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During our
BrotherDive 2017 in Raja Ampat we stayed on Kri Island.
There are actually 2 resorts on the Island, both owned
by (also Dutch born) Max Ammer; Kri Eco Resort and the
more luxurious Sorido Bay resort.
The history
Max Ammer, the founder of Papua Diving, first came to
the region over 21 year ago following his passion to
search for submerged World War II aircraft. After
spending so much time in Raja Ampat Max fell in love
with the Papuan people and started a number of
initiatives to support the local Papuan communities.
Papua Diving was one of the
projects. It’s mission: to bring much needed money to
the local people by enabling divers who had never heard
of the region to be amazed by the wonders of the
unspoiled aquatic world here.
| Max Ammer
is also the founder of the
RARCC
This stand for:
Raja Ampat Research and
Conservation Centre |
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| The RARCC
engages indigenous communities in the deployment
of financial self-reliant projects and small
businesses which stimulate conservation and
protection for the present and future
generations of the Raja Ampat archipelago. |
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The arrival
From the Sorong airport you will be picked-up by the
staff of the resort, they will bring you from the
airport to a restaurant close to the harbor.
The restaurant has a great view
over the harbor of Sorong. You will receive a voucher in
order to have breakfast at this restaurant.
From there you’ll go to the
harbor of Sorong from where you will be transferred by
boat to Kri Island.
This all went very smooth in our case! |
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The resort
We stayed in the Kri Eco Resort,
as the name already suggests, is this a rather basic
resort. The resort has 13 cottages, all made of locally
sourced and low-impact materials and styled very much in
accordance with the local tradition of architecture.
There are 3 kind of
categories: Papuan style, Superior and
Deluxe.
The Papuan and Superior versions all have a shared
bathroom and toilet, the ‘Deluxe’ version has its own
private bathroom with shower and toilet inside the
cottage and an outdoor terrace with lounge furniture.
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The
Deluxe cottage:
As mentioned we had a Deluxe cottage, which is a very
large cottage with in our case one big size double bed
and one single bed.
It has a large entry where you can store your luggage.
It has also a large bathroom with plenty of room to keep
your toiletries (and to charge your camera batteries….),
and a toilet. There’s a large (separate) shower room
with 1 sink.
The Deluxe cottage is built directly above the water /
beach and has an outdoor terrace with lounge furniture
and immediate access to the beach via a natural
staircase.
The terrace is really a nice
place to watch the sunrise or sunset.
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Is
also has a refrigerator and 2 mobile fans.
Camera table and waterboiler
There are plenty of (EU plug) sockets with 220-240Volt.
We’re not spoiled, but to be
honest we were both glad we had the ‘Deluxe’ version.... |
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Facilities
Public (shared) toilets and bathrooms are
located next to the path that goes parallel to the beach
and behind the cottages. Especially during a nighttime
visit to the toilet not ideal….
However, they look nice and are clean!
There is also a volleyball
field hidden next to the path, and there are kayak’s
available for free.
The ‘jungle’ starts directly
in your backyard…..
There are 2 options to walk from the Kri Eco resort to the Sorido Bay resort, via the beach (only
with low tide), or via the ‘jungle path’ over the hill (quite
a walk in with these temperatures) |
| Sorido Bay offers you a great
traditional massage in their spa, you can also book your
massage at Kri and they will arrange a transfer by boat to
and from Sorido. On
the Island there are also a couple of small (local)
villages and a couple of homestay’s.
The restaurant is the only location you might be able to
have a Wi-Fi connection, this fully depends on the
availability of the connection to the mainland (Sorong).
Also keep in mind that mobile phone connections are most
of the time unavailable (there is a fixed line at the
resort for emergencies) |
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The restaurant:
Next to the pier (Yetty) is the restaurant, this is the
only common location on the resort, so besides a
restaurant it's also a meeting place.
You’ll have your breakfast,
lunch and dinner served here, as well as your drinks. It
has a refrigerator were you can get some soft drinks and
beer (paid), there is also free tea and coffee
available.
