See More Wakatobi 2005 Pics!

Wakatobi 2005

See More Wakatobi 2005 Pics!

In an effort to keep friends and family (and those interested in our travels) up to speed on how our trip is going, you can check back every couple of days to the travel journal. Here, you’ll find photos of the group having a ball, as well as some unbelievable underwater stuff!

June 2 - 4 – our departure day took us from Newark airport, non-stop to Singapore for an 18 hour trip. Most everyone said it was one of the easiest flights they remember! Surprisingly, the time passed quickly as we all had on-demand movies at our seats, plenty of legroom and lots of time to rest up for our arrival. Upon arrival to Singapore for a 4 hour layover, the group disbanded and headed for orchid gardens, massages, and snacks at Changi Airport. Then, we were on our way to Bali, a 2.5 hour trip had us arriving to the island of tranquility around noon.
We all checked into the Ritz Carlton and proceeded to the pool, beach, spa, lunch or a nap. The resort was stunning and we were welcomed with open arms. It seemed by the end of the day, we had all treated ourselves to a massage at the spa and were ready to crash.
June 5 – an early start from the hotel with our guide, Jumena led us to see Balinese furniture, stone carvings and batik work. It was interesting to see how many of these products are made and we all wished we had room on the plane to bring some back! Beautiful teak woods, rattan, and more, as well as large intricately carved stone figures captured everyone’s attention. We returned to the hotel for lunch and a short rest. Our tour began with a visit to a beautiful temple - surrounded by a green, park like setting. From here we headed to Alas Kedaton, the Monkey Forest. We didn’t know exactly what to expect but soon found out that this area has rhesus monkeys running all over the place. A Ru1000 bag of peanuts ($1USD = 10,000 Ru) made us very popular with the monkeys and the game was on! In no time we found what it really means to have a “monkey on your back” and one of the little fellows cleaned Cathy’s purse out! They were very fun and entertaining to watch and our visit there will be remembered for a long time. Our final stop of the day was the Le Meridien hotel, where we had a wonderful dinner overlooking the Tanah Lot temple at sunset. This is one of the most spectacular temples in Bali and sees thousands of tourists every day – most at sunset. Our view was uncrowded and stunning, and dinner was a nice way to wind down our day’s adventures.
June 6 – “Bali in a day” – what we referred to our day of touring. We left the hotel early in the morning and returned late evening from a full day of seeing the sights. We visited Besakih Temple ( the Mother Temple – the most important in Bali), the Elephant Cave Temple, Mt. Batur and Kintamani village, villages in Batubalan, Celuk, Mas and Ubud, and of course did a little shopping! Views from our bus were beautiful along the way – through villages, by rice paddies and especially along the trip to the top of the mountain.
June 7 - After a leisurely morning at the hotel, we left for the airport to meet our charter flight for the trip to Wakatobi. A 2.5 hour scenic flight took us from Bali to land on the airstrip at Marango. Arrival to this tiny village was an experience in itself. We now know what it feels like to be celebrities. It seems the children of the village welcome the arrival of the plane with open arms (and lots of cheering) because they love to have their picture taken and then see it on the digital screen of the camera! Of course, they probably know that we have packed along some goodies for them – which we are going to be delivering in a couple of days.
We found upon boarding the boat to the resort that tides were the lowest they’ve ever been. The result – we removed our shoes, put backpacks on our backs and walked about 100 yards in shin-deep water to another boat to take us to the resort! This was really starting out as an adventure! This was the first time guests have arrived at Wakatobi in quite this fashion, and we didn’t mind a bit. Looking up at the stars along the way, we could see the milky way, Southern Cross and Venus, which was so bright we thought it was airplane lights!
June 8 – DIVING! We started a little slow today, with just three dives, but with bottom times of over an HOUR on each one, we didn’t feel slighted at all. When your first day of diving at a resort includes sightings of pygmy seahorses, pipefish, cuttlefish laying eggs, crocodile fish, countless lionfish and anemone fish, a sea snake, nudibranchs, and more, it’s hard to feel like you didn’t see enough. All of that and just 5 minutes by boat from our resort.
The resort, by the way, is spectacular. Simple wood bungalows line the water’s edge and offer gentle breezes and unbelievable views. The food is great and varied and dessert hasn’t left anyone disappointed. The view from our rooms is short sandy beach and then blue water for as far as you can see. Chaise lounges provide a quiet place to relax.

