Sep 27
The year is 2010. It is a pleasant morning in the big town of Manado in Indonesia. The traffic is moving at a steady pace, men & women are crowding the Microlet (local transport van) interchange, and we are trying to haggle a ride to the ferry terminal in the four words of Bahasa we’ve learnt in the one day we’ve been here. We must be on our way to the little known island of Bunaken today. Read more
Dec 13
My first memory of Bunaken is that of sitting on the roof of a speedboat, riding the waves of a turquoise blue sea, and gazing at the most beautiful sky I’ve ever seen.
why Bunaken: We chose to travel to North Sulawesi in Indonesia to get past the touristy temptation of Bintan & Bali, and were pleasantly greeted by a world yet to be discovered and commercialized. Our base was Manado, a city-town in North Sulawesi, and the closest airport to Bunaken – which lay a boat journey away, untouched.
getting there: The public boat from Manado, used mostly by locals and extremely cheap, dropped us at the jetty at Bunaken Island. We were immediately greeted by the locals, who we first thought to be touts but soon realized were genuinely helpful and extremely friendly. That warmth of the people saved us the disappointment of realizing that this part of the island was more of a wet swamp than a beach.
Panorama Resort, where we intended to stay, was fortunately on the other side, and we managed to arrange scooter (two-wheeler) rides with the locals – a bone-chilling experience that took us through dirt roads and made us feel so unsure of where we were headed! Panorama’s side of the island turned out to be a pleasant surprise after the initial impressions we formed of Bunaken!
the island: The view from the balcony of our chalet was picture-perfect – beyond the white sand was a deep blue sea and in the distance, a volcano partially covered in mist, with clouds descending and rising from its peak every now and then. We spent a good deal of our stay just lying on the hammock in the balcony, watching nature as its loveliest!
Sunset at Bunaken
Like me, everyone who chances upon this beauty must regard herself as an explorer and discoverer, and a very lucky one at that!
must do: Snorkeling in the sea surrounding Bunaken was a stunning underwater experience with fish & corals that people come to study from far off places – and that amateurs like me can only gawk at in wonder! Add to that the most picturesque sunset seen from the open seas, a night sky sprinkled with stars, and some locally brewed alcohol – Cerang Onsari (which I won’t necessarily recommend any more than a sip, simply because you must try everything!)
Bunaken is such an undiscovered gem – that’s perhaps what makes it so beautiful, so memorable and so worth a visit.
I quit my corporate job in the summer of 2011 and decided to travel for a living. I've lived with the White Thai tribe in a remote Vietnamese village, hitch-hiked along Turkey's Black Sea coast, swum with black-tip sharks on Malaysia's east coast, spent a night in the highest inhabited village of the Himalayas, and fallen in love with so many people and places, that I've lost count.
My travel stories have appeared in National Geographic Traveller Magazine, The Times of India, The Hindu and Lonely Planet, among others. I've been featured as an intrepid woman traveller in the New Woman Magazine and as a volunteer travel enthusiast in DNA, and interviewed on All India Radio.
In January 2012, I co-founded India Untravelled, with an aim to introduce travel enthusiasts to responsible travel experiences in rural India.
Contact me at shivyanath@gmail.com or on Twitter @shivya.
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