(continuation of part I http://richardkurni.multiply.com/journal/item/16/North_Halmahera_Morotai_Underwater_Photo_Festival_are_to_wake_up_part_I)

............. the risk in this remote area to see this bomber wreck.

After short discussion, we agreed to dive again in the same spot, so we left Pintu Dua dive spot close to Lapangan Pante. That was because the information we got from the dive guide saying that Pintu Dua had only corals without any wreck. In the meantime, my headache still remained, but I decided to join the second dive since I was sure that I could manage it. However, I did not want to dive as long as the first one in depth around 45 meters, since I did not want to get more narcosis (more headache) and longer deco time. That second dive felt more relaxing and joyful, since I already had the situation.  Even so, there were light current near the surface and the visibility was worse than the first one; it seemed that the current brought lots of particle and worsen the visibility. And since my headache still remained, it annoyed me down there. Just like the first dive, nobody used the safety tank. They were very discipline, I had to say. On the surface I heard that Mr. BW’s camera was flooded and Mr. MK’s strobe was damage. They did not know the exact reasons of their problems. However, we were all satisfied today and got back to Tobelo with big smile.

On the way back to Tobelo, I tried to sleep on the boat to sooth my headache, and my headache was gone when the boat was close to Tobelo. We reached Tobelo right after dusk, and other group already got back from diving around Tagalaya; some of them were even continuing night diving under the Tobelo jetty. My groups seemed tired and reluctant to continue diving in the night. Kind of lazy divers, ha-ha.

The routines after the dive like the day before finished and we had to tidy up using uniform t-shirt to visit government officers and together attend government invitation of local community celebration in the Tobelo open ground. The divers, who dived under the jetty, finished almost 9 pm. They had to rush to join the celebration. One thing that I noticed was the unique local dancing with half bend knees almost all along the dance. I believed it needed lots of practice to have such strong feet. All participants and committee could not join the celebration till the end, since we still had lots of thing to do in the hotel and had to dive tomorrow; so we went back to the hotel. In the hotel, I felt relax on the bed and had chitchat with my roommate, who was busy reviewing (or editing) his pictures.

Day 4

I woke up in the following day with lots of hope. I hoped I would be able to dive three times that day and two of them should be under the old and new jetties of Tobelo. As we finished our breakfast and all preparation, we went to Tagalaya Island. The problem, like boat fuel, still remained, phew. I saw the group, who should have been on the way to Morotai, was still hanging on the harbor after 10 am. They would reach Morotai after noon. Not so long after they went to Morotai, my group went to Tagalaya Island and started to dive to Kolorai Island.

That time I got small but a little faster boat compared to the one I used in the first day dive; lucky us that boat was completed with ladder. As I predicted, dive spot near Kolorai Island also had very few fishes, but the corals were okay. My group got new dive guide candidate who were older than the first one but got good diving spirit. During the surface interval, we had lunch of local foods in the small humble building. I did not eat lot, perhaps due to I was not suit with the local foods and I indeed could not ate lot during surface interval as usual.

During preparation for the second dive, I found that somebody had worked out with my gear; my masker strap was changed and my regulator first stage was left opened. Somebody could be the boatmen or dive guide candidates. I a bit dismayed since they did not only tell me previously, but also what they had done might create problem to the gear with further effect of gear user safety risk. I also found this happened to the committee’s gear, so the committee also dismayed and then told them right away. However, we did appreciate their spirit of inquisitiveness and learning.

The O group decided to do the second dive under Tobelo jetty; either did I so I joined them while other few participants still wanted to explore around Tagalaya. I decided that since the sun was already low, I did not want to dive under the jetty in the night. On the boat to Tobelo jetty, I remembered that I forgot to bring my rucksack along, but I believed the committee would bring it since there was my name tag attached on it. And my believe was correct, I got my rucksack back on the hotel later on.

The jetty dive spot was so and so, the corals on the jetty foundation poles were not as much as I thought. The visibility on sea bottom was terrible, but getting better near the surface. I found lots species of lion fish, some box fish, ban pipe fish, schooling big cat fish, schooling silver anthias (or small jack fish?), and others. The most interesting to me was the juvenile harlequin sweet lips; I found three of them, the big juvenile which was hard to take picture of it, the medium one (also hard to take picture of it), and the small one about 4 cm length which was swimming vigorously in the same location. The latest seemed to be easy to take picture of it, but since it swam so vigorously around the bumpy and woody sea bottom, it was hard too to get a proper picture. I ascended when my camera battery ran out. Too bad, I did not have chance to take picture of box fish.

On the surface I found that I was the last diver coming out of the sea, while the O group was ready to go back to the hotel. Few participants were just coming from Tagalaya and preparing to dive under the jetty at dusk. I would like to join them again since it was a shallow dive and I would like to take picture of the box fish. But then I canceled it due to lots of dirt on the housing O ring; meaning that it would need some time to prepare for the dive. I got back to the hotel, while they were doing the night dive. So my previous plan to dive three times that day did not work, ha-ha. Later, I heard that O group managed to take picture of box fish and Pegasus sea robin, what a lucky divers.

