Pesona Papua Homestay

Review after staying at 6 different locations in Raja Ampat: A really nice homestay with an amazing view and the mangroves at the back of your bungalows. Athus is your man if you want to do activities, he's really kind and speaks English. Breakfast, lunch and dinner served on your private terrace. Really nice and romantic for couples or single travellers that prefer to eat alone. Emma and Nancy prepare one of the best foods that I had in RA.

La ubicació, l’accés al mar, sobretot el tracte rebut, tant de l’Atos amb el seu acompanyament com de l’Emma amb la seva fantàstica cuina!

Que no tingui lavabo a l’habitació.

We really appreciated the communication with Athus. Every evening he comes to discuss and plan the activities for the next day with you and he also accompanies guests on the boat, which makes everything very easy and personal. The view from the bungalow and the accommodation itself are beautiful. The food is excellent and there is always plenty of it, and the staff are very kind and friendly. With a bit of luck you may also see dolphins in the area. They regularly pass through here early in the morning and we saw them several times. Unfortunately, because of the relatively high boat traffic they usually don’t stay long.

Snorkeling directly in front of the bungalow is limited. Early morning can be nice, but in the afternoon and evening there are strong currents and quite a lot of boat traffic (even in the morning), so you need to be careful. The biggest downside for us were the evening visits from rats and mice. The first night was quite shocking. We saw a rat trying to lift the cover from a plate on the table of the neighboring bungalow while the guest was away. Once the lights go out, you can hear them running around. If you don’t mind this you can probably sleep with earplugs and be fine, but it still makes you worry about diseases or damage to personal belongings. Nothing of ours was damaged, but it is necessary to keep backpacks closed and not leave anything out. Every morning I had to shake mouse droppings out of my closed backpack, which is quite unpleasant. Twice I also saw a rat between the glasses near the containers with sugar, coffee and tea, which makes it uncomfortable to use them afterwards. I understand that we are in the jungle far from civilization and that some level of wildlife is normal. However, on Fam and Yefkabu we did not experience anything like this, so it was quite a shock for us and unfortunately we had to leave after three days. What surprised us most is that there didn’t seem to be any effort to deal with the problem (traps, poison, or anything similar). If this issue were addressed, the stay would be almost perfect. Regarding Gam in general: if you are freedivers or scuba divers who care about reef health and can recognize dead coral, I personally would not strongly recommend this area. In my opinion the best sites nearby are Friwen Wall and Citrus Ridge. Arborek and several other places are affected by bleaching, and Mansuar also has many damaged corals, although it is still worth visiting for the chance to see hawksbill turtles. The reefs around Fam and further north felt much more alive.

TODO