Indonesia - Raja Ampat 1

Our flight from Moldova to Indonesia was to be about 10.5 hours and it was overnight. When we first looked at the tickets, I thought the flights were quite reasonably priced. A day or two later when we went to  book, all those cheaper seats had disappeared and now there were only relatively expensive seats available. I happened to notice that business class wasn't that much more expensive. John thought we should go for it. I think business class is a waste of money but I felt that for an overnight flight it might not be a bad idea. I'm so glad we did!

We flew to Istanbul first and that flight was nothing special. At Istanbul we changed planes and suddenly business class was amazing! We had great food, great service, great TV screens and flat beds! Ok, so it still wasn't possible to roll over without waking and readjusting the silly underlay they put underneath us but it was sooooo good! I remembered all those long flights at night where all you want to do is lie down. I was so grateful!

We landed in Jakarta and the world changed in that way it does when you fly from one country to another. It stimulated all our senses.

The smells reminded me of previous trips here - spice cigarettes, fried chicken, noodles sizzling in a wok. The smell of piss under a bridge. Our hotel was great but our room was tired and dirty. The smell of damp carpet in our room. The stink of drains in our bathroom.

Sights - The smiles and politeness of the sweet Indonesians dressed in batik clothing that's surely too tight-fitting to be comfortable. They are so friendly. I'm confident that if I was lost or needed help, anyone that I asked for help would give it to me. The lushness of the tropical flowers and greenery. Rickety footpaths where you must always watch where you put your feet. People selling food from street stalls or portable stalls towed by bicycles or by hand. The dated decor of our hotel. The sloppiness of the room cleaning - hairs in the shower and bed, small bits of rubbish on the floor.

What we didn't see was animals - no dogs, cats or even birds.

A full moon rose over a flash building.

The traffic was crazy. Motorbike riders weaved nonchalantly in and out of gaps most people would never attempt. They sat behind cars breathing the exhaust fumes. Bottlenecks and jams happen regularly. Locals with money have drivers. Taxis are everywhere and cost next to nothing. There are motorbike taxis too. Given the opportunity, there are lots of things I would do but getting on the back of one of those motorbikes in Jakarta's traffic isn't one of them!  

Despite the predominantly Muslim religion, women seem to be well and truly involved in the workforce. We dealt with them in many places.

Taste - We had spicy food at last! We ate Asian for every meal and loved it all. We've missed our Asian food! We caught up with John's mate again (the one we caught up with earlier in Singapore) and had a sensational Indonesian meal.

The sounds of Jakarta are the sounds of traffic - endless, noisy, dirty traffic. The lilt of Bahasa Indonesian, The cacophony of the call to prayer from multiple minarets.

Feel - the slightly damp sheets and pillowcases on our bed. The clamminess of our clothes. The sweat dripping down our backs.

I was both horrified and fascinated by the ramshackle second-story 'houses' built above shops and other buildings. Using sheets of tin, planks of wood and whatever else they could find, people pieced together what were obviously illegal homes wherever they could. These people must be poverty-stricken to live in conditions like this. The air they breathed was full of fumes from the endless flow of motorbikes, cars and trucks that rumbled past only metres from their walls. Their views of the busy roads were partly obscured by a mass of thick black cables that were suspended between poles. One such place had a wall between the house and the highway that was only only about a meter high. Inside, a family sat watching TV, oblivious to the traffic racing past just outside their open wall.

Many people love Jakarta but I think you have to be born there. It's interesting to visit but it's way too busy for us. 

We checked out at 9pm, went to the airport and caught our plane to Sorong, in Papua, just after midnight. We had no sleep at all and landed at 6am. We then had a tricky series of connections, which was especially tricky on no sleep. First we caught a taxi from the airport to the ferry terminal. Sorong was surprisingly dilapidated. It had the feel of a town that nobody cared about. Everything was ramshackle and tired. 

We were immediately struck by the difference in the people here. They didn't look central Indonesian - they looked and behaved exactly like the people in New Guinea which of course makes perfect sense. West Papua is the Indonesian part of the larger PNG island, so of course the people are the same. We were happy about this as the New Guinea people are pretty crazy but they're lots of fun! It turned out though that the people here are far more Indonesian in their attitudes and culture.

Getting the ferry tickets was an experience. The office wasn't yet open and people were hanging around not really knowing what to do. We didn't have to wait long for it to open through and we bought our tickets. We walked to the ferry along a long jetty where the main sight was a large ship slowly sinking. Nearby, people at a police academy, or something along those lines, were lined up in rows singing the national anthem while saluting.

