Perry’s journey – a tale of two sites

Before posting my trip to Krabi with friends, let me share the amazing journey of Perry Gan to north Sulawesi for underwater scuba diving trip. Perry is a friendly and nice guy I know and also an amateur photographer and diver (that was what he told me humbly, though he just got his PADI master diver qualification). I met Perry in photonian‘s gathering and that was when he shared his interesting diving experiences and underwater photos he took. After having chat with him, I discovered that Perry is also a nature lover and always encourages others to protect nature and preserve life.

Two weeks ago when I met Perry again, he shared some underwater photos he took during scuba diving. Those shots are really fascinating. So I made a request to post his photos sharing with other friends and he agreed. More to that, he also shared with me this tale of the two sites (Bunaken and Lembeh) in northern Sulawesi of Indonesia which he experienced. This is the story of a wonderful marine park, some interesting people and a remarkable adventure:

North Sulawesi has long been hailed as one of the finest dive destinations our world has to offer. Being a rookie I had come to this place with a brimful of dreamy images conjured up from the centerfolds of diving magazines. Wanting nothing more than to bookmark the flora and fauna; and to put ticks next to images in fish ID books, I ended up getting much more than what I had hoped for. I returned with a very different outlook on the reefs and the sea and now consider myself a convert as well as a macro aficionado.

Bunaken and Lembeh, are definitely more than meet the eyes. These are places where the incredible and unusal come together. It is perhaps premature and presumptuous for a newbie to crown this place with such superlatives, not having been to that many dive destinations around the world. I, however, found it simply impossible not to be in awe of the grace and diversity of the sea. What I saw and experienced had enriched me as a diver, as well as made me a human being much more appreciative of the world he lives in. Here is an account of my “fun-tabulous” and “muck-elicious” trip…

Back in May 2008 when I confirmed going on this trip, I had only logged about 50 dives. While in Redang, Tee took me to Sandy Bottom to do my first muck dive. That particular dive yielded many surprises. Apart from the sighting of a pretty sea horse, there was also a tiny painted frog fish, apparently a first in Redang. I was also made acutely aware that buoyancy skill was the determining factor to a good muck dive. A good “honing” session with Tee during that trip proved invaluable.

I later found out that I was actually going with a bunch of “old salts” with an average of 300 dives under their belts. Although a little concerned about how I would measure up, this bunch of “EAD”s proved my worries unfounded and were in fact lots of fun to be with. (EAD: an acronym only known to this particular group, should hopefully be explained to me on my next trip to Anilao.)

Bunaken beakoned….

So I packed my bag, jumped on the Silk Air’s 737 with my dive buddies and arrived at the hustle bustle town of Manado. The town immediately reminded me of “Kampung Jawa”: an old (and vanished) fishing town in Melaka which constantly smelled of fish and salt. The busy roads were lined with shops and surprisingly
many chapels. Minibuses and horse drawn carriages shared these congested and narrow streets. A forty minute boat ride at the end of our road journey took us to Bastianos, a Balinese inspired and cozy resort. Although there were no airconditioners in our rooms, the breeze and cool mornings made it bearable.

The food was delicious and the very tasty Spaghetti Bolognese and Ayam Percik were simply unforgettable. The staff were friendly and in particular Richard. We were also very well looked after by the attentive dive crew. The night sky was amazingly clear and starry and the orange sunset had me gazing until it all but disappeared behind Mount Manado Tua. The real surprise at Bunaken however, lies beneath the sea. The underwater flora of Bunaken especially, was not only luxuriant, but strange and awe inspiring. We did 5 dives on our 3 day and 2 night’s stay, which was regrettably too few. Returning to Bunaken thus requires no excuse, since we had only sampled a very small part of the entire terrain.

