Snorkeling over the coral reef for the first time

Last week, I accompanied Georgie - a Biologist from England on a snorkeling trip to Mansinam island. This is a small tropical island located in the middle of Dorey bay. The southern coast of the island was surrounded by coral reef. We walked for around 30 minutes along the concrete path that led us to a newly built hatchery. We passed by it and continued walking for around 15 minutes. We arrived at a point where the beach was relatively clean. The high tide was going down I could feel its current when I was swimming to the coral reef area which was around 100 meters away from the beach.

It was Georgie's first experience snorkeling over the coral reef. She looked really excited.
Also read: Snorkeling along the shore of Arfak mountains

Coral reef of Manokwari a nice snorkeling destination

As a tour guide, I have accompanied a lot of tourists on various snorkeling trips in Dorey bay and the Northern Coast of Manokwari. Geographically, the regency is located within the coral triangle that extends from the Philipines to Indonesian archipelago. Last year, I accompanied 4 guests from Jakarta. They were the participants of Aci.Detik.Com - a program from one of the most popular news sites in Indonesia that sent 60 youths throughout the country for free to promote the tourism potentials of Indonesia. The Dorey bay attracted the attention of scientists in Europe after Alfred Russel Wallace conducted a research trip in 1858.
The hard coral reef of Dorey bay is the natural habitat of hundreds of species of marine animals including the striped surgeon fish, and parrot fish as well as scorpion fish.

The above underwater photographs created by Ms. Audrey Jiwajennie show how diverse and how beautiful the corals are. I have been providing snorkeling tours to tourists since 2010 to raise awareness among city dwellers about the importance of coral reef to human life from the economic, and environmental perspectives. As the tropical rainforest of the ocean, coral reef is able to provide food and absorbs CO2 gases.

When Manokwari became the capital of the newly formed West Papua province by the Government of Indonesia, the population of the city is rising rapidly. This causes increasing pressures on coral reef. Fishing activities are rising as well as the drifting of plastic wastes from the city to the corals after rainy days. I hope that the introduction of ecotourism scheme to the coral reef areas in Manokwari will attract more attention from the local government to give more attention to the management of wastes.

Snorkeling in Manokwari

Mansinam island

Do you like snorkeling? Have you ever snorkeled in Manokwari? If not, then you should try it. This city is located in the bird's head region of New Guinea - the largest tropical island in the world. It is not difficult to go to Manokwari.

• First, you need to fly from your country to the capital of Indonesia which is Jakarta. 
• If you don't like the huzzle and buzzle of the metropolitan city, you can check the airlines in your country whether they have flights to Bali or Manado (two tourist destinations in Indonesia).
• From one of these city, you can take a domestic flight served by Express Air, Lion Air or Sriwijaya Air to Manokwari - the capital of West Papua province. This city stretches along the Dorey bay with the magnificent view of Arfak mountains in the south and three small tropical coral islands in the bay.

When I mention coral islands, you know that there must be coral reef thriving around these islands. To enjoy snorkeling, you need to bring your own snorkel, mask, and fins. Don't forget to bring your underwater camera. As a snorkeling guide, I have accompanied  tourists who are interested in seeing the underwater world of Manokwari where coral reefs thrive. When you descend yourself to the reef, you will see hundreds of species of marine animals and plants. When you are in the water, I and the boat driver will continue monitoring your movements to make sure that everything is OK. Sometimes, we will ask you to avoid swimming too close to the beach because big waves may push you to the hard corals.

The Underwater World of Manokwari

In addition to the Doreh bay of Manokwari, another snorkeling location that is highly recommended to tourists is its northern coast area or also called Pantura. The best snorkeling time is between May and October. After that the waves here will be bigger and more suitable for wave surfing. In addition to snorkeling and other water sports activities, visitors can enjoy hiking in the jungle to watch paradise birds. 

