1.Indonesia take 2 for 2025 (July). Living in the jungle!

Another school holiday, another trip to Indonesia. It’s becoming a bit of a pattern but not one I mind at all! I was all set up with well over 10kg of ‘incase my bag gets lost’ supplies crammed into my handluggage and a new, fancy gadget bag-tag so I could track my luggage on its journey across the world. There’s absolutely no protection against it getting lost or left behind in transit but at least I would be able to see where it was lost - and I could even make it beep to alert anyone around that it was lost. Again, not a great help really but another layer of protection. I knew my bag had made it with me to Saudi Arabia for our connection, which was a relief and really quite exciting.

From my plane in Jakarta, I seethed, not that quietly, behind the Asians who consider those moving pavement walkways to be enough movement so they all stand still in their big family groups and transverse very slowly along the miles from plane to customs. It did give me more time to admire the excellent fire extinguisher displays Jakarta has spent time creating. I didn’t even get a chance to check my bag tag though as by the time I’d stomped crossly along next to static Asians on the moving walkways, made it though customs and bought my visa, which I will be making the full 30 days’ use of, my bag was already riding its way round the carousel!

A brief stay on the airport hotel, navigating the sky train to change terminals (not sure if the Simpsons just didn’t make it out to Jakarta as no one seemed to know it ought to be called a monorail, complete with song) and I made it to my next flight over to the north eastern part of Sulawesi. A drive across the coast and slightly bumpy boat ride and I arrived at Nomad Divers on Bangka Island where I stay for 4 nights.

The resort is set on a beach hidden in amongst the mangroves in front of the jungle. There are two dogs who live a the resort, one is called Mickey, who’s a girl and the other is called Dick ‘because he really is’ according to the manager! He’s quite the guard dog and has taken to barking constantly at anyone as the walk the length of the beach on the path from the village on one side to the super-posh resort on the other side. He fortunately learns instantly people who are staying here so he doesn’t bark at them. They can’t get him to stop doing it so they just shout at him to stop being a dick and apologise to passers by for the dick dog! He’s not aggressive and often doesn’t even bother to get up from the hole he’s dug in the sand in the shade, just barks constantly for the entire time someone is traversing the beach. Perhaps it’s an alternate marketing ploy to encourage you to pick this resort for a stay and be welcomed by Dick! There’s plenty of other entertainment, including the man who came to trim the palm trees and detach any lose coconuts before they fell on unsuspecting passers by (….and killed them …. A significant of people each year are killed or injured by falling coconuts - far more than by sharks!). The man who dealt with the mega death trees, scaled them with his bare feet and macheted lower branches and coconuts to the ground! I watched while drinking my morning cup of tea. Alternative drinks include water (gross), Coke Zero or just a can of sweat. I suppose it saves your body the effort of turning the fluids into sweat during the hot and sticky days!

My bungalow is a ‘jungle bungalow’, reached by walking up through the jungle pathway and up a little hill. The electricity is provided by a generator which is turned on 10am - 10pm. The walk to and from my room triggers millions of unseen scuttlings as various creatures hide away. I think (or hope!) that closer to the beach, it’s crabs and further up the hill, it’s lizards. It’s impossible to get photos of them; I have tried! In the evening who ever is here is invited to play dice games down in the restaurant after dinner. The game involves 6 dice and some fairly complex rules and requires significant speedy mental arithmetic to work out scores and probability for which dice to rethrow. I thought about explaining that probability was all but removed out of the primary maths curriculum back in 2014 so I’m a bit de skilled - but I don’t want to admit to working ‘in maths’ as then they’d make me do the scoring which would be high pressure. And I’d probably cheat to ensure I won!! We all get sent off to bed prior to the generator turn off so you’re safely through the lit pathway and tucked up in bed prior to absolute darkness and listening to the sounds of the jungle overnight!

Living in the jungle, there are all kinds of different creatures including loud crickets & insects at night, scuttling undergrowth dwellers and any number of screeching and calling birds. There is some kind of really noisy animal who I think lives in the roof of my bungalow. He busily seems to be constructing from about 2am until dawn. I was convinced I’d find an extension or whole new dwelling built next door by morning as he makes so much noise dragging stuff about but there’s never any evidence in the morning! There are apparently some small monkeys who will scream at night when they find a snake! Fortunately, I’ve not encountered either One evening I got taken to see some cool beasties …. Tiny little claws poking out the rocks and that glow under ultra-violet light. There were loads of them and looked amazing but then I was told they are scorpions and was considerably less impressed and more concerned by their sheer quantity. I asked if they stung and was told I didn’t need to worry - not sure if that’s because it’s an inconsequential sting or whether you die fairly instantly so not worth the worry. I decided not to seek further clarification!

The diving is in water that is lovely and clear with thankfully fairly flat sea (compared to the high winds, swell and fairly rough crossing in the tiny boat that I did to get to the island for arrival!). There have been an array of little pretties, some cool scorpion and frog fish,  nudibranchs - including a solar power nudi that contains organisms that can power up from the sunlight! - and lovely puffers! Once or twice, we also went muck diving….

Otny (my guide): do you like muck diving?

Me: not really

Otny: have you been Lembeh?

Me: no becuase it’s famous for muck diving and I don’t really like that

Otny: so you don’t want to dive over the sand

Me: no

Otny: ok, well only do a little bit of it then

Me: right …..

I think Otny quite likes muck diving. Many people do … the idea is that you can find weird and wonderful things in amongst the sand. To me, it’s just mostly desolate and not in any way spectacular. We saw a couple of tiny shrimps, a crab on a leaf and a little shell crawling about with its tentacle feeler out. I mostly swam along behind Otn and had a good think about what dinner might be that day (it turned out to be red rice, fish, veggies and cassava chips!). I don’t get muck diving - it’s like combing through baron scrub land when you could visit the botanic garden next door. Fortunately, the vast majority of our diving was in the gardens of the sea and around the reefs. In case anyone is interested, the first few photos are the absolute spectacle of a muck dive …. Then it’s the lovely puffers, the bevy of nudis, including a gathering or what I think might have been their parliament - then everything else. Also, the float raft the dive crew have made - a big wedge of polystyrene washed up on the beach some time ago so they’ve wrapped it all up and turned it into a raft to float everything too and from the dive boat on. Classically Indonesian smart strategies and use of resources to make their lives easier. The first day I watched them, I wondered if I was going to asked to sit on the raft and floated out their too but sadly, I had to expend the energy to paddle out past the mangroves myself!