Done with divemaster :)

Might sound funny but it actually can get boring to live in an island paradise. It is fantastic to swim, dive, hang out in the village, sit under a coconut tree, but after some months it can make you feel like you just wanna run and scream. Have to do something!!! Too much energy!! Too much hammock time! But to do what? Maybe I should do something useful, for body, brain and future, like divemaster.

I did rescue diver with a local instructor from Ampana and we worked well together so I decided to continue to divemaster with him instead of going to one of the resorts here in Togean. Anyways is better to have a teacher who actually has time for you and doesn't have to take care of tens of other divers at the same time.

Checking out a new dive spot near Ampana. And the village was checking us out.

Snorkeling 800 m and enjoying an octopus show underneath me...

We did theory, confined water exercises, DSD and a few dives in Ampana and surroundings and the rest in Poya Lisa in Bomba and in a dive centre in Wakai. Might sound stupid but my biggest concern was that I have to open my eyes in the water. Yea I can take off the mask and dive without it, but blind. In the water my eyes burn, burn burn... But as it had to be done, it was done. And now I know I can open the eyes, I don't like it, I don't see much and there's more tears in my eyes than sea water. But I can do it.

The rest went pretty well, I learned a lot and now I'm done. Divemaster :) yay!

Yes, a long and informative blog update again. See, I am getting lazy…

Bunaken

Lazy me. But again I haven't really been doing much in the last month, just hanging around in Wakai, Bomba and Malenge. This time also with finnish people. Why are they so much nicer when you meet them abroad?

And another finnish person was coming over, Tanja got 10 days off from work and came over to Bunaken and Lembeh for some diving. Yea. Finally a reason to upload some photos. Lazy writer rather speaks with photos...

We stayed 4 nights in Bunaken, but I did only 3 dives (somebody is short on money, please send me some!). We took bungalows at Panorama, a great place, fantastic food and dive guides with magic eyes. Highly recommended! And go to see mating mandarines :)

The circus attraction returned to the beach

As the few people who reads this blog knows from the previous update, I went to Ampana to do some work online. I finished the job in a few days and wanted to go back to Bomba/Poya Lisa as soon as possible. Easier said than done. It's been a quite stormy December/January and the waves continued to prevent boats from leaving the dock. The boats going to Bomba are quite small and made out of wood, so I really don't wanna be stuck (again) in one when the storm begins in open sea. So I waited. And waited.

In Ampana I basically can't go anywhere without being robbed out of all my energy in half an hour. They don't see many tourist in this part of Indonesia and the people are VERY interested in anything you do. Especially if you are alone. Sometimes even cars stop next to you just to have a chat in non-existing english or just to shout something clever at you, like Bule (white foreigner)! Or Tattoo! Yes to both and thank you of telling me, just in case I hadn't noticed. And I still don't get why random people want to be photographed with me, as they don't know me. Then again, I was showing some photos to a local girl here and on my laptop I had a photo of a pretty house in Estonia. She asked me who lives there. I said I don't know. She found it really odd/funny that I took a photo of a house of which I don't know the owner of. And here many people here want to take a photo with a person they don't know. Maybe we are all odd…

Puspita Sari, fastest connection from Ampana to Wakai. 

Never ask this boy "di mana kuching", where's the cat. He'll bring all the neighbourhood cats to your balcony.

After 8 days I grew so tired of being an circus elephant that I decided to skip Bomba and took a ferry to Wakai, the biggest village in the Togean Islands. I ended up staying there another 8 days, renting a room in the upper floor of a house owned by a lovely local woman and her english husband. And their madly energetic 5-year old son :) Hanging out in Wakai is mostly about eating crabs, fish, squid etc. and to flush the dinner down with a glass or two of Septikus. I don't really wanna swim in front of the village as the water is quite murky, but I did manage to go jogging early in the morning before the village wakes up. Running towards the sunrise on empty streets is quite fantastic.

Not a bad jogging ground.

I also scrubbed Ellys boat which has been broken for many months already. Not it's finally being fixed and after the wood work is done it can be painted, as the outside of the boat is bright and shiny. I did though escape from further work and went to Fadhila Cottages in Katupat for some beach&hammock treatment. Same place as when I was here in October. Nice corals in front of the beaches, excellent food and great staff. I forced Ida and the boys to play rummikub with me every evening and it was really interesting to follow how they try to cheat all the time but they still don't win. Hmmm... Maybe they should rather use the energy for following the game but hey, where's the fun in that.

I did two dives near Katupat but forgot my underwater camera housing in Wakai so no photos this time. Oh well... There will be plenty later. The internet connection is extreme slow here (2G with phone) so I'll add photos to this post later when I'm back in the main land.  

Rescue Diver

I finally did something! After being lazy too long I started with rescue diver course and it was definitely worth the time and money. There's so much more to learn about diving and this course is for sure much more useful as f.ex. AOWD, which is just a money making course by Padi imho.