Well – time to go diving – have to leave this computer behind for a while –

H

6/14/05

So we know that many of you have been wondering what’s been happening over here – I apologize for the delay but we have been waterlogged and diving our brains out! Let me first tell you what we haven’t been doing:

We haven’t worn shoes in 7 days
We haven’t seen a tv set in 7 days
We haven’t seen a newspaper in 7 days
No real commuting for any of us, unless you count a 15 minute boat ride to the next dive site.

But, we have had GREAT food, GREAT diving, GREAT fun, GREAT sunsets, and lots of GREAT naps! So what have we seen on all of these dives that we’ve been doing?

Pygmy seahorses GALORE – need we say more? If you’ve never seen (or heard) of a pygmy seahorse, they are less than a half inch in length, and we have all become pros at spotting them!

Crocodile fish, mantis shrimp, blue spotted rays, lionfish, lionfish, lionfish, orangutan crabs, squat lobster, – all cool creatures that we’ve seen over the past few days. Last night’s favorite – the baby cuttlefish. Imagine a cuttlefish (with all of those crazy legs) about the size of a small potato! We saw not one but 2! Sea turtles, sea snakes, scorpion fish and today’s stonefish – buried in the sand and watching our every move. (Mom, they sound scary but have no interest in harming anything other than what they are eating for dinner...which is not us :-).

Bumphead parrotfish, ribbon eels, juvenile batfish, juvenile midnight snapper (or is that the 1/2 past 11 snapper), and of course the grown-up versions of both. All sorts of pipefish, nudibranchs, blennys and gobies, and countless other colorful fish and creatures – these and many other inhabitants of the reef are what we’ve seen each day.

If you want to imagine what it is like where we are, and what the reef looks like: Pop Finding Nemo in the DVD player and put yourself on the top of the reef scenes. The coral is the healthiest I have ever scene, the colors are the most spectacular, and the variety is the best ever. To say that it looks like a picture doesn’t do it justice, because it is more beautiful than any photo or your imagination could create.

As I had mentioned the diving is especially good because of the length of our dives. That couldn’t have been more true today when dive 1 was 70 minutes, and dive 2 was 70, er 85 minutes and dive 3 was a short 65 minutes. Some of the fellas are out afternoon/night diving as I’m typing and I’m sure that they’ll have stories of great creatures when they return.

Jack celebrated his birthday (what # was that Jack?) with a cake made especially by the resort’s pastry chef on Friday night. Yes, this resort, halfway around the world, 2.5 hours by plane from civilization in the middle of the Banda Sea has it’s own FABULOUS pastry chef! Dessert (nor any other part of any meal) does not disappoint.

Most of us have resident geckos in our bungalows, which is kind of fun until they start talking to us (which is usually long after bedtime). They hang out in the rafters of our rooms and keep an eye on us while we’re in here. They are very cute, and thankfully haven’t gotten too close unexpectedly.

So we’re winding down our days at Wakatobi, but making the most out of the time we have left here. More diving tomorrow (Wednesday) and then Thursday morning will be the last of it. Thursday afternoon we have a trip to the village planned, to meet some of the residents and hopefully children. We’ve brought them toys, books, coloring books and more, and all of our gifts will be distributed through the local schools.

We return to Bali on Friday and have an afternoon there; we depart Bali for Singapore on Saturday afternoon. I hope to update you once again, before returning home! Signing off – we have an early start tomorrow! H (and the group – the A-team, the speedy gonzales’ and the pokey pokes)

June 18

So I know I said the last update was probably the last, but there is just no way that I couldn’t pass on our latest experience. Just when we thought that fabulous sea creatures, beautiful blue water and outstanding service at Wakatobi was as good as it gets, it in fact, did get better. We arrived to the Ritz Carlton on Friday afternoon, where we were informed by Haryadi Satriono, the director of sales, that our ENTIRE group had been upgraded, and that everyone would be spending our last night in Bali in a private villa! Picture this – your own butler (available as you need 24 hours a day) whisks you off to your villa by golf cart, and upon opening the door you see an expanse across the room of windows overlooking the Indian Ocean. As you step in further, you see just on this side of that horizon, that you have a private infinity plunge pool which appears to spill right off of the edge of a cliff. This view is seen not only from the main living room, but also your bedroom and the exquisitely designed bathroom. From the soaking tub (which of course has been filled with warm water and fresh flowers) the view of the Sea is just as spectacular. I truly cannot describe these accommodations, but it is easy to see why Ritz Carlton Bali, is consistently ranked in the top hotels of the world.

