Indonesia - North Sulawesi

19 – 20 January 2010 Sometime early November last year, we got an email from Dr. Lida Pet-Soede, WWF Coral Triangle Programme Leader to discuss an idea of having a photo exhibition of our expedition in Manila during the first WWF Coral Triangle Business Summit in January 2010. We knew this was going to be […]

December 27 With hardly any sleep for both of us, by 5:30am with still very faint light in the horizon, our boat crew caught a yellowfin tuna. I woke Yogi who by this time was an angry bear. We had been waiting for this – for our boat crew to catch a big tuna. So […]

December 26 The crew on our ship went fishing by 9:30am. As in all of them! We just got here! They tethered our boat to the rakit and the other smaller outrigger pump boats already in the area tied to us. Now it was a game of waiting. And endless waiting. I swear, Yogi & […]

December 25 N0 30.734 E123 03.761 – Gorontalo Harbour What?! Working on Christmas? Sadly, yes.  But we had our fill of pre-Christmas in the 3 days we spent with friends in Kuala Lumpur for our visa run. Every two months we have to leave Indonesia and come back to continue our shoot. And on Dec […]

24 October 2009 We spent a most interesting day with Simone Gerritsen and her kids from her school Kehidupan Anda or “Your Life.” The goal of Project “Kehidupan Anda” is to improve the education of the children in the village Tongkeina and the surrounding villages. We visited the school, which is a stone’s throw away […]

23 October 2009 N1 45.136 E124 31.782 – Rakit This day was a walk down memory lane. Eight years ago, when we were finalizing our shoot for our book Sulu Sulawesi Seas for WWF, we spent five midnights to mornings with the funae fishermen of Bunaken Island. Their hard work started when they bought live […]

20 – 24 October 2009 N1 35.560 E124 46.199 – Bunaken Island N1 34.532 E124 48.592 – Thalassa Dive Center Off we went with the tireless Simone Gerritsen of Thalassa Dive Center in Manado to explore  Bunaken and the surrounding islands as well as the under-appreciated mainland Manado. We knew to expect the steep wall […]

18 October 2009 N1 27.604 E124 45.671 – Murex Dve Resort About 15 years ago, Yogi dove and dove and dove for two straight months with Murex Dive Resort and Liveaboard in North Sulawesi. During this period, he contracted dengue fever and got a special visit from Murex’s very owner, the gentle, soft-spoken Dr. Batuna. […]

15 – 17 October 2009 N0 50.831 E124 42.464 A relatively unknown dive destination not far from Lembeh is slowly getting its share of the limelight. Buyat Bay is about five hours from Manado located south of Lembeh. It used to be a gold mining operation that shut down recently. Now the mining facility’s skeleton […]

If you happen to be in Singapore on October 27 with nothing to do at 7 pm, join us at the Botanical Gardens, as we shall be presenting our expedition so far through a 40-minute slideshow. Here’s WWF Singapore’s leaflet-invitation to announce the event!