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ON THE WAY
It had been high and dry seven months since our last trip to Kalimantan. Unlike previous years, this year we didn’t go for weekend diving in Malaysia at all. There was a plan for long weekend, but it was scrapped.
Both of us had hectic weeks before the trip, so we were really realy looking forward to this one, in addition of having my new camera setup. Just days before my Bali 2008trip, I accidentally (of course!) dropped my Olympus compact Miu 710, so I had to use hubby’s old Canon S60 which is actually a better camera. However, we didn’t know that most of the battery life had been shorten by, well, too much. I only counted on one good battery that lasted for a dive, the others would die after 20 minutes or two shots into the dive, which is very, very frustrating.
Previous trip, two weeks in Kalimantan, I bought few spare third party batteries. It worked fine to last for one dive, however, the camera would start to fog after half an hour or so, which was, again, very very frustrating despite numerous silicone gel bags that I squeezed in. So this time.. well, just close both eyes and dug big big hole into the saving, with the confidence that I wouldn’t regret it to invest on housing my land camera.
As usual, we started packing one week before the trip; at least it gave us some buffer for forgotten stuffs. Friday night, working late, we still had some last minute packing and we were good. Travelling by Silkair is of course a breeze because we didn’t need to worry about baggage. I happily printed out a section that states so in its website. For diving destination, passengers with diving equipment are entitled to 30kg baggage allowance. We don’t need 30 kg, but we need 25 kg, that is not counting the heavy bag we put in the cabin for fragile stuffs. As long as it fits into cabin size, we only need to stand still and pretend that that it’s just another backpack, before we put it down to the chair and show how tall we actually are. Hehehe..
The flight took 3 hours and twenty minutes to reach Sam Ratulangi airport. The hot weather welcomed us, in the departure hall we could see, although not many, tanned faces looking at us with envy, because we have just arrived, while it was already time for them to go.. Haha…I know the table would turn later, but I just love laughing at happy people. I assumed they were happy, they just had their fix what…
We did orientation dive at House Reef in front of the resort. We never dived there before, in fact, we had an idea to give it a try ourselves this time, unbeknownst to us that it is already a dive site. Last trip there, we were too busy requesting to dive other places.
I don’t really enjoy orientation dives because of the rush. We needed to put up the BCD setup, and camera setup from the part scattered all around our bags. Furthermore, the wetsuit. Never like to wear 3mm full suit, but I didn’t really have choices, my 0.5mm suit had a hole near the thigh from the last trip and I forgot to fix it. I was still looking for suitable embroiderer to cover the hole, maybe clown fish, another Donald duck, Doraemon, or just a sign of No Fishing to cover the hole. I’m serious.
Okay, full suit I shall wear. It was so tempting to just wear short and vest, but last time I did that, I came out with polkadots. Yah, the rash, the sting, the allergic of sea water, I’m not sure which one.
So, lucky I didn’t grow so I still could fit into the wetsuit, off we went with empty camera casing, first dive always tester dive, to see if the O-ring etc works well. We just put a piece of tissue inside the casing.
We spent almost a weekend making our DIY floatation device, in attempt to make the camera lighter underwater. The setup is so heavy even underwater that it would need good effort to hold it, esp with one hand (which..,quite impossible for me..argh..I would start shaking and make face as if I need a toilet).. So we bought some rubber/mattress kind of pad and wrapped them around the arms, strobe, lens, wherever possible.
On first dive, it worked too well! Because the casing was empty, it was positively buoyant, together with the floating system, dry wetsuit, I really had to drag it and myself down.
Our Dive Master started to show us stuffs. He pointed at some fish, we looked at it. He pointed at nudibranch, we looked at it. He looked a bit confused. Then he found harlequin ghost pipe fish, we still looked at it. Drew clearly on his face "these two idiots are so hard to please or they don’t know good stuff, bring cameras but never took a shot. This is going to be miserable 9 days..” Luckily, half into the dive, he finally realized our camera casing were empty. I did wish we had it with us because we saw good stuff, but it was orientation, and also it was a relief since I needed to keep adjusting my buoyancy. Wetsuit dry, floatation device dry, felt a bit ‘spongy’. Then water, pressure stepped in, floatation device shrink, the safety cable ties and Velcro we tied around it started to come off (I didn’t give it a thought that the effect would be so much), and become less spongy and heavier. Full tank to emptier tank..unbalance weight.. busy busy busy..
No night dive today, much to my disappointment. The DM didn’t prepare for it and being only two person, we didn’t really force into it. Anyway, things seemed a bit different there. There was a new guy who introduced himself to us as he management, with different style with the one we know. We still got the usual guy, and he still always prioritizes our requests, but we didn’t want to demand too much, moreover, it looked like the DM was not too keen to dive as often. Anyway, despite some disarrangement and communication between them, which kind of disappointing because of this new guy.., we still had pleasant stay thanks to others, everyone else.
No night dive, we walked out to the street to find two important things that I forgot to bring.. baby shampoo for mask and vitamin C. We are not vitaminmania, but we always have it with us for diving trp. The traditional Indonesian street-side kiosk (warung) has a lot of thing but not these two. Argh… so we brought the bottled vitamin C, C1000 or something and teh botol. Ha… for mask solution, I have toothpaste in my kit bag, it works as effectively now that I had no choice, less sticky, but more difficult to wash off from the mask.
