I don’t think it’s possible to snorkel over the coral reefs at Bawah Reserve without your heart skipping a beat. Shoals of butterfly fish glide past. Clownfish peep out of the coral. Electric blue and yellow demoiselle fish no larger than your thumb nail nibble at the reefs. Huge silver tuna follow each other single file. Green turtles dip and dive. Swim at the right time and you might even catch black tipped reef sharks snooping around for breakfast. It’s a secret underwater world that makes you catch your breath.
Perhaps the most striking place to snorkel on this remote getaway in Indonesia’s Anambas islands is around the charmingly wonky pier, where guests arriving via seaplane get their first glance of the Bawah, and from which they may then head off on diving explorations or sunset boat rides. It’s wonky not due to misdesign (everything on this island is planned with exquisite detail) but because it was painstakingly built by specialist divers to ensure that the surrounding coral reefs were not disturbed. You’ll note that everything on this reserve has been constructed with the ethos that guests should be living within nature and not displacing it – and nowhere more so than the reefs.