The highlights were many and here are the ones that stood out:

Bunaken Timur One: Our boat traveled to the south-east of the crescent-shaped Bunaken Island, took a U-turn and moved up north, finally stopping at a site less than 300 meters away from the shore. I confirmed this as the destination of our check out dive and looked overboard to find our boat floating at the edge of the slopping sand. On the left was a large expanse of sea grass and the shallow sand bank, to the right was a deep blue hue. I took a deep breath and back rolled……

When the bubbles cleared and I was done with equalizing and making sure my camera and gears were Ok, I found myself hovering next to a wall of lush orange and yellow soft corals and was greeted by clouds of Pyramid Butterfly Fish and Blue Streak Fusiliers. The visibility was excellent but I could not see the bottom as the wall was almost vertical. Swimming along the precipitous wall I marveled at how healthy the reef was. There was an abundant of sponges. Barrel sponges, rope sponges, elephant ear (fan) sponges and tube sponges intermingled with myriads of sea squirts of different shades and shapes: the blues, the pinks, the yellows, the “cauliflowers” and the black “grenades”….

Hard and soft corals, sprinkles of feather stars adorned all space unoccupied in this vast and resplendent garden. Surgeonfish, Moorish Idols, Damselfish, Pennant Bannerfish and a bunch of unidentified Anthias darted in and out of the cracks and fissures. Venturing closer, I spied my first Long Nose Hawfish peering out of the Gorgonian branches along with 2 dozen of Razorfish. We also saw a Reef Stonefish, a pea sized Elegant Squat Lobster, a Trumpetfish, a few Blue Spotted Lionfish and some nudibranch (Chromodoris Willani). The strangest formation was a 3 feet “paper fan” sponge (??) with tassels growing at the rim fanning up and down with the currents. I completed this memorable first wall dive in 57 minutes and concluded that had there not been a single fish, I would have been content just drifting along with the vista of “mega flora”. Such was the awe and wonder felt by the wide-eyed rookie in me……..

Next was Muka Kampung, another wall dive. One memorable moment was an improvised birthday celebration at 3 meter upon descending. You see, buddy Teng was THE GAL. Led by Siong, her major sweetheart, we had earlier prepared an impromptu banner (well.. more like a dive sausage with cut up duct-tapes pasted on it to form greeting words) as a surprise for her. We unrolled the ceremonious sausage, gestured frantically to catch her attention and “expressed” our love and greetings. Along with some of Lee’s rather creative underwater hand signals, this little presentation was hastily captured on video and stills. I am certain we were all praying for a high quality close up of the mandatory no-regulator kiss which was wet in every sense of the word, but it did not happen.

(Dive) time was of the essence so it quickly resumed. Currents were swift and much “schooling actions” took place in this dive; One large school of Long Jawed Mackerels followed by various sightings of big fish like a giant Grouper and a Napoleon Wrasse, capped off with a shoal of Snappers towards the end. Hiding within the wall was a very cute Orang Utan Crab inside a Bubble Coral. We could not resist the temptation to toy with a blue Painted Rock Lobster which bravely brandished its antennae in furious protest. Glinting and glistering on the surfaces of some odd shaped sponges were the even odder looking Sailor Eyeballs, which looked more like steel balls than living algea to me. The focus on a ball of Striped Catfish undulated back and forth above a sponge quickly transferred to a very pretty Nembrotha Cristata (the black Nudi with Green spots) and the translucent Coral Shrimp among the coral bubbles…….. whoever said a sore neck is only an occupational health hazard probably never dived.

Enter Lekuan 3, the Tinsel Town of Bunaken. Only five minutes in the boat took us to a spot so vast and borderless that it had to be sliced into 3 subsites, namely Lekuan 1, 2 and 3. Prominent features included the “Divalets” the miniature Squat Lobster, the Slender Pipefish, the Gomphia Starfish (??), the Chromodoris Wiallni and Lochi (Nudies) and the Orang Utan Crab. The “A list Divas” that our lenses spied on include a Gilded Triggerfish, a Horned Flathead (crocodile fish), a large Green Turtle, some Lowfin Drummers and a Wedgedtail Triggerfish, not forgetting the “Prima Donna Divas”: our very own Lily, Helen, Ginn, Teng and Lee. There were numerous supporting roles like the Fairy Basslets, Anthias, Sweepers, Batfishs and occasional Butterflyfish including the Emporers and Regals.

At one point all eyes were on the Candy Crabs among the red and white soft corals. See Hian spotted the first, Ginn the second and Tee the third strutting their stuff on the catwalk (of the coral branches) as they put on sprigs of live soft coral atop their shells for the show. Blizzards of flash lights caused these petite beauties to dodge and disappear, but with a bit of patience they reemerged to reclaim their fifteen minutes of fame. Decorating the entire site once again were beautiful fields of carols, sponges, hydroids, ascidians and yellow Whip Corals which spiraled their ways out to the open sea.

