Raja Ampat – A Report.

Raja Ampat is probably the most remote place I’ve ever been. Not just geographically, but from… everything.

For those who don’t know it yet: Raja Ampat is an archipelago in West Papua, in the far east of Indonesia, in the middle Australian time zone.

To get there from Germany, you need 48 hours in 3-5 airplanes and 1-2 boats.

Why would anyone want to go there? I tried to capture that. With words. And with pictures. However, there’s a slight text-image gap. Some impressions (in words) only fully manifested themselves after returning home.

Thanks and props to my wife Julia, from whom some of the shots originate – and all the underwater shots.

Landscape ¶

You find plenty of time to read here during a trip, because there’s not much to do above water: fairly uneventful jungle on karst islands.

But super beautiful! The water color is almost everywhere turquoise because it stays shallow for so long. And corals… infinitely many, so many that they even stick out of the water at low tide.

Lots of birds here too, yes yes. Beyond that, you can summarize it as: many insects, little reception.

Marine Biodiversity ¶

First and foremost, you want to come here because there’s an incredible marine biodiversity. Put more simply: there are very many fish here. And even better: very few people.

We had huge coral reefs right in front of our bungalow with rays, sharks, and entire schools of fish! A perfect location for diving. Quite challenging though, due to the current.

But in the current is the fish’s food, I learned. That’s why there are many small fish there, and that’s why there are many large fish there.

Food ¶

The food was a complete adjustment for me: Lots of fish, little meat. Because meat would have to be transported here and there’s really enough fish. It gave me completely new insights into healthier eating (when the usual alternatives are missing).

Also fruits, because they always taste best in the countries where they’re grown anyway. Giant pomelos (“royal”!) and dragon fruits are available here, at a fraction of the European price.

Oh, and the snake fruits shouldn’t go unmentioned either. I discovered a completely new love in them. Wonderful!

Humidity ¶

Just like the air, the entire geographical environment here consists mainly of water.

Everything here is humid. Or becomes humid at some point. Because everything adapts to the humidity.

All paperback covers warp and even the thick flight tickets felt like they’d been given a full bath..

Stars ¶

In two weeks on site, we had two nights without clouds. And – OMG – it left us speechless: All the stars were there. Every single one. Even the Milky Way!

I hadn’t seen that in 20 years. (I had already planned a trip to the Atacama Desert to experience that again..)

But it worked almost as well here.

Architecture ¶

You don’t live here in concrete or masonry. If the air can’t circulate here, everything would just mold.

The houses are built from palm straw mats, making them super breathable, while also surprisingly resistant to all weather conditions.

And we had plenty of that: heavy rain, storms, sun – sometimes all on the same day.

The buildings don’t have German quality standards: All doors constantly fall open or shut and faucets are installed in the funniest places. But still impressive in their own aesthetics.

Actually a traditional building method from Papua. But you have to be able to afford it. Most of the indigenous tribes still living there can unfortunately only afford corrugated iron at the moment.

Jakarta ¶

Because we’re into culture shocks (but mainly due to our return flight), we spent two more nights in Jakarta afterward.

The city didn’t disappoint my expectations.

An incredibly lively, vibrant, yes quite hectic city where something is always happening and someone always wants to and can make money with something (and in some cases unfortunately also desperately… has to, since the cost of living is high).