The Stuff Legends Are Made Of
Raja Ampat, the stuff legends are made of. A place so remote, so faraway, so pristine we like to refer to it as being “over the rainbow”. A place of untouched coral reefs millions of years old, of hundreds of deserted islands, of virgin forests where prehistoric-looking Cassowaries as tall as men walk at night and the sky is alive with the cries of Sulphur-crested Cockatoos and Birds of Paradise. A 700 hundred plus island archipelago spread in the ocean surrounding the Bird’s Head peninsula in mysterious West Papua, that semi-autonomous, restless, fabled province of Indonesia we used to know by the name of Irian Jaya, a place where WWII Japanese Zero fighter planes quietly rust in the tropical sun and American P-47 Thunderbolt fighter-bombers sleep an endless sleep on the bright white sand, a few meters under the flat surface of an impossibly turquoise sea. A place which fifteen years ago bewitched local legend and Dutch-born Max Ammer, a man with a dream who left his native country following the call of WWII wrecks.

   

Hunting For WWII Relics
And he found many: forgotten, abandoned and undisturbed in the jungle or under the waves, from tanks to airplanes, till he decided he’d found the closest thing to paradise on Earth one man could dream of, and built his home first, and a thatched huts dive resort later, on the island of Kri. Kri was remote, impossibly beautiful, and almost unknown, for a long time. Now Max has also built Sorido, a new upper-market resort consisting of six spectacular bungalows, just a few hundred meters from the original Kri Eco Resort, which still however exudes its irresistibile aura of tropical simplicity. Both give you absolute perfection on Earth, at least to our eyes. You want luxury, aircon, private ensuite bathrooms, Papuan antique works of art, restrained elegance and a very exclusive atmosphere? Then go to Sorido – and be prepared to pay for it. You want simplicity, palm leaves roofs and bamboo walls, huts sitting on stilts above the richest sea in the world, bathrooms by the beach and the camaraderie of a select group of very lucky divers coming from the four corners of the globe? Then go to Kri. One is the perfect five-star sophisticated hideaway, the other nostalgically reminds us of the rustic atmosphere we used to have in Sipadan twenty years ago – but both are simply perfect.

   

Simply Incredible Diving
All this, however beautiful, pales in front of the diving. Diving in Raja Ampat is diving right in the middle of the great vortex of creation – the final frontier, a forgotten world which is nowhere else to be found. Immense walls of fish surround you everywhere, numbering hundreds or thousands of individuals: literally enveloped by living walls of jacks, barracudas, sweetlips, surgeonfishes and fusiliers, how could we concentrate on the four different species of pygmy seahorses found here? Floored by the spectacular wobbegongs lying in ambush on the sand, how could we devote ourselves to the unbelievable macro life found on Raja Ampat’s virgin reefs? There’s Kri home reef, where more different fish species congregate than in any other spot of the globe (marine scientist and book author Gerry Allen counted more than 283 in a single dive here!), and then Manta Point (ever dived with 20+ mantas?), or the exquisite beauty of Mike’s Point (possibly the most beautiful dive spot we have ever seen in our whole life), or the mystery of the Passage, a tight sea channel running and twisting inside the jungle (yes, it’s true!), and even more to be discovered yet. You’ll find raging, exhilarating currents at the coming of the tide, and unbelievably friendly local people, great Papuan dive guides and wild adventure stories to be swapped in the evening, and a billion twinkling stars in a pure unblighted sky above.

   

Travel Tips
How long will this all last? We hope for many years to come yet – Raja Ampat is extremely undeveloped, fresh water is scarce everywhere and supplies are very expensive. Getting there is not easy either – one has to spend a night in Manado and then catch a turboprop twin-engined little plane in the morning to Sorong, and after that it’s two or three more hours by boat to Kri. Malaria is endemic, so take your pills. And let’s face it, the diving is not for everyone. In fact, we’d say it’s only for those who already have seen everything else and dived everywhere else. This time leave the kids home. They would have nothing to look forward to, after having dived Raja Ampat…After having dived over the rainbow.