I’ve always been that girl who believes everything deserves a one-time shot – you know, that person who always orders the weirdest thing on the menu? That chick! How else do you find out if you’ll even like something or not? Before you actually try? My first dive too, was exactly that – an experiment, an adventure… except, by the time I surfaced, I was undeniably, hooked.

Since that first dive in Bali, I’m 5 certifications, 9 countries and about 110 dives old – a complete novice. And yet, I’ve been back to Indonesia alone, four times.

Most travel-junkies have a bucket list, but divers have one that’s unique to themselves – made up entirely of certifications, dive spots, and marine experiences they can check off. So why go back to the one place over and over?

Short answer – because it’s impossible to ever really ‘be done’ diving Indonesia.

COULD I BE MORE PACIFIC?

With 80,000 kilometers of coastline, 3.1 million square kilometers of territorial waters, 17,508 islands, 3,000 species of fish and encompassing 20% of the world’s coral reefs, these islands are quite literally submerged in the heart of marine biodiversity. Crystalline waters, shallow reefs, gentle drifts, stunning drop-offs, coral walls, historic wrecks and the intoxicating possibility of bumping into whale sharks, hammerheads, gigantic schools of mantas, barracuda, tuna, bumphead parrotfish, reef sharks as well as rare individuals like the dugong or sperm whale, make these waters ideal for both beginners and seasoned divers.

The fact that Indonesia is an overwhelmingly friendly country, grants a visa on arrival for Indians, remains affordable even to the budget traveller, and has loads of dive-shacks, schools and liveaboards to choose from, all run very professionally, are just an added plus. With volcanoes (both on land and underwater), biking trails, architectural ruins, temples, sprawling coffee plantations, great food, and in most places, a bustling nightlife as well, Indonesia is also a wonderful destination to continue your vacation and celebrate your certification after you complete your underwater adventure.

But I digress.

The best diving in the world often means getting to some of the most remote corners of the earth. In my case, it involved a two-hour drive and 22 hours on-board three different aircrafts plus a stopover in Singapore, until I finally arrived at Manado. The jetty was another 45 minutes away, and then a dinghy would bring us to my first ever liveaboard – the gorgeous Raja Manta –which would sail all the way from North Sulawesi to West Papua.

Over the course of eleven days, we would cruise the open ocean from Lembeh, onwards to the Halmahera Strait, via the Cerram and Banda Sea to finally arrive at the coral triangle and Raja Ampat – the crown jewel of the oceanic world, a diver’s paradise, or as the World Wildlife Fund describes it, “a ‘species factory’ located at the intersection of the Indian and Pacific Ocean”.

AS THE BELL TOLLS

A liveaboard is exactly what it sounds like: you room on a ship that has it’s own dinghies attached, that take you out to the most remote dive spots within a few minutes of your kitting up during the course of the day while you basically live the diving dream. Daily schedules are simply – eat, sleep, dive, repeat.

There is literally a dude who walks around the deck of the ship with a bell in his hand, which he ding-dongs to wake you up before every dive – four in a day, five if you’re lucky. Stumble out of bed, or get up off the sundeck, grab a banana or a coffee at the dive briefing, kit up (the crew will have got your gear pre-assembled for you), and off you go.

Compare this to resort life where just making your way out to dive spots and back, can take up more than half your day, cutting into precious underwater time And if its disconnecting from everyday life you’re looking for, nothing really beats sunsets out on the open ocean where most usually, your only connection to the rest of the world is your captain’s radio and a satellite phone for emergencies. Goodbye Twitter and good riddance.

SEA-RIOUSLY THOUGH

There’s usually only two reasons why divers shy away from liveaboards. The first is that they’ve never been on one before, and liveaboards tend to have more experienced divers than not. It’s therefore absolutely normal to feel a bit intimidated at first, and wonder if you’ll feel a bit like a fish out of water. I can now personally vouchsafe, (just like a half dozen other diver friends did for me, before I booked myself on my trip), that usually, the opposite is true.

Your skills will shoot through the roof, because it’s true what they say – practice makes perfect. Your buddies will be exceptionally kind because everyone has had a first liveaboard once upon a time too, and chances are you will make friends for a lifetime. I know I did.

