Exotic fish and critters
SilkAir flies four times a week from Singapore to Manado. Lembeh Strait resorts are 90 minutes by car.
Year round
Lembeh Strait, North Sulawesi, Indonesia
Bastianos Resort, Lempeh (bastianos.com), Black Sand Dive Retreat (blacksanddive.com), Kasawari Lembeh Resort (kasaweri-lembeh.com), Kungkungan Bay Resort (kungkungan.com)
Go thereSign up to receive travel updates to Tandarusa, Indonesia.
Diving opportunities in Tandarusa, Indonesia are available.
By Ned DeLoach (Adapted from "passport to diving the world")
A hot spot where marine critters gather.
It's not as if Lembeh Strait needed another hot critter site, but it got one anyway - and what a kick in the britches it is. The black sand bottom begins in the shallows just off Tandarusa village and gradually slopes to 20m. As you descend, the town's litter gives way to algae patches and occasional clumps of sponge and crinoids. However unappealing the bottom is to the eye, it makes up for it with the wonderful animals that find such dreary habitats to their liking. During the half dozen dives we made at Tandarusa, we happened upon a wonderpus on the prowl, a blue ring octopus carrying a clutch of eggs under her skirt, a rare bottle-tailed squid, and that just gets us through the list of cephalopods!
(Ok enough with the stories, I'm itchin' for a dive)