The most stress of my trip is not if a shark is going to show up or if I will get the bends, it is the airlines and if they are going to weigh my carry on roller bag full of camera gear. It weighs 30 lbs. I have no clue what my backpack weighs, but it's not light. ANA is always the worst. There is one counter agent in particular that always makes me weigh my carryon.
I looked up the ANA rules and they say: Combined weight: Up to 10 kg (22 lbs) total for your carry-on bag and personal item combined. You must be able to lift and stow the bag into the overhead compartment without assistance.
Miracle of Miracles, I didn't have to check in with ANA, my first flight was actually United. So, they didn't weigh my roller bag. Woo Hoo! I was good until the Lion Air flight.
My flights were all on time. I had the window seat on the 12+ hours long haul to Japan and then the aisle seat on the 6+ hour jag to Jakarta. It wasn't too bad and I got up a lot, watched a lot of dumb movies, read and slept.
When I landed at Jakarta International, I knew this is where I needed to haul ass. The ANA flight was scheduled to land at 11:55pm and my Batik Air flight to Manado took off at 2am in the Domestic Terminal. This sounds impossible, but I do it all the time when I go to Alor... so I was confident I could make it. The trick is that I pay for an escort. I know, it sound salacious, right? And this time I had a 60 day VISA already, so I didn't need to stop to pay for a tourist visa or stand in the line to talk to an agent. I could use the "Auto Gate"... although I have tried that before and it never works for me.
It is such a long walk from the gate to Immigration, and I am not such a fast walker. I was pushing myself and even skipped a bathroom stop (god forbid I have to stand in line). I connected to WiFi and let my escort know via WhatsApp that I was on my way. I made it to Immigration and found one of the Auto Gates. I stepped in with my Visa and it closed behind me. But it wanted my passport instead. OK. Crap, I dug that out and slapped it on the scanner. Success! The gate opened and I was poof - gone!
Then my escort was waiting for me. A slight Indonesian man holding up an iPad with my name on it. He carried my backpack and camera roller bag for me. What a treat. Then we went to baggage claim and he asked if I needed to use the restroom. OMG, this is great. Yes, please.
When I got back to the carousel, I asked if he had checked me in for my Domestic flight and he had. He even WhatsApp'ed me a screenshot of the Batik Air ticket. It wasn't much longer until my bags appeared. We loaded them onto a cart and off we went to customs. I had sent him my customs QR code already and he had it up on his phone and we were able to fly through. Then he had a taxi waiting for me and we zipped over to the Domestic Terminal.
By this time, it was 1am and I was still pretty concerned that I might not make the Batik Air flight. My escort has a secret counter he can go to in order to skip the checkin line. This is the real timesaver. We were able to have the counter agent check me in, but he complained that although I paid for excess baggage, my bags were still overweight. Oof. I had hoped they wouldn't check since my bags were being checked in so late. I pulled my ID books and a pair of sandals from the luggage and put them in my backpack and he seemed to be satisfied. Thank God I didn't have to pay more. I swear I already pay more in luggage than I do for the ticket itself!
Normally, this is where my escort says goodbye and I have to hoof it to the gate alone. This guy was awesome. He carried my backpack and roller bag for me so all I had to do was concentrate on walking fast to keep up with him. Amazing. Fifteen minutes later we arrived at the security line. I assumed he needed to say goodbye there, but he did my bags there too and met me on the other side. Then he walked me to the gate and showed the ticket on his phone so I could get through. Wow.
In Indonesia, the domestic terminals don't always have a jetway ramp to the plane. Usually, I have to go down two flights of stairs carrying my backpack and roller bag... but tonight my escort came with me. Wow! He carried both down the stairs and then there was a bus. Yup, a bus that took all the passengers from the gate to the plane. That is where the escort had to leave me.
It wasn't too bad and I just had to haul my backpack and roller bag up two flights of stairs to the plane, find my seat and a spot in the overhead. Luckily it wasn't too full, and I plopped into my seat with ten minutes to spare. I was hot and sweaty and so so tired but I made it!
On the 3 hour flight to Manado, I sucked on a lot of Werther's Original candy and finished my first book of this trip, The Calamity Club by Katherine Stockett who also wrote The Help.
