yopi is good....
Manado - SDQ and Bastiano
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yopi is good....
Just back from bastianos lembeh. terrific diving with lots of critters spotted by our eagle eyed guides. food was nice but sometimes not enough. local staff were very nice and accomadating. same cannot be said about the german resort manager. our group had numerous clashes with him and he was actually 'scolding' us guests. imagine that.
will elaborate more later tonight.
will elaborate more later tonight.
diediealsomustdive
Senior Member
My stay at Bakri Cono was very pleasant. Lady boss and the resort manager were very friendly, and evening dinners are like having a meal with your friend.
Diving was great too. Highly recommended.
Diving was great too. Highly recommended.
this is roughly what happened... I've been to manado/lembeh for the past 2 years and dive time has never been an issue. But with this resort manager, it apparently is. our first day of diving went well with dives ranging in the 70-80 min range. Anyway he came to our dive briefing the next day and 'reminded' us to stick to the 'house rule' of 60 min dive or at least close to that?
The next day of diving was great with one guy in our group running low on air and returning to the surface with about 20bar. He came to us again on another dive briefing with a tank to show us how empty that tank was, how it was taking longer than usual to fill up the tanks and how nearly empty tanks might damage our first stage and flood into his tanks. after that he proceeded to lecture us on safety and how much it costs to go to the recompression chamber on manado. generally a very superior kind of attitude and not friendly at all.
but the ultimate came the following day when one of our divers cum instructor had to do a long decompression due to a malfunctioning dive com. (basically the computer was adding time to his decompression obligations even at 3-5m) as a result we had to send another tank down for him to complete his decom which was 30+ min.
our dear resort manager who is in a habit of checking tanks (but not the o-rings cos we had incidents of missing o-rings), found out about our group using the spare tank on the boat. he was so 'concerned' that he took one of the resort boats to where we were diving subsequently to confront us and demanding an explanation, assuming it's our fault and assuming (wrongly) that our diver did an in-water decompression. he proceeded to question the credentials of the instructor, threaten to ban us from diving without refund if our dives ever exceeded 60 min again. (which was pretty silly because i don't think he could ever risk carrying out his threat)
Well after that incident, he didn't come and talk to us and any messeges were passed from our dive guides or the staff. Of course there were various other little things he did which showed our group how petty he was. (checking the dive guides computers to make sure they came up after 45 min for example) He wasn't even there to send us off from the resort when we left. basically i don't know what kind of resort manager he is, but he just fails totally in his main job which is making the customers happy. the local staff does such a better job in making our stay there a comfortable and enjoyable one.
The next day of diving was great with one guy in our group running low on air and returning to the surface with about 20bar. He came to us again on another dive briefing with a tank to show us how empty that tank was, how it was taking longer than usual to fill up the tanks and how nearly empty tanks might damage our first stage and flood into his tanks. after that he proceeded to lecture us on safety and how much it costs to go to the recompression chamber on manado. generally a very superior kind of attitude and not friendly at all.
but the ultimate came the following day when one of our divers cum instructor had to do a long decompression due to a malfunctioning dive com. (basically the computer was adding time to his decompression obligations even at 3-5m) as a result we had to send another tank down for him to complete his decom which was 30+ min.
our dear resort manager who is in a habit of checking tanks (but not the o-rings cos we had incidents of missing o-rings), found out about our group using the spare tank on the boat. he was so 'concerned' that he took one of the resort boats to where we were diving subsequently to confront us and demanding an explanation, assuming it's our fault and assuming (wrongly) that our diver did an in-water decompression. he proceeded to question the credentials of the instructor, threaten to ban us from diving without refund if our dives ever exceeded 60 min again. (which was pretty silly because i don't think he could ever risk carrying out his threat)
Well after that incident, he didn't come and talk to us and any messeges were passed from our dive guides or the staff. Of course there were various other little things he did which showed our group how petty he was. (checking the dive guides computers to make sure they came up after 45 min for example) He wasn't even there to send us off from the resort when we left. basically i don't know what kind of resort manager he is, but he just fails totally in his main job which is making the customers happy. the local staff does such a better job in making our stay there a comfortable and enjoyable one.
