Kakaban Island

Kakaban is one of the most famous islands in Derawan Archipelago. What makes it famous is that the island is very unique geographically. This island is an atoll which was lifted up completely and had evolved into an island.

Wooden trail in Kakaban

Since it was originated from an atoll, the island has a salt-lake in the middle part. In this salt-lake, there are, at least, four species of jellyfish. However, these jellyfish had lost their stinging ability from the evolution and adaptation processes. Nowadays, the jellyfish are completely harmless and once can just swim around with them.

Playing with non-stinging jellyfish

Kakaban is an uninhabited island. Although it is uninhabited, the island is not abandoned. It is supported with a wooden trail to make the visit enjoyable including some gazebos for sitting around, a pier for swimming entry point, and garbage bins. One doesn’t need to pay anything to visit this extraordinary island. So, swimming around with non-stinging jellyfish for free seems a very nice offer, right?

Sangalaki Island

Sangalaki Island is located in the sub-district of Derawan. It takes around 2 – 3 hours speed boat ride from Tanjung Redeb. Since it is part of Derawan Sub-district, usually every tour package offers a trip to Derawan Island, Sangalaki Island, and Kakaban Island altogether. It offers a place to stay in Derawan and a day trip to Sangalaki and Kakaban. Both islands can be reached around 45 minutes speed boat ride from Derawan.
Sangalaki is a Marine Tourism Park (Indonesian: Taman Wisata Alam Laut). On this island, there is a Sea Turtle Monitoring and Research Station including a hatchery. One can camp on the island to witness nesting activity of sea turtles. Furthermore, one can also release sea turtles babies after they hatch.
But be careful with the monitor lizard, the natural predator of sea turtles eggs, and the itchy bug (Indonesian: tungau); these could make your camping turns into nightmares. The lizard normally won’t bother human but they might get attracted to your food supply and stealing it. While for the tungau, if you got it, just take a bath in the sea until the itches gone. In general, ask the ranger for advices before start camping.

Nunukan Resort

This resort is located in Maratua Sub-district, on a tiny island called, of course, Nunukan. Most part of the island are consists of stony coral and has no ground water which perhaps considered as ugly or uninteresting. But this is what I admire from the owner/ designer/ investor, he or she can make a beauty out of nothing. What a truly entrepreneur!

The resort is not just beautiful but also expensive. I was so lucky that I can experience its service. I have to host VIP guests of my office from Denmark. And although the trip itself was very mentally exhausting for me, but on a bright side, it’s a very nice opportunity to stay at a high-end resort :)

Getting Sick in Berau

Getting sick outside my home (i.e. Jakarta) and far from my family is my worst nightmare. I have experienced it once during my research in Makassar. Luckily, it happened in Makassar, a capital of a province which is easily accessed. After two nights of fever attacks, I just went to the airport in the next morning alone and flew to Jakarta. History said, I was suffered from Malaria.

Afraid that such thing might happen again, I always try hard to keep myself healthy. Eating healthy food and doing sport are part of my daily life. But apparently I have done it too hard. Too much sports and lack of rest have brought me to sickness!On a one Saturday afternoon, suddenly I got a high fever. Although it’s very annoying but I know, nothing much I can do than drinking a lot of water. No sickness can be defined in a day, I have to wait until three days to get any blood test.

I was afraid of getting my Malaria back. But as I said before, nothing I can do until the third day. On Sunday morning, my fever has gone; but I wasn’t happy as Malaria only attacks in the evening.

Surprisingly, I had no fever on Sunday evening! My body temperature was normal the whole night. I thought I just gotten exhausted.

But on Monday morning, I felt my whole body aching! Since I didn’t have fever, I forced myself to go to work. I thought the ache came from my over training on sport. But my pale face couldn’t fool my coworkers. They recommended me to go to a doctor.