I did the same routines as the day before when I was back in the hotel. It was almost 8 pm, and the group who dived in Morotai was not back yet without any news or any short message. One of the committee members discussed it with me (I knew her concern due to the diving situation in Morotai); and I said that they were experience divers and they should have known what to do if they got problem, so that we should not worry about it; and she agreed.

The divers, who dived under the jetty after me, finished after 8 pm, not that long after the Morotai group arrived; while I, O group, and some committee members had tidied up and gone to Tobelo district officer’s home to attend his personal invitation. The foods were great, especially the huge fatty crabs and unique warm local drink made from ginger, palm sugar, and ‘kenari’ nut. I got only one cut of the crab, and other participants who came later, such as divers who dive in the night and Morotai group did not get any cut of the crab. Even so, few divers coming from Morotai, who had never dived under the jetty, preferred to dive in the late night under the jetty; they were not willing to neglect the chance of it.

The government officer’s home was full of invitees, so that I went back to the hotel a bit earlier than others. After short consideration, I decided not to dive anymore tomorrow, so that I rinsed a little thoroughly all my dive gear and photo gear; And then I went to sleep. Few divers who dived under the jetty in the late night finished their dive after 11 pm, phew. I must have been dreaming on the bed by that time, ha-ha. They must have real big spirit and goals; I did appreciate that.

Day 5

I woke up late in the next morning, and after having short breakfast I reviewed and edited my pictures very quick (at least compared to my roommate did) and then submitted them to the committee. Shortly I packed all my dive gear and photo gear since I did not want to dive anymore. I heard that Mr. SW lost his mask that had special measured lens. My alternative mask was gone too, but later I found that dive guide candidate used it without prior notification yesterday for diving under the jetty; oh goz, he should have informed me before he used it.

After I finished packing all my stuff, I started to wander to other rooms and had chitchat about anything. I had chance to help other participant to edit his pictures before they were submitted. Later, his picture became one of the winners; glad that I had contributed on it.

Actually that day was the free day and we could have fun dives along the day around Tagalaya as well as had lunch over there. But all participants seemed had many different interests; few still went to Tagalaya for diving, many went to the downtown for sightseeing and had massages. While I and several others were still in the hotel having interesting chitchat. From the chitchat, I knew that Morotai group yesterday had dived in Pintu Dua, but the visibility was not good (especially near dusk) and there was nothing special. Lucky my group that dived in Lapangan Pante instead of Pintu Dua.

Since we felt that we had enough of foods from Kakare Café, then we planned to have lunch of sate on the small food store close to the hotel. But it seemed that the food store was not ready for visitors on the day time. We would then go to the downtown of Tobelo for lunch and spent some time over there. Mr. MK bought big white steel bracelet for only IDR 25,000.  The public transportation car charged IDR 2,000 for each passenger no matter the distance. We got pretty nice lunch on Chokent Chinese Restaurant. From the chitchat with local Chinese, who owned photo printing store, I knew that there was one expatriate who had run dive center in Tobelo (I forgot the name), but then he moved out to Manado due to Christians and Moslems civil unrest several years ago; what a pity. He also informed me that there was virgin and beautiful lake called ‘Galela’ located around 40 minutes away by car in south Tobelo. To reach the lake, we could use public transportation; but we seemed too lazy to go there, so we went back to the hotel and took a nap.

In the night, we worn uniform t-shirt and gathered in the Pondok Indah restaurant at Tobelo suburb to have farewell party. In this occasion we would have dinner and announce the winners of the festival. The restaurant had unique design but not good enough; it seemed not serious or not enough budget for that design. However, the singer had real good vocal; some participants including me took picture of her. The foods were also great, especially the crabs. After several ceremonials and announcement, we danced altogether. We got back to the hotel and fell asleep soon, since we had to wake up very early tomorrow. The option of using Kao Airport near Tobelo was not possible since, the schedule was not fit at all.

Day 6

Around two o’clock in the morning all participants woke up and got ready for the trip back to Jakarta. Few participants stayed in the hotel since they would like to explore around Tobelo a little longer. Problem was always coming, only one car was ready and the others were not. So, I and the committee asked the driver not only called his friends, but also picked them up. The driver seemed a little reluctant to do so, but then the committee insisted to go with him together. After the other cars had arrived in the hotel, I with few participants and Mrs. NH decided to go to the harbor right away since we were afraid of the possibility that the boats would not be ready just like before. And again the driver seemed reluctant and preferred to drive together with the other cars.

I said: “Sir, I think we better be going now; the rest know what to do and will follow our car. We have something to do in the harbor”.

Driver said: “No, no, we wait for the rest to be ready and will go together with them in one group” (and he continued smoking)

I did not feel good with his respond, since we paid him; he was not doing this for charity. Not that long, Mrs. NH said that she really needed to go right away since she still had to arrange the boats. So, I changed my tone talking to the driver.

