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Background

South-east Asia is probably my favourite area for diving, and in particular, the amazing biodiversity means it is a top destination for underwater photography. I am particularly fond of macro critters (the small stuff) such as nudibranchs (sea slugs), shrimps, and seahorses. I had not been to Indonesia since 2013, so it was definitely time for another trip.

Why Lembeh?

Situated on a small island just off the coast of north Sulawesi, Lembeh is the original home of muck diving. It is what it sounds like, diving in amongst the typical detritus that is found underwater, often on featureless black sand slopes. Whilst it doesn’t sound like the idyllic blue water people expect from SCUBA diving, if you take your time, and slow down, then all manner of critters can be found. Frogfish of all types and sizes, seahorses as small as a grain of rice, crabs that use a stinging anemone as their home, and others that stick anemones to the ends of their claws to use as stinging boxing gloves.
Being a narrow strait near a port, the diving is characterised by rubble and black sand slopes, with some small coral bommies. At the end of the strait, there are some stunning wide-angle sites as well, with blue water and acres of coral.

Why Nusa Lembongan?

Situated just off the coast of Bali, the islands of Nusa Lembongan and the larger Nusa Penida are well known for both Manta Rays and Oceanic Sunfish (Mola mola). It’s also a bit more open, compared to staying at a single resort on Lembeh, where you get to your resort and only leave for diving or excursions. I have been to mainland Bali a couple of times in the past, and the diving was good, with a mix of good wide-angle and fantastic macro, but there are not regular opportunities on Bali for the ‘big stuff’, so the dive centres there run boats over to Lembongan and Penida.

Why a compact camera?

I used to use a fully housed Nikon D90 for my underwater photography. However, when everything was packed (camera plus backup body, lenses, housing, ports, strobes, arms, batteries) it was around 15kg in weight. I had upgraded my cameras to a D7200 and D7100, but had never upgraded the housing. So, after taking stock, I cleaned out all of my Nikon kit and moved to a Micro 4/3 setup for land photography, and went with a compact camera setup for underwater use. Camera, housing, a few wet lenses, and smaller strobes; the total size and weight is now much easier to travel with. There are occasions when I miss having a housed DSLR, but walking through airports and running the gauntlet of having to weigh my cabin bag at check-in is now not one of those times. Plus, I have gained flexibility, being able to switch between a wide-angle and a macro lens while underwater.

Getting there

You cannot fly direct to Indonesia from the UK. Initially, we flew to Bangkok with British Airways, as we were able to use Avios points and an American Express 2-4-1 voucher. Business class flights set us back only around £750 plus 100,000 Avios each. If you are UK based, then I highly recommend the British Airways American Express Premium Plus card. The primary benefit of this is that with £10,000 spend, you receive a 2-4-1 voucher for use on British Airways reward flights. This allows you to travel with a companion for the same amount of Avios as a solo traveller, or if you are travelling solo then the reward flight costs you half of the Avios it normally would. We have used the 2-4-1 in the past to get to Costa Rica, and short-haul destinations. As with many credit cards, sign-up bonuses are available.

After a few days in Bangkok, which is a great city with epic food, we flew from Bangkok to Manado via Jakarta with Garuda, the Indonesian national airline. As often happens, they messed with the flight schedule a bit, so the very early departure was turned into a mid-afternoon departure. Garuda offers a bid-to-upgrade system, so for £80 each extra, we ended up in business class. Well worth it, with a decent lounge, extra baggage allowance, better food and drink on the plane, and the sort of seat BA short-haul business flyers could only dream about (it’s a better seat than BA long-haul premium economy).

Thanks to the flight schedule change, we were forced into an overnight stop in Jakarta. From Jakarta, it is a 3hr flight to Manado. On landing in Manado, there is a trip across the island to the port, where you board a boat and head for Lembeh itself.

Getting from Lembeh to Lembongan involves a boat back to Sulawesi, a drive across the island to Manado airport, and then a direct flight to Bali. Only the 2hr direct Garuda flight was cancelled so we would have been going via Jakarta again, taking over 6hrs total, which would have meant missing a boat connection at the other end. o, Garuda was swapped for Lion Air – it was mostly direct, with just a technical stop in Makassar. On arrival at Denpasar airport in Bali, I was taken to the ‘port’ at Sanur (boats just go off the beach) and whisked across to Nusa Lembongan.

On the return we had another few days in Bangkok, mainly to gorge on good food. The food in Indonesia is good, but Thai food is a massive step up.