The great thing about this resort is the facilities. Most of the time during diving trip in other location, there are always lot of limitation; no space for diving stuff, lack of electricity during day time, no TVs, no signal, nothing on the boat; towel, drinks and snack etc. For this resort, they have everything. We had the room with quite spacious area for bags and 'workshop', we had balcony for laundry , wetsuit and human. In the boat they gave us new fresh dry towel everyday, snack, and hot tea and coffee. Hiks.. so nice.. ;p
Indovision! Cable... wahhh..!
DIVING AROUND THE RESORT
To dive around or Bunaken, we would hit the sea at 8.30 am. There was an angmoh from US joining our boat, but we were happy to get him instead of the other 12 Russians. Early into our trip, we found out that the other guests are 12 Russians, who occupied the whole boat. So it’s good that three of us used another boat. Another good news, the angmoh, Dan, is a muck-diving lover. Surprised? Well I was. He also takes pictures and he dives slowly. A combination that we hardly ever found in angmoh. Dan complained that the other 12 Russians dive like jetski, always in a hurry, they fin even though they do drift dive, and they only appreciate big things. That sounds more like angmoh. So it’s good that he has same style of diving, slow and appreciate small things. In fact, he was even slower than us, he takes pictures of everything, something I want to do if only I have the hance to dive as often as him. Well, he only works two winters in two different countries, the rest of the year he spent on diving, especially in Indonesia. He just dived in Phillipine, now in Menado and would continue to Pulau Weh, so on and so forth. Whoa… what a life!
Surprisingnya, dive around the resort was good, well, no good, great! We saw many rare stuff like Ambon Scorpionfish, Mimic Octopus, raining of ghost pipefish and octopuses..
We were greeted with termocline many times during the dive, it’s rush of sudden cold/warm water that make you shiver, it can last for a while or goes quickly. You can actually see it coming, the sensation is like seeing puddle of water on a very hot street or field. The area affected becomes blurry.
There were some dives we hit by both cold and warm surge of water. Cold termocline can be pleasant when you have the right suit, if not…brrrr….. Warm water can also give you ‘shiooook’ feeling, watching fish, feel like in the gigantic spa (eh, I don’t know how spa is like btw, so excuse me for inaccurate portrayal), but sometimes both can make you feel ‘feverish’ (panas dingin boooooo!).
Note, beware of the warm rush of water, it might be some other diver peeing beside you. Look at their face expression carefully..
We saw frogfish. Haaaa…. Frogfish…! Haven’t seen it for more than a year… got frustrated in my last trip because didn’t see a single one along two weeks trip.. so I was happy..happy.. Regardless what, I also like this creature.. it’s ugly, also wear a frown, sometimes with dirt or pimple or untidy hair, humpback and a look that only a mother would love. On the other hand, it’s very cute. The way it thinks that we can’t see it. The way it wiggles the modified dorsal fin (it looks like fishing pole with worm at the end), the way it walks and bounces, yah, it’s a fish., but it walks… halloooooo, and the way it yawns, coral climbing and the cute colorations. Well, to sum it all, I was so happy to see it again.
Anyway, this trip was like raining ghost pipe fish, never seen so many of them in all my dive combined together. Harlequin/ornate, roughsnout and robust ghostpipe, lots of them, until it’s just another ghost pipe.. again, compare to previous trip.. we sweat our salty skin just to find three of them. My bubbling head was thinking, this is why we always came back here.
The pouch of Harlequin Ghost Pipefish, this one still has small opening, but can take a peek at the eggs and larvae floating around. The pouch can hold fertilized egg to larvae in various development stage.
Banded Pipefish
Messmate or Reeftop Pipefish?
Bent Stick Pipefish
Thin Pipefish, similar with Robust, but this one has slender and long 'waist' before the tail.
Roughsnout Ghost Pipefish
Harlequin/Ornate Ghostpipefish juvenile
Harlequin/Ornate Ghostpipefish
ANother pair of Roughsnout Ghost Pipefish
Harlequin/Ornate Ghostpipefish
Robust Ghost Pipefish Batas kota also rich of Ambon Scorpionfish, this unique ugly hairy scorpionfish with super long eyelashes are rare macro reward, we saw it first in Bali. (Ambon fellow was going holiday to Bali I guess...he he)
That day we did sunset dive to see mandarinfish. Well, in Derawan we were full of mandarinfish every dusk, but I haven’t gotten bored yet. However, the mandarin fish here were even more shy. They played hide and seek and didn’t want light at all. How to find them in viewfinder without light? Impossible.. if can find, how to get a nice shot or focus. Hrmmmm..
Thing about mandarin fish that keep every diver itchy is they are playing hard to get but they keep you interested. Just when you about to give up, they show up again, when you lift the camera, they hide. When you want to give up, they show up, when you tried to ignore, they mate. Whoaaa!! Are you kidding me?!.. so every mandarin dusk dive we never failed to spend at least 15 minutes being fooled by them. This time, we only got two chances for dusk dives with them.
Dusk dives, when the darkness falls, we would continue as night dive. We did our night dive in house reef and the third one should be the other side of House Reef. What can I say, told you I need brain backup, even a week is enough to erase details away. In fact, I wrote down key points to remember day by day, but still…
At night, different creatures come to live. I always wonder where they hide during the days. Like the huge Spanish Dancer, with the fat body and generous size. Colorful shrimps and crabs were crawling inside the corals or in the open, some fish were sleeping in the open of hidden inside coral too. It was the first time I saw mandarinfish sleeping in the open. So this little fellow was sleeping on its side, how odd it was but I swear I saw it that way, not moving. I thought it was dead before possibility of sleeping entered my mind. Quietly, I tried to adjust my camera but it was a light sleeper, woke up, looked at me with sleepy eyes and moved away. Haiyah..
