Preparing for Raja Ampat

I've always known Raja Ampat would be an amazing place to visit but it was a long way there and expensive. The problem was, if you wanted to really enjoy Raja Ampat, you had to do it by renting a liveonboard boat and go diving it is possibly some of the best diving in the world. Although I have dived hundreds of times, I don't really think of myself as a diver. First and foremost, I am a traveler, so, perhaps due to the cost involved, visiting Raja Ampat was never too high on my list of places to visit. For serious divers though, Raja Ampat is a pilgrimage that must be made at least one in a lifetime.

I still couldn't get my head around the idea that staying on a liveonboard would be anything other than just diving, diving, and more diving. It seemed too much for me! If diving was possible wherever I was travelling, then that was perfect, but the main activity for me was to visit a new place to travel. I had only been on a real dive trip with serious divers twice in my life, and even then I would skip some of the dives and spend a day at the beach, or just get some extra sleep in my cabin. I had been invited to Raja Ampat a few times but it had never felt like the right time to go or the right group of people to do it with. It was always the hard core divers inviting me! Wake up, go diving, have breakfast, go diving, break for lunch then diving again, take a rest, then dive some more... And the conversation in the evenings! This fish, that fish, check out this diving gadget, or technically diving should be this way or that way... Where is the banter?

A liveonboard hosts a dozen or so guests, not including the crew. If you don't like the group of people you are with, there is no escape, and wherever you go you see the same people over and over again. There is no hiding if you are in a bad mood. If you are angry at someone, what are you going to do? Splash each other? I remembered being humiliated on a boat travelling from Lombok to Komodo, arguing with a bule teenager on a cruise in Turkey, and fighting over food in Halong Bay.

You are stuck with these awful situations if you are on a boat, and this liveonboard would last a whole week!
One evening in January 2011, Yasmin, Jana, King Kong, and I discused the idea of visiting Raja Ampat again. The solution to all these issues was: "Let's rent a boat ourselves and invite friends of ours who are happy to just hang out and relax." Not a bad idea. So, we made some ground rules: they have to be our friends (people we all knew), have a diving certificate, but not be hardcore divers, be over thirty, single if possible, have some money, and be able to take a week off work. From that we drew up a list of people we could invite.

Then, we had to make sure everyone got along with each other. So the conversation continued through the night, interspersed with gossip about why one person didn't like another person and so on and so forth... The main point being, the four of us were committed to making the trip, and the only reason we would be allowed to cancel would be if we were pregnant. For various reasons, this eventuality was considered highly unlikely.

A month later, Jana and King Kong suddenly called me. They were at a diving exposition and found out that we had to book a certain boat immediately because there was still a slot available for New Year 2012, and, furthermore, there was a discount. Jana was convinced we should choose the best and, of course, the most expensive Indonesian boat. "We'll be comfortable on this one... instead of one of the others piled on top of each other in bunk beds." Well, when she put it that way I couldn't really disagree. Now the problem was how to find the money for the down payment in two days when we still had not received any confirmation from the people we invited?

So, chartering a liveonboard boat called the MV Raja Ampat Explorer for a week (7 days, 6 nights) including full board from December 27th 2011 to January 2nd 2012 (a year in advance!) would cost nearly IDR200 million split among the 14 of us. This meant a down payment of IDR2,900,000 each to be paid within two days. I immediately sent out a high priority email to everyone on our list of invitees. From all the people we had contacted, only seven of us were committed to the trip. We were still seven people short! So I sent another email giving permission for people to invite their friends on condition they passed an interview to find out what they were like. The remainder of the down payment would be covered by Jana for the moment, but we all had to make a serious effort to find more people.

Then, a few months later, Jana and King Kong both suddenly bailed out of the trip! So, there were now even less of us. I was furious and told them they'd better find replacements, I didn't care where they found them, as long as they were bearable. We were getting closer to the due date for the final payment in September, and the list of people kept changing. In the end, we could all bring whoever we wanted, as long as they would fit in with the rest of us. Otherwise, this was going to cost a fortune. Nina and I were put in charge of organising the group in place of King Kong. Our task was plotting a course; it didn't matter where we went, as long as we were heading to Wayag and we got to stop at some good beaches on the way.

In the end there was myself, Yasmin, Nina, Rini plus three office friends, Eli plus three office friends and three others none of us knew who had been found by the traitors, Jana and King Kong. A week before the deadline to pay the final instalment, three more dropped out so they were replaced by my cousin, Ezra, her friend, and another friend of Eli. Chaos! Anyway, the most important thing was the "mutual friends" were still in the majority compared to the "friends of friends".

The next problem was organising the sleeping arrangements. There were six women and eight men to split into seven cabins and there were a few couples who did not want to be separated. To make things simple, the best two cabins were reserved for the organisers later we would work out which of Nina, Yasmin or myself would bunk with a man none of us knew. King Kong even sent me pictures of the two new recruits, hoping I would not be so angry with him for bailing on us.

And, that was not all we had to do. Were we really going to go all the way to Papua at such expense and not explore anywhere else while we were there? Because Nina and I didn't have office jobs, we planned to do some travelling around Papua after the trip to Raja Ampat. Yasmin was also going to resign from her job so she could join us for two weeks. Where should we go? We had met a few times to discuss it, but we still had no fixed plan. We were beginning to realise just how huge Papua is and how difficult it is to get around, especially as there was so little information on the internet. So, we decided to just play it by ear when we got there. We had a ticket to Sorong and we could work the rest out later.

On December 26,h we flew out of Jakarta, leaving a note to each of our mothers: "We have gone to Papua, we are spending a week on a liveonboard, then we'll travel for two weeks, we are not sure where... and you won't be able to contact us because there is no signal!".

Preparing for Raja Ampat 2014-01-15T21:57:00+07:00 Rating: 4.5 Diposkan Oleh: Vera