oh yea the dive sites. hairball is a must. if you're shooting be prepared to be overloaded with subjects. over the course of 3 dives there, this is what we saw: hairy frogfish (brownish one as well as a black one at 5m near a fire urchin patch), thorny seahorse, white frogfish that's starting to turn hairy, yellow striated frogfish, small painted frogfish that's white, mimic octopus, 2 ambon scorpionfish, orang utan crabs, coconut octopus. all this on just one dive!
air perang is another must for the 2 rhinopias there. both @ 20+ m in murky waters though, there's 2 giant frogfish there too, one black and one yellow.
another must is a night dive. we did ours at makewide. we say pygmy cuttlefish, ornate ghost pipefish (one adult and one juvenile), 2 giant black frogfish, veined octopus, juvenile cockatoo waspfish, bob-tail squid.
air perang is another must for the 2 rhinopias there. both @ 20+ m in murky waters though, there's 2 giant frogfish there too, one black and one yellow.
another must is a night dive. we did ours at makewide. we say pygmy cuttlefish, ornate ghost pipefish (one adult and one juvenile), 2 giant black frogfish, veined octopus, juvenile cockatoo waspfish, bob-tail squid.
dun worry about him, maybe if you tell him you're singaporeans, he'll be scared of the trouble we caused him and he'll just go and hide somewhere (which is what he did most of the time anyway).
the guides there are excellent and pretty experienced. buy some ciggies for the guides and some whiskey for the last night and you'll have a great time there. send my regards to john and bobby if they're your guides. just mention us as the group (60 min/ 30 bar) ;p
Hi everyone, i'm spanking new here but i felt compelled to register just to air my views on the bastianos resort manager.
i think we all tried to give him the benefit of the doubt and for the intial clashes with him, we backed down, smiled and did our best to comply to the best of our abilities (i.e. ending our dives earlier, checking our air more frequently) but i think he really crossed the line when he started checking our tanks (and as howeikwok has mentioned, NOT o-rings) and threatening to ban us.
Many times he jumped to conclusions without first gathering the facts or finding out what really happened (e.g. when he confronted us at our dive site). I dunno why he's like that but our topmost priorities were our guides, Bobby and John.
Basically, if I ever return to Bastianos Lembeh, it would be because of our fantabulous guides and the warm and friendly staff (minus resort manager, of course)
Sigh.. it would really have been a perfect trip if this guy wasn't so... critical? judgemental? biased? rude? overinflated?
i think we all tried to give him the benefit of the doubt and for the intial clashes with him, we backed down, smiled and did our best to comply to the best of our abilities (i.e. ending our dives earlier, checking our air more frequently) but i think he really crossed the line when he started checking our tanks (and as howeikwok has mentioned, NOT o-rings) and threatening to ban us.
Many times he jumped to conclusions without first gathering the facts or finding out what really happened (e.g. when he confronted us at our dive site). I dunno why he's like that but our topmost priorities were our guides, Bobby and John.
Basically, if I ever return to Bastianos Lembeh, it would be because of our fantabulous guides and the warm and friendly staff (minus resort manager, of course)
Sigh.. it would really have been a perfect trip if this guy wasn't so... critical? judgemental? biased? rude? overinflated?
hi tongeh, i think silkair is the only way out...
when are you flying there? i got my tickets for silkair for $301 all in, 2 to go on economy class. you might want to check the 'promos' section on the silkair website.
good luck!
edit: YOU'RE IN LUCK! http://www.silkair.com/mbe/en_UK/content/promotions/sin_mdc_GV2hotdeals.jsp
only $218, 2 to go. dammit!
when are you flying there? i got my tickets for silkair for $301 all in, 2 to go on economy class. you might want to check the 'promos' section on the silkair website.
good luck!
edit: YOU'RE IN LUCK! http://www.silkair.com/mbe/en_UK/content/promotions/sin_mdc_GV2hotdeals.jsp
only $218, 2 to go. dammit!
Thousands of appreciations for ur kind post here. Im going to book now! Im so happy..haha!
I will be going on the 30dec to 3jan.
cool! i'll be there 13-18. probly wearing a white-based boardshorts with damn obiang flowers plastered all over them. if it's not too cold...
((=
see you there!
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