Getting to Raja Ampat - what a journey!

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Getting to Raja Ampat

Located on the north-western tip of Bird's Head Peninsula on the island of of New Guinea, in Indonesia's West Papua province, Raja Ampat (or Four Kings) comprises of 1500 small islands, cays and shoals surrounding four main islands of Waigeo, Misool, Salawati and Batanta. Raja Ampat has been named the most diverse marine region on earth, with 75%  of known coral species in the world and 1430 species of reef fish, a natural phenomenon of enormous biodiversity and a paradise for divers. Sounds familiar isn't it? After months of procrastination and consideration, I finally decided to go for it.

Getting to Raja Ampat was not so easy for me. I had to rush home after 10 hours work to grab my luggage for the evening flight to Jakarta, transfer to the domestic terminal and waited 3 hours for the 6-hour flight to Sorong via Makassar.  Minutes soon after the plane took off, I fell asleep until 4 am and woken up by some noise, feeling hungry and the passenger next to me handed me a bread and water. I was disappointed that a $500+ flight do not serve a proper meal! Arrived Sorong at 6.30 am, waited 30 minutes for my luggage and transported to a hotel cafe/lounge (sorry no room!) to eat and rest while waiting to get to the boat at 1 pm.  This trip could be more relaxing if I could arrive in the afternoon and spend a night at a hotel and look around  Sorong before going across to Raja Ampat. 

Find a hotel in Sorong.

Gosh! Another 6 hours of waiting!  Really disappointed with the resort's last minute change of plans when they were supposed to pick me up at 9.30 to the boat. Had a simple wash up, brushed teeth and breakfast. Nothing seemed appetitizing to me due to the lack of sleep and some gastro discomfort. There was no wi-fi for non-staying guests so I tried to sleep sitting down. I did had a few short naps, then it was time for lunch. After a hearty meal of Chinese culinary, I got back my energy. Then a black guy arrived, it was Dovan. He was much thinner and fairer when I saw him early last year in Lembeh. Haha ... after one year in R4, he now looked like the local Papuan! We had so much to catch up over the next few days and diving together with no one else.

Before the boat embarked, we collected  4 male + 1 female American divers from the LOB Black Manta whom I spent the whole week diving and dining with at the resort. They are professional photographers, in the filming and dive/travel industries. The lady is a pilot ... wow! How admirable! Finally after about 40 minutes boat ride, we arrived at Raja Ampat Dive Lodge at 3 pm. Got our welcome drinks and towels over a briefing by the manager, Harry. Immediately after that I checked in to my standard room, transferred my dive equipment to the basket for Dovan to set up and bring to the dive boat while I assembled my photo equipment. In less than 30 minutes, I was on the dive boat.

Raja Ampat Dive Lodge

Entrance to the Standard Rooms

Dive Centre & Camera Room

Diving Bangka Island - Underwater Video

Diving Bangka Island, North Sulawesi

Bangka Island

Bangka Island is located at the north end of Sulawesi where there are a few other islands such as Talise and Gangga etc. It took me one hour from the airport of Manado to reach the harbour, Likupang by car and 40 minutes to the island by boat. This trip was really impressive that this post could be pretty long ... please bear with me.

Coral Eye

Coral Eye is located on the west side of Bangka Island, north of Manado (North Sulawesi's provincial capital) and it's within the Coral Triangle area, the global epicenter of marine biodiversity.. that is why many researchers and volunteers gather here for projects and experiments. Besides marine research and conservation, travellers and divers will enjoy the serenity, peace and quiet environment. Staying at Coral Eye gives a feeling of being in paradise, a place where there is no sadness or pain, troubles or sorrows

This resort gives their guests a homely feeling. Besides having our three meals, coffee and snacks together at the communal table, we meet each other several times a day. You can relax on the hammocks downstairs, rest or read on the mattresses upstairs just outside your room or laze on the beach chairs. You will see the same people everywhere you go. No other place to go anyway, besides the beach, the resort or the dive boat. 

There are no roads or cars, not even a motorbike in sight. There is only one resort here overlooking a 1 km white sand beach with their private jetty, 2 dogs, 3 cats, 2 pigs and few roosters reared by the villagers who are family of the staff. Nobody stays in their room besides bedtime which is 1130 pm when power will be turned off. Total darkness. That was my problem having not enough time to charge my Eneloops. Power also turns off everyday from 1pm to 5pm to conserve energy.

The architecture of the resort is very unique, designed by an architect relative of the Italian owner , the idea was thought of to merge work, life and private spaces together to form a cohesive environment. There are 8 rooms for tourists and a separate bungalow for students. 3 superior rooms with attached bath and the other 5 bathrooms are located at the corner. Our beds are made and bathrooms cleaned everyday!

Diving

Pygmy Seahorse

Waves were too strong for the boat to go to Sahaung the first few days but we did it on my last two days. Sahaung is beautiful and popular for its topography of boulders and pinnacles with abundance in colorful corals. This is my first attempt taking wide angle corals. You can also find baby white tip reef sharks hiding under the ledge.

We did lots of muck dives near the mainland of Pulisan where we saw different types of frogfish, scorpionfish, boxfish, pufferfish, porcupine fish, ornate ghostpipefish and my favourite flamboyant cuttlefish and pygmy seahorse and of course, many nudibranch. Not many pelagics but some schooling yellow snappers. Visibility was about 15 to 20m during this trip when winds were strong but I believe it should be better.

Flamboyant Cuttlefish 

Pink Squat Lobster (Lauriea siagiani)

The leaf scorpionfish or paperfish, Taenianotus triacanthus

Black Pygmy Seahorse

Pink Frogfish

Green Frogfish

Painted Frogfish

Painted Frogfish

Boxer Crab (Lybia)

Clara & daughter

Marco

Nembrotha kubaryana

Movie still processing. Please be patient.

Diving Pulau Weh - Underwater Video

Diving Pulau Weh - 3rd trip

This trip was kinda last minute due to the anticipated closing of the company. I had few days to kill before I officially "leave" the company. Most of my friends there were surprised that I returned so soon. However, despite my enthusiasm and high expectations of the beautiful underwater mystery of Pulau Weh, it was a disappointment this time. The waters were green with plankton, dark and gloomy in almost all the dive sites. Being a novice photographer/videographer, I could not accept the bad conditions which require lots of patience and light adjustments very often to obtain a decent footage and pictures. Honestly, I could not manage. I had forgotten to change the ISO when moving in different light conditions. Most of my movie shots were either too green or over exposed. Probably due to the strong currents, I did not react appropriately with my emotions affected.. I felt very down as I descended into the green and murky waters that the very basics of diving and photography were almost forgotten. Anyway, the disappointments were well trade off, we saw a pink frog fish, a Manta Ray and a marble ray.. hehehe!!!