Cendrawasih Bay National Park: The Whale Sharks dive trip

 

The large Cendrawasih Bay National Park in the north of the island of Papua, otherwise known as Teluk Cenderawasih, includes Indonesia’s largest marine national park, and is one of the best dive-sites in the archipelago.

Here are magnificent vertical drops, picturesque hard coral gardens, sponge life and myriads of fish

This is the playground of one of the world’s largest animals: the spotted whaleshark or rhincodon typus. If elsewhere in the world divers consider themselves lucky to meet one or a couple, here they come in pods and divers can swim along with them quite unharmed except to beware not to be hit by one of their powerful fins.

 

 

Scientist Dr. Gerald Allen calls the Cendrawasih Bay: “The Galapagos of Indonesia’s Reefs”.

Whalesharks are migratory animals, and are known to grow to 18 meters in length or more. Biologists tell us that they are an acient species originating some 60 million years ago, and are usually found in the open sea. They have a lifespan of 70 years. A 7 meter whaleshark can weigh up to 22 tonnes. Unbelievably these huge animals are docile since they live only on plankton, clouds of egg roe and small fish, which in Indonesia are called “ikan teri”.

In the village of Kwatisore near the town of Nabire, these giant fish usually gather by the floating platforms, called bagan, where fishermen haul in their catch of small fry.

Kwatisore can be reached from Nabire in around three hours by boat with two 40pk outboard motors.The only accommodation available in this village are simple rooms at the SD Imanuel Primary School in Kwatinsore.  

Here the local government trains 20 students to become dive guides and to develop facilities in Kwatisore to serve more tourists.

Comprising land and coastal areas, islands, coral reefs and pristine seas, the Cendrawasih Park covers a total area of 1,453,500 hectares.

The Cendrawasih Bay Park combines coral reef ecosystems with mangrove, islands and terrestrial tropical forest ecosystems. Here are colonies of black coral, blue coral and soft coral. The Park is famous for the 209 fish species that make this Park their habitat, among which are the butterfly fish, the damselfish and parrotfish, and, of course the whaleshark, while mollusks found here include the trumpet triton, the great clam and the cone shell.

Best time to visit is between May through October.

Since a few years, a corner of Cenderawasih Bay close to the hamlet of Kwatisore and the town of Nabire, in Indonesian Papua, is gathering major buzz as probably the best place in the planet to swim with whale sharks.

Here, whale sharks don't just pass by seasonally, like in most other places, where expensive tours drop you in the path of one shark for 5 minutes (and you better swim fast). 

Here they stay year-round, gathering nearly every single day to circle under fishermen platforms called "bagans", in the hopes of sucking some fish out of their storage nets.
Here you have a very good chance to have not one, but SEVERAL behemoths CIRCLE around you.

Here you'll have to swim to AVOID the sharks bumping into you (which happened to me and my wife).

However, at the time of writing this review, Nabire remains a VERY remote corner of Indonesia: we saw NO westerners over our entire stay there. There are few hotels, catering mostly to Indonesians, and who very surprisingly have no idea of how to get you to the whale sharks. Most people who see the Cenderawasih bay whale sharks come on liveaboard boats. Very few people organize trips to see the whale sharks from Nabire, and those who do are difficult to contact. 

The only person who replied to our emails was a Rudy from Kali Lemon, a "guesthouse/dive resort" near Kwatisore, but he asked for more than 800 dollars for an overnight trip (no, thanks).

So we landed at the Nabire airport with NO reservations, nothing booked in advance. One option to go see the whale sharks is to ask taximen at the airport; they can put you in contact with fishermen who'll take you. We instead finally managed to reach a person listed in our guidebook, Merry Yoweni and her husband Chris, who organised the trip with local fishermen. She's a local, speaks great english, and is very knowledgeable about the region, it's politics and economy, etc, since she worked for several NGO's.

