JP\/13\/Bunaken<\/p>\n
Hey dude, where's my air tank?<\/p>\n
Learning to dive is especially memorable when you're in one of
\nthe world's top-diving spots. Writer Chris Holm takes the plunge
\nin a PADI course at Bunaken Island's Bastianos diving resort.<\/p>\n
Sitting on the top of the rocking boat, as we powered to where
\nwe would begin our diving course, I felt a little apprehensive.
\nLater under a palm tree, I relaxed on the sand and looked at the
\ncourse's fat instruction manual. Full of colorful, inviting
\npictures, diagrams and dive tables, it also looked like a lot of
\nwork.<\/p>\n
Then there were the horror stories that inevitably bobbed to
\nthe surface of my mind after years of vicariously watching
\nunderwater adventures on the Discovery Channel, episodes of
\nJacques Costeau's Underwater World and sea scenes from old James
\nBond movies. The cold, swift undercurrents that threaten to drag
\nyou down 70 meters to your new, permanent home in Davy Joneses'
\nlocker; the equipment malfunctions that could leave you inhaling
\nguppies rather than compressed air; those murderous, submerged
\nRussians on your slippery tail with spear-guns; the slight coral
\nscratches that could turn into shark banquets, and, most scarily
\nof all, those orb-like steel decompression chambers that invite
\nyou into the agonizing world of the bends; when you surface too
\nquickly, blow out your eardrums and your blood turns into
\nstrawberry fizz.<\/p>\n
Looking at the PADI \"the way the world learns to dive\" Open
\nWater Course Manual again, I realized that even if I managed to
\ncheat underwater death, dismemberment, or a just general mass
\nfish-gouging, there were still around five days of practical
\nphysical exercises, and some of them looked tricky -- a 200-meter
\nunaided swimming test for one -- and worst of all, you had to
\nactually learn things -- all while on holiday. Most importantly,
\nwould there be enough time to lie on the beach and drink the
\nrequisite amount of beer?<\/p>\n
I worried, but not for long. Of course, it did help that I and
\nmy two other novice dive-buddies, one equally anxious New
\nZealander and his more laid-back Japanese girlfriend, were
\nstaying at a relaxing and tidy resort, Bastianos on a beautiful
\ntropical island, which, I might add, is also renowned for
\nboasting some of the best reef diving in the world.<\/p>\n
The isle in question, Bunaken, is a white sandy jewel off the
\ncoast of North Sulawesi. With volcanic origins, it's undersea
\nenvironment is unusual in that it lacks the normal continental
\nplate that sits between the ocean depths and the land, creating
\nlong coral shelves that can drop a hundred meters as the ocean
\nfloor plummets to more than a kilometer undersea. These massive
\norganisms are teaming with life; home to thousands of fish
\nspecies of the expected multicolored, googly-eyed variety, along
\nwith even more unusual critters -- beak-faced giant sea turtles,
\nmalevolent-looking-but-harmless reef sharks and, of course, the
\nblob-ish manatee, or dugong; the strange, shy sea cow that
\nsailors of old thought were mermaids.<\/p>\n
With all this marine life, it helps that Bunaken is also home
\nto arguably the most successful conservation program in
\nIndonesia. Set up in the late 1990s with local and international
\ncooperation, the scheme has locals manage and police the marine
\npark and has successfully stopped most of the dynamiting and
\nover-fishing practices that were once degrading the island's
\ntourism potential, the money made from the tourists now spread
\nresponsibly around the local community. Of course, there is
\ndevelopment on the island, in the form of diving resorts
\nspringing up, but local rules and slow tourism here during the
\npast few years have ensured these resorts are being managed in a
\nreasonably sustainable manner and are not overcrowding the island
\n-- yet.<\/p>\n
All this augured well for a great learning experience, and I
\npushed my lingering doubts to the back of my mind. Who cared that
\nI could barely swim 100 meters without fins and a wetsuit. I had
\ndone a fair bit of snorkeling before, so diving, I reasoned,
\ncouldn't be that much different.<\/p>\n
The upbeat PADI course materials also did their best to
\nreassure me, in between useful diving theory and their pretty
\nunderwater images. \"Get informed\" was the main message; learn and
\nfollow the basic undersea rules and you too can dive safely and
\nresponsibly. However, I do admit to being worried that this
\nuniformly chirpy tone could drive me to the point of sea-
\nsickness.<\/p>\n
Watching the instructional videos, as we regularly did in our
\nstudies, every girl diver looks like they have just stepped out
\nof a California gym and every guy has a big, maniacal grin, a
\ngoatie beard, along with probably a mountain bike and a spare
\nbungy cord stashed somewhere in the back of his four-wheel-drive