Keep in mind that when the
staff leaves during the night the refrigerator will be
locked. |
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The food
For such a small and basic resort the food
is really good!
Most of the dishes are Papuan
style, which means in some cases rather spicy…. Never
the less, it’s really good!
Breakfast is ‘standard’ continental including eggs etc.
,lunch is good with lots of variety. Dinner is also very
good, you can always choose between meat and fish, with
also a good variety.
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The pier
The pier is more or less the
‘hotspot’ of the resort.
At the beginning of the pier
you’ll find the ‘briefing room’ for the divers, the dive
manager’s office and the ‘Papuan style’ cottages.
Halfway the pier there’s a
lounge area with sunbeds; this is the best location on
the Island to watch the sunset!!
At the end of the pier is the
diving center from where you hop on the diving boats.
Here you can also clean, rinse and store your personal diving
gear. |
Briefing room |
Papuan style cottages |
Lounge area |
Dive Center |
The dive
center [Description
provided by Papua diving]
“Papua Diving is unique when compared to other land
based and liveaboard operators in Raja Ampat. Not only
thanks to our outstanding location – Today we may pride
ourselves of having an unique knowledge about the area
thanks to working so closely together with the Papuan
people for many years
• Being the pioneering hence the most experienced
operator in Raja Ampat
• Providing employment to more Papuan people than other
operators (90% of our staff are Papuan)
• Donating 10% of profit to conservation initiatives
• We actively set up and support conservation
initiatives and projects |
| Many of the
today`s famous dive sites were discovered by Max and our
team and retain the original names he gave them. The
whole of our dive team are Papuan people. Many of them
were previously fisherman that used highly destructive
methods such as dynamite fishing or shark finning. Now
they are amongst some of the most conscientious
conservationists in the region helping to clean and
monitor the marine park protected zones.” |
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Our experience
Actually, for as far as we can
verify the text above, most of it is true.
The briefings will be performed at the beginning of the
pier by your dive guide. Because they only work with
Papuan dive guides the briefing might be a little
different than you might be used to…. The English
language is for some dive guides one step to far…..
Never the less, divers are used to hand signals….
The dive center itself is well arranged, you can clean,
rinse and store all your personal diving equipment at
the dive center located at the end of the pier.
There are enough tank available (Air and Nitrox), and
there is also a possibility to rent equipment as well.
From this location you can directly access the diving
boats which will bring you to the dive locations. |
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The dive manager
during our stay was Tom Boxler (USA), he was actually the
interim dive manager due to holidays. He's quite a nice
guy, however our feeling was that he was a little bit stressed and
not quite comfortable with his position.
As mentioned the dive guides and crew are all Papuan,
and ‘one’ with the sea. They can actually ‘read’ the
currents from the boat! Amazing…
The boat crew is always willing to help you, and is very
friendly (but don’t expect they will speak English…)
The guides are experienced divers, and always willing to
help you in any way they can, just tell them what you
like to see or do, and they will assist you in it.
Besides that they are also very flexible in choosing the
dive locations, there is almost always an option to
change the original planning of the day if the customers
like to change to another dive location.
I love that!
Due to the sometimes unpredictable currents and weather,
they might also change de dive locations by themselves. |
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So, we can be rather clear about Papua diving; Great
diving center with very good (local) dive guides. And as
you might expect from a ‘real’ dive resort the dive
operation is very well arranged. |
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Our
evaluation
Our ratings below are based on our personal
experiences. They are also adapted to our needs
as divers. Meaning that we’re less focused on
additional features.
Therefore you should only pay attention to our
ratings if you’re planning a diving holiday.
Where we base our score
on:
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Accommodation: |
Room size, beds,
cleaning, bathroom, location,
environmentally friendly, etc. |
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Facilities: |
Pool, sport
activities, organized trips, TV,
Internet, phone, etc. |
| Dive center: |
Quality of equipment, boats, crew, dive
guides, location, service, marine
conservation, etc. |
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Scoring
matrix
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