Hi guys!
Finally! Risen back from a deep sleep! LOL
I won’t lie that I’ve been really busy these time with the new job, new environment, new friends, and of course new adventures! I already did 3 trips in 2016. YEAY! Saved my money and arranging my time to enjoyed mother nature, recharging myself.
SO, yeah! This is my new blog post about my diving trip at Bunaken – Manado, Indonesia. After saving those money and I passed my probation phase, finally I could use my leave to go for another diving trip.
I really do missed scuba diving! The sea breeze, the post salty sticky feeling at your skin after dive, fishes, corals, and bubbles! 
Bunaken is an island of 8 km², part of the Bunaken National Marine Park. Bunaken is located at the northern tip of the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia. It belongs administratively to the municipality of Manado. Scuba diving attracts many visitors to the island. The waters of Bunaken National Marine Park are up to 1,566 m deep in Manado Bay, with temperatures ranging between 27 and 29 °C. It has a high diversity of – corals, fish, echinoderms or sponges. Notably, 7 of the 8 species of giant clams that occur in the world, occur in Bunaken.
That’s a brief explanation about Bunaken, Indonesia National Marine Park. A wonderful place to go diving and meet new little friends.
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The dive trip itself started from 16-19 June 2016. But I joined the trip from June 17th, 2016, because I only take 1 day leave from my office. (Still a newbie, don’t want to take leave that much – at least for now :P). There’s a funny story about this trip though. Actually I forgot that there’s a diving trip to Manado until my friend suddenly chat & keep asking me am I going or not to Bunaken. I answered “let me see my money and schedule first”, and I think the world was conspiring to make it happen, got my leave and financially OK, I’m good to go! So I said “COUNT ME IN!”
And the diving trip begins…
There were 9 of us who went to Manado. 7 of them took morning flight on Thursday (June 16th, 2016), did 1 check dive. me and my friend took another flight on the next day because we’re still working and only took one day leave. We missed the first dive, but it’s okay. Both of us were really lacking of sleep, because we took the last flight to Manado that day (01.45 AM). We really need some good night sleep, because when we arrived, we went straight to the hotel and then went to the dive center for our first day dives. Well, actually I do not recommend having a flight like I had, it’s really tiring and it’ll affect your dive. You need to be in a really good condition before you go diving, because scuba diving is one of 10 most extreme sports in the world.
“While scuba diving has become a common term, most do not know that Scuba is actually an acronym for Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus, which is used by a diver for breathing underwater. While it sounds wonderful, but it comes with its perils. If the ascent from a dive is too fast, it can cause decompression illnesses, which include bends, and can cause spinal cord, brain and lung failure. There is also the fear of being attacked by stray sharks or other underwater creatures.”
We stayed at Ibis Manado City Center Boulevard Hotel. It located in the city center of Manado, in front of the hotel is Manado Town Square. The hotel is quite unique, especially the bathroom. It’s so small yet effective! (for Asian) haha.. But I’m still wondering if there’s foreigner with big body going to take a shower there, it’s going to be super tight! LOL
DAY 1
Dive Spot 1 – Fukui Point
After reunited with the group and relaxing a while at the hotel, filled our stomach with some food and caffeine. We finally can know each other personally today! It’s always a pleasure to meet new people in every trip. You just don’t know what kind of person you will meet in the trip, it’s like a mystery box. We never know the characteristic, but it depends on us how to interact with them. How we communicate each other. In this trip, we have 2 foreigners joined the trip. They are Pulkit and Rishab! Yeay! Time to practice my English! It’s a really valuable opportunity meeting them. Sharing so much experiences, life and even work!
We went to the dive center, Minanga Diving Center.
The Dive Centre is conveniently located by the beach front within the lagoon where divers departs for the dives. It houses the admin office, workshop, air filling station, equipment storage. Minanga Diver’s full facility Dive Centre offers Manado Diving at its best. Located within the 5 star Manado Tateli Beach Resort, it’s 35 – 40 minutes to the Bunaken – Manado Tua Marine Park.
As usual, preparation comes first! Set up gears, changed into tight wetsuit, put your important stuffs into the dry bag (keep your stuffs dry even when everybody is splashing water to each other in the boat). Up to the boat and set sail, Capt!!
