by Francoise Giacalone

There’s no doubt that that it’s far, far away from New York City. For us, the trip started with an eight hour flight to Frankfurt, followed by a 2 ½ hour layover, followed by a 12 hour flight to Singapore. We stopped there for two days to catch up and enjoy a bit of that city. Then it’s a 3 ½ hour flight from Singapore to Manado, Sulawesi, followed by a 1 ½ hour van ride through the port city of Bitung and finally to Kungkungan Bay. (Making the journey without stopping for anything but layovers takes about 35 hours.) By the time we’d arrived, we’d gained a much better understanding of just what it means to travel to the other side of the planet.

Kungkungan Bay Resort was our home for the next ten days. While once a five star resort, the place was definitely in need of some TLC when we were there in February 2004. Because of a severe decline in tourism, a good portion of the staff had been let go. Those remaining were, however, gracious and eager to please. The food was plentiful and tasty, served on demand. And to be fair, new management had just arrived, so things may have changed since our visit. Then again, one wonders: the new manager was convinced her home was haunted. But that was not a problem. The helpful staff arranged an exorcism to rid the place of its unwelcome specter.

Kungkungan Bay, in the Lembeh Straits, is not a destination for those seeking beautiful coral scenes, schools of colorful reef fish, or current adrenaline while surrounded by swirling big stuff. This is no marine park, it’s a heavily trafficked shipping channel. What Kungkungan does offer is the opportunity to see a large assortment of some of the oddest, the rarest and most unusual inhabitants of the sea. Most of the dive sites are fairly featureless black sand flats, occasional patch coral, rocks – and an array of human debris. It’s easy to get lost, and it’s hard to spot those elusive creatures. So the key to great diving and amazing underwater photographs is making sure you go out with the right guide, and that there are no more than four or so divers per boat.

This is muck diving heaven! Conditions for underwater photography are generally good, and the dives tend to be shallow, allowing for lots of bottom time. The drill consists of swimming very slowly, eyes glued to the bottom. Every so often, something stirs or jumps or retreats. Or not. A cockatoo waspfish was spotted swaying with the surge looking like a piece of brown paper bag. At the aptly named Hairball, we saw more odd creatures than we’d ever seen before, including the striped frogfish. Every dive featured multiple species of lionfish. We saw dozen of types of nudibranchs, ranging in size from the smallest fingernail to six inch giants. There were dozens of shrimp in every color. In addition to the pygmy seahorse shown in this web site, there was also another example as small as a grain of rice. It was impossible to photograph. Colorful, vicious mantis shrimp were spotted (and avoided) on nearly every dive. There were dozens of frogfish, of several species, and in many colors. Our favorites were the bright orange examples that littered Police Pier. Blue and black ribbon eels were everywhere. And we didn’t even see everything!

There were only a few other divers while we were there, although preparations were underway for a group expected in March. The facilities are being upgraded, most notably, with the addition of a now-completed swimming pool. A tour of Bitung is easily arranged and worthwhile. We visited the fish market, the main market, a school, and a Buddhist temple.

It’s an amazing place. We thoroughly enjoyed the diving and we would not hesitate to return.