We found a nice hollow space between two mass of hard corals where there were around ten or more Banded/Ringed Pipefish inside. It was very beautiful but it’s difficult to take their pictures because of the position. Also, when I shone the light around, there were two big lionfish just next to me, not intended to move. I tried to concentrate taking pictures, but the thought of these two fish with expanded venomous spines around them in the darkness just next to me gave me a creep. It’s no problem if we stayed the way we are, as they normally are ‘stay-still’ creatures, but I don’t like the possibility of them decided to move or if there was a sudden current, so I aborted my picture taking and just wandering around while kept a lookout for hubby who had not seen them.
The most memorable night dive was the last. It was two of us or with one guy from Jakarta who joined on the last night dive. The last we had two DM for three of us. One DM Amang, a very hilarious guy joined us, I think for fun, he got frustrated with his group during day dive, maybe he wanted to really enjoy diving without baby sitting.
So last night dive for the trip, we were very busy… okay.. I must say, this trip also raining Octopuses and cuttlefish or squid. There would never be a chance where we saw so many Octopuses walked in the open until we literally just ignore them. Big, small, curly, half buried, hide in the bottle, mother and daughter walking in the open… alamak.. all our encounter with octopuses in the past were either we saw their head only, or they ran away as fast as we catched each other eyes or quickly shoot inside the coral or seabed.
We saw many leaf, spiny or cockatoo during the dive, bobtail squid who quickly buried itself before I took my shots.
Haris our DM showed us a stick, it’s bent stick pipefish.. The body bent awakwardly like broken branch and the guy just sat there hoping it could fool everyone. It was quite a big one, length easily reached 60cm. So I took the picture, hubby and Joko, the guy from Jakarta hovered nearby. Suddenly hubby moved his light to attract my attention. He pointed at a seapen next to him. My mask was not so clear that night dive so I just see a wavy white spot. Must be a nudibranch or flatworm. But he looked very excited and kept moving his light to Haris who had moved quite far away. He actually mistaken him for me in the darkness, our lights looked the same. I knew it was something good.. then moved closer to make out the shape.
There it was, sitting there, is my favorite Frogfish, with the size of just probably 1 cm… alamak.. it was so #@*& cute..! sorry I don’t know how to express my excitement that moment from the option available in keyboard. Stood there beside the seapen, it pretended to be sponge. The current picked up a bit in here, so there were a lot of sand particles flying around, make it ever more harder to take the cutie.
I took few shots, then Haris called. Reluctanly I moved to see what he found quite a distance away, I think nice decorator crab running around. Took few shots and I quickly went back to the Frogfish. Hubby was still there taking the Pipefish. I just wanted to spend some more time looking at the tiny fellow. Felt like pinching the cheek.. haha. But I don’t do touching and it’s physically impossible with that size.
We saw a squid floating in the mid air. We had our fix of squid this time in Lembeh Strait, but this is different type, with electric blue and it move gracefully in the open. Couldn’t take good full bodied shot, insufficient light. So I on my C8 also and together with my strobe with removed diffuser, I had two beam of white light shinning to the squid, felt like I was intruder from the abyss or submarine. Ha..so happening., after the shot, I quickly off C8 and put back my diffuser.
Again, the octopuses were walking in the open like going for shopping.
I don’t know if I smelt saltier or the fish were more welcoming this trip. At first I thought because of the camera, I could get closer shot, but the again, sometimes I lost my sense of distance and found myself already hovering above the sand dweller burrow, like shrimp goby, and yet they still stand out side. They are shy creature and always hide the moment you go near, but in this case, I was hovering about just a feet away and they still stood there. I think I could just give the knocking-rubbing in the head (what is ‘pocel’ in English) and they wouldn’t mind.
Back to the dives around Malalayang area (not too sure what is the whole area name), we did three days diving there and it was always rewarding, although Megamall (dive site) was not as good as the last time we visited it. This area is also the around the same area where they did the Sail Bunaken to break World Record of the most number of divers. To see the actual place and to hear first hand experience was quite exciting. But we couldn’t really imagine the ‘pain’ of gearing up in the road side of Menado and walked to the beach fully geared in the burning hot weather, climbing down the retaining wall, walking through the road.. whoa…Menado was fully booked that week so some of the visitor or participants had to sleep in the boat.
Last day, although we woke up and started the day at 6, the new management screwed up so that we could only managed two dives instead of original three. However, nothing gone on waste because we logged super long dive, more than two hours for the last dives.
Dive in the morning only consisted four of us, we with the two DM, Amang and Haris. Amang joined us again for fun. Where else on earth can you get 1-1 DM ratio without selling your kidney for exclusive payment? Ha…
We did the morning dive in Tanjung Buloh, the visibility was excellent, probably 30m plus. The depth was 11-12, 15-16m, or anything above 20m, my favorite depth for macro. It was bright and pleasant morning with warm water.
Four of us scattered around. We had our own corners and moved at our own pace. We could see each other clearly. Once in the while we would share the stuff that we found by calling each other. I was hovering nearby a group of jawfish poking their heads up and down. (Ps: I reread this sentence again and it sounds like I was the one poking their heads, no, I did not. They were peeping, going out, going in again with butt first à what is the easy term for maju mundur yang gampang seh?!?).
