Showing posts with label Snorkeling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Snorkeling. Show all posts

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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Monday, July 5, 2010

Nusa Lembongan

Nusa Lembongan is a small island off the southeast coast of the main island of Bali. Fast becoming one of Bali's most popular attractions, this island paradise is a world away from the hassle and hectic pace of South Bali. Neither hawkers nor traffic mar the magnificent scenery; this is a fine place to just put your feet up and relax. Main activities include surfing, diving and snorkeling. The water is some of the clearest you will find anywhere, and a vivid aqua blue in colour. 

Nusa Lembongan is approximately eight square kilometres in size, and is one of three neighbouring islands, the others being much larger Nusa Penida and tiny Nusa Ceningan. The three islands are separated from Bali by the Badung Strait. Some visitors may find Nusa Lembongan a little slow after the pace of South Bali. 

Many areas around the island are good for diving and snorkeling, with abundant marine life and healthly coral. Surfing can get a bit crowded, but the waves are good. There are several white sand beaches away from the main centres which are virtually never crowded. There is a flourishing and well established seaweed farming industry here, and many visitors find it interesting to learn about this. 

Two main beach areas have traditionally attracted visitors. Jungut Batu in the northwest is the bigger of the two, and has myriad hotels and cheap eateries. This is the area which traditionally attracted backpackers and surfers to the island. The white sand beach here is pleasant enough but nothing to get too excited about, and it is a little narrow in places. In more recent times, the hillside to the south of Jungut Batu known as the Bukit (the hill) has been developed and has attracted higher level hotels. The views from the Bukit are perhaps second to none on Nusa Lembongan. Sunsets are best viewed along the main Jungut Batu beachfront. 

Mushroom Bay to the southwest of Jungut Batu is a quaint, attractive and sheltered bay. It is an especially nice spot after 3PM when the day trippers have returned to Bali, and it has a great white sandy beach, along with some cozy little water-side restaurants. 

Further south, the lesser known beaches either side of the Devil's Tear outcrop, known as Dream Beach and Sunset Beach, are increasingly drawing more visitors. The coastal landscape in this part of the island is mostly low-lying limestone cliffs, and there are some dramatic cave formations. 

The north end of the island is fringed by a mangrove forest, and the eastern side of the island is separated from neighbouring Nusa Ceningan by a shallow estuarine channel. 

The main population centre of the island is Lembongan Village in the southern interior, and it is here that you will find the homes of most traditional island families.[source : Nusa Lembongan]

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Sunday, May 30, 2010

Banda Islands

The Banda Islands (Indonesian: Kepulauan Banda) are a volcanic group of ten small volcanic islands in the Banda Sea, about 140 km south of Seram island and about 2000 km east of Java, and are part of the Indonesian province of Maluku. The main town and administrative centre is Bandanaira, located on the island of the same name. They rise out of 4–6 km deep ocean and have a total land area of approximately 180 km2. They have a population of about 15,000. Until the mid 19th century the Banda Islands were the world's only source of the spices nutmeg and mace, produced from the nutmeg tree. The islands are also popular destinations for scuba diving and snorkeling.

Seemingly insignificant islands in the middle of nowhere in the Banda Sea, in fact the Banda Islands are steeped in history and blessed with some of the finest diving in the country. Central to the spice trade of old, and former home to exiled freedom fighters, the islands are now enjoying a growing reputation for what goes on below the surface.

The remoteness of the islands in the wide open Banda Sea, and the low levels of human population, have meant less fishing pressures, and a vibrant, natural and healthy reef system. The results of this are fishes in incredible numbers, huge seafans and sponges, and some monumental hard corals. 

Some of the creatures worthy of special mention here that characterise diving in the Banda Sea are the preponderance of dogtooth tuna and mobula rays. At most sites you'll see enormous schools of fusiliers and thousands of redtooth tirggerfish. At the other end of the size scale, there are prolific mandarinfish and the native Ambon scorpionfish. Cetaceans are frequent visitors too, and Banda liveaboards often report sightings of spinner dolphins, orcas, and various whale species, including melonhead, pilot, blue, and humpback whales. One certainty is that you will see plenty of big stuff as well as no shortage of colourful reef life.

Topside, these islands boast climbable volcanic mountains which are covered in lush green vegetation. For a taste of historic atmosphere going ashore in Banda Neira is a must for its remnants from the old spice trade of colonial times.  


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Bunaken National Marine Park : A Paradise Under The Sea

The Bunaken National Marine Park was formally established in 1991 and is among the first of Indonesia's growing system of marine parks. The park covers a total surface area of 89,065 hectares, 97% of which is overlain by sparkling clear, warm tropical water. The remaining 3% of the park is terrestrial, including the five islands of Bunaken, Manado Tua, Mantehage, Nain and Siladen. Although each of these islands has a special character, it is the aquatic ecosystem that attracts most naturalists.

The waters of Bunaken National Marine Park are extremely deep (1566 m in Manado Bay), clear (up to 35-40 m visibility), refreshing in temperature (27-29 C) and harbor some of the highest levels of biodiversity in the world. Pick any of group of interest - corals, fish, echinoderms or sponges - and the number of families, genera or species is bound to be astonishingly high. For example, 7 of the 8 species of giant clams that occur in the world, occur in Bunaken. The park has around 70 genera of corals; compare this to a mere 10 in Hawaii. Although the exact number of fish species is unknown, it may be slightly higher than in the Philippines, where 2,500 species, or nearly 70% of all fish species known to the Indo-western Pacific, are found.

