The Amazing Place: Derawan Islands

    Travel The Derawan Islands must be everyone’s dream of the perfect tropical paradise: warm, isolated  islands with soft white sand beaches fringed with waving palm trees, pristine seas that change color from green to deep blue, and an amazing underwater life of giant turtles, dolphins, manta rays, dugongs and barracudas, stingless jellyfish and sometimes, whales.  Derawan is indeed one of world’s richest areas in biodiversity. Small wonder that the Derawan Islands are considered the third best dive destination in the world.

    Located just away from the mainland of East Kalimantan in the district of Berau, the Derawan archipelago comprises 31 islands, most well known among these are the islands of Derawan, Maratua, Sangalaki and Kakaban. Here is Indonesia’s largest nesting site of the rare and endangered giant green turtles and hawksbill turtles, where one can daily watch turtles lay their eggs in the sand or swim to sea with the turtles. The entire marine conservancy region covers a total area of no less than 1.27 million hectares.

Here, you can find 460 different species of corals, ranking this area second only to the Raja Ampat Islands in West Papua. The Nature Conservancy and a team of international experts also found more than 870 species of fish here, ranging from tiny pygmy seahorses to giant manta rays. On some days, groups of up to 50 manta rays have been seen feeding together in Derawan’s waters, says the Conservancy.

While on Kakaban, you can find the world's largest and most diverse jellyfish lake, including four unique species of stingless jellyfish one of which can swim upside down. It is for this reason that Kakaban is considered for UNESCO nomination as a World Heritage Site.

To Stay

The Derawan resort provides transportation and diving equipments. For accomodation, the resort offers Kalimantan-style cottages facing the sea. There are also simpler accommodation and restaurant facilities available on Derawan and cottages on other islands.

You can also book liveaboards (boats designed for people living aboard them, usually for long journeys) to Derawan from Bali.

Get There

To reach Derawan, SilkAir flies from Singapore to Balikpapan in East Kalimantan.

Or you can take a flight from Jakarta, Surabaya or Denpasar to Balikpapan or Tarakan by Garuda Indonesia or Mandala Air. Then take a connecting flight by either KALStar, Deraya airlines or DAS to Tanjung Redeb in Berau. From here, boats will take you to the islands.

To Do

Derawan Archipelago have a large number of unique and protected species, among which are the coconut crabs, whales, manta rays, dolphins and dugongs. The coconut crabs are found near the islands of Kakaban and Maratua, while whales and dolphins in particular months can be seen around Semama, Sangalaki, Kakaban and Maratua. Dugongs swim around Pulau Panjang and Semama, and manta rays are found around Sangalaki with pygmy seahorses around Semama and Derawan. Other protected species are the barracuda. There are a total of 28 dive points identified here. Avid divers will need at least 10 days to explore them all.

There is an island near Manta Point that has a lake in the middle, it is a salt water lake filled with 4 kinds of jelly fish. They all have lost their stings so you can snorkel and bump heads with them. There are so many of them, it really does feel like jellyfish heaven.

Source by :

http://www.indonesia.travel/en/destination/430/derawan-archipelago