Sometimes I just stopped doing everything and enjoy the surrounding, the pretty color, the playful fish and the slow bubble flying to the surface, it was so bright that the sun was able to penetrate as if we were in shallow 3 meter.
Hubby found four orang utan crab in one small coral, quite hidden. The four never want to get together, so it was like dejavu, this one went out, pose for you, then squatted at the corner, the other one came out, squatted in another corner, so on and so forth. It’s hard to get good short because their red blurry hair always gave impression that it’s a fail shots. Furthermore, they were in the reddish coral, so there was no contrast. Around their hiding place, there were hydroids everywhere. If touched, the itchiness and rash could last for agonizing long time.
At that moment Amang bang his tank. We hovered around him, he was looking at something, but with confused look. I heard him grumbling through the regulator. Haha… hubby saw and pointed to him, whether it’s what he was looking for. He nodded his hear and grin loudly (I could hear him smiling!), it was a juvenile Harlequin Shrimp, super small and still a bit transparent. Already difficult to take, the shrimp didn’t want to cooperate, it kept jumping away.
They also managed to find boxer crab, my favorite pom pom crab who always holding two pieces of anemone on the claw for defence.
Another time, another banging, and we saw two of them happily pointing at a bright purple blotched frogfish.. maybe 2 cm in size. Yay, I don’t need to repeat how happy I am to see frogfish, I alwayssss!!! This one also didn’t want to stand still, keep jumping and walking around until it disappeared under corals.
Haiii…
Sitting here.. drooling on the keyboard, remembering that beautiful morning….
Sitting here.. drooling on the keyboard, remembering that beautiful morning….
BUNAKEN
It’s not that we don’t like big fish, but we prefer small creatures because they are easier to predict, to take their pictures and to find. You can find certain animal in certain landscape, or looking at the trace they left behind or the characteristic of the environment. Macro dives will never be boring in good dive sites.
For big fish, it’s still possible to predict current, season etc but whether they want to show up or not, it’s entirely depends on luck. So we only went Bunaken for two days.
Anyway, Bunaken is not the best for big fish. Reef sharks, turtle, Napoleon Wrasse, Eagle Ray can occasionally be seen or dolphin on the surface, but it can be counted. Even school of barracuda doesn’t appear in big number. But for Bunaken, you can count on the beautiful corals and fish soup.
The wall is crowded with white and orange Pyramid Butterflyfish, Surgeonfishes, Red Tooth Triggerfish and others. Sometimes we could find leaf fish, nudibranch, lobster, flatworm, gobies etc on the wall, but in the shallower areas there are more interesting stuff like boxer crab, sea snake etc, eels etc.
This time, we hardly hover the shallow area because it’s either too shallow or because we were not at the suitable dive site. Majority, we glided along the wall.
This time, we hardly hover the shallow area because it’s either too shallow or because we were not at the suitable dive site. Majority, we glided along the wall.
Although not my favorite, I enjoyed diving in the wall very much, once in a while. It’s good that I don’t need to worry that I touched the sea bed or kicking some coral as long as I kept my leg away from the wall. Sometimes it’s not easy, especially in drift dive.
We made few new friends and enjoyed talking to this guy, discussing camera, ended up talking about dive sites and all the critters, he happened to be macro lovers and very experienced, so he has whole lot of funny stories about critters and divers. He always has photography trip and invited us if we want to join. No, inviting is not free. Inviting means welcome us to the circle and the trips that they arrange together with fellow divers or friends, since we all took pictures, it’d be good match because everyone would be damn slow. Ha… anyway, let me identify him as the funny guy (fg) for the purpose of this journal.. ;p
We had good laugh, but ended up didn’t realize that we don’t know his name. Sometimes it happens, we could hang around and chat whole day if we happen to ‘click’ with that who and who on the boat or resort but ended up never introduce each other properly.
So, enjoying the blue, the weightless feeling, we flew to the layer and layer of fish soup. This time, Bunaken was almost made of current, especially during the second time we were there. The current was ripping and we were not even in Manado Tua, where the barracuda action and current is expected. So we flew along the wall, which is quite nice if you obtained right positioning.
We had big group of ten divers with three dive masters. We were with Haris and Joko. Amang was guiding the group of three from Jakarta, those we dived together in Lembeh. Another DM was guiding a couple, friend of our friend (we were as surprised seeing him there, what a small world!), the fg seemed to take charge of another who looks like anxious diver. This diver was holding the depth gauge in front of the nose, while the funny guy enjoyed himself, taking pictures of the scenery, everyone, upside down, peeping turtle. I saw the diver finned around but kept himself close, looking up, looking at the gauge and to the funny guy again. Second dive was calm there was not a single sign of current.
Third dive, the three divers from Jakarta aborted. Fg stole the chance to ask Amang to take care of the nervous diver so that he could take picture peacefully.
Ten minutes to the dive, the current picked up and soon we were all flying again, this time was much stronger and persistent. There were few quiet times far and between the currents. We saw Amang busy towing the diver around, holding him on his tank valve. I think he got buoyancy problem and tend to be carried up during current pick-up. Amang then chased him to prevent him from going up further. The guy then deflated his BCD so he would be negative, but too much and went down, so Amang chased after him again, so on and so forth. Busy, but as long as it’s under control, it’s quite hilarious to see those two, especially Amang when he wore the clown fish hood, while the fg really enjoying his freedom. When we climbed back to the boat, he told us… Aduh… bawa ini orang bikin pusing, sakit kepala.. translated to…how to say it, he got headache taking care of that guy, but not a real ‘headache’.. huh…something like that. But there is also a possibility of real headache considering how the guy went up and down.
