tiens, ce que j en avais ecrit a l epoque, ce st en anglais, desole...
ca date de 2003, les prix ont change...
Banda Islands,
Banda Neira is the main town where you arrive with the pelni).
In Neira, many guesthouses for about 25000rps a night, including breakfast:
Vitta and Matahari have sea view, but are near the market.
Delfika has no sea view, but a
nice small garden.
Rosmina and the one next door are 5-10 minutes outside from the town and are a bit cheaper (25000 rps with breakfast and dinner), but some friends that i had send to Rosmina complained about the bill and the suddenly inflated price, so make
things clear!
Other accommodations are available in Ai Island, 1 hour away from
Banda Neira,
at Losmen Revenge for example (
nice food,
nice people), and there's another one as well.
There are many villages in
Banda Besar where there will be always a room for you.
Same in Run and Hatta islands if you wish to stay there.
Note that neither
Banda Neira nor Ai have bungalows right on the beach.
There are only rooms in houses away from the beach.
There's actually a guesthouse on the beach in Pisang
Island (sometimes called Syaril Island), they want an overpriced 100000 rps including all meals, but i guess it's negotiable...
Banda islands are amongst the best places in the country as they didn't bomb too much and as there are still plenty of fish that start to be hard to see elsewhere, like napoleons for example.
Around
Banda Neira there are some snorkeling spots, like Malole beach, or the area near the air strip, but nothing fabulous.
On Pisang Island, the coral is very
nice on the side where the bungalows are, but no drop off.
On the other side, the coral is not as
nice, but there's a drop off.
Local boats go rarely there so you may have to charter (around 50-60000 rps, ask around the market).
On Ai Island (that you can reach by public boat every day from the market for 5000 rps),
the best spot is at Pasir Panjang (long beach),
ask Tchotcho the owner of Revenge to bring you there.
Pick up a day where there's a strong current, go at the far end of the beach and make an unforgettable drift snorkeling above the
nice corals of the plateau along the drop off:
you will see heaps of sharks, barracudas, napoleons etc...
but beware if there are big waves!
There are other spots around the island, quite
good as well, one is at a beach near the village, Tchotcho will show you.
On Run Island (70000 rps with a small "ketingting" boat, if there are waves, sensations guaranteed!!!), when you arrive, don't bother to snorkel on the front side between Run and Neilaka as the coral has been bombed. Go instead on the back side, the drop off is said to be
nice (i could unfortunately not check it due to big waves).
On Gunung Api Island, there are 2 lava flows where corals have grown (Karang baru), there are not many fish, but the corals are very
nice, especially on the 2 nd flow (huge table corals).
There's a 3 rd lava flow on the southern side of the island, but don't loose your time there, there's not much to see.
On Keraka Island (crab island), the good side is the one which faces
Banda Neira. It's not spectacular, but when you make a trip to Gunung Api you can stop there on the way back. At the side which faces Gunung Api, there's nothing. It's not far from
Banda Neira, so actually you can paddle to go there if you feel like it, but don't do it during the wavy season!! You can also charter from Neira's market to both islands for about 30000 rps.
On Big
Banda (
Banda Besar), the good snorkeling is on the back of the island. Many spots are reachable by public boat first, and then by a short walk to the other side. It includes: Batu Indang beach (you will se a big rock with few trees in the middle of the sea), I swam only on the right side of the rock and it was fine, then if you keep on swimming it gets a bit destroyed, then it's good again. To reach there, take a boat (1500 rps) from the market to either Spancabi or Waling villages, then walk to
Tutra village, and then ask for Batu Indang. Another spot is at the beach behind Lonthor, same story, take a public boat for 1500 rps to Lonthor, then walk. Actually there are plenty of spots behind Big
Banda, it seems that there's a reef all along the island...
To go to some other places around Big
Banda you may have to charter as public boats don't go everywhere.
If you do so, it should cost between 70 and 100000 rps depending on how far you go behind the island.
There's a drop off that is supposed to be
nice just before you pass the cape on the strait between Pisang Island and
Banda Besar (i could not check it myself, the waves were too big).
Then, you pass the cape, turn around the island and arrive on the other side where there's a spot called Selamon.
The corals are not the best but they are still intact and there's a lot of big fish along the drop off.
Then, if you keep on swimming you will see an alternance of good spots and destroyed spots, until you reach Cornoval that is a really
nice one (it's a bit before
Tanjung Cengkeh): very
nice corals along a drop off and as almost verywhere in the Bandas you will see tons of big fish, napoleons, turtles, etc... but Cornoval is a bit far from Selamon, so, if you are lazy, or if you don't feel like swimming too much, ask
your boat driver to give you a rope and to pull you there!
To Hatta Island it costs 200000 rps with a fisherman boat, but it's worth the money:
the coral in front of both villages is really
nice, and so is the marine life along the drop off. According to the locals there's an atoll nearby, but you need a very calm sea to snorkel it, which was not the case when i was there.
dans tous les cas, les banda c est plus local que
bunaken, moins touristique meme si t es de loin pas le 1 er a y aller, plus beau au niveau paysages, mieux au niveau snorkeling et moins cher pour sur!!
par contre pour la plongee bouteille ce st un peu galere mais faisable quand meme.
dis moi si tu veux des infos a ce sujet...
...
.
! effectivement, j'avais pu lire dans un de tes textes que la vie sur les pelni n'avait pas l'air rose...)
! Merci encore !N.