“SIR, WE HAVE TO GO, NOW. We are late already. The rest will surely follow”

He stopped smoking and jumped into the car to drive to the harbor. I was thinking, may be that was the right way to talk to the locals.

It was around 3 am or about one hour behind schedule, when we started to depart to Sofifi harbor. Few cars were driven behind the pick-up baggage car to watch and sweep the fallen baggage.

Right after we reached Ternate, the committee negotiated with porter leader to carry the baggage, including chartered pick-up car to the airport of Ternate. I heard myself that in the beginning the porter asked for IDR 25 thousands for each baggage (excluded chartered car) that was damned expensive; but we bargained to IDR 5 thousands in the end. One committee member went directly to the airport to arrange the necessary measures while we were still coordinating the transportation to the airport. On the way to the airport I noticed that there was no remnant of riot of local election one or two days before; and just like before, there was fallen baggage from the baggage car, so we also acted as a sweeper. We reached airport pretty soon and directly waited in line. Some of the participants would fly soon to Jakarta via Manado, while several other participants would take another flight later in the afternoon and stay for a while in Manado taking ‘Underwater Photo Clinic’. I was in the first category, so that I said good bye to all others left behind. One of the participants, Mr. AS, would stay in Ternate for a night since he would sail to Sorong in the next day. In the waiting room, some of us bought noodles in cup just to fill the empty stomach.

The flight from Sultan Baabullah Airport in Ternate to Jakarta via Sam Ratulangi Airport in Manado, was smooth and sound; no rough landing at all. I was lucky to get the seat close to emergency exit, so that I could rest my legs straight. We reached Jakarta in the afternoon, said good bye to each other. My plastic container was broken on the corner, but it was okay since I saw nothing damaged inside. I bought junk food in AW restaurant for the late brunch and caught the X-Trans to go back home.

Epilogue

That dive trip to me was the trip with the most much problems ever, however I was still happy due to it was great trip with great committee and participants, not to mention how great the new experience was, in the new great dive sites, especially in Morotai. I would like to say thank you to all participants and committee, especially to my roommate (Mr. MK) who snored (but okay), and to my dive leader (Mr. AD) who shared his experience. Also big thanks to Mrs. S and Mr. AR (in Singapore), who helped me bring my stuff. But I felt sad to see Visit Indonesia 2008 promotion in Jakarta got no reflection in the fields. Remote Indonesia was definitely not ready yet for such promotion. Do we really need a massive wake up call to develop?

Some more photos can be seen at http://richardkurni.multiply.com/photos/album/35 and http://richardkurni.multiply.com/photos/album/36 ; Happy watching... :-) (You might need to sign in and add contact to see the pictures)

Prologue

To my personal experience, that diving trip had lots of thing to note into my mind, such as, I made decision to join that trip only 3 days before the D day; I was not familiar with the gears I brought; The longest time consumed to reach the destination; The most unreliable local people in the sites, and so many others… L. However, I got good experience and achievement at the end… J.

Few weeks before, I decided to buy new pocket camera since the old pocket camera was obsolete and did not fit with family needs. Canon G9 was my choice since I already have DSLR Nikon with powerful lens. Should I not have DSLR one, then my choice would be Olympus SP570UZ, since it had powerful lens.

Since then, I bought other accessories for that camera to take underwater pictures. Some of them I bought during Deep Indonesia 2008 exhibition, while others I bought from Singapore via my friend who lived there. Later, I found that the accessories I bought and paid in the exhibition was not complete, while I needed that soon. So I had to make the accessories myself. I was not lucky or I was reckless, I dropped the hand drill over my foot while I was making the accessories. It was really hurt, but the accessories were finally done. And the foot problem was the big reason why I was so doubtful to participate in that trip. Moreover, I got flu, even though it was getting better and better. Further reason was that I was totally unfamiliar with the new photo gear at all, not to say I got the wet lens only 4 days before the D day and had no chance to try it. I was thinking that if the flu was still bad, or my foot was still swollen and hurt, I would be only sightseeing in Tobelo and its surrounding area. I would not take risk to dive with flu or my foot could not fin.

With the new photo gear, my previous packing case was not fit at all, so that I need to make the new one too within couple days before the D day. So I did not have enough time to get to know with my new gear. I had to count on my basic and common knowledge to operate my new limited gear (I did not get any additional strobe for wide angle shot).

Day 1

Saturday, April 12^th, I woke up before one o’clock in the morning because taxi operator ringed me up (Actually, I ordered the taxi to pick me at 1 am, not before). My plan was to wake up at 1 am, get dress, and catch the taxi around 1.15 or a bit later, but since I already woke up earlier, then I was ready at 1 am sharp. Since I had realized that the traffic would be pretty empty and I got plenty of time, then I asked the taxi driver to use ordinary road instead of toll way. Even so, I was still able to reach airport terminal 1A less then one hour, so that before 2 am I was already in the airport. Several minutes before I reached the airport, the committee leader sent me SMS asking me where I was; and I said I would reach airport within five minutes, but later I found no other participant neither the committee in the airport, even the lobby door was still closed. Only very few persons and one or two security guards were sitting there having chitchat. I was about to take rest when the committee leader arrived and downloaded lots of baggage.

