Another dream came true! Thank GOD...!
Since last 2005, this was the 1st time I heard about Raja Ampat Islands, I always want to visit this place. But unfortunately even though I was living in Papua on that time, but as a staff of the United Nations, we had a strict policy that even for a holiday we must get a security clearance to enter specially a remote area, including in Papua, and I never get that clearance!
But I finally could visited the islands on last April 9-16th. Together with a group of 27 people, mostly from Thailand, we sailed to Raja Ampat Islands with charter the boat of Sea Safari 8. It was an unforgettable trip to this country's largest national marine parks which offers a range of marine life that believed to be the most diverse on the planet!
The Raja Ampat Islands in West Papua is group spreads out over a huge area and consists of over 610 islands. The four largest islands are Waigeo, Batanta, Salawati and Misool. The area's reefs are covered in a diverse selection of both hard and soft corals. Most of the areas reefs are pristine, with mile after mile of perfect hard corals, drift after drift of soft corals of many species and colors ranging from brilliant red, to shocking yellow pretty pink and exotic purple. Most of reef dives are very colorful....totally awesome!
During this expedition I had a chance to dive at Waigeo Island (at Blue Magic and Batu Lima point), Mioskon Island (at Mioskon Reef point), Kri Island (at Sardine Reef point), Mansuar Island (at Manta Sandy point), Farondi Island (at Three Sisters point), Misool Island (at Lonely Rock point and Shadow Reef point), Boo Island, and Fiabacet Island (at Nudi Rock point, and Tagboat Rock point).
The territory within the islands is enormous, covering 9,8 million acres of land and sea, it's a home of 540 types of coral, more than 1,000 types of coral fish and 700 types of mollusks! This makes it the most diverse living library for world's coral reef and underwater biota! According to a report by The Nature Conservancy and Conservation International, around 75% of the world's species live in this awesome islands!
Even though its located in a remote area in Eastern Indonesia, from Jakarta you have to fly to Sorong for about 5-6 hours, then continue by boat for another 20 hours (to Misool Island as the farthest) , but it's truly worth it, at least once in your life, you must visit this heaven in earth!
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