Kungkungan Bay Resort, a return in December of 2001

      There are various places in the world that are renowned as muck diving locations; I always considered Milne Bay Papua New Guinea as one of the ultimate muck diving locations, having returned there now for six live aboard diving trips. But having been to Kungkungan Bay Resort in North Sulawesi Indonesia in July of 1998, and again in July of 2001, when my trip to the Solomon Islands had logistical problems, I felt it was expedient to return to see if there were any seasonality to the wonderful weird critters that are found on a daily basis.

Getting There

      Getting to Indonesia from the United States involves traveling to one of the gateway cities of Los Angeles or San Francisco and then going on to Singapore, either directly or through another city like Taipei or Tokyo. On this trip, however, I was going to Indonesia from Fiji. This necessitated going through New Zealand in order to get to Singapore. My ultimate preference in airlines is Singapore Air, a partner of United Airlines.  As such, I opted to fly with United to LAX, Air New Zealand (recommended) to Fiji, Air Pacific to Auckland New Zealand and finally, Singapore Airlines to Singapore, and their local airline, Silkair for the remainder to Manado. One of the amenities of Singapore Airlines that I greatly appreciate is personal video "on demand"; however the meal service and personal attention is excellent as well. The administrative and operations personnel were very courteous and flights were on time. No hassles with baggage despite camera gear and dive gear totaling 180 lbs. Once in Singapore, it is a short three-hour flight via Singapore Airlines' partner Silk Air to Manado but it is likely that there will be a layover of some number of hours in Singapore because the domestic flights are not synchronized with the international flights. I chose to do an extra overnight in Singapore to get my body on the local time setting. 

      The airport in Manado is new and well organized, clean (bathrooms better than most out of the way places), and efficiently run. No hassles with customs for me, as they seem very accustomed to divers but if you bring in more than they think is appropriate to your length of time stay, you WILL be hassled. Once in Manado, there is a bumpy but interesting 1.5 hour drive to the resort. After seemingly endless travel, it was a welcome sight to see one of the staff at KBR with my name on a sign.

Kungkungan Bay Resort (KBR)

      KBR is located on the Lembeh Straits, a waterway with frequent ship and boat traffic ranging from outrigger canoes to Indonesian warships. Due to the tides, currents in the strait can be absolutely fierce but this transport of nutrients provides an environment for marine animals that is exceptional. The rise and fall of tides is clearly visible as are the currents.  The phases of the moon determine mating activities as well as current and tides so attention to this detail may be of value.

  Numerous Stargazers were observed on night dives

     The resort itself is composed of a number of cottages and "houses" that are roomy and comfortable. Since my last visit, four additional cottages have been built and all are comfortable, roomy, and pleasant.  They are centered around a central administrative center/dining room area that is well lighted, large, and able to comfortably accommodate the resort guests even when the resort is full. The dining area borders the water providing interesting views of the boat and ship traffic as well as an opportunity to feed the fish. Neither the houses and cottages nor the dining room are air conditioned, making hot days a challenge for the ceiling fans but the nights were pleasantly cool and required blankets if the ceiling fans were allowed to continue running. Power was fairly but not totally reliable. Power at the resort is 220 volts but the camera room near the dive area has both 220 volt as well as 110 volts for battery charging purposes. The camera room is large, clean, secure and able to handle more cameras than were present at the resort during my stay.  If the resort is full of photographers, camera space would be at a premium. Towels in the camera room are clean but very linty.

  Numerous Coweries of various species were found

      The resort is well laid out with living and dining accommodations for nearly thirty people. The staff at KBR is exceptionally friendly and desirous of pleasing the guests despite the fact that tipping is not allowed at the resort. On the other hand, donations of $20 or so to the "party fund" are gladly accepted and are appreciated by the staff, as the party is for all staff, including both those who deal with guests, as well as behind the scenes workers such as maids, maintenance and gardening staff.

The Diving Operation

      The diving operation uses four relatively fast boats that make travel to the 29 dive sites a matter of a 5 to15 minute boat ride. The slower dive boat accommodates 6 divers semi-comfortably (remember there are boat people and dive guides in addition to the guests) while the faster boats accommodate 8 divers. All boats are crowded at their maximum capacity but not unbearably so. All boat dives are one tank dives with a return to the resort for film changes. Shore diving is available when tides, and hence currents, allow. There is pretty good shore diving right off the boat dock. Diving is at 8:15, 11:15, 2:45, and 6 PM.

