Dec 19, 2014

We all join in wishing you a  
  
Joyful festive time and a wonderful, prosperous 2015 ! 

May the approaching year bring you opportunities and courage to follow your wildest dreams and wisdom to surmount obstacles that come along ;)

> (((°>   Alor Divers team    > (((°>



Dec 11, 2014

Our biggest speed boat in the water

This 8.5 m long fiberglass boat just finished its first season in the water. Going diving with it is a pure pleasure, comfort and luxury. Even more so when you think how remote Alor is!  This is the latest photo and you can see + read a bit more here  the newest 8.5 x 2.3 m beast powered by 200 hp 


Nov 24, 2014

What's up with Alor Divers?

Has it really been that long since our last post?!? We were super busy since July until just recently. Now everything is pacing down and we realized we completely neglected blogging : /. We had a lot of great news that we unfortunately didn't share with you on time, but nevertheless here are the two most important ones and the rest of them will follow shortly (if you are in a hurry just scan thru text in bold ;) :

  • New couple - Ben (English) and Bea (Spanish) - are this year helping managing the resort.They went through 4 months of "intensive training" and are now mastering their position. They are young, dynamic, professional and very outgoing with the guests. They are also great dive masters and - especially Bea - very passionate about marine life. It is delight talking with her on this topic :-) After meeting them for the interview, we knew they would be a great addition to our AD team. The comments of our guests about Ben and Bea are excellent, so what more could we wish for :-) . We are grateful for all the efforts they put in their work and are happy to be working with them in 2015 !                                                     
  • Diving-vise we have another thrilling year behind us. The top unexpected surprise was certainly for Ben, when he encountered a whale shark on the house reef, while working on the anchorage ropes! Also on the house reef, some divers saw baby black tips and others saws Mobula rays. Our house reef is offering some really good diving, even superb when conditions are right! We noticed the amount of fish in Alor is going up. The colors and condition of reefs are remarkable and one of the main attractions for our returning guests. All of the favorite dive sites (and it is a lot of them !! ;)) delivered what we expected (not every single time though, but this is how nature planed it :P) Hammerheads were almost a regular this year. Some divers had extreme luck of seeing large schools and some divers had an excitement of  a pretty close encounter! Rhinophias were abundant as were also other critters in Kalabahi Bay dives (again - not every single time :P). Nudies come and go and at the moments is nudi's  party underwater. Soon we will put online Gilles's best of 2014 UW photos, but you can already check out some of the UW photos on our Facebook page (click here https://www.facebook.com/alor.divers)

Coming back soon with some more "old and not so old " news ..

Till then many greetings from Alor Divers team!

Apr 20, 2014

Over 50 hammerheads circling divers for 10 min !!!

Incredible experience and probably the best action dive we ever made!!!  We had around 50 hammerheads coming to our group of divers, circling them for over 10 minutes!!! Smaller bunch of hammers was so curious, they decided to take a really good look at bubble-makers and came within 5 meters, while the majority of them stayed at a discrete distance of 15 meters or so :o. Divers were "breathlessly" following the spectacle until they decided to leave the scene for a safety ascend !  Now [that] is something to talk about for months (if not years) to come ;) !!!

Yes, we are already well into our 2014 season and action is not only with the big stuff. Muck diving in Kalabahi bay is as good as ever (see a partial list of possible encounters here incredible critter diving in Kalabahi Bay). This year we have also seen eagle rays and huge turtles on few occasions, as well as black tips. Diving is great and divers are happy :)

We hope this blog will inspire more diving enthusiasts who haven't visited Alor yet, to come and discover this hidden jewel of diving :) If Alor is on your 2014 list, don't hesitate too long,  the places at Alor Divers are filling up fast ;)

Happy bubbles  ><)))°>  oO° 


Mar 12, 2014

Photo of renovated bungalow

Last 3 months we were full on with repairs and improvements of Alor Divers, getting ready for the 2014 season.
One big focus was on improvement of the bungalows. As you can see on the photo below, floor is in tiles and there are new mosquito nets that encompass all the bed.  We also have new "crisp" white sheets for all beds except the single ones (next year!) and new towels for everyone. The bungalows are also waiting to get a new piece of furniture - a smaller cupboard. Living in Indonesia for over 15 years we kind of dislike drawers and shelves with doors, BUT some of our guest would appreciate to store their "imported goodies" and other precious things away from the occasional cheeky "corn field squirrel", so we go with the flow : D . We also have in work the pillows for bungalow chairs (the ones inside the room). We are kind of used to spartan life style, but decided to make it a bit softer for our guests whenever we can ; ). Can't believe 3 months of break was not enough to get everything done!

There is also dozens of other  little improvements that we won't list here, but believe us- after 8 years we are still trying to do our best for this little piece of paradise. You might think why we didn't get some of those things "in order" years ago, but the ones who follow us from beginning surely witnessed we never stop to improve. And everything has its turn - we set up Alor Divers with all we got at the time and [that] was limited. Since then we take every end of season  a nice proportion of our earnings and "give it back to you" in form of  renovations and improvements. There is just a priority in  "to do" list plus we always focus on "top suggestion" from our guests. Wow, we can't imagine this place in few years time !  ; - )

You can see a photo of our new speed boat (not yet with roof canvas)  and a renovated restaurant (not yet prettily arranged with furniture :-P) in some of the older posts.




Feb 20, 2014

Winners of Alor Divers Photo Contest 2013

We have winners for our two UW photo categories ! Congratulations to both photographers !! The prizes are 9 night stay at Alor Divers :)

The title Best Portfolio goes to Ludovic Galko


  






 And the winner for Best Shot is Olivier Delorieux, who made this great photo on the house reef: