Travel-report Sulawesi (Lembeh Strait and Bunaken national park)October 2022
After a 3-year forced break we squeezed once again into the Airbus 380 of Singapore Airlines with destination Manado. The
price for Premium Economy was outrageously high, but it is still the fastest connection to Sulawesi, at least on the way there.
On the way back there is traditionally also with the new partner Scoot a waiting time of 7 hours in Singapore. However,
the seats even in Premium Economy were very uncomfortable, relatively narrow and very hard, the
entertainment program as always very good and about the food on the plane you can discuss extensively, but the beverages have
been served as usual. However, it was very strange that on the outbound flight to Asia after 6 hours, i.e. halfway, we were
woken up for breakfast (there was nothing more). This has never happened to us in all the years with the Singapore Airlines.
We spent the first part of our trip at Solitude Lembeh Resort, which is now managed by Patrick and Anna after the Corona break.
We felt very comfortable there and were looked after very nicely. The dive center was similar organized as before at KBR. You
come back to the hotel after each dive and there is enough time for breakfast, lunch, changing clothes and charging batteries.
To our great joy we met our "old" dive guide Enal again, we did all the dives with him again. The hotel complex is similar to
the one at KBR, spacious bungalows or hotel rooms in a beautiful garden.
The well-known dive sites Jahir (house reef Solitude), Nudi Falls, Makawide, Critter Hunt and others offered also this year,
besides the many small things in the dark lava sand again and again coral reefs with an incredible variety of creatures.
Already in the first days we found Rhinopia and Hairy Frogfish, furthermore our guides Enal and Hiros showed us nearly
almost every day at least one Blue Ring Octopus. We also did a Black Water Dive again, unfortunately there were mostly floating
particles, which made it very difficult to take pictures of the animals.
After 12 days we had to say goodbye to the Lembeh Strait and were brought by car to Manado, where we took a boat to Siladen.
The whole thing was quite adventurous, because due to low tide and storm a port of refuge was approached. Here again we could
not get on at the Jetty, but had to walk a long way in the mud to the ship, we had not experienced so yet. At some point, however,
also that was done and the next day also again the Sun on the island.
Siladen is located in the heart of the famous Bunaken National Park. The Siladen Resort and Spa is located on the west side of the island and
offers picturesque sunsets with views of the Manado Tua volcano. We had again our bungalow from 2016 "Anggrek" and dived the
whole week with Anda, one of now several female dive guides.
Especially impressive were again the dives at Lekuan because of the large number of sea turtles, on one day we took part in a
day trip to Bangka Island, here we had a reunion with the beautiful soft corals.
Short conclusion: We enjoyed it very much to come back to Indonesia, country and people are very close to our hearts.
We can highly recommend both resorts, we send warm greetings to Enal, Anna, Patrick and the crew at the
Solitude and to Anda and the rest of the team at Siladen Resort.
