Suprisingly healthy - but not quite the togeans!
Trip Start
Jan 06, 2010
1
11
14
Trip End
Feb 11, 2010
Bunaken, North Sulawesi, Indonesia
Thursday, January 28, 2010
We did another dive and this time it was a little different to the attentive Gonzac in the Togeans. "Yep, sure we do Discovery Dive", "no, no I am not a dive instructor ... Dive Master!", "yes we have seen what the instructors do and we go through all of that ... we do exactly what the instructors do". "Doing just what the instructors do" consisted of learning how to fall backwards off a boat and then going straight down to about 17 meters. But, despite the internal Australian telling me "but I'm not qualified to do that", the external Indonesian next to me gave me cause to think that Australians are over-regulated and worry unnecessarily. It was absolutely fantastic and I am beginning to think we have done so many discovery dives it is a pain we would still have to do the certification, but yes, I know the argument!
Now above the water Bunaken is okay ... it is really, really green ... largely because it is really, really, wet! It doesn't rain in Northern Sulawesi ... it buckets. So much so that when we ran out of tank/bore water (again ... a bit of a theme throughout Indonesian islands) I just stood in the rain and got a better wash than I would've got in a mandi. Kus Kus cottages was nice ... although I felt really bad about the Cuscus (cute little Australian Possum like creature) in a cage, but I have come to expect animals in cages now. I did google the Cuscus, and felt really, really bad about him or her being in a cage, as they are thought to be "vulnerable". The 'small sulawesi cuscus' is only found in Sulawesi and is technically protected.
The guys at the "resort" there were great. The mosquitos were immune to all and every attempt to kill them (and at the time we didn't think it mattered, but boy did we find out it DOES matter!) I managed to rescue a bag of kittens (I assume some locals dropped them near where some tourists would find them ... otherwise why not drown them? If anyone does go to Kus Kus Cottages - check on those little kuchings for me - I want to make sure they didn't drown them the second I left!
One thing about Bunaken is that you don't go there for the beach, there isn't one. There are lots of mangrove and if you do go out snorkelling you might just want to make sure you take booties with you because the tide goes WAY out and we had to walk backwards in flippers over the coral (I felt really bad, but I couldn't sit out there cooking all day until the tide went in). But, if you love underwater stuff, this place is amazing!
