can't complain

from my instagram feed. my life in Labuan Bajo. can't complain, it was good.

manta photo credit: Ayu Ginanjar Syukur

69 years of freedom

for this year Independence Day, Ranny and I (as we are a MantaWatch alumni), celebrate it the truly MantaWatch way: with style! every place is a photo op: up on the boat after we finished our first dive, even in Karang Makassar dive site where there are currents. whatever we do to get an 'Independence Day' picture. and thankfully i had the perfect one! thanks to Fabi i got legen... wait for it... dary (as Barney used to say it) photo! opening the Indonesian flag underwater with a manta in the background. nothing gets better than that if you ask me ;) thanks to friends from Dive Komodo for the awesome dive day!

how was your Independence Day celebration?

June 8th means...

World Ocean Day! and this year, i was lucky enough to participate in Dive Around The World in Komodo! we displayed this banner in Karang Makassar a.k.a Manta Point with friends from Dive Komodo. too bad we didn't see any manta. but all in all, June 8 was such a great day and the event went successfully, both in Komodo and all other dive sites around the world. plus, i got closer to Dive Komodo crew, and found a new friend :)

snorkeling with the king

the best day of my internship. period. to swim so close with those amazing creatures. my heart almost stopped. take me with you please..

cold Arch

5 mm wetsuit, 21 degree water, dive site nobody knows, deep dive, the greatest dive experience ever! i got it all in The Arch, Komodo National Park. my dive guide said only a few people have dived here so i kinda feel exclusive ;p despite the (very) cold water and terrible headache after, i really enjoy this dive. too bad i only got to dive here once. the most fun part was when we pass a little cave. i felt so adventurous! haha

Castle Rock

one of my favorite dive spot in Komodo National Park. it got huge rocks that almost looks like a ship wreck, but it was actually a rock. that's why this dive site called Castle Rock. the rocks are as big as a castle! it was a really cool spot

ekspedisi perdana

 dulu gw pernah posting tentang Pulau Biawak. tapi dulu gw kesini with the purpose of having fun. sekarang sedikit beda. OSEANIK ngadain the first expedition ever: COELOSERIS! so happy akhirnya kita bisa bikin ekspedisi setelah beberapa bulan ngerencanain. yang belum tau letak Pulau Biawak, pulau ini terletak di utara Indramayu. sekitar 4 jam lah ya dari sana kalo ombaknya ga kenceng dan cuaca lagi mendukung. kalo kayak kemaren mah gw balik aja ke Indramayu makan waktu 6 jam! jadi lah gw nahan pipis 2 jam. 

dulu kalo mau mandi di pulau ini harus di sumurnya langsung karena kamar mandinya unbearable banget. tapi sekarang udah lumayan lah ya buat dipake. gw aja alhamdulillah bisa buang air besar hampir tiap hari disana hehe (itu berarti membuktikan kamar mandinya udh bagu kan?) dan emang lagi ada pembangunan sih disana. jadi kamar mandinya mo diperbanyak, rumahnya juga lagi dibangun biar kalo ada banyak orang yang mo dateng bisa ketampung di pulau ini. soalnya menurut gw pulau ini banyak banget potensi wisatanya. sayangnya masih kurang pembangunannya aja. semoga aja 2 atau 3 tahun lagi nih pulau udah bisa sebagus Pulau Hoga ;)

dragon and decompression

this week there are two highlight of my internship with MantaWatch. first of all, the fact that i couldn't dive for a day! well this is because i spent too much time in the deep (if i'm not wrong, it think it's around 25-27 m). i did realize that there was something wrong with my dive computer because it showed that i have to come up (ascending time) to shallow water no more than 3 m. but because Andy and Ichsan looked fine, so i thought maybe it is fine. that was my first mistake. after i surface, the computer started beeping and showing error sign. and i thought maybe the error would go away itself. that was my second mistake. so the following day i went diving again, and it still showing error. so i asked Andy why, and he told me that i shouldn't dive anymore until the computer stop showing error, and he told me that i won't get a decompression sickness (fiuh!), only a higher risk to get one. so i have to sit on the boat for a day. 

but that day turned up pretty great when Andy told me that whether we want to switch boat from Divine Diving boat to DiveKomodo boat because they are going to Rinca Island to see the dragon! of course i said yes immediately! i have been waiting for that moment. and that was my second highlight of this week, to finally see the dragon!

first of everything great

 the them for this week is obviously experiencing first things, which i will explain it to you one by one.

first, i had my first live-aboard experience for four days. MantaWatch arranged a four days manta safari. we went with a small group of amazing people. the boat was very nice, even though at my third day in it i felt a little seasick. i had my own cabin, and my favorite part was the food! the food was always nicely prepared and so tasty, it was always take the hunger away after diving.

second, and this was the most memorable of all, my very first ever night dive! at first when they asked me if i wanted to go, i felt hesitant. because i always have anxiety every time before i dive (i don't know why and i still couldn't get rid of it). but thankfully i said yes, and i had a great time during that night dive although most of the time i'm always thinking: 'don't get lost, Dita. try to look over everybody around you.'