So the next day, we sat aboard a narrow wooden fishermen longboat rigged with two 40hp outboards (a configuration the Lonely Planet calls “a recipe for disaster”), while 15 papuans were dragging it to the water at Nabire beach. We then left with 3 papuan fishermen, one of which (the captain actually), we soon realized, was mute and deaf. 10 minutes later, the boat started taking in water, which to our great surprise they fixed successfully with a knife and a piece of plastic bottle. Luckily we had good weather, but the experience could have been a lot less comfortable in rougher seas.

After 1h45 of navigation we arrived in the zone of the bagans. After asking 6 bagans unsuccessfully, we finally arrived at one that had 3 whale sharks under it: 2 “juveniles” and one enormous (Apparently 3 is not a lot for Cenderawasih, where many people report from 5 to 10+) .

It was of course magical as you can imagine. The sea was flat like a pool, the visibility was forever, the sharks were slowly circling around us through the rays of light that plunged in the blue as far as light can reach. Our guidebook said to “discourage the locals from interfering with the animals” but we failed miserably: the Papuans were out of control jumping around joyfully, riding the whale sharks, even divebombing from the bagan next to the whalesharks (they must think they love the bubbles). 

Last point: juvenile whale sharks are quite curious, and seem VERY attracted by shiny/white masses, such as untanned European tourists. Wear a wetsuit or expect some collisions. One of them pushed my wife's head against a bagan floater with his humongous mouth, an experience she did not appreciate as much as I did…

Besides the whaleshark, four species of turtles inhabit these waters, they are the hawksbill turtle, the common green turtle, the Pacific ridley turtle and the leatherback turtle. Here are also found dugongs, coconut crabs, dolphins and sharks.

While on Mioswaar Island can be found a natural cave with ancient remains, thermal springs and waterfalls, and at Tanjung Muagguar is an underwater cave with a depth of 100 feet.

On Yoop Island and Windesi waters visitors can go whale and dolphin watching, while Nusrowi Island is ideal for diving, snorkeling, marine tours and animal observation.

On Rumberpon Island one can observe birds and deer, dive and snorkel. A sunken military aircraft wreck lies on the seabed.

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Senggigi Beach

 Senggigi is Lombok's oldest and most famous resort area.

A perfect place to relax, Senggigi boasts a series of white sandy beaches and safe swimming areas. The point at central Senggigi has good waves for surfers. This place has a colourful reef which provides shelter to a variety of marine life and exquisitely shapped coral and makes it a perfect place to snorkle.

In the dry season, there is an interesting variety of boats moored in the bay. The town of Senggigi spreads out along nearly 10 kilometers of coastal road. This road continues north to Bangsal, the port for the Gili Islands. 

The Senggigi region is formed by several adjacent yet subtly different areas all lying along the same 2 lane coastal road. The exact boundaries of each area can seem rather ill-defined. While pockets of development can be found in some areas, long stretches of open undeveloped land lie in between. Nightlife and major restaurants are concentrated in the central township of Senggigi. The first time visitor should be aware of these distinct regional differences. Simply booking a hotel in Senggigi could mean a relatively remote location where the town centre can only be reached by taxi or public transport.

It was a few days into my journey across Lombok when a strange, yet oddly pleasant, mental miasma descended upon me. My guide, Bahar, and I couldn’t figure out what day of the week it was. Bahar suspected it was Thursday; I thought it was Wednesday. And so, for a while, we remained lost in time.

Such temporal confusion is typical on Lombok, where the roads are rough and the tourists few. This enchanted Indonesian island is, after all, a place that seems to be perpetually arriving, yet has never quite arrived. Proximity to Bali is Lombok’s blessing, and its curse. Many residents bristle at the idea of basking in Bali’s reflected glory and point out that while only 25 miles separate the two islands, they are in fact worlds apart.

A British naturalist named Alfred Russel Wallace noted as much more than a century ago, when he observed that the flora and fauna found on Lombok are remarkably different from those of Bali. Lombok, Wallace concluded, demarcates the Asian and the Australian ecozones. Culturally, Lombok is typically more Indonesian than Bali, if anything can be said to be typical in a nation of more than 17,000 islands and some 700 languages and dialects. Unlike mostly Hindu Bali, Lombok is 86 percent Muslim. It’s an island of Sukarno hats, mosques (many built with Saudi funds) and hardscrabble farmers. Indeed, overzealous tourism officials notwithstanding, Lombok is not “an unspoiled Bali,” or “Bali’s sister island.” Lombok is not Bali at all, and that is precisely its charm.

