Bunaken
Bunaken National Marine Park is off the coast of North Sulawesi, Indonesia.
Understand
Bunaken is one of Indonesia's most famous dive sites, and it draws scuba divers from all over the world. In addition to Bunaken itself, a rather featureless banana-shaped island, the national park includes the neighboring islands of Manado Tua, a distinctive cone-shaped extinct volcano, Siladen and Montehagen.
History
Landscape
The park is famed for the clarity of its water (35m visibility is common in the summer dry season), the abundance of coral and fish, and for the precipitous cliffs at some sites. Bunaken Timur, right off the east coast of the island and featuring all of the above, is according to some the best dive site in all Indonesia.
Flora and fauna
Except for the very largest pelagics, nearly everything can be found at Bunaken. Reef inhabitants include white and black tip reef sharks, giant sea turtles, napoleonfish and dugongs.
Climate
Bunaken is barely a degree above the equator and thus tropical. The winter season brings frequent rains, sometimes in storms lasting for several days, which make the air nice and cool but also reduce visibility. The high season is thus the dry summer season from June to August, when temperatures climb to 35° but visibility reaches a maximum.
Get in
Bunaken is about 45-60 minutes by boat from Manado. Most resorts will arrange transfers from the airport for their guests. Alternatively, a public boat leaves daily except Sunday at 2 PM, or you can charter a boat anytime.
Fees/Permits
As of 2006, entry to the park costs either Rp 50,000/day (US$5) or Rp 150,000/year (US$15), usually paid at your lodgings. As proof of payment, you will receive a plastic tag that must be carried at all times; it is waterproof and can be attached to your diving gear.
Get around
Muddy paths connect the various settlements around the Bunaken. Many are effectively impassable after rain. Watch out if walking along the coastline, as the beach may disappear when the high tide rolls in.
See
Absolutely nothing. Unless they're really into sun-tanning, non-divers will be bouncing off the walls within a few days.
Do
The thing to do in Bunaken is dive, dive and dive! However, the steep walls and occasionally strong, rapidly changing currents mean that many sites cater more to the intermediate/advanced diver, although there are beginner-friendly sites too and all dive shops can arrange intro dives and Open Water Diver courses. The North Sulawesi Watersports Association offers oodles of detail on diving in the park.
- Living Colours, tel. +62-812-4306063, [1]. Well-regarded PADI dive shop run by Finnish couple Jaakko & Mia. Two dives a day from 45€, gear rental 10€/day.
Buy
Eat
Drink
Sleep
Most people choose to sleep at their dive resorts. Those on the south and west sides of Bunaken have a strip of beach (coarse yellow sand), while the east side is covered in mangroves but has better reefs.
Lodging
- Living Colours, tel. +62-812-4306063, [2]. Diver-oriented resort run by the shop of the same name, the bungalows are spacious and clean, but simply equipped (fan, mosquito net, cold water) and there is no beach to speak of. Rooms 25€/person, including three excellent meals and free Internet surfing. Airport transfers 30€/one-way, but free if you stay and dive 4 nights or more.
- Lorenso's Bungalows, [3]. 5 min down the coast from Living Colours, offering cheaper but even more basic digs for around 10€/night.
Camping
Stay safe
There are no unusual health risks in the park, aside from the standard set of easily avoided venomous marine critters. Sharks and crocodiles are both absent, and jellyfish are found only occasionally, primarily during the change of the seasons in spring/fall.