The doctor gave me antibiotic and anti-fever. He suggested me to take a blood test on Wednesday if my condition remains the same. The medicines were pretty strong; whenever I was under their influence, I felt OK. But once the influence finished, I became wilt again. During this time, I went to work for half day. After taken lunch I went home to rest.

On Wednesday, I decided to have a blood test. The result said that my thrombocytes level was low; one of signs of dengue fever. I went to a doctor again and she made another test which confirmed that it was dengue fever. She said that I can have a rest at home or in the hospital. My sickness level was still low, drinking a lot of water and consuming guava juice were enough to cure the sickness.

This was a dilemma for me. If I stayed at home, I had to serve myself. I had to prepare my own meal and cleaned the dishes, just like a normal day. It meant I wouldn’t have total rest as I needed it. However, the only hospital available in Berau was not covered on the insurance from my working place. I had to go to Balikpapan to get hospitalized. This was quite a journey but I would have total rest as I needed it.

After discussed it with my father and sister, I decided to go to Balikpapan. On Thursday, I was ready to go. However I needed a paper from the doctor that said that I was able to fly. Upon this, the doctor neglected the request. Instead, she asked me to take another blood test to check on my thrombocytes level.

So I did. And the result said that my thrombocytes level was increasing. The doctor told me that I’d better stay at home because I have passed my critical point; and I was entering recovery phase. I didn’t need to be hospitalized especially if it needed quite a journey to be there. So my travel was cancelled. I was just stayed at home until weekend.

Friends and Family
Starting from the first day I got fever, I informed my coworkers and family about it. Their reaction was very supportive. My family kept checking me by phone. While my coworkers, they made sure that my needs were fulfilled. They took me to doctors, laboratory, and brought lunch for me, etc.

I was so lucky surrounded with very attentive coworkers. It swept my nightmares away in being sick far from home. In addition, my family kept monitoring my condition. Even my brother from Saudi Arabia called me after hearing the news; he was worried that I had to be hospitalized. But the biggest surprise came from Lusi, ‘my family’ during my time in Bremen. She called me due to her feeling on me. She felt surprised to find that I was sick; which explained why she needed to call me suddenly. What a telepathy!

Although I could get enough attention and care when I was sick, but surely, I don’t want to get sick again. No matter close or far from home, being sick is always a nightmare!

Visiting People in Jail

This is my first time in going to a prison. Surprisingly it happened in Berau.

Again, it happened accidentally. I didn’t plan to go there, I even didn’t know the person whom I visit.

It started when me and my coworkers went out for lunch. One of my coworkers dropped the news, about one villager whom they knew was involved in a fight.

My coworker planned to visit the villager and she had arranged all the documents needed to visit a person in jail. She asked us to drop her at the prison.

But when we dropped her at the prison, the prison guards offer us to come along although we didn’t have any documents needed. So there we were, 11 people came and visited the villager without paper.

We had to leave our cellphone at the entrance and we got stamped on our hand. The meeting point for visitors and prisoners are a hall with concrete seats. It was just like a waiting room in a hospital or something similar. Far from my imagination; or maybe I watched too much movies…
Too bad, taking picture is prohibited.

Island of Maratua and of Derawan

Maratua and Derawan are the two out of three most famous islands in the Derawan archipelago. Together with Kakaban Island, the three are the tourist destination.

Actually I went to these two accidentally. I didn’t have any working agenda there at that time. I went there to accompany my coworkers who dove in Maratua and took an air compressor in Derawan. Of course I didn’t waste my time just for watching others went diving, I went diving also :)

Maratua
This is the furthest island of the Derawan archipelago. It takes around five hours speedboat ride from Tanjung Redeb to the northeast.

The island is a home for a few international diving resorts. A few villages are also found here. Various fish is the selling point of the diving trips here.


Around the jetty in Payung-Payung Village, it is a feeding ground for sea turtles. One can snorkel around with the turtles as long as not bothering them. And for backpackers like myself, Payung-Payung Village has homestays managed by the community. So no worries, you can swim around with sea turtles on a limited budget.
Derawan
This is the icon of the archipelago. It is famous as the sea turtle haven. One can see sea turtles swimming around near piers in the island every afternoon.

