Silver Lining in the Mist: Derawan Trip Part 3

Kakaban Island view from the lagoon

To see part 2 click here
If you haven't had any ideas what this post is, click here for part 1 ;P

Where are we? ah, yess, we're from the lagoon at Kakaban Island. As I showed you earlier, we enter through a cave. But, to get back, we went through another route which is 'stairs'. Confused? Let's just say, when u enter the cave, u went 'under' and now you went 'over' -> thus require stairs. Still don't get it? lemme show you.. :P

Basically, you gotta go over the hill to get back to the beach. Give so, the way to 'climb' down is with stairs. Pretty scary tho, but fun regardless :P (P.S: it's easier if you have long feet hahha)

I just like this lady with her H&M hat :P -> make up for nice pic eh? ;)

We moved to another spot which still located in Kakaban island. But to reach there, we got to circle almost half of the island with boat. Till we reach this dock.

We ate lunch at this dock first before continue our journey to the jellyfish lake.

View of Kakaban island. 

I love how they make nice bridges to reach the lake :P They say that the wood used for are the strongest Borneo wood. It actually get stronger even when it hit water. It's the same wood used for making wooden boat I guess.

At the end of the 'bridge'/road.

This is actually my favorite spot throughout this entire derawan experience hehe. This is a salt water lake where many years ago was actually part of the sea. Due to the shifting earth plates, the sea water got trap in the middle of land. This forces the organism inside the lake to adapt.

So, what's so interesting about this lake? well, firstly there're only 2 spot like this in the world! the other one is in Philippines they say. Secondly, the lake is full with jellyfish that is Stingless! I'm not gonna lie, since i've been stung by jellyfish before (it was not nice T__T), to be able to swim around these jellyfishes is just so unique and fun! And as cheesy as this might sound, those jellyfishes looks so cute!!! Hahha.. :P

It's actually very deep, so if you can't swim, better bring your life vest together with you.

The guide told us to swim quite far from the dock so that we can see more jellyfishes :P. This is such a fun, unique experience that pleaseeee, if you get the chance to go here, make sure that you have UNDERWATER CAMERA!! We don't have one T__T, luckily our guide has GoPro camera and the kind man took pictures of us playing with jellyfishes.

However, my friend's phone in which got transfered the photos from our guide got BROKEN and thus we lost the only copy of those photos.... *cry* T_____T

So, these are the closest thing I can find on google that resemble the jellyfishes and the color of the lake at the time. :)

The water is indeed not clear, and since the lake is pretty deep, you can't really see the bottom hahha.

Here's a clearer photo, but pretty sure the lake doesn't look like this hahha, but the jellyfish look the same and yess there were that much of them! 

We swam pretty long at this lake, then we move to our next destination which is Sangalaki Island.
Here, we are supposedly going to swim with Manta -> it's like stingray but they don't sting hehe. But when we got there, our tour guide say that the Manta is wild and the sea current is very very strong. It is dangerous for us to swim. So, the kind man swim and take picture of the manta for us (which yess, we lost the photos as well --'). I'd be honest that i'm quite disappointed. A close friend of mine said that this is a must thing to do in Derawan - swimming with Manta. But better be disappointed than losing your life right? hahha.

Nevertheless, our trip haven't ended yet. We got down at Sangalaki island to see baby turtles!!

Then, we walk to see a giant crab which eats coconut -> pretty scary creature actually hahha. Didn't take a picture of it tho --'. We then stayed around for a while. 

The Beach at Sangalaki island

That was the trip. We went back to our cottage at Derawan. Here's another exciting thing, the boat captain turn up the speed!!! He talked to us earlier in the morning on how it actually does them a favor if the passengers trust them completely with the ride. Especially if they ask him to increase the speed! I sure as hell don't mind it at all! So, on the trip back, boy did he run it up. I really enjoy the sensation of sea water splashing to your face. The interval of the boat bumping with the waves as it sails dividing the sea. The feeling as if you are flying through the ocean, I can't help but laughing together with the all the people in the boat. Talk about adrenaline pump! :P

It was around 4 PM. The view of the sun in the mist. Majestic and peaceful isn't it?

Fourth Day

Goodbye Derawan! T__T, I still wanna see so much more hikss T__T, did you know there's a spot where you can swim with whale??? oh and there's another cave with a river where you can free jump? T___T if only if only... we need to get back to reality tho *sigh* -> work life. 

Early in the morning, we went back to Tarakan. 

Here, let me prepare you for the tension of the day.

Our ticket originally is Garuda: Berau-Balikpapan-Jakarta. Now, we checked (for every single day) since we landed at Balikpapan on first day about the flight condition in Berau. Remember that our flight got re-routed because of the weather? Now, apparently on our 2nd day, planes were able to flight in and out of Berau because of heavy rain the day before. However! On 3rd day, there were some people who went back to Berau earlier and we heard that their flight got cancelled. Thus causing them to take 

more than 7 hours complicated road trip!! 

Based on this information, we called Garuda Indonesia and asked what to do? The customer service said that you guys can just directly go to Tarakan airport, show your ticket there, and everything will be taken care for. Okay, so we did exactly what the CS told us to do. Looking at the foggy sky, there's just no chance for plane to fly in and out Berau. Hence, we went to Tarakan. 

