Between far-flung islands in Southeast Asia, Sarah Baxter goes underwater with some unusual creatures
22 February 2021 • 9:18am Sometimes they floated right towards my face; at other times I followed them, hypnotised by their gentle, pulsing ballet
Credit: GETTY
The tiny village of Mbuang Mbuang, on Indonesia’s middle-of-nowhere Banggai archipelago, had over-glamorous pretensions: its name was declared in large, white letters, Hollywood-style, on the hill just above.
To be fair, its beach was A-list – a blinding dazzle of bright-white sand – and its stilted houses paddled in perfect-blue seas. However, the village itself was heat-drowsy; it seemed most of its residents were sitting beneath a rose apple tree, doing nothing much at all. Few outsiders had been here since my vessel, the Ombak Putih, last sailed by; the place felt within a fathom of falling completely off the map. No, Mbuang Mbuang’s greatest drama was below the surface.