The diverse diving destination you probably haven’t heard of: Raja Ampat

by Jessica Festa on

Located off the northwest point of the Bird’s Head Peninsula on the island of New Guinea in Indonesia is Raja Ampat, an archipelago full of diverse habitats. The name literally means “Four Kings” and is a great destination for adventure travelers who want to get off-the-beaten path and explore a location with more fish, coral, and invertebrate species than anywhere on the planet.

To experience Raja Ampat, travelers can catch a connecting flight from Jakarta or Bali to Sorong. While Sorong is not actually in Raja Ampat, most Raja Ampat resorts pick up their guests here and transport them to the facilities. If you plan on scuba diving, liveaboard dive boats pick up guests in Sorong and motor them to the dive areas. While Raja Ampat is not typically a tourist destination, it should be as there is a lot do in terms of exploring the waters and marine life, from kayaking and snorkeling to diving and beach combing.

I got the chance to speak with Burt Jones, who has spent the last three years in Raja Ampat doing photography diving tours for Secret Sea Visions and consulting for Conservation International. He explained to me how, while Raja Ampat is full of life and beauty, it is also in need of help, especially because not a lot of people have heard of it.

“If we, as a people, can save any place on the planet, Raja should be high on the priority list,” he explains. “It has the highest marine biodiversity of any tropical reef system on the planet, but fewer than 8,000 people visit Raja Ampat yearly. Part of our job [at CI] is to promote tourism within the region so that it will be considered as a viable local income resource. Most Raja Ampat villages profit very little from their land’s natural resources: timber, fishing or mineral wealth. And, exploiting these resources damages the environment while sustainable marine tourism promotes environmental protection and directly benefits local people through jobs. In our books, we explain local customs and encourage traveling divers to stop by receptive villages where casual contact can enrich both hosts and visitors.”

For more information on diving in Raja Ampat or taking a tour with Secret Sea Visions, click here. And, to get a better idea of just how beautiful Raja Ampat really is, check out the gallery below.

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6 art classes to try in Bali

by Jessica Marati on

There’s no better place in Indonesia to take art classes than in Bali, an island known around the world for its artistic tradition. Indeed, it seems that everywhere you look, you find traces of man-made beauty. From the ornamentation on the temples to the etchings on the sidewalks to the attention and care given to daily offerings set out on the street, art oozes from every crack.

When you’re surrounded by so much beauty, it’s natural that you’ll want to flex your own creative muscles. Thankfully, Bali has an array of art classes intended to give visitors an introduction to traditional craft.

1. Batik making
The Indonesian art of batik involves a complex process of wax application and painting on fabric. Museum Puri Lukisan in Ubud holds private courses for Rp. 450,000 (about $50). Create your own work from scratch, or choose from a number of traditional templates. All materials are included, as well as a delicious Balinese lunch and entrance to the museum, which houses a collection of contemporary art.2. Silversmithing
Learn how to pierce, solder, and shape your own silver ring or pendant at Studio Perak, one of Ubud’s most popular jewelry workshops. Your masterpiece may not turn out as polished as the pieces on display, but they’ll certainly come with a great story. A half-day workshop costs Rp. 350,000 (about $39) and includes 5 grams of silver to play with.

3. Textile appreciation
It’s pretty impossible to be in Bali longer than five minutes and not have have an appreciation for Indonesian textiles. But if you want to dive deeper, try the lectures at Threads of Life, an Ubud non-profit that works to revive traditional textile traditions throughout Indonesia. “Introducing the Textiles of Bali and Indonesia” will teach you about various batik, ikat, and traditional weaving techniques, while “Textiles & Their Place in Indonesian Culture” explores the history and traditional uses of textiles in the region.

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4. Life model drawing
All artists are welcome to Ubud Life Model Sessions, held at Pranato’s Art Gallery in Ubud. For just Rp. 20,000 (about $2), you can join Pranato, his Australian wife Kerry, and a mixed group of ex-pats and visitors for three-hour sketching sessions twice a week. The gallery also features rotating exhibitions and an impressive array of Indonesian and international art.

5. Ceramics
Live out your Ghost fantasy — we know you have one — at Sari Api Ceramics Studio, just outside Ubud. A beautiful open-air space run by a Swiss ex-pat, Sari Api offers half day private ceramics workshops for Rp. 450,000 (about $50) or a more intensive eight-session course for Rp. 1,750,000 (about $192).

6. Painting
The Bali Center for Artistic Creativity in Ubud offers individual art classes as well as longer custom-tailored courses. A single class will run you Rp. 450,000 (about $50) for three hours of instruction and basic materials. The Center also runs university credit courses and art therapy programs.

