Last day in Raja. Tears all around. We could have mutinied, there were no guest scheduled for the Coralia until Wednesday and had we revolted we could have had the boat to ourselves for another 3 days but sanity prevailed and we disembarked at 7.30am.
Last night was the send off party and the BBQ went beyond the standard that had been set for the rest of the trip We ate like kings. Raja Ampat means the 4 kings, reference to the four large islands in the area, and we got a taste of their life. The whole crew was up on the upper deck, after the formal introductions of all the folks that have help us all week they joined in a rocking good bye song, something to do with sayōnara. Japanese but who is keeping track?
We were shuttled back to Sorong on a speed boat ferry. Bump, bump, thump, wholly! it was rough. An hour and a half later we were back on terra firma and the boat was still moving, gently but still moving. Dropped off at a hotel we wait for our flight times it is the first real downtime in ten days. My body likes the rest.
If you have ever wanted to go diving on a liveaboard, do it. Being on one allows a diver to explore dive sites that cannot be reached from shore. Depending on the liveaboard, the service, accommodation and food are excellent. The Coralia is the perfect choice for a liveaboard as all three are above exceptional.
Coralia
When we decide on a dive destination, we also decide whether to do a land based dive trip or a liveaboard. The Caribbean can easily be done as a land based trip. Cuba might be an exception to that, as the Garden of the Queens is too far off shore to do day diving trips.
Destinations like the Maldives, Raja Ampat, Solomon Islands and the Galapagos are best done on a liveaboard so more of the area can be explored.
Liveaboards are intense though. Food five times a day, three meals and two snacks. Three to four dives a day. The first dive at 8:00 am and the last one at 6:30 pm.Two or three or four land excursions over the course of the cruise. Down time is snatched between eating and the next dive briefing.
There are always new and interesting people to meet from all over the world. We have made long lasting friends from Germany, England and the United States. Everyone has stories to share, about diving, their lives and travels.
We do not normally talk about returning to a location, dive resort or a liveaboard while we are there, but we actually had a conversation about coming back to the Coralia to dive on one of their other tours in Indonesia. That says tons about what we thought of the boat, crew, dive directors and diving. We will be back!
One of the prime sights in this part of the underwater world are mandarin fish. They are brightly coloured, about two inches long and only appear at dusk. We enter the water as it starts to get dark to go in search of these small wonders.
They are easy to find, their bright zig zag patterns standing out against the beige broken corals. They are shy so we have to be patient to take photos.
The females are larger than the males and, get this, they mate with numerous males every day at dusk. We find one female that has three males in her entourage. We wait and before long the female and one of the males are side by side drifting up off the coral into the water column. They do not drift too far up, break apart and the female picks another male. Fascinating!
Female mating with one of her males
We spend an hour in one spot first watching one female and her mates and then watching another group. We were the last group to get out of the water as we were enthralled with these small mandarin fish.
Mantas? Holey shit mantas. We dive a spot in the open ocean, three small rocks jut up out of the blue and are surrounded by quite a shallow shelf. I think the deepest we went in 78 min. is 48ft. Haven’t even cleared my ears and Debbie races towards me wide eyed. What did I forget my reg again? She grabs my arm and points up. A manta cruises above me close enough I could scratch its belly. 5 minutes later a monster shows up and circles us twice. I have to guess and the water does magnify but it was maybe 5M across. Holy F_____! can be heard on the video I was taking. It was big! We putz around for another 60 minutes or so and see very little, then the armada arrives. First a group of three, then close behind two more. They fly by extremely close. Two of them circle back for another look and we enjoy a symbiotic vision of them. We have done a couple of the night dives that particularly attract Mantas but this is the most action we have seen on a regular daytime dive. Fantastic.
The water is getting rough so we head back to the shelter of a bay for the afternoon dives. On dive two one group comes up with stories of a pod of dolphins that visited them. As we are dressing for our third dive the dolphins come by the mothership and we get to have a look at them from the rear deck. Raja is not particularly known for dolphins so this quite a treat.
Raja Ampat
Diving here is as good as we have heard. The coral is in pretty good shape, the soft corals are better than any we have seen. Abundant, multicoloured, brightly coloured, and feeding even in the daytime. There are so many nutrients in these waters the little animals feed constantly. There are fish everywhere. We swim, bellies to the sandy, rubble bottom and out of nowhere a school of 1000 fish swims by. Nudibranchs inch along on every dive. There are the ‘non rare’ ones of course but there are plenty of multicolored ones we have till now only seen in books. More stunning in person then in pictures.