I was a little surprised when she asked me about my foot condition and flu. How did she know my unfit condition? She told me that one of the other participant named Mrs. S who knew my condition advised her. She was then starting to distribute three t-shirts that had to be used by participants; every of them had to be used for different occasions during the trip. I needed to go to a little dark corner and changed my t-shirt with the new one as she told me so. Not so long, one by one participant was coming. One of the reasons why I liked diving was that I could make new friends as always. The same thing happened in that morning. We introduced each other and had chitchat. Later, I knew that actually there were few participants coming before me, but they were taking rest in the other separate parts of airport instead of terminal 1A.

We lined up as soon as the airport door opened. It was clearly seen that our group had extremely lots of baggage compared to other passengers. I myself who was trying to simplify my baggage to become only two big baggage and one small rucksack was asked to bring one more shoulder bag of the committee since she was extremely busy coordinating the transportation.

I was glad that there was no delay of the flight, but since the time of door opened, check in and departure of flight were pretty tight due to the abundance baggage we had then we did not have time to have breakfast. The Lion LCC also provided no meals in the flight. That was the first time for me to fly with Boeing 737-900 ER series. The plane was new and sound, I liked it much. We reached Sam Ratulangi airport at Manado on time and changed the connecting flight to Ternate. All participants used the spare time to have late breakfast in Manado airport. I myself had my Mc D burger brought from Jakarta. The connecting flight was Wings LCC using propeller engine. That was the second time for me to fly to Ternate. That time the plane was full, quite different with the plane I used the first time I went there on 2005 (or 2006?). The plane landed on Ternate pretty roughly; perhaps it was caused of the wet runway due to the heavy rain previously.

We reached Ternate afternoon and we found out that not all baggage were carried by the plane (how come?) without prior notice to the baggage owner. The flight officer said that was because the baggage were way too much and heavy. I could understand that the plane should not overweight for the sake of safety, but I could not understand that the baggage weight planning was too little for the whole passengers; or might be they preferred to bring people instead of baggage for the sake of profit by reducing the passenger’s convenience. The committee took prompt action by complaining to the officers in charge and asking them to bring the baggage right away using any following flight. Looking at the condition of the Sultan Baabullah Airport of Ternate, I felt as if I opened my memory when I was going there. I did not see any major progress, if I might not say stagnation. In the parking lot, I saw big billboard promoting new and seemed nice hotel in Ternate, which was not exist while I was in Ternate few years ago.

While we were waiting the baggage, we had late lunch in Padang restaurant called Sari Bundo in the center of Ternate. I did not know exactly whether the food was indeed great or because I was too hungry, however I tasted it good. And the tomato and mango juices were really excellent. Until we had finished our lunch, our baggage did not arrive completely in Ternate, so that participants killed the time in many ways; some of them were having chitchat, browsing internet, sleeping on the chairs, etc. Right after we heard that our all baggage had arrived at Ternate, the committee sent them directly to the harbor (goz, I can not remember the harbor name). We then rushed to the harbor as well, some on foot while others used truck (that had been used to bring the baggage). The harbor was not far from the restaurant, however it was almost twilight; and I saw lots of kid playing and swimming in the harbor.

Our boats reached Sidang Oli harbor at Halmahera in the night. That harbor was chosen (instead of Sofifi harbor) due to the closer distance to Tobelo, our final destination. But then the committee and participants were really disappointed due to ‘premanisme’ of the local Sidang Oli porters even though many of participants were hand in hand to bring the baggage. The harbor itself got no light at all. So that we used our own flashlight to light up our baggage while downloading from the boats and uploading to the bus. I heard by myself that the porter leader asked for IDR 2 mio for around 45 baggage that were brought together by the participants. Gee, that was crazy. Lucky us, that Mr. D, the DKP officer, who went together with us could solve the problem by giving the good advises to the porters that we were there in the spirit of compassionate to nourish the community from the tourism sector; and bargaining for the decent payment for sure. We were also disappointed to see the boatmen asked for extra big payment with the reason that they had to wait for several hours due to late arrival of our group.

The participants and committee used rental cars and bus to go to Tobelo in the night. I wished I could see the beauty of Halmahera jungle that was well-known as place for bird watching. But since it was in the night, so I could see nothing but road and few name planks, such as the plank of mining company that guarded by the troops. I was thinking that the jungle would be easily destroyed due to the mining and the bird habitat would be also devastated. The road was narrow but with good asphalt condition, only few parts were damage. In the discussion with the driver, I knew that majority of Tobelo residents were Christians; so much different with majority of Ternate residents who were Moslems. The land journey took almost 4 hours, so that we bought snack on the way. As soon as we reached Tobelo, we took very late dinner first in Kakara Café before we checked into the small hotel near the café. The food was so and so, but the coconut ice was excellent. The uniqueness of that café was the owner, who had nine kids, all are female.

