It's annual holidays in China (happens twice a year) and this year, we planned early enough that we could have our choice of dive destinations we hadn't yet visited. The short list included: Fiji, Manado/Lembeh, Sipadan, Palau, and the Philippines (again). The only criteria was that we needed to be able to use award miles. Fiji and Palau just didn't have good connections and we were pretty indifferent to Manado/Lembeh or Mabul/Sipadan. Both are renowned for muck diving, which is finding bizarre, tiny aquatic creatures in silty or black sand.
I found award tickets to Jakarta via Singapore and then we purchased domestic tickets to complete the trip to Manado. There are about 10 resorts in the area, all that essentially package accommodations, full board, and diving (either 2 or 3 boat dives a day). We settled on NAD, which seemed like a reasonable price but with nice bungalows. Simon, the owner, was very responsive and we got a 7 nt package with upgraded bungalow, full board, and 2 dives per day (and unlimited house reef diving) for around 800 USD total. Like I said, very reasonable.
We had a midnight flight out of Shanghai. Sarah and I had both been so busy that we didn't have a good chance to pack and we threw everything together in about half an hour and jetted to the airport at about 9:30pm. It was 24 hrs later before we finally arrived at our destination.
Our first leg was to Singapore via Singapore Airlines, my favorite airline. Uneventful 4-5 hrs – I napped a bit. Then we were in Singapore for about 3 hours waiting for our hop to Jakarta. Of course Sarah made a beeline for the La Perla shop. I took care of a few work emails and then did the male La Perla equivalent and hung out at one of the many technology/photo/audio/computer shops in the airport. Singapore is truly a nation of geeks, but I'm thankful for that. I picked up a wireless signal repeater that you supposedly can just plug in to increase the strength of the signal. From experience, wireless signals don't go very far in resorts and I can't count the number of times I've literally dangled my laptop out of a window or been crouched in some courtyard getting bitten by mosquitoes to take that IP call or get that important email out. It was only $70 too, so if it works, will be money well spent.
We got onto the Jakarta flight, also on SQ, and landed in Jakarta a couple hours later. First step was getting a visa on arrival (most countries can do this). This was painless and quick and cost USD 25 per person. We paid in RMB, which was a bad idea because the exchange rate was much worse. I always forget that the international arrivals terminal is quite a way from the domestic terminals. You have to go upstairs and then take a taxi or free yellow shuttle bus (better) to T1 or T2 (starting from T3 Intl). The transit easily takes about 30 min, so it's good to leave plenty of time. We were lugging a good amount of dive equipment, but still made it under the weight limit. For future info, the check-in limit is 20kg per person. If you're traveling together, the limit can be combined. We came in at about 34kg. We had another 3 hrs to kill and first hit the ATM (usually a good idea to do this in Jakarta because a lot of the smaller places don't have ATMs or they are not the right network). We found ATMs that would take Unionpay and also a Citibank. Actually, in Manado we also saw several ATMs at the airport, but not sure if they would have worked.
My experience with flights from Jakarta is that they are usually late and this time was no exception. We were about an hour late. One nice thing is that a middle-aged distinguished man stopped us and introduced himself out of the blue at the terminal. Asked us where we were from and told us that he had lived in the US for a little bit. Turned out he had been in San Bernadino, which is not a big county, and near LA. I was surprised to find out that San Bernadino is a sort of community heartland for immigrants to the US from Manado! Youke works in public health and we exchanged info. Genuinely nice guy.
The flight was fine though Sarah remarked that the seats were more cramped than any flight she's taken in a long time. Being a budget airline, food and drinks are not provided but can be purchased. It was a 3-4 hr flight, and by the time we touched down, we were pretty tired and hungry. Manado was a small airport, and the thing which stood out the most was that there were touts and taxi drivers everywhere. Worth getting someone right away to drive the other touts from swarming you. We found our driver from the resort and were on our way. The drive from Manado to Bintang was about an hour through tiny roads where we were continuously swerving to dodge roadside traffic. But the van was really comfy and we just fell asleep. Arrived at the port, transferred onto a boat and took another 20-30 min to arrive at the resort. So glad that we did not decide to stay in the town (which you can do for cheap, diving during the days). It was quiet once we left the port.
Zee and Surge met us and greeted us by name as we stepped off the boat, which was a nice gracious touch. We dropped our bags and were invited to have dinner and a welcome drink right away which was great. The first impression of NAD, our home for the next week, was a quiet haven, well-kept, with most activities centered around a homey, but open eating and community lodge area. There are little housing units on the ground floor, steps from the eating area, and then three bungalows about 50m away. Our bungalow was really nice. Not glamorous or mint-on-the-pillows luxurious, but clean, dry, attractive, big firm bed, working & quiet A/C, and a bathroom that didn't stink and had actual working hot water instead of the cold water in a basin ("mandi") that I was used to in Indonesia. Really the perfect type of place that Sarah and I like.
I was ready to crash, but had a bunch of work stuff like payments, customers, and a paid webinar, etc I had to take care of, and with the poor wireless Internet coverage (we're on the edge), it took about 5 hrs before I could sleep and got about 3 hrs before I was up for our first full day.
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