Coral reef fish in the bay of Manokwari

There are hundreds of species of coral reef fish in the Dorey bay of Manokwari city. To watch them, we just need to wear snorkeling masks and swim over the coral reef in the morning or in the afternoon before sunset. To get to the place where the coral reefs are still in pristine condition, we hire a fisherman boat. The coral reef fish can easily be photographed by snorkelers at the depths of 1 to 3 meters. If the depth of the sea water is more than 3, snorkelers have to go down and take the pictures of the fish. Unfortunately the quality of the underwater pictures will not be so good because of the unstable position the snorkelers have in the water.

The bay in Manokwari city is a nice snorkeling site for tourists who want to see the beauty of the underwater world of coral reef in affordable cost. Just bring your snorkeling gear before flying to Manokwari. I will bring you to places where you can enjoy snorkeling as much as you like.

Coral reef is the tropical rainforest of the sea. It absorbs CO2 gases and release Oxygen during the photosynthesis.
Also read: Coral reef in Manem islet

A New Tourist House for Kwau village

I am now in the process of designing a tourist house for Kwau village. The reason for the design and construction of the new wooden house is to provide accommodation for tourists who want to visit Arfak mountains that is closer to the main road. As a novice user of Google Sketchup, I feel challenged when trying to draw the wooden roof trusses that look complicated in the following 3D presentation. After several attempts, I was finally able to draw the beams and girders which entirely will be made of wood.  The cover for this roof truss is the corrugated metal roof sheets locally called seng.

The current tourist house that belongs to Hans Mandacan is a two hour walk from the main road - too far for elderly tourists. With this new tourist house, it is expected that tourists will be interested in visiting the rainforest of Kwau village.

In the rainforest of Kwau village, tourists will be able to watch bower bird, magnificent birds of paradise and learn the local wisdom of the indigenous Papuan people in using herbs to cure various kinds of diseases. There are hundreds of local and national logging companies operating in West Papua right now. Tens of thousands of hectares of rainforest in this tropical island have been converted into monoculture palm oil and cocoa plantations.  Eco-tourism project is one of the alternative solutions that, we expect, can prevent further destructions of tropical rainforest in New Guinea island.

This tourist house will have six rooms. However only four rooms that will be allocated for sleeping. The other two will be for study/ library and store room. Every room of the house will have windows and ventilation slots to allow light and air to enter it. Because Arfak mountains are located in tropical region, the humidity of the surrounding environment greatly influences the wooden structures of the house. Therefore, all the surfaces of the wooden poles, beams, blocks and panels will be painted with base paints and anti termite solution.
The use of Google Sketchup or now Trimble Sketchup greatly accelerate the design process of any 3D objects including houses and buildings with high accuracy. Wood as construction materials is getting scarce but it is still more friendly to the environment than light steel or aluminum. Wood is a sustainable resource whereas steel and aluminum are not. We need more energy to extract these minerals from underground. Architects must design the structures of their wooden houses efficiently to save cost and wood materials. by Charles Roring

The Design of a New Tourist House in Kwau village of Arfak mountains

I am now in the process of designing a simple tourist house for Kwau village. This current tourist house is far from the main road making it very difficult for elderly travelers to reach it. As a solution, I and the villagers in the village are now trying to build another guesthouse for tourists which is closer to the road.
As a naval architect, I am more familiar with Delftship. When I was asked by Samuel Mandacan and Hans Mandacan, two leaders of Kwau village, to help them design the guesthouse, I had to start learning Google Sketchup. As a matter of fact there is another BIM software that I was familiar with. It was Archicad.

Although Archicad is more suitable for home design, I choose Google Sketchup because it is lighter. I am now trying to master it. The following is the unfinished 3D presentation of the tourist house. It will be constructed with wood and concrete materials. This timber frame house will be constructed at a slope of Kwau village area. The lower part will be made of concrete whereas the upper part - the wooden planks and blocks. In Indonesia, this type of construction is called rumah semi permanen (semi permanent house). It is not fully a wooden house or concrete house.

