Water Taxi in Manokwari

City dwellers and foreign tourists who want to go Mansinam and Lemon islands will usually go by water taxi. This is the only public transportation that is available in the Dorey bay. If you have just arrived in this city and want to travel around the islands that I just mentioned above, you can ask ojek (motorcycle taxi) to take you to Ketapang Boat Station. It is located in Kwawi area next to the residence of a prominent Papuan artist Mr. Tonci Krey. 

Usually some outrigger motorized wooden boats wait for passengers in the morning at 8 a.m. The rate for going to Mansinam or Lemon is 3,000 rupiahs/ person. Actually, the boats are not worthy to be called taxi because they are not the same as sedan which you see in big cities. But here we like to call such boats as Taksi Air or Water Taxi. Because Manokwari city is located in  Papua which is a tropical island, the temperature during the day is high and hot. Make sure that you have applied sun screen lotion and wear a hat before embarking on the water taxi whose hull is not covered with any superstructure on it. The water taxi is a very basic boat that is also used by the local Papuan to catch fish.

When the passengers are full, the freeboard of the boat is very small. A large ripple from the sea can bring significant amount of sea water which will splash and wet your body. If you bring digital video or photo camera, put it inside its casing and then inside your travel bag so that it won't get wet and damaged in case sea waves splash into the boat and on your body.

Sometimes you need to ask the boat driver to reduce the speed or change the angle of the stem when you see big waves can make you wet and damage your electronic equipment or even make the boat capsized But don't worry, the water taxi drivers in this bay are experienced enough in handling their boats during such dangerous condition.

Sometimes special tent can be installed in the boat for tourists who want to travel around the islands in the Dorey bay but the travel guide has to contact the boat owner and arrange for such trip. by Charles Roring

Dorey bay my favorite snorkeling place

I just returned from snorkeling around the Dorey bay of Manokwari. Today, I snorkeled with Grietje (a Dutch tourist from the Netherlands), Ani, Paul and another Papuan girl that I forgot her name. Well, we went to the sea at 13.00 this afternoon. The tide was low and it was the perfect time for snorkeling. Unfortunately, it was not in full moon week of the month so, the low tide was not maximum. But we managed to enjoy snorkeling around the beautiful corals and saw various kinds of ornamental fish. I didn't use underwater camera to shoot the following photographs. Instead, I just stood in shallow water and shot these corals using my Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W30. The size of the photo files is quite large. I have re-sized them all using Adobe Photoshop CS3.

I brought my own locally made snorkeling snorkeling glasses which does not have air pipe. I had to come up to the surface again after less than one minute under water. Luckily one of the Papuan girls lend me the snorkeling mask that is equipped with an air pipe and I was able to enjoy the beauty of the coral reef for longer time.

Dorey bay of Manokwari city has several beautiful places for snorkeling. As a tourist guide, I usually bring tourists to a place where there are not many people around so that they can enjoy snorkeling without being disturbed. If you are interested in snorkeling in Dorey bay of Manokwari city and need me as your tour guide to show you around my favorite snorkeling sites, please contact me Charles Roring via email lroring@yahoo.com and peace4wp@gmail.com.

Also read: 

• David Scott enjoyed snorkeling in the Dorey bay of Manokwari city of West Papua-the Republic of Indonesia
• Snorkeling in Manokwari
• Manokwari Travel Guide

Merpati Crashed into a River Bank in Rendani Airport of Manokwari

The following photographs, were shot by Agus Nauw- a local journalist using the photo-smart feature of his Sony Ericsson cell phone, are about an accident where shortly after landing, a Merpati jet airplane, Boeing 737-300 with 103 people on board, skidded off the runway and crashed into a river bank just 500 meters from the Rendani airport of Manokwari West Papua. This accident occurred on 13 April 2010 at 11.00 a.m. Although all of the passengers and crews are safe, some suffer from broken bones and bruised all over their bodies.

