Walea 2006, the Wonder

A tale of an emotion

For my fifth time I was about to leave for Walea, Alessia would have been with me and in the days immediately before I was thinking: how will it be this time? Will it feel like reliving something already experienced and in some ways the same? Will I in a certain sense be disappointed?

Nothing could be more wrong and false! As in all the previous times, Walea knew how to surprise me this time too, letting me enter its world without asking anything in return, making me feel part of what I was experiencing, as if I had always been there. This is Walea, and this is the atmosphere you breathe at the village that Simona, Luca and Lele run with great balance, ability and respect for what they found and what surrounds them.

We leave Rome for Singapore, after the first flight that saw us take off from Venice airport. I have always thought that a vacation with a journey as long as this must be experienced from the beginning, without the frenzy of arriving as soon as possible, otherwise you ruin a part of it that instead has many positive aspects that can be found and observed in the places we come into contact with during the journey itself, but the prerequisite is calm.

Before leaving, I had made a special request through the tour operator, that is, to have the vegetarian menu (it's a service that Singapore Airlines makes available to customers) and once we took off with the 777 a very kind hostess immediately comes to verify the accuracy of her information.

The flight proceeds quietly and between a film and a nap we arrive at Singapore Changi on time.

The airport is beautiful as always, many interesting things to see, many services (including a hotel with rooms by the hour, massages, etc.), but the thing I like to do most is go up to the smokers' terrace (even though I'm not one, Alessia is instead), where there's the sunflower garden, and in the nearby non-smoking area breathe for the first time the air of the East....it's a sensation that envelops me, transmits the climate of the place and begins to make me feel....at home.

We set off again. This time the destination is Manado. We had already sent the luggage from Venice, so it wasn't a problem and in my pocket I already had the tickets for this flight, since in Rome (but you can also do it in the other departure airports from Europe) I had made both the ones for Singapore and the ones for Manado itself. This is possible because Silk Air, which provides the service to Manado, is owned by Singapore Airlines.

On this flight (again here for the same reasons already mentioned they provide me with the vegetarian lunch) as all previous times I sleep like a log, so I don't notice it and we have already arrived.

In Manado this time, compared to the others, the matter is different: we no longer stop to sleep, but the last legendary flight with Air Merpati with destination Luwuk is connecting, so you gain a night at Walea. I'm curious to see if staying up will be more tiring or if the early arrival will be rewarding.

We take care of the paperwork quickly (besides us there are another 6 people with the same destination), also because there's a person from Walea Diving Resort who takes care of paying the excess baggage and who helps us with any bureaucratic problems.

We set off a little late, anyway after about an hour and fifteen we land in Luwuk, it's about seventeen hundred local time (six hours ahead compared to us during the daylight saving time period).

Ram is waiting for us, we set off by car for Pagimana, and I must say that doing the trip at sunset is a different emotion, the colors change, the shapes change, and also the life in the small villages encountered along the way...all very evocative and interesting. At a certain point my attention is captured by some writing on a wall where I read GATUSO. I ask Ram, who tells me that the national team's victory at the football World Cup (one of the idols was Gattuso, which they write and pronounce with a single t) was celebrated by a lot of people who poured into the streets with the Italian flag; moreover, a group of Italians leaving the island was acclaimed and accompanied for a long stretch of road...incredible...

We arrive at the port of Pagimana around nineteen fifteen, the boat is waiting for us for the last leg that will take us to the island. This is also the last point where those who want can use their cell phone and then....done! For me not having cell phone rings for fifteen days is truly rewarding. (on the island you phone via satellite or use email always via satellite).

We set off. Everyone settles inside the boat which has two 200-horsepower engines each...fast, I instead stay outside, standing and here the first strong emotion suddenly hits me....the sky. The sky seems drawn, millions, billions of stars all crowded together to form the Milky Way (where indeed there are stars in.......bunches), they are visible in all directions, not only upward, but also looking at the horizon.

What a spectacle! And then the wake, the wake of the boat is luminous, with larger glimmers now and then, it doesn't seem to glide on the water, but to rub at the contact between iron and cement. I think about it for a moment and finally realize that it's the plankton that is excited by the propellers of the engines and the hull of the boat, I will never forget it!

Finally I glimpse the lights of the village, those of the Rumah Makan (which serves as lunch and dinner room plus reception area), of the Sunset Bar and, for the first time, of the new SPA, which is located slightly off to the right compared to the central body. The effect is undoubtedly spectacular, very soft lights but which highlight the shapes of the structures. I'm particularly struck by seeing from the water the white drapes that wrap the rooms dedicated to the massages of the SPA....suspended above the water at 5 meters of height....

We are about to disembark, Simona and Lele come to welcome us (Luca will arrive a few days later) plus other Indonesian guys whom I now know well like Haian, Musli, and Ippin...it's already a celebration, and for me it's a bit like coming home!