The island has various homestays, from non AC rooms to constant-supply-of-AC rooms although the normal electricity is limited, are available.

Snorkeling and diving with turtles are the selling point in here. Normally, tourists go to Tanjung Batu by rented car or taxi from Tanjung Redeb. In Tanjung Batu, speedboats are available. However, the boats are taxi, not ferry! So it’s better trying to share with others.

Biduk-Biduk Subdistrict

This Subdistrict is located in the southern coast of Berau. It takes around four hours speedboat ride from Tanjung Redeb.

There are some interesting places to visit here i.e. the beautiful Sulaiman Bay (Indonesian: Teluk Sulaiman), the magnificent karst hill of Si Gending, and the crystal clear lagoon of Labuan Cermin. But this time, only Labuan Cermin will be described here.

Labuan Cermin
Labuan means ‘harbor’ or ‘haven’; while cermin means mirror. So this place is a mirror haven. It called ‘mirror’ due to the very clear water where one can see his or her reflection on it.

Geologically, this place is a lagoon with two inlets from ground water and the sea. The inlet from the sea is bigger than the ground water. The water in the lagoon consists of two layers; the bottom layer which is the sea water and the upper layer which is the fresh water.

What makes it special, one can see marine fish and seaweeds from the surface without any goggle. This is why it’s called ‘mirror’. And since the upper layer of the water mass is fresh water, the fish remain at the bottom. Very unique!

Normally, an estuary, which has two inlets from fresh water and sea water, would have mixed water depends on the tides. If the tide is high, the water is dominantly salty; while if the tide is low, the water is dominantly fresh. Since the inlet of fresh water is quite low in here, and the place is a lagoon so, the composition of the layers remains steady all the time!

In addition, the place is secluded and calm. It’s a perfect place to rejuvenate by swimming along the lagoon. One will feel younger after swimming here :)

Beauty Treatment

One of the most important facilities that I should have is salon! Yes, as a girl I need to remain treated. And Indonesia is the place for reasonable-price beauty treatment. I had suffered enough in Germany where beauty treatment is unbelievably expensive. So no excuse, I have to allocate my money for beauty treatment while I am in Indonesia.

However, the quality of treatment is, of course, different in each area. For example in Jakarta, one can find various beauty treatments in various services and prices. A hairdo like blow dry is very normal to have in Jakarta.

In Bali, spa and massage treatments are the most offered. Hair styling is rarely to find; and one has to be careful in selecting the place for having hairdo. Not every place can serve nice hairdo as offered.

My nightmare came when I was in Makassar. I went to a decent salon to have a creambath. Normally, it would end up in getting a blow dry to make the hair looks nicer. But the service was so bad and the hairdresser even tugged my hair!!! In the end I decided to finish my session before I had more suffer on my hair!!!

So… based on all of my experiences… I was so curious when I came to Berau: what kind of Salons that it has? As I expected it before, the salons here are house-based. They are houses or part of the houses which transformed into salon. They are not buildings which made to become salons.

Of all the salons in Tanjung Redeb, there is one salon that very famous. Well at least its banners are everywhere around the city. The salon is called ‘Olla Manado Salon’. Its marketing strategy apparently very effective, people will refer to them whenever I asked about good salon in Berau. However, nobody that I know has tried it!

I haven’t tried the salon, but by looking at the appearance, I don’t feel interested to try. It looks slum to me :( Fortunately, my coworker showed me another salon called ‘Inne Salon’. Surprisingly, this salon is not a house-based. It is a custom made building; so it’s perfect! It looks perfect from the outside.

Inside, it’s as perfect as it looks outside. It’s clean. All the servers are ladies, no transvestite! It seems that they all living in the back part of the building.

