Hubby and SIL both missed Christmas 2013 at home. They were both in Indonesia, but in different parts. SIL went to Bali for a diving adventure with her buddy. Hubby and partner went to Bintuni for a business 'reconnaissance' trip. Bintuni is really far and remote, so he had to take 3 flights to get there, via Jakarta, followed by boat and motorbike!
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| cheap seafood at Sorong |
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| A really small plane! |
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| Bintuni airport |
One of the stops before Bintuni is a coastal town called Sorong. We found out that it is actually the gateway to Raja Ampat! In case you don't know, Raja Ampat is the holy grail of scuba diving! So since Hubby had to miss Christmas at home for this trip he figured he might as well make the most of it and try to squeeze in some diving on the way back!
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| Sorong- gateway to Raja Ampat |
Since it was a last minute thing, all the resorts were fully booked and they ended up staying at a home-stay kind of place. The food served was miserable and the ceilings leaked onto the dusty netting above the bed. To get to the better diving sites, you had to take a boat out to the islands. A trip which took about an hour. They didn't have the luxury of time, so they just dived around Sorong. To really enjoy the best dive spots of Raja Ampat, the best way is to liveaboard, i.e.: live on a boat that brings you around to all the remote dive sites.
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| the home-stay |
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| leaky ceiling |
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| not a happy sight for the hungry diver! |
Hubby was not too enthusiastic about the diving, maybe because he was missing Christmas at home and the home-stay place left much to be desired. We have also been spoiled by amazing diving experiences in Manado, Sipadan and the Maldives, so admittedly, the bar has been set rather high!
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| with dive buddies and dive masters |
However the pictures look great to me! White sand beaches and crystal clear waters. They saw many things too like manta rays, reef sharks, different types of nudibranches and even pygmy seahorses! I would prefer a resort to home-stay anytime though! Hehehe... I'm definitely not the backpacker kinda girl! :)
So here are some of the pics. Hubby brought the smaller camera, without a strobe, so the picture quality isn't too great.
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| manta rays |
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| black tip reef shark |
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| crocodile fish |
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| nudibranch |
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| Hubby's Christmas eve turkey substitute! |
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