Back on the Blog again

Boy, have I gotten behind. As I write this, we are in Bali. The last post I wrote was for Koh Lanta, somewhere we left over a month ago. It was difficult to stay on top of things with no hiccups, but in Chiang Mai, Thailand we got sick - debilitatingly so. We spent much of the next week recovering, and then we went to Cambodia where it was discovered that we both had sinus infections. We have now arrived in Bali, and our last day of antibiotics are behind us, so I will attempt to do some catching up. But for lack of time and energy, the synopses will be very brief, so if you have any questions feel free to let me know via Facebook message or email.

So without further ado...

Thailand.
After leaving Koh Lanta, it was time for liveaboard #2, this time in the Similan Islands. Our boat left out of Khao Lak for a four day/four night trip. The first night was the departure; the last day had only two dives and the arrival, so we did a total of 14 dives. The highlight for us was clearly Richelieu Rock, which has a density of fish population akin to Raja Ampat, glorious coral and interesting rare life like seahorses and ornate ghost pipefish. Our experience at Richelieu Rock was amplified even more, as it was preceded by two very unsavory dives with about a thousand jellyfish, and no wetsuit, at Tachai Pinnacle. The boat was nicer and the amenities were more plentiful, but the number of divers was far larger, and there was a very large group of Chinese people who spoke very poor English. All of the briefings, of which there were several a day, were given by a small Thai woman in English. Her speeches got progressively louder as the Chinese group would lose interest at what they could presumably not understand very well, and begin to talk amongst themselves. This would cause her to raise her voice even more, until her voice took on the quality of a poorly made set of speakers turned up far beyond their capabilities. The underwater stuff was great. It was too closely removed from Raja Ampat to be truly amazing, but we very much enjoyed the diving. The above water stuff: the organization, the customer service etc., certainly left something to be desired, especially coming off of what was a really well done trip in Indonesia.

After Khao Lak it was off to another island, this time on the other side of Thailand. We took a bus to a taxi to a bus to a taxi over the course of a full day to get to the ferry to take us to Koh Tao, in order to do a little resting and a little more diving. We arrived at the end of what had been a bout of extremely rainy weather for Koh Tao, which was not ideal for the diving. We spent most of our five days in Koh Tao moped-ing around similarly to Koh Lanta. The exception was Koh Tao has a smaller moped-able area, and we didn't have a strong desire to explore rough terrain in a rented scooter. The food in Koh Tao was incredible. Several places which we ate at several times, which is somewhat of a rarity for vegetarians, as we usually order the one vegetarian item on the menu and move on the next place. The diving in Koh Tao was certainly not the best. It is unfair to compare it to what we had just done, but that is the comparison we had to make. We did one trip which included two dives at Sail Rock. Sail Rock is generally accepted as the best dive site on the eastern side of Thailand. The visibility was very poor and the life was similar to, but less than, what we had been seeing. Not to say that Koh Tao was not worth diving at, but it is strongly geared toward beginners and teaching. For experienced divers coming off of 30+ dives in world class locations, it certainly didn't leave us wanting more.



After Koh Tao it was off to the capital to see the biggest and most developed city Thailand had to offer. A Grand Palace swarming with tourists on a blisteringly hot day, and a seriously large mall were the two major points of interest. The Grand Palace was surely "grand", but the experience was tainted by the crowds and the heat. We accomplished much of our shopping goals for the whole trip at the MBK center which was a 7 story mall with rows and rows of stalls and shops with a cool multicultural food court. We only spent two days in Bangkok, and they were a pleasant surprise. I always pictured the epitome of a big dirty city, but it was much cleaner and more modern and developed than I had thought, and we enjoyed our time there.

The Royal Thai Palace

I will hopefully continue to catch up soon. Upcoming will be Chaing Mai, Pai. Siem Reap and the Angkor Temples and Phnom Penh

Memories and Exploration

We left Phuket by ferry in the morning toward Koh Lanta.

View from the ferry near Koh Phi Phi

The ferry went through Koh Phi Phi (pronounced Ko Pee Pee (hee hee)) which we decided to skip due to time and its reputation for being heavily populated by partying tourists. The people who got off the ferry when it stopped in Phi Phi were supremely douche-y looking (we're talking neon trucker hats and deep v-neck tank tops), and they assuaged our slight disappointment at missing out on what would otherwise be a very beautiful island.