The second reason is that liveaboards are much more expensive than dive vacations on resorts or shacks, so do your research and choose your liveaboard carefully. You will also need dive insurance in addition to regular travel and health insurance. I saved almost a year to be able to afford my two-week getaway, but I can safely recommend White Manta Diving as one of the most professional, friendly and considerate bunch of Dive Ninjas I’ve encountered in the past 6 years that I’ve been diving.

Meanwhile, the list of pros kind of goes on and on. For starters, it’ll be the lightest you ever packed for an international holiday, even if you choose to pack your own dive gear including a BCD plus your underwater camera with all it’s accessories, because you’re always barefoot and the only clothes you’ll need are swimwear and cover-ups or shorts. There’s always music streaming on the deck, and by nightfall someone has usually picked up a guitar. The food is mouthwateringly fresh – don’t ask, but someone spearfished just enough seafood for dinner (high fives all around for sustainable living). You gain a much deeper understanding of the richness of our ecosystem and learn how to support it – for instance the Raja Manta is equipped with marine toilets, provides ocean-friendly, biodegradable toiletries for divers (yet another thing you don’t have to pack), segregates and recycles everything, and also docked at Lembeh, where crew and guests jointly picked up trash and cleared a beach, just to show that even a little goes a long way. And you know how everyday has a sunrise and sunset – yeah, you’ll actually end up catching both, no matter what, and from the best vantage point that you could imagine too. Plus if you’re really lucky, there’ll be a day when a pod of dolphins find you, or you catch a rare salmon run. Welcome to the good life.

DIVED AND SURVIVED

I wish I could sum up my Raja crossing in a few hundred words, but the truth is, even after years of seeing stuff that’s plain magical – count ’em, wrecks from World War I & II, a whole underwater city from Byzantine times perfectly preserved in what is today a UNESCO World Heritage Site, migrating loggerhead turtles, flying fish that accidentally land in your speedboat and patiently wait for you to pop them back into the sea – everyday that I descended into the blue this time, I found myself wondering, if maybe someone hadn’t slipped a hallucinogen into my morning coffee.

The Raja Ampat archipelago (comprising more than 1500 small, beautiful, often isolated islands) is only one part of the Coral Triangle, also called the ‘Amazon of the Seas’, covering 5.7 million sq. kms, a mere 1.6% of the planet’s oceanic area. Powerful deep-sea drifts and currents funnel nutrients into blue water drop offs, delicate fringed coral reefs and sea-grass beds forming the foundation of the food chain that supports an entire ecosystem in this part of the world, allowing marine enthusiasts to observe raw, incredible wildlife in their natural habitats.

LOG THESE

1. Lembeh is the mecca of macro photography. With it’s dark sands, usually calm waters, and gradually sloping shallows it is home to an absolutely astonishing variety of critters and is pretty much synonymous with muck diving. For divers like me (obsessed with sharks, turtles and rays – always in changing order depending on where I am and what I actually see), muck diving was an eye-opener. I couldn’t believe what I was almost seeing after my first dive, until I went back on board and immediately purchased a magnifying glass!

We spotted flamboyant cuttlefish, hermit crabs, pygmy seahorses, ghost pipefish, the blue-ringed octopus, countless coconut octopus, cardinal fish, hairy frogfish, mantis shrimp, crabs, a spotted stingray and oh so many nudis.

Two American buddies who were onboard with us told me two amazing stories about Lembeh. The first, had dived from a resort here last year, and he maintained that with a good guide – locals tend to have more than 50,000 logged dives (and my educated guess is that by then you just stop counting) – diving in Lembeh was a lot like going to the supermarket with a list. You told your guide what you wanted to see, and soon as you made your descent, they took you right up ‘to the exact aisle’ and pointed it out! The second tale unfolded on our trip. A friend who surfaced close to the village during a sunset dive saw a little Indonesian girl playing with a sea-creature and giggling by the shore. He waded in closer hoping to capture a candid shot of what he thought would make a beautiful picture, given the gilded light of the sun, except he was shocked into immobility, when he realized that she was in fact tickling and teasing a blue-ringed octopus, one of four extremely venomous cephalopods especially when handled by humans. Funnily enough, the eight-legged invertebrate seemed just as thrilled with her company. For readers who aren’t scuba-nerds, let me put it this way: The blue-ringed octopus, measuring a mere 5-8 inches, carries enough venom to kill 26 adult humans within minutes; no blue-ringed octopus anti-venom has been discovered till date.

