Celebrating Our Anniversary with SeaTrek

By Natasha and Philip Morris

We first clocked eyes on the Katharina and Ombak Putih after searching the internet for small, intimate cruises around Indonesia. We had been planning a big trip to celebrate 20 years together and 5 years married, so we decided to follow SeaTrek on social media just to get a feel of the boats and activities, and over time this included following Dion Luas & Nita CJ. Both made the cruise look irresistible, so we booked up pretty quickly. The Seatrek crew were amazing at getting back to us via email about any questions I had and decided to put us on the Katharina (the smaller of the boats) for a more intimate and peaceful experience.

The Katharina has 6 cabins down in the hull for guests, we had cabin number 3 which surprised us with plenty of natural light from the eating table above (made from glass) and a spacious enough bathroom. The crew (mainly Radit) laid out happy anniversary in beautiful pink flowers with a welcome bottle of red wine. Radit later became my main dancing partner.

We learnt that Dion would be our tour leader after we had booked and had followed him a few months. This was so nice as it already felt like we knew a member on board and eased us into boat living. Dion was the best tour leader and made every activity move seamlessly into the next, making it look effortless. We both particularly enjoyed his pre-dinner lectures about what we had seen that day snorkeling or on land or what might be coming up in tomorrow’s activities. The personal touch of adding photos from the day’s activities made us all giggle and he takes a cracking shot.

Even though we had been following the adventures of the Katharina and the Ombak Putih online, nothing really prepares you for how amazing these adventures really are in real life. We can honestly say all the activities provided were incredible and we wouldn’t have wanted to miss any of them. The feeling of being completely isolated away from the usual tourism of Indonesia in mid-August was totally awesome and we didn’t have phone signal for 9 full days, and this was such a welcome treat for us to have a complete detox from the world. Others on board got local sims and had the occasion signal.

It’s hard to say what experiences were our favourite as they were all incredible. The crew seek out the most private beaches and snorkel spots, we hardly ever come across any big crowds. The mojitos on the private pink beach were excellent and playing football with the crew barefoot on the sand whilst the sun sets, perfection. The crew really made the journey, every time we boarded the Katharina they would cheer and raise their arms.

Whilst snorkeling, Dion and Lukman were very knowledgeable and would point out various species and make sure we didn’t miss a thing. If anyone saw anything we would surface and shout ‘turtle’ for example.

We really appreciated them both. Swimming with ‘Willy the whale shark’, Manta, Turtles, octopus, cuttlefish, sting ray, Nemo, to name a few will be embedded in our brains forever. The conservation project attaching live coral to metal frames and placing them back into the ocean was a fabulous experience. We can’t not mention the Komodo dragons! What a treat, what we particularly liked was that the island hired local people as guides, and they were placed around the park to give you information.

We were lucky enough to be onboard on the 17th of August which is the Indonesians Independence Day. The crew set up a sports day of activities on the beach for everyone to get involved. We had such an amazing day adorned in red and white ribbon. We all got very competitive and had a good laugh competing with the crew.

Whilst on board the boat Frans quietly kept everything ticking over and is a huge asset to the crew. He was hilarious and very attentive calling out the dishes for ‘the vegetarian’ aka me. The chef and food were outstanding on this cruise. We had 3 homemade meals a day with lovely sweet and savoury snacks in-between. None of us ever went hungry and the variety even for ‘the vegetarian’ was superb.

If you are worried about the kind of people that might be on the boat with you, don’t be. Everyone we met were very lovely, like-minded people that just wanted a relaxing and fabulous time spent with the animals and the crew. We all enjoyed ourselves very much and we’re all very sad to leave.

All in all, it was an experience of a lifetime, and we will be sharing our experience with travellers and family forever.

*Natasha and Philip Morris are a guest on the SeaTrek with Whale Sharks, Corals, and Dragons trip in August 2024