About Ilike
The first morning on Ilike, I woke to the sound of water lapping against the wooden hull and the smell of strong Javanese coffee. The sun was just rising over the Wayag Islands, painting the limestone karsts in soft gold. I stepped barefoot onto the teak deck, still cool from the night, and watched a fishing canoe glide silently between two islets. It felt like we were the only people in the archipelago. At 32 meters long, Ilike isn’t the biggest boat, but with only one cabin, the whole vessel felt like it was ours.
We spent our first full day in the Dampier Strait, one of Raja Ampat’s most biodiverse zones. Our guide, Pak Joko, pointed out a pair of wobbegong sharks tucked under a ledge at Cape Kri. I counted 17 different species of fish on that single dive. After lunch, we drifted with the current at Manta Sandy, where three manta rays circled us like slow, graceful satellites. One came so close I could see the individual spots on its back – a fingerprint, I learned, used by researchers to identify individuals.
Each evening, we anchored in a different bay – one night near Arborek, where we swam ashore to visit a small village school. Kids waved from the jetty, shouting "Hello!" in perfect unison. The boat’s crew had set up a table on the rear deck with cold Bintang beers and grilled mahi-mahi skewers. Dinner was served under the stars: yellow curry with coconut rice, papaya salad, and fried banana fritters. The generator shut off at 10 PM, and the only sound was the occasional splash of a jumping fish.
The second morning brought us to Wayag Lagoon. We climbed the famous viewpoint – 238 wooden steps up a steep hill – and collapsed at the top, breathless but stunned. The view was insane: a maze of mushroom-shaped islands surrounded by water so clear it looked like glass. That afternoon, we snorkeled over a reef near the Penemu Islands. A green turtle floated beside me for nearly a minute, completely unbothered. I could see the barnacles on its shell, the way its flippers moved like slow fans.
Back on board, the crew handed out towels and hot ginger tea. Ilike runs on solar with a backup diesel generator, so showers were short but hot. The single cabin – clearly meant for a couple or solo traveller – had a queen bed, a small writing desk, and a porthole that opened to the sea. The woodwork throughout the boat was dark ironwood, hand-finished with a smooth, waxed feel. There was no AC, just overhead fans and cross-ventilation through teak-framed windows.
On our final morning, we stopped at a blue hole near Gam Island. It was shallow enough to stand in, but the walls dropped vertically into darkness below. Schools of fusiliers hovered near the surface like silver coins. We surfaced to find the crew had laid out a breakfast of nasi goreng and fresh mango. As we motored back to Sorong, I sat on the bow, legs dangling, watching the sun burn off the morning mist. It wasn’t flashy, but it felt real – like we’d seen Raja Ampat not as tourists, but as guests.