I tried having creambath and foot massage. The massage is good, it covers many body parts and took some times; and the price is reasonable. However, I still uncertain about the hairdo. When I asked to get a blow dry after the creambath, I was served by a lady who used to work there! She doesn’t work there anymore, she just visited the salon at that time! Although she gave me a nice blow dry, but I didn’t know the quality of other servers then. What a gamble… But I’ll keep coming back to have my beauty treatments in Inne Salon.

Hospital

There is one and only hospital in Berau; a public hospital owned by the District Government. In Indonesia it is called RSUD (Rumah Sakit Umum Daerah).

Although I got insurance from my work, however the RSUD was not a partner for the insurance company. The closest partners are in Samarinda and Balikpapan. So if I got sick, I had to fly to be hospitalized! What a journey…

Waste Management

One of the curiosity that I have, when I first came to my place in Berau, was the garbage dumpster. There was no garbage dumpster at the house!

I couldn’t understand at all. How come a house doesn’t have a dumpster? Where all the garbage goes? Are they burnt? Or do I have to throw it somewhere just like in Germany? But where????

And here comes another surprise… I have been told that I have to put all the garbage in a plastic bag. And then the plastic bag has to be hanged on the fence at night. A garbage cleaner will come during night time to collect it, so there will be no more garbage in the morning!

Weird!

Mangrove Conservation Area in Tarakan

For me, this is the only thing worth to see in Tarakan. Other tourist destinations are a mall and under-developed beach. So for sure, this is the best place to visit.


The area is part of the city centre, covering 9 hectare of mangrove dominated by Bakau (Rhizophora) and Api-api (Avicennia). The area is also a sanctuary for Bekantan monkey (Nasalis larvatus). The monkeys can be seen from distance to avoid human interfering and to provide natural habitat for the monkeys.

If one gets lucky, one could see grey monkeys (Trachypithecus villosus) and otters. But these two are very hard to find. There are a few grey monkeys in cages because they stole visitors’ bags before.


The area is facilitated by wooden trekking route which makes visiting time enjoyable. One can enjoy natural aura of mangrove with sounds of birds and monkeys; and even the sound of mudskippers vanishing into the mud. However, since the area is in city centre, the mangrove area has its border facing a construction area. Walking near this border was very annoying as the sounds of truck and crowd were dominating.




Overall, this area is very recommended to visit. It is an oasis in a busy city.

Tarakan Men

I got two awful experiences with men in Tarakan. The first one is with a taxi driver (see: The City of Tarakan) and the second one with a visitor in mangrove area.

A taxi driver

I met him in the New Year’s Eve when I tried to find a place for celebrating it. When he realized that I am not local, he offered me a service to go around the city. He didn’t set a price for it, he just agreed when I said Rp. 20.000,-. Through this ‘business agreement’ I could orientate myself in the city of Tarakan.

The bad side from the agreement, he asked some personal questions to me like whether I have a boyfriend, how old I am, etc. Maybe those questions were not so bad or impolite, but his action in taking me to places without my approval had worried me so much and made me uncomfortable with him. (see: The City of Tarakan). I lied to all his questions because I don’t want the conversation flourishes. Even for the simple question like do I speak Bugis. Usually, I answer this question with ‘no’ in Bugis. But this time, not a chance, I prefer to lie!

I was scared to death when he took me to a beach far from the city centre. Even the trip there passed a quiet, hilly, and dark area! I kept praying for my safety, I didn’t know what number to call in emergency situation or where should I run for help if the worst thing happened.

In the end, when he finally drops me off at my hotel, I asked him how much he charged me. I really didn’t know his motivation in taking me around outside the agreement; did he try to trick me physically or financially? But surprisingly, he didn’t ask more than we agreed!

Okay, maybe he tried to be nice, showing his city to a foreigner. But surely, the way he did it has to be improved!

A random visitor

I met a guy with his son when I visited the mangrove area in Tarakan. When I visited the place, I was interested to see the famous Bekantan monkey; so when I spotted one of them, I sat at a strategic place to observe it.