My Parents and I on Koh Lanta Dec. 2006

We arrived at Koh Lanta a few hours after our departure and piled into a cab with several other people headed to nearby hotels. The nostalgia and deja vu was instantaneous for me. It had been just over 10 years since my last visit to this place, but it seemed so familiar. The same pier where my parents and I had sat and played cards and the same small rows of shops that we had walked through, and I had purchased a few bootleg CD's and movies as a 15-year-old. Especially a story I will never forget, told to my parents and I by two Dutch travelers, who survived the Tsunami in 2004 and returned in 2006 to celebrate the 2 year anniversary, was told to us in a small street side shop near the ferry dock. I instantly recognized it and recounted the story to Laura.

We had been excited about the placement of our hotel. It was equidistant between a restaurant we were excited to try and the beach. But as it became dinner time, rain had closed the restaurant we wanted to try early, and we were forced to improvise. Closer to our hotel, there was a tiny street side family owned restaurant which turned out to be a great find. The veggie options were not plentiful but they were done well, and we ended up coming back to eat at this little hole in the wall because the service was fast and personal, and the food was delicious and authentic. It was literally a husband and wife and their two young children who roamed the house/restaurant. The young boy stopped to watch me play a game on my phone while we waited for food.

The highlight of our time on Koh Lanta was surely the exploration. Renting a moped is very easy throughout Thailand, but it can be very dangerous especially in big cities and where roads are poor. Koh Lanta's roads are by no means in great condition, but it is a very small island and the main mode of transportation is moped. It cost us 200baht/day (roughly $6), and once again the nostalgia struck me hard. The last time I had driven a moped was in fact 10 years prior, here on Koh Lanta.

As Laura and I rode around the Island essentially taking whichever turn we fancied, recognition and memories were so surprising. It culminated in a view point (pictured below) where a small restaurant stood and three tiny kittens slept when my parents and I stopped for refreshment. The restaurant still stands and their shakes are still delicious. I did see one orange adult cat, and although I'm hesitant to say it was the grown up version of the kittens I saw when I was 15, I like to think it was.

Kittens in 2006 at the viewpoint pictured above

We drove completely around Koh Lanta and then across it back to our hotel sufficiently sunburned and vibrated from the moped riding.

The next day we hopped on the moped again, this time going south to check out some ot the beautiful beaches for some lounging and swimming. It was, however, swelteringly hot out and the previously mentioned sunburns prohibited any lounging. We did take a swim at the beach pictured below and found it to be incredibly warm at the surface with a very significant thermocline (temperature change) only 4-5ft under. This made diving down, even in shallow water, super refreshing.

.

After deciding not to spend 500 Baht each to see the national park at the far south tip of the island, we turned around and were treated to, for my money, the highlight of Koh Lanta. Crossing the road we were driving along was a whole family of monkeys. "Crab-eating macaques" or "Long-tailed macaques" are relatively common on the island, but it was a first for us. I pulled the moped over to the side of the road and observed. After my initial encroachments and outstretched hand was met with aggression from the obvious dominant male, Laura and I retreated which seemed to assuage his agitation, and they allowed us to get very close and take several pictures and get some video, which included some very authentic natural behaviors, if you catch my drift. We hung out with them for about twenty minutes before they made their way into the brush on the opposite side of the road.

The video is posted here: https://youtu.be/v8XXd5ikln8, the audio leaves something to be desired, but the commentary from Laura is pure gold.

unparalleled bliss of post-coital cleaning 

Overall Koh Lanta was a wonderful place to explore, especially with a vibrating hot chick strapped to my back for most of it. Next we were back to Phuket and on to the Similan Islands for liveaboard number two.

Mr.Toad's Wild Ride: Phuket Edition

Our flight from Singapore to Phuket was short and sweet, especially compared to our recent experiences. Arriving at the Phuket Airport marked only the beginning of our travel, as there was still a taxi ride to our hotel. For those less familiar with Thailand, or more specifically the island of Phuket, it is a large island at the south tip of the country separated from the body of Thailand by at most a few Km of the Andaman Sea.

https://www.google.co.th/maps/place/Phuket/@7.9980858,98.2711688,11z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x305031e2c462524f:0xe9ca9a85063dba21!8m2!3d7.9519331!4d98.3380884

The airport is near the north of the island, where as the ferry dock we were scheduled to leave from in the morning, and subsequently our hotel choice, was significantly further south in the district of Chalong. The taxi ride from the airport was going to be roughly an hour. Laura had the hotel name saved in her email, and the taxi driver handed us his phone for us to punch in the details for Google Maps to provide him directions. She typed in Chalong Boutique Inn selected the first match (all in Thai) and we were off.