I am thinking of designing several other types with different floor plans. However because of budget constraints, I cannot dream a tourist house that looks like a luxurious resort in the mountains. In this design, the kitchen and toilet will be separated from the main building. So, the right term for this house should be a garden house.
Tourists will stay for 3 to 14 days in this simple guesthouse. I have been promoting Kwau village for 2 years now. It is a nice area for travelers who are interested in learning Papuan traditional medicines and herbs, hiking and birdwatching. by Charles Roring

Migrating from Archicad to Sketchup

Architects now can design any 3D objects using various software such as Archicad, Revit, Rhino and Google Sketchup. Personally, I used to discuss a number of articles that are related to the design of floor plan for a small house using Archicad. This is really a great product from Graphisoft. Even though it is a very good BIM software for architectural design, it consumes a lot of disk space in my notebook PC. For more complicated designs, my computer runs slow. So, I was thinking of using smaller software that can be used to design 3D objects without consuming much of the memory inside my computer. For designing simple objects such as windows, doors, or a wooden bench, a light but powerful solution such as Google Sketch up is more suitable. I am now learning how to use this software. My first object that I have just designed is a wooden bench. I hope that within a few weeks, I will be able to create more complicated designs such as a house or even a boat. If I am able to do that, I will present them in this blog.

Google does not own sketchup anymore. Now it belongs to Trimble. If we open sketchup.com, we will notice the change in its logo. So, from now on we should not call it Google Sketchup but Sketchup only. 

The learning curve of Sketchup is low. Anybody can master it in less than two weeks. So, instead of learning 2D CAD software, I encourage you to learn this versatile 3D modelling software. by Charles Roring

Lionfish from the Coral Reef of Manokwari

Coral reef is the richest environment in the world. It is home to thousands of marine animals. One of them is lionfish. Lionfish has unique fins that look like fan. The beauty of lion fish always attracts snorkelers' attention. Their bodies, tail and fins are mostly decorated with bright colors such as red, white and yellow. When I and two Russian tourists were snorkeling in Dorey bay of Manokwari, we saw lionfish. The fish moved closer to urchins when we tried to get closer to it. I think it was the way the fish protected itself from snorkelers whom the lionfish thought as predators. This species of fish is one of the most sought after marine animals by ornamental fish traders and aquarium owners. The unique form and beautiful colors of their bodies make them expensive.

There are some coral reef or marine parks in Dorey bay of Manokwari. I have been promoting them as eco-tourism destinations since last year. Because these coral reef areas are not categorized by the government as MPA (Marine Protected Areas), the preservation efforts for these parks are very little.
I try to inform city dwellers in Manokwari city to stop throwing their domestic and industrial wastes into the sea through a number of articles about marine environment that I wrote in my personal blog. But so far, people in Manokwari city still throw their wastes into the sea. I hope that with the increasing number of tourists snorkeling in Manokwari bay, people will stop destroying their sea and respect the environment. As the capital of West Papua province, Manokwari stretches along the Dorey bay where three small islands are located.

To the south of the Dorey bay is the blue Arfak mountain range. It is still covered with tropical rainforest home to hundreds of species of animals including tree kangaroo, birds of paradise and the bowerbird (amblyornis inornatus). The ecotourism potentials in Manokwari are unlimited. There are a lot of interesting things that we can see and explore in Arfak mountains from trekking along the slopes of the mountains to bird watching under the canopy of the rainforest and from learning traditional medicine to encountering the unique culture of the the indigenous peoples.  

If you are interested in snorkeling in Dorey bay to see various ornamental coral reef fish, or need an interpreter when traveling around Manokwari, please contact me via my email: charlesroring@gmail.com. I will arrange your itinerary or trips in this capital of West Papua province and guide you to the beach, the sea, the rainforest and the mountains. New Guinea is the largest tropical island in the world. The western half of the island is under the administration of Indonesia. The natural beauty of this island is worth visiting and exploring. by Charles Roring
Also read:

• Anemone fish in the coral reef of Raimuti Island of Manokwari
• Coral reef in Manem island