Protips: Stick to no more than two people and a guide and maintain great buoyancy so you don’t kick up too much black sand obscuring… well everything, from sight. Definitely carry a flashlight and preferably a muck stick too. Ask lots of questions before and after dives. Learn as much as you can about what to expect and consult a reef identification guide to make the most of your time. Diving in Lembeh is year round. There are strictly no gloves in Lembeh.

2. A storm in Halmahera had us change route and head west so we hit Bunaken National Park and Bangka next, both right beside each other, and neither disappointed. Bunaken is a great place to spot loads and loads of turtles so whatever you do, don’t leave your camera behind. We spotted the critically endangered hawksbill turtle as well as green turtles, sometimes up to three in one dive! Gentle currents in a landscape scattered with drop offs and giant walls of soft and hard corals make this a great place to drift dive. The occasional strong currents also mean you’ll see loads of schooling fish – tuna, jackfish, butterfly and triggerfish, snappers, fusiliers, even barracuda. At Ron’s Point, in southwest Bunaken – keep your eyes peeled for pelagic life. Right at the edge of the island’s fringing reef, is where you’re likely to spot sharks and rays like we did. The shallows here are also where you’re most likely to spot the elusive dugong. We tried thrice before we gave up, and only because our ship would have sailed into the night without us if we hadn’t grudgingly gotten back on board.

3. Sangalaki and Derawan Islands in East Kalimantan are best done together for a few reasons, not the least of them being that they’re placed fairly close to each other geographically. The coral in Derawan is second only to Raja Ampat, and what’s more you’re likely to encounter some really amazing big game here. Think giant turtles, mantas, barracuda bait balls and possibly even the incredible, shy dugong. And then there lies the irresistible draw of bumping into those gentle giants of the sea – the magnificient whale shark. Like anyone could resist.

For whale sharks in Indonesia, your next best bet would be to head on all the way over, to Cendrawasih Bay on the north side of West Papua. Or you could luck out pure and simple, like Nu (who shoots regularly aboard White Manta) did, and spot a juvenile whale shark being chased by a hammerhead shark in the Banda Sea! Some people…

4. Kakaban Island, less than a half-hour away by boat from Sangalaki, is packed with limestone cliffs and dense forests. I put Kakaban on my bucket list as far back as 2012 – because it’s home to Jellyfish lake.

Back in 2012 when I was first getting certified I got stung. The two hour plus boat ride back to shore was pure agony. In 2013 I was stung again. They say it get’s better, but I really couldn’t tell, what with all the sweating and clenched teeth and trying not to cry. And I’ve been terrified of jellyfish ever since. It’s strange how I would give up an arm and a leg to free dive with apex predators like the Great White given an opportunity, but freeze at the sight of a jelly underwater.So when I heard that Kakaban was home to at least 4 different species of jellyfish in murky, landlocked blue-green waters, that had evolved over the centuries to discard their natural defense mechanisms thanks to their ‘predator-free’ environment… to be stingless, harmless, painless… I knew I had to jump. I was going to embrace my fears, and I was going to do it the Batman way.

5. If you’re going to do Raja Ampat do it on a liveaboard, and if you’re going to do a liveaboard do it in Raja Ampat. It’s just that simple. The sheer abundance of what you will see here – soft corals, hard corals, sea fans, schools of colourful fish, bait balls, caves, wrecks, drop offs, plunging walls. shallows that are both sandy and some that are reefs, black and white sea beds, currents, drifts, calm waters, macro life, critters, nudis, turtles, rays, dolphins, pelagics and apex predators… the list just goes on and on. If you don’t like the diving here, chances are, you don’t like diving at all.

In Raja, a liveaboard offers the penultimate getaway because it’s sole focus is on the diving, and while you catch a quick cat nap or relax during your surface interval, the dive deck crew gets your gear prepped for your next backroll entry into the glittering blues. Your dinghy drops you off, often at the most difficult drop off points at the best moments (speaking in terms of weather and currents) and if fortune should favour you, you can pack up to four, maybe even five dives a day.