The first 40 min of the drive were as expected, we watched out the window as we drove by strips of slightly run down sprawl and marveled at the beauty and intricacy of the Thai written language. We remarked
at billboards warning against the purchase of Buddha heads (only the full body of Buddha is to be portrayed for proper reverence) or getting Buddha tattoos. Another shocking and slightly terrifying sight was the state of the power lines. All over the city lining the streets were disturbing rats nests of tangled and overstuffed electrcal wires. We assumed based on their proximity to the ground (some as low as 4-5 ft. off the ground) and their constancy that there were not lethal to the touch, but we did not test this theory.

As we continued towards our destination, our taxi driver broke from his near constant stream of mumbling in Thai to himself to try to tell us that the hotel we were going to (and had prepaid for the ride) was not within the area we had prepaid for. He said that he was taking us past the district of Chalong to Karon and that it was 200 baht more than we had prepaid. We meekly argued that the name of the hotel was the Chalong Boutique, so how could it be in Karon? We had little evidence to back up our claim, and he was continuing to press the matter in very broken and slurred English. We got to Chalong, where it seemed that he said that unless we paid another 200 baht (bringing the taxi ride up from 800 to 1000 baht roughly $30 USD which is staggeringly expensive around here) he would drop us off here in Chalong and not take us to our hotel. We rolled our eyes and pulled 200 more baht out and passed it forward. He then reacted the total opposite to what he had just been mumbling about saying "no, no. no it's okay, I take you" conveying that we did not need to pay extra before taking the money anyway and placing it out of our reach into the front passenger seat. Laura and exchanged confused and irritated looks at the language barrier and mixed signal we kept receiving. About 10 min after this, Laura, who was more familiar with the layout of Phuket because of the hotel booking and research she did, began to realize that we were not heading to where she thought our hotel was. About 10 min after that, the cab pulled up to the side of the road where the Google Maps had taken us. There was no Chalong Boutique Inn. He looked at the phone and attempted to communicate something about our apparent arrival and asking if we knew where it was. When we of course did not, he turned around and pulled up to a nearby street vendor to ask for directions and then stop for a smoke break, further elongating the feelings of frustration and uneasiness we were feeling. When he finished his cigarette and rapid Thai conversation with a street vendor, we took off back in the direction we came to attempt to find our hotel. About 5 min more of driving and a turn off the main road led us to a cluster of hotels, none of which were ours. Finally exasperated, exhausted and ready for dinner in a big way, Laura decided to switch the phone off airplane mode (adding to the already expensive trip) to access the 3G connection to check her email and attempt to confirm the address. Sure enough after 2 min of searching, she was able to confirm that the address Google Maps provided was wrong (by only a few letters) and the address was back in Chalong, where we previously sure that it was. Seemingly unwilling to chase wild geese with us any longer, the taxi driver requested the phone number and proceeded to call our hotel for directions from our current location. The directions he received were only good for about 10 more minutes of driving back towards Chalong from Karon, when he pulled off to the side of the road and levied another call to the Hotel this time louder and faster. This phone call only achieved about 2 more minutes of driving before a third phone call was made, this time yelling and obviously confused. After the third call, we went only about 200 yards forward before we saw our hotel and a man standing outside with a phone in hand. Our driver, however, did not see it and we had to shout "There it is" three or four times before he saw and stopped well beyond. I have never been so grateful to get out of a taxi. As a parting gift for our troubles, I quickly and quietly snatched the 200 baht still sitting in the passenger front seat as the driver unloaded the bags, and we proceeded to check in. Giant sigh of relief and relaxation were uttered as the door closed to our hotel room.

Our room at the Chalong Boutique Inn

After dropping off our luggage and connecting to the WiFi, we quickly scoped out a place to eat within walking distance and preceded to drink several beers and play pool at a bar called Happy Days. The next morning it was up and at 'em again, as we took a ferry to Koh Lanta for some beach R&R.

What it Means to be Singaporean

After our liveaboard in Raja Ampat we spent the night in Sorong before catching our return flights, all three of them, to Singapore. We arrived at our hotel shortly after midnight and were ready for some serious sleep. We had 5 days to explore and absorb Singapore's many attractions and vibrant multiculturalism. The public transit system took us some time to learn its intricacies, but it proved to be a cheap, easy, and efficient way of getting just about anywhere in the city.