\nOne of the things that PADI taught me, apart from the mechanics
\nof scuba, is that diving is a truly marketable commodity, a world
\nof high-fiving, black slapping, adjective-mangling, boundless
\nenthusiasm; a lifestyle, not just a recreational sport - and be
\nsure to buy up your own equipment from the PADI dive shop and
\ncheck out the firm's other courses. Exposed to this sensory, buy-
\nproduct build-up for long enough and any cynicism begins to ebb,
\nthe joie de la mer becomes infectious and you start to feel a
\nlittle dizzy, something, I imagine, a bit akin to nitrogen
\nnarcosis (a deep-water danger, I must mention, you are extremely
\nunlikely to encounter on an open water dive).<\/p>\n
Out on the water, however, things were a lot more down-to-
\nearth. The Bastianos crew kept their boats in good order and
\ntheir equipment was clean and functioned. One of the good things
\nabout the PADI course, is that it is audited regularly by
\ninternational observers. In the often cut-throat diving world
\nwhere unaccredited diving schools vie for the lowest dollar by
\nscrimping on maintenance and safety to save costs, you can rest
\nassured that resorts offering PADI courses will be up to basic,
\ninternational standards.<\/p>\n
In the end, my biggest fear, the 200-meter swim to qualify to
\nlearn how to dive was a breeze, and after about an hour and a
\nhalf of being administered oxygen on the boat I was sufficiently
\nrecovered and ready to put on the scuba equipment.<\/p>\n
From then on, from three or four meters, down to our eventual
\n18 below as certified open water divers, our dive instructor
\nFrangkie initially tried valiantly to keep with \"Hey dude,
\nwhere's my air-tank\" vibe as-seen-on-video vibe but later became
\na lot more likable, and human, when he admitted to occasional
\nbouts of grumpiness because of a lingering head-cold.<\/p>\n
A Bunaken Island boy who had gone to the big smoke of Manado
\nacross the water to learn his craft, Frangkie did a fine job of
\nteaching us what we needed to know and was professional and
\nfriendly about it too.<\/p>\n
The one obvious advantage about learning to dive in a tropical
\nlagoon rather than a swimming, is the setting, among coral reefs
\nand little fish, which means even the most mundane exercises are
\na lot more interesting than in a swimming pool. It also prepares
\nyou for other things, slight currents and eddies can unbalance
\nyou, so your learning environment is much closer to what you end
\nup discovering on your open dives when you get to practice the
\nskills you've learned. The only downside to learning to dive at
\nresort I can figure, is that on occasion the other more-
\nexperienced divers, who float nonchalantly past you, get to see
\nyou drown in your bubbles, flapping your arms like a spastic and
\nrolling around in the water, as you try to master exercises like
\nneutral buoyancy or taking off and putting on your weight-belt.<\/p>\n
And under the water, I realized that all this outgoing body
\nlanguage on the surface did have a point. Diving is one of the
\nfew places in the world, like loud rock concerts and bass-heavy
\nnight clubs, where the signing deaf have a definite advantage
\nover the hearing, and hand signals are the order of the day. The
\n\"I'm out of air, I want to share yours\" signs are pretty
\nimportant in the rare event that your scuba apparatus may fail,
\nalthough the PADI book does not have the appropriate signage for
\n\"Hey, look behind you, there is a gi-normous groper making a
\nbeeline for your bum.\"<\/p>\n
There are also no signs that can adequately describe the
\nfeeling when sliding down the side of a huge reef, you see your
\nfirst giant turtle; manta ray or black-tipped reef shark, as a
\nhuge school of bat fish hang above you like a luminous diamond.
\nIn my last underwater dives, finally with the freedom to cruise
\nin my new environment, I began to understand the rapturous looks
\non the faces of those PADI video jockeys. Diving, while it may
\nnot be better than sex, is certainly as good as a few beers on
\nthe beach.<\/p>\n
HOW TO GET THERE:<\/p>\n
Flights from Denpasar and Jakarta to Manado start from
\naround Rp 1.5 million and run daily with Garuda and Lion Air, the
\ntwo main carriers.<\/p>\n
Most resorts on the island will transport you for free from
\nManado Airport to Bunaken Island.<\/p>\n
WHERE TO STAY:<\/p>\n
Bastianos Diving Resort is near the wharf on Bunaken
\nIsland's beach is clean and large with nice rooms, some of which
\nare right on the beachfront. Accommodation starts from around
\nUS$15 dollars a night if you are on a diving package, $20 if you
\nare just soaking up the island's ambience. Five-day PADI Open
\nWater Diving Courses begin at about $315. And the resort offers
\nmore advanced courses and a range of open water dives including
\nnight dives, wreck and muck diving.<\/p>",
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