 

 

Of course, that doesn’t stop it from trying to raise its profile. Work has begun on a new international airport, with a runway long enough to accommodate 747s. A Dubai-based developer plans to erect luxury hotels, golf courses and a marina along Lombok’s beautiful, and largely untouched, southern coast.

I began my explorations at Senggigi Beach, the site of Lombok’s first hotels, built in the mid-1980s, and the closest thing to a resort town on Lombok. Senggigi’s main strip consists of crafts shops, featuring weavings and wood carvings, as well as a string of restaurants and bars. I found myself at a place called, inexplicably, the Office. It’s an open-air design, with pool tables and a projection TV showing black-and-white films. One guidebook describes the Office as a place “popular with middle-aged expats,” mostly from Australia and Europe.

When the Australian owner of the bar, Howard Singleton, first read that description, he fumed. “But then I realized that it’s basically true,” he said.

Mr. Singleton, perennially sunburned with gray hair and an impressive beer belly, first came to Lombok 12 years ago. Since then, he has ridden the ebbs and flows of Lombok’s tourism business. Mr. Singleton grimly rattles off the long list of calamities that have conspired against Lombok’s ascendance: the SARS outbreak, the Asian financial crisis, the two Bali bombings, the Asian tsunami, avian influenza and, most of all, the riots that erupted on Lombok itself in 2000.

 

The events of 2000 are now “ancient history,” Mr. Singleton said, adding that business at the Office is up 20 percent compared with last year. Another promising sign: after eight years, the State Department recently lifted its travel warning for Indonesia.

From where I sat at the Office, drinking a Bintang beer, the only threat I faced was from the hawkers who circle mercilessly, offering “Rolex” watches, sunglasses, T-shirts, a massage, a manicure and the services of tour guides.

Still, there’s plenty of peace of mind to be found on Lombok. I spent a few nights at Qunci Villas, a minimalist, oh-so-Zen boutique resort that heralds the possible Bali-fication of Lombok. In the evenings, I nibbled on shrimp bruschetta while sipping a mojito and listening to electronica, which wafts through the air, fresh and inviting.

Each morning, I awoke to a chorus of roosters and the muezzin’s call to prayer. On Lombok, though, as in most parts of Indonesia, people wear their Islam lightly. Lombok, for instance, is home to the Wetu Telu. It’s a Muslim sect of 30,000 that mixes traditional Islamic practices with smatterings of Hinduism and animism.

On a clear, warm morning, I set out to see more of Lombok, with my guide Bahar. We head for Mount Rinjani, the towering 12,000-foot volcano that watches over Lombok. The smooth roads of Senggigi soon give way to potholes the size of craters. “Rupiah road,” declares Bahar, a play on the Indonesian currency, famous for the large number of zeros it contains.

We stopped for food. Lombok means “chili,” and the cuisine definitely had a kick. I opted for the more humane sarobi, a dish of rice flour, palm sugar, coconut milk, chili and tapioca — all rolled into a banana leaf. It’s so delicious !!!

 

 

After much bouncing and shaking, we reached our destination. The town of Tetebatu is nestled in the foothills of Mount Rinjani, sacred to the people of both Lombok and Bali. The views from the summit are spectacular. Or so I hear. I passed on the arduous two-day trek and instead explored the verdant rice fields in the foothills. Tetebatu is the perfect place to sample (carefully) Lombok’s cuisine and enjoy air that is a few blessed degrees cooler than along the coast.

That’s where I was heading, en route to a trio of tiny islands, floating punctuation marks in the Indian Ocean. One of these, Gili Trawangan, has earned a reputation as a requisite pit stop on the backpacker circuit. Once famous for its anything-goes full-moon parties, Gili T, as it is known, is now veering toward being more tame and up market.