Rhinopias Frondosa has changed colors since July

      The dive operation was designed and set up by Larry Smith, a world renowned dive master of Cehili fame who has since left and moved on to the Pelagian.  I was very pleased to find that the dive operation is better even than before with superb dive guides. Nuswanto manages the day-to-day operation of the diving and it runs flawlessly.  The dive guides even learn what you can shoot with your particular camera setup and I saw one or two indicate to a guest that something was too small for their lens setup. However, the quality of the dive guides is not consistent. Some of them are incredible, while some of the newer ones, while acceptable, are not as good as the most senior guides.

      Due to the tides, currents in the Lembeh straits can be fierce; this means that there are four boat dives scheduled per day at very particular times. Most people pay for three dives per day although I personally paid for four. Since the second dive is scheduled at 11:15, a wait staff person is waiting when the boat returns to take your lunch order having it on the table about 45 minutes later.

 One of Many nudibranchs

      There is recently some level of competition for dive sites in the Lembeh Straits and occasionally a particular dive site is unavailable due to prior occupancy.  I expect that the dive operations will eventually coordinate this but for the moment there are occasional disappointments if you have your heart set on a particular dive location.

The Diving

      Water in the Lembeh Strait was mostly warm, about 82 degrees Fahrenheit, but in other seasons or occasionally at certain tides, the temperature can plunge to 76 F. Visibility at the muck diving sites is around 30 linear feet or sometimes less, and at the reef diving sites, can range from 50 feet to 80 feet. Wide-angle photography is not very feasible with rare exceptions and photography in general is difficult because the bottom is very silty. There is, quite honestly, a lot of trash in the area. If this bothers you, don't go, as it is obvious and not uncommon. Natives are not sensitive to the national treasure beneath the sea and pollute it without thought. However, much of this trash becomes potential homes for unusual animals.

 There was an abundance of pipefish including Robust, Harlequin, and the very rare Halemeda

      Some of the animals found included: Various kinds and colors of ghost Pipefish, Cockatoo Waspfish, Inimicus devil fish, all sizes, shapes, types and colors of frogfish including painted frogfish, hairy frogfish, striated frogfish, Lembeh frogfish, and clown frogfish, 50 or so different Nudibranch species, Leaf Scorpionfish, various colors, sizes, and shapes of Scorpionfish, a huge variety of lionfish including rare varieties, and various commensal shrimp and crabs. Photographic examples of the critters found are scattered throughout this trip report. I spent five dives “focusing” on Mandarin fish which are described in a separate article, “The Magical Mandarins”.

Mandarins courting just before mating (see separate article)

      Over time, my subjective opinion is that the quality and quantity of photographic subjects is diminishing. While there is hardly a dearth of subjects, they are not as numerous as 4 years ago. Dive guides are very adept at finding critters and can usually return to the same critter multiple dives in a row. While dive guides occasionally arrange critters for your photographic pleasure, they do so in a way not harmful to the animals.

And of course KBR is known for it pygmy seahorses which were observed in three different species

Land Tours

     The resort can arrange various kinds of land tours at moderate prices ($45 USD). Indonesia is safe, scenic, and has natives who are as fascinated with you as you are with them.

Weather

     In December of 2001, the weather was sunny most of the time with occasional cloudy afternoons with rain some nights. Seas in the Lembeh Strait are protected but during the dry season are normally whipped up a bit by winds but hardly to a level worth mentioning. The ultimate months to visit the KBR seem to be May through October for certain types of animal activity such as Octopus. Animal activity seems more related to lunar cycles, but some months bring interesting critters of other types based on mating cycles.

Bottom Line

     As an additional note, the management team of Kevin and Valerie Tear are excellent providing improved staff development and happiness.  And I can assure you, a happy staff creates happy guests. However, as I was leaving, Kevin and Valerie indicated that they are moving on. This leaves an uncertainty over the nature of management at the resort. Also, while not currently obvious to the guests, there are some political rumblings between the resort and the local Indonesian government. Whether this becomes a factor is not clear but it is certainly something worth watching.

     For those who have been to Papua New Guinea, I would rate the muck diving as better than PNG but similar in quality and type with even more rare and unusual critters. So you may ask, "is KBR the ultimate muck diving location"? It would be difficult to answer anything but a resounding yes. Would I go again? I sure would and have reservations made for next year!!

Emperor Shrimp on a nudibranch which is extruding an egg coil