Central Sulawesi
Tanjung Karang
Comfortable and clean stilt bungalow (see price list), with a spacious private verandah, Western toilet and Indonesian bak mandi, in an unbeatable location overlooking the dive-resort’s pristine coral reefs; wifi included.
Click below for an interactive road map of the Prince John Dive Resort in Tanjung Karang, which we would highly recommend, and for directions:Relaxing at the Prince John Dive Resort +6245771710 which boasts a perfect beach (cleaned up and raked daily) with supreme snorkelling and diving, being pampered by the most attentive and helpful service team (many thanks to Evi, Arnati, Firah, Ahso, Ari and all the others) and talking shop (facilitated by ice-cold Bintangs for INR 35,000.- per 0.62-litre bottle) about international travelling, scubadiving and u/w photography with the other travellers, mostly enthusiastic snorkellers and experienced scuba divers with top-notch equipment.
Flagging down one of the ubiquitous ojeks (motorcycle riders who take one to three pillion passengers for a bargainable price; in our case: INR 3,000.- per person for the one-way ride from Tanjung Karang to Donggala’s market) and exploring the nearby untouristy country town Donggala, an administrative centre under the Dutch which was briefly the most important town and port in Central Sulawesi, where today the locals still greet the odd orang putih with their friendliest smile and a smashing “Hello Misteeer!”
Meeting Dutch yottie and circumnavigator Piet and his Swedish crew Johannes from SY “Sabbatical”, who spent a few days at anchor right in front of the dive resort and used the resort’s amenities (there is a protected anchorage for the cruising sailor at S 00° 38.83' E 119° 44.40', with a soft, safe and secure dinghy landing), listening to their yarn about the Pacific crossing and taking a trip down memory lane to our own eight years as 24/7 liveaboards on our 43-foot steel ketch SY “Kamu II” between 2001 CE and 2008 CE.
DM Konni: Scubadiving (i) the incredibly pristine house reef of the Prince John Dive Resort +6245771710, a fantastic u/w wonderland consisting of huge fan corals, massive black corals, beautiful gorgonians, colourful sponges and impressive soft and hard corals, and (ii) the resort’s nearby top dive sites (my favourite spots: the 35-m deep Green Wall with its wide range of fish species, the beautiful Natural, a regular feeding ground for dugongs, and the 100 m long and 20 m wide Anchor Reef with its outstanding coral growth); later on exploring (iii) the conical sea mount of Pasi Pome, (iv) enjoying superb diving at both Batu Suya Wall and Enu Wall and (v) “discovering”, again and again, the wreck of a wooden fishing boat at only 20 m depth, right in-front of the dive resort and only a convenient shore dive away; many thanks to passionate PADI IDC Staff Instructor Alex and to his team of experienced dive guides Nasrun, Basir, Gunawan and Amin (their motto: “A good dive is a dive that fills you with happiness.”) for your wonderful and professional camaraderie.
DM Konni: Indulging in a collective nitrogen narcosis, together with my ever reliable, all-male u/w buddies and experienced deep-sea divers Alex, Jörg, Andi and Nasrun, going down together to a depth of 50 plus metres (using stages) and exploring the nearby, well-preserved and exciting wreck of the 90-m long freighter “Gili Raja” which was torpedoed and sunk during the konfrontasi in 1958 CE.
DM Konni: Visiting an enormous “underwater zoo” in the vicinity of Prince John Dive Resort +6245771710, which ranges from (tiny) pygmy seahorses (Hippocampus bargibanti) to (big) seacows (Dugong dugon), and having close encounters with blacktip reef sharks (Carcharhinus melanopterus), with giant morays (Gymnothorax javanicus) and with my biggest ever giant grouper (Epinephelus lanceolatus).
DM Konni: Teaming up with the professionals and tapping into the vast knowledge and international experience of prominent German u/w photographers and textbook authors Dieter Möbus and Jörg Lucinski, who came especially to the Prince John Dive Resort +6245771710 for its pristine coral reefs and abundant marine life; vielen Dank for being such great dive buddies, ganz richtig, jawohl!
Celebrating Idul Fitri aka Lebaran, the end of the Islamic fasting month Ramadan (delayed for 24 hours) and a time of mutual forgiveness, with undisclosed quantities of Christian, guaranteed non-halal Cap Tikus (literally "rat brand", c. 35 % alc./vol., best served over ice, INR 30,000.- or US$ 3.50 per litre, skilfully and lovingly distilled from Minahasan saguer, a quaffable fermented sago wine from Manado, home-delivered in unmarked plastic bags by nameless suppliers from nearby Donggala), and with hundreds of less Christian, littering domestic tourists who came for their holidays to the Coral Peninsula thus turning a 51-week long secluded beach paradise into a weeklong party beach of noisy humanity: Selamat Hari Raya Idul Fitri 1432 H!
Click below for a summary of this year's travels
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