The Eden of underwater world, WAKATOBI
That paradise named WAKATOBI, the islands in south east sulawesi, it consist 4 main islands, WAngi-wangi, KAledupa, TOmia, and BInongko. from the first two letter of those island, they put it together and become WAKATOBI.
Finally i has the chance to visit Sulawesi island, i born and grew up in Jakarta, the island that i usually visit is Java island and bali, so this is the first time i took my chance to step in East Indonesia. they said people from East Indonesia are hard, temperament and stubborn, so honestly with this fact, im a lil bit scared to socialize with those people, because i grew in a place where you got used to talk softly and calm and not shown your emotion much. but with this fact also, i curious what this adventure will bring me.
1st august 2015 at 4:00am, my adventure start, the flight will bring me from Jakarta to Makassar, lay over for around 2hrs in Makassar and continue to Kendari and then Wanci or Wangi-wangi, the capital city of Wakatobi. the flight itself took around 8hrs, including the layover in Makassar. i reached Wanci around 11:30am, don’t expect big airport in Wanci, the airport itself only have 1 storey building, where the door on the left for departures and the door on the right for arrival. Other than that actually the big airport is still under building. and around this small airport was just a hot badlands, plus the sun in Wanci shining really hot, makes everything looks dry and hot. the schedule for this flight on Wanci airport is only once a day.
so, as i walk calmly and took my way to the right door and wait for claim baggage, not much people coming with the same plane as me, cause the plane itself is just small plane and only for approx 25 passenger, I’m so excited as i waited for my big carrier bag. and when you're out from arrival room, you may see lots of cars with their driver waited and shouted "taxi, taxi, taxi" there's no public transportation from and to airport, that's pretty bad, so you have no choice than took this "taxi" to the main city, due to the main city is pretty far from airport. They asked pretty high rate, IDR 150,000 for one way, i was pretty shocked with this rate, and bargained, and i'm not smart for bargain, so i just had to pay that rate, as the other taxi driver asks the same for the rate.
the car brought me to main city of Wakatobi, and because it's already lunch time, i told the driver to bring me to local restaurant with local food, and i had this fish soup called Ikan Parende with rice. the soup has a fresh taste, it's using fish and tomatoes as the main recipe, so its fresh and sour, and it nice to eat it with warm rice, on the hot weather like Wanci, this fresh soup is pretty nice though.
my main plan come to WAKATOBI is to learn diving, i know, why i took my chance to learn scuba diving far from Jakarta, hehe, well you can learn diving and holiday at the same time, so why not learn it on the best underwater paradise in the world?
after had nice lunch and great energy, i continued my trip to Wanci Harbor, because my diving lesson will take in Kaledupa island, on the small harbor in Wanci, around the bajou village, one green boat is waiting patience for a passenger, the same with the flight schedule, even the boat schedule from Wanci to another island maximum is twice a day, so i had a chance with the last boat schedule on the harbor, because the first one is on dawn time at 6:00am. from Wanci to Kaledupa by boat will takes around 2,5hrs and the fee is IDR 50,000.
i love ocean so much, to the point where, i feel i really needs to live near the sea and this chance to learn scuba diving is just one step to make it come true. The boat sail through the ocean and all you can see is how amazing God is with those big blue ocean and the horizon, i felt free and my mind is rest from the tiredness of unhappy soul i had while in city.
after 2,5hrs sailing on the sea, the boat move closer to the harbor in Kaledupa, this small island is different with Wanci, i still can feel the tradional life of the fisherman here, the electricity is only turn on from 18:00pm to 6:00am, so in the afternoon all lights are off. there's no hostelry here in Kaledupa, they only have a small simple guesthouse and they rent for you the room, from the harbor you just need to walk around 15minutes to the guesthouse, and around the guesthouse is a big football field, and every evening this field is full of the people from village to see the sport or even just to has a chat with neighborhood. or you may just contact Taman National Wakatobi wilayah Kaledupa (Wakatobi National Park for Kaledupa's area) run by the government and they have room to rent also.
i reached the guesthouse and rest a lil while unpacking my carrier, my diving class start at 20:00pm and i have a chance to learn scuba diving with new government employee of Wakatobi National Park. and most of them around my age, so it’s a good chance to meet new people right!