Watching how a deer was caught by dogs in Senopi Papua

Last March 2010, Paul Warere made a one-week-trip to Senopi. It was a district in Manokwari regency of West Papua province. He and Zeth Wonggor went there by SDSP's hardtop from Manokwari - the capital of West Papua province Pak Jurgen from YAT/ SDSP received them and conducted a tour around the tropical rainforest of the Senopi district. The presence of Zeth Wonggor in Senopi was to help explain to the villagers how important it is to protect the tropical rainforest against any efforts of deforestation. In recent years, hundreds of thousands of rainforest in West Papua have been cleared to make way for mono-culture palm plantation. In addition logging companies have caused extensive damage to large area of Papuan forest with little benefits to the indigenous Papuan people. I lent my PDA that is equipped with built in photosmart camera to Paul.

While hiking in the forest, they saw a deer crossed a river. Seeing it struggling in the water, the villagers' dogs jumped into the water and chased the deer. They bit it on neck, and all other parts of its body. The deer could not move easily anymore. It stuck in the water until it was dragged out of the water by these hikers. It was a rare moment and Paul Warere managed to take these photographs for you.

The photographs that are shown in this post were shot using HP iPAQ rx 3000 series Mobile Media Companion. Before they are uploaded to this blog, they had been re-sized and optimized using Adobe Photoshop CS3.

If you are interested in visiting the Kebar valley for watching deer grazing in the savannah, or just observing birds of paradise dancing in trees in Senopi, we can arrange your trip to the region. For more information, please contact me at my email: lroring@yahoo.com or peace4wp@gmail.com. There are some tour package that we can arrange for you some of them are a three day tour around Manokwari where you can go hiking, bird watching and caving in the Table Mountain. We can bring you to visit islands in the Dorey bay where you can do some snorkeling and see the beautiful coral reef and colorful ornamental fish. If you are interested in traveling deeper into the mountainous region then we can arrange a trip for you to the Arfak mountain where you can see birds of paradise dancing in trees of tropical rainforest. by Charles Roring

A favorite snorkeling place in Manokwari of Papua

Snorkeling is an easiest way to admire the underwater beauty of coral reef and ornamental fish. Tourists do not need expensive diving gear if they only want to see colorful corals in shallow waters. What they need are mask with an embedded pipe for breathing through mouth, and fins. Sometimes a small underwater digital camera is useful for taking underwater pictures of the corals in Manokwari of West Papua.

 Often tourists who meet me ask where they can snorkle in Manokwari. There are a number of interesting places inside the Dorey bay of Manokwari. Most tourists will snorkel between Mansinam island and Lemon island. There is also a snorkeling site at the western tip of Pasir Putih beach where fresh water comes out of the rock that ends at the beach. 

As a tourist guide, I know many other places which I can show around to tourists who come to Manokwari to enjoy the natural beauty of the coral reef. Manokwari is also famous for its shipwrecks that are scattered around the Dorey bay. Bring your own scuba diving gear if you want to explore them. There are not any diving centers yet. If you are interested in opening a diving center in Manokwari, I will be happy to help you, contacting you with local businessmen or hotel owners so that you will only concentrate in running your diving center whereas the accommodation will be handled by the hotel owners.

Personally, I have been writing a lot of articles in this blog (my personal blog) and my other Manokwari Papua blog aiming at promoting ecotourism as an alternative to commercial water sport tourism which you often see being promoted by big players in tourism industries around the world. 

I provide a-3-day hiking and snorkeling guided tour to anybody who is interested in having a holiday in Manokwari, the capital of West Papua province that is located in the tropical region of Indonesia. I can also arrange a special trip for you into the interior mountainous region of  Papua island where you can see birds of paradise, watch deer grazing in the Kebar valley and various other activities that interest you. For more information about tourism in Manokwari, you can contact me at lroring@yahoo.com.

Also read:

Snorkeling in Manokwari Papua

Traveling to Islands in the Dorey Bay of Manokwari 

Beautiful Beaches in Manokwari

Snorkeling and bird watching in Dorey bay of Manokwari

Yesterday I and Paul accompanied David Scott (a tourist from England) to islands in the Dorey bay of Manokwari Papua. We left my bookstore for the Ketapang water taxi station at 9 a.m. The weather was cloudy when the water taxi took us to Mansinam island. I asked the boat driver to land on an empty beach around 1 kilometer away from the village of Mansinam. There were some birds singing in trees neaby the beach. Some mangrove trees grow offshore making them look similar to a small island.