Scuba Diving In Komodo Indonesia
After scuba diving in Raja Ampat in remote Indonesia two years ago, it was always my intention to return and do a similar liveaboard dive trip in Komodo so this summer I booked on the same boat The Lady Denok to dive this other region. I was happy enough with The Lady Denok that I chose them again plus they gave me a nice discount for going with them again. I also knew that this boat had two single cabins available and I ended up getting the same one as last time.
Much like with Raja Ampat, getting to Komodo is not easy as I flew from Toronto to Tokyo, then down to Jakarta before finally taking a domestic flight to Labuan Bajo hoping that my dive gear will arrive with me. Unlike flying into Sorong and getting picked up by The Lady Denok crew at the airport, I chose to arrive at this port town the night before in order to have a bit more time to recover from jet lag as well as a time cushion in case of any flight delays.
Labuan Bajo is definitely nicer than Sorong from a tourist point of view with a lovely waterfront area along with fresh seafood vendors at night which I took advantage of for dinner. This is the town where all scuba divers come to for Komodo liveaboard trips but I also noticed a lot of dive shops on the main street so there must be enough tourist divers coming here just for day trips as well. Labuan Bajo is sometimes used as a side trip from Bali for tourists who come here to see the Komodo dragons. Here’s my video on my one night in Labuan Bajo.
My dive gear did arrive in Labuan Bajo with me intact and I got picked up by the boat crew the next morning back on the familiar liveaboard boat that will be my home at sea for the next week. This time our trip had only nine guest divers which was fine by me.
Diving Conditions At Komodo
As we sailed into Komodo, I noticed that the land is not as green and lush as in Raja Ampat so not as pretty. It kind of reminded me of the land around the Red Sea in Egypt but of course not as much desert. Komodo diving has a reputation of high currents and this turned out to be correct. Although there were a few high current dives in Raja Ampat, there were more of them here in Komodo and I was glad to bring the new reef hook I bought which I did use for some dives. I did okay with the high currents but some of our divers did get thrown around a bit which understandably overwhelmed them.
I was quite surprised by the water temperatures here at Komodo. Although half of the dives were at the expected comfortable 28 degrees Celcius, the other half, notably in the southern region of Komodo, the water was quite cold with thermoclines going down to 23 C. For these dives, I had to double up on top with an extra 3 mm wetsuit top layer I brought which I intended to use for Nusa Penida when I get to Bali. I also wore my 7 mm hood that I use for local Canadian dives which I never expected in a tropical location. The extra layer definitely helped.
For the most part, the marine life in Komodo was very healthy with lots of fish and turtles. We also had awesome manta dives and four night dives. As for comparing Komodo with Raja Ampat, I would say that the overall marine life diversity as well as sheer numbers would have Raja Ampat with a slight edge over Komodo. But Komodo perhaps has a better chance of seeing mantas. Komodo had its share of big fish schools too but in my observation Raja Ampat just had more. Komodo is still a great dive destination that was better than both Sipidan in Malaysia and Mafia Island in Tanzania, the past two dive trips I went to before this one.
The Lady Denok Liveaboard
Since this was my second time on The Lady Denok, I was already familiar with them and was quite happy using them again. The scuba diving operation was great as was the boat crew. My single cabin was comfortable enough and the food was good too maybe except for overcooking many of the meat dishes which was the same thing on my first trip with them. But this time our final dinner was set up and served on the top deck of the boat which was a nice touch to finish off the trip. I would totally recommend using this mid ranged priced liveaboard boat for both Raja Ampat and Komodo trips. In fact I would consider booking with them a third time to return to Raja Ampat in the future to dive the Misool area which was missed on my first Raja Ampat trip.
In addition to Raja Ampat and now Komodo, I did liveaboard trips to Galapagos Islands and Sipidan even though Sipidan was really a pseudo liveaboard being a dive rig out at sea rather than a moving boat. I quite like this way of dive travel as I don’t have to worry about accommodations and meals but maybe the most important factor for me choosing to stay on a boat rather than on land for dive trips is that there are no mosquitoes out at sea to bother me! I’m going to try and book another liveaboard for a future dive trip to Thailand hopefully next year.
Here is my video on Komodo scuba diving where I show you some of the marine life I saw as well as interviews with some of my fellow divers from this trip about Komodo. Hope you enjoy watching it especially for the manta rays shown in this video.
Next I’ll show you a bit from the land excursions of the Komodo region including a visit with the Komodo dragons which The Lady Denok had set up for us.
