Wisnu
Contributor
Part 0 The Journey .. and misery
There's only few choice available for us to escape from our "gulag", in fact, there's only one airline; Air Astana which is claimed as the best airline in east Europe.
We chose the route Atyrau - Almaty - Bangkok; 14 hours travel time including 5 hours transit time in Almaty. We were traveling with biz classl. For bangkok - jakarta we chose Air Asia, since didn't want to overnight in Bangkok. Seem good plan.
The flight arrived in Almaty on time, but the terminal security did not allow us to enter the biz lounge despite we used interconnecting flight and having boarding pass with us.
"Sir, the lounge will only open to passenger 2 hours before departure"
The airport was very crowded, no bench available for us to rest. We complained to the airline customer service.
"It's a rule must be obeyed" no smile !
"so, where we can sit and wait?"
"that's not my problem!"
OMG. I can understand flight delay particularly on winter but receiving such kind response from 4 star skytarx airline is a shock.
Two hours before scheduled ETD, we tried again to the biz lounge. Still, the same security refused us again; same reason - the lounge open to passenger 2 hours before departure .. but the flight delayed for another 2 hours.
Two hours later, we tried again still no success, the flight was delayed for another 4 hours.
Enough is enough. After my flare-up, they put us into small hotel not far from the airport. It is good hotel if you are in weight reducing program - they check the weight each portion of meal; pay extra if you want more.
Stranded in Almaty by Wisnu Purwanto, on Flickr
Anyway, to make it short; we're stranded in Almaty for 19 hours - and the worst, we arrived in Bangkok without our luggage!. We missed our Air Asia flight the ticket totally unusable. We bought new ticket for Garuda. Total 41 hours after we left home we landed in Jakarta.
The hardship is not over. My elder daughter missed her flight from London to Jakarta. She did not travel with us since she is boarding school in Plymouth. Her train was late due to heavy rain caused flooding in some area in southern UK. Unfortunately, the next flights was full, but one biz class seat available for the next 2 days flight at extra cost GBP 700 one way, or she had to wait for 4 days. Practically she had no choice.
Part 1 - Nusa Lembongan ..
Jakarta is not the best place for holiday. Its my home town. Traffic jam every where and every time. Unbelievable, on Monday 17 Dec. we were sitting in the car for 8 hours just to visit 2 locations, first to buy 60mm macro lens, next to get the Nauticam housing for my OMD and then pick-up my daughter from airport in the evening.
Left home at 07:30 am and return home at 23:00 more than 50% of time we spent on the road.
It was really a relief when on the next morning three of us departed to Bali with Garuda first flight, good breakfast, landed in Bali around 08:30.
The pick-up service from Rocky boat had been waiting for us. Excellent, at10:00 we already on the Rocky boat to Lembongan and on 12:00 we had good lunch at Scooby Doo restaurant and bar, with beautiful view of Lembongan bay beach and the colorful white sands where is mostly covered with seaweeds.
The Scooby Doo restaurant and bar operate 3 bungalows - our home for the next 4 days in Lembongan. Nothing special other than nice location, directly facing to Lembongan bay. The room is spacious, clean, a bit aged and require minor works in the bath room. Anyway, still good value accomodation and I have no hesitate to recommend.
We chose Lembongan Dive Center (LDC) a small DC located next to the Scooby Doo restaurant. It is very convenience for us having the restaurant and dive center not more than 20 m from our room. Internet connection is available most of the time and reasonably good.
The main purpose of our trip to Nusa Lembongan is to get Jr. AOW for my younger daughter and as warming up to anticipate Raja Ampat strong current after more than 6 months completely dry; we never touch sea water.
Being small operation, LDC can accommodate all our request. My daughter get private instructor, one dive guide for two of us and we dive at same locations as for my daughter training.
We did 8 dives for 3 days; 2 times at Manta point and Crystal bay respectively, plus mangrove point, Pura Ped, SD and night dive at Lembongan bay. close to Bali Hai pontoon. Water was considered warm for nusa Penida, 21 - 27 C.
