22nd June - Friwin Island to Sorong - reef fish pros and cons

Monday 22^nd June 2015

0 degrees 53.033S

131 degrees 15.652E

Sorong, Raja Ampat, PNG

12.8m depth

photo from Google, thank you!

We are no longer in our idyllic Friwin Island anchorage, swimming with our clouds of colourful reef fish, and our imposing giant humpheaded wrasse companions.

We are back in dirty water, surrounded by fishing boats, dive boats, container ships.  No complaints, it had to happen!  We needed to get back into internet connection range, and we were running out of food.  Oh and we had to get John out of the water and off to the airport!

Last night we decided to go out on the town.  I did some research on the internet and found a restaurant called Sunshine Beach.   It sounded promising, and we had an address – Jalan Yos Sularso (which is the main street in Sorong…), next to the Tanjung Hotel.  Simple!  We hopped into a bemo and our driver took us…a long way from Jalan Yos Sularso…to a modern, new hotel called The Royal Mamberama.  He opened the door and indicated for us to get out…so we did…  We went into the hotel to ask for directions, and the manager said, “Eat here! Food no good at Tanjung!  Better here!  Cheaper!”  So in we went…And indeed it was all very pleasant.  Very nice food – I had my favourite cap cay – steamed veggies with seafood, very delicate and delicious.  It wasn’t an adventurous place to eat but John did NOT want adventurous on his last night in Raja Ampat.  The thought of getting onto a plane for a long flight with a disturbed tummy wasn’t appealing to him at all.

We made friends with yet another lovely toddler girl – Quinta, with her mother, Marietta. 

Marietta and Quinta

They are from Djakarta but Marietta’s husband is working in Sorong. He was also very nice and smiley but…he was carrying a gun on his belt – not sure what his job involves…

Our meal cost about $35 (not including the pre-dinner cocktails, which were $11 plus 31% tax and service charges.)  This is very reasonable and we were happy with the whole deal.

The night before we had gone in to shore on Friwin Island in the dinghy, to a tiny little homestay place.  Pete had been in earlier to see if they had food and yes indeed, they would cook for us.  In a dear little hut on a jetty over the water.  All very nice and pretty.  We had steamed rice (beautifully cooked, I must say,) and six very small deep-fried reef fish with a smidgen of chilli sauce.  Pete and John crunched away at their fish quite happily but I was deeply suspicious and just nibbled cautiously.  For a start, the reef fish are my friends; I swim with them and they welcome me into their watery world.  Also, they are full of bones.  Also - BIG also – I do not want to get ciguatera.  Anyway we were quite happy in our pretty little hut until we asked berapa (how much…)  They wanted 500,000 rupiya - $50.  We gave them 300,000, reluctantly, and they were quite pleased – as well they might be!!  So we will recommend the Royal Mamberamo, but NOT the little hut on the beach on Friwin Island!

Today’s BirthdayBoy – Felix Cook!!  Five years old!

Felix with Jemima