Derawan Islands (Derawan - Maratua - Kakaban - Sangalaki)
Ever wish to touch a jellyfish?Ever wish to swim with the sea turtle?
Ever wish to swim with manta ray (siblings of sting ray)?
Ever wish to watch hundred of dolphins playing in their real home?
You can fulfill all of your dreams here in Derawan Islands!
After years of wishing to go here, I finally got the chance to explore this place in 2014!
So basically, there are two ways to go to Derawan.
First, Tarakan (15 mins to the port, 3 hours on the boat)
Second, Berau (2 hours to the port, 30 mins on the boat)
However, there's direct flight from Jakarta to Tarakan, that made us chose Tarakan.
If you travel with elders or children, or you have seasickness, i suggest you to choose Berau.
The First Day
Here's what love at the first sight means.
Backpacker? There are several homestays or local guest houses, such as Sari, Lestari, and Ilham. The cheapest room you can get is in Ilham homestay for 100k Rupiah. However if you need AC and private bathroom but on budget, you can choose Lestari for 350k Rupiah/night
The Second Day
We woke up early to make sure we had plenty of time enjoying this journey. We went straight to Kakaban Island. By paying 50k Rupiah/ person as an entrance fee, we can swim with the stingless jellyfish in Kakaban Lake! (make sure you see all of the 3 kinds of stingless jellyfish! And don't forget to take picture and post in on your social media lol). Before leaving this beautiful island, make sure you snorkel in front of the island to see some sea-turtles.
After that, we went to Maratua Island and enjoy our lunch in their a bale bale. Maratua is famous for its turquoise water (blue-ish). It doesn't have much things to do actually. I personally love to sleep in Derawan Island where I can interact with the locals. However, if you like to do nothing but enjoying your water villa room, this is a great place to be. It will cost you around 2000k/night. Sadly (or say good?) it's managed by Malaysian. I'm not claiming my self as a super nationalist women but it's just sad that every time i go to a good resort in Indonesia, it's managed by non Indonesian. Prolly we have a lot of homework to do so we can be as good or even better managing them. Btw you can also snorkel in front of the resort (but make sure you are not too close to the resort cause the low tide).
After that we went to Sangalaki. This is the highlight of my journey. We saw a lot of dolphins passing by. We even played with them. If you are as lucky as we were, you would see not just 1 or 2 dolphins but more than 20 dolphins. I love it! You can watch a glimpse of it here. After that we were chasing the manta rays in Sangalaki. It was really fun. I jumped out of the boat as soon as I saw a big black manta ray crossing our boat. I was ready with my gopro so I tried to chase them down. There were 3 - 5 manta rays nearby. I wish I exercise more before this trip so I could last longer under the sea (and take a selfie with the manta lol).
Tips: Do wear a full body wetsuit instead of shirt or swimwear in Sangalaki. Since it's a habitat of manta rays, there are a lot of unseen plankton and other tiny sea-animals (manta rays's food) which will make your skin red and itchy.
Done playing with the manta rays, we go back to Derawan Island. Before we clean ourselves up, we bought some fishes. The best one is Napoleon fish! It's beautiful and also delicious. If you order this fish in Jakarta, they will charge around 1000k/ kg while in Derawan it only cost us 500k/kg!!! Seafood fiesta babyyy :D
The Third Day
We were really tired cause of the activities the day before. Thus, we took it slow. We went back to the Sangalaki Island. We stopped near the long jetty to take picture in front of the monument. After that we just walked alongside the beach to the resort. We rested for a while then saw the sea-turtles conservation (the locals call them 'tukik'). I thought I could "buy and release" the sea-turtles but the conservationist refused my idea because during the day there are so many predator that will harm the young sea-turtles life. Cause it's almost lunch time, we ate our lunch in the boat while enjoying the scenery near a snorkeling spot. After that we jumped off the boat to see some beautiful corals.
Once we're done with Sangalaki, we went to Gusung Pasir (Sand bank) Sanggalau. It's really pretty! We enjoyed our time there. I remembered I went to something like this in Raja Ampat (named Pasir Timbul). I was amazed cause it's so big. We took some pictures and videos there. I was so lucky to see a cute baby sea-turtle drifting in the sea.
After that we went back straight to Derawan to buy some fishes for another seafood party :D Before heading to the 'napoleon' party, me and several other friends tried to catch the sunset. But too bad it was so cloudy so we didn't get any good shot. The 'napoleon' party was even better than the last day :) What a good life!
Once we were done with the food, we waited till midnight to see the sea-turtles came back to the sea. However until 11.45 pm, there were no sign at all so we tried to walked alongside of the beach of Derawan Island. It took us almost an hour to come back to where we started. It was a fun night though we didn't found any sea-turtles, we talked about a lot of things under thousands of stars. I wished the time had stopped there. I didn't wanna come back to Jakarta. Not that I hate my routine, my job, my family, my friends in Jakarta, but I like Derawan that much. I feel so blessed to be able to see the real world (not only concrete jungle).
The Last Day
didn't really do anything particularly. We just enjoyed our breakfast, checked out, and (still not wholeheartedly) ready to go back to Tarakan to catch our flight. The journey to Tarakan took 30 minutes longer than our previous journey. After that we enjoyed our lunch at one of a famous chinese food restaurant in Tarakan (I'm so sorry I forgot the name hehehe). It was so delicious. Then we went straight back to the airport.
Ciao Tarakan! Thank you for a wonderful time
Will come back sometime in near future :)
What should you prepare to enjoy Derawan Islands?
- Some cash (cause the last time I went there, the bank was still closed)
- Swim suit (I personally suggest wetsuit over bikini when I come back. I can't swim with the plankton. It kills me :( hiks)
- Diving/ Snorkeling gears (mask, fin, and wet suit)
- Sunblock, Sunscreen, and Sunnies (Shades, Sunglasses)
- A good (underwater) camera
- Snacks
- Music Player
- Mind and soul
- Turn off your cellphone :p
Posts
there are 4 types of stingless jellyfish actually
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