 |
| Bunaken...Tropical Paradise |
 |
| Wading ashore island style |
For Paz’s 30th Birthday Adam (Mikes brother) and Paz (his partner) and Laura (their friend) had decided to come out to Indonesia for
a two week holiday and with a small flip round of our itinerary we had decided to
join them for a week in Bunaken. It was so nice to see them!! After 5 months of
travelling and seeing no familiar faces it felt like a mini holiday in our big
long holiday J
From Manado we all headed over by boat to the island of Bunaken where (thanks
to Adam and Paz’s research) we had booked bungalows at the Sea Garden Resort. After
wading in to shore from the boat with all our bags we were met by the lovely Sonia
who showed us our bungalows. There were only 7 in total, all set around a big
garden over-looking the sea and the view was gorgeous!
 |
| Lush coral gardens |
 |
| Huge numbers of fish |
Not wanting to waste a moment we all changed and headed out for a snorkel. The snorkeling was some of the best snorkeling I think we’d ever done...there was so much beautiful coral and thousands of fish! From our beach you could snorkel straight out to the drop off and the following days were mostly spent snorkeling and then identifying the fish we’d seen with Adam’s fish book J
The day after we arrived there was a festival in the village
and Sonia invited us to a big shared lunch at her house. There was so much food
it was incredible!! And we all tucked in whilst Laura was serenaded by one of
the locals on the karaoke machine. After lunch we decided to try and walk to
the beach on the other side of the island. We set off in what we thought was
the right direction but an hour later, having left the main path behind we were
still trekking through what appeared to be slightly overgrown farmland. Making
jokes but all getting slightly inpatient for the beach we finally came to a deserted
little bay where we could sunbathe and swim. When we later asked for directions
and walked the proper way back, we found we had actually walked about 5 times
the distance that we had needed.  |
| Paz & Laura on the deserted beach |
 |
| The Box Bass |
The next day was Paz’s 30th birthday! And we
decided to join the dive boat and go to a few different snorkeling spots. In
the evening we had a big birthday cake with dinner…unfortunately there was
meant to be a party but all Sonia’s staff were apparently too tired after the
festivities from the day before so it had to be postponed a night. It was worth
the wait though and the next night we were entertained by about 8 locals all
playing instruments (some homemade!) and singing. The Bintang (local beer) and
the Arak (local coconut spirit) flowed and it wasn’t long before we were taking
over the instruments and dancing and singing too! Luckily for us Laura is
actually a singer so she was able to hold the tune while we all
enthusiastically clapped along (out of time) and provided out of tune backing
vocals. Birthday boy Paz even had a go on the rather ridiculous looking but
very effective box bass!
When we thought that perhaps the other guests may not
appreciate our crazy partying late into the night, in true island style we all
retired to bed…at 10 o’clock.
The next morning we sheepishly emerged, realising in the
light of day that we perhaps weren’t quite the musicians we had thought we were
the night before, and went off on a dolphin watching trip. For about an hour we
saw nothing but blue sea but then we finally spotted a huge pod of dolphins!
Before we knew it we were surrounded by about 50 dolphins – it was incredible!!
Some of them were jumping up and doing tricks in the water and others were
swimming underneath the boat! We watched them for over an hour and we all
absolutely loved it. Mike and Paz decided to try and snorkel with the
dolphins...unfortunately they were not game for this and as soon as the boys
jumped in the dolphins swam away, but they still got an excellent view from the boat!
And the rest of us had fun watching them trying to out-swim a dolphinJ
As well as snorkeling and sunbathing, we had a few games of
badminton and volley ball which was fun if slightly tiring in the blazing
Bunaken sun! Mike and Adam went on a few ‘brother-bonding snorkels’ whilst Paz
invariably went in search of Mangoes and Laura and I relaxed in our hammocks
reading. The boys also all went on a
night snorkel which they said was really fun, spotting lobsters, crabs and a
sleeping turtle.
 |
| Mandarin Fish |
On our last day we decided to do a mandarin fish dive. We
set out to the dive point ready to go down at dusk when the Madarin fish start
coming out. We were just relaxing on the boat waiting for the right time when
suddenly a few other boats appeared on the horizon and our dive master shouted
‘Everyone in the water now! Go! Go! Go!’ Before I knew it everyone was in the
water and I was still floundering on the boat…I jumped in quickly bashing my
leg on the side whilst rapidly trying to deflate my BCD so I could go straight
down. Thanks to our hastened entrance we were the first divers down and we all
soon found out why it was important. There was about a square metre sized patch
on the dead coral that everyone crowded around and watched for 45 minutes.
After about 15 minutes of nothing happening we saw the little mandarin fish
start to appear! Then they started to do their courtship dance where two of
them rise up side by side and then dart away before repeating the little dance
– they were really beautiful and very special to see.
Unfortunately the next day it was time to say goodbye…Laura
was heading back to England, Mike and I were heading on to Bali and Adam and
Paz were spending the second week of their holiday on a neighbouring island. It
was really sad to say goodbye especially after such a good week…Christmas when
we’ll see them all again still seems a very long way away! We miss you Adam,
Paz and Laura! J
No comments:
Post a Comment