All the while, we had known that life is not all rosy, and being a Dive master is also no a dream job, although you can get paid doing what you like is a good concept. But to think of it, making your hobby into your daily job can backfire if you don’t love it enough, you can end up hating your hobby as well.
For DM in Asia, it’s hard work almost all the time. On our last day after the bright nice and cosy morning dive, instead of joining us as originally planned, Amang was transferred to another boat with very big group of Taiwanese diver going to Menado Tua area. They went down to 40 meter and refused to come up even though they already hit the deco, until he had to make decision to leave them there and monitored until they surfaced. It’s dilemmatic situation, but it’s not worth risking life for stubborn-headed idiot divers who are willing to put themselves and others at risk just for some thrill and unreasonable determination.
Back to the dive, yah, I enjoyed the wall dives as it offers nice variation from macro dives. The wall is not a mere vertical but there are many crevices and edges that create nice lookout, sandy area or interesting space for marine life. Some sandy area is quite big that we can exploring the bed and found stuff we found in macro diving. Small caverns on the wall has turtle hiding, fish, lobster, and smaller sandy edges had fire gobies and other interesting creatures. A huge, I mean hugeeeee turtle was messing up inside a cavern we found on big sandy slope. It was moving frantically inside, I watched it for quite a while because I waited for the opportunity for it to go out and pass by, but it never did. Taking big fish with fish eye can be frustating, because unless we can get close, it would only appeared as very small in the whole picture, especially there were only few numbers of them. So the eagle ray, shark, turtle, napoleon wrasse in the blue pass by, we almost never attempt for it, unless we could catch up, but all of them didn’t want to go close to the reef, they just disappear to the blue.
Okay, for big thing, compare to my last trip, I missed what I saw there. He he he.. the mantas, the barracuda.. well… there are time and place for everything.
Best thing about Bunaken is the shallow area, the coral grow was magnificent, we felt just like nemo in between field of colorful anemone. Whaaaaaaaa…
When we sat around chatting on the boat during surface interval, we saw two snorkelers. Funny thing was, it was almost in the middle of the sea, the water around us was dark blue, means it’s deep.
I commented about what they were seeing, obviously nothing was visible in the surface, just as the same time both of them look up and asked us,” Hallooo.. can you tell me where can we see coral?”
I commented about what they were seeing, obviously nothing was visible in the surface, just as the same time both of them look up and asked us,” Hallooo.. can you tell me where can we see coral?”
Hey.. it’s not everyday someone asks you for direction in the sea, especially when you are in the boat in mid sea and a passerby, eh, snorkelerby, asked for direction. I pointed to the far right where the water is bright blue near the island. They said thank you and proceed. The male was a caucasion and female was Japanese. We all had good question marks above our heads but chuckled at the incident. How can they ended up here? They might be carried away by current without realizing it.
We saw them moving to the area I pointed, but after a while, they lost direction again. The male went to the left, female to the right. They could just lift up their head and see, but they probably sway by current again. Doh.. but I have to admit they were very strong swimmer..
When we about to go down for the dive I saw them swimming to our boat direction again, the corals were just behind them.. Haiyah… I think these two were totally blur and mudheaded.
It can be very dangerous since they were quite far from the island (for swimming distance it's very far!), they didn’t wear floating jacket, if they got exhausted, leg cramp or whatever, they had nothing to hold them on the surface.
They didn’t have surface marker buoy to make them visible to boats that passing by.
Boat + diver/swimmer on surface + no sign/not aware of the presence = minced meat.
Not to mention why they never realized they had been drifted too far away from the island or boat and no one probably know where they were. They had no awareness to associate corals with shallow water of island edge and chose to swim to the open.
Not to mention why they never realized they had been drifted too far away from the island or boat and no one probably know where they were. They had no awareness to associate corals with shallow water of island edge and chose to swim to the open.
Sometimes during surface interval, a traditional boat, jukung would come over and offered us souvenirs to buy. This time we met the boaters, an elderly husband and wife, who brought us pisang goreng (fried banana) for free because the three people from Jakarta bought things from them. They were such nice, simple and friendly people with very genuine hearts and smiles.
This time along our way to and back from Bunaken, we didn’t see dolphin like our last trip, although seagulls, small number of flying fish were our nice company along the way. I love the way the water flow when we passed through it, it’s just like a gigantic big smooth silk without any noise, flapping ripple by ripple, so beautiful.. together with the blue sky and cottony cloud.. wah…I could be hypnotized for hours just starring at that.
LEMBEH STRAIT
Going to Menado, there was no way that we gave Lembeh a miss, in fact, it was mostly our main reason to be there. To reach Lembeh Straits from the place we stayed, we needed two hour car ride and about twenty or thirty minutes boat ride. It’s agony, it’s suffering sometimes, but it’s what called royalty, aha… We had been diving with this operator since 2006, the only setback is they don’t have a base in Lembeh, so there we go, we had to drive there and back everyday. We have option to stay in Bitung, the seaport area but we prefer in the resort, anyway, the crew would go back regardless we followed them or not.
From Bitung ,we would take a blue long and low decked wooden fisherman boat (hell lot of adjectives!). The boat consisted of three part; behind, where the boatman is, sitting in the open. Then the front of the boat, where our gears were and where we geared up and jumped to the water. Between these two parts, there was a long roofed but low (so that the boatman behind can still see through the front) space for us to sit, sleep, eat, drink hot tea, chat, whenever we felt ‘indoorrish’.
