Indonesia is a fascinating country. Hugging the Equator it stretches across three time zones and has everything an ordinary sun-seeking tourist or an adventurous discoverer may wish for.

From snowy white sandy beaches, palm trees and long drinks on Bali to steaming hot and still unchartered jungle on Kalimantan and West Papua. And everything in between nicely catering for the rest of us…

The country consists of more than 18,000 islands. The distances are enormous, the infrastructure may leave a bit to be desired, and not all regions are quiet and peaceful. Unrest and most disturbances, however, are considered an internal matter between various factions, who would like to see more or less autonomy.

Relaxed Religion
Religion plays an important part in everyday life though most Indonesians are quite relaxed about it. In many regions you’ll find enclaves with minorities and different religious beliefs living peacefully side by side.

One of these enclaves is called Minahasa on North Sulawesi. “Minahasa” or “Minaesa” means “to become one”, and Minahasa is quite representative of the unity the ethnic groups of North Sulawesi constitutes.

One of the main reasons for this unity grew from the need to be able to defend the area from outside dangers – especially pirates. The region is well-off compared to many other Indonesian regions, and most people are interested in a peaceful co-existence.

Decidedly Asian
On 27th September 2001 we boarded a flight from Singapore Airlines in Copenhagen on our way to Manado, the region’s principal city.

The next day on our way from Manado airport to the Tasik Ria Resort we drove through a town that looked decidedly Asian: Lots of traffic, noise and exhaust fumes, apparently unstructured and chaotic. And not very many tourists, it seemed.

Welcome to Tasik Ria
Hence our surprise when we saw Tasik Ria, a really beautiful resort med a large, free form swimming pool, waterfalls, bungalows and – naturally – a built-in dive shop, Eco Divers. And when we discovered that they made ice cubes on mineral water and sprayed against malaria mosquitoes we chilled completely.

A bit about Eco-Divers

Eco Divers opened up shop in April 2001 on the remains of the old Tasik Ria Diving Center. Operational improvements came quickly but they still operate mainly in Bunaken National Marine Park, a reserve consisting of the islands Bunaken, Nain, Siladen, Manado Tua and Montehage.

Like most tourist operators in the area Eco Divers seemed very conscious about and aware of the environment and did much to sway the local fishermen away from dynamite and toxic fishing to more durable ways of doing things.

There’s a world of difference living from day to day occasionally dynamiting a Napoleon wrasse for its lips to a steady income by showing it to loads of well-off divers year in and year out. They were slowly coming round.

The Local Dane
Apart from the owners, Jim and Cary Yanny, the only other foreigner at Eco Divers was Kim Hessel, an old scuba mate from Denmark, who in his own quiet and pleasant way briefed in Danish, German, English and Swedish and kept a leash on all the local dive guides in Bahasa Indonesian. All dive guides were trained Padi Divemasters and safety was definitely maintained at a high level.

Excellent Facilities
Two large 16 m boats worked as perfect dive platforms. Large sun deck, toilet, kitchen and lots of space for both photo and dive gear.

After a day of diving we simply left our gear on the boat. The next morning we found it rinsed and back on the right boat. All we had to do was show up. After roll call we then set out to the Marine Park.

No Touching
Of course, there was no touching corals or fish except in a case of emergency. Eco Divers wouldn’t hesitate to throw a diver in the pool if it turned out that buoyancy was an issue or if a diver went longer than an hour or deeper than max. depth for no valid reason.

Dives lasted 60 minutes which turned out to be quite appropriate. During our nine days of diving we did get to spend more than 24 hours submerged.

The depths of the marine park are quite astounding with some places in Manado Bay exceeding 1,500 m.

But the bio diversity doesn’t come any richer than here. And it doesn’t matter whether we’re talking fishes, corals or sponges. Some 70 different species of coral live here compared to perhaps ten or twelve in the Caribbean and more than 2,500 fishes – that’s almost 70% of all coral reef fishes in the Pacific Ocean.

Nutrient Surroundings
Marine biologists believe that especially the northeast currents are the cause for this high bio diversity. The currents are met by lively counter currents and eddies that trap pelagic larvae and fry.

The great proliferation of hard corals (the architects of the coral reefs) should be one of the keys. Apparently the waters are so full of nutrients that a given coral in Bunaken only needs a year to regenerate as compared to six years in the Red Sea. Visibility was usually about 30-40 m but often “impurities” made it difficult to look far ahead.

Warm Depths
After quite a few dives we logged minimum temperatures on our dive computers of an astounding 30^oC at depths of 25-30 m. According to science such a temperature ought to be a bit too much for hard corals but we very rarely encountered dead or bleached corals. On the contrary, we were usually met by incredible formations and colours.

Critters and Welding Rods
Never before had we seen scorpionfish in so many different sizes and variations. But most impressive were the small and hidden stuff.

