Many years ago, I think back in 2018, we heard about the Wakatobi resort. It was from a older American gentleman (he was maybe 80 yrs old) from the deep south of the country where everyone has that distinctive drawl. We met him at the first briefing on the liveaboard we were on. As I walked up to the table to sit down, he got up from his chair and pulled out my chair so I could sit. A real gentleman! Murray, jokingly, said “Oh please don’t do that……She will expect it from me now!”. This gentleman had all the ladies on the boat enthralled with him by the end of the cruise. He was a lovely person.
The fellow was on his last dive trip with a male friend before he got married. Remember….he is about 80! He mentioned that he was taking his new wife to Wakatobi. The resort sounded wonderful so it got written on our wish list. We researched the resort when we got home and found that it was rather expensive, so it stayed on the wish list.
Then Covid hit. We didn’t travel but we had lots of time to think and dream. What came out of all that thinking and dreaming? “What the h***! Let’s go to Wakatobi!”
Four years later, we are on our way.
Wakatobi is in Indonesia, just off the island of Sulawesi on the south east coat, on the island of Tomea. Its name is made up of the first letters of the four islands nearby – Wangi-Wangi, Kaledupa, Tomea and Binongko. There are no scheduled flights to the island, so a private charter is taken to the resort from Bali.
Wakatobi has a liveaboard and a resort. We are going to spend one week on the liveaboard and four night at the resort. The liveaboard accommodates only 10 guests, rather than the 20 we had on the Solitude in the Philippines, quite a difference. Our plan is to dive as much as possible on the liveaboard (4 a day) and then slow down to two dives a day at the resort so we have time to enjoy the resort, beach and water.
Wakatobi…here we come!