Two mantas welcome us on the first dive at manta point, visibility not good. Much better on second dive two days later, but only saw one manta at 25 meter depth.
[video=vimeo;58984791]https://vimeo.com/58984791[/video]
Luck was not with us, as expected, no mola - not big deal, I enjoyed the glass fishes attraction in one of boomies in Crystal bay.
and this is my daughter favourite object - she love macro.
The night dive is not worth, very few critters - I can't remember if any other interesting critters other than a puffer fish, hermit crab and thousands small worms attracted by my 800 lumen focus light. Practically, I can't take any pics at this condition
Last day in Lembongan, my daughter got fever. We went to the doctor, 5 minute walk from the resort. He thought just because of climate change from very dry, subzero arctic encvironment to hot and very humid tropical island. Later we know she was infected by Rubella virus (German Measles).
So we continue our trip to Raja Ampat.
For more Nusa Lembongan pics ... Bali 2012 - - ScubaBoard Gallery
---------- Post added February 9th, 2013 at 04:57 AM ----------
Part 2 - Raja Ampat
We use Garuda to Makasar, ETA 21:05 and then Sriwijaya air to Sorong ETD 04:30. Although the Makasar airport is modern and clean, we stayed at airport day room inside the departure terminal - to provide my younger daughter more time to rest. She did not getting well, in fact, she felt severe headache and rash appeared on her face. I was worry she had dengue fever.
Before boarding, we met my older daughter in the airport, she use the same Sriwijaya flight from Jakarta to Sorong.
I can understand why people say Sorong airport is So wrong - no very welcoming airport.
Having somebody organize your transfer is highly recommended.
To make story short, Papua diving did a good job. The transfer from airport to the port and another 2 hours transfer by boat to Kri Eco resort worked smoothly.
Kri Eco Resort is located on the eastern tip of Kri island, the easternmost extension of Mansour Island. The accommodation is quite basic, wooden hut with wall and roof made from palm leaves. Seem delicate, but surprisingly, it is strong enough to survive with only minor damage from heavy rainstorm on the 3rd night of our stay.
The cozy resort ambience, perfect location, perched on the edge of a lagoon close to the best dive sites in the world; excellent services make most people do not realize they stay in the humble huts (called eco resort) and pay for four stars accommodation.
The shared bath rooms located 30 - 50m from bungallow are mandi style with western toilet, clean and enough toilet paper. My wife does not like night diving, but she appreciate how useful my dive torch to go to the bath room during rainy night.
Anyway they do not complain - in fact, they love to come back again and stay longer.
So, it is nice dive resort but not for everyone particularly if you are not diver.
During our stay, the dive center operated at their maximum capacity 24 divers in four boats, with two dive guide for each boat. Well organized diving, although not to the accuracy of Swiss watch.
The first day dives is check dive. I cant recall the name of the 2 dive sites on the first day of diving nothing special, neither impressive, not what people want to see after traveling half of the globe ( yes, we are less on the distance, but not for the traveling time). Probably because my head did not really into the diving, my younger daughter still sick. Only three of us dived on the first dive whereafter my wife and my daughter went to doctor in Wasai, 40 minutes by boat from Kri. That was when we know that she was infected by rubella. According to the young doctor, no special treatment for German measles he gave her Paracetamol, anti histamine, Vitamins and talcum powder all including consultancy cost us USD 6.
The real diving for us start on the second day the good thing my younger daughter condition improved a lot I can not say she is fully recovered, but when she start annoying her sister, I know she is okay.
In one week we did 15 boat day dives (Chicken bay, Cape Kri, Sardine Reef, Blue Magic, Mike Point, Otdima, Manta Sandy, Arborek, Sleeping Barracuda, Freewenbonda) plus 2 night dives (Yenbuba jetty and house reef) and 1 Saturday morning house reef dive. Please note, no boat diving on Saturday, but they provide lot of tanks on the jetty. No dive guide. Current can be strong, so you need to check the tide table on the DC and of course you can see how the fish school swimming under the jetty thats a good current meter.
Were not very lucky on Manta sandy poor visibility and only 9 mantas welcome us. Other group before us had 17 mantas in better visibility.
