A Paradise Polluted

Outside the coast of northern Sulawesi lies Bunaken, a small island with the potential of some of the greatest diving in the world. It once ranked in the top five dive spots in the world but had lost rankings in recent years.

As a diver I went in search of new wonders and to marvel while doing my flights through alien territory. The underwater world is truly an amazing one, with creatures one would think lived in the world of fiction.  The waters of Bunaken have a diverse marine life and focuses mainly on the smaller life forms. There are a few turtles guaranteed to be seen but sharks and bigger wildlife is not as common.

It all started out with a very promising afternoon wall dive. The reef where I dived was in relative good shape and there was plenty to see. Then the local influence started floating by in the form of plastic and garbage. As the growing city of Manado is quite close by and up current of this “could be island paradise”, a lot of things tend to float by. Not uncommon are, plastic bags, dead animals, diapers or other random junk. It’s worst for the snorkelers on the south and east side who must experience all the floaters but it’s horrible for me as a diver as well.

After a few dives I had enough and could no longer stand the pollution of humanity and left the island after far fewer dives than I had initially hoped.

Without this pollution I’d easily rank Bunaken among the top 10-15 dive sports. It the reef was in perfect condition it would be even better but there is some damage due to earlier dynamite and cyanide fishing.

For those who do not want to dive there are a few other activities on the island. The beaches are not that good and quite polluted both from the wash up of Manado and the locals habit of throwing garbage about. The snorkeling is good if one can disregard the foulness floating around. There is a dolphin tour for about 80.000 IDR which is worthwhile and quite cheap for this type of thing around south East Asia.

It’s good to know that all the places to stay charge per person and not per room. All meals of the day are also included in this price. The cheaper alternative is to stay in a homestay in the little village on the south end of the island. The less cheap alternative is to stay at one of the many resorts with ad hoc dive centers or dive centers with ad hoc resorts. I stayed at Raja Laut (meaning Ocean King) and enjoyed it.

The price was 250.000 IDR per person and both food and accommodation was very nice. The diving part of our resort/dive center as also good but I think they value what you can see higher than what you don’t want to see. I although the corals might be more damaged on the North West part of the island I’d easily trade it for less garbage any time. Most of the prices for the resorts are in Euros and the local exchange rate is quite bad. So it’s much better to bring your own cash that you conveniently exchanged in your home country. There are also no ATMs on the island so bring plenty of cash. Although I felt quite safe ant not too worried about my gear in our bungalow it was still nice to be able to put out valuables in the dive centers safe.

The cheapest alternative for diving and also maybe staying is Daniels. I think the dives where 25€ at Daniels as well. At Raja Laut they were 30 € is you do 3 or more dives. For one dive I think it was 35 €.

On the unfortunate side of things I lost one of my go pro cameras with its new underwater housing and head mount. It will be interesting to see how to handle my insurance. And if I need to make some sort of report. After all I lost it in the ocean, do I still need to make a police report?

All in all, go dive Bunaken and see for yourself, if you are in the area. If not, go somewhere else. There are plenty of great dive sites in South East Asia to the west, north and east of Northern Sulawesi.

The Man Who Was a Bird; Backpacking Pulau Tioman

If your version of a paradise island is long white beaches, turquoise waters and rain forest covered mountains with a sprinkle of heavy sunlight, Tioman is the place for you. Offering fair diving and some jungle trekking one could spend several days here. Unless one is me that is. For me it's gets old quite fast and after a few strolls in the jungle and a dives in the ocean it turns mundane. A hard life, I know.

For a short getaway this destination fits like a glove.

Walking along Juara Beach

For budget travelers the ABC or air batang beach and harbour area is the way to go. Salang used to be the place but not caters mainly to Asian families and travelers from Singapore. There are still a bit of young blood here though. Even though the island was fully booked and people had a trouble finding accommodation the beaches felt almost empty so there is definitely room for some solitary time if one wishes. In ABC there aren't too man y places to go after late a clock. Things close early and that includes the bars, all two of the. Well there are a few more but the only ones I'd recommend are sunset bar at the southern end of ABC and the B&J dive bar a couple of minutes north of the pier. Getting to Tioman will cost you 45 or 35 RM depending on if you take the first ferry or not. The early one is 10RM more expensive. But it will give you an advantage over the other backpackers when securing housing.

