Manuel Sam
Contributor
The second part of our trip took us to Raja Ampat, recognized by many as having the richest reefs in the world.
Getting There
The worst part about diving Raja Ampat has to be getting in and out of Sorong in West Papua on the domestic flights.
After Lembeh, we had a choice of flying out on Saturday on a direct flight from Manado to Sorong on Express Air, or to Makassar (Ujung Pandang), overnighting there, and then flying to Sorong on Sunday.
For us, the choice was obviously the direct flight, and I guess that from the standpoint of being able to get to Sorong without delays - and with all of our luggage - we were pleasantly surprised. What was a lot less pleasing was the 35,000 Rp charge per kilo of excess baggage, (about 10K Rp to the USD) which for an excess of 42 Kg between the two of us, worked out to a staggering sum of 1,500,000 Rp!!!!
Granted, this worked out to be around $75 per person. The allowance is 15Kg per person. And you can't pay by credit card either. On the way back to Manado, we had the same 15Kg allowance with Lion Air, but they only charged 10,000 Rp per kilo of excess baggage, and having been burned once already, we had overstuffed our carry-ons and managed to bring the excess baggage down to 14Kg per person or about $14 each. It is worth noting that in Sorong, you can only pay your excess baggage charge with Rupiahs.
Our experience with Lion Air was not as bad as I had antcipated. They didn't gouge us on the excess baggage, they didn't lose our luggage, and the flight attendant was cordial and accommodating. My carry-on would not fit in the overhead compartment and because I was on an exit row, it could not be placed beneath the seat in front. At first she suggested putting it in the luggage compartment, to which I vehemently pleaded not to, so she agreed to let me put it on an empty seat at the back of the plane.
Both airlines are quite restrictive as far as the size and weight of carry-ons because they fly small propeller planes. Luckily they didn't weigh ours. Check-in counter agents seem to almost automatically flag down rigid rolling suitcases (the ones that fit nicely into the overhead compartments of regular planes) and make you check them in - regardless of how much you cry about the fragile nature of cameras and lenses. Soft duffles or backpacks - as in compressible - are the way to go for these domestic flights.
The airline experience notwithstanding, we had a superb week with Papua Diving, and if I sound a bit effusive about our experience there, it is because they deserve a little acknowledgement for the way in which they pampered us and also because of their efforts to try to preserve this area.
The Resort
Upon arrival in Sorong, we were met by Ivan from Papua Diving and driven to the Je Meridien Hotel for an overnight. The resorts at Kri Island, where we were to stay for the week, observe Saturdays as a rest day so transfers to and from the resort are normally done on Sundays.
The boat ride to Kri Island takes less than 2 hours. The seas were very calm - they tend to be fairly calm year-round, I was told.
We had overcast conditions on several days of the week we were there and even some serious downpours. But on those days when the sun was out and the sky was clear and the water was like glass - like on the Friday that we headed out to Manta Point - it was hard to tell Heaven from Earth as you looked out at the horizon?..it was just so breathtakingly gorgeous. It reminded me of Palau in 1999. Yup, Raja Ampat and the Rock Islands of Palau, two very special places on this Earth.
We stayed at the Sorido Bay Resort, the newer (and posher) of the two resorts on Kri Island that are owned and operated by Papua Diving. The other one is the Kri Eco-Resort. Walking along the beach at low tide, the two are only 10 minutes apart by foot, and yet they are light-years apart as far as creature comforts.
The Sentani bungalow where we stayed at is one of their more modest offerings, and yet, at 700+ sq. ft., it was the most spacious and well-appointed of all the dive resort accommodations for two people that I have ever stayed at. Each bungalow has a sizable patio at the back end for leaving wet stuff such as wetsuits to drip and dry. At the front end, French doors open onto a beachfront porch with twin hammocks and twin lounge chairs. It was easy to get spoiled by the king-size bed, twin bathroom sinks, separate toilet and shower, ample lighting, AC, satellite TV, WiFi (weak signal, tho), a mini-fridge, and to top it all off, a camera table with 220/110V outlets and a sink with running water. Even after they added a twin-size bed, there was no lack of space.