I arrived by boat and immediately decamped at the Beach House, an eclectic bar and hotel that, while lovely, has no beach. Gili T takes Lombok’s laid-back vibe and turns it down a few more notches. There are no cars or motorized vehicles, only bicycles and cidomos, the donkey-driven “taxis” prevalent throughout Lombok. (Local wags call it “the Lombok Ferrari.”) Without the din of traffic to contend with, Gili T offers visitors an audio buffet: the call to prayer mingles with the clinking of beer glasses and the sing-song of hawkers and giggling children on their way home from school.

 

The most common sound heard on Gili T, though, is one simple phrase: “Kenapa tidak” — why not? Want to sleep until noon? Kenapa tidak? Want to order one of those magic mushrooms on the menu? Kenapa tidak? (They’re legal here.) Or, like me, you can pass on the craziness and just enjoy the wonderful snorkeling. Kenapa tidak?

Tami Ortenau, a graphic designer from Los Angeles, came to Gili T on a lark, a side trip from Bali. When I met her, she’d already extended her stay twice. “I could spend a month here,” she said, clearly smitten.

To be honest, though, Lombok’s undeniable appeal remains something of a mystery. Yes, the beaches are lovely, but there are lovely beaches elsewhere. Yes, Mount Rinjani is spectacular, but other volcanoes are more spectacular. Maybe it’s that Lombok, unlike Bali, retains an endearing frumpiness. Lombok may be paradise but it is an ordinary paradise, if such a thing is possible. Indeed, even those banking on Lombok’s rise hope it doesn’t happen too quickly or recklessly. “In 30 years, you won’t like Lombok,” said Scott Coffey, an American hotelier who owns Qunci Villas. Perhaps, but for now Lombok seems just right.

 

 

VISITOR INFORMATION

The high-speed ferry from Bali to Lombok takes about two hours. Gili Cat (62-361-271-680) and Mahi Mahi (62-361-753-241) are two well-known ferry companies. They charge $65 a person each way.

WHERE TO STAY

• Qunci Villas (Jalan Raya Mangsit Senggigi; 62-370-693-800; www.quncivillas.com) Dubbed Lombok’s hippest hotel and for good reason. The theme is minimalist serenity. The 20 rooms go for $70 to 90, private villas for $300 and up.

• Sheraton Senggigi Beach Resort (62-370-693-333; www.sheraton.com). One of the first major hotel chains to plant a flag on Lombok. The Sheraton is relatively low-key, and with an ideal beachfront location. Rooms start at $178 per night, with bargains to be had in the off season.

• The Beach House (Gili Trawangan 62-370-642-352; www.beachhousegilit.com). A funky, mish-mash of a hotel that somehow manages to work. Rooms range from un-air-conditioned boxes to lavish bungalows with private plunge pools, and are priced accordingly.

WHERE TO EAT

• Qunci Restaurant (62-370-693-800; www.quncivillas.com). The chef manages to cook both Indonesian staples Western fare equally well. The shrimp bruschetta is my favorite. There are also excellent mojitos and great sunset views. A meal for two, without wine, runs about $35.

• Astari With unbeatable views, this extremely mellow tea house on Lombok’s near the town of Kuta on the south coast also serves light and healthy mains, mainly vegetarian. Try the spinach pies. Two can eat at Astari for $25.

• Scallywags (62-370-631-945; Asian fusion cuisine served beachfront on Gili Trawagan. It boasts the island’s “first and only wireless internet connection,” which may or may not be a selling point. Expect to spend $30 for two, without drinks.

Tips

• Risking to sound like your mother, we need to remind you to equip yourself with sun protection. Also bring a bathing suit and extra clothing
• Several places rent mask-snorkel-fin sets, such as the beach near the Art Market or the Senggigi Beach Hotel
• Senggigi nightlife is low key when there are few tourists in town. It's busier on Friday and Saturday, when young locals come up from the Mataram area.
  

