The diving in the Indian Ocean is vast, diverse, colorful, big and small. I feel like I have only touched the surface of what the Indian Ocean has to offer for diving.
- Indonesia
- Maldives
- Southern – the south is known for big pelagic marine life. The best way to see this area is via a Live-Aboard.
Lembeh
I have travelled to Lembeh, Indonesia a couple of times and the reason why I keep returning is the dark, black sand is perfect background for macro photography. Both times I traveled to Lembeh, I stayed and dove with NAD Resort.
NAD Resort is top notch. It has 15 rooms – 10 are beach front rooms, and 5 are bungalows. The restaurant is buffet style with a variety of delicious food – you will not go hungry.
For diving, they have a 1:2 Dive Guide to Diver ratio and a great camera room where you have your own space to work on your camera gear.
Tulamben
Tulamben, Indonesia is known for its muck diving. with the majority of the diving occurring around 80 feet. To say things are tiny here is an understatement. The dive guide was consistently showing me marine life that was ½ the size of a grain of rice. It pushed my macro photography skills to the limits, but I did capture some fantastic, beautiful shots of tiny marine life.
I stayed at the Villa Markisa. Most of the rooms are large, separate bungalows with an outdoor bathroom and shower. All of the food- breakfast, lunch, and dinner – were delicious. While I was there many of the guests had stayed multiple times and were staying multiple weeks, which is a good indicator of the quality of the resort.
Maldives
The Maldives is divided into 3 regions – Northern, Central, and Southern. I have visited the Maldives once and I explored the southern part via a 2-week liveaboard on the Emperor Serenity. I have dove on many liveaboards, and this boat has the largest bedroom and bathroom I have ever seen. It is also the only boat where it required its divers to have logged 100+ dives to book.
I chose the Maldives because I heard so much about the marine life and the Southern Maldives fit the timing of when I wanted to go. The Southern Maldives are known for big pelagics – numerous Shark species, Manta Rays, etc. – and it was amazing; however, I found the diving a little repetitive for my taste (lots and lot of deep channel dives). Based on feedback from the other divers, I still want to explore the northern and central Maldives and those areas remain on my bucket list.
