Raja Ampat and Yenkoranu Homestay

artistly shaped light

I got up at 4am for my 5am pickup, having checked carefully to make sure the flight was not cancelled or changed, and making sure I cleared out the safe (at least I learn from my mistakes). At check-in people were shipping tons of baggage (boxes or giant shopping bags filled with stuff wrapped in plastic wrap). See pic of the wrap place, which was getting consistent business. Though the airport is fairly small, someone had an eye for design as they had cool lights over this staircase (see pic). One 90 minute flight later I land, get my checked daypack, and tell the waiting horde of taxi drivers that I want a bike not a car. They leave me alone and kindly point out the bike area. No bikes seem to be available so I call a Grab and fervently hope I have chosen the right ferry terminal as my destination in the app. Luckily it doesn’t matter because he knows where to go.

Luggae wrapping place where the term luggage is applied very loosely

fellow adventurers Heidi and Steve

I get onto the empty ferry, trying to stay out of the way of workers loading on boxes of food, drinks,and other supplies bound for Waisai. Upstairs I find an American couple from Tucson, Steve and Heidi. They are a recently retired adventuresome couple who learned to dive 14 months ago and now have about 100 dives each! They are staying on Kri as well, just a mile up the beach from me. I find out from them that there is no 9am ferry and this ferry departs at 2pm. Sadly I also find out there is no 9am ferry on the day I leave so I must come back to Sorong the day before and lose one of my days in Raja Ampat to make my flight to Bali on the 16th. The ferry fills about halfway with passengers and the ride over is very smooth despite being in the open ocean. The ride takes about 2 hours, but since we had been hanging out for 5 hours before that it didn't seem long at all.

ferry snacks just 35 cents each

They sell cup of noodles on the boats, which smell really good but I’m not that hungry. However, when the vendor walks around calling out manga! My ears perk up and I flag him down. He has sealed bags of mango slices for 5,000 idr (35 cents). I get two and also a bag of roasted peanuts and a bag that looks like quail eggs. All items are 35 cents. The small eggs are hard boiled and quite good. I hope that somewhere someone raises quail and collects their eggs each morning and that these are not wild eggs that would have become baby quails. When we arrive at the dock, we are met and we walk a couple hundred yards to an office where we pay the park fee of 300k rupees ($21) and then we part ways as they get into their homestays boat and I get into mine.

Raja Ampat sign

the small boat dock to Raja Ampat from Waisai

on the boat to raja ampat

The water is glassy and smooth and my dive guide Ray spots a manta ray jumping out of the water, which seems to bode well for my dives. The ride is about an hour though we stop at the liveaboard boat so Ray can visit his girlfriend for a few minutes! The resort has a nice large open common area with a wraparound porch over the water. This is where the meals are served and where I spent more of my afternoons and evenings. I can’t imagine how many people there must be when it is not Covid times. There are roughly 11 round tables inside that each seat 4 easily. It also has a long walkway over the water to a jetty where you can get in and out of the water. You can see fish right off the porch and off the walkway. The whole area is gorgeous.

beautiful glassy water

liveabaord where Ray stopped

heidi and steve on their boat

nice toilet in beach front cement room

They gave me a room facing the ocean but it was a cement cabin and I had read the wood cabins are better, which is the one I paid for and requested. While they went to get keys for the wood rooms, I took a look at the cement one and it actually seemed fine except the toilet had no seat on it (however, it looked brand new and quite nice otherwise) and the water tub was right in front of the toilet so I would have to straddle it every time I wanted to pee. The lady who does the cleaning (and also the cooking…she does it all), opened the first wooden room but the toilet was old and did not flush. Then she opened the second wood cabin and the toilet looked great but did not have the water hooked up. The third time was the charm as the toilet was pretty good and flushed. In retrospect, I think the beachfront ones were equally nice, as there were older cement ones across from me, which is what people were advising against. But I was happy having a toilet seat and slightly larger bathroom. I’m the first guest in two years so I had the pick of the rooms!

lady cleaning my room

I went out to the dock and watched the sunset while the lady cleaned the room. It was beautiful as expected in a tropical paradise! I think they must have cleaned for days before I came! The whole place including the wooden walkways were all swept clean.

First sunset at Yenkoranu Homestay

Bathroom at yenkorano

A short while later my room was ready. Raja Ampat makes Bunaken look modern. Rustic and basic are the words mostly used to describe the accommodations. Can you spot what is missing from the bathroom? If you guessed a sink, you would be correct. That was my biggest adjustment, as no sink is pretty much true for all the homestays on Kri (unless you want to pay $300/night). Instead there is a giant plastic tub that you can fill with water and wash from that. This place is nicer in that they also include a shower head attachment for the hose and a place to hang it, which is what I used. There was even an air conditioner in the room but I didn’t end up using it. The floors all have nice new looking tile and the bed is made of nice wood (apparently just having a bed as opposed to a mattress on the floor is luxury in Kri). The wood walls are made of nicely finished wood though there are a few gaps here and there, no more than ¼ inch mostlly 1/8 inch. There are also two windows where I can let air in to cool the place down at night.

nice clean tiles

My room at yenkorano homestay

stuff drying

Winning the dog over with pets

They have two dogs, one old and friendly and a younger one who growled and barked at me. I finally won him over after dinner at the table where his hope of food overcame his mistrust of me. I didn’t feed him but once I started scratching his neck and ears he decided he liked me. At least until tomorrow. We’ll see. There is no wifi but cell phone service is good until about midnight when it goes out or perhaps because I’m in my room further from the shore? This place is also more posh in that it has electricity not just 6pm to 12 but all night long, which is good because I need the fan on me all night. I found out later that they run the generator just while I’m there. Normally they just do without though they must run it once in awhile to charge their phones if nothing else.