Travelling Raja on a ‘yacht’, around island, in and out of bays, across straits, and on the open sea is a thing of the movies. It is quite surreal to get up in the morning open the drapes and a rain forest island is fading off into the distance only to be replace by another. Sitting in a bay eating lunch outside on the front deck with a canopy shading the sun and a cool off the water breeze tempering the heat is more than idyllic.
Ah well, tomorrow will soon be upon us and we will again
dive beneath the surface to see what other unusual suspects we will run into.
Everything goes to plan. The Coralia driver picks us up at
the appointed time. We go to another hotel to pick up other guests and we’re headed
to the dock. There are 6 of us in two cars so the others must be coming from a
third hotel or maybe the airport. We load the tender and there are still only
6. WE ARE ONLY 6 on a boat that should have 16 guests! 10 days with less than ½
a boat full of people. 6 guests and 20 staff. For the last 2 ½ days we have
been waited on hand and foot. I cannot even fill my own water bottle. I have
ceased trying as Humdi has the bottle out of my hand and is filling it with
water before I am ½ way through the door to the lounge. The dive groups are
divided into 3 groups of 2. A private tour of Raja Ampat!
We are lodged in a room on the main deck. Full windows on two walls and our very own deck. Not like most rooms Debbie and I have stayed in previously. There is room to store 3 times as much gear as we normally bring and extra space to boot. We do spend a bit of time in the room but find the 4 other guests and all of the crew to be very easy to get along with so we are out in the public area most of the time.
The diving is living up to all of our expectations. Very first dive we saw two Mantas, the first one was gigantic, my guess is 5M wing span. Wobegone sharks are a dime a dozen. Only seen a couple before when we were in Australia, now they are almost ho hum. We love nudibranchs, colourful undersea slugs, and they are here in abundance. Only the second day of diving and already we have seen or been shown a goodly number of the sea creatures we do not see at all in the Caribbean. An Ornate Ghost Pipefish, Flamboyant Cuttlefish, (didn’t even know those existed), Hairy Squat Lobster and a Skeleton Shrimp all really cool and most of them miniature.
When we said we were off to Raja Ampat two different people asked if September was not off season. We inquired about that with the tour leader on board the Coralia and she explained that the live-a-boards dictate the season. Most travel from Raja to Komodo for 6 months and then return for 6 months. The Banda Sea can only be crossed in September and– April so they all do the same trip. They all ply the Raja waters from September to April. This is where the idea of a “Raja season” comes from. It does not mean the diving is not good the other times throughout the year it is just the live-a-board availability is much less. The good side to that is we have only seen one other boat in 3 days. Not only are we getting a private tour, it is somewhat exclusive.
Indonesia is the 4th most populous country in the world. That is quite noticeable given the number of people about. It seems everyone drives either a motor or a mobil (motorbike or car). Considering the volume of vehicles, traffic moves quite well and there are very few traffic jams. During the night the vehicles are sparse but the drivers don’t muffle down just because most of the world is sleeping.
At 4 this morning I heard a sound that 30 years ago, on my first trip to Indonesia, haunted me for months after I got home. The Imam was chanting the ‘call to prayer’ over a somewhat inadequate sound system. I got out of bed and opened the window so I could hear with more clarity. Even though I do not understand a word of what is being sung I totally enjoy the rhythm and cadence. It got into me so much on my last exposure I had to go find a CD so I could satisfy my aural itch.
The Manado airport is chaos. We are flying from Manado to Sorong, West Papua this morning. Long, loosely formed and loosely adhered to queues, annoying passengers taking far to long to settle their business at the airline check in desk, and shifting check in desks, (all of a sudden they try to move the whole line from desk 12 to desk 9). When we get our turn at the desk we are prepared and all is done in about a minute. I am not sure why but we are not even charged for the bags we check. Both of us kept our mouths shut take our passes and split. From there on the journey to our seats on the plane is smooth.