 I did the theory and emergency first response -course in Ampana with a local dive instructor Anwar Dosi of Ody Dive Center. A few days later we moved on to Poya Lisa with all the gear and did the diving part there. All went pretty good, I managed not to kill my rehearsal partner (Elly) who was finishing his dive master at the same time. So now I'm a rescue diver. And thinking about continuing with dive master. But first I have to practice how to keep my eyes open in water, coz that f***ing burns!!!

Elly floating. Last 2 mins hand up.

And I also managed to do some work. Which was a bit of a drama as Poya Lisa doesn't have internet, the network in Wakai is not fast enough to run the programs I need to use online so the only solution was to head back to mainland for some days. Which is not easy when the sea is rough... My deadline was coming more near and near but the boats from Bomba to Ampana weren't leaving the harbor coz of weather. Finally after waiting too many days I had to drive 3 h with a scooter through the jungle to Wakai and move on with Tuna Tomini, a bigger ferry which (almost) always runs. That was a long day.

So now I'm back in Ampana. Doing nothing. Maybe I should at least have a look at the dive master learning material. I just wish I'd have a hammock. Maybe in Kuling Kendari, a small village near Bomba. One of the prettiest places I've ever been to.

Surfing is so much better than playstation.

Local fisherman making goggles for swimming/diving.

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?

Bunaken

 Back in Sulawesi! Finally. It took me over a year but better late than never. I flew from Kota Kinabalu to Balikpapan in Kalimantan. Or first I spent 5 hours in the airport coz the flight was of course delayed. After landing in Balikpapan I had to get a ticket to Manado. Garuda had the next flight but tickets were over 100 e, Lion Air flew 8 hours later but for 30 euro. Easy choice. 8 hours gave me loads of time to get to know the airport better than well. Luckily the airport had a nice lounge. I had to pay entry, huge amount of 3,5 euro including free food, drinks, wifi and a sofa :) They really should have a lounge like that in every airport.

I made it to Manado quite late in the evening, took a cab to my hotel and had a HOT shower. The last one at this trip I assume. Istanaku Guesthouse, highly recommended. For sure one of the best choices in that price range.

In the morning I had everything packed and felt a bit bored so I decided to go to the harbor already quite early. Good for me! I bumped into the son of the owner of Daniels Homestay which was one of the places I anyways wanted to check out. So bags to the boat, off to lunch and I still had time to check out the local market.

I really like Manado. The ugly dirty city has really good vibes & extremely friendly people. I just wish they would throw their trash into a recycling bin. Oh well, Asia...

In Bunaken I got a really nice bungalow for about 15 e, including 3 meals a day, which turned out to be one of the best ones I have had in Indonesia. I did 4 dives with their dive shop. All good but to be honest I might have been expecting a bit more. Bunaken is such a famous dive destination that I expected to be amazed. Not really. All good, saw lots of turtles but otherwise nothing spectacular. It is still a place I might go back to. I loved the village, had good laughs and photosessions with the kids. I also got lost in the jungle, ended up in the other side of the island and hitched a ride on a motorbike to get back. And of course there was local wine tasting with the dive crew and 2 french doctors. Did I already say it's fantastic to be back in Sulawesi?

Back in Mabul

Indonesia made me miss Malaysia. So after one minute thinking I booked a flight to Kuala Lumpur for the next day where a friend of mine was hanging out with some of his friends. Where I hung out with some of his friends. But after 2 nights in the city it was time to get out and do some diving again. So off to Tawau -> Semporna -> Mabul. I was here already at new year and the diving in Sipadan is just spectacular. Can't go wrong with this choice.

I booked a dorm bed & Sipadan permits with Uncle Changs. Didn't know the place would be full of chinese... Oh well... Can't always win. At least most of them just snorkeled and I didn't have to dive with them. But still, why the F do they have to be so loud??? And the place is not gonna run out of food...

On the arrival day I had 2 dives in Mabul and one in Kapalai. Basically the same as 7 months ago. Didn't see more, didn't see less. But this time I've got photos! Yayy! So here u go! I didn't really know of what I was taking photos of coz the camera is fucked but they turned out quite alright. Maybe I shouldn't be able to see too much.

2 days later it was time to return to Sipadan. The place which ruined my diving last time for quite a while. Not many places can compare with this underwater paradise. This time it was especially shark time. So many white tips! We also checked out a cave where you can see some skeletons. And yeah, got photos again, with a half broken camera...

After Sipadan I hung out in Mabul for a few days, had a bit too much Tanduay and did only one night dive. The plan was to spend my last night of the holiday in KL but I kinda missed the morning boat meaning not a chance to catch a flight. Oh well. The party in the evening before was worth it. Anyways Mabul was a great place to end this trip. Though I still think that maybe next time I should spend the last days in a place I hate. That would make going back home a bit easier. As now it for sure is not being much fun.

