In a word, diversity. Wakatobi is in the Coral Triangle, home to the most diverse ocean on the planet. There are 605 coral species vs. 61 in the Caribbean. 37% of the world's coral reef fishes are at home in the Coral Triangle; there are 58 species of Butterflyfish vs. 5 in the Caribbean. The reefs are in outstanding condition (even with ocean acidification and temperature rises which are killing the corals). And the waters are warm and clear. For our third trip to Indonesia, we chose to return to the Wakatobi Dive Resort where we had just been in 2012. It's that good.
So DC -> JFK -> Hong Kong -> Bali
for four nights at the wonderful Amankila Resort in East Bali. Bali is a sea of people, cars and scooters so being met pre-immigration by the Aman representative, shepherded through immigration, luggage and customs and to our private car is really appreciated after so many travel hours. The resort conveys the feeling of being in the trees as all buildings are on piers and connected by walkways.
with a gorgeous room
and a three-tiered infinity pool.
and very special breakfasts (puffy pancakes with pineapple and vanilla butter)
Then it was back to the Denpasar Airport to catch the chartered plane to Tomia Island, a 2-1/2 hour flight when all goes well. (Wakatobi is an acronym of the names of the main islands that form an archipelago off Southwest Sulawesi - Wangi-wangi, Kaledupa, Tomia and Ginongko.)
ending up on the resort's private airstrip on Tomia Island
and then by taxi to the dock
and by boat to the resort
which is spectacular
The longhouse (in the center) houses the office and dive shop and was the original entire resort, the restaurant is to the right, the jetty is where the boats are at high tide (they moor off the reef at low tide and you are shuttled by small boat), bungalows line the shore and our villa was out of the picture to the left.
Shelly and Steve Chenoweth chucked their corporate America jobs and became dive masters and guides; we dove with Shelly last year. They now focus on the Pelagian liveaboard (which we will do in 2015). Certainly role models for us all!
This year we dove with "Professor" Kaz and "Guru" Ketut who were amazing at finding things and making the experience so great.
Kaz arranged the special desserts celebrating our diving milestones:
We moved upmarket this trip and stayed in a villa - they are larger and brighter (providing Val a place to paint) and come with a private dive guide (Ketut or Kaz)
and a nice commute at low tide (we didn't wear shoes the entire two weeks).
The resort is very active in conservation and had rescued a nest of turtle eggs (the survival rate for turtle eggs in the wild is less than 1%)
We regularly dove four dives a day, each over an hour long, with three from the boat and one on the house reef. (42 dives for 50 hours 18 minutes 29 seconds for Val and 47 dives for 55 hours 13 minutes for me.) The boats are well set up and all the heavy lifting is done by staff
and very complete dive briefings with hand-drawn maps
The resort owner joined us on one dive, the first time we'd ever seen a rebreather in use.
As before, the food was outstanding with incredible decorations (carved from fruits and vegetables) to ease the pain of our last supper
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Eventually, sadly, we had to leave. It was raining so hard that the plane couldn't land (no instrument landings here) - after trying three times it flew off to Makassar (off southwest Sulawesi) to refuel. Eventually we made it to Bali, about four hours late. We had planned to spend two nights in Bali (we can't get a same day connection home in any case) so weren't impacted but others had to reschedule. The Wakatobi Bali office handled all of this including getting a $600 change fee waived for one person. Wakatobi Resort is known for wonderful service.
On the bright side, it's not often that you get to walk the runway.
My underwater photos are linked here.
but here are a few of my favorites
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On this end of our trip, we stayed at the Amanusa Resort which is likely the prettiest hotel I've ever had the pleasure to be at. It didn't hurt that this is the very very slow (rainy) season on Bali and we were double upgraded from a garden suite to an ocean view with private pool.
with view of the volcanoes that created Bali
The pond encircled the bath,
shower
and
As always it's the little touches
After three weeks and hours and hours of travel, we have already made inquiries for 2015!