Raja Ampat is a tropical paradise located in West Papua, Indonesia. It’s a jaw-dropping island chain known for its diverse and vibrant marine life. We had never heard of it until we met Marianna, a 57-year-old Argentinian solo traveller who told us that she’s travelled all over the world since she was 16 and this was the most incredible snorkelling and diving she’s ever done. We were sold! The only problem: it’s exceptionally remote, and a major trek to get there.
It was a 30-hour travel day from Georgetown, Malaysia which included 2 buses, 2 flights, a taxi, a ferry, and a long boat. The journey was more than worth it when we pulled up to the small island of Kri with Dedy our homestay owner at Lumba Lumba. We documented the whole travel day and put it into this TikTok video!
It was love at first sight! We were shown to our room which was a massive bungalow that sits on stilts right on the beach. At high tide, waves would come all the way up and crash under our floorboards. Our front patio had seats and hammocks and looked out at the gorgeous bay and coral reef.
In Raja Ampat, homestays are the typical accommodation. Our hosts had a bungalow a couple of doors down, and they cooked all our meals, which were delicious. We didn’t know what to expect from Kri. We assumed there would be small convenience stores we could go to for snacks, but no! It is really just an island with a few different homestays on it and nature. There aren’t even roads on the island. You need a boat to get around (or wait till low tide to walk to another island!).
There was a nearby island that did have a village, so if we were in desperate need we could have asked our homestay owner to drive us over there in his boat.
Luckily, we came prepared with our own snacks (though we had to beware of the *creatures* that would sometimes gnaw their way into our goods).
We arrived in the early afternoon, so after our delicious lunch, we hopped off our front deck with our swimsuits, fins, and snorkels to check out the house reef. We got a taste of the magic of Raja Ampat’s underwater world, as it was teeming with fish!
We were super exhausted that first day so we didn’t stay out too long. We went home, took a bucket shower, and had a relaxing and early night after our long journey here.
The next morning we woke up to pouring rain! It was such a cozy morning watching the storm from our patio.
Raja Ampat’s rain doesn’t last long, though, and by mid-morning we were back to clear skies and ready for another snorkel. I caught a glimpse of a reef shark, got terrorized by a triggerfish, and saw amazing coral and sea life.
Since Raja Ampat is known for its scuba diving, we knew we had to splurge for the experience. We got the 6-dive package with Dedy, which we spread out over 3 days. On our first scuba day, we went to Yenbuba Jetty, Sawan Darek, and Ransiwor Island Reef.
Yenbuba was a great dive for getting back into the swing of things. We didn’t go too deep, and we saw a lot of fish, coral, giant clams, and an electric clam! Wini brought her GoPro which is supposed to be able to go down to 10-meters, but it stopped working around 5, so we only got a few pictures from close to the top.
One of our highlights that first day was getting to our second dive site, Sawan Darek, and spotting a turtle from the boat! Wini was able to capture it with her drone.
The Sawan Darek dive was out of this world. The coral was so vibrant, the visibility was insane, and on top of all the diverse fish, we also saw several stingrays, sharks, and a few sea turtles — one of which was 5-6 feet across and sleeping; we were able to get so close to it!
At Ransiwor Island Reef we had the incredible luck of seeing a tasseled wobbegong shark (also called a carpet shark) all curled up in the coral! It has a sort of “beard” that looks like soft coral, or carpet tassels. Neither of us had even heard of them before so it was amazing to see one in person for the first time. We were also able to spot another massive turtle and more sharks!
The next day we snorkelled in the morning, and it continued to blow us out of the water (hehe)!
In the afternoon we went for our one dive of the day, at Mangkur, a spot just between Kri island and the tiny island next door where we saw more sharks, translucent shrimp, and tons of bright coral and fish.
That evening, we were relaxing in the hammock before dinner when we caught a glimpse of something swimming in the water right in front of the bungalow. When we looked closer we realized it was a shark! We kept watching and two more swam by. In all, we saw 5-6 sharks including a tiny baby one. It was so special!
The next morning we had our final two dives: Cape Kri and Chicken Reef.
Cape Kri was just around the corner from where we were staying, and it was magnificent! It’s a famous spot known for its rich biodiversity, and it holds Raja Ampat’s record for most fish species recorded in one dive at 374 (making it in the top 5 worldwide)! We saw so much marine life. A school of massive barracudas, sharks, and fish of every size, shape, and color. We loved every second of it. I wish our GoPro was able to go that deep so we could have captured some of it.
After the dive, we boated to a small sandbar where we relaxed and floated in the water while waiting for our nitrogen levels to go down.
Our last dive was at Chicken Reef, which apparently got its name because it’s shaped like a chicken from above, but we had to take Dedy’s word for it because we didn’t have the drone that day.
It was a beautiful final dive. We dropped into a strong current, and we were able to just drift along the sea wall. Our favourite was the crocodile fish which was new to both of us!
Overall, the diving was so worth all the effort to get to Raja. We’re so glad we made the trip out, and we both feel extremely lucky to have experienced some of the best sites in the world. Our favourite ones were definitely Cape Kri, Sawan Darek, and Chicken Reef.
When we arrived back home the tide was super far out, and we wanted to see if we could make it to the next island via the sandbar, which we could!
As we were making our way over, we noticed some dogs running through the water and as they approached we realized they were chasing a stingray in the shallow water! Wini was able to follow it with her drone as it went from the shallow water out to sea. We couldn’t believe our luck — it was so magical!
For our final full day in Raja Ampat we booked a boat tour of Piaynemo Islands. Dedy and our boatman Neles took us the 1.5 hours and it was unbelievably stunning the whole way.
We made a quick stop at a village, which Dedy told us is one of the oldest fishing villages in Raja Ampat.
We pulled up to the group of islands and started the short 10-minute hike up to the viewing platform. Trees grow through the stairs on the way up, which was a cool touch!
Piaynemo was stunning. The highlight of Piaynemo is its iconic viewpoint, which offers panoramic views of the lush green islands that are scattered across turquoise waters.
Dedy took us to a second viewpoint called Star Lagoon, as it looks like a star from one angle. It has no viewing platform, instead you just stand on craggy rocks with cliffs on both sides. It was truly spectacular, and we were lucky enough to have the spot to ourselves. I definitely wouldn’t want to be there when a big group was around.
Next, Dedy took us to a nearby snorkel spot for a quick look around. There were lots of pretty soft corals in the area and it was lively with fish.
Our last stop of the day was Manta Point. We were told that it was no longer manta ray season but we were hoping to spot a couple if we could. We snorkelled around and sadly didn’t see any mantas, but we did see some giant lobsters hiding under coral.
It was the perfect way to spend our last day in Raja Ampat: seeing the most gorgeous sights, and too busy & distracted to remember we had to leave the next day!
When we got home, we watched the sunset and procrastinated packing (that would make tomorrow’s departure real).
Before we went to bed, we spotted another baby shark swimming out front! The perfect goodbye.
We went to sleep as we did the past week, to the sound of crashing waves beneath our bed. Our hearts full of both gratitude for the unbelievable experience, and sadness to be leaving this spectacular place. We’re already dreaming of our next trip back.
We left our beautiful little island home early the next day to begin our long travel day to our next destination: Bali and the Nusa islands!