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A selection of Patrik's journeys...
Photo:
Cliffton Phillips
May 25th 2007 - ?. Yap, Micronesia. 
From the end of May 2007 and at least one year on, I will be in Yap, Micronesia, working as IT Manager at Manta Ray Bay Hotel. For regular updates, visit my blog Oxygen. Photos from my journeys will from now on be found on my Flickr pages. October 2nd-25th 2006... All over Indonesia...  In October 2006, I joined my dive travel friends on a Biodiversity Cruise on the Pindito, taking us all over the Indonesian archipelago, including the legendary Banda Islands as well as going back to the fantastic waters of the Raja Ampats, finishing off with a few days in Minahasa/Bunaken. Photos from this trip can be found in the Indonesia section of my Flickr pages.  November 11-21 2005... Papua New Guinea.  At the end of 2005, I joined some of my dive travel friends on a trip to the Bismarck Sea in Papua New Guinea/Niugini. We where on the Febrina live-aboard, diving the Walindi reefs in Kimbe Bay as well as the Witu Islands and the Kavieng area off of New Ireland. Photos from this excellent trip can be found in the Papua New Guinea section of my Flickr pages. Hopefully, I will visit Bill and his family there eventually. Unfortunately, that will probably not happen soon. St. Lucia shares with Palau the other reason for me not going back to Palau - their current administrations are bought by Japanese interests to support the Japanese pro-whaling lobby in The International Whaling Commission. I have decided to do my diving and traveling in countries that don't endanger our oceans for shortsighted economic gain in such an obvious way. Some other beautiful and interesting nations that I might otherwise have liked to visit or re-visit but will now try to stay away from, unless they change their policies, are: Antigua & Barbuda, Denmark, Dominica, Grenada, Iceland, Japan, Kiribati, The Marshall Islands, Nicaragua, Norway, Russia, Solomon Islands, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Vincent & the Grenadines and Tuvalu. I am not alone in making this choice, and as most - if not all - of those countries actually profit much more from tourists visiting to see live sea mammals than they do by supporting the killing of those animals, I believe that this choice will make a difference. You might want to consider your choices as well. If you are a resident in one of those countries - please (re-)consider if this is really the view that you want your government and country to adhere to and communicate as your country's official view. November/December 2002... Back to Indonesia.  Did a few weeks of diving and exploration in West Papua, Indonesia at the end of 2002 on the Pindito. Fell in love with the area. Crossed the Equator. Some of my photos, and a bit of information about this remote part of the world can be found here: Raja Ampat Islands. On the way to and back from the Raja Ampats, I revisited Bali, a few months after the Bali bombs, and a year after having spent the 9/11 events in what I then experienced as a remote, but safe, part of the world - Bali. Still - everything considered, I would still feel safer in Kuta than in N.Y.C. or Stockholm. As you might notice, I visited Dolphins Pacific in Palau. While I absolutely loved snorkeling with those beautilul dolphins, I still loathed the idea of putting bottle-nosed dolphins - captured as by-catch by Japanese whalers - in an environment where they absolutely don't belong. There are already dolphins in Palau - wild spinner dolphins, not trapped bottle-nosed ones. You might not be able to snorkel with them whenever you choose to, but if you are lucky you might get your chance - and if you do, you will enjoy it much more than the forced encounter at Dolphins Pacific. I've been lucky enough to get close to wild spinners in Yap and Papua New Guinea as well as the captured bottlenoses in Palau, and the Yap and PNG experiences where in another league. You might not always get as good photos, but you get superior memories... August - September 2001. Getting stuck in Indonesia...  Went to Surabaya in Indonesia for a journey on the Mnuw to Yap, hoping to cross the Wallace Line as well as the Equator. Got stuck with engine problems in a timber and concrete loading harbor in north Bali, listening to BBC radio news stories about 9/11... You can check out the journey including some of my photos in this slide show courtesy of Manta Ray Bay Hotel, Yap. December -99 - January 2000. Back to Yap.  Went back to Yap for the Millenium. I plan to return for the next one... Palau & Yap, Micronesia - October -98  My introduction to what is now my favorite part of the world. Check out the Manta Ray Bay Hotel & Yap Divers site, where some of my photos from this trip can be found. Kuredu, the Maldives - December -97  My first taste of the tropics and diving. I was hooked... line and sinker. |
