Marcya Nasution: May 2014

I'm such a tropical kid, my love to sea and sand is enormous. Lucky me, living in a country that has thousands of beautiful islands. Another perks of living in a tropics is, it's summer every day every year. So when a friend of mine asked me to join her and her collegues for a weekend getaway to East Borneo, I didn't think twice to say yes.

Derawan is an island in east Borneo, well known for it's beauty and unique water villas, it's surrounded by couple of smaller islands. Compare to other islands, Derawan is the most densly populated, also the most polluted. I was relieved that instead of staying in Derawan, we were staying in Maratua island. Smaller island, not as famous as Derawan, but is well renowned amongst the diver.

Both Maratua and Derawan are super pretty, but yet the islands has lots more to offer. We went to Gusung island, 20 minutes away by speed boat from Maratua, and we didn't want to go home. It's a tiny island with white and soft sandy beach, also a deep blue sea with nemo the clownfish and patrick the starfish in it.

If white sandy beach, deep blue sea and clear blue sky are not enough, then you should try to swim with thousands of sting-less jellyfish. Yes, no lie, sting-less jellyfish! It was in Kakaban conservatory island, we can play with this soft and pretty creatures. I was overjoyed myself and completely forgot to take pictures, but go google it, Kakaban Island :)

Still in Kakaban island, lies an extremely beautiful lagoon right in the middle of Kakaban's mangroove forrest. If the sea recede, you can explore the cave near the lagoon, but please be careful with the strong stream.