Off the grid on the Togean Islands

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Could you survive with no mobile, no internet, no hot water and limited electricity? These are some of the 'compromises' you have to make on a visit to the Togeans. We did it for a week and we've had a wonderful time.

Kadidiri island is one of the more developed Togean islands, and is home to four 'resorts'. Kadidiri Paradise, our home for a week, was chosen simply because I'd fallen in love with the pictures of their water bungalows. With a little creative accounting we'd convinced ourselves we could afford it. Since the price included all meals our only additional costs would be for diving and Bintang.

I think most people associate water bungalows with the Maldives and instantly have an image of some super glamorous five star resort. This was a little different. I think rustic would be a polite way to describe our room, which we had to share with a family of ants, the odd cockroach and a massive bathroom spider (which we saw only once and then convinced ourselves we'd imagined after too many Bintang!). We also had a friendly bat that liked to fly around our balcony at sunset, but he/she was a more welcome guest than the others!

But the bugs were a small price to pay for the view - two sides of the room were complete glass so you had beautiful views of the sea from the sofa and the bed. The outside space was perfect with a massive, shady deck complete with hammock and steps down to the ocean. Ok, so the steps were a little rotten and the bottom one had fallen off which made getting out of the water a little tricky at low tide, but it all added to the charm.

Our days in 'Paradise' were spent relaxing on our deck, snorkelling and diving. The water was sublime; crystal clear and unbelievably warm - getting into the water was like getting into a warm bath. Our dive computers clocked 31 degrees - warmer than the water you wash your clothes in!

We did more cocktail diving at local dive sites a mere ten minutes away by speedboat. We could spend the morning relaxing on our deck, in the shade and then wander over to the dive shop around 1.30 and be diving by 2pm. Perfect for lazy divers adverse to early mornings!

We also did a couple of longer dive trips. We dived a Bomber from World War Two that had to ditch in the ocean after an engine fire. We've done very little wreck diving so this was a real highlight and the fact it was a plane was pretty unique. It was still largely in tact and you could clearly see the guns and cockpit seats. We also did an exploratory dive to a site that our dive master had never dived before and spent most of the hour watching black tip reef sharks swimming about 10 meters below us.

On one of our non diving days we walked through the jungle to a neighbouring beach. The walk was a little more challenging than we'd expected as the ground was muddy and slippy and we had no idea where we were going. After 20 minutes of turning right at every fork we caught a glimpse of the beach from above, through the palm trees. It was simply beautiful and totally deserted. We were both baking hot but couldn't decide whether it was more refreshing to jump in the very warm water or sit in the shade. In the end we combined both!

Our time at Kadidiri Paradise was very sociable. All meals are served at set times and everyone dines together at large tables. We've met so many lovely, funny people and not just the usual backpacker crowd. Some (crazy) people come here on a two week holiday from Europe. Exchanging stories about your journey to the Togeans is a great ice breaker and even after a week we'd not found any two routes the same! The award for the worst journey went to a couple from Denmark who had taken a 22 hour car journey, during which time they'd had a flat tyre, had to pull over for four hours because of a broken down lorry and been told by their driver to 'get down, jungle people'! It made our six hour car journey seem like a breeze in comparison!

We thought we might be the oldest guests, but we've met plenty of people in their fifties and sixties, some on short holidays others at the start of a one year trip. In our whole time we met only one other British person. Most people were from Europe and towards the end of our stay we had two small groups of Chinese people arrive.

Our evenings usually started by watching the sunset from either the bar or our deck. Our resort was the only place on the island that served cocktails (result!) the other resorts served only beer, so we had a few groups visiting from the other resorts. It was good to chat to them and compare notes on resorts and hear more tales of horrendous journeys. After dinner we would stay in the restaurant drinking with other guests, move outside to the beach for a bonfire or to listen to the more talented guests and the locals playing the guitar. One evening we walked outside and heard the sound of a bongo drum to then discover someone was actually playing a coconut!

Each night we would fall asleep to the sound of the waves lapping the shore. The only noise being the odd boat that came past. In the morning we would wake to views of the sun rising over the hills. It was pure bliss.

Our bill was pretty big by the time we came to leave and we'd planned to pay by credit card because we simply did not have enough cash. It turned out the only place the credit card machine worked was near Barracuda beach, so we had to jump in the speed boat to get there. Of course, our usual credit card wouldn't work - it needed an authorisation code. That was going to be a challenge given we had no mobile signal. Lucky we have a number of back up credit cards and the second one we tried worked! With our bill paid we could not delay our departure any more.

Being off the grid has been such a lovely experience. We've had time to really relax and focus on the here and now, rather than thinking about what comes next and what is going on in the real world. I was quite reluctant to leave, especially given we had the dreaded car journey to do in reverse. But it is time to move on and we can't complain as we are trading one beautiful island for another. Our final stop in Indonesia is Bunaken island where we are expecting to bump into some of the friends we've made in Paradise.



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