To get to our ferry we had to enter through another boat and balance across planks of wood at the crossings. Inside we found out seats. Soon the ferry was so packed that people were sitting on the stairs. We pulled out more or less on time and were horrified at the amount of rubbish floating on the sea in the port area. Local houses perched on poles over the water were clearly using the sea as their personal rubbish tips. It was so sad.

The two hour trip was all smooth and we arrived at Waisai. Here we were met by the owners of our accommodation. Rashid was Dutch and spoke perfect English which was wonderful. His local partner, Eka, spoke good English too. It was raining as we climbed into a little longboat and I commented something about the rain. The owner's answer was that it's always raining in Raja Ampat! What???

It turned out that there were only three bungalows at our little lodge. Rashid tried to build a simple lodge like this six times. Each time, dealing with the locals (renting a property, agreeing to the terms etc) proved too difficult. In the end, he and Eka decided that it was this one or nothing and he stuck with it. It was so hard! In the end, he got three bungalows built and decided to just start with that, even though he planned to have more than this.

The bungalows are out over the water, which was amazing! Fish lived underneath us and we snorkelled straight off our steps into the sea. 

The bungalows were very simple - the walls and roof were made of palm leaves. The louvre windows were wood, not glass. There was no aircon. We had electricity though and the bed was one of the most comfortable we've had for months!

The three bungalows, plus an unfinished one, from the water.

We were immediately fascinated by the huge schools of tiny fish that hung out around the bungalows. Needle fish would regularly attack them and we would fall asleep to the sound of dozens of tiny fish jumping as the needlefish launched into their swirling mass.

We saw so many interesting fish and other sea life just from our bungalow and the jetties. I think these are a type of catfish. They move as a very tight group.

These cute little guys hung out under our steps.

The staff were brilliant. There were six of them, plus the two owners, for six guests! Tia was four-foot-nothing and spoke a little English. Ado was the youngest but spoke no English. She had a whopping smile and laughed loudly when things were funny or if she didn't understand what was being said in English. Ain started the day we arrived. I'm not sure what her position was but, with her perfect English, she soon became the main woman. I wondered if that might put the others out and later learned that Tia didn't get on with her. This could be why. Grace was the lovely cook.

Ado wearing a raincoat made from rubbish bags and her trademark smile.

The two boys, Sam and Daniel (who quickly became Capt'n Dan from Forrest Gump) were both great. We had lots of fun with these wonderful people.

The other guest were all great. A Swiss couple around our age, Maya and Ueli, arrived on the same boat as us and stayed the whole time that we were there. They were really lovely but he got a bout of gastro later in the week which stopped him doing much. The other cabin had a few different people in it for shorter stays and we got on well with all of them. It was good that everyone was so nice because we all ate meals together and sometimes snorkelled or did boat trips together.

The weather was amazingly unpredictable though. It rained nearly every day for our first few days. The roof leaked at times. And when it rained, it poured!

When I was booking this trip, I found it very hard to get a bungalow over the water that had an en-suite. I've now realised why. Our toilet connected to a special bio-tank that was suspended under our bathroom. Note that only the toilet connected to it. The basin and shower water go straight into the sea! When we had rough weather, the bio-tank thumped and thudded under our house. We started noticing bad smells coming from it. Then, one morning, we flushed the toilet and I heard it flush directly into the sea! The pipe had come off. Rashid is the first to admit that he's great at certain things but he can't fix anything, so he sent the two boys to work. Poor Sam and Daniel jumped into the sea, knowing that the toilet contents had emptied into the water! The tank had shifted off its platform and the boys provided great entertainment for staff and us alike as they pushed and shoved the tank back into position. Then, the next day, the pipe fell off again...... When I told Rashid he said that the boys mustn't have used enough glue but there was no glue used. We had no more rough weather and the pipe held for the rest of our stay, thankfully!

The boys were pretty pleased with themselves.

Some of the staff couldn't swim so we ended up giving them swimming lessons. Tia, on left, was 43 and couldn't swim at all. Ado was a pretty good swimmer.

John and Ado practicing self-defence.

The reef just in front to the cabins was wonderful. There was an incredible array of fish and soft and hard corals.

We saw our first turtle here!

A scorpion fish.

There were patches of sandy flats in places and these hosted a whole different range of underwater life.

A pipefish, which is closely related to the seahorse.

