No Bystanders
on Their Own Land

It isn't an alarm that wakes you, it's the forest. Parrots, a hornbill somewhere, and underneath it the water slapping against the stilts below your bed.

Raja Ampat means “Four Kings” — an archipelago of around 1,500 islands at the far western edge of Papua. Three quarters of all known coral species grow here, and more than 1,400 species of fish move through the channels. There are few places on this planet where the sea is this full. And there is hardly one where it belongs to the people who live there.

A Small Paradise, Without the Luxury

Warimpurem sits on Waigeo, the largest of the four main islands, in a quiet bay you could almost miss from the water. Houses on stilts, seven rooms, a jetty, and behind them the jungle climbing steeply.

The reef begins where the jetty ends. No boat, no being driven out to a spot. You step into the water and you are in it. Four hours of snorkelling feel like two here.

And right at the beach there is a freshwater spring. You can bathe in it — after a day in salt water, that is the moment you remember later.

What you don't know yet: on this journey you watch a bird-of-paradise before sunrise that has swept its own stage clean, you eat in the evening with a woman who once caught squid at night — and you find out why this family let a suitcase full of cash walk back out the door.