Travis at Triton Bay Divers: Whale Sharks and More

Hello there!

I simply must tell you about the second half of our trip. After the diving safari, we spent two nights in Sorong and then continued by plane to Kaimana.

Upon arrival, the team from Triton Bay Divers welcomed us.

We took a car to the harbor (with a little stop at a hotel to wait for later arriving guests) and then took the resort's speedboat to Triton Bay, which took about 1.5 hours.

The slogan there is 'Rimout änt wörs it' - oh, my older child says it's written like this: 'Remote and worth it'. It means something like: Secluded and worth it.

That's definitely true! My kids and I felt very comfortable there, and the underwater world was so special!

...I was a bit worried at first. But then I learned that there really isn't anything dangerous there.

The most dangerous thing, as Nurul explained at the beginning, are the coconut palms. Especially in the wind, you should be careful not to have a coconut or a large palm frond fall on your head. It's quite a loud noise when such a nut comes down, I can tell you.

It is so beautiful in this little resort. There are only 8 bungalows and no other hotels or dive bases nearby. It's quiet and very cozy.

And from the little bungalow we stayed in, it was less than 10 steps to the water!

One evening, there was even a dinner on the beach. That was really nice.

Well, so much for the surroundings. All the staff there were really very nice and always smiled at me and greeted me warmly.

Now, however, the most important part: the underwater world!

I've rarely heard my kids use the word 'incredible' so often. Especially when it came to the variety of corals.

But of course, there was so much more to see. I'll show you some of the pictures. And you can believe me, there would be so much more of them!

And imagine, my older child took many pictures of seahorses in all kinds of colors. They aren't really horses after all. In any case, they are very small and very cute. So small, my older child said she was glad for the reading glasses inserts in her diving mask.

But I haven't even told you the absolute best part yet. I actually went diving for a day. Like, really underwater and all. And I'll tell you something: I chose a special day for it, namely the excursion to the whale sharks.

One at a time: In Indonesia, fishermen have been using large wooden structures, called Bagans, for fishing for a very long time. These Bagans often have a small hut on top where fishermen can stay. They are always towed to where the small fish are in large schools (they like to call them anchovies here).

In the early morning, the fishermen come to their Bagan, pull in the nets, and sort the small fish. Some they can't sell and collect them in buckets, which they then toss back into the water. And interestingly, the whale sharks have figured this out in this region and wait near the Bagans for a treat. Over time, dolphins have also joined in. The Triton Bay Divers regularly go there, and since there are no other dive bases in the region, you are in the water with a group of a maximum of 8 divers. Well, with me, it was an exception with 9. Fortunately, no one minded.

Because the Bagans are currently a bit further away, we had to leave very early in the morning, around 5.

So, I saw whale sharks for the first time. Woooaaah, I tell you, they are sooo big and imposing. Luckily they only eat plankton, my older children say. And they said, I was a bit too big to pass as plankton. Lucky me.

They swim very close by and look directly at you.

My kids saw dolphins there the following week. They told me all about it with great joy. I didn’t dive in anymore.

However, I did participate in another dive where I got to see the beautiful reef with the corals and the animals.

Particularly great was that the break between two dives in the morning always took place at some paradisiacal secluded beach. There was something to drink and small snacks. You know, between two dives, you need to take a so-called surface interval (my older child says it’s called 'Surface'), meaning a break of about an hour. It’s nice to be at a paradise beach during that time.

I felt that after all these adventures, I truly deserved a special place to rest. What do you think?

My children were mostly accompanied by the lovely Tam during all their dives, who is actually named Tamrin and comes from Manado. I expressed my thanks to him again.

In the second week, my older kids mostly went around with Toby and Lizz. They even played cards with them every evening. I think they enjoyed it. My older child wanted to teach them Doppelkopf, but that was probably a bit complicated to explain in English.

So, I’ve already told you so much and I could keep going. But you probably have read enough by now.

One thing I must mention still. I met Sandy. A little 'sugarglider' (my older child says it's called 'Sugarglider'), which the resort team found abandoned and raised. When they released him into the wild, he returned after two days and has lived there ever since.

Well, yesterday we really had to leave. We were very sorry, and we definitely want to go back there.

Now we have made it back to Jakarta and soon we will head over Istanbul to Amsterdam and from there back home.

For now, I say goodbye!

Travis, the buddy bear