Marica's 70th at WakatobiHow do you want to spend your birthday? “Snorkling a new area” Where? “Bernd told me about a place called Wakatobi” It’s on the other side of the world. “So!”
While we are at it lets go to Singapore, then stop in Bali on the way…..that’s the way it happens.
We started with a wonderful dinner with Howard and Sarah in San Francisco where we stayed overnight. Sarah is fully recovered and has become a skydiving instructor. Howard continues to split his time between Beijing and California….great kids.
The next day it was on to Singapore. This is a city that undertakes bold projects with refined taste. A wonderful example of ‘enlightened monarchy’ without the monarch. The best example is the marina district with it waterfront, hotel, shopping, museum and spectacular garden. One outstanding building was the Atlas, a 30 story art deco with a spectacular lobby bar and restaurant. We stayed at the Park Royal Pickering with its hanging gardens.
After a few days, it was time to move on to Bali, another new stop for both of us. Our first reaction was that the airport put those in the US to shame. We stayed at a beachfront hotel in the Seminyak area. Here was a several mile long beach with a walkway and a continuous string of vendors of surfing, cocktails and local food. Marcia walked around the city while Dan took it easy by the pool. We are sure there was lots more of the island to see, but we only had a couple of days.
Next stop was our destination, the Wakatobi Dive Resort within the Wakatobi National Park. While the resort did not have exclusive rights to be in the park, we saw no other dive boats on the multitude of reefs within the Park.
The resort itself was developed by a couple of Swiss brothers with no expense spared, yet fully committed to the using local resources and architectural style. The guest capacity was 70 and the staff numbered over 300. The result was a first class experience during our week at the resort.
Marcia was off snorkeling multiple times a day either on the ‘house’ reef right off the resort or on one of the five dive boats that the resort built on the island. Take some time and look at her pictures of the reefs, fishes, and turtles.
It was almost 24 hours of flight time to get back home, but a trip well worth traveling to the other side of the world.
Click on the photo to see the album