Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Derawan Island : Borneo's Under the Sea Paradise

Derawan Island is a 33 ha island located in Berau regency, province of East Kalimantan, Indonesia.

Derawan Island has beautiful panorama with clean white coast with adjoining coconut palm forest, and a number of small villages encircle island. This place has known as sea tourism location especially for dive and snorkeling activities. 

The marines around Derawan Island is rich with fish especially a kind of fish that always forage on the surface of water whereas birds fly above it to pounce adrift food on the sea. Green tortoise, which is scarce laid eggs along the Derwan Island beach, is not far from diving Derawan Dive Resort location.

Derawan sometimes suffers from reduced visibility, but has a diversity of marine life to hold one's interest, including even the most jaded diver - huge lavender seafans, cuttlefish, which pose for photographers, green sea turtles, flat worms and nudibranchs galore, unusual tube anemones, blue-ribbon eels and multi-coloured crinoids. Some of the best diving can be had in the 5 m of water at the end of the Derawan pier, where you will find many of the common Pacific sea creatures - anemonefish, lion and fire fish, puffers, anthias, turtles and schools of batfish, and rarities such as tiny scorpionfish, pipefish, seahorses, green mantis shrimp, squid and many other nudibranchs and tunicates. [from many sources]

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Thursday, September 23, 2010

Beautiful Ijen Crater Lake

Ijen Crater (Indonesian : Kawah Ijen) is the biggest crater lake in Java. The sulfur crater lake lies between a natural dams of deeply etched rock. It is 200 meters deep and contains about 36 million cubic meters of steaming acid water,  which is about 20 kilometers wide, shrouded in a smelling swirling sulfur cloud. Inside the crater the different color and size of stones are found. Indeed the crater of Ijen is beautiful garden of stone as well.

Ijen Plateau lies in the centre of Ijen-Merapi Malang Reserve, which extends over much of the mountainous region directly west of Banyuwangi and borders on the Baluran National Park in the northeast. As at Mt. Bromo, the caldera is best viewed from the air. Fortunately, almost all commercial flights operating between Denpasar - Surabaya, Yogyakarta or Jakarta usually fly, if not directly over, then close by Ijen plateau, where the seemingly luminous blue/green crater lake forms an unmistakable landmark. It is beautiful scenery and located about 32 km to the north west of Banyuwangi.

The principal attraction at Ijen is the large Crater Lake that has much sulfur, which lies hidden between sheer walls of deeply furrowed rock at more than 200 meters. The Ijen crater itself lies at approximately 2,300 meters above sea level. It forms a twin volcano with the now extinct Mount Merapi. The enormous Crater Lake, which is 200 meters deep and covers an area of more than meters, a million square meters, contains about 36 million cubic meters of steaming, acid water.

Ijen crater shows a special type of volcanic feature common to Indonesia, about 1 kilometer in diameter and 175 meters deep. The floor is covered completely by a warm lake, milky blue green in colours held back by a dam built many years ago by the Dutch, in order to keep the hot, mineral laden water from raining the crop lands below.

The crater can be reached from either the east or the west by any kinds of vehicles, but the second part of the trip covers distance 3 km on foot (jungle track). However, the latter is more popular approach, since the climb from the road's end to the edge of the lake is only one and a half hours. And a walk around the lake takes a full day.

The temperature drops at night, near the crater rim it can fall to about 5° Celsius. The road ends at Jampit, where very basic shelter is available. It is also possible to sleep in the old vulcanology station further up the hill, now used by sulfur collectors, but permission must be obtained in advance.

The view of sulfur miners who climb and go down to the crater is also amazing. A man puts about 10 kg of yellowish stone in to his basket, before he descends the mountain slope to sell his load, carrying the same basket, going in the same direction, digging the same mineral. It is the natural picture that can be seen everyday. The sulfur is transported entirely on foot. In the past, horses were used but they were found to be less practical on the hazardous terrain. Today, the mine yields nine to twelve tons of sulfur per day.

Men carry individual loads of up to 70 kg, often barefooted, up to the rim of crater and then 17 km down the mountainside to a factory near Banyuwangi. The porters are paid by weight. The most important advice if you are traveling to Ijen is: "If you lose your way, just look out for the sulfur trail". The meaning was clear, since a continuous flow of two ways traffic, carrying the sulfur down the mountainside from the lake and trudging up again to re-load, had left a yellow trail on the well-worn path. The best time for seeing Ijen Crater is at 8 to 9 am. [source : Ijen]

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Thursday, September 16, 2010

Sipisopiso Waterfall

The Sipisopiso is a plunge waterfall in the Batak highlands of Sumatra. It is formed by a small underground river of the Karo plateau that hurls itself from a cave in the side of the lake Toba caldera some 120 meters (360 feet) down to lake level. This fact earns it the title for the highest waterfall in Indonesia. Sipisopiso is a well-known tourist attraction and a nearby vantage point offers great vistas of the fall and the lake.

Sipisopiso waterfall is located in the Tanah Karo regency, at the northernmost tip of the Lake Toba caldera, near the fishing village of Tongging. The closest municipality, about 25 kilometers away, is the town of Kabanjahe.

In the local language, Sipisopiso derives from a word "Piso", meaning knife. Sipiso-piso means like knives. The local people call it Sipiso-piso, because the waterfall flowing down to the water surface is relatively fast. It is so fast that each water flash is so sharp like a knife when it touches our skin. [source : Wikipedia and VOI]

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Sedudo Waterfall

Sedudo Waterfall located at Ngliman, Sawahan district, Nganjuk regency, East Java, Indonesia. Reachable from Nganjuk about 30 km. The air is fresh and cool. This location is often visited by many of people especially during Suro, one of months of the Javanese year. An impressive waterfall of more than 100 metres high, Sedudo Falls - like many other falls, springs, and wells in Java is believed to be something of a fountain of youth. The district goverment and the public around, always held a traditional ceremony every Suro. According to them, Sedudo Waterfall was used to bath statue in Parna Prahista ceremony, then the water spattered to the body in order to get a safety and eternal youth. The traditional ceremony of taking up Sedudo sacral water as the sign to begin the public bathing is done by 12 girls with long hair and boys. The form this procession is taking a bath together in the pool under Sedudo waterfall, and held every Suro (the first Javanese month). This procession is led by the Regent of Nganjuk and followed by the local visitors, and the tourist who come from the whole Java. After taking a bath, still on the Sedudo area, the visitors are entertained with the traditional art named Jedor.

Sedudo Waterfall is located at the foot of Mount. Wilis, like many other falls; clear water, falls, and fresh air. But this waterfall wells in Java is believed to be something of a fountain of youth, especially during the first month of the Javanese year, will be blessed with eternal youth. Aside from the waterfall itself, the trip up into the hills from Nganjuk, following the river's current, offers exceptional visit of fresh mountain country. In that Waterfall, we also can get fasilities such as;toilet, bath room, food seller, clothes seller, fruits seller, and souvenirs. Aside from the waterfall itself, the trip up into the hills from Nganjuk, following the river's course, offers exceptional vistas of mountain country. [source : Sedudo]