Raja Ampat, Papua

After a back and forth discussion with my friends, comparing travel to Labuan Bajo or Raja Ampat, we finally decided to travel to RAJA AMPAT !

Surprisingly, the ticket was not really expensive as what we had in mind. The ticket price was around 2.8mio IDR for return using Sriwijaya Air from Jakarta to Sorong  and Batik Air from Sorong to Jakarta 

Friday, 24 Mar 2017

The day that we've waited has finally come. After the hectic preparation since we were still working, we decided to meet up at Senayan as our meeting point. I was working from home at that time. Besides preparing this trip, I was also waiting for the result of my Master application in Sweden. The result came one hour before I left my home. Sadly, I was still on the waiting list to be accepted on the program, mixed-feeling to leave my home but show must go on, Raja Ampat is waiting !

I met Mba Fitri and Doni at McDonald STC. WE had dinner there while waiting for Elsa since she had a meeting at Sentral Senayan. I was sharing all my worries and luckily I have them to cheer me up. 

Around 21:30, we arrived at the airport. We were still waiting for Mba Iin and Mas Rory since they got stuck on the crazy traffic to the airport. No delay, so at 23:00 by Sriwijaya Air we were ready to depart and start our adventure. 

The trip from Jakarta to Sorong was around 5 hours and 30 minutes with 1 transit in Makassar. One tips for you is to make sure that you go directly walk to the check-in counter since you need to check-in again and you only have 45 minutes. Bare in mind that Makassar is one hour ahead of Jakarta so again you only have time for transit for 45 minutes not 1 hour and 45 minutes. 

Saturday, 25 Mar 2017 

Around 6:30, we were safely landing at Domine Eduard Osok Airport in Sorong. We met our colleges who are based in Sorong and also Pak Asman as our guide for this trip. First thing first, our colleges brought us to Billy Bakery to try the famous Roti Abon Gulung. I personally really love it ! Best pairing with hot tea or coffee in the morning.

Roti Gulung Abon - Billy Bakery

From there, we continued to the port and took the 2 hours trip by Ferry to Waisai, Raja Ampat. We have one additional member - Pak Cahya. He is from Jakarta too and decided to take the same trip 

View from the Ferry

Welcome to Raja Ampat

Raja Ampat signature sign

We had lunch at the local restaurant there (One of the famous ones since President Jokowi was there !), prayed then we departed again to our home stay in Delvin, it took around 40 minutes by boat to reach there. By the way please stay awake, you never know when you'll see.  I saw flying fish when on the way there !

Delvin  Homestay

We took rest for a moment, unpacked our stuffs, and got ready to explore the area. Firstly we went to Pasir Timbul. We were quite lucky since it was late afternoon and we were able to play there. The sand will disappear if the the tide is high. We really enjoyed the scenery - clear blue sky, blue sea water and white sand. It's also possible to swim and snorkeling here. 

Pasir Timbul

Bay Watch LOL

From there, we continued to snorkeling in Yenbuba. The coral was incredible however the tide was so strong when we came there, so we were just snorkeling for a moment and enjoy the area then we went back to our homestay. It's a good time to mingle and chitchat with friends since the internet connection is not good :)

Selfie with the kids

Enjoying our homestay

Sunday, 26 Mar 2017
We woke up early in the morning and had our breakfast. Our agenda for today was visiting Pianemo and Arborek Village

Morning View

I must say that the trip to Pianemo was a bit scary. It was a sunny day when we left our homestay. Our guide said that the trip will take around one and a half hour. We were all excited and really enjoy the trip, but suddenly the clouds turned into dark and heavy rain. The friendly wave turned into big wave, we couldn't see anything and spontaneously we were all looking for life jacket. The coxswain kept calm on this situation, however he said that we were out of track and better to stop to save the gasoline. We (the passenger) were in panic then the rain stopped bit by bit and the coxswain started to drive the boat again. Not far from there, we found an island and decided to stop by until the the rain  stopped.

At the island after the rain

About 15 minutes after we left the island, we arrived at Pianemo. There are some sellers on the dock selling coconut water, snacks and some merchandise. To get the best view, we need to climbed about 300 steps. It was a bit slippery because of the rain. However it's still safe because they have handrails on both side and also there are a rest spot in the middle of the way to the top. 

