4 December 2004 - SFO -> Taipei -> Bali

0854 - Taipei Airport - One of my favorite things in the world is seeing a sunrise from the air. Each time, it surprises me; I don't actively look for it, but somehow I manage to glance out the window at the right time -- the ultimate in serendipity, for me. What is the same across them all is a fiery, dark red sliver extending across the horizon, a rainbowed gradient melting upward into the sky, and over all of it, a saturated expanse of the deepest midnight blue imaginable. What is also consistent is that as brightness arrives, it's hard to remember what that dark saturation was like -- a dream I can't quite recall.

And then, there's the lovely green fluorescence of Taiwan. The compact fluorescence used at CKS Airport here in Taipei isn't as bad as it could be, but it still isn't pleasing. One year ago (I'm one day earlier this year) I sat here in the same seat with my computer plugged into the same outlet, waiting for the same transfer to Bali.

steve drogin, shooting kids

We found out two days ago that our transfer to Sorong through Manado was no longer possible, so we're now transiting to Sorong with a night in Ujung Pandang. Extended travel with many transfers is standard for me now, but I'm starting to hate it. Usually I have just finished trying to finish a series of projects and might literally have stopped working on one or more of them as I rush out the door. This time, I left town after trying to get some work done on my place in Oakland. I had informal, friendly support from most of our building's board and architecture committee (and trying to figure out what to do in our building is not so easy), but one of the board's members left me with a rude e-mail that said, "just who do you think you are?" (how cliché!) -- a lovely question to receive on one's way out. I told him that I "thought" that I was a unit owner wanting to do improvements on my place. And, really -- I'm just trying to replace my water heater, which doesn't really affect anyone else except for a select few who would go without water for a few hours (in the middle of the day with plenty of notice).

dinner at ryoshi in sanur, bali

I was thinking that I need to study Buddhism to get rid of my chronic case of monkey mind.

Monkey mind, go away! ... please?

Evening - After arriving in Bali I gave Robert Delfs a call and took a cab over to his place in Sanur. He has recently taken a new job with the Nature Conservancy and will be working over the next six months to establish a self-sustaining national park at Komodo. We had a nice Japanese meal at Ryoshi before I returned to my hotel room.

5 December 2004 - Bali -> Makassar

makassar harbor & pinisi ships

2130 - Makassar is the capitol of South Sulawesi. Not far from here is the place where all of the traditional "Pinisi" schooners are built -- up to 200 at a time, our guide tells us. As usual, the locals here have been very friendly. Everyone keeps asking us where we are going, and when I reply "Rajah Ampat," they all sort of stare blankly. Our guide was confused as well, and when he finally realized what I was trying to say, he clarified, "Ahhh. Kepulauan Rajah Ampat!" He told me that "pulau" means one island, and "kepulauan" means a group of islands.

At the Bali airport, a videographer named Mike Tripp came up to me and introduced himself, saying that he had seen my work. I love that the underwater photo/video community is so small. :) We also saw Michael Aw there.

We took the Garuda Airlines flight from Bali to Makassar, and then had lunch at a local seafood restaurant named Lae Lae Restaurant on JL Datumuseng. It was really authentic and was packed full of local Indonesians eating all sorts of grilled fish, including the species Canos canos ("bandeng" in Indonesian and "bolu" in local Buginese). We ate two different species of fish and veggies (some sort of tamarind soup thing, a second, strangely bland soup, and "hollow heart vegetable" (I only know the Chinese name for it)). I think we were the only non-Indonesian clientele.

makassar waterfall

After lunch we drove to the old 17th-century harbor called Paotere, where a lot of Buginese Pinisi schooners are docked, before heading off to Bantimurung Cascade, a picnic area with a waterfall and many limestone caves (including a 10m cave behind the waterfall itself). The cascade area was packed full of local people bathing and eating. We were told that not many tourists frequent the cascade anymore, and indeeed we were probably the only non-locals present. The cascade was beautiful, but slightly tainted by trash strewn about everywhere, and by 15-year old kids smoking (also everywhere).

So far everything has gone smoothly, even though our route from Bali to Sorong was changed only three days ago.

6 December 2004 - Makassar -> Sorong

larry smith with steve and hiro drogin

Steve Drogin has an uncanny ability to make deals; I was expecting to pay exorbitant excess luggage fees, but he has managed to negotiate our way to only token excess luggage charges from the various local airlines we've flown on so far. Eman (our guide in Makassar) picked us up in the morning and took us to the airport after we ate a quick breakfast in the hotel's restaurant, which is located on the deck of a large boat. Edi and Hausi were waiting for us at the Sorong airport (the one located on a separate island). They collected our luggage (normally a chaotic process in Sorong), and shuttled us on a zodiac to the Pindito, which was waiting just offshore. Food is good on board, and we have plenty of space because we are the only passengers. :)

Just before leaving the harbor, we took a zodiac out to see Larry Smith, a well-known personality in this area of the world. The Adventure Komodo catamaran he was on is about as different from the Pindito as is possible: modern, metal, carpeted, with a gourmet German chef and kitchen (while the Pindito is wooden, warm, cozy-while-spacious, with home-cooked Indonesian meals). I enjoyed meeting Larry; when talking to him I felt like he might bust out into hearty laughter at any moment, and his twinkling eyes are proof that he enjoys life to its fullest.

28 December 2004 - The Trip Home

Isolated resorts like Papua Diving usually require long transfers by boat. In some cases I've had to sit for extended periods on shelter-less boats in the hot sun while being sprayed by salt water and/or rain, but Papua Diving uses boats with an enclosed cabin. The trip to Sorong is about an hour and a half in good weather, and getting from Sorong to Bali requires two local flights with manual luggage transfers in between. For an underwater photographer, that means two additional rounds of negotiation for overweight baggage. Luckily, I was traveling with Steve Drogin, who is absolutely the best I've seen at that sort of negotiation: in Ujung Padang, he even managed to get a Garuda Airlines representative to accompany us through the entire transfer process! Most impressive.

wajag at dusk

We arrived in Bali during a rain storm, and the bright lights at the tip of the airplane wings illuminated blurred horizontal lines of water and a vapor trail left by a corner of one of the flaps. It rained the whole night, and in the morning I walked downstairs to breakfast and observed people dressed in tropical vacation attire being blown around by the wind. In the last three weeks the hotel has errected barricades around its entrance because of travel warnings announced by the Australia and U.S. governments, and gaudy red, pink, and green Christmas decorations are everywhere, complete with a big santa on a sleigh and fake snow -- a horrible clash with the rest of the hotel (and also a strange thing in a Muslim country). One of the hotel staff confided in me that he had in fact never touched snow, but that he had heard there was snow in Papua (which has a huge mountain on it).

The television has been showing non-stop coverage of the 8.9-magnitude earthquake near Surabaya that unleashed tsunamis on the entire area. It's so terrible, I don't even know what to write.