The first time I heard about Raja Ampat was when I took the OWD lesson from Triston of Marine Monkees back in 2011.... he told me R4 is a very beautiful dive site, pristine and with many exotic marine life... and to me going there was just a dream.... it will surely cost lots of $$$ and a long long trip... (I can't afford at that time...)
But as I started appreciating the beautiful marine life and the eagerness to see more exotic species, diving in Raja Ampat is a must.... yes...a must... I have watched many David Attenborough's underwater documentaries but nothing can beat seeing the marine life with your own eyes...
Yes... my diving skills have improved a lot over the years... and I am now taking better underwater photos (with better equipment as well)... and that's the more reason why I want to go underwater a lot more....
Man BD and my AOWD instructor
My dive buddy Man BD always share his future diving trips with his buddies...and for this trip Man BD planned the R4 dive trip back in 2016... as usual it will be an LOB trip over 7 days for 9 divers in late Nov/early Dec 2017.... the LOB is with Grand Komodo on MV Putri Papua.... the last time I was with Grand Komodo was when I did the Komodo Island LOB back in 2014.... I can say that I was very satisfied with the service as well as the safety provided by Grand Komodo.... so going with Man BD and Grand Komodo is what we used to say... tak perlu risau.... every single things is planned for by Man BD and his lovely wife Lin Ipah... my AOWD instructor. She is always ready to share her knowledge all the time.... about diving and photography... mind you... her photos have won many competitions....
A week before the trip Man BD started to send WA messages for us to get prepared... all the equipment needed and what is to be expected... the dos and donts on the LOB etc... There will 9 of us for this trip... apart from Lin and Man BD, I have dived with Roznee, Doc Hisham and Hasna before but I have never met Zura, Feira and her husband Kenneth... but as usual... divers are all happy and friendly people... nothing to worry about...
sunset on the LOB
For me November is always the toughest month in my working calendar every year... this is the period where I have to finalise the Company's 5 years business plan as well as finalising quarterly report on top of many other papers for Board's approval...so much managing, planning and reading to do... thus preparing for R4 trip took the back seat... luckily all the office work were completed as scheduled and I only have a few days left to do my packing before the trip.... and for the trip... the most important things are my dive gears and camera equipment.... must make sure that they are all complete and in working conditions since this is an LOB trip... you cannot go back to the dive shop if your equipment is faulty.... you can only have the pain of sitting on the sun deck and suffer listening to your buddies' stories after their dives.... (I know the pain when I drowned my G1X in Romblon...hehe)
Me and Kenneth
Since there were not many flights available from KL to Sorong, I had to leave home very early in the morning at 4.00 am to catch the flight to Makassar departing at 7.50 am... (we need to take a connecting flight from Makassar to Sorong to go to R4) the only available direct flight out of KL was by Airasia and being the first week of school holidays, KLIA2 was jammed pack in the morning... even though I arrived at KLIA2 slightly after 5.00 am.... the place was full with travelers and most of them were going to Indonesian destinations.... thousands of people were queuing up for baggage drop... I quickly did my suboh prayers after the baggage drop and Lin told us to immediately go thru the immigration clearance and straight to the gate as it took longer than usual... unusually large crowd due to the school holidays...
The 3.5 hours flight to Makassar was uneventful .... very normal flight and security clearance at the Sultan Hassanal airport was a breeze.... as our connecting flight to Sorong was at 3.30 am the next day... we checked in at the hotel airport... Ibis Budget... had a good rest before checking out at 12 midnight the next day to catch the flight to Sorong...
Early morning at SOQ
Our flight to Sorong departed at 3.30 am. As some of us booked the tickets late, we had to split the group into two... 5 of us travel by Garuda Air and the other 4 travel by Sri Wijaya... but the flights depart about 15 mins apart....
Once we arrived at Domine Eduard Osok (SOQ) airport, Wilson and the crew of Putri Papua were already there to fetch us... they quickly loaded our luggage into the Toyota Avanza and drove us to the jetty... all of us were in the boat by 8.30 am but we couldn't sail as the crew still need to get the clearance from the harbour master....
