Ken Hou & Pioneer Divers charter with Mona Lisa
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In Ken's own words below:
Komodo Dive Trip 2005
This is my 3rd trip to Komodo islands Indonesia, last 2 trips on 2003 and 2004
was organized by myself via Tauch Terminal Live aboard Bali; by M/V Mermaid I &
II, both times cruise were sailed started from Tulamben Bali, took 8 days 7
nights to complete the trip. This trip is different from the past, we flew
Merpati air from Bali to Bima Sumbawa, though the cruise will last only 5 days 4
nights but we will concentrate our diving around Komodo islands, skipping the
long journey to cross Lombok and western sumbawa, we will miss Moyo island but
honestly speaking it is actually a better idea from my experience, essence of
the best diving are located around Komodo islands. On top of this arrangement,
we have Graham Abbott on board as dive master, Dr. Perry Kuo was introduce to
this legendary person by William Tan, Graham runs Diving 4 Images based in Bali,
specialized in finding marine critters for underwater camera lovers, his
professional service attracts photographers from all over the world, Perry spent
5 days in Bali with Graham last winter, proven his brilliant reputation as a
underwater photo guide, thus they plan this trip to Komodo………so; here I will
begin my journal, allow your imagination to travel with me.
02/27/2005 – Arrive Bali by Eva air, smooth flight and check in to comfortable
hotel arranged by Graham, group members(7 of us) were all exited about this
trip, this is a “Photo Dive” to Komodo!!!
02/27/2005 – Get up 7 am, after a nice B/fast, we are transfer to airport,
Graham organized all luggage check in for all, nice and easy, we took off on
time 09:45 am, 70 minutes flight by twin engine plane, we landed Bima, very hot
and dry (35 C), boat owner Mr. Etienne greeted us on arrival, we did a little
shopping for extra fruit from local market before boarding Mona Lisa, she’s a
sail/motor boat, 37 meters long and 8 meters wide at the center, it’s slim
wooden hull, long masks, looks just like them Spanish pirate ship, this is
everyone’s first time experience on a sail boat, we are all exited about it.
Our plan is to do 2 dives today, so we all get on with setting up cameras and
dive gears, after a quick lunch, we are all suit up and ready to plunge in the
sea………….Ooops! Don’t forget the briefing;
First dive -
“Copy Cat” is a black sandy coral garden, gentle slope with mild current. Graham
guide us started from 3 meters to 8 meters sandy area, where he slowly work his
way forward, first critter found was a very beautiful pink soft coral crab
“Dendronepthya Crab”, perfect disguise is almost impossible to see! Then I
spotted a gorgonian crab, nice but a little small for my Olympus C5050 digit
cam. Then we saw different kinds of nudibranch, a triple fin goby sits on a
transparent blue tunicates guarding it’s off springs, nice picture. Then I saw
the crowd concentrate at the bottom of the reef, Hey! Doesn’t any one ring the
surprise bell any more?? I got closer and realized they are shooting a sea
horse, well, not a very rare animal but this is the cleanest one I ever saw,
crystal clear eyes with innocent face, it humbly bow so low that I have to get
down equally to capture a shot! I took at least 15 shots to get around the soft
coral branches. Towards the end there were tons of leafy scorpion scattered by
the sponges, we were all happy with the warm up dive.
Second dive – (Night dive)
Near by Sangeang island, “Bontoh Reef” located right in front of a local
village, our little tender slowly glide into the dark, I heard Graham was
instructing direction to the boat man in Indonesian language, I was amazed how
he doesn’t get disorient without a single land mark or light source; I search
around and saw Graham was looking down to a GPS device for navigation, Wow! This
guy is serious about his work, he drop us down to an exact spot he wanted.
Another sandy slope with thicker coral growth, existing current takes more extra
effort to steady among fragile corals, immediately I felt the frenzy of photo
shooting in the dark, strobes blinking here and there, battery recharging sounds
simply set everyone’s blood to boiling peak! Graham and assistant dive master
Yan has certain magic locating Boxer Crab, we saw total of 5 pieces!!! Many
nudibranch were sighted, crinoid shrimps and crabs were so exposed we don’t need
help finding them, the highlight tonight was a huge Spanish dancer with a couple
of Emperor shrimps, hard to find a good angle when both host and dwellers are
very energetic tonight! Yan pointed out several Palamonid shrimps hidden in
cracks, work around coral branches and obstacles are already a killing, they are
very shy to focus light, finding the best angle is almost impossible……….well,
this is where the fun is I supposed! Ha! Ha!