The only thing that could surpass our villas was the service offered by ALL of the employees that we encountered - room service, housekeeping, restaurant wait staff, at check-in - “My Pleasure” was the common response to our inquiries and request and we all felt from these warm and friendly people that they meant it! I have literally traveled the world, but have never encountered better service, or seen a more beautiful place.

June 18 – 20 – Singapore
Our “hop” to Singapore (we can call a 2.5 hour flight a hop after flying 18 hours from home) was on the afternoon of the 18th, after we sadly checked out of the Ritz. After getting settled, we joined as a group for an adventure to “Newton’s Circus” for dinner at the hawker stands. We didn’t know what to make of it at first – so many smells, sights and sounds – the Singaporean version of the “food court” at the mall. Each stand was selling something delicious from seafood, to curries, to sugar-cane-lime-juice shakes and even more than we could take in. Upon arriving, you choose a stand (or the hawkers, or salesmen, choose you by shouting that they have the best to offer) and have a seat. We broke into small groups and each ordered for the table – family style. Along with HUGE prawns, some medium-spicey (yeah right) noodles and vegetables, some at our table enjoyed a bucket of beer – which was the only possible way to keep cool. The heat coming out of the stands, in addition to the heat of Singapore had us all dreaming of the cool breezes of Wakatobi.

Following Newton Circus, we headed for the MRT – the Singapore “subway” which is the cleanest public transportation any of us had ever seen. I should also mention that there are no dirty cars, streets, bathrooms, floors (or any surfaces for that matter) in Singapore – everything you hear is true. They are a people that take great pride in their city and it shows everywhere. So, back to my story – we hopped on the MRT and headed to the City Hall stop for a trip to Raffles Hotel. Singapore was founded by Mr. Raffles, so it’s only fitting that he should have an unbelievable hotel named after him. In a matter of moments after arriving to the Long Bar, a round of Singapore Slings was poured and we were all toasting a wonderful trip.

June 19 – Sunday – everyone was on their own to explore the city as they chose. There was shopping, visits to Chinatown and Little India, city tours, and trip to the night safari. It was a great day, and way, to wind down from the trip and get ready for the journey home. We almost felt at home with 7-11, breakfast at Starbuck’s, Dairy Queen and every famous designer brand you could imagine. It is truly a shopper’s paradise, and admittedly, we all did at least a little damage :-)

Thank goodness that the elevators at the Shangri-La hotel, where we stayed, had floormats indicating the day of the week (changed every day to keep us foreign travelers on the right calendar) or we may have missed our flight home. By day 17 of our trip, none of us really had any idea what day it was (nor did we really care for that matter).

June 20 – departure day – a bummer, but necessary, and the fact is we are all missing loved ones, friends and of course pets. I do hope Buster is speaking to us when we get back. From here we’ll board the A380 for the 18-hour non-stop flight back to Newark. Adding to our adventure (remember we walked on water when we arrived at Wakatobi) is the fact that this flight will take us in the “other” direction from which we started. Our initial flight from Newark traveled East, while this flight will return coming from the west (via Japan, Alaska, and then across Canada) so we have truly traveled “around the world.” That, in addition to the new stamps in our passport, just add another point of conversation about this truly amazing trip.

So no doubt those of you reading, who weren’t along for the ride, are thinking and wishing that you had been! To say that we had a great time just doesn’t do it justice. I’ll have a DVD prepared for the group (and anyone else who’s interested) if you’d like to see complete details and photos of our adventure. In closing, most important to me is to say thanks to EVERYONE who made this trip what it was. That’s first and foremost those traveling with us. You all were a blast to travel with and added so much humor, fun, personality and interest to the experience. Annapolis SCUBA would not be what it is without you, and I am truly appreciative of your business and friendship! I guess all that’s left is....where are we going next???

All the best – H and the gang

See More Wakatobi 2005 Pics!