Day 1 (27 Nov 2017)
R4 diving permit
Finally after all the administrative work were completed at around 11 am, we slowly sailed to Misool, to the islands on the south of Sorong. The sailing time took about 13 hours,... on the way we stopped by at a place called Matan Island for a check out dive... as usual my first dive after a long break normally sucks... I had difficulty to equalise (sakit telinga) and very slow to descent (macam budak baru belajar)... all because my diving gears were dry and I was slow to exhale my lung out.... but after the check out dive, all my other dives are usually ok...
on the bridge
planning....
That night after dinner, Wilson introduced us to the crew members.... the are 8 crews and 3 guides for 9 guests... thats is what I called service and safety.... the captain of MV Putri Papua is Pak Pariyono, a young handsome chap assisted by Pak Abu Bakar.... a 50 year old veteran who had 30 years experience sailing... engineering is managed by 3 crews, Udin, Inayan and Riqi whilst Komag is the cook, Aco is the boatman and Berata looks after the cabin.... and the 3 guides are Wilson. Gusti and Wishnu.... I used to dive with Wilson in my Komodo LOB trip back2014....
Day 2 & 3 (28 &29 Nov 2017)
We arrived at Misool, the south of R4 in early morning Tuesday... we planned to do 4 dives a day that is 2 morning dives, 1 in the afternoon and 1 at night.... and over 5 days that will be 20 dives in total... biasa le... awal-awal memang semangat.... Since there are 8 divers we have to split into 2 groups.... Man BD, Lin, Roznee and Feira is in Group 1 (Otai Group) and Zura, Hasna, Doc Hishan and myself is in Group 2. Ken is not a diver and just join us to have a break from work and accompany his wife Feira... (I guess more to look after Feira...)
True as what others have claimed... the waters of R4 is filled with marine life.... the corals are dense and filled my lots of fishes and other marine life... I am sure if I dive at the same spot many many times, I will find different things each time... that is how dense the marine life in R4... memang berbaloi la datang ke R4 nih... the size of the sea fans are really huge... you have to measure them in meters and not feet...
We managed to do only 8 dives in Misool areas (only 2 days) since on the last day we planned to go to the jellyfish island before we sail back to the north of R4. But before we can go to the jellyfish island, we have to seek the permission from the local people first....
Day 4 (30 Nov 2017)
Early in the next morning, 5 of us, Wilson, Man BD, Lin, Doc Hisham and I took the boat to Pulau Yah to meet the village headman to seek his permission to go to the jellyfish lake.... after some discussion, the village headman informed us that we have to go to the lake which is further up as there are not many jellyfish in the nearer lake as the jellyfish had just laid the eggs and now at the bottom of the lake....
The trip to the jellyfish lake was really very long.. it took almost like 1.5 hours to reach there. As we can only travel in the small boat to the lake due to shallow waters, we have to split the group into 2... Group 2 members went first as we always got ready faster than Group 1... the Otai group...(hehe)... even though the trip took longer than planned, but for me to be able to dive with those jellyfish was really an experience... the jellyfish is harmless and there are thousands of them...
Denise
As it was already late in the day after we arrived back from the jellyfish lake, we decided to sail to the north and rest for the night.... anyway it was raining on that day and I was a bit cold after being exposed to the wind and the rain on the way back from the jellyfish island.... the sailing to the north will take another 13 hours... mind you Putri Papua is not that fast...sailing only at about 7 - 8 knots per hour....
Ghost pipefish
I must admit that I was very happy with diving around Misool islands. I managed to take lots of photos of rare animals such as denise seahorse, pygmy seahorse, ghost pipefish, various type of nudibranch and many other marine creatures... excellent !!!! nothing less I must say...
Day 5 (1 Dec 2017)
We arrived at Fams Island in the north in early morning the next day.... this is where the famous Piaynemo Island is located.... Wilson the chief guide told us that we should be expecting to see manta ray around these areas and must be prepared for the strong current as well... I don't quite like to dive in strong current as it will tire you quickly as well as you will use a lot of gas.... thus shortening the dive time... but I cannot choose what the situation will be like... you just accept what Allah presents you... if it is too dangerous one must be prepared to cancel the dive.... However after several minutes underwater, it was clear that the mantas were swimming somewhere else... I didn't see any... not even one.... but to me it was not a big loss as I have seen the mantas before in Komodo... plenty of them then...
...the lazy Wobbegong...