Accommodation

Bangkok

On previous trips to Bangkok, I have stayed in lower-end backpacker-type places. For this trip, we decided to go for a bit more luxury, which turned out to be a lot more luxurious. Staying in the Pullman I booked an executive room and was treated exceptionally well. Dedicated check-in, a complimentary happy hour in the executive lounge, and a huge room with a fantastic view, thanks to being on the 33rd floor.

Lembeh

There are a multitude of resorts in Lembeh, ranging from the very basic where you eat, sleep, and dive, to full-service resorts with fancy camera rooms, spas and massages. We went with Divers Lodge Lembeh, which is sited at the southern end of the island. As you don’t really leave the resort once there, make sure you do your research to see if the place you have chosen meets your needs. For example, this resort had 80 steps up to the room we were in as it is built into the hillside. Other resorts are more accessible if you don’t fancy 80 steps.

Lembongan

In Lembongan, the setup is a bit different. You typically get accommodation from who you like and dive with who you like. We stayed at Gecko Bungalows, which offered simple, clean and comfortable accommodation. The dive centre was Planet Nomadas, simply because they were next door to our accommodation.

The Plan

The results

Bangkok

Lembeh

Nusa Lembongan

Conclusions

Bangkok

Hot, humid, busy. Bangkok is a great city, you have the old temples and palaces mixed in with some stunning architecture. The food ranges from street food vendors selling out of a cart, to tiny little restaurants with plastic chairs, with the usual high-end options. All of it was fantastic. The boat tour of the klongs was really good, it was nice to see a very different part of Bangkok, where people still use the canals for transport.

Lembeh

The diving was good, although there seemed to be fewer critters than the last time I was there. This may just be down to seasonal variations. I found the resort to be just OK. The food was good, and the staff were great, but the owner was a bit odd. The main issue is where the resort is situated. I had underestimated just how much longer boat trips would take to the popular sites. A site such as nudi falls would be a 20-25 minute boat ride, whereas the resorts further into the strait can be there in 10 minutes or less. Some of the sites were 40+ minutes. I know it doesn’t sound like a huge issue, but when you must get back, get fed, change and charge batteries etc. then time seems to go very quickly.

Lombongan

Planet Nomadas were a disaster. They were totally disorganised, equipment went missing from the boat, and dive briefings were excessively long and condescending. The diving was OK, but as I was there for Mantas, and the weather stopped us from getting to the Manta sites, I only did one day’s diving with them. If the weather had improved, I would have gone elsewhere the next day.

Camera Equipment

Since moving away from a full-sized DSLR with housing, packing is a lot easier. I can easily fit the land camera with lenses, plus a twin-strobe underwater setup, into a normal-sized cabin bag.

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Sony RX100 Mk II

This has been the camera I use, in a suitable housing, for underwater photography since ditching the Nikons. It fits into a pocket, has a great lens, and is fully manual, which is essential for underwater use, where lighting is vastly different from above water. To use underwater, it is housed in a Sea Frog 60m housing. Lighting is provided by a pair of Inon S2000 strobes, and I use a variety of wet lenses, both macro and wide-angle.

The RX100 II can be found used, but the RX100 III is still available new at Amazon.

Olympus O-MD E-M5 Mk II

This is the camera I have shot exclusively on land since ditching my Nikon DSLR’s. I love it. 16MP sensor which is enough for what I do with my images, it’s compact, and has really nice retro styling.

This is now (2023) quite an old camera and is freely available second-hand, or the brand new OM SYSTEM OM-5 is 2 generations newer.

M.Zuiko Digital ED 40-150 mm F4-5.6

I knew I would not have a lot of call for a telephoto, but that it would be used in Tangkoko. It’s cheap, it’s plastic, it also gives a reasonable image in decent light. The 40-150 mm F4-5.6 is still available new.

Panasonic Lumix G 20mm f/1.7 ASPH

This takes up almost no room, and when mounted to the camera it barely adds to the profile. It is very compact, good in low light, and gives a really nice field of view. It’s my standard ‘walkaround’ lens and is also good for landscapes where you don’t want to go too wide. I have also found it good for panoramas. This is still available new.

M.Zuiko Digital ED 12mm f/2

I have owned and used this since I first bought into the M4/3 system. It is compact, sharp, enables easy manual focusing if you need that, and produces a lovely sharp image. The intention on this trip was to use this lens for architectural, cityscapes, or when in the confines of a temple. This lens is still available new.