02/28/2005 Komodo Dragon Tour
Early in the morning, we arrive Komodo island, everyone is up and ready to go to
the park and see the Dangerous animal – Komodo dragon, a giant lizard known to
be deadly with just one bite, it’s most toxic saliva which obtain more than 20
bacterias will leave it’s prey wonder away and died with in few hours.
But……..this is a well visit national park, so these dragons were told not to
bother human and very well behaved in front of cameras, I have been there twice,
so I stay in the boat to catch up my journal. An hour later the crowd return,
from the loud speech and laughter I am sure they have satisfy their curiosity,
and many shots of dragons were taken. They are exited to see Komodo dragons
happily basking on the beach, some say they were smiling?!?!?!!
3rd dive – “W - Reef” or “Three sisters”
Located at Padar island, I was shock by the dramatic change of water
temperature, it drops down to 23 degree form the charming 27 degree yesterday. 3
pinnacles rise from the bottom of 30 meters, full of soft , hard corals and rich
marine life, I was using Perry’s macro camera – Nikon F 100 with 60 mm lens, it
can approach very close to the target, I attempted to get a close up shot with a
yellow eye brows Blennie, sticking it’s cute face out of a abandon worm cage
covers with beautiful orange tunicate, not an easy task with a shy one again,
then we encounter pretty strong current crossing the channel to the next
pinnacle, exercise help to warm up my chilled hands & fingers, Graham signal me
a couple of emperor shrimps on a huge sea cucumber, very nice view but didn’t
find rarity critters, during the 5 meters safety stop, 2 big triple fin goby
happy to be my models before ending the dive.
4th dive – “Cannibal Rock”
My mission for this dive is to photo 2 zebra crabs on fire urchin, Graham said
this dive sites has better possibility……..well, we will see!!
Still craving for a hood, this dive would have been perfect if the water
temperature is 2 degrees higher; visibility was down to only 6 meters, quite
normal in this area, coral growth is so rich that everyone was going all
direction, I glide down to 30 meters where a huge coral tree with potential
needle shrimp may be present; nope! But I found 4 long nose hawk fishes deep in
the branches, try to capture one but not much luck, Graham was waiting for me on
the side, he waved at me to follow him, not much finding, about 8 minutes later,
I heard Graham banging the tank like the kitchen is on fire, couldn’t tell where
the sound was coming from, I follow my instinct to go against current, I was
right!! Graham pointed few feet away where Mr. Liu and his wife are down on the
sea bed working on some thing, I swim closer, in distance I saw they are
flipping a fire urchin………Bingo! Wow………2 big clean zebra crabs running around the
urchin, I waited my turn patiently. Try to level 2 crabs to get focus on both is
a painful experience, I stay there until deco warning start beeping, on the way
up to the reef, Perry was gazing at a fat grey frog fish, waiting for it to move
up for a wide angle shot……I assist him by waving water to it’s tail, finally it
moved…….we were all waiting for it’s next stop………and waiting……waiting. WOW!!!
Our baby landed right on top of a sea apple, we both scream to the regulators,
don’t move!!! Perry started shooting like films are free, I was simply happy to
see the whole act, couldn’t do a thing with my 60 mm lens!!! I am sure this
photo is the only one in the world. Totally gifted, frogfish embracing sea
apple. At 3 meters stop, I spotted a blennie sticking it’s head out from the
burrow, blue head, white face with pink cheeks, very cute little animal, busy
cleaning his home, I used my last 3 shots on it.
5th & 6th dive – Torpedo Alley
This is a muck dive, Graham survey this site very well, sandy slope seems to be
deserted at first, but as we slowly move towards the bottom, critters were found
all over sea bed. Red and white Ghost pipe fish, all sorts of decorated crabs,
snail, nudibranch shrimps and crabs easily spotted on gorgonians, sea pens, soft
corals and even among sea grass. We saw many soft coral decorated crabs (Hydroid
crab), it is rare in most dive site we visited, but very common here. Sea pen is
very well scattered on the sea bed, blue, purple, white, brown, and most of them
has dweller like crabs and shrimps. During night dive, Graham showed us Torpedo
ray, very special; dive site is named after this animal. A one meter grey bamboo
shark circle around us for a while, then several napoleon snake eel appears on
the shallow reef, finally I was attracted by a pink shrimp on a purple sea
cucumber before surface, a wonderful and exiting dive!!!