third, still about my first diving experience, my first deep dive! the water was so cold and even though i was wearing 5 mm wet suit, i still feel cold. but i love the dive site. it's called the arch. as i was explained by the dive master on the boat, it has a chair like contour with may reef fishes and corals. at first they didn't tell me how deep we're going to dive, so when i looked at my dive computer, i was surprised that we went until 34 m! but it wasn't so scary because i was mesmerized by how there are so many fishes, and of course, the highlight of that dive is when we passed to a little cave. that felt amazing and i wish the cave were longer and wider so it could be like experiencing a little bit of cave diving ;p

fourth, and i think this was the most challenging of all, my first English presentation about mantas. it was pretty hard for me to present something with indonesian language, i couldn't imagine how it goes. but to my surprise, and for the helpful advise from Andy and Laura, i did pretty well (well at least for me it did).

so to wrap things up, i had an amazing weekend, a lot of things for y head to wrap into, but in a good way though. so how's your week? did you experience first things like i did?

just ordinary days

september has been really fun for me. first i 'celebrated' my 21st birthday on a boat in the middle of the sea between Indramayu and Biawak island, and it only gets better: right now i'm in Labuan Bajo, NTT, doing an internship with MantaWatch and supported by the Guy's Trust Foundation. both of them are based in UK. and as you can see by the name of the organization, yes, they are specialized in manta rays. and yes, i will be (well hopefully) diving with mantas a lot. from the second i applied for this internship i knew that i would be having a blast. no kidding. my first day with them, we spend a night in Bali and i got the chance to go to a shark sanctuary in Serangan Island, and actually swam with them! never i my teenage life that i thought i would ever swam with a shark! well i know they're only reef sharks, but hey, shark's a shark.

of course the excitement didn't end there. by the time i got to Labuan Bajo, i went straight into the water after a day break exploring the town and settling in. the first dive that i did here was to refresh some underwater techniques such as mask clearing and regulator recovery and just to be comfortable in the water. second dive that i did was the following day, the same spot which is in Bidadari Island. but this second dive is to know how well we are to take a picture underwater (of course i got my own camera, lend by MantaWatch) and to experiment and to get familiar with the camere we're using.

my third and fourth dive were probably the most exciting dive i've ever done because i saw 4 mantas in total with one that was really huge and swimming just a few feet from me! if only i could swim away with it, i probably would and turn myself to a mermaid. but that wasn't just the reason though. i encountered some animals that i've never seen before such as cuttlefish and leaf scorpion fish. last but not least, and may i say, the cherry on top, was the drift diving. i'm not a fan of strong underwater current, but after i just let the current take me, i started to feel more relaxed.

by the way, if you're wondering about the 'we' i mentioned above, that's because for the next four weeks i'm going to be accompanied by Andy and Laura (MantaWatch staff) and my fellow intern, Ichsan who happens to be my classmate from marine science.

pengibaran bendera

merasa bangga bisa mengibarkan bendera UNPAD di bawah laut :D

first REAL attemp

yep! in these pictures are me. (believe me that it's not another person just cause you couldn't see my face ;p) this s my first attempt to do a real Line Intersept Transect (LIT). LIT is one of a method to collect coral reefs percentage. and i think i did pretty well. my bouyancy (again) is getting better. even though i fell into a blank for a second hehe (the lifeforms i mean)

 

and believe me, it won't be my last time diving in Pulau Seribu :)

my certificate!

basic diver

finally.. i'm a basic diver!! yay! and i already got my certificate last night. although i didn't get the highest score, i'm still proud of myself because i'm getting better in my bouyancy. haha! although the underwater view wasn't so mesmerizing, but i love the drift dive (getting carried away by the current). last night my instructor told me that we couldn't stop here because Indonesia need us and there's only 10% of Indonesian diver! so shocked and so proud because that means that 10% is including me ;) so fellow Indonesian, let's explore our underwater world because being underwater is like being in a sci-fi movie. believe me. besides, isn't it such a waste that we have this gorgeous underwater that other people from foreign country would kill to dive here but we as Indonesian didn't have even a curiosity to?
so that's it from me. happy diving :D

almost basic diver

well.. few things i want to tell you guys form my trip to Pelabuhan Ratu last weekend for my basic diver license! i was so stoked until now :D

there, i developed a silly and i think a short (very short) crush. but i won't tell you who that is ;) moving on to the stories. it was fun, all of my friends (3 of us are seniors, and the rest of them are my juniors) and surprisingly, they are really fun to be with. i never felt any awkward moment. i felt i became closer to them which is good. the more friends the merrier.
on saturday, we spent more than 6 hours on a small boat! we dive for four times (which is actually kinda awesome), but not really awesome on the boat thing. i felt really sick and i throw up for four times (which is the same with the amount of the dive haha!) even though the view underwater wasn't as good as in Wakatobi (of course!) but i actually enjoyed it very much. because it was a new experience for me. the water was murky, the tide is crazy, we were drifted here and there, so it was challenging and i was scared a few times. so yes, it was really exciting for me. and i was so pleased with myself not being panicked with those situation. aand.. the proudest moment was when i finally get a hold of my bouyancy! yay! right now i just have to wait for my certificate.

by the way, digging the OCTOPUS house. inspiration for my future house ;)

heaven below!

Photos Courtesy of IAS

emang siih.. disini ga keliatan bagusnya bawah laut Wakatobi. tapi bagi all you divers out there, underwater Wakatobi tuh must visit deh. foto2 diatas diambil pas gw diving di Pulau Hoga, sebelahnya Pulau Kaledupa. disini kontur terumbu karangnya wall. jadi lumayan enak buat ngatur buoyancy. hehe,
enak lah diving disini. ke kiri bisa ngeliat wall terumbu karang dengan berbagai macam habitatnya, liat ke kanan liat schooling fish. wohooo!