The Bloody handprint adventure

  I should have known that the trip to and from Raja Ampat would be an adventure when it began with a Singapore airlines flight where I was sequestered before take off for being on a terror suspect list because of my name, (and no, Jennifer O'Neil doesn't sound like a terrorist name to me either).  Although I felt there was no hope of ever returning to the United States after the airline had asked to hold my passport and gave me every search in the book, things seemed to be looking up when the stewardess brought us some hot Krispy Kreme doughnuts.  Landing in Bali without any luggage wasn't really a problem.  I was assured that it was a simple mistake and had nothing to do with me being on a Singapore Airlines no fly list.  After I got to the Ritz Carlton in Jimbaren Bay, I decided that it wasn't necessary to have luggage or return to the US, I would simply become the Eloise of the Pacific and live my life in that hotel.  The traditional music playing while you feast on an incredible breakfast and watch the coy swimming under your feet was almost to serene to be true.  But all good things must come to an end and so we moved on to Makassar, our overnight stop on the way to Raja Ampat. 

 We land in Makassar during a torrential rain fall, monsoon flooding type rain fall.  Running for the taxi line included the usual expression of distress on the part of all the drivers that my dad and I each carry two large suitcases with all of our camera equipment.  So after the fruit basket turn over it takes to put us and all the other guests that were going on the liveaboard boat and had met us in Bali, into taxis, dad and I jump into the oldest minivan on earth.  It is quite hot and humid with the rain, even by Alabama standards, so dad reaches up to turn the air to full power.  A mistake you only make once.  I do not pretend to understand all the inner workings of the mini van, but I know it's not normal that huge chunks of rock, dirt and ash blasted out of the AC onto us like we were being sandblasted!  This sparked a lively discussion with our driver who assured us that the AC would work on a lower setting.  He also mentioned that this kind of rain reminded him of tsunami weather.  His words, "maybe tsunami tomorrow, you know tsunami?"  Oh yes, I assured him as he deposited us at our hotel on the water, we know tsunami.  

I was told many times that we were staying at the most palatial hotel in Makassar.  For one night, how bad could it be?  So we're not at the Ritz anymore, but this place had other charms.  Upon arrival we were greeted by Christmas decorations and a pygmy man (a culture found in the Papua area) dressed up as a mini Santa Claus.  I never expected to see santa in a Muslim country even during the Christmas holidays.  The Muslim influence was heard in the prayer call that was so loud from my room I decided to pull back the curtain and check out the view.  The picture above is of the bloody hand print that was on the other side of the curtain.  If you read the caption on it, I'm guessing someone was praying in the wrong direction and it came with a brutal punishment.  The arrow pointing to Mecca was pointing in the opposite direction of the hand print, not a mistake made twice apparently.  If you are reading this and thinking that one night of this kind of entertainment could not possibly be enough, don't worry our flights were canceled on the way home and we spent Christmas day in Makassar at our favorite hotel.  Same basic experience but I asked for the executive suite, same room, no bloody hand print, and at an up charge of $40USD.  Be sure to ask for that if you're in the area!

Rice fields

The aerial photo is from our flight into Makassar.  The torrential rains had lifted just long enough to catch a glimpse of the rice fields.  Our taxi driver was quick to point out that it looked like tsunami weather as he drove us to our hotel on the waterfront.   The other two photos are from the terraced rice fields in Bali.  All of the rice farming looked like extremely hard work.  

Bali Temples

From the temples in Bali.  I think the one with his hands together looks a little bit like doctor evil?