Fu Kui is named after its discoverer and also means “Prosperity” in Chinese. This too was a richly endowed reef and for a change we could see the sloping sea floor which was covered by a plethora of stony and hard corals. Although this essentially was not a wall dive we constantly swam along the edge of the reef which was overlooking a deep slope that extended to the open sea. Here we sighted a massive belt of Blue Streak Fusiliers, and beyond them in the deep blue, a lone Napoleon Wrasse.

Apart from the elusive Napoleon, we were lucky enough to witness a school of Bigeye Barracudas, an even bigger school of Emperors, a ball of Batfish and some very inquisitive and tailgating Pinnate Spadefish. All of these amazing scenes were captured on HD videos as Greg got creative and sat his newly bought video cam in a modified case, and boldly tested the gizmo here. Just how interesting are the resulting clips? Find out in Youtube soon.

We took a detour at the Clam farm, a sandy patch that featured five giant Tridacna Clams in a row where Jack nearly stepped onto one of the clam’s mantle. The sea was calm and visibility was great, so we took pictures, poked fun and simulated obscene signs and gestures. From spot to spot we found many good lookers; the Spinecheek Nemos, the Nembrotha Kubaryana (Nudi with green and red streaks instead of dots) and possibly their offspring (the ribbon eggs), and the Bignose Unicorn Fish. Another magic moment came at twenty two meter, kneeling on a sandy patch we saw hundreds of spaghetti-like spotted garden eels swaying in the gentle currents. Some of them measured up to 3 feet with part of their bodies still burrowed in the sand. As they were very shy, the slightest movement in the water column had them darting back to their hiding place only to reappear to feed on plankton when the coast was deemed clear. Hundreds of artificial steel structures were laid haphazardly where we ended our dive. Perhaps these structures were recently laid therefore not much coral growth was observed. The optimistic diver in me however, predicts a fish and coral wonderland in ten years or so.

Last but not least was Along Banua, another wall site five minutes away from the resort. It was here I saw the strange red and gourd-like Ascidians and the colonies of Mat Sea Squirts, proved that there was something new even though the flora looked similar to the other earlier sites. Every species of hard and soft coral that I had seen in my diving experience collided here. The gorgonians, the black coral trees, the staghorns, the porites, the lettuce, the moon and star column corals, the cup corals, the leather, and the tree corals…….

After descending to yet another steep cliff, we were met with swim-throughs, caves and overhangs. The many protrusions here might have entangled the unwary Loy as he somehow managed to lose one of his FINs mid dive! Delaying the chance to ridicule an otherwise hilarious non-stunt, I marveled instead at the
Trumpetfish (white bodied with green stripes), the marvelous Helgerda Malesso (Cream and Orange coloured nudibranch with pretty ribbons for eggs), an electric Blue Spider Crab, the Devil Scorpionfish and many other usual suspects. Alas this dive ended with a huge upswell that was impossible to swim
against. So I cut short my safety stop and resurfaced predictably to listen to stories of yet more creatures that I had missed.

Sitting in the dining hall with eleven others that night, I took a gulp of Bintang and gazed at the distant sky reliving the underwater scenes I had experienced so far.

This was truly a Tour de Marvel thus far. My eyes and senses were constantly feasted on with so many new treats and wonders. My mind was perpetually occupied with the images and flashbacks from the visits to the realm of this “Fantasea”. There were too numerous the occasions to remember, and too much the mysteries of the undersea to learn about, always resulting in the tendency to fill my log book to the edges.

It is clear that Bunaken’s beauty rests on the reefs and the walls. Although to some seasoned divers this place offers limited novel sightings, they would no doubt still concur that its flora and fauna is astonishingly vast and healthy. Far above that exists in many parts of the underwater world. I had no regrets here, only the urge to moan about the Eager Ray, Giant Barracudas and Bumphead Parrotfish that I allegedly missed out on…..

Text: Perry Gan
Additional text: Ginn Chin
Photos: Helen Kang, Greg Leong, See Hian, Chin Teng and Perry Gan