Something not found in the brochure ...

The marketing image is of an idyllic remote (remote!) luxury resort, which oozes comfort and amenities.

Well, as usual, there's the truth and then there's the whole truth. In the interest of the latter, as nice as the Wakatobi resort is (and also its diving), it isn't quite the Gilligan's Island of isolated remoteness where you expect to see no other soul and any manmade noise is the exception. The larger truth is that while the location is indeed remote from the island of Bali, the archipelago that it resides in is quite well inhabited, with something like two dozen towns or villages within roughly a ten mile radius. Since sustenance fishing is a big part of their economy, this results in a large number of small fishing boats. As Murphy's Law would have it, very few of them have any mufflers anymore...

Plus, the local island topology puts the Resort on the "short cut" inside corner on one of their common navigation routes, so they cut as close to land as much as they believe they can get away with. On most days, that's fifty feet (or less) off of the famous house reef drop-off.

Finally, we never bothered to count exactly how many little noisy putt-putt boats go by each day. There was a convoy that went out at dawn, and another that returned at sunset, plus many solo boats such as the one seen here. If I had to take a guess, I'd say at least twenty/day and possibly as high as fifty.

putt-putt

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