We saw many long spidery arms which apparently belong to a sea cucumber!

I was fascinated many times by the strange things in the water. I often couldn't tell if they were plants or animals! This was probably some sort of anemone.

Small fish guarded their little holes in the sand but some of them shared them with a type of shrimp!

A huge school of barracuda swam slowly around me one day!

But my favourite fish of all was this juvenile barramundi. When it swam it was like it was dancing!

Different kinds of batfish hung out at the jetty.

One day I saw a school of squid! They were fairly deep though and the photos aren't very clear.

The island we were on, Friwen Island, was only small and a local village was located just behind our huts. A mangrove-lined jetty led to the island.

We visited the village a number of times. To our surprise, the main 'street' was lined with painted rails and was so straight that it looked like a racetrack! 

On one side, a jetty ran out to the sea. Small fish made the mistake of hanging around the jetty in their thousands. Every time we visited, people were fishing. Kids, in particular, would just drop an unbaited hook into the mass of small fish then jerk the line upwards. It invariably caught a fish. Older women were often catching larger fish but were just as happy with the smaller ones. When it's this easy to catch fish, it must have traditionally been a relatively easy lifestyle for the people that live here.

Kids under a breadfruit tree.

All the tin seems to be rusty (and can be used for drying clothes, apparently!)

The church bell was a recycled gas bottle!

Awww......

Of course, John talked to everyone, including the kids. We met a girl one day. She was maybe 8 or 10. She asked John's name so he told her. John asked her name and she said it was April, so John said his name was January. We saw her a couple of times after that and she always said hello January (she got the joke)!

Each time we visited the village, we would sit on a seat near the shop and watch the village life happen around us. One day it was a Sunday and church was on. People were dressed in their best clothes. One baby was crying and crying and it was interesting to see that at least nine different women took turns holding it, trying to calm it. Now that's community help!

There were two shops in the village - this was the large one! Quite young kids would often come here on their own. Clearly everyone feels safe. There's no 'stranger danger' here.

There were no cars or motorbikes on the island - just boats.

One day, just as we were leaving the village, we heard giggling from behind a tree. Four kids were trying unsuccessfully to hide from us (it wasn't a very wide tree!) Soon we were all playing games and we had a ball!

The kids were so funny. They showed us how they could count to 20 - by using their fingers and toes! They didn't speak English so they mimed to John that they wanted him to hide and count and a long game of hide and seek followed. By the time we finished we were so hot and sweaty!

Sometimes, a local cuss cuss would come to eat the bananas on offer from our kitchen. Cuss cuss are a lot like possums, only twice the size and more colourful.

Group photo after dinner one night.

Much to our surprise, we had karaoke nights! We soon realised that Eka was a very good singer and loved to do karaoke, but most of the staff did too. They usually chose Indonesian love songs and even the boys got into it.

Maya and Ueli sung '99 Luft Balloons" which was the closest they could get to a Swiss song!

John and Tia were the "That's Amore" champions!

A few days later, a lovely French couple arrived and nailed a French song.

Sometimes John and Tia had to settle as backup dancers!

This gorgeous tiny island stood in the shallow waters nearby.

Directly opposite us was another island with the the famous Friwen Wall, a sheer drop that had stunning fan coral, something that snorkellers don't see that often as they're usually deeper down. It was a stiff swim across the channel to reach the wall and we went there four times!

The edges of the island were undercut and it was fun swimming beneath the overhang.

A split in the rocks was cool.

But it was the fan corals that blew me away.

There were many different clown fish in different anemones.

We saw triggerfish at most places.

We even saw an octopus! (It's the blobby bit hiding in the rock in the middle of the photo, lol).

Puffer fish.

We think this is a shark egg. I've only ever seen one before.

The details of some of the corals were amazing!

I don't even know if these are an animal or a plant or something inbetween. My technical name for them is 'heart valve thingies'!

Feather stars were attached to many fan corals and other corals. I thought these were plants until I saw one walking!

Fan corals and feather stars.

I think this is a soft coral but I'm not sure!

An amazing coral.

There were beautiful salmon pink tubular corals....

.... and spiky blue ones.

Rashid told us that it's possible to see dugongs nearby. We looked every day and finally spotted one on our last trip to the Friwen Wall! It hovered underneath us for a minute or two before swimming away. Woohoo!

We sometimes finished so late that it was almost dark by the time we snorkeled home.

