06/05/2019 to 12/05/2019 - Derawan / Indonesia

In the morning, we once again drove to the airport and our plane took off to Tarakan in Kalimantan/Indonesia on the island of Borneo. In Indonesia, German citizens are allowed to enter the country for 30 days without a visa. However, we wanted to stay in the country for 60 days, so we needed another 30-day visa which we were willing to pay for in order to extend it later. According to the internet, it should be possible at Tarakan airport. But the authorities thwarted our plans. It is almost possible everywhere, but not at this airport. So, we have to come up with a new travel plan within the next 30 days :-/. But well, we have arrived for now. We were picked up and taken to the jetty. We traveled to the island of Derawan by speedboat for 3 hours. Speedboating is really not for people with a queasy stomach or back problems. Finally, we arrived at Scuba Junkie on the island, discussed everything for the next few days, and checked into our water bungalow. We took a walk around the small island and in 30 minutes, we were back at the starting point. There are several tourist accommodations, home stays, and many locals here. So far, we have only met 9 other tourists who were also staying at our accommodation. Getting something to eat for dinner was not that easy here, especially since it was Ramadan. We found something. A freshly grilled fish with rice. Communication here mainly works with hand gestures, as the locals don't speak much English and our Indonesian is very limited.

The next morning, we had to get up very early. Departure with the speedboat at 5 o'clock in the morning to hopefully see whale sharks. After a 2-hour drive, we arrived at a Bagan. This is a stationary fishing boat that stays at one spot for the entire season and has huge nets hanging out. They threw some fish into the sea for us and we immediately had 4 whale sharks around us. Swimming with these giant animals (they were only babies, but still about 7 meters long) is exciting and absolutely amazing. Luckily, they only eat small fish ;-). We enjoyed the whole experience for about an hour and then returned to start the first dives.

In the next 6 days, we experienced a colorful and diverse underwater world. We saw whale sharks, dolphins, many turtles, small and large porcupine and pufferfish, pygmy seahorses, countless snails, squids, huge schools of barracudas, scorpion and stonefish, rare leaf fish, manta and eagle rays, crocodile, buffalo-headed parrot, and frogfish, shy anemone fish, colorful corals, sand dunes at a depth of 10 meters, and so much more around the islands of Derawan, Sangalaki, Kakaban, and Maratua. And we were especially thrilled when we saw orcas during our surface break. Actually, they live in much colder regions, but one family obviously feels comfortable in 28-degree water temperature. Absolutely fantastic and worth seeing, what our underwater world has to offer.