Getting There
Long time no see! We were out in the jungles and paradise islands without any internet or even phone connection. Here is not so short a resume of our last week.
The trip to Raja Ampat always starts in Waisai after paying 1 million rupias (about 60 euros) for entering the islands. From Waisai, we took a boat to reach our Homestay. Boats are the main way to travel anywhere. No cars, but you can cross jungles if you wish!
Safety Last
What we will remember the most from our first dive is "safety last". Without talking about the equipment that served already quite a few years (it does the job more or less), the best part was that our two guides abandoned us (5 divers) under the water. In the middle of the dive we realized that the guides were not here anymore. Apparently, one of them finished the air (first time we hear that the "professional" guide can finish the air before the newbies like us) and another… we still don't know. We found him smoking in the boat after our dive. So, from our experience, anybody planning to dive in Raja Ampat, do it just with professional diving club! After all, our 2 dives were good. The underwater world there is really exceptionally rich and diverse!
Valentine's Night in the Jungle
After that, we packed our bags and left to sleep into the jungles (where we spent the Valentine's night!). It's an amazing place on the hill where you are surrounded by hundreds of parrots (it's such a nice way to wake up with all that singing). You can also find famous "Birds of Paradise" early morning. Searching for these birds, Augustina hurt one of her feet, but nothing critical, just not easy to walk last days.
The next morning, we found a local guy who agreed to show us the way through the jungles to a little village called Kabui on the other side of the Gam island. When the guy took the machete to his hands you can understand — it won't be easy. The heat, humidity, our heavy bags — it was short (just 2 hours) but a tough one.
Kabui Village
The Kabui area is really famous in Raja Ampat and is often compared to Pianemo and Wayag (really impressive landscape).
When we reached Kabui we were greeted by dozens of kids! They called us "bulai" or "putih" which means "white person". No offense here at all from them, they were so nice! As there is no special activity in the village, there is no reason for tourists to come. We were maybe the first tourists to come throughout the jungle, who knows!
We spent a night at a local family home and enjoyed simple people connection and playing with probably the happiest kids in the planet. Thanks to our host (an amazing guy named Danci), next day we visited the nicest places of the region (Hidden Bay and the Passage).
Glowing Plankton
The next two days we decided to get our energy back by staying in an impressive homestay on the water. Our host family was amazing — you have the reef with millions of fishes just under your feet and even at night you can enjoy the underwater world, because of glowing plankton in the water. It looks like little stars in the water. It's a real paradise!
This is how our stay in Raja Ampat finished. Very nice, but also very painful place for our budget. After a few hours in the ferry to Sorong, we took a flight to Makassar. We had a plan to stay in the island a few days and visit nice villages in the mountains, but we finished torturing ourselves searching for the right bus (no timetables, no information…). Maybe a good thing at the end!
The next coming days, we will try to visit the famous Komodo island and search for the dragons!