MANADO 2011

Where's that? You ask.

Indonesia - North Sulawesi

Still don't know where that is. Not to worry, all you need to know is that we had a BLAST!

This is where I say a big Thank You too all of our 24 intrepid Dolphin divers who joined myself (Amanda) and Emma on a fantastic holiday.

THE DIVING

With 6 days of diving 3 dives a day and occasionally more (early morning and night dives were available for those that wanted more) with clear blue water and a temperature of 27 degrees. Most of our dives were either wall dives which were generally also drift dives, and a little bit of muck diving (think The Coombe sand bottom with 20 metre viz). With such a difference between the types of dives we did we got to see everything big and small.

Turtles were a plenty and so were the Lionfish, a frog fish the size of a thumb nail and Pygmy Seahorses were not the smallest creatures we saw. The Lembah Sea dragon wasn't easy to spot, imagine something the length of half of your little finger and as thin as a thread of cotton, like I said not easy to see.

THE GUIDES

This is where our dive guides from Tasik Divers excelled at finding those things we never could. They looked after us both underwater and above, you didn't even have to turn your wetsuit the right way round, they did everything for you. They were a great laugh and kept us entertained through out the days.

THE RESORT

Was great, the meals were a mixture of Indonesian and western food all tasting delicious! And the service... absolutely brilliant! The rooms were large with everything you needed on hand including an urn of cold drinking water topped up fresh every day. The spa was used by everyone, keeping them busy with lots of repeat business. The pool and pool bar was the place to wind down and cool down at the end of the day unless we were at the Jetty bar having a cold drink and watching the sun set.

MEMORIES

The only thing with holidays, especially great ones is that they have to come to and end. Everyone on the trip will go away with many memories that will last a life time.....like a Green and Gold wig, a fluro green Mankini (still trying to block that one out)Thanks Karl, Emma dropped a lens cap, Shane doesn't know the difference between 50 and 100 bar, Lesley forgot a mask, Ben broke a mask, Verity who won't slow down, Olivia who is in many a photo, Brigitte who has to sun bake, Linda and her dead snake, Colin who left his lens cap on his camera when he put it in the housing, hehehehe, Amanda dropped a fin (and forgot to turn air on for a night dive..Oops) Eli has a pointer so watch out Mick and many more... not forgetting the great escape from the bikie moped gang that chased us away from the haunted hotel.

If you want to get in some great diving in a warm and wonderful location with a group of fantastic people and build your own memories then check out our upcoming dive trips.

To see more photo’s from the trip go to our Manado Album on Facebook

Till next time

THANK YOU