About the only issues we encountered were mosquitoes, especially at dawn and dusk - for which we took Malarone as a precaution - and also, the occasional bug in the room, which elicited the customary "eek" from my niece followed by my obligatory stomp. Water pressure in the shower was a bit weak. In the whole scheme of things, not major showstoppers given that we were right at the edge of a lush forest, and on an island somewhat remote from the nearest urban area.
Just as noteworthy as the accommodations was the service provided by the staff, led by the owner, Max Ammer, and the onsite resort managers, Claudia and Leon Joubert, both accomplished u/w photographers and videographers. Their aim-to-please and can-do attitude was most refreshing and extended to the entire staff.
When we asked for more than the standard three guided boat dives per day, they made it happen without a glitch and went as far as to alter the daily meal schedule to accommodate our request. As a result, we were able to do 4 dives a day, including two 5-dive days, and still made it to dinner by 7:00PM when we didn't night dive. Even on our day of arrival, we managed to squeeze in 3 dives after arriving at noontime, for a total of 25 dives for the week.
For the entire week, there were only three divers, and yet, on every dive we had two dive guides with us, a boat driver and a helper - and this was true even when it was just the two of us doing Manta Point on that Friday. Otto, who has been working for Max for 17 years, is a gem of a dive guide who went the extra mile to find what we wanted to shoot. He knows the dive sites very well: you could tell because we were almost always dropped in with such pinpoint accuracy as to be able to descend right upon the seafans that he was targetting for different types of pygmy seahorses.
The Manta Point dives are typically a two-tank trip, but Otto, anticipating that we would want to stay for a third dive, brought an extra set of tanks, and sure enough, we had decent manta encounters on the second dive that begged for a third dive there. And because we had missed lunch due to the third dive, upon our return, Leon even got us room service - ie, meals delivered to our bungalow.
The Diving
After a week of mucking in the muck of Lembeh, it took the better part of one dive to get reacclimated to diving again in currents. Not that we encountered mask-tearing types of current, but many of the dives were in current, weaving our way around the reefs to look for stuff, which necessarily meant swimming against the current for a while, and then with, and then against, etc.
The diving here will not wow you with big animal action, although there are occasional sightings of sharks - we saw mostly Black Tip Reef sharks. Wobbegong sharks can be seen on almost every dive, and with some luck, Epaulette sharks can be seen at night. Over the span of one week of diving we also saw Napoleon Wrasse, schooling Humphead Parrotfish, schooling Barracudas, mackerels, schooling Big Eye Trevallys as well as Giant and Bluefin Trevallys, Sweetlips, and large snappers and groupers. And of course, there are the mantas at Manta Point.
Nor will it wow you with the variety of exotic macro critters that Lembeh has, altho pygmy seahorses are pretty much guaranteed. Up to five of the known seven species of pygmy seahorses have been seen here. We saw the yellow H. Bargibanti for the first time. We also saw the more common red H. Bargibanti, H. Pontohi, and H. Denise. Every dive can be a pygmy seahorse dive for the asking, just as easily as it can be a wide angle dive©å.therein lies every shooter's conundrum. There is also a good variety of nudibranchs, and mandarinfish can be seen right off the Sorido pier.
What will blow you away, though, is the sheer volume and immense variety of fish. When I refocused from looking out into the blue for Mr. Big, to looking at all the colorful fish on the reef, I was astounded by the number of fish that I had never seen before. I was particularly captivated by one that I saw at the Kri Eco-Resort pier, which I later looked up to be the Splendid Dottyback, a colorful fish that seems to be in perpetual motion except when it goes into hiding. Wasted 20 minutes to get two mediocre shots.
Also quite remarkable are the huge schools of small fish: clouds of silversides mixed in with schools of sardines at a dive site called Lalosi(sp?) hovering just above the reef, under constant attack by trevallys, mackerels, snappers, and by my account, a wahoo; schools of Golden Sweepers that swarmed around coral heads or bommies like bees around a beehive; and seemingly never-ending streams of fusiliers sweeping over the reef.
