A sea turtle makes its way along the reef in Bunaken National Park at the northern tip of Sulawesi. (Photo by Simon Birner)
Like the United States, Indonesia is huge. Its 17,000 islands stretch from Sumatra in the west to West Papua in the east, more than 2,500 miles apart.
To fly from Singapore to the port city of Makassar at the southwestern tip of the island of Sulawesi takes more than three hours.
Since we were in the neighborhood, we opted to take in some of the world-famous diving and snorkeling along the coral reefs in Bunaken National Park.
But Sulawesi is the world’s ninth-largest island. To get to Bunaken, we had to fly 587 miles from Makassar to the city of Manado on the northeastern tip of the island.
From the airport, it’s a 30-minute ride to the port and a 45-minute boat ride to the Bastianos Dive Resort.
Like Alaska, some of the best places in Indonesia are notoriously inconvenient to access. Is it worth the trouble to take the plane, the van and the boat to get to Bunaken?
If you’re a diver, the answer is a resounding “Yes!”
Divers are not …. > read more from the article
Scott McMurren
Scott McMurren is an Anchorage-based marketing consultant, serving clients in the transportation, hospitality, media and specialty destination sectors, among others. Contact him by email at zoom907@me.com. You can follow him on Twitter (@alaskatravelGRM) and alaskatravelgram.com. For more information, visit alaskatravelgram.com/about