Rashid and Eka, the owners, were away for a couple of days and we did a short trip to a nearby island. Sam and Ado were all smiles here but there was something going on between the two of them. They must have had a bot of a tiff later - the looks Ado was giving Sam could kill a man at 50 paces!

We pulled up at a sandy beach. It was all so idyllic!

Someone had lived on the island at one stage and had cats. Apparently the cat numbers grew to hundreds until someone culled them. Now there are only seven but we could see some were pregnant.... Ain enjoyed playing with them.

Me, Ain, John, Maya (the Swiss woman) and Ado.

And with a German woman and her twin boys who stayed a few days,

Ado was always smiling and joking.

Sunsets here were simply superb!

Rashid, the owner of our bungalows. was the perfect host. Not only did he inform and entertain us but he took us out for a couple of all-day boat trips. 

We did the first trip with the lovely French couple who were staying with us. We saw so many homestays along the way - simple bungalows over water. They all looked so lovely. But the reality for the locals is not as beautiful by any stretch of the imagination.

Our first stop was The Passage, where two islands almost meet. We jumped into the water and swam into a couple of caves. It was so cool!

The inside of the first cave was open to the sky.

The sunlight reflecting off the sandy bottom of the cave turned the water a stunning blue.

In the next cave, the water reflected these colours onto the walls. They really only showed up like this in my camera though.

We motored into Hidden Bay, a labyrinth of islands and waterways. We weren't allowed out of the boat here as there had been a crocodile sighted here. We later learned that most people don't swim in the caves we had just been in for the same reason!

A trick that the captain had was to race as fast as he could between these two islands. The gap was about two metres wider than the boat so it was a thrilling experience!

Gorgeous little islands like this were everywhere.

We snorkelled in a few different places. Colourful Christmas stars on a coral.

A crocodile fish. I'd never heard of this before. It really does look like a crocodile. I think it's a type of scorpion fish.

This enormous moray is actually hard to see. It's all the black part.

Dolphins :)

We pulled up on the island of Arborek for lunch. Local boats sat photogenically on the shore.

We drank coconut milk straight from the coconuts.

The village on this island was larger than the one on ours but the main road was still the same.

There were plenty of thirsty tourists here!

The village was awash with colour.

These miniature buildings were a cemetery! The village on Friwen had the same thing.

The snorkelling this day was superb. We saw so many turtles!

A hawksbill.

Probably a leatherback turtle.

Rashid likes to get up close!

John exploring.

A jetty between Mansuar and Kri Islands was amazing. There were so many fish there!

We finished the day with beer and coke (which I drink about once a year!) on a sandbar. It was wonderful!

Rashid and Eka.

Looking back over the sandbar with spectacular clouds in the distance.

One evening, we saw the most amazing sunset as we snorkelled back from the Friwen Wall.

We both stopped in the water and watched in wonder as the sky exploded into colour around us.

I stood in the water and rotated around to take this. The sunset colours were in every direction!

Our second trip was with a Dutch/English couple who were staying in another homestay whose boat had broken down. They were lovely and we had a fantastic trip with them!

First stop was the famous Piaynemo Viewpoint. To get to the viewpoint we climbed up stairs that had holes cut in them so they didn't have to cut the trees down!

The view from the top was sensational!

This exact view is on one of the rupiah notes. It's a thing to hold the note up in a photo but John the Comedian deliberately turned the note around so you can't see the picture!

We could see a turtle swimming in the clear water beneath us!

We snorkelled onto an island then got out and walked a short distance to a bay. A homestay was there with another photogenic longboat.

We had lunch on the boat beside a stunning jetty on one of the islands that dotted this area.

We walked from the boat to a stunning bay, however the rubbish that had been washed up on the shore was so sad to see.

A striking island towered over the tiny beach.

Getting ready to jump in.

Cute, but I steered clear of it!

So many fish!

A Napoleon wrasse.

The jetty itself was really cool to snorkel through.

John spent ages hanging out with this puffer fish. He got within about two feet of it!

Sweetlips.

Up close and personal with a cuttlefish!

Our week came to an end. Usually we feel ready to move on but not this time. I felt that I needed a few more days here.

The awesome team. Yep, Ado is laughing again.

Maya took photos of us leaving. She said the girls cried!

We had the most fantastic stay here. We sweated, we stuck to the sheet and we got sunburnt despite trying everything we could to avoid it. But we snorkelled, we saw incredible underwater life, we met fantastic people (both locals and tourists) and we enjoyed the slower pace of life.

It really was superb.

Heather and John