Raja Ampat is considered as the best and the richest in the world for the wealth of its marine bio-diversity. There are thousands of species of fish and other sea creatures that live in the coral reef sites of the islands. They are the natural habitat of a lot of marine animals from the tiny pygmy seahorse to the beautiful sea star and colorful lionfish and diagonal sweetlips. As a tourist guide I organize snorkeling tours to the archipelago for tourists who want to visit small uninhabited and remote islands where not many visitors go.
Snorkeling and recreational freediving can easily be done in Raja Ampat. I can guide solo traveling tourist up to a group of snorkelers who want to swim over pristine corals to see surgeonfish, moorish idol, butterflyfish or crabs that live in the shallow reef flat or deeper reef slopes of Raja Ampat islands. Here is the typical program:
ITINERARY
Activities: snorkeling, hiking, birdwatching, sightseeing tour
Day 1
- I will meet you at the airport or at a hotel in Sorong city.
- I will organize your transfer to Raja Ampat by fast passenger boat.
- We need two hours to reach Waisai harbor. Transfer to homestay (breakfast, lunch, dinner are provided). Food is mostly Indonesian style with rice, fried fish, fruits, vegetables and chilli plus tomato and onion sauce as the main ingredients. Bread, peanut jam, snacks, biscuits and syrups or juice can be bought in supermarkets in Sorong city.
- Take a rest for 1 or 2 hours.
- We can enjoy snorkeling at the house reef at the front waters of the homestay.
- Make sure that you do not step on the corals.
- During the whole trip, plastic and other non-biodegradable wastes must not be thrown to the environment. Just put them into the trash bins.
Day 2
- Early in the morning we could wake up at 04.45 to make preparations for watching Red Bird of Paradise (Paradisaea rubra). We could drink some tea and eat some biscuit first.
- After that at 05.15, we can start walking up the slope to the tree where the paradise birds usually gather to dance. It takes around 1 hour of hiking to reach the birding site. We can enjoy watching the paradise birds until 09.00. When we walk back to the guesthouse, we can stop for a while at the view point on a hill that overlooks the sea and the Kabui bay. We can spend some time there to enjoy the scenery and watch the birds.
- Arriving at the guesthouse, we can enjoy breakfast. After that we can do a tour to enjoy sightseeing tour in the island inside Kabui bay.
- We can also stop at a small island to enjoy snorkeling, beach walking and birding.
Day 3
- We need to wake up at 04.00. By a small boat, we will go to a place where we need to go hiking for watching Wilson's Bird of Paradise (Cicinnurus respublica).
Day 4
We can go further to visit sand banks that are located in the middle of the sea near Kri islands. A snorkeling trip to places like Friwen or Mansuar island or Gam island can be organized. Upon special request, I can organize a trip to Piaynemo for visitors to see the beautiful landscape of the karst islets.Day 5
We still have time to enjoy snorkeling in the morning. After an early lunch we can leave our guesthouse to the harbor of Waisai. There, we will go by fast passenger boat to return to Sorong city.
Day 6
We could do another hiking trip to a hill in Sorong so that we could watch the view of the city and also watch birds. At the end of the day, we will bring you back to your hotel where you will stay for one night. After that, the next day, you could go to Domine Eduard Osok (DEO) airport by car to fly back to your country.
End of the trip.
Please, consider the above itinerary as reference only. It can be modified according to your length of holiday and interest. What you need to bring Clothes: For your trip to this tropical region, t-shirts, shorts, jeans (for traveling in the city), swimming suit, hat. Equipment: Snorkeling gear (mask, snorkel, fins), camera that can be used for underwater such as GoPro or Nikon W300, Super Zoom camera for bird photography such as Nikon P1000, or Canon SX60HS or D-SLR camera with Sigma 150-600 mm sport (optional), head torch, watch, extra baterries and their charger. Medicine: Anti insect lotion, sunblock lotion and any medicine that you need while you are traveling.
How to go to Raja Ampat
It is very easy to go to Raja Ampat. First, fly from your country to Jakarta (the capital of Indonesia). When you have arrived, you could continue to Sorong by regular daily flights served by Garuda, or Batik or Sriwijaya or Lion Air. I could meet you in Sorong and organize your trip to the the islands.
Booking
If you are interested in taking the trip to Raja Ampat and want me to organize your tour through a customized program, you could contact me (Charles Roring) by email to: peace4wp@gmail.com or by whatsapp to: +6281332245180.