Blogs from Sulawesi, Indonesia, Asia - page 23

Päivä on tosiaan ollut erittäin rankka. Torkuttiin kahvilan kulman sohvilla 7.15 asti ja mentiin ostamaan jatkolennot Manado-Surabaya viikon päähän. Heitettiin laukut säilöön ja otettiin pikavisiittiä Singaporeen. Mentiin suoraan brekkarille ulkoilmamarkkinoille. Vanha rakennus, josta sai kaikkea herkkua. Meidän aamupalapöytään päätyi taivaalliset chiliravut ja muutama intialainen roti prata-lätty sekä pari masala dosaa. Kierreltiin vielä Singaporen keskustan nurkkia ja nähtiin muutama uusi paikka. Aivan käsittämättömän kuuma, jopa kuumempi kuin Suomessa(tai no, ehkä samoissa)… 3h jälkeen lähdettiin kentälle ja koneeseen kohti Jakartaa. Lion air on kyllä sellainen kohlausfirma ettei mitään järkeä. Laukut tagitettiin minne sattuu, kukaan ei tiennyt mistä kone lähtee jatkoyhteydellä. Kaikki indonesialaiset pomppii ylös vielä nousukiidon aikana jnejne… Jakartassa syötiin ehkä paskimmat ... read more

Claire: Well the test was a success, we all topped the class! (Thank god). Only 30 coral families to recognise and name in latin tomorrow evening!). I saw a blue spotted sting ray today, and plenty of lionfish. It hasn't stopped raining since lunch, monsoon style, but we managed to catch a few rays after our first lecture this morning, I'm happy to report Ellie is slightly redder than yesterday, oh sorry, I meant brown. Ellie: I'm definitely brown, mum. Despite topping the class, whatever we wrote about sea slugs yesterday was wrong! Two people were stung by jellyfish today - Dean (marine biology student from Essex uni) was had by a Pacific Man o' War, and Tom (who is Tom? Claire knows..) got stung by a Bluebottle - in the face of all places! Lots ... read more

Elly: This was our first full day on Hoga. We’re all taking a reef ecology course with a fearsome American woman who won’t let us loose on our research until we know roughly 40 families of invertebrate, 30 orders of fish, similar numbers of algal species etc. Myself and a couple of others aren’t certified divers yet, so had to snorkel today, but we still saw almost as much as the divers - a moray eel, an enormous plate coral, barracudas, other things… We are all resigned to the fact that we will be permanently wet! Claire: Last night was a bit of a horror movie set! I think most of you have heard now but I couldn’t help but mention George! As we were getting in to our mosquito net boudoirs Ellie happened to ... read more

Claire: With 10mins of my laptops battery life remaining, I'll be brief! We both slept well last night, finally. I think we've almost overcome our jetlag now, it has been 5 days since we left you! (Happy Birthday Greg!). And we're setting off from the hotel in an hour. The first boat should get to BauBau at 5pm, (so roughly a 5 hour boat trip). Then the next boat leaves BauBau at 9pm. Apparently BauBau is incredibly beautiful, so we're allowed to have a wander, and get dinner and things! The overnight ferry provides plastic mattresses on the floor, there will be at least 60 of us heading to the island today, so we'll just have to grab an area and hold on to it all night! The luggage is going to be in the hold ... read more

Claire: So we've finally found out the true extent to this epic journey... We will arrive on Friday after lunch, having left Kendari tomorrow by boat to BauBau, then after a 3 hour stop off we will catch a 9pm OVERNIGHT ferry to the main Wakotobi Island, followed by a further boat to Hoga which *should* arrive at midday on Friday. Ellie: eeeeeeeeek! haha Claire: Thanks for that Ellie... Anyway, the last night in Jakarta was eventful with a movie night of Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey followed by horror murder films on HBO. (Why read Austen when the ITV series are so good??) Our masseuses came round at 6 and it was a very oily experience, but definitely worth it! We had a relatively nice and a late meal in the hotel and saw some ... read more