Dont know who should I complain!
Most of dive sites around Kri have strong or very strong and shifting currents. They say no current no fish but strong current does not always mean lot of attractions. Thats the reason our dive guide always jump to the water first (without gear) to check and ensure we'll get what we want.
It is paramount to have experienced and knowledgeable dive guide who can lead you to reach the sweet spot without too much kicking. Wrong timing or incorrect drop point may result you to fin against ripping current and or miss the attraction.
All above are our favorite dive sites but if I have to choose the best one then I opt the chicken bay. Initial plan was to dive the chicken reef. Once we arrived at site, our guide jumped to the water and shake his head when he surface. Then we move to another nearby site, chicken bay.
In my over 500 dives, I have never seen so many fishes, practically fill every space of water column. This site has all diver want to see; profusion of rainbow runners, yellowtail fusiliers, snapper, sweetlips, batfish, chevron barracuda, great barracuda, trevally, jackfish, massive bumphead school, napoleon, white tip, grey reef, and tinny pontohi as well. But does not mean easy to take good pictures, at least for us, underwater photography at that situation was quite challenging, not only because the strong current, but in most cases we have to shoot against the sun in poor visibility.
I try to make a video, sorry - terrible; don't know what happened; not as good as the original file.
[video=vimeo;59256752]http://vimeo.com/59256752[/video]
And here few pics taken by my daughters.
The Jetty at yenbuba village is one of the exception, this muck dive site has no current and shallow. Ideal site for night dives. The highlight was 2 wobegong one is quite big at 1.5m depth, a couple of flathead crocodile fish, bobtail, gosh pipefish.
We love the house reef as well, either night dives or Saturday morning all very rewarding. Blue ring octopus and epaulette shark is the highlight of night diving at the house reef.
And all these pics below are taken by my daughter on Saturday morning house reef dive.
For more underwater pics Kri Raja Ampat - - ScubaBoard Gallery
and if you want to know more about Kri, here more pics Kri Eco Topsite - - ScubaBoard Gallery
There's only few choice available for us to escape from our "gulag", in fact, there's only one airline; Air Astana which is claimed as the best airline in east Europe.
We chose the route Atyrau - Almaty - Bangkok; 14 hours travel time including 5 hours transit time in Almaty. We were traveling with biz classl. For bangkok - jakarta we chose Air Asia, since didn't want to overnight in Bangkok. Seem good plan.
The flight arrived in Almaty on time, but the terminal security did not allow us to enter the biz lounge despite we used interconnecting flight and having boarding pass with us.
"Sir, the lounge will only open to passenger 2 hours before departure"
The airport was very crowded, no bench available for us to rest. We complained to the airline customer service.
"It's a rule must be obeyed" no smile !
"so, where we can sit and wait?"
"that's not my problem!"
OMG. I can understand flight delay particularly on winter but receiving such kind response from 4 star skytarx airline is a shock.
Two hours before scheduled ETD, we tried again to the biz lounge. Still, the same security refused us again; same reason - the lounge open to passenger 2 hours before departure .. but the flight delayed for another 2 hours.
Two hours later, we tried again still no success, the flight was delayed for another 4 hours.
Enough is enough. After my flare-up, they put us into small hotel not far from the airport. It is good hotel if you are in weight reducing program - they check the weight each portion of meal; pay extra if you want more.
Stranded in Almaty by Wisnu Purwanto, on Flickr
Anyway, to make it short; we're stranded in Almaty for 19 hours - and the worst, we arrived in Bangkok without our luggage!. We missed our Air Asia flight the ticket totally unusable. We bought new ticket for Garuda. Total 41 hours after we left home we landed in Jakarta.
The hardship is not over. My elder daughter missed her flight from London to Jakarta. She did not travel with us since she is boarding school in Plymouth. Her train was late due to heavy rain caused flooding in some area in southern UK. Unfortunately, the next flights was full, but one biz class seat available for the next 2 days flight at extra cost GBP 700 one way, or she had to wait for 4 days. Practically she had no choice.