Dog pleading for food

Dog crashed out on the lounger with a pack of smokes

Welcome sign

It is incredible to have the whole resort open just for me. Four people happy to work around whatever I want, what to eat, making sure I have a change of linens if needed, getting me a ride to a nearby resort to visit Steve and Heidi, and I have a private dive boat and guide. I’m really happy I chose this place, especially since they all need the work after 2 years of no income. And after a day and a half I’m adjusting to no sink. I just use the shower head as the faucet and the nicely tiled bathroom floor is the sink basin. Getting a little wet is fine as it dries off pretty quick in the heat. Yenkoranu is one of the main resorts on the island of Kri, made popular about 8 years ago by Lonely Planet. I’m sure they are eagerly awaiting a return to normal, which will hopefully happen soon for them as you can now enter Indonesia without quarantine and with a visa on arrival ($38) as opposed to the $250 business visa that Heidi and Steve paid for.

dining area

Picture of the main area

dive shop and walkway to jetty'

sunset with hammock

Day 5 breakfast mango and crepe pancakes

Some of the reviews complained about the food, but it’s fabulous. Yes, the breakfast is basic, a fruit beither banana or papaya or mango and a carb (thick crepes, donuts, rolls), but I’m not a big breakfast person. Lunch and dinner usually had rice, a veggie, a meat/fish, and a fruit. The first day they asked if I ate fish and I said I did but not that much so they adjusted and did fish every other day. When I showed a preference for eggplant and requested more of it (I first confirmed that it is inexpensive and easy to get), I got it every day! Yum! She made enough for 5 people but there was only me and Ray eating so I hope the family (her husband nicknamed “Ice” manages the diving and her daughter Ocha lives there with them) eats the rest. They don’t use napkins here but she found a brand new looking dishtowel I could use. They really went out of their way to make me happy. I’m lucky to be here before all the crowds return.

Day 3 dinner

last lunch

Day 4 dinner eggplant

emperor angelfish 5

One day I went snorkeling and the reef in front is excellent! Not quite as amazing as Two Fish, but still very good. I had more run ins with jellyfish as I did in the Philippines so that may have dampened my experience a bit. I did find out that fish happily eat dead jellyfish as there were a couple of times I was so surrounded that I smacked a whole bunch with my gopro to clear a path. Then I had a few fish following me waiting for me to kill more jellyfish for them. Near the jetty were two of the best sightings for me. These large strange looking fish will bob up for air then continue on. They are super thin but from the side quite large and I found out later they are a type of bat fish, and I must say the name suits them. I think they look more like boomerangs though.

parrotfish 2

batfish at jetty

lionfish 1 back

Also near the jetty, I happened upon two lionfish. How did I know they are lion fish when I have never seen them before? They are the weirdest things you ever saw swimming in the ocean. They look like pinatas floating around but they actually do have fins in there to propel them. I had heard they may be dangerous and when the first one squared off and looked me in the eye, I was a bit concerned that he might charge me, but he turned and floated/swam away. They aren’t fast like most fish, more like little helicopters in the water. The second one seemed even more fluffed out than the first. It didn’t see me as I swam around to get a better look at it. It was just floating suspended in the water, occasionally rotating for awhile then finally it spotted me, observed for a bit, then decided to leave and drifted off.

lionfish 1 front

lionfish 2 back

I’m alarmed that 86 degrees with 76% humidity and cloud cover felt cool yesterday morning. It must be the sun because 83 with 80% humidity and sunny felt super hot today.

hanging on the hammock

very close

Did I mention that they toss scraps into the ocean for the fish and reef sharks? I asked if I could snorkel with them so they got a bunch of fish heads for me from the village and I went at the steps from the porch. The sharks were startled when I slid in, clearly not food for them and larger than they were so they swam away, but came back for the food, giving me a wide berth never coming very close though one did swim between the dock and me once either to check me out or because it was just the path it was on and it forgot I was there. There were 3 or possibly 4 reef sharks and a bunch of fish. Luckily my gopro picked up all the action because the sharks were way too fast to see what they were doing. The fish would be crowding in fighting for the food, then the fish would scatter swimming away from the food so you know the shark was coming in. It would grab the food, then turn neatly and swim away. It was a bit cloudy with all the debris kicked up from all the fish, but I still got quite a show!

three sharks

open mouth 2

clear water shot

gecko that climbed onto my hand

WARNING: When staying somewhere tropical and the generator runs out of fuel so you are in the dark working on your computer, DO NOT take a drink from you mug of water. An alarmed gecko may jump out of it just as you are about to take a sip. At least I assume it was a gecko. It was dark and I never actually saw it, just experienced the splash of something exiting my mug very quickly and feeling something whiz by my face. Another time I felt the dog hit my leg with its tail, but there was no dog around. A gecko/lizard had jumped onto my leg! I tried to get a pcicture but it jumped to my other leg and then disappeared. I happened again later and I did get a shot of it.

This little guy jumped onto my leg

gecko eating banana

These geckos or lizards are strange! Normally they hunt bugs but these critters have a sweet tooth. The would frequent the papaya or bananas and stick their tiny tongues out to lick them. Obviously from my first sentence you know they like to enter mugs as well, especially ones that had tea with sugar in them. I saw four of them once on my old tea mug completely ignoring the nice juicy ants and instead getting sips of tea. Cute, but a lot less useful than I hoped for but I’m perfectly happy with cute and useless.

gecko eating papaya

geckos drinking tea and ignoring ants