A share of a lovely travel to Rajaampat

Been awhile since my last post on this blog. My mind was occupied with the PADI certification excitement. Yes, I just got my qualification in scuba diving. A first preparation to the plan that followed, an escape trip to paradise. Not really, the destination was actually Rajaampat, a hidden gemstone in the east of Indonesia. An array of islands to the west of Papua, in where we can see beauties both underwater and above its surface.

For your guideous information, we, 13 brave young men and women – marked our five days of lifetime floating on a sailing boat circa de chain of Rajaampat islands, where we witnessed originality in God’s pure creation. To be frank, it was not easy for urban minds like we are to spend the life of hipster even for a day. Luckily, the organizer, he who identified himself as “Deni Rajaampat” in #facebook was preparing everything to meet our standard of drooling – honestly we only knew 5S along the tour, it’s Sun Swim Sleep Supper and Shit :p

Rajaampat is one of “Kabupaten” in West Papua. It consists of hundreds of smaller islands that are surrounded by four main islands – Waigeo, Salawati, Batanta, and Misool. Formerly, Rajaampat, which means 4 Kings in local, was four kingdoms linked to Ternate Sultanate. Nowadays, Rajaampat area is well-known for its huge amount of biodiversity features – more than thousands of fish species and about 75% of all coral species in the world are living in its underwater.

About the trip itself, it took around 12 hours from Sorong to reach Rajaampat. As we set at 6 o’clock from the city, so we only got to the site in the evening. The real fun started on the second day. Four of us – Moja, Kanya, Dian, and myself decided to experience its underwater for one full tank of oxygen. It took around sixty minutes for us to consume the condensed air underwater (so shocked that the guides from Papua Diving only consumed less than half of what we took, hail Mr. Jacobus and his companion). So unlucky we didn’t meet Sharks, Manta rays, and turtles there 😦 (people from Papua Diving said it’s huge chance to say hello to those creatures mentioned earlier). At least we managed to see different schools of beautiful fishes and colorful corals – it’s literally like a flower garden over there.

Other than that, we spent our most memorable 5 days doing snorkel and eating fresh fish with Manado cook style (missed sambal Dabu-Dabu already) from sunrise to sunset, and playing Chap-Sa card game and rewinding the daytime story after that time.

Ah, not to forget, we also climbed the most beautiful hikings on day four. The first rock we climbed was an easy but long one. It took around an hour and half to reach the summit and coming back to boat. On the top, I saw the most beautiful scenery that these two eyes ever seen. How come that cones of islands seem floating above the surface of glass clear of sea water. It’s a clever God that put this kind of view hidden in the remotest area, so that only the most observing mind of us could experience this invaluable scenery.

And just like a good movie, it ends soon as we get to the climax. So as our five days itinerary. It reached the end before we’re fully satisfied. We wanted more. But, reality conquered us all and reminded that we got plenty things to do as we resume from the holiday leave. It ends too soon ;(

From now on, pending task is to present the photographs to the cloud 🙂