Derawan Island
Derawan, 2014-03-08 12:00 by Laerke and Martin
We left Nepal on a flight to Kuala Lumpur and we were very much looking forward to being back in a tropical climate. We touched down in KL at 4am to a haze of air pollution rolling in from forest fires in Sumatra. Luckily we were leaving already a couple of hours later on a flight to Tawau in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. In Tawau, where the air was clean, we had two missions – to secure Indonesian visas and to send all our warm clothes and souvenirs from Nepal home. We managed both in two days in the pleasant enough town, though devoid of any sights or anything particularly interesting this town was filled with friendly people who made our stay a nice introduction to our time in Borneo.

On the 6th of March we got on a small ferry from Tawau to Tarakan in Indonesian Kalimantan, the ferry didn’t leave until 11.30 AM thus by the time we made it to Tarakan the last boat to Tanjung Selor, our next stop on this multi-day trip to Derawan, had already left. So we had to spend the night in Tarakan. As soon as we had left Malaysia and entered Indonesia, English speaking people were few and far in between and my Indonesian came in really useful. The only other foreigner on the boat, a Dutch guy was going to Derawan as well, so together we went looking for a hotel. The cheap and relatively clean Hotel Sakura was to be our home for the night. Next morning at 7.40 we were on the speedboat to Tanjung Selor. After about an hour and a half sailing past mangroves and palm trees we arrived to loads of men all wanting to take us on the next step – to Berau. We quickly filled a car and set off. The driver was nice and we chatted most of the way, I was glad to discover that I still remember most of my Indonesian! The driver called a buddy of his to arrange for him to meet us at a crossroad just before Berau to take us to Tanjung Batu, where we could get a boat to the island. Though the journey was long everything worked out so smoothly, we did not have any waiting time anywhere and all our modes of transportation were relatively comfortable. So on the 7th of March (our 14 years anniversary) we found ourselves at Derawan at around 3pm – installed in a lovely room over the water. It had not even been two minutes since we clambered off the boat before we saw our first turtle!



We quickly fell into a lazy rhythm on Derawan. Waking up in the morning we sat on our little terrace eating doughnuts or bread that the family laid out for us. Then we’d often snorkel either with the turtles amongst the sea grass close to shore or at the incredible reef only a short swim away. Hard and soft coral in a multitude of colors were home for thousands of reef fish such as banner-, parrot-, clown-, lion-, box-, puffer- and trigger fish as well as all the others that we don’t know the names of. Then our stomachs would be rumbling, so we headed to Rumah Makan Nur for a lunch of Ayam Goreng (fried chicken), rice and a bit of veggies. The Indonesians do fried chicken so much better than KFC.




After lunch we would relax at the beach or at our hut, looking over the water spotting the numerous turtleheads breaching the waves, when coming up for air. After this, we would do some more snorkeling and finally have dinner at our other favorite restaurant Warung Jawa Timur, for more fried chicken or noodle soup.




Derawan Island is a part of a small archipelago and one day we gathered up most of the tourists on the island (which amounted to 7) and set off in a speedboat to tour the other islands. Three local men, one of them a dive master, a couple from the Czech Republic, a Finnish guy, an Indonesian girl, the Dutch guy and us.

First stop was a vast and pristine reef at the coast of Pulau Kakaban, where we after a lot of snorkeling went ashore. Pulau Kakaban is not so much an island, more a thin barrier of old, dead coral pushed up from the sea by geological activity, and now containing a large saltwater lake that was once seawater. In this lake millions of jellyfish thrive, so much so that they have lost their natural sting (perhaps due to lag of enemies?) and are now completely harmless.



We jumped into the water and were soon surrounded by numerous jellies, floating away as we weren’t there. Visibility wasn’t great as silt was constantly being stirred up from the lake bottom and algae were plentiful. It was however quite an experience having hundreds of these primitive creatures floating around you. It was impossible not to bump into a few of them on occasion; their “top” was not slimy at all, their “bottom” however was quite soft.




After we had enough of swimming and photographing the jellyfish, we climbed back onboard the boat and headed out for deeper waters. The sea was pretty choppy, but after a bit of searching we spotted the first large black shadows under the waves: Manta Rays. Navigation was difficult in the rough sea, but when a manta came near we all jumped in the water and could get a look or glimpse of the mantas as the swam past – it was impossible to keep up with them, as currents were strong and they are simple so agile and fast that it is unbelievable. We got picked up by the boat, jumped in the water, spotted mantas and got picked up again, and so on for a while…until we were quite exhausted.



While the Finnish and the Czech guys dived, we had a pit stop at the island closest to manta point, a stunning little spec of green with an even more stunning white sand beach and azure waters. Good to have solid ground under our feet for a while. On the way back to Derawan, getting drenched by the choppy waves crashing in on the deck, we spotted a group of dolphins jumping out of the water quite near our boat; they seemed to think it was fun to try and follow us, but we were a bit faster, so they were soon behind us. It was afternoon when we reached Derawan and we were now VERY hungry, as we hadn’t had a chance to eat any lunch…only some biscuits and bananas (and Martin does not like bananas).



We can highly recommend staying at Leny’s, which is at the south eastern end of town. Leny is a really nice guy, who will take good care of you and can provide information as well as arrange trips or transfer to the mainland at reasonable prices. Our nice aircon hut over the water was 200.000 IDR/night (we were on Derawan a bit out of season and stayed for 6 days). This price included free water, tea and coffee and a light breakfast. Do bring bio degradable soap, as the shower drains empty directly out into the ocean, where turtles will be swimming around! Please also be careful with littering and do not step on either sea grass or coral, as many domestic tourists unfortunately do…

Prices on boat trips have gone up considerable in the last years, now costing about 2 million IDR for a boat carrying eight people for a whole day trip.

Below you can find info on how to get to Derawan from Sabah (Malaysian Borneo):

Tawau - Tarakan	Boat	4 hours	120 MYR
Tarakan – Tanjung Selor	Boat	1.5 hours	100,000 IDR
Tanjung Selor - Berau	Car	2 hours	100,000 IDR
Berau – Tanjung Batu	Car	2 hours	100,000 IDR
Tanjung Batu - Derawan	Boat	0,5 hour	250,000 IDR to charter your own boat, or 75.000 IDR for a seat in a shared boat

*There are daily flights from Kuala Lumpur to Tawau with Air Asia and other carriers.