When I watched comfortably at my seat, there were a boy and his father walking back and forth in front of me. The boy kept asking to his father, where can he see the monkey. It was clear, they couldn’t spot the monkey as I did.

I felt sorry for the boy, he is a kindergarten age by the way, so I decided to do a nice thing: I called the boy and showed him the monkey from distance. Of course the boy loved it, his search was over. But my nightmare was just started.

The father of the boy came to me and started to make a conversation. Of course nothing wrong with this, except that his conversation was trashy. He asked whether and why I am alone. And of course his further questions were flirty :(

I felt annoyed with him. I wanted to observe the monkey but he sat next to me and talked! I really didn’t know how to escape from him as his son enjoyed talking to me. The boy even held my hand and dragged me around the place. That’s nice of course, but it became worst when the father tried to hold my hand too!!! I pulled my hand quickly and told him that it is silly that he holds my hand too.

Oh God, I had to make up something.

When the father asked me how long would I stay there, I had an idea. I told him that I am waiting for my friend from Tanjung Redeb. In real, I waited for my friend from Tanjung Redeb who will arrive at Tarakan at that day; but actually we never plan to meet at the mangrove area. With this answer, I hope he would leave soon because I have to stay longer. In contrary, he would like to stay with me until my friend comes! What a nightmare!

I tried Plan B. I pretend to have an SMS and checked my cellphone. I mumbled that the SMS from my friend that I am waiting for. And after pretending in reading the ‘SMS’, I told him that I need to make a phone call. I walked away a little bit further from them and acted as I call my friend. After some ‘yeses’ I ended my call. I told him that my friend is waiting for me at the hotel so I have to go.

The father decided to go also; but he regretted that he doesn’t have extra helmet in his motorcycle. That is very good news to me. But still, he tried to walk together with me! Argh!! So I tried to escape again. I told him that I want to go to the souvenir shop; and when he still undecided, I told him that I understand if he wants to go first. In this situation, he couldn’t react fast. He went outside without complain.

Finally, I could release myself from him. Gosh, what’s wrong with Tarakan men??!!

The City of Tarakan

Tarakan is a one island city in East Borneo. This island is northward from Berau and close to Malaysia. A regular ferry to Tawau in Malaysia is available.

I went to this city on December 31st to go to Malaysia for celebrating the New Year ’s Eve there. However I didn’t go there with a well plan. Information that I got in Berau was not sufficient. Everybody provided me with different facts especially about the ferry to Malaysia. Funnily, whenever I asked about the trip to Malaysia, the first thing people would ask me is whether I have a passport or I want to go there illegally. Hmmm, it seems that all roads lead to Malaysia…

So there I was, just went to Tarakan without knowing what options that I have. And apparently, it went unsuccessful.

Trip to Tarakan

I started my journey from Tanjung Redeb using a car or taxi (Indonesian term: travel). With this mode of travel, a number of people are sharing a car and a driver to the same destination. The comfortable point from this mode of travel is everybody will be picked up and dropped at the exact point as he or she wants it; just like a taxi. However, the annoying point is the earliest picked-up passenger has to go run around to pick other passengers. The same happens with the last dropped off passenger. He or she has to be patient while the driver drops other passengers. And this is what has happened to me. I was the first to be picked up at 08.00 AM and I have to wait for other passengers to be picked up until 12.00 PM!!!

The good thing is, since I was the first passenger, I can sit where I want; and in this case I sit in front, next to the driver. Then, this became a very good decision because the last three passengers (the total passengers are seven) brought a huge TV!!! The TV was placed at the back seat along with two other passengers. Four people were sitting in the middle seat uncomfortably. Well I was not all comfort actually, because I have to put my bag on my feet; but still this is better than sitting next to huge TV or in crowd of four people.

The trip to Tarakan was a road trip from Tanjung Redeb to Tanjung Selor in District of Bulungan, then continued with a speed boat to Tarakan. The road trip took two hours while the boat trip took 45 minutes. The boats are available everyday in every hour starting from 07.00 AM to 17.00 PM.

