Raja Ampat journey!

After years of hearing about Raja Ampat, I was so excited to finally visit the famed dive destination. My dad and I avoided the red-eye flight by flying via Singapore to Makassar, then Makassar to Sorong by Batik Air, but our first flight to Makassar was redirected and we had to do a transfer via Jakarta. We stayed in Makassar and Sorong for a night each, and explored a bit of Sorong with a local driver. Sorong was intriguing as it doesn’t have many shops or touristy areas, but we visited the Papuan water villages with overwater houses, and enjoyed the sunset and had dinner at Marina Star. Marina Star’s jetty is also the location where most scuba liveaboards pick up and drop off their guests for their boat transfer.

We stayed on Neptune One for a week, a wooden Phinisi boat that can accommodate a maximum of 16 guests. The crew was very friendly and it was a pleasant journey except for the lack of Wi-Fi and Internet connection, as well as some leaks as most of the furniture was made of wood. For most of the week, we weren’t able to get Internet connection despite having bought data plans and even a local SIM card, and the other guests faced this issue as well. SIM cards also need to be registered (and the office to register them isn’t open on weekends), so we would definitely recommend that you buy a pre-registered SIM card if you plan to use one.

Overall, the diving was great as there was a lot of biodiversity. The coral life was generally very colourful and beautiful, unfortunately the visibility wasn’t the best for the first half of the trip, but towards the end it improved. It rained frequently, even though we visited in January and Raja Ampat’s rainy season is typically mid-year in June and July. 

Unlike other dive destinations I’ve been to before, Raja Ampat seemed to have everything, and the variety of flora and fauna was certainly impressive. Admittedly, we had very high expectations for the marine life and corals there as we’ve seen a lot of hype around Raja Ampat on social media, but there was definitely a wealth of biodiversity from macro to pelagics that’s hard to find anywhere else.

We saw everything from tiny creatures like nudibranch, shrimps and crabs (e.g. emperor shrimp, decorator crabs, “orangutan” crabs), bobtail squid to the blue-ringed octopus and wonderpus, to manta rays, mobulas, and sharks. On most of our dives, we saw giant trevallies, barracuda, turtles, and of course, Raja Ampat’s famous wobbegong sharks.

Unexpectedly, we encountered thousands of jellyfish at Sardine Reef (unfortunately these were stinging jellyfish, unlike the ones at Raja Ampat’s jellyfish lake), and we were very lucky to not get stung as the other divers were stung on their hands and legs. According to the crew, this was quite rare, and we’re not entirely sure why this unexpected natural phenomenon occurred. 

Overall, my favourite sites were Eagle Rock, Edi’s Black Forest, and Melissa’s Garden.

The trip was great and I’m glad to have finally visited Raja Ampat!

List of dive sites:

1. Pulau Buaya

2. Miokson

3. Blue magic

4. Sardine Reef

5. Sapokren

6. Chicken Reef

7. Cape Kri

8. Sawanderek Jetty

9. Sawanderek Jetty (night dive)

10. Manta Sandy

11. Citrus Ridge

12. Mayhem

13. Black Rock

14. Eagle Rock

15. Edi’s Black Forest

16. Melissa’s Garden

17. My Reef

18. Keruo Channel

19. Melissa’s Garden

20. Batu Rufus

-Isabelle Ho