Coral Hunting in East Java Part 2!

Within the hotel, there is a nice restaurant that overlooks the sea. After a hard day of collecting coral, we always eat here. It is a large restaurant and the menu is even in English! They have great crab corn asparagus soup. Although I really don't taste any crab, but the soup always feels good in our dehydrated bodies.

In a corner of the dining area, there was this table and chairs carved out of wood. It was really interesting to see the detailed artwork.

A close up of one of the carvings behind a chair. This is probably the Javanese tiger, extinct now. There is even a Balinese tiger, but no one has seen one in a long time. The only tiger that is around is the Sumatran tiger. It is the rarest tiger in the world. Unfortunately, it is still hunted down by poachers in the island of Sumatra.

At the end of the table is this sculpture of what appears to be a deer.

This one I can't figure out. It appears to have two eyes and a mouth. I don't know what the craftsman was thingking when he carved this thing. Banyuwangi is full of these wooden type of carvings. It is represented everywhere in the city.

Then there is this little pier that jets out into the sea. Usually there are people fishing at the end of the pier.

These steps from the dining area can take you down to the wooden pier.

View as I got on the wooden platform.

Kind of scary. Some of the these wooden boards were loose and scared the crap out of me when I stepped on one!

Looking down about 15 feet, I can see this huge Sarcophyton toadstool. It must have been over 2 feet across! The water was crystal clear and I wish I had my snorkel.

I can see some corals growing out of patches of rocks. Notice the blue damsels swimming around.

And here is a picture from the end looking back at the restaurant. I think this is a great place to fish.

And here I am, sipping a coke after a big meal! I'm one of those guys that is addicted to coca cola. I'll do a post on "My McDonald's Adventures" later and tell you how I got addicted.

This hotel is actually very nice. This is a view from just outside our room. Notice the fishing pier on the left.

Now for coral pictures. Here are some photos of corals from this trip to Banyuwangi, Northern Bali, and Makassar - Sulawesi.

A beautiful large sea fan. Purplish body with red polyps and yellow tips! Only really dedicated reefers can keep these alive for long term.

Another gorgeous sea fan. This one happened to be red with orange polyps!

So this was way cool! Black tip sharks swimming around a shallow pool full of corals and inverts. I was walking around in the pool while the sharks just cruised around me. Awesome!

Beautiful but can cause a lot of problems in an aquarium. Sea apples are actually a type of a sea cucumber. When stressed, it can release toxins that can wipe out all of your fish!

Some rose bubble tip anemones from Sumbawa. Some extremely rare color morphs come from this area.

A little deep water acropora. I think this will turn into a dark purple color under halides. We will call it "thin purple monster"!

Some nice bullseye mushrooms, Rhodactis inchoata.

A very nice turbinaria cup coral. This is an exceptional piece, most of them are brown in color.

A beautiful hydnophora. This coral will glow under actinics.

Nice deep water favia. This one is green with pink eyes - nice!

This is an unusal coral. If you guessed diploastrea, you are correct! It acutally has purplish eyes!

Another deep water favid. This one looks like a montastrea.

A little metallic green montipora. I'm sure it will shift in colors under halides.

A rare blastomussa from Sumbawa! These are uncommon from this area, but they are extremely beautiful!

Euphyllia divisa, the metallic frogspawn! The specimens from Sumbawa seem to ship better than their cousins from Makassar.

Check out these guys. Anglers come in extremely nice colors! They will travel a long way before ending up in someone's aquarium.

Ok, that ends the 2nd part of this journey. There is so much to talk about but no time. It is 3:30 now in the morning. In about half an hour, I will be taking off to the airport to Makassar for more corals. I won't be able to post again for a few days. But I will have my friend's brother post pictures of corals for your enjoyment in the coming days.

cheers,
Eddie