Guarding the guesthouse

In terms of diving I encountered four dive shops but only looked into two of them. Eco divers and B&J dive center. Eco divers being the cheaper one I'd have normally gone with them since I'm quite self sufficient in the blue. However it turned out that two of my dive buddies from Koh Lanta, Thailand now worked at B&J. Did my diving with these guys and they seemed to run a good shop. At lest first. One day a dive master didn't turn up so we dove with one Dive Master(DM) short. No biggie, but I did have to haul a OW diver back down and hand him almost 4kg of weights for him to stay down. Still there was some nice diving to be done. I'd say it was on par with the perhentians, gili trawangan and koh lanta/phi phi.

My two French musketeers

Accommodation is quite easy to find. Getting of the Pier the cheaper places are to the south and the tad more costly are to the north. There are exceptions though. I'd stay away from Johan's since there are bedbugs there at the moment. I ended up staying at merwas or some place with a similar name for a staggering 30RM per night for my own bungalow with a big bed and a fan. The veranda with my own little ocean sunset view was definitely an added bonus. There was only cold water but in this heat I'm not one to complain, much.

Considering that this is one of the cheapest places to buy alcohol in Malaysia the nightlife is near pathetic. During happy hours (5pm-7pm)at sunset bar you will get 3 tiger beers for 10 RM which is damn good for Malaysia. If one feels frisky enough (I did) to traverse the little hill separating ABC from the neighbouring town to the south one can find a couple of duty free stores selling alcohol much cheaper. I scored 3 Hogarden for 10RM or 5 Jazz beer for 10 RM. There are also crates for sale at discount prices. Vodka, whine and other spirits are also cheap, for Malaysia. 45RM for a big bottle of Absolute Vodka or 120RM for some champagne.

There is only one accessible ATM than I know of and it's located about 20 meters north of the airport. No fees are declared on the machine which refers to fees online, somewhere. Dive centers will charge you 3% for card payment so if you can withdraw money without fees in your previous destination it might be a good choice.

When it comes to the beaches the Juara beach is in my opinion the best one I've tried here. It's long white shores are purely sand but can have hints of organic(seaweed and such) degree at times. The second beach I'll recommend is Salang which have some nice sandy beaches with proper snorkeling not far away. The ABC beach is by far the lesser one is this trio of comparison with plenty of little rocks. It is however very nice for snorkeling and and other water activities like sailing and windsurfing. There is no really strong wind though so don't expect anything mind blowing. After all we are on a rest and relaxation trip.

The Juara Path's stream

Walking around the island is an option for the hardy but is quite rewarding for nature loves and people with ants in their pants (like me). The Juara trek is a 7km mountain forest trek which means a lot of steps and ups and downs. There is a small stream close to the drinking water station which one might play around in. Not sure if this is entirely advised by the local administration though. From ABC it's definitely another 1-1-5k to the beginning of the trail. So walking one way or taking a return trip will be a while. I'd book 2-3hours, one way minimum. There is also a route for 4WD vehicles on which one might stroll. This route is a fair bit longer. I'd guess 4km longer from ABC.
Another green hike is the one to monkey bay. Somewhat shorter than the Juara one but I never got around to walking it. It is however rumored the monkey bay is quite the looker when it comes to beaches. Walking around one should keep those eyes open. There are plenty of snakes and large reptiles around. I only spotted one two meter long black snake but king cobras and boas are known to show up in the area. Did spot a 1.5 meter long lizard swimming around though. In fact it's said that the reason there are so few cats on the island is  because they become reptile food if they stray too far. The native monkeys in the island don't seem to share this problem and there are plenty of them to steal a bit of fruit if left unattended. Another addition to the wildlife is the range of raptors (birds) that roam the islands. The legend goes that once when a British traveler visited the island he pointed at it and asked what it was named. A local responded with "Tio" I am, referring to the black bird. This being pronounced "Tioman" the explorer understood it as the name of the island and so it got it's name.  

Lost flip flops

My first day at the Perhentians was kicked off with a early morning wait after arriving with the night bus from Kuala Lumpur. Price 40 MR

Having to chill out at the pier area at way too early a clock in the morning, there is only one things to do. Find some roti. Roti is a flat bread that resembles naan and pankakes in shape. It also resembles croasants in the way the dough is prepaired. What I am refeering to is when you fold the dough and laminate it with layers of fat each time. Obvilosly it's not ready untill it's properly fried. It's not bad for breakfaskt and not too unhealthy if you compare to a lot of other western breakfasts. Roti Kosong (empty bread, with no special add ons, observe that it comes with a small side of curry), Kopi Kosing/hitam/tida pake gula (just black plain coffe) and 100Plus, a sports drink. Price 7MR

Roti Kosong is also available in a range of variations like banana, condensed milk, egg and other various things.

