Borneo – Kalimantan, Indonesia

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white sandy beaches in Borneo, Indonesia . photo by: helen agustine

Our beloved island Kalimantan in Borneo – Indonesia, recently is one of the most favourite destination visited by tourists. The big island consists of several small islands around it, where we step our bare feet on their white sands. Maratua, Derawan, Sangalaki, and Kakaban island, a group of islands that have incredibly rich underwater nature, are located in Eastern Kalimantan, 2-3 hours by boat from the port of Berau.

The Lighthouse – Maratua Island . photo by: helen agustine

We choose to stay 3 nights in Nunukan Resort, located in the finest island, Maratua. I call it as diver’s paradise, it has so many beautiful dive spots and also the resort provides a complete diver’s equipments (suites, fins, snorkle, etc).  From here, we can hire a boat for one full day to go around to other islands, or to dive in different kind of spots, with or without the local dive master. We also got our breakfast, lunch and dinner in the resort, with some local taste.

Bridge to Nunukan Resort . photo by: helen agustine

Sunset in Nunukan resort . photo by: helen agustine

Every different spot has different underwater creatures. We pick a low season to travel, so there are not so many other tourists around. The water was crystal clear with a turquoise colours gradation, and we can see the colourful corals clearly from the boat.

shallow water in maratua island . photo by: helen agustine

colourful coral – maratua island . photo by: helen agustine

 We were so lucky because we were able to see many kinds of creatures, we can swim together with Manta Ray (Sangalaki Island), stingless jellyfishes (Kakaban Island), barracuda, sea turtles, or even dolphins. In our way on a boat, sometimes we saw a group of flying fishes escort our journey.

manta ray – sangalaki island . photo by: helen agustine

swimming with thousands stingless jellyfishes . photo by: helen agustine

Maratua Settlement . photo by: helen agustine

crystal clear sea in Maratua . photo by: eugene tehupuring

We went to Maratua villages, greetings the locals and to see some of local colourful painted houses. We made some several stops on small empty islands with white sands underneath our feet. There were so many little eye-catching orange crabs running crazily to their holes in the sands when we were walking.

an empty white sandy beaches . photo by: agatha carolina

my travel captions – East Kalimantan, Borneo, Indonesia

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