Floating below an Indonesian fishing platform I am wedged in between three vertically feeding whale sharks while dolphins zip past my fins. Where am I? In Triton Bay, West Papua— a hidden gem in the very East of Indonesia.

From Kaimana, in the far east of Indonesia, a two-hour boat ride takes us to Triton Bay Divers. It’s the only resort in the area. After leaving the mess that’s typical for an Indonesian coastal town, we see no more villages. The entire area is thick rainforest carpeting, limestone coastlines and pristine islets, undisturbed by human settlements. Only the fishing platforms, or bagans, that are anchored in several bays indicate human life. Our guide stops at some of them, asking if whale sharks have been around, but no luck at any of them. My heart sinks. Of course we are hoping to see the famed whale sharks. We hope for better luck later in the week.

Another hour farther into the wilderness, we arrive at Triton Bay Divers. We are taken aback by this seemingly perfect location. A white sand beach in a calm bay where only a few pretty bungalows sit under coconut palm trees. The sun is starting to set, illuminating the sky in a thousand colors of crimson. I think to myself, West Papua has some of the most amazing sunsets in the world.

Awakening to the sounds of the jungle in the early morning of our first day, I exit onto the wooden terrace of the bungalow. The morning is spectacular, a warm, rising sun illuminates the sky and the calm waters are painted in various colors of yellow and orange. The velvety waters are rippled by various schooling fish patrolling the shallows. The silhouette of a sea turtle breaks the surface. Tiny waves splash on the white sand beach only 10 meters away from me, creating a meditative setting. Every morning and every evening of this week is going to be a multi-color show, the most sublime way to start and end a day of diving.

After breakfast we start our diving itinerary with a dive site nearby called Aquarium. After breaking the surface, thousands of fish school around us. Fusiliers, snappers of all kinds, and millions of schooling silversides fill the view in each direction. This is a hallmark of Triton Bay. All wide-angle dive sites are rich in marine life, with a huge variety of schooling fish orbiting colorful reefs that reach up to 30cm below the waterline.

Part of the Bird’s Head Seascape of West Papua with Raja Ampat and Cenderawasih Bay, this area features one of the most diverse eco-systems in the world. Around 70% of the world's variety of corals can be found here, and more than 1,000 species of fish. But unlike the more-famous Raja Ampat region, in Triton Bay, there is just one resort and only occasional visits from liveaboards.

The area has been protected since 2008, allowing fish stocks to recover from overfishing. Devoid of humans, the healthy, unbleached reefs have practically no garbage floating around. In Raja Ampat, my bag would be filled with plastics at the end of the dive, but here, it remains empty most dives. The many white sand beaches where we make our surface intervals are surprisingly free from any human waste.

When not diving the fishy sites, there is amazing macro diving to be had. Big, fat candy crabs and other species of decorator crabs can be spotted even by the less trained eye. All five species of pygmy seahorse can be found with solid predictability – not only Denise and Bargibanti, also the very tiny species of Pontohi and Sotomi. The guides point these out on every dive. Some guests came specifically to see the wide variety of flasher wrasses that populate the rubble just off the resort. The Paracheilinus nursalim flasher wrasse is found only in Triton Bay, Misool and south Raja Ampat.

Every day we wait for news on the whale sharks. On the way back to the resort one day a few guests encountered two whale sharks at one of the bagans, and our hopes are up. Early the next morning we leave to get to the bagan just after sunrise. The fishing platforms operate during the night, shining lights onto the ocean surface to attract anchovies. Mostly young adult male whale sharks come in the mornings when the nets are lifted. For handsome payments, the fishermen will throw some of their catch in the water, so that the whale sharks hang around for us.

It looks like a good day — three whale sharks are circling the platform. In this area of Triton Bay, there are no restrictions on scuba gear or strobe usage, so we roll in and watch these giants suck in the water just meters away from us. A high-pitched noise alerts us to another visitor. While the whale sharks mostly feed at the surface, the bait fish that sink to the bottom are scooped up by a pod of Indo-Pacific humpbacked dolphins (Sousa chinensis) that orbit right below us. Drifting down to 12 meters we can get amazingly close to the playful mammals, a close encounter that is unrivaled anywhere in Asia. The whale sharks cruise down as well, often approaching the divers' bubbles and sucking the water right in front of us. As long as you stay calm and overcome the fear of a 1.5-meter-wide mouth coming for you, you can look inside of their throats – observing the gills in the back. I am so close I can even see the rows of tiny teeth that these filter-feeders surprisingly still have. I wonder if their teeth are useful for mating as some assume, but no one really knows.

After two hours of diving and snorkeling the fish are used up, but the whale sharks remain around the bagans a bit more. We are exhausted, memory cards are full, camera batteries empty and even the most experienced of the guests is glowing with excitement about probably “the best whale shark encounter” of our lives.

Triton Bay Divers

Opened in 2015 by co-founders Lisa English and Jimmy Thai. The resort features six cabins with 2-3 beds in each. There is no air conditioning on property but cabins are built to maximize the natural breeze and are equipped with fans. The electricity is on from 6 am to 11 pm only. Triton Bay Divers is two hours from Kaimana by speedboat.

Triton Bay Facts

• Established as a Marine Park MPA in 2008
• Fish count is more than 1,000 species, 471 species of coral
• Despite being a lot smaller than Raja, there is a high count of endemic species such as the walking shark and flasher wrasse
• In 2001, the first expeditions into Bird’s Head were led by CI and Ichthyologist Dr. Gerry Allen