My husband and I did the Peter Hughes Komodo Dancer in April of 2003.  It's
not exactly "mid-range" but we had an excellent time.  If you only have 4-5
days, that boat might not work out for you because it sails from Bali.  We
sailed eastward on the north side of Lombok and over to Komodo, diving along
the way. We did a 10 day trip, and got to stay in Komodo area for 3 or 4
days.  I enjoyed diving off of several islands in many different habitats
along the way.

The water was warm and clear until we got to Komodo when it because rather
cold (70-73 F).  We'd been warned about the temp change, so we brought 5/7
mm wet suits, plus hood and gloves for that area.  The viz was never the
100+ ft we once saw in the Maldives, but it was pretty good (except a few
dives where we expected silt).

The food was good. There was a lot of seafood, which everyone exclaimed
over.  I don't normally eat seafood, but what I tried was tasty. My husband
& I ate a lot of chicken and beef, which they made especially for us, and we
were never hungry.  Lots of fresh fruit. A common afternoon snack was a huge
bowl of hot cashew nuts -- yum!!  We followed the usual dive boat
routine--eat, dive, sleep (repeat), The cook was always producing a treat of
some kind for us. And when diving was done, we had yummy fruit & rum drinks
(included in the cruise price). There was a local beer, but I don't drink
beer and can't comment on its quality.

The captain didn't speak English and was very shy. He came out at the
beginning and end of the trip, but otherwise hid away.  He did seem shy,
rather than just avoiding us.  The crew tutored us in Indonesian.  There are
several phrases for hello, based on time of day. And several for goodbye,
depending on which of you is leaving and whether you're coming back soon.
They made us practice (well, only the people who wanted to :-)   The word
"bagus" means "really good".  We had many "bagus" dives. One of the crew
members gave an excellent back & shoulder massage after most dives, and then
wrapped you in a steaming hot towel.

The cabins were nice. I thought the beds were very comfy, and there was
always hot water to shower with. Our cabin had a double bed and was nice &
bright. The pewter komodo dragon statue they gave us was a nice touch, and
it was sitting on a handmade indigo and white ikat (tie dyed cloth) runner
on the bed for decoration.  The indigo ikat is a specialty of Lombok, I
understand.

The dive staff was OK. I don't know if they're still with the boat after 3
years. The boat was short one divemaster because one was out with dengue
fever, so we went out with 3.  Yan, the Indonesian divemaster from Lombok,
was very good at finding small things. The other divemaster, Gillian from
Scotland, was fun.  I buddied with her on some great night dives. The lead
divemaster ("cruise director") (Gary, from England) was good at finding
bigger things and identifying them for you, but not so hot as a dive buddy.
He left me behind on a night dive when he was theoretically my only buddy.
I was slightly underweighted for my 5/7 suit and had trouble staying down,
so I decided to bail. I couldn't get his attention (tried flashing lights,
banging) so I did a safety stop hanging upside down, holding onto a rock,
watching him disappear into the dark with the other divers.  The cabin
steward plied me with hot chocolate and tequila while I waited for him to
return, so I let him (Gary) live, but he got quite a scolding  :-(  I did
not buddy with him again.  He did spend a couple of night dives in what must
have been a really boring search for Stargazers--an ambush predator that
buries itself up to its evil grin in sand and waits. Gary would patiently go
over huge patches of sand until he (or one of the divers with him) found
one--we saw many stargazers.

There was an outstanding array of colorful fish, healthy coral, and weird
creatures. Nothing too big though, except the occasional sharks and mantas.
Also some fairly large Napoleon wrasse, which kept their distance from the
divers.  I saw many fish I'd never seen before, a vast array of nudibranchs,
more starfish than I expected. We did one night dive on a pinnacle that was
practically covered in basket stars!   Squids, cuttlefish, octopus. Crabs of
all kinds, cleaner shrimp in many patterns & sizes, marble (Saron so.)
shrimp, mantis shrimps.  Lots of lobsters. Large angelfishes and butterfly
fish in more patterns than I could identify.

Sad to say, there was dynamite fishing outside the Komodo National Park. We
heard and felt explosions on 3 dives. One felt very nearby---the concussion
briefly took my breath away.

I had my best manta encounter near Komodo. I was feeling very tired the
morning of the manta dive, so I decided to snorkel instead of diving. I got
a better experience than my husband, who went on the dive. The divers were
in about 25 ft of water around a pinnacle that rose above the surface.  The
surface current (minor) was pushing the plankton and "stuff" in the water
toward the pinnacle, where it accumulated.   The mantas swooped in from the
deep water over the heads of the divers, made a feeding pass at the surface,
then submerged again and went over the heads of the divers back out to deep
water. They did this in a big loop, with a constant stream of mantas.  Where
was I during all this?  On the surface, near the pinnacle, at the apex of
the feeding run!  The mantas didn't seem bothered by my presence on the
surface.  Perhaps they thought I made a good backstop for plankton, because
they often swam right at me, veering away at the last moment or dipping
under me. I could look down their throats. On one pass, a solid black manta
(15 ft across, perhaps more) swam under me from behind. When the world
turned black under me, I took my hands out of my armpits (where I was
keeping them warm) as I went limp with amazement. I touched the manta
underneath me (who knew he was so close?). "Eek!" I gurgled into my snorkel.
He arched his back (possibly his way of saying "Eek!") and went on his way,
back down over the heads of the divers.  The stream of mantas continued.

We did one dive on a relatively new volcanic cone island. It was interesting
to watch the bare rock starting to be colonized.  The volcanic silt got
everywhere, including all the cameras! Most people's cameras flooded on the
next dive (apparently, silt is hard to clean out of a camera--I know it took
forever to get out of my hair and gear).  But the dives on that site were
fun.  The first involved following the divemaster (Gary, a bit woozy from a
cold he was developing), as he led us thru 15 ft viz from open water to the
side of the volcano.  OK, maybe that part wasn't fun. We reached the slope
of the volcano a little deeper than he'd planned (below 100 ft) and then
cruised back up the steep and bare black slope to look at the life starting
on a silt cliff, which occasionally rained silt down on top of us.  The
other dive was on the protected side of the island at an area they called
Hot Rocks, where the black sand/silt on the bottom was warm to the touch.
Hot air bubbled out of it into the clear but oddly colored water, which gave
the impression that you were diving in warm ginger ale.

We visited the Komodo National Park to see the komodo dragons. The dragons
are huge, but not very aggressive (although the park ranger with the forked
walking/dragon stick doesn't let you stray too far, just in case).  If you
want to buy things at the park (black pearls, carvings of, duh, komodo
dragons), prepare to bargain seriously and take small and medium
denomination Indonesian rupia.  Some of them would take American money, but
it's hard to bargain in dollars and they didn't all have change. A couple of
vendors asked us to exchange US currency for them, because they are far from
banks. They offer a really bad exchange rate...

Thanks for letting me relive my trip!

Becky