03/01/2005
7th dive – Cannibal rock
Dive site name has a interesting story, when first team of people surveying this
area, they saw a Komodo dragon strolling from the beach into the bush, curiously
they follow the dragon all the way to the top of the hill, surprisingly they saw
herd of dragons, one baby dragon was struggling out of an adult’s mouth, Komodo
dragon CAN eat it’s own kind!!! Thus they name this place the “Cannibal rock”.
This morning we decided to do one more dive here before moving the boat, shiny
morning with super calm sea, more like a lake dive…….we all gear up and slide in
the pleasant blue. Temperature is warmer today, visibility is better, around 10
meters, immediately we saw the same grey frog fish and the sea apple, Perry
added few more wide angle shots, then a couple close up on it’s fat face.
Massive quantity of fusilier school, damsel, and big eye snapper. I am still
digging for macro shots, getting more practice on Nikon F 100 + 60 mm lens.
Zebra crabs on fire urchin found again, Graham show us a very unusual sea star,
very colorful of red and yellow stripes, an emperor shrimp and a tiny decorated
crab was just on top side for nice portraits. Up on the reef where we do the
safety stop, Graham found a very pretty nudibranch, everyone gets a chance to
take tons of shots before surfacing.
8th dive – “Yellow Wall”
Just at the mouth of horse shoe bay, about half of mile, Graham suggest pygmy
sea horse, but 35 meters depth is not very promising to most of us, we prefer to
stay longer to shoot macro. Mr. Liu & his wife were the only team went to see
pygmies, they wonder how Graham knows where they are exactly?? Perry and I
slowly follow the drop off seascape, looking for suitable wide angle shots. Wall
is full of soft corals in combination of colors and rocks covered with
tubastraea, very active fish life, a little one eye sea turtle wonder by, thick
algae cover the shell, and left rear leg was half bitten off………poor little
fellow. We went too far ahead towards the mouth where the reef top was not that
pretty due to constant surf strikes. Too far to swim back to the bay, we signal
each other to surface. Not so many shots were taken this dive.
9th dive – “Manta Alley”
We travel further to the south east of Komodo island, Graham decided time to
switch from macro to wide angle lens, after 2 hours of sailing, Mona Lisa took
us to Manta Alley, Graham hop in the water on snorkel to check the water
condition; he return to the boat to get every one’s attention of existing strong
current, we all need to stay close to the reef and follow dive master at all
time. Water was cold, first half of the dive was 23 degree, then it drops
dramatically to 21 after passing a channel, but visibility increase from 6
meters to 18 meters!!! We were all happy to see clear water after 2 days of
macro concentration.
Then it was the highlight of the show, manta started appearing at the top near
the surface, one……..two…….four……..WOW!!! Some came too close that we can’t take
a shot of the whole fish!
Graham claimed Perry should have one shot with 5 mantas in it!!! Let’s see when
we get home……..
We saw massive activity of fish life, emperor, sweet lips, jacks, groupers, huge
anthias covering the reef…..just about all reef fish that you can imagine. We
were all happy to shoot lots and lots of wide angle photos! Excellent
dive……….but, remember to bring my hood and vest next time!
10th dive – “Spanish Garden”
Night dive plan encounter a bit of drama, Graham stared at his GPS and announced
he has never experienced such a strong current that with full thrust “Mona Lisa”
is moving only one nautical mile per hour!!! After consulting with the Captain,
we decided to turn west Komodo and head on this little bay for night dive. After
arriving our new destination, Graham jump in the water to check the environment,
he had never been to this site before, this will be an explorer dive to all! 15
minutes later, we are told to gear up, surprisingly the water is warmer here,
first critter found as soon as we submerged was a huge Spanish dancer, nice and
bright red and white with an emperor shrimp was quite a good start, very clear
visibility, shallow depth 6 ~ 8 meters, white sand with patches of coral reef, I
wonder away testing my luck, in a distance I spotted a tiny particle hovering
half meter above a rock, size of a dice, I thought it was some fish waste
floating, then it swims away from my flash light……I got closer to check on it,
Hey Hay Hay!!! It’s a Bobtail squid, tiny little baby spurt a tear drop quantity
of ink on me, Ha! I look up and saw Perry, I signal him to come over, we were
both exited to see it the first time on this trip, it tried to dig in to the
sand, I sort of asking him to come out a few time with my chopstick, Perry took
at least 6 shots before we invite other to share my prey. With much confidence I
started to look closer into the reefs………all of the sudden, a cold current
rushing to us, then it gets colder and colder; I look at computer, it drops one
degree every minute; I thought it probably just me but my head started to hurt
from the chill; I started to ascent to 4 meters where warmer layer last time I
check the temperature before Perry run in to me and signal to give up; it was
down to 21 degree!!! I am more than happy to end the dive.
