It's a three hour flight to Manado across the South China Sea and Borneo to go diving in the Celebes Sea. The dive sites in this area are ranked as some of the top in the world...woohooo!
Jex and I drifting along a wall
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| Lionfish- showing off |
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| Stonefish- don't want to step on this guy |
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| Cuttlefish imitating stag coral |
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| Brittlestar wrapped around soft coral |
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| Clark's Anemone fish (clownfish) so protective of their anemone that they'll nip at you |
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| Whitemouth moray...not very aggressive but intimidating looking |
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| Scorpionfish have poisonous spines but if you carefully approach and tickle them under the chin they quite like it |
Kida and Jex were initially intimidated by the
backwards roll into the ocean and then quickly
became pros
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| The walls were covered in soft and hard corals |
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| These triggerfish were so prolific that divers refer to some divesites as 'fish soup' |
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| Family photo in front of a giant clam... more family than clam! |
The 'little things' were so detailed and alien looking that we would often spend minutes just staring at one spot or watching something move, disappear, contract or glow
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| On the roof of the boat, between dives, Kida taught the dive guides German in exchange for Indonesian. |
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| The boat crew and dive guides were enamored with the little, talkative blond girl but were not sure what to do with the white giant. |
Our hotel had a gorgeous pool and friendly service but it was built 20 years ago and the pool seems to be the only area that was maintained. Everything else was a bit threadbare and partially operational but it was a perfect dive hotel
We saw lots of fishing boats while out diving and I loved this one that appeared to have a sail made of old plastic sacks sewn together. The fisherman always had a friendly wave or smile.
We saw many green sea turtles but this was the only one with accompanying sharksuckers... and a Kida too!