Worth noticing here is the way too long name for plain coffe. This is because it is necessary to spesify that it's without milk, sugar and other add ons. So what you say is empty coffe, black coffe and coffe with no added sugar. If this is overlooked you will recieve a coffee containing the following.

• Sugar 20%
• Coffee 10%
• Water 20%
• Condensed Milk 20%
• Palm Oil 20%
• More Sugar 10%

This type of coffe is in all purpouses undrinkable unless you are used to it. Specially on those rare ocasions when the nearly indestructable consensed milk/palm oil mix has spoiled. Yes it happens.

Finally on our way to the islands under a cover of gray clouds I start to wonder if this really is the island life I wanted to return to. Was it all a gloryfied dream that my mind creted to avoid the through of rain and wind every day. After all my time in Thailand did contain more than it's fair share of storms and cold rain. The landing site for our little invasion was a small beach on the big island. Boatride return ticket included, Price 70 MR. Where our little dive shack, (Turtle Bay Divers) leaned against the far end of the beach.

I consider diving here to be ok. Not bad but not great either. The Thai diving can easily compare to diving here. Well not dive factories like koh tao but Lanta and it's surrounding area is definitly in the same class if not better. And from my personal experience saba with places like sipadan is defintly way better. So if you intend to dive Malaysia. Dive Borneo. But for taking your licence the perhentians is a excelent location. Diving the Perhentians, Price 60-70 RM

Day two ninja striked my face with a beutiful sunrise and a sunny day. Having lunch at the little island, the islands dropped it's burka and revield it's true nature of beach bumming, diving and nothingness. As the hour of the retun aproaches I decide to stay here for a while. After all I did lose my flip flops and if I go back I'll never find em. Losing flip flops, Priceless.

How I chose where to do my Dive Masters

Spending two months on the beaches of Koh Lanta isn't all bad. Koh Lanta is a larger small island on the west cost of Thailand. It is definitely one of the calmer beach places one can find in the region.
There are plenty of foreigners on the island but since it's all quite spread out the beaches always seems quite empty.

Before coming to Koh Lanta I was looking for a place to do some serious diving. To get my Dive masters. I tool a couple of requirements and places into consideration before I decided.

Requirements.
Cheap living, Convenient travel, Friendly people, Good food, Good diving.

With these I ruled out the Americas, Africa and Europe. Egypt was in fact a candidate but since there where ongoing riots throughout the nation I decided not to.

Looking at prices and dive spots it came down to three countries.
the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand. Although Indonesia has plenty of great diving is also have plenty of corruption and little annoying things to deal with. Besides I was planning to spend the following two months after my Diving in Indonesia so Some variation was required.

So what where the differences between the countries in question. Well a good thing about the Philippines is that it's Christian or rather not Muslim. The implications of this is that beer and pork dishes are commonly available. This also goes for most of Thailand as they are Buddhist.
When if comes to food I have to say that the Thai food is on an un-threatened favorite among these countries.

The cost of living is cheapest in Thailand compared to the others.

Language wise Malaysia is definitely a favorite. Since I speak the language or at least enough to interact with the locals quite easily. This would mean that I cound integrate with the community fast and easy, a big bonus.

So basically it was down to Thailand vs Malaysia. Personally I think the best dive sites in the area are around Borneo. But then again the simian island and north of there in the Andaman sea are not too bad either.

Taking the living environment into consideration I decided I wanted to try out the island life and so I listed a few options.

Location	Cost of Living	Quality of Diving	Beaches	Cost of Diving	Food	Cummunications
Phi Phi	High	Medium	Medium	Medium	OK	OK
Koh Lanta	Medium	Medium	Good	Migh	Good	Good
Perhentian	Medium	Medium	Medium	Medium	OK	Good
Sipadan	Medium	High	Small	High	OK	Good
Tao	Medium	Low	OK	Low	OK	OK
Similan	High	Good	OK	High	OK	OK

Having this in mind I decided to just go down and try out a few places before I decided.

That's when my girlfriend informed me that she got a volunteering gig at Koh Lanta. And soo it was all decided. Haha.

Here are some of my photage from one of the dive sites. Koh Haa.