Story of an emotion
For my fifth time I prepare to leave for Wale to me there was Alessia and I thought in the days immediately preceding: as will be this time? I seem to relive something happened and in some ways equal? They remain in a sense disappointed?
Nothing could be further from the truth and false! As in all past, Wale has been able to amaze me even now, left me enter the world without asking anything in return, making feel part of what I was experiencing, as if I had always been there.
This is Wale, and this is the climate that characterizes the village Simona Luca and Lele handle with great balance, ability and respect for what they have found and their surroundings.
Depart from Rome to Singapore, after the first flight which saw us take off from Venice.
I always thought that a holiday with a long trip like this we should live it at the outset, without the frenzy to come as soon as possible, otherwise you will ruin a party which has many positive aspects that can be found and look at places with where we come in contact during transit, but the prerequisite is calm.
Before leaving, I had made a special request through the tour operator, that is to have a vegetarian menu (it's a service that Singapore Airlines offers customers) and once started with a 777 un'hostess kind is immediately verify 'accuracy of its information.
The flight proceeds and quiet between a film and a dormitina arrive at Singapore Changi on time.
The airport is beautiful as always, many interesting things to see, many services (such as a hotel with rooms now, massages etc.), but the thing that I like to do most is go up on the terrace smoking (though I do not they are, instead Alessia si), where there is a garden of sunflowers, and in the nearby area banned smoking breathe for the first time the air of the Far East .... is a feeling that envelops me, I forward the climate of the place and starts to make me feel .... at home.
Yes again. This time the target is Manado. Luggage them had already shipped from Venice, so were not a problem in my pocket and I had tickets for this flight, as in Rome (but can be done in the other airports of departure from Europe) had done both those for Singapore, is the same for Manado.
This is possible because the Silk Air, which provides the service for Manado, is owned by Singapore Airlines.
In this flight (also here for the same reasons as those I provide lunch vegetarian) like all the previous times of bad sleep, so I do not notice and we are there yet.
A Manado time compared to the other, the matter is different: there is still more to sleep, but the last flight with the legendary Air Merpati Assigned Luwuk is in coincidence, thus earning a night on Wale. I am curious to see if it is more tiring to do the right, or gratifying the early arrival.
The practice got the fast (there are over us 6 more people with the same destination), because there is a charge of Wale Diving Resort which is responsible for paying the extra baggage and that helps us to bureaucratic problems.
We start with some 'delay, however after about an hour and fifteen landed in Luwuk, about the seventeen local time (six hours more than us in the period of summer).
Ram ahead, starting in
Pagimana machine, and I must say that make the trip at sunset is an emotion different, the colors change, change forms, and also life in small countries that meet during the trip ... all ... very charming and interesting.
At some point my attention was caught by an inscription found on a wall where I read GATUSO. I ask Ram, which tells me that the victory of the national team to the World Cup (one of the idols was Gattuso, they write and speak with one t) was celebrated by a lot of people that has flowed through the streets with the Italian flag, in addition, a group of Italians in the departure from the acclaimed and was accompanied by a long stretch of road ... ... ... unbelievable.
We arrive at the port of
Pagimana around quarter past seven p.m., the boat is there waiting for the final stretch that will take us on. This is also the last point where those who wish can then use the phone .... Fine! For me it had no cell phone rings for fifteen days is truly gratifying. (On you phone or via satellite using the satellite always mail).
We start. All you settle into the boat that comes with two engines each from two hundred horses ... ... fast, I will stay outside, walk in here and takes me all of a sudden the first strong emotion .... The sky. The sky seems designed, millions, billions of stars all piled to form the milky way (where there are just a star ... .... Piles) are visible in all directions, not only upwards but also looking at 's horizon.
Che spettacolo! And then the wake, the wake of the boat is light, with flashes of the greatest time to time, there seems to glide over water, but rub the contact between the iron and cement.
I think for a moment and finally realize that it is the plankton that is excited by the propellers of the engines and the keel of the boat, do not forget!
Finally see the lights of the village, those of Rumah Makan (which acts as a dining room over dinner and reception area), the Sunset Bar and, for the first time, the new SPA, which is slightly defiladed on the right than the central body.
The effect is undoubtedly spectacular, very soft light but show the shapes of structures. Strikes me in particular to see from the white curtains that surround the salt responsible for the APS messages .... Suspended above the water 5 meters in height ....
We are about to land, are welcome to Simona and Lele (Luke arrive a few days later) and other Indonesian children now know well as Haian, muesli, and Ippin ... ... is already party, and for me is a little 'come back home!