My bags made it too, and l loaded them up to go look for the NAD Lembeh transport. This guy was holding a handwritten sign for me that said:
PAM PHERSON
Close enough. I went with him. He brought his little car around and I didn't even think I could fit in it, nevermind my luggage. But with two suitcases in the front seat and one in the hatchback, it worked.
I have been to Manado and NAD Lembeh before, but it was back in 2017 for muck diving. I was impressed by the improved infrastructure now and we even traveled on some very nice paved highways. It was about an hour until we reached the pier.
Then one of the dive boats came to pick me up and take me over to the resort. There have been lots of changes and I am just so excited to dive.
This was an opportunistic week of Blackwater Diving. I saw on Facebook that Linda Ianniello was doing a week here and it happened to be the week right before I dive in Alor. I looked into how much it would cost to change my Chicago to Jakarta flight and it was $5. Um, yes please! That's a no brainer.
I assumed it would be about a dozen of us, but it turns out there are only three divers officially doing this Blackwater week. And the third guy isn't going to get here on time and he has to leave early so he'll only do three nights. So I have the honor of 1:1 diving with the Godmother of Blackwater Diving this week! She literally wrote the book on Blackwater: https://blackwatercreatures.com/
I met Linda back in 2020. I feel like she is a long lost relative, so when I saw her in the amazing expansive camera room, I gave her a hug. She told me the rundown of the day. There was an afternoon dive at 2:30pm and then two Blackwater Dives starting at 6pm.
I told her I would try for the 2:30pm... but I definitely needed a shower, a meal and some sleep first.
There is another woman here, Clara from Maryland who is also Blackwater diving, but not necessarily on Linda's trip. She is a big fan of Sam Robertshaw who is the manager at NAD Lembeh and quite an accomplished photographer. I also know the owners Simon Buxton and Zehan Zuhir Buxton (she goes by Zee) from when I was here in 2017 and then when I tried to plan a Chicago SCUBA Meetup trip here in 2023. Although I had to hand that planning over to Eric because my Dad died that year - I just couldn't do it.
Simon and Zee aren't here. They are at DEMA in New Orleans hanging out with Doug and Lorenza Sloss. They are my Palau Aggressor inspirations from way back in 2003. They live in Colorado now and run a trip here to NAD every July. I want to join them someday... but I love being in Chicago in the summer too much.
I was showered and fed by 10am and laid down for a while. I set my alarm for 1pm, but I couldn't do it. I sat up in bed and couldn't move my feet. I sent a message to Linda that I wouldn't make the afternoon dive and slept until 3pm.
I then unpacked, got my dive gear ready and started the long process of getting my camera ready. This camera room is unbelievable and even has chairs to sit while we work on our setup. Super nice.
Our dive guide is Risman. He is an older guide with a quiet confidence and a really nice dive kit. I'm excited to dive with him. Oh, and it turns out that we are just doing one blackwater dive tonight. In the future we will be doing two per night.
On the dive briefing, Sam mentioned the Big Five of Blackwater Diving. I'm going to try to remember them:
- Female argonaut
- Male argonaut
- <I forget what #3 was>
- Ribbonfish
- Blanket Octopus
Sam then has his "one lucky cigarette" and then we dive. I guess this is their normal routine.
All of my gear seemed to be working fine, but Linda wasn't so lucky. One of her hoses was leaking and they had to swap out a gage for her. She still got to dive though!
I was so happy to be in the water. Blackwater in particular. I finally feel like I have all the right gear to do it. Linda and I are sharing Risman who pointed out a few great things for me. That's pretty cool. Three different kind of snakes/eels although the two bigger ones were impossible to photograph. Two beautiful squid that just hung around in the water column.
So there were just five of us diving in two teams... Risman/Linda/Pam and then Sam/Clara. I feel so spoiled.
The critter action was pretty quiet though. Sam made the comment after the dive that this was a battery-saver. He didn't even turn on his camera the whole dive. What!?!? That's crazy. He was also excited to watch his football (soccer) team Leeds play so he was ready to get back to the resort. (It looks like they won against the Spurs.)
Dinner was still going when we returned, so I took a quick shower and ate a super nice meal of many different small entrees. Even with the long nap, I could barely keep my eyes open when I crawled into bed. I didn't even look through all my pictures.
Here are some of my images with before/after Chat GPT:
Shovel-Head Worm - Polychaeta
This little guy was my buddy, hiding out between my strobe arms as cover.
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