The sea that morning was calm, our boat was able to sail very smoothly. In less than 2.5 hours we can see land where Tarakan is. Until.... the boat stopped. 

In the middle of the sea.

Why? It ran out of gas.....

--'

*deep sigh*

We have to wait another 30 minutes for another boat to come and deliver some gasoline for our boat. Great huh? to think that they have prepared well? ckckck..

Anyway, while waiting, some of the people in the boat apparently has cancelled their flight from Berau (they have the same ticket originally with us). Because frankly, they couldn't take the risk of not flying back to Jakarta that very same day. So they cancelled their Garuda ticket, buying Lion air ticket Tarakan - Jakarta since Garuda economy one has completely sold out! (okay...... oh well, we'll probably get the business class seat then hahha) 

Right when we arrived at Tarakan, we immediately ask to be driven to the airport to take care our ticket. Got to the airport, and visit the Garuda booth and told our story + that we have called Garuda's every single day asking about our condition. It was around 11 AM. 

Now, here is WHY we are SO DISAPPOINTED with GARUDA INDONESIA! 

1. It's not like we did nothing to anticipate this 'national disaster'. We did, we asked around, we monitored DAILY the condition in Berau, we ask our tour guide to help, we called Garuda. 

When we arrived, they said: 

"Since the flight in Berau is not yet cancelled, we can't do anything for you!" 

.......What the .....? Do you not see the sky?? Has any flight come in and out of Berau today? NO! The morning Sriwijaya flight got cancelled, even the 11 AM flight got cancelled! How on earth could you still say that the 3 PM flight will still fly? And even so, do you really expect us to take that risk???? What if it got cancelled? how do you expect us to go to Tarakan from Berau? Road trip? will you cover the cost that for us? Yeah right, All expenses will be on ourselve, since this is not Garuda's fault so they say. Wonderful isn't it?

2. Our call to Garuda is pointless. THEY DID NOTHING!!! This is where your fault is Garuda, we called, we asked for you help and you did nothing. You direct us to a road where you did not even take responsibility for. The least you can do perhaps is to secure flight seat for us on Tarakan - Jakarta flight. BUT you did not do. The flight is full! (even the business class is full apparently) and there's no more Garuda flight to Jakarta on that day. Yet you still have the audacity to say that it is not your fault??? blaming on the national disaster, Hell, we know that, we anticipate that, Garuda did not! 

3. After all this, we thought okay, perhaps we can cancelled our ticket and take another flight. If so, then we will only get 25% refund. 25%!!!!!!! only 25%!!!!!!! O______O GEEZZ, Lion Air give FULL REFUND. We are as sure as hell not willing to lose 1 million rupiah of our ticket go to waste. Other flight on that day is also fully booked. So There's no chance for us to get back on that day. *sigh* Everybody at this point start calling, texting their boss to ask for another day off. This means, we have to spend another day at Tarakan where we spent money for accommodation and food. Is Garuda paying for anything? NOPE.

4. Okay, the last solution is to take the next Garuda flight which will be on the next day. A solution that we (NOT Garuda) came up. The thing is, the ticket apparently cost more than our original ticket. Funny huh? since Tarakan-Jakarta flight is suppose to be waayy cheaper than Berau-Jakarta. AND to top it all. We have to pay the excess amount. . . . . Lion Air DID NOT charge additional fee when we got re-routed!!! Garuda however did. This "best" offer - out basically nothing - can only apply if our original Berau flight is officially cancelled. (see, they still insisted on that presumably going to happen flight is still going to fly). 

So, we booked our "tommorow" ticket to secure our seat. After we got it's proof of booking, we leave the airport. *too much negativity and tension* Starving, we chose to eat KFC hahha (easy option). Fortunately, we didn't have to pay for transportation. I talked to my travel agency and explain everything including the "run out of gas incident in the sea". I asked for transport to the airport for the next day to be free of charge given the fact that the people in the field has not being responsible enough for the passenger transportation (re: boat). It work hehehe, we only need to tip the driver afterwards. :)

After lunch, we got to see the mangrove forest in Tarakan. Here live the indigenous Bekantan Monkey.   I'm sure you guys are familiar with Dufan's mascot right? :P

Walking in the mangrove forest, we walk together with a family who share
the same 'fate' (read: Garuda ticket failure) with us hahha. 

Can you spot the monkey? :)

Bekantan

From here, we went back to the hotel. Took a bath, a little rest before dinner. 

Both dinner and lunch for the next day we spent with eating lots and lotsss of seafood (which I did not take a picture of hahha...). Pretty much lotss of Crabs, fish, shrimp and squids. :P

Fifth Day

Finally! Woke up a bit late, ate breakfast, took a bath, pack our stuff and ready to check out from the hotel. After eating lunch, we then go to the airport to catch our flight home. :) I didn't have anymore energy to take pictures at this point wkwkwk. 

Series of misfortunate events happened to this trip. At some point I was glad that I'm still alive hahahhaa. Being on a boat floating in the middle of the sea, the mouse incident, and the airport incident.  This certainly makes up for a 'different' sort of trip. However, despite of all, I must say this Derawan trip is truly a unique experience for me. :) Indeed a silver lining in the mist. 

Till next trip. ^^