All participants and committee would then be separated into two groups since we would stay into two different small hotels. The O group and several committee members stayed in Regina hotel, while other participants (including me) and other committee members stayed in Mulia hotel. Both hotels located about a hundred meters in the left and right side of Kakara Café. We were then ready to sleep about midnight after we set up our photo gear quickly on the bed. So to me, it was almost a full day and night traveling (not to say other participants coming from Bandung who left before midnight the day before). The bed room was humble with air con and TV, but much better than the room used during Wakatobi Festival December last year. My roommate, Mr. MK, said sorry that he might be snoring while sleeping, and he advised me to wake him up if it came to annoy me.

Day 2

I believed that all were sleeping very tightly since all were really tired. However, I was still able to hear my roommate snoring, but it was not so annoying. I let him know that he was only snoring when he slept straight up, and the snore reduced when he was sleeping in the side position. We woke up in the morning and rushed to Kakara Café for breakfast. Even though I felt that I did not have enough sleep but I felt much better that morning. One thing that I was really afraid was the flu which was not a hundred percent recovered, but that morning I felt lots better, so that I decided to join the dive. To minimize the risk, I also used spray medicine to liquefy mucus in my nose.

The plan was we should depart from new Tobelo harbor to Tagalaya Island at 8 am. But we got lots of obstacle. The local people, who were given several responsibilities, did not do their jobs accordingly. The problems were coming one after another. I started to feel sorry for the committee, especially Mrs. NH, who seemed so tire but always tried to smile and made jokes. Mr. H, one of the participants from C group who said that the problems would not have ended the day before, then became reality. The tanks were not ready. And when the tank problem solved, the boat were not ready, either the boat were not in the harbor or there were no fuel in the boat. While we were waiting in the harbor, I noticed that it seemed diving under the harbor would be worth to try. We also made jokes on the harbor under sunshine, phew. We finally departed to Tobelo Dive Resort in Tagalaya Island few hours later. I started to realize that even though central government in Jakarta had promoted Visit Indonesia 2008, the local government and local people were not automatically ready for it, so ironic. However, my compassion to this country especially to the beauty of nature pushed me to help the local people to develop (if they were willing to)

Tagalaya was a small island close to Tobelo, about thirty minutes away by regular boat from Tobelo harbor. In that island, the government planned to build Tobelo Dive Resort. In the moment, there was only one building with several humble gazebos. We brought some of our stuff under gazebos. We then set up our dive gear real fast in order to catch up the schedule (I was a little slow due to my foot was not completely okay). Again we got another problem, the weights were not enough for the whole participants. So the dive leader could not dive properly, and the dive guide candidate could not dive at all but snorkeled only. Lucky me, that my group was pretty small, only five of us, me, Mr. MK, Mr. A, Mr. AD (dive leader), and Mr. I (dive guide candidate). The committee advised me that one of the goals of that festival was to develop local tourism industry; since the participants already had lots of diving experience and local community did not have proper dive guides, then we, the participants, were hoped to help dive guide candidates to be a professional dive guides. That was okay to the participants.

We dived into three different dive spots using three very humble traditional boats. My boat was the smallest and slowest one, but lucky it was completed with ladder, while one of the bigger two boats got none. In fact, according to all divers’ observation, all boats were not adapted yet for diving activity, not to say the boatmen. My boat headed to Pawole Island and my group dived right away. None of us had ever dived there, so we were not sure whether we entered in the right spot or not. It was kind of exploration dive, but in the same time we had to take pictures. To my opinion, that dive spot was not good; I saw many devastated coral and very few small fishes, nothing special. However, that was the first time for me to dive in north Halmahera and also the first time using new photo gear, except the strobe, so I was still glad. After we finished our first dive, we went back to Tagalaya. Tobelo Dive Resort did not have yet facility for divers to rinse the dive gear and photo gear, so we used Mrs. S’s plastic drum and my plastic container to rinse all diver photo gears. My gear accessories in the plastic container were moved to the committee’s bag.

We had late lunch of ‘Nasi Padang Bungkus’ in Tagalaya, and as usual, I could not finish my lunch completely during surface interval. During lunch, we had lots of joke over others. We were laughing so loud to see Mr. SW forgot to connect the strobe wire inside the camera housing, so that how hard he checked and rechecked, the strobe would never be working well. Lucky him, that even though we made jokes, we were also analyzing his problem, so finally he found and fixed the problem.

After then, my boat headed to Toputopu Island for the second dive, but one of my group members moved to the other boat to join his common group. Just like before, none of us had ever dived over there, so that again in Toputopu Island we were not sure where we had to enter. But I found that the corals down there were better than the ones in the Pawole Island. The same things were nothing special and not many fishes.