Staggering architecture, both religious and commercial

outside a Chinatown fitness center

One of the major highlights was our trip to the Singapore National Museum (pictured below)

We learned the history of Singapore from their formal founding as "Singapura", or Lion City, in the 1400's, to their independence from England only about 50 years ago. The most interesting thing was how the citizens of Singapore throughout its history had much stronger ties to their ethnic background, rather than their current location. Predominantly Chinese, Indian, and Malay, the population didn't start to self recognize as "Singaporean" until after it's independence, when strong nationalism was endorsed by the new government. Even in their version of the "Pledge of Allegiance", which the school children repeat every morning, there is verbiage about being multicultural and accepting people regardless of their race, religion, culture or otherwise. It is a very interesting and unique history which has produced a wholly unique vibe to the entire city. Learning about what made Singapore, Singapore proved to be a major highlight so far. 

The "Supertrees" at Singapores Garden by the Bay

The Gardens by the Bay were another starkly Singaporean sight. Throughout the city there are trees, parks, lush greenery and no shortage of the smell of nature around you. However, there is a very specific style which all the plant life falls into. Singapore certainly appreciates nature and strive to have it be a part of their lives, but it is always tamed. Groomed, trimmed, manicured and otherwise shown in its best and most humanized way. The Gardens by the Bay were an intense microcosm of this ideal. Many different plants from all over the world, in almost an outdoor museum style, everything carefully in its place and labeled. And don't forget, everything lights up at night even the creepiest statue of this falling baby inches from impact.

Gardens by the Bay on the Right

East side of Downtown on the Left

The appreciation of nature didn't just stop with plants. The "Night Safari" came highly recommended, and it did not disappoint. It was an incredible to see a variety of nocturnal animals during their hours of activity.

Mousedeer

What Laura referred to as "Demon Deer"

Civet

Red Tail Flying Squirrel

Flying Fox (Basically a giant bat)

Long Spine Porcupine

Singapore really blew my expectations away. I typically loath big cities, congestion, and crowding, but Singapore delivered an authentically ethnic and consistently mind-blowing cuisine, constant cultural education, and the best smelling city I have ever experienced. Seriously, the worst smell in Singapore is "neutral". We left feeling like we could have spent another week and still had plenty of this city left to experience. From there it was on to Thailand...

Life Aboard the Jaya

     When we arrived aboard the Jaya for our week of diving it was hard to know what exactly to expect. We knew we were in for small groups and world renowned diving, but for Laura especially, who had never been on a liveaboard dive trip, we had very little idea of what we were getting into. This cautious optimism continued throughout the trip and continued to pay off.

As we were shown to our cabin we found two small (2m x .7m) beds with some storage space under them and shelf connecting them at the foot of the beds. a hatch for ventilation in the ceiling and a simple air-conditioning unit (this turned out to be a lifesaver at times). It was certainly meager accommodations and the beds were a bit disappointing. After such a long and uncomfortable journey to reach this place, we did not relish more sleeping in uncomfortable positions. We quickly dropped of our bags and were shown to where we would set up our gear.

Liveaboard diving, according to the Jaya's crew, is the laziest form of diving. and to an extent they are correct. There is no hauling or even swapping tanks, no long boring rides or repetitious dive briefings to listen to. However the daily schedule is physically grueling and the expiriences were mentally overwhelming. Wake up at 6:30, eat a small breakfast (cereal etc.), dive 1, eat a bigger breakfast (usually eggs, toast, pancakes or similar fare), dive 2, eat lunch, dive 3, snack (fried bananas, popcorn etc.), possible night dive, eat dinner (very varied and delicious), sleep somewhere around 10pm, repeat. In between diving and meals, divers and guides played cards, sunbathed on the deck, or took a nap. There was no trouble falling asleep at night.


Day 1: 3/15/2017

Arrival, getting settled, introductory briefings, paperwork, safety briefings, split up into dive groups and finally the first dive. We were put in a group with one other person: Mimi, a French woman in her mid-late thirties, who was a very experienced and well traveled diver. The three of us were diving with Matt all week. Matt was born in Zambia to British parents and had been a dive leader for over a decade in the Red Sea and the Similan Islands, among other places, and had been in Raja Ampat for the last 8 months. The first dive was a check-out dive to establish the skill level and style of the groups, so initially I decided to leave my camera behind until I heard there was a chance of seeing pygmy seahorses. Of course I brought the camera but the left the UV filter on which causes the camera to not function inside the underwater housing.