Because everybody already did their check dive in the first day, this will be my check dive. A little bit nervous because it’s been a long time since I do scuba diving. The last time was at Tulamben on November 2015 (please read the blog if you haven’t read it!).
Always get nervous to explore a new place, always wondering what it’s like down the blue water, is the current strong or not, is the visibility clear or not, will I meet lots of fishes or not, what creature will I see down there, etc. Yeah, I think a lot before I dive. But, it’s the point of exploring and do some adventures, right? Who’s agree with me! LOL
FYI, that was the first day I used my wetsuit to go scuba diving. I still didn’t know how much weight I need to use. Because of my friends keep telling me to use more, I decided to used 3 diving weights for the first dive. And it’s a wrong move for me! After descending to 15m ++ I kept sinking down, even when I already inhale lots of oxygen. Need to inflate my BCD to help me from sinking.
The view down there? AMAZING.
Saw big clams, many fishes, even spawning trigger fish! NEVER EVER get too close to a spawning trigger fish, it’ll bite you! Even my dive guide have to fight with it for a while to distract it from attacking our group. (too bad I didn’t record it, still trying my best to use Jefri’s Xiaomi Yi action cam)
and there’s a moment which I love the most! When I was kneeling on the sand, there’re lot of fishes swimming around me, literally swimming around me, like they were trying to communicate and play. They come and go in front of my face. At that moment, I never regret having a diving license and immerse myself in the ocean. After saying goodbye to my fish friends, we continue our journey around Fukui point.
“What are you doing here, hooman?”
In the first dive, we still trying to connect with our buddy. Trying to coordinate and understanding each other. Remember that you must not dive alone!
I borrowed Xiaomi Yi action camera, but I didn’t use any red filter. All of my photos are blue or green. But still thanks to Jefri for letting me borrowed his, I could do many selfies down there. hihi.
Dive Log: 10:53 AM Fukui Point/ 24.1m/57 minutes
Dive Spot 2 – Lekuan 2
2nd dive of the day! This was the best moment in my scuba diving life! The first time I encountered a living wild sea turtle in the sea! Usually I just see sea turtles from Instagram, but this time I could see it with my own eyes.
They’re really cute and BIG! Some of them even HUGE! (the dive guide said some of the turtles that we saw were more than 100 years old! Can you imagine that? 100 years old sea turtles swimming in front of your eyes!
Dive Log: 13:05 PM Lekuan 2/22.3m/66 minutes
Dive Spot 3 – Muka Kampung
3rd dive of the day! This time me and Jefri already felt really tired. We only sleep for couple hours in the plane, it’s not enough for us (well, actually even with enough sleep will never enough :p). We’re both really exhausted, even my O2 tank is decreasing really fast.
In this spot there’re LOTS of turtles! Even on the surface, you can see many turtles taking a sip of fresh air. Floating around, but too bad they’re far away from my boat, so I couldn’t take a good picture of them. Just amazed with all of those turtles swimming around you.
Dive Log: 15:32PM Muka Kampung/20.8m/51 minutes
Well, there’re lots of funny moments on the boat, but I couldn’t tell you one by one. It’s going to be a novel if I tell you one by one. hihi..
We arrived at the Dive Center again in the evening, stupid me, I forgot to bring any spare clothes, so I have to bear wearing wet clothes, since it’s impossible if I wear my wetsuit all along the way back to the hotel.
I really like Minanga Dive Center! BECAUSE…They can keep your diving gears there and wash it for you for tomorrow dive! No need to wash your gear by yourself! nanana~ So happy.. They will take good care of your wetsuit, regulator, BCD, fins, mask, booties, well you can name all your gears. 😀 Nice, huh?
Lungs already filled with O2 and salt water, e now it’s time to fill our starving belly! Woohoo! Culinary time!
There’re lots of well known Manado’s food. There’re Sambal Rica-rica, Woku-woku fish, grilled pork (ears, feet, belly fat, I think they cooked all the pig’s body parts), cakalang fish, etc. They’re so yummy! But beware! It’s all SPICY! LOL And unfortunately, I can’t eat spicy food because of my gastritis. Yeah, too bad.. Cannot handle spicy food that much or something bad will happen when I dive tomorrow (you know what I mean.. >.<).
Well, let’s continue to Day 2! Please read my next blog!
Prodigy On Adventure 