Oceanic currents may explain, in part, why Bunaken National Marine Park is such a treasure trove of biodiversity. Northeasternly currents generally sweep through the park but abundant counter currents and gyros related to lunar cycles are believed to be a trap for free swimming larvae. This is particularly true on the south side of the crescent-shaped Bunaken Island, lying in the heart of the park. A snorkler or diver in the vicinity of Lekuan or Fukui may spot over 33 species of butterfly fish and numerous types of groupers, damsels, wrasses and gobies. The gobies, smallish fish with bulging eyes and modified fins that allow them to attach to hard surfaces, are the most diverse but least known group of fish in the park.

Biologists believe that the abundance of hard corals is crucial in maintaining the high levels of diversity in the park. Hard corals are the architects of the reefs, without them, numerous marine organisms would be homeless and hungry. Many species of fish are closely associated with particular types of corals (folious, branching, massives, etc.) for shelter and egg-laying. Others, like the enormous Bumphead Parrotfish, Balbometopon muricatum, are "coralivores" and depend on hard corals for their sustenance. Bony mouth parts fused into an impressive "beak" allow these gregarious fish to crunch corals like roasted peanuts.

Some 20,000 people live on the natural resources of Bunaken National Marine Park. Although there are inevitable conflicts between resource protection and use by people, the Indonesian government is taking a fairly unusual and pragmatic approach to park management. The idea is to promote wise resource use while preventing overexploitation. Local communities, government officials, dive resort operators, local nature groups, tourists and scientists have played an active role in developing exclusive zones for diving, wood collection, fishing and other forms of utilization. Bunaken Marine Park has become an important example of how Sulawesi, and the rest of Indonesia, can work to protect its natural resources.


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Friday, May 14, 2010

GILI Islands : Paradise on Earth

The Gili Islands (Indonesian: Tiga Gili [Three Gilis], Kepulauan Gili [Gili Islands]) are an archipelago of three small islands — Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno and Gili Air — just off the northwest coast of Lombok, Indonesia.

The islands are a popular destination for Western tourists looking for a remote island experience. Each island has several very small resorts, usually consisting of a small collection of huts for tourists, and a restaurant. Most local inhabitants live on Trawangan in a township stretching along its east side just inland (which is also where most recent development is taking place). Automobiles and motorized traffic are prohibited on the islands by local ordinance, so the preferred method of transportation is bicycle or the horse-drawn carriage called a cidomo. Diving in and around the Gilis is also popular due to the abundance of fish life and attractive coral formations.

The name "Gili Islands" is a misnomer, because Gili simply means "small island" in Sasak. As a result most of the islands around the coast of Lombok have Gili in their names, although confusion is averted by referring (in English) to the other Gilis around the Lombok coast by their proper names only.

The largest of the three islands, Gili Trawangan attracts the majority of visitors, it is around thirty minutes boat ride from the northwest mainland of Lombok and regular daily fast boats depart Bali directly to Trawangan island and all boats stop off at Teluk Nare on mainland Lombok as part of the return journey.
The beaches of the Gilis are still powdery white, the water a beautiful clear blue and they are positioned perfectly for sunsets over Bali’s Mt Agung and sunrise over Lombok’s Mt Rinjani. Thirty years ago the Gili islands were uninhabited and only discovered by the seafaring Bugis people from Sulawesi. It was only a matter of time before the more adventurous backpacker types discovered the islands and developed Trawangan into a hippy party paradise destination.

Gili Trawangan now identifies itself as a great holiday destination suitable for families of all ages. Various new hotels, luxury villas, and boutique bungalows now cater to children and offer good value. Some have baby-sitting services, and with lots of activities on the islands families are sure to enjoy their beach holidays to the full. 

Only a kilometre from Gili Trawangan and set in the middle of the three islets lies the real Robinson Crusoe experience of the Gilis with some of the best beaches to be found.

Only two kilometres long and one wide, Gili Meno is the smallest of the three islands and by far the most peacefull and under developed. It’s possible to walk around the island along the beach or paths of Gili Meno in under two hours. 

Most visitors are attracted to Gili Meno for the lure of total escapism and it is therefore very popular with honeymooning couples and adventurous castaway types.

Gili Meno harbour frontThe dining scene is predominantly local cafes with grilled fish on the beach as dusk approaches.

Lazing around in a hammock, reading books and playing chess with the friendly locals (who are always willing to strike up a conversation) also ranks very highly on the daily Meno agenda.

For divers and snorkellers, the island boasts the infamous 'Gili Meno Wall' where during the day turtles freely swim by and giant gorgonian fans hang amongst the colourful corals. At night divers can witness huge Moray Eels and the entertaining Spanish Dancers.
 
Gili Air is closest of the Gilis  to the Lombok mainland, making it popular with honeymoon couples and travelers seeking a quiet retreat. It has a population of about 1,000 and administratively lies in the West Nusa Tenggara province. The island offers excellent snorkeling and scuba diving off its east coast, and turtles can be seen along the coral reef.

The circumference of the island is traversable by foot in around two and a half hours but be sure to pack some supplies as you’re heading well off the beaten track. As with Gili Meno the pace of life is slow and endearing to those who really want to escape the hustle and bustle of the outside world.

               http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gili_Islands 

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Gili Trawangan

Gili Meno

Gili Air