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Where: Wakatobi Indonesia
When: 02/01/2009 - 02/21/2009
By: ATESG
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Type: Land based
Accomodations: Wakatobi
Dive operator: Wakatobi
Overall photography friendliness: Excellent
Camera tables/prep area: Not applicable
Camera rinse tanks: Not applicable
Charging facilities: Not applicable
Voltage: 220-240 AC
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Wakatobi Trip Report
My wife and I recently returned from Wakatobi in far eastern Indonesia, and I thought I would share the trip with everyone. We let Sayang Travel organize the trip for us. They were recommended by the resort and were excellent. We discovered that travel into the pacific is different from all other travel. We couldn’t match the prices on our own. This was the best diving I have ever done (compared with Red Sea, Cozumel and Caymans).
We flew over on Singapore Air from L.A., coach, of course, which meant going through Narita Japan. I have heard people complain about Singapore Air, but it was the best flight we have ever taken- comfortable seats, great food. The 17 hour trip was really long. Narita Airport was not one of my favorites. We arrived in Singapore at ~ midnight and had a transit hotel room in the airport ready for us. It is the first time that I have rented a hotel by the hour; you rent for 6 hour blocks. It wasn’t very expensive but worth it just to take a quick shower and lie on a bed for a few hours. Right downstairs was a Starbucks that had chocolate croissants. We were in heaven.
We had a midmorning flight to Bali. The Wakatobi rep met at the airport, got our luggage, got our visas and gave us (2 couples) a quick briefing. There is an overnight in Bali before going on to the resort. He made sure we were all set with a taxi to our resort for the night.
The next morning we all met at the airport, in the VIP lounge, for a longer briefing. There were 7 of us all together, including 2 wives who were not divers.
I’ll say it here, the rep told us if there is anything we don’t like, to speak up and they will fix it. They have had some bad press in the past. We boarded a charter flight. Because there were so few of us, they doubled up and dropped some people off on Komodo Island. That was a nice side trip for 15 minutes. We all looked for dragons, but didn’t see any.
We arrived at the airfield on the island next to the Wakatobi resort. Five minutes later it was pouring. We took a couple of taxis into town (more about that at the end). They handled our luggage and we boarded the shuttle to the resort (the shuttle was one of their big dive boats). It poured and the wind was coming up.
We got to the resort; our suitcases were waiting for us at our cottage and we settled in. And it poured. Only people who have gone through a hurricane can really understand that. By dinner time we waded down the path to the lodge in a foot of water. High tide, on-shore winds and pouring rain breached the retaining wall and contributed to the worst flooding in 20 years. Everything is built on stilts so it was not a problem for the buildings. We swam back to our cottage after a fantastic meal. Their chefs were amazing. We always ordered diner from a menu. Breakfast and lunch was buffet style. (I do like good food.)
By the next morning the water was mostly gone, the sun was out; the weather was beautiful; we didn’t see rain again until the end of our 10 days, after our last dive. They did move us (twice) to a new cottage a little further inland. The phone line were out but the satellite internet connection still worked (slowly).
Diving
We had 9 days of the most incredible diving that I have done (they scrubbed the intro dive on our arrival). We went to 18 reefs (I only did the morning dives, not afternoon) scatted around within about 10-30 minutes of the resort. The dive boat was large and comfortable. There only 5 divers with 2 dive guides. The guides were a little different than in most places. Their only job was to guide and find critters for us to photograph. They were really super at it. I never saw nudibranches before (I don’t usually do macro).
Every reef was incredibly healthy with both hard and soft coral and many large schools of fish. The only thing missing were really large fish. We never saw a shark or manta. I have been to places where one reef will match that, but here, every single one did. I had a brand new camera. I finally gave my wife my old Sony P7 and bought a Sony W300, partly because it had underwater scene selection. I took 850 pictures, only a handful were blown. I quickly cut that down to ~400 decent ones. It was agony cutting down to the best 90. I will post the pics on my web site soon; I need my son in law to help me.
The camera was good, I got better towards the end. On the old camera, I had a pink filter (but no strobes), but I don’t on this one. The shallow water pics were great and needed very little editing. The deeper that I went, the more editing that I needed. Overall, I was pleased with the camera. All I want is a point and shoot. I can’t run through a menu underwater and remember to breath at the same time.
Finally, it was over. As we were getting ready to leave, I worried a little about a story that I heard about climbing stairs and hauling our luggage up to the runway. My wife could never do that. I mentioned that to a couple of staff and they took us back through town and put us in taxis- no problem. That town was an eye opener. A very poor little fishing village. Maybe a dollar a day income per family. We have seen some poverty areas, but this was at the extreme end.
We flew back to Bali and again the rep met us at the airport to make sure we all made our connections. We were staying in Bali for an extra week Sayang made all the arrangements for us (one of the cheapest vacation weeks we have ever had- and one of the best). The rep made sure we hooked up with our travel guide.
This is getting long so I will summarize here. Bali is truly an enchanted and beautiful island with wonderful people and great food. We wanted to see the whole island (it is not that large) and so they booked 4 resorts in 4 different areas. The best was in the town of Ubud in sort of central Bali. We had our own guide and driver (and car, of course).
I hope you enjoyed this report.
Elliott Goldstein
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