Passenger Ship KM Dorolonda

Traveling by ship is one of my favorite ways to explore new places and towns in Indonesia. My trip to Bali from Manokwari started on Christmas day 2011. I went to Surabaya by passenger ship KM. Dorolonda. After arriving in the city, I would continue my trip by car to Bali island where at Ketapang Port of East Java, I had to cross the Bali strait by a ferry boat to Gilimanuk. My destination at that time was Ubud - the center of art and culture of the Balinese people. This vessel is operated by PELNI - a state owned passenger lines in Indonesia. The vessel was constructed in Germany at Jos Meyer shipyard. Indonesia as the largest archipelago needs a lot of ferries to transport people and goods from one island to another. That's why PELNI lines have ordered tens of passenger ships and ferries from Meyer Werft.
Even though all of the PELNI passenger ships are not considered as luxurious cruise ships, they have been equipped with advanced navigational system and GPS tracking system.

In Indonesia, millions of people travel by ships because it is cheap. Most of the modern passenger ferries and cruise ships are powered by diesel engines. In the past, steam turbines were the preferred choice because they were relatively calmer than marine diesel engines that produce more vibrations. With more improvements in the design of marine internal combustion engines, they become smaller but can deliver higher power.
My personal reason for traveling by ships is more on my educational background. I studied Naval Architecture in Pattimura University of Ambon city. I always want to study the interior of ships that I travel with. So, I took the opportunity of going to Surabaya with KM Dorolonda by taking a lot of pictures of this vessel. I also made a lot of pictures of traditional wooden boats, container ships and pontoons that I saw at every port that KM Dorolonda made as her ports of call.

Although more Indonesian people now prefer to travel by airplanes, there are more people in the country who still choose ships and boats as their preferred mode of transportation. More often the capacity of the ships is too small to accommodate thousands of people who use them. For instance, when I was traveling by this KM Dorolonda, I saw hundreds of people staying for a few nights at the outer decks of the vessel. I was really concerned about this situation because of safety concerns. As a naval architect, I know that as long as the waterline does not exceed the plimsoll mark, the ship is still safe enough to cross the ocean. However, PELNI as the operator of tens of ferries that carry thousands of passengers - often in over capacity condition, must give more attention on providing life saving equipment in the passenger ships. In addtion, the addition of surveillance cameras and security personnel in the vessels are a must to ensure that frequent criminality incidents can be stopped in the ships.  There are a lot of incidents in Indonesian passenger ships where passengers lost their belongings. Pickpocket is also a common criminal case that frequently occurs during the embarkation and de-embarkation of passengers in every port of Indonesia.
As a matter of fact, PELNI ships have got the potentials to be promoted as affordable transport vehicles for foreign tourists who want to travel around Indonesia in cheaper cost. This can only be realized if the ships are cleaned regularly and criminality during the sea voyage as well as during the loading and unloading of passengers at ports have been eliminated. by Charles Roring

Balinese House in Watercolor painting

This is a sketch drawing of a varandah of a Balinese house. This is a watercolor painting of an outdoor view that I made during my stay in Bali.. Watercolor is one of the most difficult painting medias yet it was frequently used by architects to visualize their design concept to clients. Today there are a number of BIM softwares that can render a 3D model of a house or a big building.

The use of watercolor as a manual rendering tool is decreasing with the development of more sophisticated BIM software that can visualize design ideas in 3D and render them in more realistic views.

Balinese Architecture
I created the above drawing only as an artistic expression not for architectural purposes. But if you are really interested in Balinese style houses, please, related books on the internet both in Amazon and in Google Books.
Manual Drawing
However, the use of drawing pencils and watercolor painting are still being used by some designers due to their flexibility and ease of use particularly on models that have unique forms and complicated 3D curves that cannot easily be drawn in CAD software. Such curved models include wooden statues, carvings or relief on the legs of chairs and pillars of houses, or hull form of a ship. Although most of the BIM softwares can be used to create models in 3D environments, only CAD software with NURBS features that can visualize such complicated curved forms easily.
Sketchup
For architectural design, the most recommended software is Google Sketchup. Google has provided the free version of the software that can be downloaded from the official website of sketchup. In addition to the free edition, the Google Sketchup Pro 8 which can be obtained for 495 US dollars has got more features that designers and architects can use to model their design concepts in 3D environment. In version 8, Google introduced solid tools that greatly enhance Sketchup as a powerful BIM software. Google Sketchup can be used by naval architects to model ships and boats in 3D if special plugins such as the bezier lines are installed into the software. by Charles Roring