in the evening i walk around the village to see what is the people of Kaledupa usually spend their day without light, most of them spend time outside home and just play football or even chitchat, i have this new dirty blond hair color, so they’re pretty excited to see new girl with blond hair walking around their village, they thought I’m a western girl, hehe sorry folks, im pure Indonesian girl from Jakarta :p
Kaledupa at night is as amazing as Kaledupa in afternoon; the skies are amazing, with the smell of the sea and the amazing thousand of stars above, i asked nothing than this great experienced, and im in love already with this small island in East Indonesia.
My diving course takes 5 days, read here for more story about it.
Other than scuba diving, what you can do in Kaledupa? well, i had a chance to visit a hidden small river named Danau Sembano, actually this is not like normal river, because the water itself still contain salty water like the sea, but because the small river is hidden in middle of the forest and coral around made it slope around it, that’s why local people called it river, and to get here, you must walk on hard coral, small forest and some wild animal around, you may asks local people to accompany you visit this hidden river, it takes around 40minutes by walking, but when you get there, it’s a pretty river you may see and live on the river are thousands little red shrimps. the river has a legend, where you shouldn’t catch the shrimps or else it will bring you bad luck, its an ancient river with old legend, other than the shrimp, the local also said it live half fish, half??! yes, the fish only has a head but swim normally, i don’t get the chance to proof the legend of half fish live there, but for me even without the mystical story, the river itself so beautiful and those red shrimps is so cute, especially i reached there almost sunset, as the sun goes down and reflect on the river like a mirror, this place is a good place to visit. if the time was right you can even snorkeling and swimming around, but careful, don’t catch the red shrimp if you don’t want have a bad luck in your life :p
I was amazed with this river and I forgot the time, so when back to the village near Danau Sembano, there's no light anymore :/ I don’t suggest you to go there by evening, because the way to get there is pretty far and dangerous by walking because so many hole on the hard coral, but as I walked amongst the dark to back to the village, I have a chance to see fireflies! Yes, fireflies!! I’m sorry :( I live too long in a city and I don’t know what is fireflies looks like, so I was super happy when saw one and tried to catch it
ahahaha it was an amazing experienced, after seeing good river with urban legend story, I had another chance to see fireflies, as the stars in the skies came up, I’m so grateful with this great trip I had in East Indonesia, and you know what? That’s right East people is hard and have big voice, but they’re so nice! I can’t imagine I can go around this island with patrol car from national park and with good local to shown me what is Danau Sembano looks like!
And after back to village, i tried to find food, well, I can say is food in Kaledupa is hard to find! but if you walk around, usually in front of houses, they sell some homemade food, and they dont have rice, instead they have traditional food called Kasuami, is a food made from cassava and you may find lots of fresh fish, i had this fresh smoked tuna and kasuami for dinner. kasuami has weird taste, but if your tummy is hungry, all food is good right :p so i had this smoked tuna, spicy fish and kasuami. Wakatobi is the island near sea, so ocean life is easy to find here, fresh fish everyday or even fresh crab! I ate a lot and i have happy tummy: D
next day I continue my journey to Tomia island, i waited for the boat on the harbor, different with the last boat from Wanci to Kaledupa, the boat to Tomia from Kaledupa is more smaller and the ocean currents is a lil bit big today, the boat cannot move closer to the harbor, so i took more smaller boat to bring me to the boat to Tomia, the ocean currents is bad, but i enjoyed it pretty good, thanked God I have no problem with sea sick, so i just enjoy the trip to Tomia even with high ocean currents. the fee from Kaledupa to Tomia is IDR 50,000 and it takes around 2,5hrs. i reached Tomia by afternoon.
Different from Kaledupa, Tomia has more touristy area and hostel and friendly warung (tiny local restaurant) to eat. I stayed in good hostel, you even may asks the host if they cook nice food and you may get the same food, but well of course the menu is fish! but i love fish, and if you wanna walk around you may find 3 small warung, sell common food like chicken and soup and any.
i spent 4 days in Tomia, 2 days for diving and another 2 days to see around Tomia and what this island offer. for Scuba diving, i suggested Tomia as they have more than 50 diving spots, usually western tourist will choose dive trip trough a good resort in Tomia, but i heard it’s pretty expensive and waiting list for the chance, so if you interested for diving contacted me for more nice and good dive center in Wakatobi.
