18/05/2019 to 02/06/2019 - Una Una & the Togian Islands / Indonesia

Often referred to as a little undiscovered paradise on the internet, we are curious about what awaits us...

So we arrived in Ampana at 1 o'clock in the morning and waited until 6 o'clock in the morning, then there was petrol again, the boat could be refueled and the journey to Una Una could begin. After another 4 hours, we arrived at our accommodation Pristine Paradise on Una Una. We were warmly welcomed, could still grab the last remnants of breakfast and moved into our bungalow with a sea view, open-air bathroom and hammock on the terrace. Then the question arose about what we would like to do for the next 15 days. On Una Una, you can visit the small village, go on a volcano hike, go diving, diving, and diving some more. Because there are more than 30 dive sites around the island. But we wanted to see more islands, because the island group consists of a total of 56 islands. Some inhabited and some completely uninhabited.

One of the days, we strolled through the small village of Una Una. It was not the village that was the attraction but us. The locals here do not often see white people (Orang Putis). We were warmly greeted by everyone and occasionally asked where we come from.

Our accommodation organized 2 scooters with drivers for us. Early one morning, we each got on the back of the scooter, drove for an adventurous half hour through the wildest and most remote parts of the area. We made a short stop to visit extended family. There we could see how palm sugar is made and also got a taste of it. Now we had to hold on tight on the scooter until we reached the starting point for the volcano hike. We walked for about 1 hour to Mount Colo. The hike started with wide lava fields, led us over small streams, through a completely untouched, green nature to the volcano. Boiling water, hot steam, and the smell of sulfur made us aware that we are on an active volcano.

On other days, we made ourselves comfortable in the hammock, read books, played games, or simply enjoyed being lazy.

In between, we left Una Una for 3 days to sail through the maze of islands on a small traditional fishing boat. Captain Mato and his daughter Vida were our companions. Our first destination was Papan Island. Pulau Papan is connected to Malenge Island by a long jetty. This jetty was built so that the children of the small island can walk to school independently. We also took the approximately 30-minute walk to school, luckily without attending school afterwards. After that, we found a place to sleep for one night at the Lestari accommodation on Pulau Malenge. Right on the beach and a turquoise lagoon. Our dinner here consisted of lots of rice and freshly grilled barrakuda.

The next day, we briefly drove to the capital of Malenge, Wakai, actually just to refuel. However, we still got out and wandered through the streets. And here too, we were an attraction for the residents. We continued to the next island, Jellyfish Lake. Here we swam with countless, but harmless jellyfish. At noon, we made a stop at another island, on a small pebble beach, and Vida prepared a delicious lunch for us. The next destination was Taipi. A small uninhabited island, where we originally wanted to spend the night in a tent. We docked at a small white sandy beach. We could walk from one end to the other in 5 minutes and observe lots of hermit crabs, but also a lot of trash. Unfortunately, we have noticed this in many Asian places and beaches, that an incredible amount of plastic waste is simply disposed of everywhere and washed up on the beaches. It's really shocking how we are destroying our world. Sadly, this is also the case on the little island paradise Taipi. So we decided to continue and not sleep among the garbage. Our next destination was the already visible island of Kadidiri. Here we landed in a small village and also found a decent accommodation for one night. We set off through the jungle on foot to the beautiful beach on the island, Barracuda Beach. After 20 minutes, we reached a white sandy beach lined with palm trees. It is really beautiful, but not a paradise for us. On the way back, we felt the quickly changing weather and got completely soaked, down to our underwear.

The next morning, we started our journey back to Una Una, but made a short stop in the capital of the Togians, Wakai. We had not eaten ice cream for a long time and Wakai has the only ice cream freezer in the whole island group. We wandered through the streets of the city, saw many street vendors selling fresh fruits, vegetables, and fish, small mom-and-pop shops, lots of noise, and even more garbage floating in the sea. But we were rewarded with an ice cream. We had a great time and different experiences on the other islands, but we were already looking forward to our familiar surroundings on Una Una.

Once we arrived back, we immediately planned the next dives. Because that was really our favorite activity in this place. Here, there is almost no current and visibility of up to 40 meters. We saw many different fish, snails, sharks, rays, incomparable coral gardens, and reef formations. During a night dive, we couldn't count the many shrimp and crabs anymore. Equally fascinating and unique was the encounter with thousands of Toby's. There were so many little fish that we couldn't see the reef anymore. This phenomenon only occurs here in Una Una.

Most of the time, we were the only guests at Pristine Paradise because the peak season only starts in July. Great, because that way we could enjoy everything completely to ourselves.

The 15-day break on the Togians in the diving paradise Una Una passed quickly.

Next destination: Kuala Lumpur.