The more fun area is the rooftop, the front of the boat and the slope that connect the front and the rooftop. That is where we sat to catch the scenery on the way to and back or in between dives.
I don’t know whether the description is easy to understand, picture would be better, but it’s maddening to take picture on land which means I had to lifted up the camera on eye level..whoa…my back! My back! So no picture hah…
The boatman is a very nice, simple, friendly and cheerful guy, he has been with our operator for so long he already knows all the good spots and where to find what and what, the most updated information. When we finished unloading and loading all the equipment from the car to boat, I started to become flashwoman. Well, the changing process has to be fast, real fast so that I finished before any other men entered the boat.
From Bitung ,we would take a blue long and low decked wooden fisherman boat (hell lot of adjectives!). The boat consisted of three part; behind, where the boatman is, sitting in the open. Then the front of the boat, where our gears were and where we geared up and jumped to the water. Between these two parts, there was a long roofed but low (so that the boatman behind can still see through the front) space for us to sit, sleep, eat, drink hot tea, chat, whenever we felt ‘indoorrish’.
The more fun area is the rooftop, the front of the boat and the slope that connect the front and the rooftop. That is where we sat to catch the scenery on the way to and back or in between dives.
I don’t know whether the description is easy to understand, picture would be better, but it’s maddening to take picture on land which means I had to lifted up the camera on eye level..whoa…my back! My back! So no picture hah…
The boatman is a very nice, simple, friendly and cheerful guy, he has been with our operator for so long he already knows all the good spots and where to find what and what, the most updated information. When we finished unloading and loading all the equipment from the car to boat, I started to become flashwoman. Well, the changing process has to be fast, real fast so that I finished before any other men entered the boat.
Beside us were all the fisherman boat with their fish, nets etc. Right after we left the seaport, all the fisherman background disappeared and replaced by greenery alongside the sea. Nice….
We did giant stride from boat front and it was a much easier way to enter the water. Backroll, especially from higher boat can sometimes tense the ears or loosen the mask if not hold properly. Giant stride is so easy and convenient. Every dive, I always wanted to get in the water as fast as I can, so that I had my leisure time to adjust everything and rechecked my camera when waiting for others. I can also avoid the hot weather (dipping is cooling mah) and smell of boat engine. Anyway, there was one time I got into the water so fast I forgot that the regulator was not in my mouth but it was in my hand. So for few milliseconds in the air, just before I fell into water, I realized it…”Oh crap” and lifted my hand with the reg up high so that I protected it from the impact of falling. Haha.. I actually think it’s quite good to do so, provided the sea is very calm like that and there is no risk of being carried away by the current.
Anyway, half into the trip, the jaw would be so tense that sometimes I felt like spitting out the regulator, especially during strong current as the teeth had gone sore from biting it. It’s a relief to hold the reg with the hand if we able to.
First dive in Lembeh, I kept thinking, this is Lembeeeeehhhh. Can’t help keep comparing it into my last trip where we were quite deprived from macro creatures. I miss being so busy in the dive like this. And very first few minutes into the first dive there, we were greeted by reddish Orange Frogfish. I found it on the sea bed trying to look like a sponge. It did indeed, but the familiar hunchback ad cute leg gave it away. Passing that, two pairs of Flying Gunnards glided beside me, just before I heard tank banging where Amang and Harris showed us the white rhinopias. Rhinopias is a gem of Lembeh and so far, I’ve only seen it there.
Ocellated Dragonet
Lacey Scorpionfish (Rhinopias sp)Rhinopias also brought me back to memory of Franky, the first Dm who showed us the Rhinopias three years ago. We saw the purple one lying in the open. Bizzare it was, Franky told me it was Rhinopias. Well, it’s possible to speak underwater, only that you have to add up some creative thinking to be able to understand it. The sound is similar to when you rub your finger to a balloon.. hmm..something like that. That time I heard he said Rhinopias but I didn’t know what it means. Back then, to me, all the life in the sea is divided by four categories; fish, crabs, corals and shrimps. I didn’t know what is Rhinopias and I didn’t know if I heard it correctly. Anyway, it looked weird and bizarre enough for me to know that this is something special.
First day in Lembeh was only us and Dan, accompanied by Haris and Amang. Yah, I think they are very generous with DM this time. Second dive Amang wanted to show us yellow Rhinopias, which is the variation I had never seen yet. The color was beautiful and the fellow was so lacey and pretty. How could this thing be created??
I imagine we might not even able to produce it using paper craft.
Longspine Waspfish variation
Pygmy Lionfish
Flying Gunnard
Devil ScorpionfishOn the land, during briefing, before we jumped on a dive site we had never been before, Amang and Haris said they would bring us to see squid eggs. I had seen a field of them before. Of course I would like to see them again. Little did I know, this one was different.
So we hovered on the seabed when Haris pointed cuttlefish egg with a very very tiny cuttlefish already developed inside. However it was so tiny and protected in quite opaque egg, there was no way we could take the picture. After a few tries, I gave up and moved to the next coral where I saw a bunch of the eggs. I thought, this was it that they wanted us to see. However, when I just took one two snap, it’s when Haris or Amang called us up.
It was shallow area, unlike usual Lembeh site, these time we saw a lot of corals, pretty corals. So me and hubby approached the DMs and hovered around them, all nice coral around, thinking they were showing something in the coral or on the ground. Instead, they gave hand signal for us to stay where we were, and pointed to one direction.
