DIVING ALOR ON A BUDGET
British Society of Underwater Photographers Magazine: Summer Edition.
by Dan and Jay Shipp
We love travel, we love diving - simple. A few years ago we took our shoestring wilderness dive trips one step further. We quit our jobs, rented out our house and hoped it would fund a new lifestyle. It has mostly, subsidized by the sale of Jacqui’s art and Dan’s photography during our travels. Fast forward two and a half years and we’ve got a fair bit of practise at sniffing out the ‘can-visit, can-dive’ places that may seem too expensive at first glance. This article is therefore not about liveaboards or luxury accommodation, it is about how we have managed to make ends meet.
The waters around the west coast of Alor Island offer a wealth of subject matter for the underwater photographer, diver and keen snorkeler. Pristine coral reefs bust with life that ranges from top predators and large pelagic creatures to an outstanding array of macro subjects. Nourished by the nutrient rich waters of the Pantar Strait, the reefs are undeniably some of the most beautiful that we have encountered. Sustainable fishing practices and a complete lack of commercialism have helped protect the marine biodiversity inhabiting this special environment. Alor has a good variety of dive sites too. Caves, coral gardens, wall and muck diving can all be found here.
Now that the carrot has been dangled, let’s get to the nitty gritty- can you dive Alor on a budget?Well that depends on your budget of course, but we get by on £1000 for diving, food, accommodation and local transport per month. It sounds like a lot but it isn’t.
The eastern city of Kuppang is the gateway to Alor and it’s best to fly there unless you want a long overland trip from Bali as there is very little difference in price.We booked flights via Jakarta for ease of connecting to Alor from Kuppang, although a boat is available for this last leg. Be aware kuppang to Alor flight has 10Kg limit, upgraded to 20Kg if you fly with Wings from Jakarta. Once there, finding cheap accommodation in Indonesia isn’t a problem, but squeezing a few extra pounds off the nightly bill can make a difference. Booking your bed through a dive shop is convenient but not always the cheapest option. We tend to use booking.com to book one night of accommodation, giving us the opportunity to strike a better deal on a longer stay if we like it, and the flexibility to move on if we don’t. Owners can offer a discount because they don’t have to pay agent booking fees and we walk away with a little more money for diving.
Eating out isn’t expensive in Alor. A typical evening meal involving fried rice and vegetables will cost around £1-2, rising to £3 if you want chicken or fish as well. Breakfast generally comes with accommodation and is also fried. If like us, you can’t live on fried food for too long you may consider visiting the vibrant hubbub of the local market to buy food and cook for yourselves.
Finding a room with self catering facilities can be difficult in Indonesia and in Alor it’s virtually impossible. If you like your campsite cooking and you’re pretty mean with a barbecue all is not lost. We managed to solve the problem by building our own kitchen in our Sebanjar Bungalow. No one seemed to mind us doing this - in fact the staff found it quite amusing. Simple but effective, we sourced a table, hired a camp stove and bought some pans and cutlery.
The next priority after accommodation and sustenance is to organize our diving. A major money saving strategy we employ is to mostly do ‘independent’ shore diving (this means diving without a guide or a boat) and only doing guided boat dives one day a week. It does mean we won’t get to dive every dive site and may mean we miss some of the action. It’s a long way to come if you don’t want to make concessions like these on your hard earned holidays, but it’s our best option as we wouldn’t get to dive in Alor otherwise.
As we all know, a key point about diving independently is that it is a risky business. Many websites advise that a good level of diving experience is necessary even with a guide, and we cannot emphasize this enough. Real caution must be taken diving in an area that has very strong currents without any boat support – at times it reaches 12 knots in the Pantar Straight. We always tell someone when, where and for how long we expect to dive. We dive with SMB’s, reef hooks, signalling devices and a charged mobile phone in a waterproof case. Alor isn’t short of mobile phone masts so signal is pretty reliable wherever you are. Equally critically, we monitor local tide times and seek advice from locals to understand its behaviour. If we’re in doubt, we don’t get in.
The final critical ingredient to diving Alor on a shoestring is arranging transport. Staff at your accommodation will be able to help. We’ve opted for mopeds because they give us the freedom to dive any spot that we’ve heard is a decent shore dive.They are also by far the cheapest and most convenient way of getting around Alor. Expect to pay £3-£5 per day, with a full tank of petrol costing about £1.50. We would advise trying it before you hire, </span><span>as they may class helmets, lights, indicators, brakes and even pumped up tyres as optional extras.Despite leaving the UK having never ridden mopeds, with a little practise and a healthy dose of survival instinct we learnt to ride in Indonesia, even with a full complement of dive and camera equipment on board. No, it’s not for everyone. The roads are generally diabolical and the only law everyone seems to obey is gravity, but we stick by the rule that if we go slow, concentrate, and expect the unexpected, we’ll get there in one piece.
In conclusion, diving Alor on a budget isn’t easy when you’ve only got a precious few weeks of holiday. Local research and exploration takes time, which is a trade off some people won’t want to make. If you want ease and simplicity in your budget Indonesian dive trip then head to Tulamben in Bali or Bunaken in Sulawesi. If you want to scrub the idea of ‘easy’ and go on an unforgettable adventure somewhere more remote, with excitement, uncertainty and the chance of capturing some unique moments in your viewfinder, then look no further than Alor. Hopefully, our experiences in this incredible part of Indonesia will help you to decide whether the time and effort is worth it – we think it most definitely is!