Traveler Q & A: Pavia Rosati

by Alex Robertson Textor on

Pavia Rosati is the founder of Fathom, a recently debuted travel website. Fathom is smart and beautifully designed. It’s full of exciting short briefs about various destinations across the globe.

Rosati, as you’ll see from her answers below, is an experienced editor and an avid traveler. Her enthusiasm for Fathom’s subject matter is palpable and infectious. We love Fathom and can’t wait to see how it’s going to develop.

Q: Good day, Pavia Rosati, and welcome. How would you describe your occupation?

A: I am the founder and CEO of Fathom, a new travel website. It’s my job to help connect you to places and experiences you didn’t know you were going to love.

Q: Tell us about Fathom.

A: Fathom cuts through the clutter of the online travel space with stories and destination guides that are as practical as they are inspiring. People typically go to a travel website for one of two reasons: They know they’re going to London, and they need to know where to stay and what to do. Or they think, “I have two weeks off…I like nature…Where should I go?” Fathom addresses both needs through two main sections: Guides and Postcards. Guides have quick information about the basics: hotels, sites, restaurants, and itineraries. Postcards are inspiring travel stories organized around the passion points of travel with a “I Travel for the …” theme: I Travel for the Food, I Travel for the Thrill, I Travel for the Kids. We aren’t motivated by what’s expensive or what’s trendy. We’re interested in what’s special and what’s awesome. Sometimes that’s a three-Michelin star lunch at Le Meurice; sometimes it’s a five-euro falafel at L’As du Fallafel.

Q: What are you trying to do with Fathom that hasn’t been done by other travel sites?

A: I wanted to create the one-stop travel website that I could never find. You know how the best travel guide is the email you get from a friend who lives there, detailing what you need to do and know? That’s the spirit that motivates us. I used to spend 80 hours researching dozens of sites to boil my findings down to an essential nugget of information. Fathom aims to deliver that nugget. I don’t want to wade through a list of 200 shops in Buenos Aires; I want 20 that are amazing. I want to know what locals know. I want pre-edited links to the best articles, websites, and online resources. Perhaps most importantly, Fathom recommendations are not driven by a mega travel agency’s vast and impersonal database; our recommendations are personal and special.

Q: How do you anticipate Fathom developing? For example, will the city guides grow in number?

A: Absolutely. It’s a big world, and we want to get everywhere. Postcards are updated continually, and we will launch several new guides every month. Reader feedback will be critical: We’ve had a lot of requests for Amsterdam since launching, so look for that soon. We want more Postcards from Fathom readers, a community we call the travel-proud. This fall, we’ll launch Boutique, with our favorite travel products; Traveler Profiles, based on the popular Fathom Questionnaires; and My Itineraries, so readers can save the places they want to go.

Q: How did your decade at Daily Candy prepare you for this endeavor?

A: First and foremost, it’s where I met my partner, Jeralyn Gerba, Fathom’s editorial director. We had one priority at DailyCandy: We had to delight our readers every day. To achieve this, we had to be trustworthy, we had to recommend quality places, and we had to deliver information readers wanted in a way they wanted it. And it helped if we had a great time doing it. These are excellent editorial priorities. By the way, before DailyCandy, I spent four years running the Entertainment Channel at AOL. That taught me a thing or two about building and serving a big audience.Q: Enough shop talk. When you’re not traveling, you split your time between New York and London. Care to share a secret hometown place or activity in either metropolis?

A: My life tends to revolve around what’s in front of me at the dinner table. In New York City, the bar at Tocqueville feels like a hidden escape, and breakfast at Balthazar feels like homeroom. At the end of the day, I always want to eat everything on the menu at L’Artusi. In London, I love Del Parc in Tufnell Park (of all places!), where two men cook and serve delicious Spanish/North African small plates from a closet-sized kitchen in the middle of the tiny dining room. And I love Moro, but who doesn’t?

Q: What are your favorite places to travel?

A: Sometimes I travel to feel familiar in a foreign setting. I could spend every weekend at Lo Scoglio on the Amalfi Coast and never tire of it. Similarly, I lived in Paris in college, and going back is like visiting an old friend. Other times, I travel for the difference and the discovery. Recent revelations include desolate and dramatic Salta, in northwest Argentina, and Sri Lanka, where I spent an incredible day on Taprobane Island. I loved Syria, and I hope it can recover from its political tumult and be the great country it should be.

Q: Where are you planning to travel next? And where are you dying to go?

