An excursion of 13 flights, 3 countries and 8 islands

By Jonah Janzen

A choppy two and a half hour boat ride on April 30th took my wife Kyla and I away from our small and very flat island back to the main land for our long flight home. Our trip included a total of 13 flights, 38 days, eight islands, 24 dives and three countries. I do warn you, the theme of this trip was mainly diving.

We started our adventure with a 26 hour journey to the Philippines. A night in Manila and another flight the following day landed us in Busuwango, which is littered with ship wrecks from WWII. I managed to see four out of eight of the wrecks on my dives.

Photos by Jonah and Kyla Janzen

A local took a photo of the volcano erupting, which was 100 km from our island. Because of volcanic ash our flight was cancelled and we were stranded at a little town for three days.

Our quick lay over in Indonesia gave us a taste of the worst airport handling we have ever witnessed. The crowd was far greater than shown and it was a free for all with a quick plane switch and no one having a clue what was happening.

Hello Singapore! This is the Gardens by the Bay. What a neat city. You find yourself walking around just to admire the architecture.

MoalBoal in the Philippines is famous for tens of thousands of fish that form bait balls. Kyla is snorkelling and able to plunge into the formation right off the shoreline.

A morning hike on Easter Sunday was not planned, but turned out to be quite symbolic. Stairs leading all the way to the top had signs referring to Jesus’ last days, Palm Sunday, Judas’ betrayal, the crucifixion and resurrection. At the top was a large cross overlooking the town of Coron. This is not what we were used to while traveling across Asia. However a ride in a tuk tuk was a familiar experience.

How many people can you fit in a tuk tuk? As many as it takes! It’s amazing what makes you smile on an adventure when it’s so far from luxury, and you’re crammed in a tuk tuk along with a family on vacation.

The dirt roads get pretty rough, so we rented a trail bike and boy was it fun when we flew past others trying to tackle the terrain on their mopeds! We arrived at our destination where we saw a man in the sea cooling off his pet monkey, and some locals near by asked to take a photo with us. Not sure if we were the monkeys or what was happening.

We moved onward to an area called MoalBoal which is famous for the sardine run, where tens of thousands of fish form what are known as bait balls. No need for dive equipment; they are seen right off the shoreline. It’s a must see for anyone going to the Philippines.

Filipinos love to sing … they sing on the street, at their jobs, invite people on stage to sing along with a band, and sing on the 40 minute boat ride out to sea to go diving. On that early morning dive I saw a Thresher Shark. Its body is 6 feet long, and its tail is of equal length, and used as a whip to stun their prey. And out of nowhere came hundreds of tuna, making me feel like I’ve been transported to another world. It was one of the most incredible sights I have ever seen.

We moved on to one of the most famous islands in the Philippines called Boracay. We got dropped off at our airbnb, which was a giant pile of rubble, the first hiccup on our trip, so we had to find new accommodation.

Soon it was goodbye Philippines, hello Singapore! What a neat city! Gardens by the Bay, walking trails galore, and you find yourself walking around Singapore just to admire the architecture.

One of the highlights of our trip was dinner at Braci, our first Michelin Star restaurant. Here we enjoyed a 32 egg yolk pasta with caviar, orange sea urchin, and don’t ask us what the rest was. Who makes pasta with caviar and sea urchins? Michelin chefs, that’s who.

We pack our bags yet again and head off to Indonesia. We can usually get a good feel for a place based on the look of its docks, and this place looked like we were at the edge of the world at Lembeh.

While muck diving I spotted an ornamental pipefish belonging to the sea horse family, measuring one inch in length. Also spotted a yellow frog fish. These guys dangle a little piece of bait in front of their mouths hoping to lure in their prey. You could say they’re fishing.

Leaving our rustic resort, we headed off to another place in the middle of nowhere - Bunaken. While wall diving and snorkeling we saw the most incredible, abundant, huge corals. Kyla said it wrecked her for snorkeling anywhere else. We also saw Ninja turtles, gentle giants of the sea that are about the same size as Kyla.

While at the resort we spotted a 12 inch centipede, and I was pretty sure they are venomous. When I showed one of the staff a video of the centipede she “SCREEEECHED” and the centipede was promptly treated as a venomous snake and killed. Welcome to the jungle; this may not be your version of paradise.

A local guy showed us some pretty awesome pictures of the volcano erupting which was 100 kms from our island. Very cool as a picture, not so cool when our flight was cancelled and we were stranded at a little town for three days.

Well, when you’re handed lemons, make lemonade, so we checked out the town. We were the only white people everywhere we went, and apparently were an odd sighting for the locals.

But hey, soon planes were flying again. Our quick lay over gave us a taste of the worst airport we’ve ever witnessed. There was a huge crowd, a free for all with a quick plane switch and no one had a clue what was happening.

We arrived at Gili Air, an island off the coast of Lombok. Couldn’t help but notice a bunch of cats were missing their tails on the island, but did see a few lucky kitties strutting around with full tails.

Our long flight home ended our 45-day adventure. After being back home for a day I could already hear the ocean calling my name.