11th dive – Sanyeang island “Magic wall”
Chien Hsuei! Chien Hsuei! 7 am Graham yelled to the cabins in Mandarin Chinese,
Diving! Diving! Getting everyone up to start the day, nice and warm day with
blue sky, we have arrive Sanyeang island where the beautiful volcano is the land
mark of gate way to Komodo, opposite side is Sumbawa again, over night non stop
sailing, Mona Lisa has taken us away for Komodo, we are heading back to Bima. We
will do 3 dives today, every one is getting ready to give it all we got, fresh
batteries, new films, greased up our weapons……prepare to battle!! First dive at
magic wall, very welcoming warm tropical water finally, beautiful 25 degree is
just perfect for slow macro survey. This is a wonderful site, we hardly need
help from dive masters, critters are all over the sea bed, rocks, walls………we
were all over the site, everyone was busy with their own findings, total up we
saw: Clown frog fish, side by side with a nudibranch, a pair of green leaf fish,
Piacchiu nudibranch, ghost pipe fish on yellow crynoid, worms of different
colors, soft coral crab………etc; I can’t keep up with all the sharing, indeed a
“Magic” dive!!
12th dive - “Bontoh Reef”
Due to strong current, we were not able to dive again at Magic Wall; so we
proceed to Bontoh Reef, I was beautiful site seeing with clear visibility but
not many rare critters found here, Perry found a soft coral crab again, I saw 4
different kinds of nudibranch, 2 octopus and orangutan spider crab on bubble
corals. Relax and easy dive for all of us, at 3 meters sandy bottom is a huge
field of stag horn corals with plenty of reef fishes, very pleasant dive site.
13th dive – “Bantoh Muck
This is our last dive of the Komodo trip, we are all satisfy about the images
collection so far, so this is a bonus dive, but…….it turn out to be one of the
best dive!! We were dropped at very shallow sandy slope, black sand with no
coral or rocks what so ever, very much like Lembeh’s Hair Ball of North
Sulawesi; 2 minutes later we saw a blue sea pen with pink goby and shrimp on it,
then Graham show up and signal 2 manta??? Or Ray??? Some thing with wings
flopping, I follow him towards the shallow, right there on the sandy bottom, 2
huge sting rays each with at least one meter width, one was a bit annoyed with
our presence, the other one simply freeze, seems like sleeping…….even when we
were all surrounded flashing strobes like lightening, it just won’t moved,
perfect model! Then we found a series of broken coral and rocks, quite active
marine mixture concentration, we saw magnificent varieties of nudibranch,
Blennies, morris idol, groupers…………I took more then 80 shots just in that 30
square meters of broken reef, only 3 ~ 4 meters depth and sweet 27 degree
temperature !!! I wish to stay longer, my watch shows bottom time of 65 minutes,
and our tender boat is right above me waiting…….OK))) I said to myself, I will
be back again, and Graham is the only choice of dive master.
Back on Mona Lisa, every one started to pack while staff was so nice to help
washing our BCD & regulator, the crowd never stop screaming to report their
findings, we were all very happy of this trip. Mona Lisa is not a fancy boat,
but it’s perfect for small group of photo lovers, very much like our home, we
hardly see the crew when they are not needed, and I have to really recommend is
the food, I am so sure our cook must have trained by an European chef, we have
different menu every day, and it’s the BEST cooking I ever tasted in any live
aboard I have been, big tips has to go to his pocket!
This Komodo trip is the best one of my 3 times experience, I love to take my
friends and club members here in near future, I have a wonderful experience,
sincere gratitude to Perry, Graham and Mona Lisa.
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