A: Oh, the never-ending list. The wish list for the next few months includes Lake Austin Spa, Bighorn Revelstoke, Cartagena, and Portugal’s Douro Valley. I was married last year and am hoping for an eventual honeymoon in Chile. It’s my great embarrassment that I’ve never been to Southeast Asia — Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia. Zambia. Shanghai and Hong Kong. I’m obsessed with the Canadian Maritime Provinces. And in case my husband reads this, yes, honey, I’m dying to go to Tokyo, too.

Q: Where do you have no interest in ever visiting?

A: Cuba. I think I missed it. Though if an opportunity presented itself, of course I’d go. I’m curious about everything.

Q: Give us a travel tip or secret. Or five.

A: 1. Never eat airplane food. 2. You won’t use 50 percent of the stuff you’re packing, so leave it at home. 3. Find a local market to get a real flavor for a place. 4. It’s easier to go away than you think it is. And it’s always worth it. 5. I watch the sunrise on the last morning of every trip I take. I’m not suggesting that you do this; I am suggesting that you invent a travel ritual that you can share with yourself everywhere you go.

Q: What’s next for Pavia Rosati?

A: More sunrises in new places, and sharing them on Fathom.

Did you enjoy this Q&A? Check out previous Gadling Q&As with travelers like Jodi Ettenberg, Zora O’Neill, and Philippe Sibelly.

[Image: Jimmy Gilroy]

A video of Bali’s elegant details

by Justin Delaney on

Bali is like sand in a fist. It is tough to get a handle on. I always come back from the island dumbfounded with my inability to properly explain what makes it so special and extraordinary. The pervasive culture and feel is difficult to communicate with language; its character escapes the calculated classification of words. This video is a collection of the elegant details that make Bali such an enchanted place. I think Stephan Kot does an excellent job showcasing this beautiful “Island of the Gods” – far better than I could ever do with words.Postcard from Bali (Canon 5d MkII) from Stephan Kot on Vimeo.

Tangkoko Nature Reserve – Sulawesi, Indonesia

by Justin Delaney on

Sulawesi is the type of place that looks exotic even on a black and white map. Located just east of Borneo and shaped like a mythical beast from some old world coat of arms, it jumps out at you from the Indonesian archipelago, begging the intrepid to visit. The island’s most interesting nature reserve, Tangkoko, is located at the northeastern tip of Sulawesi. Several rare and bizarre creatures call this reserve home, from the Mimic Octopus to the Tarsier. It is a wild place, more National Geographic than Conde Nast.

Tangkoko feels like the end of the world. A gigantic volcano looms over the park, perpetually draped in thin narrow clouds. The dark beaches are scattered with crushed sea shells and Crested Black Macaques foraging for snacks. The dense rain-forest spreads out across Tangkoko, draping the park floor in a constant shadow and bumping up against the beaches that meet the savage sea. The waters surrounding the park hold a vast array of marine life. Sea gypsies live just offshore in stilt homes built around the reefs, dependent on the ocean’s bounty for sustenance. It is a land unchanged by modernity.

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The animals of Tangkoko are a derelict crew. From carnivorous primates that live inside trees to Red Knobbed Horn-bills with wings like pterodactyls, the creatures are a menagerie of the curious. Among the most unique are the Tarsier, the Crested Black Macaque, the Giant Civet, and the Sulawesi Bear Cuscus. The Tarsiers live in family units inside gigantic trees, and hunt for insects under the cover of night. Each eyeball is the size of their entire brain. Perhaps most strangely, the carnivorous Tarsier cannot be kept in captivity, or it will commit suicide. The crested black macaque is a promiscuous old world monkey endemic to northern Sulawesi. They live in massive tribes of about twenty and spend their day foraging along the forest floor. At night, they retire to the rain-forest canopy. The Giant Civet is the largest mammal in Tangkoko, reaching about three feet in length. The medium sized cats have been known to ambush massive horn-bills on branches high in the cloud forest.

Getting to Northern Sulawesi is simple on Silk Air from Singapore. Silk Air flies the Singapore-Manado route nonstop on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday; it typically costs around 300 USD. It is also possible to fly to Manado from Bali on Garuda Air, though you must stop in Makassar en-route. Manado is the largest city in North Sulawesi and has many accommodation options. If you want to stay near the nature reserve, Pulisan Jungle Beach Resort provides basic beach-side bungalows with a great view across the water towards Mount Tangkoko. Utilize your guesthouse to make arrangements to visit the park. Other activities in Northern Sulawesi include climbing volcanoes, visiting the floral highlands around Tomohon, and diving the Lembeh Straits or Bunaken Island – two of the top dive sites in the world.