Part 1 - Nusa Lembongan ..
Jakarta is not the best place for holiday. Its my home town. Traffic jam every where and every time. Unbelievable, on Monday 17 Dec. we were sitting in the car for 8 hours just to visit 2 locations, first to buy 60mm macro lens, next to get the Nauticam housing for my OMD and then pick-up my daughter from airport in the evening.
Left home at 07:30 am and return home at 23:00 more than 50% of time we spent on the road.
It was really a relief when on the next morning three of us departed to Bali with Garuda first flight, good breakfast, landed in Bali around 08:30.
The pick-up service from Rocky boat had been waiting for us. Excellent, at10:00 we already on the Rocky boat to Lembongan and on 12:00 we had good lunch at Scooby Doo restaurant and bar, with beautiful view of Lembongan bay beach and the colorful white sands where is mostly covered with seaweeds.
The Scooby Doo restaurant and bar operate 3 bungalows - our home for the next 4 days in Lembongan. Nothing special other than nice location, directly facing to Lembongan bay. The room is spacious, clean, a bit aged and require minor works in the bath room. Anyway, still good value accomodation and I have no hesitate to recommend.
We chose Lembongan Dive Center (LDC) a small DC located next to the Scooby Doo restaurant. It is very convenience for us having the restaurant and dive center not more than 20 m from our room. Internet connection is available most of the time and reasonably good.
The main purpose of our trip to Nusa Lembongan is to get Jr. AOW for my younger daughter and as warming up to anticipate Raja Ampat strong current after more than 6 months completely dry; we never touch sea water.
Being small operation, LDC can accommodate all our request. My daughter get private instructor, one dive guide for two of us and we dive at same locations as for my daughter training.
We did 8 dives for 3 days; 2 times at Manta point and Crystal bay respectively, plus mangrove point, Pura Ped, SD and night dive at Lembongan bay. close to Bali Hai pontoon. Water was considered warm for nusa Penida, 21 - 27 C.
Two mantas welcome us on the first dive at manta point, visibility not good. Much better on second dive two days later, but only saw one manta at 25 meter depth.
[video=vimeo;58984791]https://vimeo.com/58984791[/video]
Luck was not with us, as expected, no mola - not big deal, I enjoyed the glass fishes attraction in one of boomies in Crystal bay.
and this is my daughter favourite object - she love macro.
The night dive is not worth, very few critters - I can't remember if any other interesting critters other than a puffer fish, hermit crab and thousands small worms attracted by my 800 lumen focus light. Practically, I can't take any pics at this condition
Last day in Lembongan, my daughter got fever. We went to the doctor, 5 minute walk from the resort. He thought just because of climate change from very dry, subzero arctic encvironment to hot and very humid tropical island. Later we know she was infected by Rubella virus (German Measles).
So we continue our trip to Raja Ampat.
For more Nusa Lembongan pics ... Bali 2012 - - ScubaBoard Gallery
---------- Post added February 9th, 2013 at 04:57 AM ----------
Part 2 - Raja Ampat
We use Garuda to Makasar, ETA 21:05 and then Sriwijaya air to Sorong ETD 04:30. Although the Makasar airport is modern and clean, we stayed at airport day room inside the departure terminal - to provide my younger daughter more time to rest. She did not getting well, in fact, she felt severe headache and rash appeared on her face. I was worry she had dengue fever.
Before boarding, we met my older daughter in the airport, she use the same Sriwijaya flight from Jakarta to Sorong.
I can understand why people say Sorong airport is So wrong - no very welcoming airport.
Having somebody organize your transfer is highly recommended.
To make story short, Papua diving did a good job. The transfer from airport to the port and another 2 hours transfer by boat to Kri Eco resort worked smoothly.
Kri Eco Resort is located on the eastern tip of Kri island, the easternmost extension of Mansour Island. The accommodation is quite basic, wooden hut with wall and roof made from palm leaves. Seem delicate, but surprisingly, it is strong enough to survive with only minor damage from heavy rainstorm on the 3rd night of our stay.
