The seemingly impossible mission that Simon and Tim Rock chose to give themselves in this guide was to pick the top fifty sites: the best of the best. To make the task a little easier, however, they adopted a couple of strategies.
First, they decided not to rank them in order. Which makes sense. After all, how can you assess whether a dive in the blue with half a dozen whale sharks is better or worse than a drift across a fantasyland reef-scape inhabited by millions upon millions of fish resplendent in all the colours of the universe?
Second, they included as wide a variety of sites as possible. And third, they made sure all the key Indonesian scuba diving areas, from Aceh in the west to Biak in the east, were represented.
Whether you are an experienced veteran of Indonesian diving or a novice planning to visit the region for the first time, this book is for you. If you are new to Indonesia, you will find half a lifetime of sites to choose from. And, even if you know Indonesian waters well, there will still be at least a few dives in these pages that you have not yet logged, maybe never even heard of!
Not only does this book help you pick out the key hotspots in relatively well-known places like Bali, Komodo and Raja Ampat, it also introduces you to the top sites in more remote, much less visited parts of the country, such as Mapia, Maputi and Manuk.
There are shipwrecks, deep walls, enormous fish aggregations, weird creatures, wild rides, ancient reefs, kaleidoscopic seascapes and even an undersea volcano.
And, as Tim and Simon say, if you don't see one of your own favourite Indonesian dive sites listed, don’t be too disappointed: it was probably number 51! Full colour throughout with 220 pages, maps and over 270 images, this is the third volume in a series that also includes the 50 Best Dives in Micronesia and the 50 Best Dives in the Philippines.
