Ambon Dive Center re-opening in Maluku Indonesia

Friday afternoon I met up with Brien Moore and Mike Hillis (Wayan So Big ) and enjoyed talking about travel and many other subjects. I have been getting together with Mike a lot recently as he is starting a very interesting project. Mike and his friend Buck Randolph are re-opening the Ambon Dive Center in the Malukus (Eastern Indonesia) and Mike in particular is developing a jungle trek on the island of Seram, which sits right behind Ambon to the north.As many people know Ambon is listed as a trouble spot, a place to avoid, in a country to avoid, if you believe foreign travel advisories. In 1999 the local Muslim and Christian communities clashed and many people were killed. Radical elements from Java stirred the whole thing up and the Ambon Dive Center was closed. Mike and Buck have been given the keys to the Ambon Dive Center by the governor of Makulu and plan to get it going again.

The area has some of the best diving in the world. The guy who wrote the Dive Indonesia guidebook is reported to have logged 15,000 dives over his career. He is on record as saying his best ever dive was a night-dive off of the Ambon Dive Center.

Mike was in Ambon a few weeks ago and said downtown isn't a place you'd want to hang out, many soldiers and the 2 communities keep apart to some extent. To drive from the airport to the dive center you have to pass through downtown, but a fast boat will get you to there bypassing all of the nasty stuff. There are 25 dive sites within 30 minutes of the center and no industry or population centers. Why would someone want to go to a trouble spot to dive when they can dive here in Bali? As many world travelers know, the best time to visit a place can often be when other people are not visiting. Most of the trouble in Ambon was downtown, not in the country and definitely not underwater. You can fly out of Bali at 9am, on Mandala Airlines, transfer in Makassar (Sulawesi) and be in Ambon at 2pm. For a diver who needs a change from Nusa Lembongan and Amed, Ambon might work for a weeks diving. There are also daily flights from Jakarta, Manado, and Bali to Ambon.