji. Described as an eco-resort, Matava’s staff had been very fast, informative and helpful in arranging the visit but even with web information about Fiji, Kadavu and Matava, I still wasn’t sure what to expect except for some pretty exciting diving.

The island of Kadavu lies a short distance south of Fiji’s main island, Veti Levu. After a quick flight from the international airport at Nandi we landed at Kadavu and were greeted by friendly Matava staff members who gathered our gear and got us down to the local wharf where we boarded one of the Matava boats for the half-hour run to the resort. The resort can only be accessed by water or by foot trails. But the fact you are not in a recreational, urban resort does not mean there is a lack of amenities. As we were to see.

Warmly greeted at Matava’s landing by George and Mr. Maggie, the staff quickly carried our baggage up to the Honeymoon bure. The bures or cottages are built traditional Fijian style. Matava’s are large, simple and airy with solar lighting and hot water, attached deck with magnificent views of the lagoon waters and Great Astrolabe reef and each placed for privacy. If you are looking for AC, TV, room service and fancy, you might be a lot happier at a different resort. However if you appreciate nature close at hand and serious efforts made to reduce a carbon footprint impact with lush foliage at every turn and beautiful diving at your door step, Matava will fit you like a Lycra skin.

The food at Matava was amazing! The call to breakfast and dinner was by the pounding of the lali – the traditional Fijian slit-drum. If you ask and have a modicum of rhythm, you may have the opportunity to drum the resort to dinner. The food is nearly all grown or produced at the resort. Fresh greens, vegetables and fruit are standard with every meal and the cooks created mouth-watering meals in traditional Fijian style as well as international dishes and it was impossible to choose one meal over another; they were all delicious. Also, the soups that were served with lunch everyday were absolutely the best I have ever tasted anywhere!

While we were there we were treated to several kava ceremonies and an impromptu sing along with participants from two of the nearby villages. The kava ceremonies were a very quickly acquired taste, and the singing of the locals was just beautiful. We really had the feeling that we were among life-long friends at these warm, wonderful events.

As for the diving, again Matava far exceeded my expectations – and I had high expectations. The 75-mile long Great Astrolabe Reef embraces such diverse terrain and sea life it is difficult to know where to begin. Sharks, mantas, barracuda, wrasse, jack, corals, soft and hard, Tridacna clams, court-sized areas blanketed with huge colorful anemones along with their guardian Clown fish – sufficed to say the diving is magnificent. Visibility ranged from 40 to 100 feet and water temp was quite comfortable in a 3mm suit.

Would we go again? In a heartbeat! The work and effort made by owners Richard Akhtar and Adrian Watt on this eco-treasure is plain to see and wonderful to experience. They and their staff’s pride in their service to guests and the resort itself make a visit to Matava a truly marvelous experience. It is an experience that will call you back again and again.
Patrick Smith