New Year’s Eve in Tarakan

Once I got off in Tarakan, I asked a motorcycle driver (Indonesian: ojeg) to take me to a place for buying a ferry ticket to Malaysia. But when I arrived there, the salesperson asked where I come from. He said that the last ferry has taken off and there will be no more ferry until January 5th!!! This is happened because the Malaysian immigration office will be closed during that time. And people from Tarakan have been rushed to go to Malaysia due to this fact; that is why the ticket sales wondering where I am from.

So my nightmare was started. I got stuck in Tarakan for my New Year’s Eve and even until January 3rd for my New Year’s holiday!!! But at that time I was still optimistic. Tarakan is bigger than Tanjung Redeb, the New Year’s Eve should be merrier.

So, after I found a small hotel to stay, I started my adventure. I take a taxi and asked the driver about the New Year’s Eve celebration in the city. Okay, the term taxi here is not the same as normal taxi. The taxi here is a mini van (Indonesian: angkot) that goes around the main streets of the city. If one takes a taxi to go within its route than one has to pay Rp. 3.000,-. However, if one wants to go outside its normal route, then one has to pay double or Rp. 6.000,-.

Well, based on my questions, the driver knew that I am not a local. He then offered me to drive around to see the city of Tarakan for Rp. 20.000,-. I thought this is a good deal, so I agreed. But due to the concept of the taxi, I end up ran around the city to take other passengers! The good thing was, after three round trips, I could understand the size of Tarakan. I know its main roads and ‘important’ places. The city centre is small, of course! But to make it worst, no interesting celebration around!

After going around and around again, I decided to join a small crowd in a small open field. There was a band festival full of lousy local bands playing. They are typical local bands, take times to tune in their instrument for hours than to play!

I told the taxi driver to pick me up after midnight, after the celebration ends. And after wasting my time for watching and waiting, finally the 2010 came. Nothing special. The fireworks were not special, just so-so.

I got ‘kidnapped’

After the celebration, I took off from the party with the taxi driver. He told me that there was another celebration in the suburb area with a national band playing there. Although I am not a fan of the band but watching national band is better than the amateur locals. So I asked him to take me there.

But, instead of taking me to that place, the taxi driver took me to a beach in the opposite site of the city centre. The trip there passed a hilly, dark, far, and quiet area! I felt so uncomfortable with it, I didn’t know the place and I was not sure where he wanted to take me.

And after around 30 minutes of driving, I ended up in an under developed beach. The soil there was still soft, no sufficient lights, and some decent food stalls (Indonesian: warung). He stopped the taxi and asked me to have a drink at one of the stall. I became more uncomfort because the stalls were filled with truck drivers who sing karaoke!!!

I thought, if I agree with him, he would ask or offer me more than I could think of. So I prefer to say no. But I tried to be polite because, I thought, if I mean to him, he would become harsh to me. So I told him that I am tired and need to have rest. He agreed and we took off from the beach.

But still, he didn’t drive me home directly! He took me to the place where the national band was playing; with nothing left of course. Furthermore, he stopped again once in a fruit vendor and bought some rambutans. He offered me but I insisted not to take because I don’t want to be under his command in any ways. I told him again that I am tired and when I am tired I don’t have any appetite for eating, I just need to rest.

He drove again and still, he didn’t take me home directly! Even when we entered the city, he took a different road to show me some places like the stadium and other things that I couldn’t remember because I was too nervous with my future. I have learned about the main roads of Tarakan earlier, so I know he tried to buy some times with me.

I didn’t respond his conversation, I tried not to answer his questions. I even answered some lies just to make the conversation stopped. I really really feel uncomfortable. Finally, after driving around and I kept praying in my heart, the driver drop me off at my hotel. It was 02.00 AM!!! I feel very relieved when I enter my room. Oh My God!!!

See also: Tarakan Men.