First of all we are assigned the Cottages (ours is 13) and when we arrive at the threshold with Simona explaining the latest news, I can't help but be struck by the new furnishings, by the care for details and then by the new bathrooms that have been completely redone and covered with truly beautiful mosaics...I find myself thinking...we are on an island practically out of this world, wild, with a virgin forest behind us, fifteen thousand kilometers from Italy, with only sand and sea just outside the Cottage...and we have available such refined and original quality that leaves you breathless...if the beginning is like this...

We go to dinner and here the real party begins! Yes because at Walea you really eat well, the only risk is putting on a few pounds, bread made at home every day, as well as pasta (when it's served it's always al dente), the fish caught in the morning by the local fishermen, the crêpes, the ice cream and the many dishes that are a perfect mix between Asian and Italian cuisine.

We go to sleep tired from the journey but truly happy: we're already here and tomorrow morning we'll be able to enjoy the day from the start: yes, it was worth staying up!

Tale of an emotion

The first few days fly by with 2 dives a day, where I fill my eyes with a reef that in my humble opinion has few equals in the world. I particularly remember (it was the first time I did it because it was recently discovered), the dive at Lolosi called by Sonny Magic Rock, a triumph of tube-organ sponges more than 2 meters tall, barrel sponges, alcyonarians of different colors, hard corals of the acropora genus, and then...a series of gorgonians to die for with tons of crinoids (feather stars) attached at the ends, they looked like so many Christmas trees, all surrounded by clouds of fish swirling around, ball anemones of different colors and an incredible water transparency that let the sun's rays penetrate to form spears of light.

After the dives?Yes tea with freshly made cookies, yes, sunbathing calmly lying on the pier or at the Sunset, or again on the loungers in front of the Cottage but...but the big new thing this time is the SPA!

After such a "heavy" day what's better than...a dip in the mega jacuzzi tub, (more than 5 meters long, all covered in mosaic, a masterpiece) located....right above the sea (the SPA is built on stilts)with the sunset in your face....hard to believe it's true. Buuut, it doesn't end here, because then who would take away a nice Indonesian massage (my favorite, but the others are also truly superb)with aloe essence, we are truly in paradise...

So the days try to escape me, to slip away from under my nose, too many things that draw my attention, my emotions, first of all...the scents, the scents are something that grips me inside: frangipani, coconut, those of the sea and the forest, I recognize them perfectly one by one, and then the colors, those of the dives are almost....suffocating, but also the terrestrial ones, the hibiscus, the bougainvillea and then again parrots, white-headed eagles etc.

The risk is very strong, that of not seizing the moment, the famous "carpe diem", the fleeting moment described in the film of the same name. No, I won't let myself be fooled by my primary senses and I go deeper, I imprint within me what I am in that moment and what makes me be like this: the emotions..... and I don't let them vanish, evaporate, but I imprint them in my heart, only this way can one fully understand that....we are alive.

And then, and then what else to tell, the excursions to Dondola, a superb deserted island with incredible dives, so beautiful that despite it being a Full Day we returned 2 times within 5 days.

And Alessia, who before coming to Walea had never put on a mask, and who did her first dive there, so involved and enthusiastic was she about what she saw underwater.

And again "the point", the point (terminal part of the island) and truly a magical place, where you find the stilt houses of some local fishermen placed on a long strip of white sand, with the sea on both sides. Here you find in some periods of the year (like now) Papasini, a former Gipsy Sea who lives with his family guarding the coconut palms he cultivates. But the point is extraordinary also and above all for the sea, a lagoon with crystal-clear water at thirty-two degrees where two edges of sea meet, thus creating little waves in opposite directions, the effect is a kind of natural water therapy...

Among the things that will remain imprinted on me this time more than the others is the dinner we had by candlelight at the Sunset bar. A table above the sea (the Sunset is on overwater stilts) set for four (me, Alessia, Diane, and Davide): lobster and king prawns served with a bottle of vintage Berlucchi, light music in the background, and as a roof....a sky of stars...

I have omitted the description of other dives with the most varied encounters, from the stunning macro subjects (three Spanish dancers at night with the symbiotic emperor shrimp)like the Pigmy sea Horse that is found only at Walea, or the Mandarin Fish, just to name a few. From the large pelagics like the big tuna, the big groupers (I say big because truly of sizes never seen before), the barracudas, the trevallies and the sharks, whitetip, blacktip (some small ones are in the lagoon of the village)and the legendary hammerheads at Gegolan (name of the dive where they can be encountered)that encountered three times in a row some divers who went there when I was there.

I don't know if in some way I managed to describe the experience we lived at Walea in this July 2006 for 15 days. I tried to describe the things that struck me the most, but it's natural that each of us can live the same experience in a different way, it depends on how we feel in that moment, on what we're looking for and more than anything on what we are.

I heartily thank Simona, Luca and Lele who are wonderful people, as well as Sonny, Chen and all the people who work and are on this island. A piece of my heart remained there, and I will certainly return to visit it. Bruno