Diving In Indonesia – How to Plan your Trip

Indonesia covers a large area. It's 3000 miles from Pulau Weh in the West to West Papua in the East, and nearly all of it has exceptionally good diving. A book that attempts to encompass such an area is very ambitious. Sarah Ann Wormald has concentrated on the areas that she knows, including Bali, North and South Sulawesi, Nusa Tengarra, Maluku and Raja Ampat -- an archipelago that consists of at least 17,500 islands.

She does pay lip service to the area known as Thousand Islands (Pulau Seribu) close to Jakarta and mentions the Papa Theo wreck, a dive site that gave me my first big scare while diving and produced material for my initial magazine article --- something that turned me away from a successful proper career and into an impoverished scuba diving journalist!

Well, that was more than two decades ago, and I've dived a lot more of Indonesia since, so I am well placed to judge that the author certainly has collated a lot of information about those places she knows and it seems to be accurate. Too often guidebooks are 'researched' using other guidebooks, thus perpetuating misinformation.

The author writes with authority and the voice of someone who has actually experienced first-hand the places she writes about. The maps are detailed, the photographs excellent.

Whether you are interested in the macro-life of Lembeh, the mantas of Nusa Penida or the wobbegongs of Cape Kri, this is a useful volume in a format that can be carried with you.

It includes travel planners, descriptions of the best dive sites, marine life pieces and liveaboard options. There are loads of useful contacts including local dive operators and accommodation. Its 300 pages are stuffed with information including descriptions of dive sites with their difficulty levels, logistics, equipment availability, best time of year to visit, and an introduction to the most common Indonesian language words and phrases related to diving. In fact, everything any English-speaking diver traveling east of Java will find useful. I thoroughly recommend it. It costs $19.95. Click here to buy it at Amazon, and our referral fee will go to saving coral reefs. http://amzn.to/1ZxK3i3 www.tuttlepublishing.com

- John Bantin