Sorong traffic
Our digs for the night seem to on a major thoroughfare. The traffic is heavy and constant. There seems to be a significant increase in the number of motors compared to Manado. The rules of the road as we know them in North America are more or less suggestions here. The lines are there to indicate one is still driving on an asphalt surface. The speed is not posted and is anywhere from 20km/hr to 80km/hr all on the same stretch of road at the same instant.
I was headed to the supermarket to buy water and I detoured into the local neighbourhood. The folks here are just as enamored with foreigners as they were yesterday in Manado. They catch my eye, smile with a wide grin, that gets even bigger when I say hello. We are somewhat of an anomaly here. Debbie and I spent well over an hour hanging around a small, local, reasonably busy mall while waiting for our room to be made up. Not one other white person entered. As we sat and watched the parade we again smiled and said hello a lot.
Tomorrow we board our scuba dive liveaboard. It is the Coralia and we will be puttering around Raja Ampat for 10 days. There is no WIFI on the boat, so you stay tuned for news of our adventures under the waves.
Today is the day we leave the sterile environment of Singapore and jump with two feet into SE Asia.
am and we are waiting for the restaurant at the Mercure Bugis to open so we can grab some breakfast. The Silk Air (a regional carrier of Singapore Airlines) flight is supposed to have a meal but we don’t know at what time we will be fed and even if the food will be to our palates. I am reasonably fussy and Debbie has some food issues. So we stock up on the food we know.
As 6.30am, our appointed airport shuttle time, closes in both Debbie and I have butterflies. In the past we have sat and waited for other shuttles far past our comfort zone time and we did not want to have that happen today. 6.28 am and there are lights on the driveway and the shuttle appears. Butterflies calmed.
The Singapore airport experience is a bit weird but seems to be a lot more friendly and efficient than other airports in the world. The strangest part is the security x-ray machines are at the entrance to the gate lounge, so every lounge has it own security. This has the inefficiency of having staff for each bay but the line up is way shorter and moves quite quickly. The Singapore airport is a shopping mecca and feels like a luxury mall.
Upon arrival at the airport in Manado, Indonesia Debbie’s (and mine) angst rose to about the highest level possible. We had to check our dive gear as the airline’s carry on criteria is quite restrictive. My bag appears on the trolley in the 3rd or 4th bunch of luggage. Then we wait for Debbie’s. There is a screen with live video of the baggage handlers as they unload the luggage. We wait, and wait, people leave and we wait. The guys outside are down to the last cart and there are many bags on it but where is Debbie’s dive gear? There are very few folks left and only 20 or so bags to come when the Aqua Lung bag with blue accents pops through the shredded rubber curtain. Dodged a big bullet on that one! We don’t check bags for fear our dive gear will be misdirected to the Sahara and today that fear welled up huge.
As we leave the airport arrivals area we are, as expected, accosted by, ‘need a taxi’. Today ,we in fact do. I had done my research and it appears my findings are somewhat misguided. First they are somewhat dated and second our hotel is 1/2 again as far passed Manado, which of course will cost more. One can bargain in Indonesia and I did. I think I do an OK job and after checking at the hotel what a taxi should cost I hit the price right on the nose.
We check in to a fairly funky place in what seems to be a strange area for a nicely appointed hotel. Don’t know why anyone would locate themselves here. We chose the place because of the good vibes we got while emailing back and forth prior to booking. The hotel is the S Loft Hotel has an arty decor, well appointed rooms and super friendly and accommodating staff.
Restaurant encountered while wandering.
A short rest and we head out on the street. Lots of traffic, an incredible number of motorbikes, crumbling infrastructure, heat, dilapidated buildings, and beeping car horns. Although there are surprisingly few of the latter. We did notice one thing, the locals are all starring at us. Seems there are very few tourists, at least white ones, in this neck of the urban woods. Truth is I don’t know why tourists would come here anyway.
Once we gather this in we start to say ‘hello’ and get a huge smile and a hello in return. As with most people in the world, the folks are extremely friendly. People here have not been tainted by tourists or tourism and are as curious about us as we are about them. We wander through parts of the ‘hood’ and are not once shunned. Even had a couple of people indicate I should take their picture, and of course I oblige. Not having to be sneaky about taking someone’s photo is my preference.
I like places like this. So much different from our home life. There is always an opportunity stop and talk to someone and maybe learn and maybe get rid of the first world ideas of what is necessary to sustain life.