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Raja Ampat

The roaring engines fixed to a large wooden boat are finally quiet. Nothing can be heard but the rifting little waves, lapping against the vibrant paint on the sides of the vessel that gracefully slows down. Native birds hop on the tip of a small tree in one of the deserted islands in the distance. 

Raja Ampat or ‘Four Kings’, is the name given to these islands and comes from a local myth. The four major islands found here are Waigeo, Misool (which is home to ancient rock paintings), Salawati, and Batanta. 

 

 

Underwater enthusiasts flock to this region because it offers the world’s best marine sights. Two days earlier, some of these travelers had been at a deafening corner of a tourist trap in Bali. Once they took their flight to the bird head of the island of Papua everything changed as they embarked on a diving tour of a lifetime. In the Raja Ampat islands, divers can explore vertical underwater walls. The thrill of drift diving is another great challenge. These are the awesome experiences you will find in Raja Ampat.

Meanwhile, on this tour several divers were well equipped and looked advanced. The territory within the islands of the Four Kings is enormous, covering 9.8 million acres of land and sea, home to 540 types of corals, more than 1,000 types of coral fish and 700 types of mollusks. This makes it the most diverse living library for world's coral reef and underwater biota. According to a report developed by The Nature Conservancy and Conservation International, around 75% of the world's species live here. When divers first arrive here their excitement is palpable. It's common to hear people praise God as they take in the remarkable scenery. Others prefer to remain in silence taking in the overwhelming sight of so many islands with crystal clear water that softly brushes over the white sandy beaches. 

"Disini bagus!", says the friendly local guide who had been appointed by the tour operator who runs an eco-lodge in Raja Ampat, indicating that they have arrived at one of the most fantastic diving sites. On other days, this guide is just a simple fisherman. The local fishermen here are accustomed to foreigners and are friendly, especially when offered pinang (betel nuts) or some sweet candies. These are very popular and offering these sweets is considered polite and a good way to win an instant smile. The fishermen usually eat this snack during Para-para Pinang, or social chatting and exchanging funny stories while chewing Pinang. In many respects, like nature, culture, and history, these fishermen are closer to the Moluccas.  

While the landscape may look like a dream, this is not an illusion. As you embark on your dive, the phrase "Attention to detail" takes on new meaning as pigmy seahorses swim around your fingers. Manta Rays and wobbegongs will glide right by you. Tuna fish, giant trevallies, snappers, and even barracudas are there to complete your underwater "meeting list". Not to mention the friendly assistant of the dugong, and a busy colleague, the turtle.  Natural and untouched beauty is the main attraction here. With no unnecessary adages, the sky, the lush islands, the sea, and everything above and under it is genuinely saying "Welcome to Raja Ampat Islands; your personal Disneyland of diving sites".

More facts about the Raja Ampat Conservation Area:*

• This area is home to 1,511 species of reef fish in the Bird’s Head Seascape
• 1,320 species of reef fish in Raja Ampat
• 75% of all known coral species in the world
• 10 times the number of hard coral species found in the entire Caribbean
• In the Birds Head Seascape there 600 species of hard coral recorded
• 5 species of endangered sea turtles
• 57 species of Mantis Shrimp
• 13 species of Marine Mammals
• And 27 species of endemic reef fish found only in that area

*according to a tour operator 

Tips :

• October or November is the best season for diving in Raja Ampat because the ocean is typically flat and perfect for photography
• Bring your underwater camera AND underwater photography know-how. Because taking underwater photos is not that easy 
• To organize your travel you use travel agents with services in Indonesia. Just contact the agents in any international gateways in Indonesia (Bali, Jakarta, Medan, Batam, etc)
• Sun blocks, sunscreens and hats are required
• Bring anti-mosquito repellants and anti-malarial medicines
• For more information, you can contact Raja Ampat Tourism Office at:  Kampung Waisai, Distrik Waigeo Selatan | Head of Office: Kalasina Rumbekwan (+62)81344644434 | Staff: (+62) 81344422779

Useful Website:

www.gorajaampat.com

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