Our dive guides were nothing short of brilliant, and they always knew where to find fun and exciting stuff. Equipped with his or her own favourite pointer (table knife, welding rod, wrench, etc.) they effortlessly pointed out tiny shrimps, crabs and odd fish hiding in the strangest of places.

Not least the brilliantly camouflaged cockatoo waspfish, stonefish, scorpionfish, cuttlefish and squids. Most of these believing so strongly in their camouflage that we could quiet easily sneak up on them for a closer look.

We knew that some of our dives might be a bit demanding. Most were wall dives where only a ledge at 35-50 m separated us from the bottom more than 200-1500 m further down. And most dives were drift dives.

Drift Away
Sometimes we drifted slowly along a wall at 35 m, went up to 20 m and the current would take us in the opposite direction. At 10 m we were yet again forced to turn around. But one or two fin kicks kept us in the same place with amble time to study yet another weird underwater creature.

At other times we covered considerable distances, in fact, even the dive boat had trouble finding us again.

Trust the Fish
You can often tell which way the current goes by looking at f.inst. small schooling fish as they usually have their heads turned into the current. But not always...

We had a couple of dives where currents, eddies and vortexes even made the fish so confused that they didn’t know which way to turn. One of our fellow divers, Poul, suddenly found himself in front of our group rather than at the end as he was gently swept past us by an eddy. Very entertaining, indeed.

To the Extreme
Currents are always an integral part of diving in Indonesia and most certainly part of the reason for the great bio diversity.

Our dive briefings always included a bit about the current but usually we didn't know for sure which way to dive until we descended. But on most of our dives we worked with the currents instead of against them (a lost battle anyway). One notable deviation was our dive at Sahaung at Bangka Island.

We had two very exciting trips to Pulau Bangka and the Lembeh Strait, respectively.

The island of Bangka lies at the northernmost tip of Sulawesi in waters with currents so confusing that it required our utmost attention not to be thrown against rocks and corals.

Underwater Garden of Eden
The dive site Sahaung consisted of large rocks and rock formations that made the current turn off in unpredictable directions. But never before had we seen so beautiful gardens of soft corals in all shapes and colours, and the site was virtually littered with different and colourful species of scorpionfish and filter feeders.

The water was fairly cold as the currents came straight from the depths of the Celebes Sea – a measly 27^oC - brrrrrr.

To the Muck Diving Capital
Lembeh Strait is situation on the east coast of the Sulawesi peninsular. Kim of Eco Divers had told us that if God felt – according to local folklore – that one of his underwater creations turned out too ugly he threw it in the Lembeh Strait. And if that wasn’t enough there should be a very good chance to see f.inst. the pygmy seahorse, so off we went.

First over land from Tasik Ria south of Manado to Bitang and then north onboard one of the local narrow wooden boats that looked like it was just about to capsize any moment.

Finally, the Pygmy Seahorse
Our first dive was almost normal though the visibility wasn’t more than 10 m. Benni, our guide, quickly found the fan coral where the pygmy seahorse usually hangs out. He pointed, we looked – and shook our heads. He pointed again, we looked again – and shook our heads.

Then like a magician he produced a magnifying glass from his BCD – and we all nodded. Not only was the pygmy seahorse in colour and structure the spitting image of its preferred fan coral, it was also no bigger than about 1 cm.

This Could be Hell
Like many other places Lembeh Strait was also full of nudibranchs in all the colours of the rainbow. But as the Story of Creation goes we must admit that there was something quite special – almost eerie – about this part of the strait. Even the corals and sponges on our first dive looked odd, horror-like.

Our second dive was simply surreal. We had crossed the strait to the mainland and jumped in the water as we finished suiting up (the boat wasn’t big enough for us to suit up all at once).

When we first peeked into the blue it looked like a normal day in Danish waters: Sand, sand, sand… and about six to seven meters of visibility with lots of fluff in the water.

The Magic of Benni
But then Benni set to work. And we got to see sea urchins that looked like scarlet read neon signs trotting briskly along the bottom, fish with delta-shaped wings – also trotting along, lots of seahorses, scorpionfishes and frogfishes and stuff we didn’t even manage to find in the books afterwards.

To this day our dives in Lembeh Strait are still the ones we talk the most about – after a total of 27. Highly recommended.

The Circus Critter House Reef

Our dive days usually went by with two dives in the Bunaken Marine Park and a third dive on the outer house reef at Tasik Ria, Circus Critter. We did seven dives there and became really fond of the reef.

Circus Critter was situated on a prolonged uprising in the sea bed with a maximum depth of some 20 m but we rarely went deeper than 12 m.

Cuttlefish Encounters
On every dive we had the pleasure of cuttlefish, and during one dive we hovered for almost half an hour watching no less than five cuttlefish in some form of interaction.

Circus Critter had ribbon morays, pipefish, stingrays, sea snakes, turtles, octopus, cuttlefish, lionfish, scorpionfish and loads of reef fish in all shapes and sized.