Tomia, I spent the days with local friend, and he brought me around the island nicely, from Bukit Tomia (Tomia Hill) where you can see the islands near Tomia from high place and it has great view with cold breeze. its good to enjoy the sunset through this place, the sunset is amazing, and at night the stars is shine the brightest, it feels like you really near with the stars.
then I has chance to visit Benteng Patua (Patua Fort) it has history from the old kingdom of Buton, where they made the fort from corals and you may see the great ocean from this ruins of the fort, not much left from this ruins, but the history of great Buton Kingdom is heard from East Indonesia on old times, if you have a chance you should come and see sunrise from this place, it has amazing golden sunrise, as the Tomia people awake from their sleep.
i went also and see the weaving of local fabric, it’s a pretty fabric with gold and silver thread, this activity is started got left by the youngster of Tomia, so for me to have a chance of seeing on how to weave is a good experienced.
I’m back to the hostel when dark time, i never bore seeing stars at night and never bore to compliment how great God is of created those amazing stars above, I will always that girl whom love the stars so much to be fearful of the night :)
the next thing you can enjoy in Tomia is their beaches, like Hondue beach that i visited, it have white sands but also a little bit dirty with seaweed and if you look carefully you may also finds life sea urchins on the beach, so it’s not a beach to do sunbathing or even swimming :p
i found some shells and sea urchin and also star fish :) lots of them, it’s so pretty and relaxing to walk amongst the seaweed while the low tide and collecting the star fishes.
and near this beach you may also visit evening local market where they sell snacks, fresh fish and lot of kitchen spices,
i bought fresh live sea urchin for IDR 5,000 its cheap! Imagine when you have it on Japanese restaurant! hehe, well, the taste is just like roe or caviar, but its good! but carefully, because when i bought they’re still alive and I eat straightly from the shell, I got a little venom on my lip and it so itchy for around 1hr! ahahhaha
there's one big resort in the island near Tomia, named onemba'a island, where the one whom stayed there mostly are western tourist, and funnily local people not allowed to go through that island, that’s ashamed that i can’t go and see the island :( but instead being sad, i just move a lil direction from onemba's to the the bajou village, as we know bajou people are the sea nomad, they’re the real sea gypsies, they live and depending them self to the sea, the houses they have is build with the coral and the wood above the sea, and to get there you just use small 'ojek kapal' and the fee around IDR 5,000 to go to bajou village. the people of bajou are big and strong, it shown cause their the real fisherman and get used to cruising the sea, I met the children of bajou and their happily bring me around to their village, i can say again they’re pretty excited to see a girl with blond hair though XD
the last but not least, i visit small hidden beach name Huntete beach, to get there is pretty hard, because you must through small way and again hidden bushes, and far! because its in east Tomia, my suggest to get here is bring local people, because to get lost amongst the bushes and the little forest, won’t be a good memory tho :D the view from this Huntete beach is amazing, the ocean is pretty and you may see from far is nda'a island, is a small island takes around 15mins by boat to get there, beautiful white sands island, but to visit nda'a island, will be better when the tide is calm like on October or November.
they said, don’t ever say you ever been to WAKATOBI if you never put a step on Binongko Island, i really-really wished to visit the least island, Binongko, but the timing of my visit wasnt really good, the tide is on its high, the currents is very hard, i even took a very hard time to do scuba diving and tired easily because of this season. so my chance to visit Binongko island is postponed :( i heard last time no boat dare back to Tomia or Wanci due to the big tides, so maybe next time, when i visit WAKATOBI again, i will for sure visit Binongko island.
im back to Wanci with great experienced after 10 days spent well in Kaledupa and Tomia, i learn about the local people, i learn about the richness of underwater world in Wakatobi and I’ve met great people along the way, it feels like God gave me a good way for this trip, and everything is just easy, everything is meant to be, and this is the great experienced i had in East Indonesia.
