Blogs from Derawan, Kalimantan, Indonesia, Asia
Falling in love with an island off the beaten path...Derawan
Published: August 14th 2011Asia » Indonesia » Kalimantan » Derawan
July 21st 2011
Yes, it had been a bit of a bitch to get to Derawan. The one GOOD thing about this is that your average tourist wasn’t going to attempt the trip. After all, not many people want to spend their holiday (vacation) using up 2 or 3 days to argue with car or boat drivers and stay in dirty towns just to get to an island. That’s just fine by us! We had finally found what we were looking for…very few western faces, small village life, and absolutely incredible views of pristine water everywhere we looked. We would spend our nights at a place called Danakan, run by incredibly nice people who did everything they could to make our stay as pleasant as possible. Our first morning was spent waking up to donuts and coffee. Well, we ... read more
October 4th 2010
Everything about Pulau Derawan is a dream. The palm fringed island glows with tropical colour. Stilted homes hover over the crystalline waters below that literally teem with marine life. Turtles peruse the islands' seabed whilst sharks and manta rays patrol it's outer reefs. Locals gleam with the luck of their island life and tourists are few and far between. The only nightmare is trying to get there. We had travelled from Malaysian Borneo the day before and it was once again a case of 'what a difference a border makes'. The Indonesian side of Borneo had less infrastructure, the roads were pot holed, it was rougher around the edges and people spoke no English. All this when just a ferry ride away in Malaysia, English is the second language. However it just so happens we liked ... read more
October 4th 2009
This blog is about a beautiful island towards the top of Kalimantan where the sand is pure white, the sea is crystal clear, turtles play around in the surf every single day, the coral is pristine and if this isn't enough you can venture out to visit jellyfish lagoons and manta rays gangs in neighbouring islands.. and best of all you have it all to yourself as there are no other tourists there to take away your pleasure.. pure bliss! From our scariest bus ride in our previous blog we will now announce our new top worst bus ride leader.. even beating the Worlds 2nd Most Dangerous Road bus ride in Bolivia... The bus ride from Sangatta to Berau is a killer and definitely one that would have put a stop to all other bus rides ... read more
December 4th 2008
To look into the eyes of ‘Princess’ - a rescued and rehabilitated Orang Utan in her home environment was a spine tingling, magical experience. She is one of over 200 Orang Utans that have been returned to their natural habitat by rangers working at Camp Leakey deep in the rain forest of Borneo. Truth be told ‘Princess’ has not been fully rehabilitated - she had too much contact with humans in her early days of rehabilitation and now tends to hang around the camp. She was once part of an experiment to see how much language Orang Utans can master - she has a vocabulary of over 140 words in signing. She is mother to a baby of 6 months, which still clings to her, and a juvenile of 6 years who still stays with her ... read more
April 30th 2007
Derawan Island group off Berau Kalimantan Paradise how long. We arrived at Derawan, the main island in the group and went first to stay at Lestari losmen, As others have commented the best rooms are over the sea on stilts, rooms up the back not so nice and pretty stuffy. There was a long walk to the toilet at the back which didn’t go down to well in the middle of the night. Main problem for us was that there was a Polish Dive operation staying there next door to us, they were nice people and we became friendly with them they run tours from Poland at budget prices both to Derawan and Papua. Staying 3 months in each and moving all there kit in the middle of the season. The problem was that there room ... read more
