Bunaken: One Of Those Days

When we are tired, we are attacked by ideas we conquered long ago.

- Friedrich Nietzsche, Germany

I still don't get it but somehow I get it. It's one of those mornings when you just get up feeling like a 3-tonne truck did you a lovely favour by running onto you last night unknowingly, and in some unexplainable fact, you feel this urge to put on the saddest, most melancholic songs that make you reminisce about absolutely nothing.

Get it? With me?

So I did what any self-respecting woman will do. Write a blog entry.

Distraction, after all, is such an underrated notion. So where I am - mulling over it for days but finally decided before I hit the road again (yes! Travel is the very essence coursing through my veins), I know I will come back with some interesting images and experiences that I can share with you from a place that I have been twice, but this time - it's done differently. I shall reveal the location in my following entries but right now, promise that I am putting work into this particular travel as it will set the tone and note for the consequent travels that I'll be doing with my best beloved partner in life - oh, the fun, the good, the bad, the ugly... bring 'em on!

And where was I? Yes, I thought I should share with you what I had observed as quite a bit "off-the-beaten" categories which basically reads the non-norm, yet hauntingly beautiful as they lazily covered the stunning acreage of the undersea, swinging melodically with the current, holding in pristine balance amongst the corals, I give you the other side of Bunaken National Park...

We were given the salutary farewell by over 20 dolphins (more I think) as our tiny little boat made its way back to the mainland on the day we were due to fly back to reality (literally crash, as on the way we hit a real bad air pocket and I thought my time was up... seriously - it was dramatic, kind of like Passenger 54 style, or was that Flight 54? Thanks Hollywood B-grade!)

Anyway, between rummaging on the shallow reef and trying not to get stung and die like a fish out of water, I bid you a great week ahead, and until you hear from me again, which will be at the next location out of the country, I give you the most coveted sea urchin design that I would want for my eventual home...

Bunaken: Fish or Fishes?

A fish is when you describe a school of the same thing, fishes when you describe many schools of different kinds.

- Somewhere amongst the diving books, Bunaken

Thought I'll collate the fish and the fishes in one writing, and save the other individuals (non-fish) for another. We were really lucky to get to photograph the beauty of Bunaken as well as privy into some of these amazing underwater shots. Goes without saying, of course, that non of these marine animals were disturbed. It was again, surreal to be amongst them. My top favourite was the clown triggerfish - nothing to laugh at but can get pretty territorial during mating season. Lucky for us, it was off-peak as we cruised along, so just a lot of pretty sighting of them.

The tour groups checking us out...

Fusilliers - plenty and stunning... felt like I was swimming in a tank of blistering silver rays (a short indulgence of aquatic agent provocateur-ing!)

Orbiculate batfish - quite hard to spot but good to do so

Unicorn fish

Singular banner fish

Red-toothed triggerfish

Tuna

Needle fish (a few bogey misses for me, mistaking it for a barra from far)

Another triggerfish (forgot the type, you'll forgive me)

Napoleon Maori wrasse - big ass dude!

Pair of soldier fish checking us out - cute fellas with big eyes

Oriental sweetlips - something to pucker about

The mid-range Houdinis playing hide-and-seek...

Clownfish

Yes, more Nemo but you understand, don't you?

Blue sailfin

Coral grouper

Sweetheart of the sea - a spotted boxfish

You got to prowl close enough to the reef for these beauties...

Trumpetfish

Stone fish - a lot bigger, looks like a stone (duh), big killer

Scorpion fish - equally off limits, but smaller and it "crawls"!

Pair of razor fish... all right love, to the left, and kick to the right!

Lion fish - the underwater see-don't-touch policy

Goby - funny but colourful things

Ghost pipe fish - very hard to find

Dart fish

Barracuda

Anyway, it was unbelievable, and the water temperature had been a blessing. Still advisable to get suited up but this trip seriously made us all geared up (no pun) for the advanced in Sipadan. Maybe we'll even get a video next time!

Bunaken: The Weeks After

We shall defend our island...

- Winston Churchill, UK

It's close to three weekends and it's still one heck of an experience. We finally came down to normality of laundry rounds, a still empty refrigerator, throwing out two living-room-sized carpets (thanks to Tommy), entertaining friends, sharing regaling stories of the Neptunic discoveries, and missed the healthily charged water and air.

The journey began with a smooth flight to Sulawesi, and a bohemian looking captain of the boat welcome from a particular Mr. Yaakob (former Finland, complete Finnish to the "finishing" line... no pun!) and the unveiling of a marshland lagoon, to the howling welcome of Viiru, Prinsi, Viivi, and Vaisii, the resident moggies. The place was quite common with small chalets (hammock was complimentary) and a bathroom with appalling water pressure. But the whole point was to spend the whole day outside in the sea and only crashed out in a lusciously simple bed with an ingenious design of four bamboo tied together to form the frame for the mosquito net. Imagine warm balmy nights with the ringing white noise crickets and geckos, gentle rain in the middle of the night and a lasting memory of a full moon, lighting the ripples of the not-too-far-away Manado mainland.

We are open water certified, we are glad that we made the full use of our time and can't wait to go for the advanced upgrade to take on night and wreck dives. But boy were we totally astounded by the diversity and wealth of flora and fauna brimming from the surface of the sea!

On our first dive day, we were being escorted by a school of tunas, thrashing violently upon the surface at breathtaking speed. In between the "usuals" of white-mouthed moray, fusilliers, clown triggerfish, a barra here and there, green turtles and thousands of gorgonian fans, corals and little Nemo, we were humbled by the experience of being up front with the wildness of floating effortlessly in the midst of a blue suspension, encircled by too many a fish to count, all too busy forming information highways in the undersea world, every move analysed and digested, spat and taken as a piece of communication between man and beast, the environment and where we were, what we were, and how we were doing in the blue planet's greatest gift - its water playground.

I gained a whole different perspective of humility of my own smallness yet when I looked at a shrimp, a razor fish, a ghost pipe fish, even tried to ride out the current with a baby lion fish, danced amongst the unicorn fish, respected the boundaries of the scorpion fish and came eye-to-eye with a pink baby (unclassified) jellyfish... I felt a kind of greatness in my heart that I felt only for the first time. I think it was the marvelous feeling of being one with one of the most fascinating "final frontiers" broken by humankind.

I shall put out more photographs that I have collected from other divers and our own inclusive, as time progresses (there is just still too much for us to sort out before our next trip which is this coming Wednesday to Perth!) but I'm leaving at this note at this particular point in time, in return for more stories of the beautiful time and the most warm people I have met in Indonesia in a long time. To Elrow, Jun and the lot, we had so much fun singing, getting "inspirasi" from the bucket, and learning about your culture (especially the intrinsic relationship between Sulawesians and the rest of the Javanese cousins) and politics, the good words and secrets, and also meeting other divers from all over the world - from the Germans in China to the "beruangs" in Thailand (honey, you know who I'm talking about) and the Finnish... I'll just pause from here (ok, I have held back from the Finnish joke, ok?).

Medical Time-off

Vivien is taking time out to recuperate from a holiday from a holiday. Seems like sitting outside our little wooden bungalow augurs better than being back in the concrete jungle.

Vivien will be back with tales of enormous fascination of the Neptunic World (I'll even throw in a real story of a baby lion fish during our current ride... promise!).