During surface intervals on our trips to Manta Point, we tied up on Arborek Island where sardines (probably mackerel or oxeye scads) and silversides congregate in massive numbers under the pier to the delight of the local children who catch them to use as bait to catch bigger fish. It is quite a sight to see these schools of sardines swimming in unison with mouths wide open to catch whatever drifts by or when fending off the attacks of the marauding Bluefin Trevallys.
There is also an incredible diversity of corals, hard and soft - all in very healthy state. More hydroids per square foot than anywhere else I've been in - and they seem to have an amazing knack for finding the remaining 10 square inches of exposed skin on your body.
As for the mantas, we had come here in the hopes of seeing lots of them - just like in photographs in the magazines. Unfortunately, the large numbers never materialized, although we were still very pleased to be able to capture a conga line of three in one frame. The best I'd done before were two in one frame in Socorros. Winter months, we were told, are better.
Concluding Remarks
Most of my diving in recent years has been on liveaboards, for two primary reasons: (1) they get you to prime dive sites that are not within easy reach of land-based day boats; and (2) with few exceptions, you can pretty much dive til you drop.
It is not my intent to start a discussion on the merits of liveaboard vs. land-based, but I think that after doing enough liveaboard trips, I sort of became desensitized to having to live within relatively confined spaces, the constant roar of engines and generators, borderline water pressure, and for the most part, minimal contact with world events. On this last point, I always think back to learning about 9/11 some three days later, upon return to port on the Solmar V liveaboard in Mexico.
In the process, I think that I lost sight of how nice it is to (1) be on a dive vacation and still have creature comforts; (2) share a room with someone without constantly bumping into each other or getting in each other's way; and, (3) be awakened in the morning by bird songs rather than the clanging of the anchor chain or the cranking of the engine upon startup.
This trip to Lembeh, and particularly to Sorido, has opened my eyes to the fact that it is possible to dive prime sites while land-based and in relative luxury, with good food, and still dive til you drop.
Getting There
The worst part about diving Raja Ampat has to be getting in and out of Sorong in West Papua on the domestic flights.
After Lembeh, we had a choice of flying out on Saturday on a direct flight from Manado to Sorong on Express Air, or to Makassar (Ujung Pandang), overnighting there, and then flying to Sorong on Sunday.
For us, the choice was obviously the direct flight, and I guess that from the standpoint of being able to get to Sorong without delays - and with all of our luggage - we were pleasantly surprised. What was a lot less pleasing was the 35,000 Rp charge per kilo of excess baggage, (about 10K Rp to the USD) which for an excess of 42 Kg between the two of us, worked out to a staggering sum of 1,500,000 Rp!!!!
Granted, this worked out to be around $75 per person. The allowance is 15Kg per person. And you can't pay by credit card either. On the way back to Manado, we had the same 15Kg allowance with Lion Air, but they only charged 10,000 Rp per kilo of excess baggage, and having been burned once already, we had overstuffed our carry-ons and managed to bring the excess baggage down to 14Kg per person or about $14 each. It is worth noting that in Sorong, you can only pay your excess baggage charge with Rupiahs.
Our experience with Lion Air was not as bad as I had antcipated. They didn't gouge us on the excess baggage, they didn't lose our luggage, and the flight attendant was cordial and accommodating. My carry-on would not fit in the overhead compartment and because I was on an exit row, it could not be placed beneath the seat in front. At first she suggested putting it in the luggage compartment, to which I vehemently pleaded not to, so she agreed to let me put it on an empty seat at the back of the plane.
Both airlines are quite restrictive as far as the size and weight of carry-ons because they fly small propeller planes. Luckily they didn't weigh ours. Check-in counter agents seem to almost automatically flag down rigid rolling suitcases (the ones that fit nicely into the overhead compartments of regular planes) and make you check them in - regardless of how much you cry about the fragile nature of cameras and lenses. Soft duffles or backpacks - as in compressible - are the way to go for these domestic flights.