Sun was near to horizon when we got back to Tagalaya, so we had no chance to execute the third dive that day (and we did not plan for the night dive either). The committee separated the participants into two big groups for tomorrow since we only had one big and fast boat to reach Morotai. One group (including me) would go and dive to Morotai tomorrow, while the other group would still dive near Tagalaya using smaller and slower boats. My group would then have to pack up our gear and bring back to Tobelo, while the other group could leave their gear in Tagalaya.

All of us went back to Tobelo at dawn. I rinsed my gear right away and then took shower. My photo gear was left on the bed to let it dry. We went to Kakara Café for dinner. During chitchat with the other group, I knew that diving in Tanjung Timur of Tagalaya would have chance to see sharks, while the corals were so and so; meaning that dive spot was better than two dive spots which my group had dived before. We were also discussing the dive plan for tomorrow since tomorrow dive in Morotai would be deep dive to see WWII wrecks. I had never been deep deco diving for around two years past and the others might have the same or even worse. I proposed to the committee to provide one safety tank to be hanged in the five meters depth just for precaution. The committee gave the tips for us to dive directly to main wrecks target at the depth of around 45 meters, and then slowly ascend to depth around 18-20 meters to see tank (or panzer?) wreck that was almost totally covered by corals, and at last spend the safety (deco) stop by watching lots of octopus hiding in the corals.

After we got back to the hotel, we started to check our photo gear, download the pictures, edit, and then submit to the committee. Before I slept, I consumed my flu medicine and also advised my roommate to sleep in the ‘correct position’ to reduce snoring.

Day 3

That morning after, I woke up really fresh, since I got enough time to sleep, my flu was almost recovered, and my foot was much better. However, I was still a little worry of possibility of reverse block due to the flu, moreover today dive would be deep (and likely deco) dive, so again I used my spray medicine. Local people prepared the whole things better than the day before, even though they were still far away from excellent. The committee agreed to provide one safety tank, however all participants were still reminded to dive cautiously and never counted on safety tank. The group for Morotai was ready to depart around 9 am, and it would take more than two hours to reach the dive spot.

The wrecks dive spot in Morotai, called Lapangan Pante, was so close with Wama Village. Our boat reached it almost noon. Since boat designation was not adapted for diving activity, so we got difficulties to don our gear. However all of us managed the problem really good. We finally descended right away after the safety tank was set up.

All participants went down through the reef directly to the wrecks in the depth around 45 – 50 meters, while the dive leader was hovering on top of them. That time we were accompanied by professional dive guide, who had dived in that dive spot, brought from Manado, so the dive guide candidate could directly learn from him. It was the first time for me to see many different wrecks in one location. I saw panzers (or trucks?) and four aero plane wrecks. I was so happy to see them. They were really great and stunning. But again, the fishes were so limited. One thing that made me astonished was the corals were not that much as I thought. Comparing to the Liberty shipwreck in Tulamben - Bali that was about in the same age, these corals were so limited. However with its clear visibility, that wrecks dive spot was really great and outstanding, and I did love it very much.

I was a bit nervous taking pictures there for many reasons, such as hard to concentrate due to nitrogen narcosis, due to my photo gear was new and I was not familiar with it, hard to find good angle since my strobe was not big enough to cover the objects, and I had to keep an eye over my deco time. Moreover, I would like to enjoy the beautiful sceneries deep down there. So my time to take pictures was so limited with limited photo gear for wide angle pictures, oh my God. Down there, I forgot the problem of my foot and flu, ha-ha, perhaps I was so absorbed by the beautiful scenery. The dive leader was really great in giving his services; he always reminded us about the deco time and kept calling us from above. I was starting to ascend when I saw my deco time was about 17 minutes at the ceiling of 8 meters. It seemed that all divers had real good calculation about their air consumption, proven with nobody used the safety tank provided. And I thought all of the divers missed the tank wreck that lied on the depth around 18 – 20 meters. I got headache that I believed coming from nitrogen narcosis.

We spent our surface interval at the harbor village (HMS Lastory harbor) in Morotai, located about 10 minutes away by boat from Lapangan Pante dive spot. Too bad, I did not bring other camera to take picture of this village. We were also having late lunch over there. The dive guide seemed had lots of friend in that island, since lots of local people had short chitchat with him. During lunch, the professional dive guide advised me that actually there was one big and intact bomber wreck lying on the depth around 90 meters, phew; I would not take the risk in this remote area to see this bomber wreck.