By the time we reached to the peak, we were all amazed with the breathtaking scenery - Turquoise sea water, volcanic island with greeny vegetation. All our effort paid off !

We ordered the coconut water before we left and then had our lunch on the boat not to far from Pianemo. We had Ayam Goreng and Tumis Tauge, Afterward, we climbed the karst to see the lush nature and unique sight of Telaga Bintang (Star Lagoon)

Telaga Bintang (The Star Lagoon)

From there, we visited the Arborek Village. It's a well-developed village and we can enjoy the beautiful under the sea life here. We found a funny thing here, the need to pay 5,000 IDR to use the toilet, it's similar with a cup of tea / coffee here. Maybe, it's still hard to get the fresh water here so they charged extra for the toilet 😁. If you are a diver, this is also one of the best spot just right under the bridge. Unfortunately, none of us are diver. So we just enjoy the underwater life by snorkeling, Luckily, we bought a full-mask snorkel before that, I personally think it's a great invention. We can breath normally (with nose) under the water. This place is also closed to the Manta Point, Sadly we didn't  go there since it was late already and we need to go back to the home stay before the high tide. 

Feeding the fish

Full-mask snorkel

Kids in Arborek

Monday, 27 Mar 2017

Today's agenda was going to Wayag. The trip to Wayag from our hostel will take around 4 hours. Meaning, we will spent almost 8 HOURS in the sea for the return trip ! Luckily, the weather was good when we left, however we still prayed it would stay good for the whole day just like yesterday since today was a long trip. We used different boat, bigger than before, since we had 3 additional members who were joining.The view was great during the trip, we could see so many island and there was rainbow in the morning. Our guide told us that there was a whale but we didn't see it since the boat was so fast.

After about 2.5 hours, we took rest to buy some snacks and toilet at the fisherman village. It was a nice village, we saw some children were trying to catch the fish.

We continued our trip to the island, the guide told us that it was close already maybe around 30 minutes. But suddenly, we got another surprise from the mother nature. Still, clear blue sky but now we were facing a big tide. The boat was so bumpy because of the tide. We prayed that it would finish soon. I forgot for how long, maybe around 15 minutes, the tide was back to normal and just few minutes afterward we could see the island with white sand, that's the Wayag island !

to have a great view of the island, we need to climb up again to the top. It was going to be different with climbing at Pianemo since there was no stairs and everything was still natural. For us, it was very challenging since we're not climber / hiker. To reach the top, we need to climb around 150 m, but it took big effort for us to hike up. We grabbed whatever we could grab, rocks, roots, branches to go up. It was harder since I only wore my banana flipflop at that time :p

By the time you reached the top, you will be amazed the beautiful scenery of Wayag. This place is magical. You should come here at least once in a lifetime.

Wayag

Get a chance to reach our Bendera Merah Putih at the top of the top of this island, you just need to climb a bit more.

From there, we still had one agenda to visit an island where we can swim with the baby shark. Maybe it was only 45 minutes from there and in the same way as on the way back. We had lunch at this place and we tried to push our confident to swim with the sharks. We saw some baby black-tip sharks, at first we were scared but then we decided to swim. 

Unfortunately, we have to leave this place when we started to enjoy it. It was already 2pm and remembering the 4 hours trip to go back. Almost raining, but thanks God it wasn't and we safely arrived on our homestay, We had rest and packed our stuffs again since we need to leave and back to Sorong in the morning. Had a superb dinner on our last day, they prepared fried fish, it was just an ordinary fried fish, but the taste was very fresh. 

Tuesday, 28 Mar 2017

Sadly, holiday was over and we need to go back to reality. Suddenly I remembered that I was still on the waiting list for my master. A bit sad but I put a big hope I would get it ( I've been admitted on the program when writing this blog :) ) By the time we arrived in Sorong, we directly went to KFC since we missed fast food haha and Pak Chandra treated us. 😁

Overall, It was a great experience to explore Raja Ampat. Quite adventurous for city people like us haha especially when we were on the heavy rain in the middle of the sea, high tide and climbing on Wayag. Sadly, we missed to see Manta and also we didn't dive. Maybe one day we will be able to come back and diving there since people say it's a paradise down there and we want to explore Misool as the other attraction there.