Porites Coral Spawning
At the end of one of our dives we passed a really large porites hard coral. Suddenly the visibility became rather bad, and the others hurried to the anchor line to finish the dive. Initially we weren’t impressed either until we realized: The coral was spawning.

Apart from a quick notion as to what we were diving in it was a fantastic experience, the cream on the pie – so to speak – to an already terrific dive.

Sundown at the Jetty Bar
After three quite often mind-blowing dives there was no better way to finish off the day than watching the sun go down by the Jetty Bar overlooking Manado Bay. Or to enjoy a cool Bir Bintang at the swim up-bar in Tasik Ria's beautiful free form swimming pool. Isn't diving great!

On longer dive trips we have always tried to fit in days for relaxation in our dive programme, one day off for every three days of diving. So in between visits to the coral reefs we were busy taking in the locals and their countryside.

Sulawesi seems to be at the top what endemic species are concerned – even Borneo and Sumatra fold. F.inst. 62% of Sulawesi’s mammals and 27% of all birds are endemic.

Macaques and Tarsiers
One of our trips went to the rain forest nature reserve Tangkoko-Duasudara. Even the road was an experience – very beautiful nature but a body belt is recommended.

Apart from malaria mosquitos the reserve also houses a tiny tick capable of finding its way to your most sensitive bodyparts to lay eggs.

So we were dressed up almost as mummies in a cloud of insect repellents when we set off with a team of local rangers to search for the indigenous black macaque and the small tarsier, tarsies spectrum. The macaques are easier to spot during twilight hours when they search for food.

We did see something that resembled monkeys jumping from tree top to tree top in the very, very tall fig trees but it was difficult to tell – and impossible to photograph.

A Nocturnal Primate
We avenged ourselves after nightfall on a small tarsier, no more than 10 cm in body length. The tarsier is nocturnal and has very large, very light-sensitive eyes. No sooner had our ranger found one that inadvertently had taken refuge in a small tree, before we quickly surrounded it and set our cameras on auto-flash.

Most likely the poor little bugger is still clinging to its tree, now blind as a bat, wondering what happened. But it sure was, oh, so cute.

Villages of the Highlands
Many villages in the region have specialized in what they do for a living, f.inst. peanut farming or floriculture. In the peanut village of Kawangkoang they had big, smiling peanuts on most of the store fronts and had even erected a statue of a giant peanut in the town square.

The village of Woloan was busy with "knocked down and delivered" wooden houses. Take a stroll down the thoroughfare and have a look at the various models and designs. Point to the house you want and they will dismantle it and put it up again for you whereever you want. Prices ranged from 1,000 to 10,000 US dollars including delivery in the Manado/Bitung area.

Another village, Pulitan, was apparently situated in a place where the clay was of particularly high quality and everybody was busy making pots, urns and vases in all shapes and sizes.

Volcanoes and Markets
We spent a day climbing one of the many active volcanoes, Mount Mahawu, and visit the local market at Tomohon.

Part of the market was dedicated to foods including the infamous dogs and rats. We were a bit surprised when we learned that dogmeat is actually a delicacy only consumed at special occasions such as weddings. And no, it’s not the neighbour’s dog suddenly gone missing but purpose bred ones.

This information didn’t persuade us to try it out though. Neither did the roasted rats leave our mouths watering even though a clever detail is that you can use the rat’s tail as a toothpick after you've finished your meal.

From the logbook

Bunaken Island, Mandolin Point
29th September 2001
Wall dive. Quite a few lobsters. Tiny crabs on the back of sea anemones with clownfish. Black corals and practically every species of fan coral including some really huge ones. At safety stop first a good sized turtle, a white tip reef shark and then four black tips. Visibility hampered a bit by lots of fluff.

Tasik Ria, Circus Critter
3rd October 2001
One fin kick a minute. The fish didn’t seem scared at all but allowed us to get really close. Came upon a cuttlefish and lay still for almost half an hour watching colour changes and what looked like territorial strife (but probably wasn’t). At first we watched a tiny cuttlefish being chased away by a larger one who in turn was chased away by an even larger one until we had five of them chasing each other. Excellent stuff.

Lembeh Strait, Hair Ball II
4th October 2001
Totally surreal dive. Flying gurnards, cockatoo wasps, pygmy seahorses, frogfish, scorpionfish and a whole range of weird stuff I can’t find in any of the books. Bad visibility (7-8 m) and black sandy bottom. Really, really cool :-)

Memories for Life

Bunaken-Manado is quite simply a stroke of genius for divers and doesn’t come higher recommended. A non-diver amongst divers should take heave – unless you consider doing your open water training there.

Tasik Ria is situated some 15 minutes from Manado proper, a city full of contrast and not very many tourists, which is a plus in my book.

Mangroves and Black Sand
North Sulawesi doesn’t have wonderful, bounty-like beaches but rather mangroves or rocky black lava sandy beaches. On the other hand you’ll find a lush and plentiful nature, a smiling and helpful people… and memories to last a lifetime.