The airline experience notwithstanding, we had a superb week with Papua Diving, and if I sound a bit effusive about our experience there, it is because they deserve a little acknowledgement for the way in which they pampered us and also because of their efforts to try to preserve this area.
The Resort
Upon arrival in Sorong, we were met by Ivan from Papua Diving and driven to the Je Meridien Hotel for an overnight. The resorts at Kri Island, where we were to stay for the week, observe Saturdays as a rest day so transfers to and from the resort are normally done on Sundays.
The boat ride to Kri Island takes less than 2 hours. The seas were very calm - they tend to be fairly calm year-round, I was told.
We had overcast conditions on several days of the week we were there and even some serious downpours. But on those days when the sun was out and the sky was clear and the water was like glass - like on the Friday that we headed out to Manta Point - it was hard to tell Heaven from Earth as you looked out at the horizon?..it was just so breathtakingly gorgeous. It reminded me of Palau in 1999. Yup, Raja Ampat and the Rock Islands of Palau, two very special places on this Earth.
We stayed at the Sorido Bay Resort, the newer (and posher) of the two resorts on Kri Island that are owned and operated by Papua Diving. The other one is the Kri Eco-Resort. Walking along the beach at low tide, the two are only 10 minutes apart by foot, and yet they are light-years apart as far as creature comforts.
The Sentani bungalow where we stayed at is one of their more modest offerings, and yet, at 700+ sq. ft., it was the most spacious and well-appointed of all the dive resort accommodations for two people that I have ever stayed at. Each bungalow has a sizable patio at the back end for leaving wet stuff such as wetsuits to drip and dry. At the front end, French doors open onto a beachfront porch with twin hammocks and twin lounge chairs. It was easy to get spoiled by the king-size bed, twin bathroom sinks, separate toilet and shower, ample lighting, AC, satellite TV, WiFi (weak signal, tho), a mini-fridge, and to top it all off, a camera table with 220/110V outlets and a sink with running water. Even after they added a twin-size bed, there was no lack of space.
About the only issues we encountered were mosquitoes, especially at dawn and dusk - for which we took Malarone as a precaution - and also, the occasional bug in the room, which elicited the customary "eek" from my niece followed by my obligatory stomp. Water pressure in the shower was a bit weak. In the whole scheme of things, not major showstoppers given that we were right at the edge of a lush forest, and on an island somewhat remote from the nearest urban area.
Just as noteworthy as the accommodations was the service provided by the staff, led by the owner, Max Ammer, and the onsite resort managers, Claudia and Leon Joubert, both accomplished u/w photographers and videographers. Their aim-to-please and can-do attitude was most refreshing and extended to the entire staff.
When we asked for more than the standard three guided boat dives per day, they made it happen without a glitch and went as far as to alter the daily meal schedule to accommodate our request. As a result, we were able to do 4 dives a day, including two 5-dive days, and still made it to dinner by 7:00PM when we didn't night dive. Even on our day of arrival, we managed to squeeze in 3 dives after arriving at noontime, for a total of 25 dives for the week.
For the entire week, there were only three divers, and yet, on every dive we had two dive guides with us, a boat driver and a helper - and this was true even when it was just the two of us doing Manta Point on that Friday. Otto, who has been working for Max for 17 years, is a gem of a dive guide who went the extra mile to find what we wanted to shoot. He knows the dive sites very well: you could tell because we were almost always dropped in with such pinpoint accuracy as to be able to descend right upon the seafans that he was targetting for different types of pygmy seahorses.
The Manta Point dives are typically a two-tank trip, but Otto, anticipating that we would want to stay for a third dive, brought an extra set of tanks, and sure enough, we had decent manta encounters on the second dive that begged for a third dive there. And because we had missed lunch due to the third dive, upon our return, Leon even got us room service - ie, meals delivered to our bungalow.