There is a place called Lorong Buangkok in Singapore and it is the last surviving kampong. A kampong is a traditional village. This particular one was featured in a film called “The Last Kampong”. Murray discovered this village while doing research about Singapore. We decide today is the day to go exploring and visit the village.
Singapore’s MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) trains will take us part of the way and then we must take bus number 88. We talk to three different people at the train station before one knows where to catch the bus. Once on the bus, Murray asks first one woman and then a second woman how far a certain stop will be. Eventually we have all 5 people in the back of the bus discussing where we should get off. It is a long ride and when we get close, even the bus driver chimes in his suggestion. We exit the bus with many thanks you and goodbyes. Traveling is sometimes about these ad hoc experiences and not about seeing this wonder or that.
Murray has very good walking directions and after about a 15 minute walk we are strolling down a path into the kampong.
Inside Lorong Buangkok
The houses are old and not that well kept. It is very quiet in the area and we only see one person. We are not sure all the houses have residents. There is a building that looks like a community center or gathering place. We cross paths with another curious couple of people as we are leaving.
After asking directions again, we hop on a different bus for the trip back to the train station and two train transfers later we are at the edge of Jalan Besar. It is an area worth walking through to see old architecture mixed with new trendy cafes and shops.
One building catches our attention. It is a two storey building built in the 1920’s that is considered in the “late shophouse style” of architecture.
The exterior walls are covered in floral ceramic tiles that are still gorgeous.
Jalan Besar is just north of Little India, so we stroll through this mini India to get back to our hotel. The buildings are older with commercial or retail shops on the street level and houses, or more businesses, on the second floor. It is crowded today, a Sunday, people are doing their shopping and eating out. We stop for lunch at a busy corner eatery serving Indian food and have Tikka Chicken, Dahl Makhani, rice, naan and a Coke for Murray and watermelon juice for Debbie. It is very good and only $18!
The alleys in Little India are well used and almost like small streets, with folks using them for socializing and travel.
An Alley in Little IndiaThe main thoroughfare in Little India
Today, although even hotter than yesterday, is a much better day of touring. It always takes a couple of days to get our chops back. Still jet lagged but working on that, there should be steady improvement from here on in.
After one short flight and two very long flights, we are in Singapore.
Before talking about Singapore, I need to make a comment about security at the Edmonton airport. How can 3 of our 4 carry on bags, plus Murray’s laptop, all fail the X-ray scan at security. We go through there with the same bags and the same dive gear each dive trip and they suddenly need to check 3 of the bags?? The woman never did find what triggered my dive bag inspection but she did find my “knitting needle turned into a stabilizer stick” and it took the supervisor to okay it. And Murray’s stick in his bag didn’t even get questioned. So frustrating. I think the Edmonton security people have their radar setting turned up way too high and are over the top vigilant. The same four bags went through security in Vancouver and not one of them was taken apart. Same in Tokyo. So what is it with Edmonton?
Another comment. If you are choosing airlines to fly across the Pacific, choose Japan Airlines. Their service is exceptional. The flight attendants are friendly and very attentive and ground staff efficient and polite. I wish all airlines could be so outstanding.
Okay, Singapore! Hot hot hot! Tall buildings. Organized traffic. Humid. Friendly people. Food fairs. Air conditioning. No garbage on the streets.
We venture into Chinatown today and walk far before we find the markets and small shops. We initially find rows and rows of restaurants and spas, all closed as it is too early on a Saturday morning. We enjoy looking at the older shorter buildings against the backdrop of newer tall buildings. The high rises are architecturally varied from what we have in Edmonton. It is very refreshing.
We find ourselves in a huge food center for lunch. Small kiosks lined in rows, with tables everywhere. People out on a Saturday enjoying food and getting together with family and friends. We find a kiosk selling Thai food and enjoy Pad Thai and Garlic Shrimp for our lunch.
By about 2:00 we are hot and tired from our first day touring so we jump in the pool at our hotel, the Mercure Bugis. We scare everyone out of the lap pool by doing….laps. Once we are done and out, folks get back in! Oops!
We are in limbo. The problem with being too efficient is that we end up having a few days of being in a holding pattern before we leave for a trip.
We are packed, except for those last minute items that can’t be packed yet. The house is mostly ready to be left alone, except for those last minute chores. Can’t really turn off the water early!
So, we fill our days with exercise, doing chores not really needed for our trip, reading and playing games.