One the next dive, not expecting too much I was busy taking photos on my own when I saw my other buddies were crowding at a place... I just ignored them at first not knowing what they were so interested at.... but curiosity got hold of me and I decided to hoover above them.... then suddenly I saw something brownish green animal... Ya Allah...that was a Wobbegong shark... I have never seen this shark before in my life... I thot it was a small creature...owh.... I was wrong actually... it was rather big and lazy.... just lie on coral.... Thank you Allah for showing me this beautiful creature of yours... I was really really very happy... my entire trip had been paid off... just by being able to see the creature with my own two eyes... I was told there are only areas where you can find Wobbegong... one in R4 and the other place is in Great Barrier Reef.... how luck I was....
I wuz here okay...
Later that day we decided to go to Piaynemo Island where the famous view of R4 can be seen... all the guys who came to R4 must take the photos at the top of the hill on the island... as the boat taking us reaching the island, we were greeted by the local people selling handmade souvenirs... which I am obviously not interested....
the 3 Lobsters...
As the day started to rain... we quickly climb the steps to the top of the hill... well it was quite a slippery and tiring climb but I managed to get up there with the rest of the team... as it was raining... we have no choice but to take the picturesque picture in the rain... then we quickly descend just to go back to the boat.... However when we reached at the jetty the local guys asked us whether we want to buy lobsters... I looked around but there were no lobsters to be seen... suddenly the man pulled a cage from underwater... whoa...there we saw a few big lobsters in the cage... yummy.!!!!.. we bought 3 lobsters for dinner....
Day 6 (2 Dec 2017)
This is the last day and tomorrow we will leave R4... as usual we need to observe the no fly time and today we only can only do 2 dives...
Putri Papua
As I have been quite satisfied with the trip so far and nothing much to expect... I just continue diving with open mind... whatever I can find will be a bonus today... after doing 5 days of diving one will feel a bit too much of diving... unless you dive for a living.... so we just take things rather easy... no rush...
We were lucky on the last dive as there were a few more Wobbegongs spotted...of course everyone took the opportunity to have a portrait with Wobbegong.... me included...with Man BD as the resident photographer... I now can confirmed that the animal is lazy... it doesn't really bothered about the flashes...
for the record...
As we readied our selves to do safety stop on the last dive... suddenly Wilson signaled to me to follow him...which I obediently did... he then showed me a sleeping Wobbegong and gave me hand signal to shoot video... I didn't quite understand him but was hoovering very close in front of the animal... then to my surprise the animal just swam in front of me...terkejut siol kena terkam dengan shark...mind you it was quite a large animal... I was shocked...then I just realised that Wilson must have poked the tail of the animal.... well I said it was a bonus... I managed to shoot the video of a Wobbegong swimming... hehe no one else got the video Wobbegong swimming except me...(bragging rights la)....
UID dive buddies...
That was the last dive for the trip as we were leaving R4 by the next day... have to observe the no fly time... overall the trip was excellent... no incidence at all... everyone behave.... no decomp dive... the food was good... enough water on the boat for everyone until the last day... nobody complaint about not enough dive (in fact very tired after 5 days)... but everyone was happy....
Not sure whether I got another chance to be here again.... but will keep on dreaming of coming here again....
Capt Pariyanto... standing on the right
That's all for now.... until the next trip... Komodo repeat.... Sept 2018....
Bye everyone... Thanks Capt Pariyanto and his crew for taking a good care us on board of MV Putri Papua.......
Semoga Allah mencucuri rahmat ke atas arwah Sitti Rafeah binti Amil (1975 - 2017)... thanks for your nice cheese cake which I ate a lot on the LOB... as well as the extra that you passed thru Man BD after we came back from R4...
We arrived at Misool, the south of R4 in early morning Tuesday... we planned to do 4 dives a day that is 2 morning dives, 1 in the afternoon and 1 at night.... and over 5 days that will be 20 dives in total... biasa le... awal-awal memang semangat.... Since there are 8 divers we have to split into 2 groups.... Man BD, Lin, Roznee and Feira is in Group 1 (Otai Group) and Zura, Hasna, Doc Hishan and myself is in Group 2. Ken is not a diver and just join us to have a break from work and accompany his wife Feira... (I guess more to look after Feira...)
Semoga Allah mencucuri rahmat ke atas arwah Sitti Rafeah binti Amil (1975 - 2017)... thanks for your nice cheese cake which I ate a lot on the LOB... as well as the extra that you passed thru Man BD after we came back from R4...
