Winter Vacation in Indonesia

Happy New Year!  I have so many things to tell you now, I just don’t know where to begin.  

The holidays were good, low key and we had a lot of time to explore Seoul.  Seoul is so large and  has so many interesting things to see and do that we will go back often. Our next adventure in Seoul is for our anniversary which is coming up in February.  I made dinner reservations for 2 at the Seoul tower.  The Seoul Tower is famous for it’s revolving dining room.  From it you can see the entire city in a single revolution.  Each reservation is made for 1.5 hours. Because we are a couple we will have special seating near the window, a bottle of champagne and a special anniversary cake that says, “I love you”.  This is especially sweet because our anniversary is on Valentines day.  Thats the future.

Ben and I just returned from a  9 day vacation on a small island resort in Indonesia. The name of the resort is Bunaken (island) Cha Cha.  I made the reservations for this wonderful holiday back in November before Ben was here in Korea.  I was taking a chance making the reservations that far in advance but it was even more of a risk, not really knowing anything about Indonesia, what to expect from the the resort and also the weather during January.  Each day I would look at the weather bug and it always said rain. Rain’s not unusual in the tropics, I’ve heard. (Especially in the rainy season, duh) I kept the faith, wrote a few e mails to the owner inquiring about the weather.  Sure enough, the weather was perfect everyday that we were there.  

We left for the airport on Thursday evening because the plane was scheduled for 10:30 am. Taking the earliest express bus to Incheon put us there at 9:30. That’s cutting it too close.

So we made a reservation to stay in the spa at the airport.  Spas in Korea are generally divided by gender. Men stay on one side and women on the other. The reason for this is that most people enjoy a hot bath before retiring and while Koreans are willing to bear it all to their fellow countrymen or countrywomen, they don’t mix during these sacred occasions.  Bathing is a big event in Korea.  Believe me when I say, they do this very well.  However, the beginning of our first vacation in awhile began with separate bedrooms. ugghh. 

Up the next day and off to Jakarta, Indonesia. This would prove to be an interesting evening as well, and another night in a hotel.  Jakarta is a hub for the rest of the islands and is very busy. While very busy shows productivity, here it merely emphasizes the lack of organization that exists in the airport. 

We arrived, picked up our luggage and finally found the hotel in the airport.  We were pleasantly surprised by the room.  At last, after 5 long months of sleeping on a very firm almost concrete mattress, I found myself sinking into the sheets. ahhh zzzzzzzzz This happened very quickly.

Breakfast was delicious! We ate and made it to our flight to Manado Island, where we found a taxi waiting for us. I’ve never traveled in a car with the steering wheel on the right.  I’d like to say  that the next 45 minutes was relaxing and enjoyable, but it was more like a game of chicken played with motor bikes, pedestrians, and other vehicles on a narrow dirt road all the way to the pier.  I was just happy to have arrived at the pier, and see our boat that was ready to take us to Bunaken Island and to the Bunaken Cha Cha resort.  

After all of this, we were pretty well ready for anything.   Instead we were welcomed by the owners, Raf, Reiko and Chico (the great dane).  There were several other staff members as well. 

We were given a welcome drink a few moments to rest on the patio, and then were shown to our room.  We had been hoping for a bed like we had in the Jakarta hotel, but no cigar. 

The room was lovely though, and was decorated with rugged, island elegance.  We found red hibiscus on the bed and on every surface. It was a very attractive, romantic touch. The bathroom was done in lava rock and natural wood. The shower was set apart and had an open style roof that let in the sunlight for some green plants.  It was delightful!

We took a day off before beginning our sea adventures. We were pretty tired and had been traveling for 2 days already.  We relaxed on the patio, ate good food and found ourselves pretty much alone for 2 whole days, until a family of other guests arrived. After that it seemed a new boat of vacationers arrived everyday until finally there were about 21 guests.  We had representatives from every continent and many countries at dinner every night.  The discussions were always lively, intelligent and fun.  

The second day, Ben and I hit the sea looking for the local reef, Cha Cha 1.  The water was very warm, sometimes like a hot spring was underground. We were impressed, but we knew that there was more and better territory beyond cha cha, and we were so right. 

What we found was an amazing living undersea garden or tropical plants and colorful corals of many species. The fish and wildlife were also as diverse as their habitat and in a range of sizes.  

I guess you could say, it was the very best snorkeling either of us has ever done.  Each excursion just got better!

There was a small village behind the resort that was about a 20-50 minute walk, depending on which direction you went.  The roads were lined with diving resorts in one direction and in the other direction, there were residences, churches and other signs of a community, like a library and a small stand for drinks. When I say the walk was lined with resorts and residences, please don’t think it was like your neighborhood.  Along the way I saw many large indonesian cows, sometimes chained to a tree, sometimes roaming around. There a few pig families running around and roosters followed by hens and chicks, all free roaming around the village.  I’m not sure, but I think that since this Island was a resort island, the families here enjoyed prosperity, as tourism, means work and income for everyone. 

Finally by the 8th day, I was getting tired of the isolation. Life on an island is interesting, beautiful and challenging for awhile, but we’re used to civilization and I was becoming ready to head back.  Remembering the freezing cold temperatures that I left in Korea was not ann incentive to head to back.  We wore our summer clothes all the way back to Korea and changed in the airport.  Believe me walking out into the Korean sunshine was like jumping into the ice cold Atlantic after a warm bath.  Now I’m home, I’ve put all my summer things away and am watching my tan fade everyday, sadly.  I guess you could say there were many bumps along the way, but we had a really good time, the timing was great. We met some interesting people, ate delicious food, had the best service everyday and saw some amazing sea life.  Most of all I was warm, rested and had some time to forget everything that was behind us.  
Enjoy the pictures! Notice they have captions to help you understand where and why.