The initial reactions to the diving were how different everything was. Visibility was nothing special. Maff called it about 10m I estimated it at 25-40 ft. at different parts of the dive. The water was incredibly green, It tasted different than Hawaii's ocean water, which was a bit of a surprise, and was roughly 82 degrees Fahrenheit. As we dropped down and found the bottom and began to explore everything was new and different. The coral, soft and hard, and fish were so colorful. All the colors of the rainbow can be found in the waters of Raja Ampat (pictured below).

We did see pygmy seahorses and were filled with wonder and excitement towards the upcoming 18 dives. Raja Ampat is known for it currents, and while we never experienced anything the dive guides considered more than "moderate", there were a few situations where the power of the water movement was felt. A current check was performed prior to each dive to give the guides an idea of what we were getting into. It was something that Laura and I were less familiar with and an interesting wrinkle into the dive planning.

Day 2: 3/16/2017

This was our first full day of diving, four dives including a night dive scheduled for Day 2. This day was mind-expandingly incredible. The shear volume of life and color and variety was astounding. Large schools of batfish and barracuda, clown anemonefish and beautiful flowing soft coral. At the end of the first dive of the day, we were treated to a variety of sharks swimming around us including white tip reef sharks, black tip reef sharks, and a single gray reef shark. The highlight of the day was surely the night dive where we had some close up facetime with a squid, as well as finding some scorpionfish, lionfish, a sponge crab, and a gorgeous juvenile batfish. The food all day was wonderful, and the shore visit to Arborek Island was a very interesting glimpse into a starkly different style of life. Below are two videos of children on Arborek Island dancing in the streets in very practiced and inclusive dances full of glee. A much simpler and incredibly isolated life.

Day 3 3/17/2017

Disaster Strikes! On our way out to the first dive site of the day (Manta Sandy, a natural manta cleaning station with a cautiously optimistic chance for mantas) traveling in the small boat to the drop point, Laura went to rinse the baby shampoo out of her mask and dropped it into the ocean. A few seconds of shock, a few seconds to communicate the problem, and a few more seconds to stop the boat meant we were hundreds of yards away from where it fell. The other dive group in the boat dropped in at scheduled drop zone and Matt spent a few minutes looking from the surface, but to no avail. No back up masks in the small boat so the other boat who had just dropped divers off was sent to retrieve a backup mask for Laura. Five minutes later, a mask had arrived and we began the dive.

About 2 minutes, into the dive I hear the moisture alarm on my cameras housing. Having had trouble with the alarms sensitivity before, I ignored it for a few minutes until I looked and saw a shockingly troubling amount of water inside of my housing. It had not flooded entirely. Just as Laura turned to me to show me that she had found her mask sitting on the bottom, I was signaling to Matt that there was a problem with my camera. He took much longer than I wanted at the time to find someplace to leave us, and ascend to the surface to pass the camera off to a small boat driver and get it returned to the Jaya and out of its wet housing. Each second that passed as he did most of a safety stop, I knew that the chances of my cameras survival were diminishing. It made it really hard to fully enjoy the manta rays that we saw on the remainder of the dive, including the rare and Indonesian centered black manta ray, which has a black stomach as well. This gives it the appearance of, as Matt put it, "Ninja Mantas". This is the part where I would post pictures of this experience (the black manta came within 5 feet of me), but as I said, my camera was in limbo at the time. After the dive I made sure the camera, the lens, and the battery all were promptly put into a large bowl of rice, and stayed there for the remainder of the dives that day. By the end of the day, the camera was removed from the rice a new battery was inserted and everything was fine. I sighed, filled with relief and greatful to the actions of Matt and the boat crew for saving my camera. With the camera intact, I was able to fully enjoy and capture the Painemu Lagoon, a group of islands famous for their photogenic lookout point.

Well worth the 272 rickety steps to the top

Day 4: 3/18/2017

The first dive of the day, I was still doing rigorous testing on the housing making sure it was safe to take my camera in again. I stuffed it full of toilet paper so I could be sure if there were any leaks. It passed all the tests I put it through and survived two full dives without the camera, so I was ready to take it with again. Thankfully everything worked out, and the camera is still working today, and there was not another problem for the remainder of the trip.

