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Living in Indonesia is great for me both as a diver and an underwater photographer for DiveMag. I’m lucky that I don’t have to fly for hours, or even days, to be able to dive in the epicenter of the Earth’s coral diversity. It’s right in my backyard.

Last year was a great one for me and my diving journey, and I’m still overwhelmed by the beauty of some of the places I went.

After a break for Indonesia’s 2010-11 monsoon season, I began my diving year with a short trip to Maratua Island, which is situated in the Derawan Islands off Kalimantan’s east coast. Maratua is well known for its green turtle population, and you can swim with more than 10 of them on one dive. They are so tame that you can get very close to them, but touching is a big no-no.

Nearby lies Kakaban Island, famous for its Lake Jellyfish. The jellyfish don’t sting, and in Kakaban you can swim with millions of them. Plus, the mangrove surrounding the lake makes for great underwater photography.

To reach the Derawans, fly to Sepinggan International Airport outside of Balikpapan and then take a flight to Berau. From there it’s a two- to three-hour boat ride to get to Maratua, Kakaban or one of the other islands where there are resorts and homestays as well as dive spots.

Not long after my Maratua trip, duty called again. This time to the east: Raja Ampat. Nowadays everyone is talking about Raja Ampat as a fabulous diving destination. And everything they say is true: the variety and number of species in the waters there is hard to beat. It might take a while to reach the place, but nothing compares to the experience you’ll have once you do.

Although the best way to explore Raja Ampat is by diving from a liveaboard — a boat designed for people to live aboard it — some very nice eco-lodges and resorts are available.

Divers who are basing themselves on land normally fly to Sorong and continue their trip by ferry or boat to Waigeo Island or one of the other nearby islands.

Many consider Raja Ampat the cream of the diving crop. No wonder it’s so common to see more than a dozen liveaboards parked in any bay at Raja Ampat. With more that a thousand species of fish and millions of hectares of coral reefs, the areas should be on any diver’s bucket list.

I was asked to cover some highlights of Raja Ampat. My first mission: The wobbegong. This strange-faced shark is easy to find in Raja Ampat. It normally lurks on sand or coral rubble on the sea floor, at a depth of 1 to 20 meters.

My next mission was to photograph a manta ray. These harmless fish can grow up to five meters wide, and they feed on microscopic plankton and frequent their “cleaning station” almost daily.

We needed to wake up early to catch their breakfast time. Diving down to about 25 meters, kneeling on the white sand, we had first-class seats to watch the mantas circling around us while feeding on tiny little plankton, which was amazing given their huge bodies that often weighed up to 1,000 kilograms.

Our next stop: Arborek village. For tourists, Arborek is worth a visit. It has an outstanding reputation as a successful conservation area. Along its jetty you can plunge into the water and be surrounded by small fish. Combined with beautiful red gorgonians, or sea fans, this place is an underwater photographer’s dream.

Above water, we met village kids running around with fishing lines. Shortly after that a man went in the water with a handmade speargun.

Molo, as spearfishing while free-diving is called, uses no other equipment than handmade goggles and a gun. In less than 10 minutes the man caught a fish as big as his head, enough to feed his family that day. What a life! But these guys don’t catch more than what they need to eat.

We were also asked to photograph the epaulette shark. Kalabia, as the locals call this small, elongated animal, can grow up to 70 centimeters long and live in waters as shallow as one to five meters. It’s commonly observed ambling on the substrate — the sediment at the water body’s bottom — while searching for prey.

In May, I was invited to visit Sabu, an island to the west of Timor. In Sabu we spent most of our diving time on the northern white sandy beaches, where the usually rare horn-nosed boxfish is actually quite common. I saw three of these Pinocchio look-alikes in one dive.

Back on land at the nearby island of Raijua, we had some opportunities for interesting photographs. Old fortresses, local wrestling, sugar harvesting and the sacral Pado’a dance are things that should be seen up close.

In June, I was asked to go back to Alor. I’d already been there more than a dozen times, but I can never make it there enough.

Unlike some of Indonesia’s better-known dive spots, such as Raja Ampat, Komodo or Wakatobi, Alor is an emerging destination. Not too many people know about it yet, but I predict it will soon become one of the most popular places around.

The Alor archipelago is located at the easternmost tip of the Lesser Sunda Islands, and its unique geography means the underwater ecosystem is continually flushed with nutrients, making it one of the richest environments around.

Diving there can be tricky, as the shifting currents mean you need a lot of experience to know when and where to dive. If you go when the current is too strong, you won’t find the big pelagic schooling fish like the humphead parrotfish, barracuda, mackerel, reef sharks or giant trevally.

Endless walls completely covered with pristine coral, colorful fish and crystal- clear water that often reaches visibility of 40 meters is everyday scenery in Alor. From the boat you can see hundreds of dolphins. In the water you can snorkel with schools of sunfish, known as mola mola. Whales and even orcas are also occasionally seen in Alor waters.

In Alor Bay there are some spectacular muck diving spots, and night diving there is so perfect that you won’t ever want to resurface. That’s why I love it the most, because it is adventurous and beautiful.

My 2011 diving year ended with an expedition to Sumbawa, known as the “Island of Gold.” It was beyond our expectations. To the south of Sumbawa there are some dive spots with overhanging walls covered in beautiful coral, and some underwater caves.

Around the tailing pipe of Newmont’s Batu Hijau mine, we saw a number of interesting critters. They didn’t seem to be affected by the mining activities.

West of the island we met a lot of reef sharks swimming around or just lying lazily on the sea bed. Sea snakes and moray eels are commonly found there, too.

Diving in Indonesia has advanced greatly in the last decade. Facilities, safety and the expertise of the operators are much better now. There will be lots more places to dive and many more stories to cover. See you underwater!