What a wreck!

What to do after Nusa Lembongan? Like usually, I had no plan. In the last evening I decided that next day I'll go to Lombok. I woke up in the morning and went to Bali instead. Bali has never interested me much but I wanted to dive the ASAP Liberty wreck, so why not do it now. And it was for sure worth it! Amazing! I did 2 dives there, one in the afternoon and one in the morning. Same wreck, different light. In the afternoon it was like a ghost town, lots of weird light. In the morning the visibility/light wasn't as good but we found much more fishes. F.ex a huge grouper just waiting for food to swim in :)

After one night in Tulamben I had to make decisions again. Should I go to Lombok or Java? Well, I already wanted to see mt. Bromo last year but ended up in Sulawesi so why not go there now. I stayed one night in Lovina in Bali on the way and got again really annoyed about almost everything. The bemo driver tried to rip me off with the price, then basically pushed me to an ojek who took me to a hotel. I made no promises, took a look at the room and it was okay, wifi worked and price was cheap so why not, I'll stay one night. And of course the ojek dude was a dive master or whatever and tried to sell me basically anything. As I wasn't interested in diving, snorkeling, dolphin watching why not try if the woman just wants to get wasted and who knows what happens then... Yea think again... Argh. 

Also walking at the beach wasn't really a relaxing experience. I really don't wanna be rude but at the end I just start ignoring everyone and don't bother to answer even to a hello. As it never is only a hello. And yes I know I have nice tattoos. I did though meet a nice older man in a bakso booth in the evening. He told me loads of ramadan and what kind of meaning it has to him. And he didn't try to sell me anything or tried to made me pay his bakso.

 So, off to Java! The island where you never should ask how much something costs as then you out yourself as an unexperienced tourist and end up getting ripped off. Just hold small money in the pocket and ignore everyone who approaches you near bus stations, tourist attractions or hotels. Excited!

Where's your Mola Mola's, Lembongan?

 After one night in Sanur Beach I took an early public boat to the Nusa Lembongan island just 30 min off the coast. And noticed, I'm for sure not in Malaysia or Philippines anymore. The homestay owner couldn't tell me where to buy a boat ticket or if the take off place is in walking distance. So I took a taxi, who tried to rip me off with the price. And actually had no clue where to drive to. In his opinion I should have known. Argh. He asked the way for a few times and clearly got wrong directions but still followed them. At the end I started asking the way. A direct way would have been just a few kilometers, but we drove around for maybe half an hour. Grrrh. And of course the driver wanted to have more money exactly because of that. Well think again! And now I stop complaining.

Next negotiations were with the boat agency, as the shown price is never the end price. I got a pretty ok deal and also got into a boat which left immediately. And there I was, in the Mola Mola and Manta country!

I had exchanged a few emails with Two Fish Dive shop in advance, checked it out, liked what I saw and booked dives immediately with them. Their accommodation was a bit too expensive so I stayed in a small & really nice home stay almost across the street. Good choice! Got a really cosy bungalow for small money and the staff was extremely nice.

So, diving! Mantas! More Mantas! The whole idea of going to Lembongan was finally to see those magnificent huge creatures moving gracefully in the ocean. At Manta Bay we saw 4-5 different ones, but the sea was really rough and visibility quite poor. I also lost my buddy & DM for a while but we found eatch others on the surface again. The next day we went to Manta Point. I had to swallow some anti sea sickness pills as I had some beer & arak the evening before and the waves looked too huge for a half-ok stomach. All went well (not a sequel to Moalboal) and this time we enjoyed the Mantas during the whole dive. How much can you smile in the water? A LOT!!! I had to do a really corny american “WOW” on the surface after the dive. First time for everything.

I also went twice to Chrystal Bay hoping to see Mola Molas but they were hiding :( Nice spot, but nothing compared to the Manta madness.

Except diving I did jumping (video coming later...). Two South African dudes were going to jump from a 13 m cliff and hell yea, me too! The place was closing, but this time it was quite good as now we didn't have to pay the 50 000 rupiah fee. Doesn't matter that they had pulled up the ladders as you can actually climb back. Nice jump. Was I scared? Hell yea! From there we drove to another jumping point where you have to aim to a small round sandy area between corals. Easy, easy! Even in low tide. What a fantastic day! First the mantas, then jumping and a party in the evening. Which wasn't really my cup of tea but a day is always good to end with cold beers and good company.

Poser.

The captain is a disaster.

End of the diving in Lembongan for me. Next day we went to the mangroves, tried to steer the small boat with not so much success but got good laughs. In the afternoon we went back to the jumping spot again as an Irish wanted jump & loose his camera in the ocean. Mission accomplished successfully!

Lembongan was really good fun. Lovely island, fantastic smily locals and I met some great people.  Now some wreck dives in Bali before I head to Java.

Trying to try out the sea weed.