We dove at Eagle Rock (named for the eagles which live on it, which are a very cool thing to see when exiting the water) and Black Rock (named for being black and made of rock). Excellent dives and ones I was glad to have the camera working for. The dive at Black Rock was the first one I started using the red filter more religiously, so there is a marked improvement in the pictures starting on the 3rd dive of the 18th. These two dives illustrated a new concept for Laura and me. The high currents in this area would create splits around the edges of reef. It was at these splits where divers could "sit" among multiple schools of fish swimming into the current. Highlights included: large schools of fusiliers and big eye trevally along with massive bumphead parrotfish and ribbon eel about the size of a pencil right at the end of the dive.

After the dives at Eagle and Black Rock, we did our scheduled night dive at an active pearl farm. We spent a few minutes snorkeling with our regulators in very shallow water looking for a walking shark. We were successful, albeit briefly, and I shot a short video of it scurrying away into some coral, (video will come later). Shortly after the walking shark, we dropped down and had a truly wonderful night dive full of amazing things. Most notably a giant moray, a crocodile flathead, and several tasseled wobbegong sharks. The wobbegong shark is as interesting and intricate as it's name suggests. The tassels around their mouth and their well camouflaged color scheme make them excellent ambush predators and a noteworthy find for divers.

Crocodile Flathead

Tasseled Wobbegong Shark

Day 5: 3/19/2017 

The fifth day included three very different dives. First was a typically fast moving drift dive which had very little current, called Chanel No. 5. This dive featured amazing nudibranch life, which also brought the interesting challenges of nudibranch photography without a macro lens. Minimum focus distance becomes a real problem when you are attempting to capture something that is less than a few inches and has important details that are smaller than the tip of a pencil. It is a fun challenge with excellent payoff when you get it right.

The second dive, Jaya's Secret, was different from all the other dives we did. It had many large hard coral structures laid out with sandy bottom separating them similar to much of the diving in the Caribbean. It boasted one of the most beautiful surfaces of all the dives with the stunning aquamarine pictured below. 

Due to general exhaustion and ear soreness Laura sat out the last dive of the day where the much of the soft coral was a bright yellow orange color which had garnered it the name, Citrus Ridge. Laura was glad she rested as there was nothing extraordinary new on that dive and she was well rested for...

Day 6: 3/20/2017

On day 6, we had a choice: wake up at 4:30 to attempt to go see "Birds of Paradise", a local endemic species only found on one specific Island in Raja Ampat, or wake up at the normal time to dive Blue Magic, a site known for the possibility of oceanic manta rays. For Laura and I, the choice was obvious. For me, even the opportunity to see oceanic mantas outweighs very many things in this world, and the 4:30 wake up time was simply "the nail that broke the camels back", as Laura artfully put it. Our decision could not have paid off more as we were rewarded with 7 circling oceanic manta rays which were with us throughout the entirety of the hour long dive. They were massive, majestic, shockingly nimble, and very clearly aware of us. Ranging in size from 14 to 18 feet wing tip-to-wing tip, it was truly an honor and wonderful experience to share the water with these creatures which were more than twice our size. I mostly took video, but here are a few of the pictures.

The two dives following the mantas had to be incredible to not be a let down, and while there was nothing that was quite as grandiose, they were certainly wonderful dives. Excellent dive for the last full day of diving, as they were somewhat of a summation of the life we had seen so far. This allowed me a second crack at some of the life I had failed to photograph successfully on previous dives, and allowed us to bask in all that Raja Ampat had to offer.

Day 7: 3/21/2017

For the final dive, it was back to Blue Magic so that anyone who went to go see the birds of paradise could have an opportunity to see the big rays. Unfortunately for Mimi (our other dive group member), she was the only person who went to go see the birds, and the second try yielded no mantas. There were however, several memorable things including pygmy sea horses and a leaf scorpionfish.

After the one dive, it was time to wash all our gear pack up and take the ferry back to Sorong. Unlike our trip to Waisai, we were not treated to karaoke, but rather terrible movies. First was "Countdown" which was notably a WWE production, and then they turned down the volume for the next film, which was "The Last Witch Hunter". While being a visually interesting film, it was impossible to follow, and the Indonesian subtitles did not help. The crew of the Jaya helped haul our bags and put us in individual taxis to our specific hotels. 

It was one of the impressive and immersive experiences of my life and it was well worth the trouble of travel. We left exhausted and smiling at what had just experienced and will surely not forget easily.

~Rivers

P.S. These Pictures are just thumbnails, to see the full quality photos and the other 300+ photos from Raja Ampat go here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/51179681@N03/albums

Videos will be coming soon...