February 10, 2026
While snorkeling in Matafonua Resort I was seeking out two creatures unique to this area. Both eluded me despite several attempts!
The property owner Darren is an accomplish underwater film maker, diver, surfer, drone & photography wizard that has a vast knowledge of the Oceans / Seas and everthing in them. He told us where to find the above but only Memo says he saw the emperor angelfish. The rest of us, including the dive masters have yet to find these two beauties. Below is video I took while in search of the spanish dancer and the rusty colored algae patties are as close as I got trying to find.
Darren took these amazing drone photos for us while we were there, he made it look effortless. Truly a talented individual and a great chef too - most of the dinners he cooked and developed the recipes too!
Some days I just don't want to sight see! My birthday was one of them. I just wanted to indulge in a good movie in a comfy, cool theater, eat some popcorn and follow with a yummy lunch! That's exactly what I did, despite some of my friends trying to convince me go on a 5 hour van to see 2 gigantic temples.
The ancient temple of Soo Poo Kong was our next stop. We were all wilting in the heat by then, but they promised an air conditioned room for a 20 minute movie on the history - so we rallied! Basically, the Temple was erected as a thank you to the Chinese Muslim Admiral Cheng Ho who let the fleet stop here on their way somewhere else in Asia back in 1416 because his helmsman, Wang Jing Hong, was sick. Wang recovered from his illness in a cave on this site and built first the statue and then the temple to thank Ho for his life.
SEMERANG is the capital of Central Java , the world's 13th largest island and the 5th largest in Indonesia. Despite it's size, it is the world's most populous island, holding over 150 Million people (over 55% of Indonsesia's population). Today, I did a 50 person bus tour of some of the Semerang's history , so I could cover a lot in one day.