My dive buddy and I recently had the opportunity to return to Fiji, so we had some idea of the dive conditions we could expect but were looking forward with anticipation to the accommodations at Paradise Taveuni.
Come on. A place called Paradise would be perfect, right? Well...
ACCOMMODATIONS: Our bure was beautiful, neat and clean. It came with a grotto-like outdoor shower and spa - the shower was great and romantic. The spa never worked. For a couple with romance as the highest priority I would give this and big, solid "A". For those of us who appreciate romance but are serious divers, the bure could have used a small desk area with good seating and lighting for writing log books or working on some piece of dive or camera equipment. Let me hasten to add that here is a nice area for working and servicing your UW camera attached to the main lodge. There is a double sink camera rinse area just outside the camera room which is nice if there are just two divers. It was something to be negotiated when there were more than two UW photogs returning from an outing. In the camera room there are outlets (240V) and lights at each station and the stations are well laid out and easy to work at. The downer is that although the area has an air conditioner, it was anemic at best and we often found ourselves wiping beads of sweat before they fell in our open housings and exposed cameras equipment .
Food at Paradise was pretty bland with an unvarying menu (at least for the week we were there). Portions were such that the bag of salted nuts we kept in the bottom of the travel bag for those airport layover emergencies was pretty well depleted by weeks end. One evening the staff created a four course dinner that was quite good, but for our stay, it was a one-of event.
DIVING: In coming to Taveuni, we were quite excited by the prospect of diving Rainbow Reef. The hype and accolades for the site are easily found on any web search. We were well aware that many sites in Fiji are current controlled - that is that at higher current conditions you'll find much better representation of soft corals than at slack tides. But the Dive Masters need to judge the currents carefully so as to experience the best of the soft corals and yet not blow away less experienced divers. It is often a difficult act to handle successfully. The good news is we never lost a diver, the bad is that we never caught Rainbow Reef at its best. Sites like Fish Factory, Rainbow's End, Freeway, Christine's Garden and Great White Wall were interesting, but well below the color and diversity of Bligh Water sites we had dived previously - OK but not breath-taking as often described in the advertising literature. The one site that was interesting was Mini-Cabbage Patch. Very interesting coral structure and fish life made this a site we would have done more than once.
Coastal sites along Taveuni were a disappointment - Vanu Reef, Tabua and Coral Garden really were not worth the air to dive them. On one of the trips across the Soma Soma Strait, we came upon a pod of sleeping Pilot Whales but were not allowed to snorkel so we could not take any UW images of the beautiful critters. Actually, we had an immense amount of fun diving the house reef and drop-off. Close, easy, good species diversity (Blue-ribbon morays, leaf scorpion fish, lion fish, puffers, big anemones and the requisite clown fish, octopus and Tridacna clams) and amazing dusk dives kept us pretty happy. A night dive on our own would have been nice, but there were no unguided night dives allowed. The one we went on we were moved along with the herd of newbies and the experience garnered an extra charge.
STAFF: First, the dive staff - first rate and willing to bend over backwards to help the guests - A-1! They do the very best with the site they have.
The room staff - the ladies who tended our bure everyday were excellent - fastidious and inventive. We would return from dives with welcome messages written in flower petals on the floor- quite nice.
The wait staff needed nearly daily reminders regarding certain things (i.e. no bread or flour foods) Had the resort been packed with hoards of people I could understand there might be some confusion, but a full house was not the issue while we were there.
AMENITIES: As we were there for the diving we didn't take advantage of most of the amenities that are available to guests, but we did do an hour massage with banana wrap finish that was quite awesome - I would definitely recommend experiencing it.

Prior to my trip to Scuba Club Cozumel I had heard rave reviews from several buddies who had made multiple trips to SCC. They descriptions had set the bar pretty high so I was expecting an amazing experience and I wasn't disappointed.
Our room was spacious and lovely and with more than adequate space for two photographers to lay out and prepare their equipment and charge batteries. Food at Scuba Club was very good. Mornings were a buffet affair with enough diversity and quantity to satisfy most any taste and the served to order dinners were quite excellent.

But food was not the reason we came to SCC - it was for the diving and again we were not disappointed. Like most dive facilities in the area the reefs at Palancar and the drop-offs to the north are the usual dive locations and they are just amazing with a diversity of critters to keep an UW photog very happy. For nearly all of our dives we enjoyed minimum visibility of 50+ feet, often very much more and water temp of 82°. Palancar Caves and Palancar Bricks were favorites as was Punta Tunich, the wreck of the C-53 and Paradise Reef. Sea horses, morays, eagle rays, barracuda, turtles, grouper and more made every dive something to savor.

We had weather one day that kept the dive boats at the dock and we spent the day very happily diving the House Reef in the rain. Primarily for the macro shooter, the House Reef is amazing enough to be a first choice and not just a fallback dive. Take the time to cruise the warm, shallow waters and discover the myriad creatures willing to have their pictures taken.

So, to sum up, Scuba Club Cozumel is a quality diver's resort. I stress the diver part of that. Though there is a pool and non-divers can certainly find enough to stay entertained, SCC is primarily a resort for divers and many hold the view that is is THE best dive resort in Cozumel and with the experience we had, I certainly wouldn't argue with that point of view.