Skip to main content

Christmas in Derawan Islands Part 1 - The Derawan Island


A couple of years ago I was chatting with one of my expat friends and learnt about this lake in Borneo where you can swim with stingless jellyfish.  There was a little pang in my heart... I am Indonesian and I did not know much about my own country. That was the beginning of my on and off effort to know more about my homeland.

I actually wanted to book this trip for the past Eid-l Fitr holiday but had not been able to due to DH's off-days uncertainty. I did not want to delay it anymore so I booked it for the Christmas Holiday. I chose a tour company called Kakaban Trip. I did not have any referrals so I took my chances with them based on their website, pictures, and Facebook Page posts.

The itinerary said that we would leave on Christmas Day in the morning. It did not cross my mind at all that it had meant a 5 AM flight and we would have had to leave home at 2:30 AM. And so that's what we did.... We met up with some of the tour guides at the airport terminal and got our boarding passes.

Sleepy at the airport
And we arrived in Tarakan! Here we were introduced to the local tour guide who would be with us for the rest of the trip.
Juwata Airport, Tarakan
 Then we had lunch...
Lunch at Ikan Bakar Cianjur cabang Surabaya
 After lunch we practically crossed the street by bus to get to the port.

Waiting for our boat
All aboard!


Note to self: for the next trip I need to buy child-size life vest.


I had been too excited about booking this trip and had forgotten to check if it was a good season to go. Not until my cousin mentioned the high tidal waves in December did it strike me. 

Our boat ride started okay, but by the time we entered the Celebes Sea area it got wavy. I am not used to boat rides at all, so as soon as the larger waves hit my heart sank to the bottom. I found out later on that those were regular waves for December. Nevertheless, all the stress was forgotten as soon as we arrived and greeted by a breathtaking view even on a rather cloudy day.

At Derawan Dive Resort

At Derawan Dive Resort

At Derawan Dive Resort






 After checking in to our room we had lunch in a restaurant in the village. We were served grilled fish, stir fried squid, and some stir fried veggies. The fish was fresh and all the food was yummy. We were not too impressed with the resort itself though. It was not private enough, the wood was creaky, toilet and towels were not clean. Luckily we were only staying there for 1 night. I could live with that.

After lunch we still had a bit of time for snorkelling. So we tried to go. It was Miss Kiki's and my first time snorkelling and she was still too scared so only DH ended up snorkelling around. He reported that he saw a good sized lion fish and a bunch of sea urchins. Our tour guide was also in the water to guide us around and he took DH to see a sea turtle that happened to be there.

The Village

Disclaimer: the pictures in the blog are not all mine. I took my Nikon D50 with me but it was not always convenient to use. Some pictures were from my Samsung Galaxy Note 2, and some pictures were taken by our guide with his waterproof camera.





Lion fish

After sunset we had dinner at the resort... it was okay but not as good as lunch.

Dinner time

Dinner buffet
Crescent moon
To be continued...



Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nintendo Switch Sleeve Tutorial

Hi! I'm Kirana from woofkiki.blogspot.co.id . I am going to write an introduction for this blog post. We bought a Nintendo Switch in Japan.  I really liked it and played with it almost everyday. If you're wondering what a Nintendo Switch is, it is a video game where you can basically  "switch" everything. The joy-cons and even the game! You can also connect it to your TV. It would be nice to bring it around with you, but when you put it in your bag... Oh no! The screen scratched! So, this is a sleeve that will fix that. Let's get started!šŸ˜Š Kirana Now the tutorial (by Kirana's mom)... 1. Make your pattern according to the picture below. It is basically a 6"x24" rectangle with a semi circle at one end. Note: this is not a printable pattern 1. Cut your outer fabric, lining, and batting(optional). In this tutorial, I used minky for lining and a pre-quilted fabric for the cover, so I didn't need extra batting. For batting, I recomm...
Post a Comment
Read more

Japan Trip June 2016 - Part 9 - Osaka

It was a super hot and bright morning and we were all packed and ready to ride the train to Osaka. We had no excuse to take a taxi so we walked to Kyoto Station... It was a rather short ride considering we moved cities, it was still around noon when we arrived at Osaka Station. The AirBnb property I had booked looked close to the station on the map, but it was further than expected. We were so sweaty by the time we got there, mostly because of our backpacks and our suitcases! I was very impressed Miss Kiki carried her backpack without complaints even though it was pretty stuffed by then. Taken from Osaka Station We had to change our wet and sticky clothes upon arrival, and after a bit of rest we decided to head out. First to Tenjimbashisuji Shopping Street listed on a tourist guide just over 1 km away. It was so hot and sunny I regretted not taking a hat for any of us. I was lucky I hadn't forgotten to bring my sunglasses. When we got there, we real...
Post a Comment
Read more

Motykas in Asia 2016 Part 7 - West Java

One day after we arrived in Jakarta from Phuket, we went on a road trip to Bandung, West Java. We were on a roll! Hahaha. Our first destination was the White Crater, a beautiful place located in Ciwidey, outside Bandung.  We left our home at around 7 am and arrived at the crater at almost noon. It was a loooong drive. Nonetheless, the view was breathtaking. It was a bit chilly up there, even the Winnipegers pulled out their jackets. :D The crater was pale green with strong sulphur smell, they recommend a maximum of 15 minutes at the bottom. Around the crater were serene looking tree barks with little or no leaves. During a certain time of the day, there would usually be fog coming down over the crater but we didn't get to see it. We spent about an hour at the crater and we moved on to the Rancabali Tea Plantation about 3 km away for some pictures. Miss Kiki was so...
Post a Comment
Read more