Scuba Diving - Alor + Pantar Islands, West Timor

I arranged to dive with Alor Divers for a few days as the pinnacle of my scuba trip.
http://www.alor-divers.com/eng/low/alor.html
GETTING THERE: A minor adventure on its own, Alor is located in the Southeastern edge of Indonesia, near Australia. It’s a 1.5 hr flight on Merpati Air from Dempasar, Bali to Kupang (capital of East Nusa Tenggara province). Next is a 40 minute flight on Trigana Air from Kupang to Kalabahi, Alor. Flights have the most amazing island/volcano scenery you will see anywhere. I wish I had chartered a sight-seeing plane. I am met at the airport by a minivan and taken to a dock where I take a half-hour boat ride from Alor to the island of Pantar.

NOTE: For a crazy blog story detailing some of the traveling challenges in this area circa 2001 check out http://www.twogypsies.com/html/indonesia1.html

This part of Indonesia is incredibly remote and poor. Many different tribes and languages exist but most of the communities I see seem to be divided into Muslims and Christians. There is a history of distrust and violence between these groups but I don’t see any of this first-hand. 90% of the visitors come for the diving as this area is blessed with all the right attributes: clear warm water, strong nutrient-rich currents, incredible biodiversity. Scientists come from around the world to explore and routinely discover new species of aquatic life. Added bonus is that this area tends to be more arid so there is less humidity and standing water for mosquitoes to breed. June just happens to be the rainy season so I experienced a few afternoon showers.

The dive resort is fantastic- kind of a luxury Robinson Crusoe sort of experience. Gilles, the French owner, is a great dive master and points out a lot of amazing creatures. He and his wife have a newborn baby for which they plan to eventually return to society for schooling. In the meantime, what an incredible place to grow up! The other dive guests include couples from the Netherlands, France and Germany. Everyone speaks English to make the ignorant American (me) feel comfortable.

Gilles spent a lot of time talking about the challenges of running his dive resort. One challenge is poaching- generally Chinese boats that are illegally fishing. They hunt for sharks (just the fins thank you) but also tuna, etc. He and some of the other dive companies keep watch and alert the authorities. They also chase the ships down and photograph them to scare them away.

Another issue is getting supplies. The economy is horribly inefficient and there is almost no access to credit so businesses can’t grow or stock things easily. Paradoxically, many shop owners sink a disproportionate amount of their assets into inventory. It’s safer to keep your money in tangible items as a hedge against currency risks (devaluation/ inflation). Inventory has little variety and there’s almost no chance to get special order items unless you prepay and get them shipped. Consequently, most customers depend on the entrepreneurial Chinese minority. This group maintains informal business relationships where credit is provided based on the strength of family ties. The Chinese have been quite successful providing products where the rest of the market seems to have failed.

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written by  benjgolf on June 3, 2007 from Kalabahi, Indonesia
from the travel blog: Tour de Asia
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