The cozy resort ambience, perfect location, perched on the edge of a lagoon close to the best dive sites in the world; excellent services make most people do not realize they stay in the humble huts (called eco resort) and pay for four stars accommodation.
The shared bath rooms located 30 - 50m from bungallow are mandi style with western toilet, clean and enough toilet paper. My wife does not like night diving, but she appreciate how useful my dive torch to go to the bath room during rainy night.
Anyway they do not complain - in fact, they love to come back again and stay longer.
So, it is nice dive resort but not for everyone particularly if you are not diver.
During our stay, the dive center operated at their maximum capacity 24 divers in four boats, with two dive guide for each boat. Well organized diving, although not to the accuracy of Swiss watch.
The first day dives is check dive. I cant recall the name of the 2 dive sites on the first day of diving nothing special, neither impressive, not what people want to see after traveling half of the globe ( yes, we are less on the distance, but not for the traveling time). Probably because my head did not really into the diving, my younger daughter still sick. Only three of us dived on the first dive whereafter my wife and my daughter went to doctor in Wasai, 40 minutes by boat from Kri. That was when we know that she was infected by rubella. According to the young doctor, no special treatment for German measles he gave her Paracetamol, anti histamine, Vitamins and talcum powder all including consultancy cost us USD 6.
The real diving for us start on the second day the good thing my younger daughter condition improved a lot I can not say she is fully recovered, but when she start annoying her sister, I know she is okay.
In one week we did 15 boat day dives (Chicken bay, Cape Kri, Sardine Reef, Blue Magic, Mike Point, Otdima, Manta Sandy, Arborek, Sleeping Barracuda, Freewenbonda) plus 2 night dives (Yenbuba jetty and house reef) and 1 Saturday morning house reef dive. Please note, no boat diving on Saturday, but they provide lot of tanks on the jetty. No dive guide. Current can be strong, so you need to check the tide table on the DC and of course you can see how the fish school swimming under the jetty thats a good current meter.
Were not very lucky on Manta sandy poor visibility and only 9 mantas welcome us. Other group before us had 17 mantas in better visibility.
Dont know who should I complain!
Most of dive sites around Kri have strong or very strong and shifting currents. They say no current no fish but strong current does not always mean lot of attractions. Thats the reason our dive guide always jump to the water first (without gear) to check and ensure we'll get what we want.
It is paramount to have experienced and knowledgeable dive guide who can lead you to reach the sweet spot without too much kicking. Wrong timing or incorrect drop point may result you to fin against ripping current and or miss the attraction.
All above are our favorite dive sites but if I have to choose the best one then I opt the chicken bay. Initial plan was to dive the chicken reef. Once we arrived at site, our guide jumped to the water and shake his head when he surface. Then we move to another nearby site, chicken bay.
In my over 500 dives, I have never seen so many fishes, practically fill every space of water column. This site has all diver want to see; profusion of rainbow runners, yellowtail fusiliers, snapper, sweetlips, batfish, chevron barracuda, great barracuda, trevally, jackfish, massive bumphead school, napoleon, white tip, grey reef, and tinny pontohi as well. But does not mean easy to take good pictures, at least for us, underwater photography at that situation was quite challenging, not only because the strong current, but in most cases we have to shoot against the sun in poor visibility.
I try to make a video, sorry - terrible; don't know what happened; not as good as the original file.
[video=vimeo;59256752]http://vimeo.com/59256752[/video]
And here few pics taken by my daughters.
The Jetty at yenbuba village is one of the exception, this muck dive site has no current and shallow. Ideal site for night dives. The highlight was 2 wobegong one is quite big at 1.5m depth, a couple of flathead crocodile fish, bobtail, gosh pipefish.
We love the house reef as well, either night dives or Saturday morning all very rewarding. Blue ring octopus and epaulette shark is the highlight of night diving at the house reef.
And all these pics below are taken by my daughter on Saturday morning house reef dive.
For more underwater pics Kri Raja Ampat - - ScubaBoard Gallery
and if you want to know more about Kri, here more pics Kri Eco Topsite - - ScubaBoard Gallery