At first, the sun was glaring and I had not able to make up what he pointed. Until a few critters appears, and more, and more. There were many squid around, each the size of probably 40-70cm. They were hovering with their flowing skirt and strikes of brilliant colors on their body. Wow… I had seen school of smaller squid before, had seen group of bigger ones like these, but I never seen them actually stayed there, dancing and playing right before our eyes. We were there bubbleless for a while, then I had to start taking videos. We were captivated with the scenery that I never took my eyes off them for good ten fifteen minutes? I also found the reason of why the squid were there, there were bunches and bunches of eggs hidden inside the coral just below and around us, the bright sunshine penetrating the water was also probably the reason why they chose to hang there. Because we hovered still and enjoyed without approaching too close, they also accepted our presence and didn’t mind to have us around, something getting closer and closer. Amang and Haris were probably behind us, I don’t know what they did, probably scratching their head waiting because we were totally hypnotized. Dan missed the scene because he was busy taking other things. Fortunately, there was a chance to go back on the same place the very next day, with additional Jakarta group of 3 person and another DM because they also wanted to see the rare yellow Rhinopias. But they missed it, it was no longer there, luckily the squid scenery was way too precious for anyone to get disappointed anytime. We told Dan about the squids he missed, and he was so happy to be able to see them this time. While the Jakarta group watched them for a while and surfaced, three of us again spent a lot of time there. Just looking and enjoying the pretty silence.
Squid's Egg
Cuttlefish's EggVideos would be uploaded later....... if I manage to do it.. ;p
Lembeh Straits has become a well known destination. Although muck diving is not for everyone, more and more divers fall in love with it, or some just try to see what the fuss is. It scared shitless of the group of 12 Russian though, they left our resort to stay with another operator to dive in Lembeh, a day after, we heard they begged to go back Bunaken. Yah, maybe they were scared when they couldn’t see colors and all the critters are too small and bizarre for their liking, ha… whatever floats each other boat.
On the good side, of course it boosts diving tourism that as the same time support the better life for the local, ideally. The bad, exploitation, and we don’t know which type of who and who are going to visit these wonderful creatures, and how they appreciate them. Furthermore, some greedy and irresponsible behavior also surfaced. We suspect and it was not a baseless suspicion, that the rare yellow Rhinopias had been moved. There was a secret practice that some of the dive resort does. They barricade the housereef for their own and only use, and they steal stuff from dive sites to put in house reef for their advantage. Well, I was shocked and very disappointed, hoping hard that it’s wrong, that the Rhinopias, who normally stay at one place for looong time, had moved itself for natural reason.
When three of us were watching the squids, I saw two Korean/Japanese/Taiwanese diver approaching from far. They saw the squid, one person saw it first, and informed the friend, who, whoa.. looked like chocked on the regulator, with widened eyes, frantically started to adjust the camera, and whoosh, two of them dashed into the squids and us, and well of course, all of the squids ran away.
Crap! It pissed me off big time, Dan and hubby didn’t seem happy as well. The squid were happily playing around us and these two jokers came like underwater F1 divers. The squids were still around, but they kept avoiding the divers, well, who wouldn’t? But the two mudheads kept chasing them. Hopefully they didn’t chase away the squids forever. Kampret.
Without any signals to each other, pissed off, three of us made a U turn and left the place.
Other dive site, Nudi Retreat is one of the most famous dive site in Lembeh. Don’t imagine group of nudist go and hide there or doing their weekend retreat, because instead of naked babes or hunks or whatever, you can only see salty fully clad people who got nothing better to do than counting their life on gas inside their heavy tanks.
Nudi, baceuse it’s so called heaven for nudibranch, the colorful sea slugs, hence the name, although I wonder why. Each time I go there, yes, there are some nudibranch, but there are more other special things to see.
Other dive site, Nudi Retreat is one of the most famous dive site in Lembeh. Don’t imagine group of nudist go and hide there or doing their weekend retreat, because instead of naked babes or hunks or whatever, you can only see salty fully clad people who got nothing better to do than counting their life on gas inside their heavy tanks.
Nudi, baceuse it’s so called heaven for nudibranch, the colorful sea slugs, hence the name, although I wonder why. Each time I go there, yes, there are some nudibranch, but there are more other special things to see.
Just to mention, Pegasus Sea Moth, each time I went there, we always saw them, and there are not common in other dive sites at all, they are fascinating creatures who crawl the seabed in pair or threesome, but I have no idea how to take good pictures of them.
We saw electric clam, still on the same place always. It’s swan egg size reddish clam with electric blue strike sparkling, the blue strike would appear, disappear, move in line, just like those electrical phenomenon, how to describe that. No pictures as the surge was quite strong that time. I was trying to take a Dendronephthya crab when the surge picked up and tried to slam me to the wall. It would be too tedious to join the rest under the canopy of coral to see the electric clam.
We saw electric clam, still on the same place always. It’s swan egg size reddish clam with electric blue strike sparkling, the blue strike would appear, disappear, move in line, just like those electrical phenomenon, how to describe that. No pictures as the surge was quite strong that time. I was trying to take a Dendronephthya crab when the surge picked up and tried to slam me to the wall. It would be too tedious to join the rest under the canopy of coral to see the electric clam.
Dendronephthya Crab
Pegasus Sea MothThree years ago, during a dusky dive in Nudi Retreat, my first time three, I saw a white Frogfish juvenile clinging on the coral vertically. It was the prettiest I had seen. Although I saw another similar type in other places, I never forget this one and always hope to find it again. I couldn’t find in the subsequent trip to Lembeh, but this time, I was pleasantly surprised.