A sunrise dive before breakfast allows you to see a ton of marine life come out of hiding as well as sight those that were active by night beginning to take cover by day, while sunset and twilight dives allow you to see the magic of how light plays against water and in turn affect the activity around a reef. Night dives are particularly memorable because of the sheer volume of fauna you spot – the nocturnal animals are either coming awake or on the hunt, while the rest are asleep. We glided by a sleeping turtle, feeding stingrays and loads of fish in deeply relaxed states. Several were tucked away in nooks and crannies on the reef including a baby silver tipped reef shark. By night, everything is different, especially our own perception of our surroundings. Darkness alters our senses but also enhances specifics like sound. Divers have often claimed to have ‘heard a whole new world’ around them by night when even the more popular dive sites usually descend into silence.

Protips: Good divers never touch marine life, but this is even more important at night. Do not shine your torch too long at fauna by night, especially if the animal is resting.

Raja Ampat is a shark lover’s paradise. Right from reef sharks in the shallows – black tips, white tips, silver tips and greys, to every other kind that you’ve ever dreamt of interacting with in the wild: tawny nurse sharks, leopard sharks, thresher sharks, mako sharks, blue sharks, hammerheads, whale sharks… with time and luck, chances are you can spot them all. Chances are you won’t want to leave!

You’ll most definitely also spot the wobbegong shark that’s endemic to this region – and that’s something divers put on their bucket lists. Some days we spotted up to four on a single dive, along with reef sharks, but here’s the kicker – we always saw sharks on every dive that we made in Raja!

If you’re limited on time make sure you try and dive these very special spots in the Coral Triangle and Raja while you’re there, if only for a day:

Shark Rock is worth every bit of the work you put in, on account of the colder waters and stronger currents you’re likely to encounter. But with the currents and a bit of cold, the pelagics also come out to play! Whatever you do, don’t leave your camera behind.

Manta Sandy in a shallow lagoon near Arborek Island is unlike most other places in the wild that are home to manta rays. Settle down on calm white sands in warm crystalline waters where you’ll find, that surprisingly, there are almost no strong currents at all, and still, the Mantas will come. They arrive in threes and fours and fives, looping and gliding in perfect symmetry, like synchronized swimmers performing the most graceful ballet.

Protip: What you will need in advance, are permits (park rangers are now sensibly limiting how many people can dive here at the same time – about 20), and patience. 

Melissa’s Garden in Raja Ampat is considered one of the best dive spots in the world. I saw my first wobbegong shark here, within four minutes of my descent at 17m! Just a little further we encountered schools of curious batfish, parrot and angelfish, surgeonfish, clownfish playing peekaboo in anemones, armies of soldierfish, large puffer fish, a blue lobster and still more wobbegongs. The clams here are large enough to sleep in! At it’s deepest, Melissa’s Garden is about 35m.The shallows, which are filled with beautiful soft and hard corals, and giant sea fans (home to the rare pygmy seahorse), eventually lead to a drop off where the currents are much stronger. Here we encountered barracuda baitballs, and at about 28m we had begun spotting whole schools of pelagics.

Protip: Dive Nitrox if you’re certified, so you have longer no-stop dive time where the currents are strongest and the sharks come out to play. Giant tuna, mackerel, marlin, barracuda… all these too, you’ll find, are where the currents are the strongest.

GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE SUN

At the dock, while we waited for taxis to take us to the airport, each of us (finally) grumbling about minor cuts and scrapes and coral burns that we’d shown off for the past two weeks like cowboys sporting scars, or no-fly time (clearly our dopamine levels were dropping – there’s no diving for at least 18-24 hours before you fly), or long transit hours and the working Monday that loomed ahead of us, Kim (who I’d lovingly dubbed Kimmy Swimmy by now), my fabulous Nitrox instructor, nudged me to ask why I hadn’t picked pretty much any other flight out of Papua? “A half a day in Sorong is just so wrong, Nish” he laughed, and by the time my friends had left, leaving me to amuse myself at the dinky little airport, I knew it to be true.

Turning to the Internet for company was no fun either. Hey Instagram, guess what? #LiveaboardLife is probably the worst pun ever.

The glass of wine I nursed on-board my flight back helped to numb the reality of the 16-hour workdays that lay in wait for me, larger than life and patient as death. And yet when I closed my eyes, I discovered, that now, more often than not, I dreamt that I breathed under the sea

(© All photographs are the property of Nisha Ravindranathan, the photographer as credited, or ForBetterOrVerse, and may not be reused without permission.)

An adapted and shorter version of this story first appeared in ET Magazine.