Adventures in Asia: Bunaken, Indonesia
Turtles, walls and wreck diving
I spent a week in Bunaken, an island in North Sulawesi, to do some fun diving. This was my final stop on the Indonesian leg of my journey. I flew from Bali to Manado (via Surabaya, over a volcano), was transferred to the harbour (via a mall for lunch and an emergency bikini purchase) and then a boat ride to the Two Fish resort on Bunaken.
The day after I arrived I was hit squarely in the face by a vicious cold and spent the next two days trying to recover. Thankfully, there are worse places than paradise to recuperate in.
By day three, though my sinuses were by no means cleared, I stubbornly decided to dive. Equalising was now a lot more painful, but I managed three dives on the first diving day: two morning dives along pristine walls and a night (drift) dive. I spotted moray eel, lobster, frogfish, crabs and lots of turtles. I still had a tendency to float into my dive guide quite often with help from the current. Surfacing in the dark during the almost-full moon was really amazing and the water around Bunaken is also bioluminescent so once again I had fun covering my torch and playing with the blue sparks.
Diving day two was a little easier, but still somewhat painful in the sinuses with some more wall dives in beautiful locations. Sightings included white-tipped reef shark, barracuda and more turtles. I was convinced to do a Mandarin fish dive in the late afternoon, which turned out to be one of the most challenging dives thus far at 6m for 60 minutes waiting for some tiny fish to come out and dance — the whole dive is basically a safety stop. Unfortunately, visibility was horrid and the area was covered with dead coral, but at least I saw the Mandarin fish briefly (no dancing) and got a chance to practice buoyancy techniques for an hour.
The third diving day was a little bit depressing as both dive sites we went to had a lot of damaged coral. The first site used to be very beautiful as the structures and formations — huge overhangs and caves — were incredible to behold but it was clear that it would take a long time for the corals and reef to recover. The second site had more fish and so many turtles (someone counted 18 in total), but was clearly also damaged. I wandered into the local village in the afternoon and did some snorkelling amongst the sea grass and mangroves to try and spot dugong (no luck).
The final diving day for me featured a wreck dive near Manado. The ship is a presumed Dutch cargo ship from WWII and sustains much sea life. This is one of my most memorable dives. The second dive of the day was also my 30th dive overall — and I finally got to see a pygmy seahorse, as well as a black-tipped reef shark (and more turtles)!
I’m sad to leave Indonesia and even more so to be done with diving (for now). However, it’s probably a good thing to give my poor sinuses a bit of a break. In only 19 days I’ve completed my Open Water and Advanced Open Water courses and seen some incredible marine life and coral formations in a variety of sites over my 30 logged dives. My air consumption has improved vastly (due to skipping my morning coffee), meaning I am able to enjoy dive sites for a little longer and at greater depths. More than just the diving though, I’ve met some pretty cool people at the various dive centres and have loved my stay in Indonesia because the people are genuinely nice.
I’m very certain that this is not the last time I do some diving in Indonesia. But for now, it’s time to head to India!