We hovered around again, when hubby waved to me. By looking at the intensity of the wave, it’s something good…! I almost chocked on my regulator that I swear if my eyes were not hidden by the mask, they would get teary (because of salt water, dooh!) but I was indeed so touched..terharu.. berkaca-kaca..he he… to see my white Frogfish stood there between coral. The exactly the same species I saw hanging on the wall, the one that I always looked for. It’s bigger now, probably adult size for its species already, around 12 cm? Well, I don’t know if it’s the same frogfish but I don’t care, I like to think this as reunion.
Boooyah!!!...
The surge was picking up quite bad that it’s really hard for us to take picture or stayed still, but we still spent some time with the frogfish. Anyway, second visit there, it had move…to deeper part but still within 5 meter radius, stood there look pretty. J
Nudi Retreat also has good number of Pygmy Seahorse, the very tiny seahorse who are always shy of camera and give you back sides. HM!
Nudi Retreat is located in secluded bay, but whenever a fast boat passed by, the heavy surge would reach us especially if we dived in shallow area. Because of the secluded bay also, diving there always gives me impression of misty, dusky and mysterious semidark water. With addition that it was heavy rain that day, it looks even more gloomy and beautiful.
In the beginning of one of other dives in Lembeh, we saw a anemone with clown fish, which is a very common sight, but for closer look, we saw newly laid eggs next to it. The parents were very protective and diligently tending the eggs. We suspected that they were still in the process of laying more. Pretty sight,.. the parent would fan and blow the egg mass and swimming around them to deter anything that goes near, including divers. And these clown fish are not discourage by sizes at all.
I always like looking at them, beside the busy anemone fish hiding and swimming around, we could find other things like eggs, anemone shrimp or anemone and porcelain crabs. Porcelain crabs like to hide below the anemone, so when the surge moved the anemone skirt up, we could see few of them clinging there, sometimes they also sat in the open.
Earlier in the trip, we requested to see Flamboyant Cuttlefish, it’s almost the only missing link, after we fulfilled our wish to see Blue Ring Octopus in previous trip.
It was Tanjung Tebal, when Amang found the Flamboyant Cuttlefish. Wahh.. we were so excited. I saw Haris shook Amang’s hand, hubby also, I joined a bit later and give him an appreciation and respectful big ok sign and grin.
This cuttlefish looks almost like another cuttlefish, the size only about 15-20cm? But when they display their colour, they turn into brilliant, orange, purple and reddish pink with black and white body. Booyah! So happy to see it we stalked it for almost ten-fifteen minutes.
This dive sites is also a place for octopus galore, they are everywhere and not shy. Wah.. I think if I put my head next to them they would just climb up..ah..why didn’t I do that.. he he..
My frogfish story had not yet ended.. there was one very special dive when we saw three simultaneously. The first one was the gigantic yellow giant Frogfish, people like to call it football frogfish also. The yellow color was almost like scotchlight and it was a good 40cm side, perching next to yellow big sponge. I couldn’t even capture the whole body in a frame. We heard banging, although reluctant to leave the yellow football, it leaped out of my mind the moment I saw the petite darkgreen with blotched frogfish the DMs showed us. I don’t know which type it is, the pattern certainly look different and special.
We hovered around for looong time, waiting for it to yawn, prepare with the camera. But it never yawn, so we switch position, at that moment, it yawned. Arghhh! What are the odds… Why hubby left, I still stayed there for a while, when it started bouncing and flying. Dang video! I don’t think I had good result. I’m quite sure the fellow can heard my ‘he he he’ entertained by the flying of this odd shaped creature.
Not long after that, there was another black giant frogfish perching on the rope, lying still motionless, it looked a hump or dirt or just the rope knots or anything but something alive.
I do had very good fix of Frogfish this time, whole trip we saw more than ten different types of them, but I will never get enough of them.. See yah next time buddies..
Normally during our way back, we would stop at the shower area, a natural spring. It’s located in the middle of the island stretch, just next to another dive site. We had to climb the narrow pipe bridge and walked up all the water to get the fresh water dips before we went home. But somehow this time we didn’t do so. But it’s alright, we brought a container of fresh water to be shared with everyone, so that we can rinse after dives.
This trip I didn’t have allergic reaction except very rashes on exposed skin, which is very good, but I got blister on my legs, front part around ankle area. My booties of five years had been so worn out that it didn’t give me much protection against the fin anymore. My right hand was also sore from handling the camera, but it’s not as bad as previous trip. This time, I think I got the most ‘electric’ load, I felt like my skin was detached and there were current like numbness for few days.
All Picture Links
http://s835.photobucket.com/albums/zz275/apingpingaa/Menado%20October%2017-26%20October%202009/?albumview=slideshow
My favorite diving poem, which I always put in my every Manado trip, none else can describe it better.
If I should die beneath the sea
What e'er the circumstance may be
I only ask that you not cry
For such a lucky one as I.
But, rather, weep for those alive
Who know not what it is to dive
Into the planet's liquid heart
And of God's ocean be a part.
For even Christ must envy all
Who dive along the ocean's wall
Though wind and sea His will obeys
He only walked upon the waves.
And may I ask for one thing more?
A simple cross beside the shore.
Below my name inscribe for me:
Lost to the earth, but found at sea.
- Carson Ray, 1989