After short discussion, we agreed to .... (continued at http://richardkurni.multiply.com/journal/item/17/_North_Halmahera_Morotai_Underwater_Photo_Festival_are_to_wake_up_part_2_ )

Some more photos can be seen at http://richardkurni.multiply.com/photos/album/35 and http://richardkurni.multiply.com/photos/album/36 ; Happy watching... :-) (You might need to sign in and add contact to see the pictures)

If I was not mistaken, the original plan was on November 2007, but for some reasons that I never knew from the committee the plan was changed to December 2007. This was actually good for me, since the new schedule was more suitable for me. However, frankly speaking, I did not expect that much in this occasion, since I had only 4 Mpx old and discontinued pocket camera. Even so, I felt better compared to my feeling in the previous resemble occasion on Raja Ampat in the beginning year. Around a week or two before the D day, I got confirmation that I could participate in this occasion and I had to send photo and other necessary data; And I got information that all participants would use chartered plane from Makassar to Tomia Island continued with small speed boat instead of using big slow boat to reach the destination, but for that I had to pay more, which was okay too for all participants.

I had prepared most of the gear on Sunday, because on Monday I would not have enough time for preparation. Shortly, on Tuesday 11 Dec 2007 at 2.30 am I was already on the airport Jakarta (I did not want to be in hurry in the airport as I ever had before). I saw two other participants (Mr. HW and Mr. DY) already hanged out in the airport outside lobby; they did not want to wait inside the airport since it was too cold. More participants started to gather around 3.15 am. Seemed that what committee had informed before that participants should limit their baggage to minimize over baggage charge had come into effect.

After participants checked in, they started to have breakfast in the airport. Not that long, they were informed that their Merpati flight to Makassar was delayed for 3 hours. While they were sitting in waiting room, they were again informed that there would be another delay of two hours, so in total there were 5 hours delay. I was lucky since I was in the group so that waiting that long would not be that boring, but what about other people not in the group? Only God knew. Well, the plane finally flew at 9 am.

The plan was participants should arrive in the final destination before dusk, but seemed things were messy. The chartered small propeller plane did not arrive in Makassar on time. More over, the Tomia airport did not have lamps for plane to land in the night. So that even though the plane had arrived in Makassar, it could not fly to Tomia. Participants finally had to stay in Horison Hotel in Makassar, together with Bupati of Wakatobi, while their gears were left in the airport. During dinner, participants were watching several short UW films made by member of committee, who was the part of participants in the previous occasions. Participants had to go bed a little early since they had to wake up and be ready at 4 am to go to the airport.

In the morning, things ran as plan. So participants reached airport at dawn and flew right away to Tomia. Together with the participants in the plane, there were several journalists and for sure Bupati of Wakatobi and several government people. The funny things happened during in the air, several passengers were advised to move forward since the plane nose was tilted.

A short explanation of Wakatobi: Located in the province of South East Celebes, in the Tukang Besi Islands. Had four major islands, Wangi-wangi, Kaledupa, Tomia, and Binongko. Beside those four major islands, there were lots of small minor islands, such as Hoga Island, in which the participants would then stay on.

Before the plane landed in Tomia, the pilot was so kind to go around above Wakatobi to show the beauty of the islands and it’s sea that I would dive later. Participants arrived at the airport of Tomia with welcoming ceremony from the local people. After short ceremony, participants rushed into small pier using any car available and used small boats to go to Hoga Island.

Hoga Island, the island where participants stayed, was actually not a real island since it was made from coral rocks. Seemed it was sea bottom that had been uplifted hundreds or thousands years ago. Only 50 families lived in this island. There was no permanent electricity and fresh water. Electricity was only available in two main big huts, in the main office and class room, from afternoon till after midnight only. Fresh water must be shipped from other island. These two main huts owned by international organization which was dealing with nature research, called Operation Wallacea. Participants stayed in the small huts built by local people for rent to the tourist or volunteers who worked for the organization. The hut was so simple and I believed that not every body could stay there. Thanks Lord I could stay there.

After the huts were distributed to all participants, participants had to gather to have opening ceremony speech from Bupati; and continued to have opening ceremony underwater. That was the first time for me to dive in Wakatobi and in the same time I used the new customized 3 mm wetsuit made in Bali. And I had difficulty to descent since I used only 3 kg weight with new wetsuit, but with breathing control, I finally managed to descent and participated in the underwater opening ceremony.

I did not remember all the name of dive sites during this occasion; I could only recall several of them, such as Buoy 1, Buoy 5, Karang Gurita, Inner Pinnacle, Karang Belanda, etc. I finally used 4 kg weight to ease my dives. I saw many healthy corals and sea fans down there. A real great place for wide angle photographers; and few rare macro critters. I could not find rare macro critters; Might be it was because my eyes were not that sharp to find it, but most of other participants said the same. I took only several close up shots of ordinary critters. I also pushed myself to take wide angle shots with my limited photo gear. Surely the results were not good.

Some participants were so eager to find Pigmy Seahorse, which was said in the world history it was found firstly in Wakatobi. They did the night dive too. And during the latest night dive they finally got it and had great pictures of it. My group was not so eager for night dive. I saw other group was also eager to dive very early in the morning and slept in the big boat on the shore to avoid low tide during dawn.