The Diving
After a week of mucking in the muck of Lembeh, it took the better part of one dive to get reacclimated to diving again in currents. Not that we encountered mask-tearing types of current, but many of the dives were in current, weaving our way around the reefs to look for stuff, which necessarily meant swimming against the current for a while, and then with, and then against, etc.
The diving here will not wow you with big animal action, although there are occasional sightings of sharks - we saw mostly Black Tip Reef sharks. Wobbegong sharks can be seen on almost every dive, and with some luck, Epaulette sharks can be seen at night. Over the span of one week of diving we also saw Napoleon Wrasse, schooling Humphead Parrotfish, schooling Barracudas, mackerels, schooling Big Eye Trevallys as well as Giant and Bluefin Trevallys, Sweetlips, and large snappers and groupers. And of course, there are the mantas at Manta Point.
Nor will it wow you with the variety of exotic macro critters that Lembeh has, altho pygmy seahorses are pretty much guaranteed. Up to five of the known seven species of pygmy seahorses have been seen here. We saw the yellow H. Bargibanti for the first time. We also saw the more common red H. Bargibanti, H. Pontohi, and H. Denise. Every dive can be a pygmy seahorse dive for the asking, just as easily as it can be a wide angle dive©å.therein lies every shooter's conundrum. There is also a good variety of nudibranchs, and mandarinfish can be seen right off the Sorido pier.
What will blow you away, though, is the sheer volume and immense variety of fish. When I refocused from looking out into the blue for Mr. Big, to looking at all the colorful fish on the reef, I was astounded by the number of fish that I had never seen before. I was particularly captivated by one that I saw at the Kri Eco-Resort pier, which I later looked up to be the Splendid Dottyback, a colorful fish that seems to be in perpetual motion except when it goes into hiding. Wasted 20 minutes to get two mediocre shots.
Also quite remarkable are the huge schools of small fish: clouds of silversides mixed in with schools of sardines at a dive site called Lalosi(sp?) hovering just above the reef, under constant attack by trevallys, mackerels, snappers, and by my account, a wahoo; schools of Golden Sweepers that swarmed around coral heads or bommies like bees around a beehive; and seemingly never-ending streams of fusiliers sweeping over the reef.
During surface intervals on our trips to Manta Point, we tied up on Arborek Island where sardines (probably mackerel or oxeye scads) and silversides congregate in massive numbers under the pier to the delight of the local children who catch them to use as bait to catch bigger fish. It is quite a sight to see these schools of sardines swimming in unison with mouths wide open to catch whatever drifts by or when fending off the attacks of the marauding Bluefin Trevallys.
There is also an incredible diversity of corals, hard and soft - all in very healthy state. More hydroids per square foot than anywhere else I've been in - and they seem to have an amazing knack for finding the remaining 10 square inches of exposed skin on your body.
As for the mantas, we had come here in the hopes of seeing lots of them - just like in photographs in the magazines. Unfortunately, the large numbers never materialized, although we were still very pleased to be able to capture a conga line of three in one frame. The best I'd done before were two in one frame in Socorros. Winter months, we were told, are better.
Concluding Remarks
Most of my diving in recent years has been on liveaboards, for two primary reasons: (1) they get you to prime dive sites that are not within easy reach of land-based day boats; and (2) with few exceptions, you can pretty much dive til you drop.
It is not my intent to start a discussion on the merits of liveaboard vs. land-based, but I think that after doing enough liveaboard trips, I sort of became desensitized to having to live within relatively confined spaces, the constant roar of engines and generators, borderline water pressure, and for the most part, minimal contact with world events. On this last point, I always think back to learning about 9/11 some three days later, upon return to port on the Solmar V liveaboard in Mexico.
In the process, I think that I lost sight of how nice it is to (1) be on a dive vacation and still have creature comforts; (2) share a room with someone without constantly bumping into each other or getting in each other's way; and, (3) be awakened in the morning by bird songs rather than the clanging of the anchor chain or the cranking of the engine upon startup.
This trip to Lembeh, and particularly to Sorido, has opened my eyes to the fact that it is possible to dive prime sites while land-based and in relative luxury, with good food, and still dive til you drop.