Bilikiki Video

Skull Caves

The Skull Caves in PNG

These photos show the entrance and the skulls collected by a single village in PNG.  While in Milne Bay, we had the opportunity to see this cave from the cannibalistic times.  The story goes, that when World War II ended and the allies had control of PNG, it became out of fashion for the villagers to keep their skulls mounted on the outside of their huts as trophies, particularly since some of those trophies looked new and Japanese.  But not wanting to completely abandon their cultural ways, the villagers took all of their skulls and placed them in a near by cave.  Some historians say that cannibalism in this part of the world died out before or during the war, but you'll have to judge for yourself if those skulls all look over 60 years old.  Our guide to the skull caves was the only one smart enough to bring his flashlight.  Yes, our group of four divers who had hauled video lights and flashlights all the way from the states, failed to bring them on an excursion to a cave!  The guide's flashlight was probably manufactured around the same time that some of these skulls, became skulls.  All this to say, we went in to a dark cave that did not brighten up with the light from our solitary 1 candle watt light.  As the flash from my camera went off you could hear everyone gasp.  I don't think any of us expected there to be so many skulls.  You wouldn't have wanted to stop by this village unannounced in the 1930's!  

Solomon Islands Village visit

The video is a short clip of a hym that these villagers had learned from missionaries that came to the Solomons

The Solomons and PNG during WWII

It amazes me that a place as pristine and peaceful as the Solomon Islands has ever had war within a hundred miles of it's shores, but these photos show the amazing devastation that World War II had on the area.  PNG also played a pivotal role in the war with the Japanese coveting their minerals and the allies in need of their landing bases.  These photos are from a small place in PNG that houses some WW II artifacts, tragically for sale,  so I don't think it can be called a museum but it's amazing to see the area then and now.  These photos cover both the Solomon Islands and PNG.

The Nautilus story or How to tell the difference between a great hammerhead and a regular hammerhead.

While in PNG, we stayed at Tawali Resort.  The guides there trapped Nautilus shells for us one night and kept them in a bucket so that on the morning dive we could photograph or play with them and then let them float back to the deep.  Being such a small group, we each got our own shell.  I had decided to shoot mine with my 60mm lens and get some close-ups.  During the previous couple of days we had been seeing, from the surface only, this incredible solid white giant manta ray.  An elusive albino manta ray that I had been dying to photograph, but which never came by on our dives.  So in we get with our shells.  My dad was my dive buddy, but we had split up a bit so that he could video his shell, and I could photograph mine.   I hear him banging furiously on his tank and I know that he must have seen something incredible.  My first thought is of course that the albino manta ray is about to parade in front of my 60mm lens.  I looked up from the camera to see an enormous shark tail passing a couple feet from my head.  From the look of the tail, and growing up on a coast where bull sharks are prevalent, I  immediately thought - holy s*^#  that's the biggest bull shark that I've ever seen.  Then I signal this to my dad under water and he shakes his head and signals, no it's a hammerhead.  Just as I'm thinking, he must be wrong, this 12-14' hammerhead with a body as big around as horse, comes right by my camera again.  I guess it's only fitting that it came so close to me since I had been asking since we left the Maldives, where we saw several sizable hammerheads, how does one know the difference between a great hammerhead and a regular hammerhead?  I'm sure that there are many scientific distinctions between the two, but to put it in my terms the ones that make you stop and say holy S*^#! , are the great hammerheads, anything else is just a regular shark.  So you might be wondering why there's only a picture of a bucket of shells with this story.  You might as well know, I have no cool ability to get it together and take some radically new shot of a 12-14 foot animal with my 60mm lens, I just froze thinking, "is that thing real?!"  So that we never forget how amazing nature is and how much is in the ocean that we don't see,  I should tell you there were 10 of us on that dive with in very close proximity, but only 3 of us saw that magnificent shark! 

My most recent and exciting news is that our boat has finally made it to Bonaire!  The Bulado (flying fish) has been officially christened.  We took a vacation from our vacation, packed up the boat with some friends and headed to Curacao.  We had some pretty crazy seas on our crossing but we managed to get some dives in on Curacao and Klien Curacao.  We dove a place called the lost anchor and another spot on their East Coast of Curacao, and we dove the leeward side of Klien Curacao.  The dives included a beautiful nurse shark in a cave and some of the most spectacular staghorn corals that I've ever seen.  We like the warm shower, the microwave popcorn, the built in camera rinse tanks, and the added shade - check out the link to Newton Boats, they are great!  So if you're in Bonaire and see some people with crazy pink tanks be sure to say hello.  This is truly cocktail diving at it's best!