Every participant was in the class room every night to edit the pictures taken; surely only few kinds of editing were allowed. They had lots of chit chat and laughs. The great thing was participants were not look as rival to each other. They even helped each other when some of them had trouble. I also borrowed the strobe arm from my fellow diver (Thanks to Mr. A). I felt sorry to see my old friend, Mr. SW, had trouble twice, once he accidentally deleted all the pictures and once again he set his camera incorrectly. I believe he got lots of great pictures. Other participant got problem with his UW strobe which was flooded, but lucky him that he got spare strobe to replace. I saw many new pocket cameras used in this occasion for the first time, and some of them were heavily fogged, even one of them was flooded. However, they already got great pictures.

Near my seat, sit the professional photographer who had won many competitions, while not so far from me sit the winner of Asian Diver underwater photo competition just couple weeks before. While many other participants were great photographers and had won photo competitions too.

In the first night, my hut (and also other huts) was provided with traditional sailor kerosene lamp. It helped indeed even though it was not bright enough. This lamp was only available for the first two nights, and the following nights there was not kerosene lamp anymore and I needed to use my UW torch to light up. And since there was very limited electricity for lamp, then I could see lots of star in the sky in total darkness.

Lucky me that I took anti malaria pill before, since there were lots of mosquitoes in that island, even though there was no surety that they were ordinary mosquitoes or malaria ones. But according to the doctor who came there periodically, there was malaria around Wakatobi.

Since the fresh water must be shipped from other island to Hoga, then participants had very limited fresh water to use. Fresh water used for cooking and drinking only. However, the local people could cook good food, considering that limited condition, so I assumed in that condition their food were great. To take a bath participants used water that was pumped out from the land; that water was not fresh water neither salt water, some where in between. One thing that made me astonished was how giant lizard could live in that island without freshwater, they must have adapted with the condition since long time ago.

Perhaps I was too tired, since I had limited time to sleep and had to dive three times a day to take picture (while several other participants had four dives a day including night dive), my anti body seemed drop and I started to have problem with my throat on Friday. I took light medicine that I had brought from Jakarta; I also visited local (young) female doctor who was coincidentally available there, but I did not want to consume anti biotic for some reasons; just light medicine and vitamin.

Even though I had problem with my throat, I pushed myself to dive to take picture of Pigmy Seahorse on extra fun dive on Saturday morning. I never had picture of Pigmy Seahorse before and that was my major motivation that Saturday after several days before I could not find it; but I heard that other group had found it near the island during night dive and the guide had made mark on the location. However, the guide himself, who put mark in the night before, could not easily find it again in the morning with my group. My group spent half tank with no result. The guide seemed very curious to find it again in the morning, so he dived again and again spending two tanks till finally he got it. And surely my group followed him to take picture with half tank only in the depth of 12 meters. My worse soar throat paid off when I got the picture.

But my expectation to dive in the Wakatobi Resort house reef could not be realized for several reasons such as distance location and unsurely allowance and guide availability from the resort. My group was not that lucky like other group who got chance to dive there. That lucky group said that the house reef had very healthy and well maintained corals and fishes; the fishes over there were not afraid of human attendance. The group said that the resort imposed very straight no coral touching policy to all divers with no exception. No wonder that the corals (and fishes) were very healthy and diverse.

Finally all participants had to pack their dive and photo gears on Saturday noon. Those gears were planned to be shipped before dusk to Tomia. Later I found that those gears were shipped in the night using bigger slow boat, so that they would arrive in Tomia in the morning.

During dusk I borrowed the newest ‘O’ camera from my fellow diver (thanks to Mr. AS) and tried to take pictures of sunset and beach; but since I was not familiar with that camera then I used auto mode with some my own creative metering to get better results than just ordinary auto mode ones. In the latest night my fellow photographers went to the beach to take picture of the stars in the total darkness in the sky. But I could not stand that long in the beach, since I needed to take rest, especially for my soar throat.

In the morning when participants started to leave the island, I started to loose my voice due to the worse condition of my throat. While all participants arrived in Tomia, there were lots of ceremonies prepared. This occasion was gathered with other different occasions, such as the campaign of eating the fishes, planting the trees, etc, which were led by minister from Jakarta. That was why lots of great traditional costumes worn by local youngsters. But since the participants needed to leave Tomia very soon, then all of them could not hear the announcement from the committee.

In Makassar, participants had the same problem just like they had just arrived there before from Jakarta, e.g. the delayed flight. This time was even worse, they had 8 hours delay. So they were tired and bored of waiting the flight, even though they were in the executive lounge using their credit card. Merpati provided only free simple dinner for passengers. I could not imagine how the future of our local airline is in the future by performing that such lousy service. However I tried to forget that and be happy by buying some Markissa syrup to bring back home. And I did grateful to the committee, participants and friends, and all other parties, who made this trip so amazing. I was so tired (but happy due to the great divingi) when I reached home after midnight… phew.

More photoes can be viewed at http://richardkurni.multiply.com/photos/album/28