First there are the assegnanti Cottage (us 13) and when we arrive at the threshold with Simona which explains the latest news, I can not but be struck from new furniture, the care of the details and then by the new bathrooms that have been remade completely covered with mosaics, and really beautiful ... ... I think ... ... we are almost on an island off from the world, wild, with a forest behind it, a fifteen thousand kilometers from Italy, with only the sand and the sea just Cottage outside ... ... and we have a quality well researched and original that leaves you breathless .... If this is the beginning ... ...
You go to dinner and here begins the feast! Wale yes because we eat really well, the only risk is to put on a few pounds, homemade bread every day, such as the pasta (when it is served is always al dente), the fish caught in the morning by local fishermen , the crepes, ice cream and so many dishes that are a perfect fusion of Asian cuisine and Italian.
Let's go to bed tired from the trip but really happy we are here and tomorrow we will be able to enjoy since the start of the day: it is worth it to do the right!
The first days traveling with 2 dives per day, where I fill the eyes of a reef which in my humble opinion has few equals in the world. I remember in particular (it was the first time that I did because of the recent discovery), the draft call from Sonny Lolos Magic Rock, a riot of sponges pipe organ high of more than 2 meters, barrel sponges, alcionari different colors, hard corals of the genus Acropora, and then ... .. a number of sea fans to be crazy with lots of attached at the ends crinoidi (curly feathered), seemed to many Christmas trees, all surrounded by clouds of fish that twirl around, anemones ball of different colors and an incredibly clear water that left the penetrating rays of the sun to form spears of light.
After diving? Yes tea biscuits with just the facts, you take the sun calmly lying on the wharf or Sunset, or on the beds in front of Cottage but .... But the big news this time is the SPA!
After a day so "heavy" what's best .... Immersion in mega whirlpool bathtub, (far more than 5 meters, all covered in mosaic, a masterpiece) located .... Just above the sea (the SPA is built on stilts) with the sunset in the face .... do not believe that is true.
Maaa not end here, because then he who takes away a beautiful Indonesian massage (my favorite, but others are really super) the essence of Aloe, we are truly in paradise ... ...
So try to escape, to escape from under the nose of the days, too many things that attract my attention, my emotions, first of all ... .. the smells, the scents are one thing that I take in the Frangipane, the coconut, the sea and forest, perfectly recognize them one by one, and then the colors, those of diving are almost .... asphyxiants, but also the land, the hibiscus, the bougainvillea and again papagallini, eagles, white-headed etc..
The risk is enormous, not to steal the moment, the famous "carpe diem", the fleeting moment detailed in the film.
No, I do not rub my primary meaning and go deeper, imprimé inside me that I am at that moment and what makes me be like this: emotions ... .. and not to leave vanish, evaporate, but the imprints in my heart, just so you can understand that until the end .... we are alive.
And then, then what else to tell, excursions rocking, superb diving island deserted by the incredible, so beautiful that even though it is a Full Day we returned 2 times within 5 days.
E Alessia, who before coming to Wale had never worn the mask, and that he made his first dive, was so involved and excited about what we saw underwater.
And yet "the tip", the tip (end of the island) and a truly magical place, where the piles of local fishermen put some on a long strip of white sand, with the sea on both sides. Here is in some periods of the year (like now) Papasini, a former Gipsy Sea (Sea Gypsy) who lives with his family to watch the coconut trees that grow.
But the point is also unique and especially for the sea, a lagoon with crystal clear water to thirty-two degrees where cross two flaps of the sea, creating small online opposite direction, the effect is a kind of natural water therapy .... .
Among the things that impressed me this time will remain in most of the other is the fact that we have dinner by candlelight at the Sunset bar.
A table above the sea (it is on the Sunset palafitte overwater) prepared for four (I, Alessia, Diane, and David): lobster and prawns served with a bottle of vintage Berlucchi, light music, and as a roof ... .. sky with stars ... ..
I have omitted the description of other dive with several more meetings, the wonderful macro subjects (three dancers in Spain today with the emperor shrimp symbionts) Pigmy sea as the Horse which is only Wale, or Mandarin Fish, just to name a few .
By large pelagics such as large tuna, large groupers (because I really large scale never seen before), the barracuda, jack and the sharks, fin white, black (some are small lagoon in the village) and the mythical hammer to Gegolan (name of setting where you can find) that have met three times in a row of diving we went when I was here.
I do not know if in some way I could describe the experience we have lived in this Wale in July 2006 for 15 days. I tried to describe things that have impressed me more, but it is natural that each of us can live the same experience in different ways, depending on how we feel at that moment, from what we tried and most of all by what us.
Many thanks to Simona, Luke and Lele who are wonderful people, as well as Sonny, Chen and all the people who work and are located in this island. A piece of my heart is still there, and certainly will come back to find it.
Bruno