Togeans, my paradise

After 4 days in Bunaken it was time to move on. I decided to skip the 10 hours bus/kijang ride to Gorontalo and flew instead for small money. It was a bit risky as the plane was scheduled to land around the same time as the ferry to Togeans leaves. And the airport is 1 h car ride away from the harbor and Lion Air is basically always late. But so are the ferries. As this time too. My flight landed only 30 mins late, I run to the taxi and boarded the ferry about 1,5 h after it was supposed to leave. And waited for another hour for it actually to leave. Always good to rely that everything is late in Indonesia :)

Welcome to the paradise!

Finally on my way back to the paradise! I absolutely loved it there last year and planned to be back much earlier. It's actually scary to go there as you never want to leave. Last time I stayed in Poya Lisa (and Wakai&Una Una) but now I heard the old crew is not working there anymore and I anyways wanted to dive so I decided to head to Fadhila Cottages in Katupat. And got stuck there (waibele!). Great crew, fantastic dives and cold beer. Really, I never want to leave this place. Maybe next time I'll buy a one way ticket.

Elly picked me up from Wakai and I stayed in Fadhila almost the whole time. Once we went to Wakai to celebrate a festival. It was great to see his family again and have some arak with his uncles. Just a shame my bahasa is still bad. I really have to start learning. Or just spend more time in Indonesia, which would be the way I prefer it anyways.

Arak & finnish Vodka with the Holupi clan. 

The diving in Togeans is a bliss for the eye. Amazing coral formations, lots of small fish and nudi and if you are lucky you might see some sharks, rays or if you're extremely lucky, a dugong. The highlight for me was the Bomber B24, sunk during the 2^nd world war. Planes are fascinating anyways and the ones deep in the ocean even more so. The dives near Una Una were good too, but it took us 3,5 h one way to get there so I'm not really sure if it was worth it. And lesson nr. 2, don't dive is you 're even a bit hang over. I think now I learned my lesson.

Jellyfish lake

I extended my stay in Togean to as far as I could. It's too hard the leave the place. Once I tried to take the day ferry from Dolong to Bumbulan but we arrived to the village 6 am in the morning just to hear that they haven't seen the ferry for a month. I had flights booked from Manado but it looked like I'll never make it there in time. So new plan, next day I took a ferry to the south and then a kijang to Palu. 7 h in a boat, 10 h in a car. A few hours sleep in a losmen and off to the airport. I flew from Palu to Makassar and then forward to Kuala Lumpur. Really, it's hard to leave the Togeans mentally but also in practice. I'll be back...

Omnomnom!

Dudes building a new house. For me?