bonairefans
Contributor
Raja Ampat ~ April 17-27, 2015
Our Komodo experience aboard Mermaid 1 a year ago was so exceptional that as soon as we returned home, we booked Raja Ampat for 2015.
We arrived in Sorong, West Papua, with the highest of expectations, and the Mermaid team rose to the occasion. From the diving to topside activities to on-board accommodations/amenities, superlatives apply to one and all.
Each day was filled with so many extraordinary diving experiences. For large critters, Manta Sandy is a signature Raja Ampat site. It can be hit or miss whether the mantas will show up at this cleaning station, but we got lucky on both dives there. At Melissa's Garden, the entire panorama was so densely packed with schools of fish...the energy produced by all this concentrated life was electrifying...I couldn't tell if I was riding waves of euphoria or died and went to diver's heaven...when diving is this sensational, who cares?
Travel Logistics
It took 22 hours to reach Manado from California, but Singapore Air makes it as enjoyable as possible. And reasonable, $1,100 RT from SFO. The most reliable means to reach Sorong from Manado is Garuda...and cheap, only $90 RT through Nusatrip.com. And Garuda allows 32 kg of sports equipment free: we checked-in a total of 150 lbs and didn't pay a penny for luggage fees. Although Garuda departs Manado at the ungodly hour of 4:30 am, on the plus side you don't have to deal with that city's nightmarish traffic to reach the airport in the middle of the night.
We had an 8-hour layover at Singapore, but there's a conveniently-located hotel in Terminal 3 (you don't leave security) that charges $10/hr. Our flight from Seoul arrived at 1 am, and within minutes we were in a comfortable hotel room...sweet, indeed.
We were so glad we planned to spend time in North Sulawesi, five-days outbound and four returning. We stayed at Lumbalumba Resort south of Manado, and enjoyed shore diving and visiting Tangkoko Nature Reserve to observe tarsiers and crested black macaques...a priceless experience. On the return, we stayed at Two Fish Resort on Bunaken Island. Bunaken has walls and viz that even surpass Raja. And the turtles: we saw so many greens napping in niches, it reminded us of Sipadan in the 90s.
Raja isn't pristine. The shark populations haven't bounced back after decades of harvesting. And the West Papuans continue to take turtles, which never recovered from the exploitation to meet Bali's demand for greens to torture and sacrifice. And reef bombing is always a potential threat.
But mantas abound, as do huge shoals of fish. And there are seemingly endless expanses of healthy coral that, when illuminated by scintillating sunlight, will shock your retinas like no other sight on the planet.
And as for Mermaid 1 and her crew...you'll never find a friendlier group of cheerful, dedicated professionals anywhere on the 7 Seas. Their goal is to reveal the treasures of West Papua, and they delivered.
Here's Raja Ampat ~ South
[video=youtube;yKovxrURnxA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKovxrURnxA[/video]
And Raja Ampat ~ Central
[video=youtube;G5D_tZhX1H4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5D_tZhX1H4[/video]
Flying with Singapore Air; Stop-over in Manado: orchids, rare primates, and black-banded sea kraits
[video=youtube;1KF7_xR0HpI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KF7_xR0HpI[/video]
No one should miss the opportunity to see tarsiers and crested black macaques at Tangkoko Nature Reserve
[video=youtube;Ka0Ci4l2wJg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka0Ci4l2wJg[/video]
Our Komodo experience aboard Mermaid 1 a year ago was so exceptional that as soon as we returned home, we booked Raja Ampat for 2015.
We arrived in Sorong, West Papua, with the highest of expectations, and the Mermaid team rose to the occasion. From the diving to topside activities to on-board accommodations/amenities, superlatives apply to one and all.
Each day was filled with so many extraordinary diving experiences. For large critters, Manta Sandy is a signature Raja Ampat site. It can be hit or miss whether the mantas will show up at this cleaning station, but we got lucky on both dives there. At Melissa's Garden, the entire panorama was so densely packed with schools of fish...the energy produced by all this concentrated life was electrifying...I couldn't tell if I was riding waves of euphoria or died and went to diver's heaven...when diving is this sensational, who cares?
Travel Logistics
It took 22 hours to reach Manado from California, but Singapore Air makes it as enjoyable as possible. And reasonable, $1,100 RT from SFO. The most reliable means to reach Sorong from Manado is Garuda...and cheap, only $90 RT through Nusatrip.com. And Garuda allows 32 kg of sports equipment free: we checked-in a total of 150 lbs and didn't pay a penny for luggage fees. Although Garuda departs Manado at the ungodly hour of 4:30 am, on the plus side you don't have to deal with that city's nightmarish traffic to reach the airport in the middle of the night.
We had an 8-hour layover at Singapore, but there's a conveniently-located hotel in Terminal 3 (you don't leave security) that charges $10/hr. Our flight from Seoul arrived at 1 am, and within minutes we were in a comfortable hotel room...sweet, indeed.
We were so glad we planned to spend time in North Sulawesi, five-days outbound and four returning. We stayed at Lumbalumba Resort south of Manado, and enjoyed shore diving and visiting Tangkoko Nature Reserve to observe tarsiers and crested black macaques...a priceless experience. On the return, we stayed at Two Fish Resort on Bunaken Island. Bunaken has walls and viz that even surpass Raja. And the turtles: we saw so many greens napping in niches, it reminded us of Sipadan in the 90s.
Raja isn't pristine. The shark populations haven't bounced back after decades of harvesting. And the West Papuans continue to take turtles, which never recovered from the exploitation to meet Bali's demand for greens to torture and sacrifice. And reef bombing is always a potential threat.
But mantas abound, as do huge shoals of fish. And there are seemingly endless expanses of healthy coral that, when illuminated by scintillating sunlight, will shock your retinas like no other sight on the planet.
And as for Mermaid 1 and her crew...you'll never find a friendlier group of cheerful, dedicated professionals anywhere on the 7 Seas. Their goal is to reveal the treasures of West Papua, and they delivered.
Here's Raja Ampat ~ South
[video=youtube;yKovxrURnxA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKovxrURnxA[/video]
And Raja Ampat ~ Central
[video=youtube;G5D_tZhX1H4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5D_tZhX1H4[/video]
Flying with Singapore Air; Stop-over in Manado: orchids, rare primates, and black-banded sea kraits
[video=youtube;1KF7_xR0HpI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KF7_xR0HpI[/video]
No one should miss the opportunity to see tarsiers and crested black macaques at Tangkoko Nature Reserve
[video=youtube;Ka0Ci4l2wJg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka0Ci4l2wJg[/video]
