How long I haven't been away? Not that long, almost a year. Usually, I use my time off going back to my home country which is Indonesia. I rarely just stay in Jakarta (my hometown) but I often travel to different places. I used to go overseas (Southeast Asia) but this time I've decided to go local.
As Indonesian, I barely travel around Indonesia, maybe some cities like Bali, Bandung or Palembang (my mom's hometown) but that was all nowhere else. So every time friends ask me where to go in Indonesia, I only can recommend Bali (lame!). That is one of the reason why I went local for my holiday on 2013.
At first I was planning to go to Bunaken, Sulawesi. I love beach and always want to dive (need license unfortunately). But one of my friend said Bunaken is not that great anymore. Wonder why? Typical! We'll get to that along this story. So we decided to go to Kalimantan. Apparently there is one travel (Kakaban Trip) which has been exploring East Indonesia which includes Kalimantan. So then we went with this travel. Our package was hopping islands. We stayed in Maratua Island then we were hopping to Derawan, Sangalaki, Kakaban and Nabucco island.
I haven't heard of these islands before so I didn't have any expectation, all I want was having fun with my friends and enjoying the sun. But beyond all that, I was amazed with what I saw. Crystal clear blue water, fish, coral, turtle and beautiful beach greeted us (that's the best 'red carpet' ever), then we went to our room which was a water villa (imagine Bora-bora). Damn! I don't know Indonesia can be this beautiful. Why would I spend lots of money and make other country rich? While I have it in my own country with cheaper price! It's on our own backyard! Unbelievable! I can see different kind of fish, coral, jellyfish and also turtle. I'm in love with turtle! I saw big and held little turtle. So cool! Like everyone said "Heaven on Earth."
And I was surprised because there were some tourist as well from France. They know this place??! I'm embarrassed. Oh well, at least now I know and I'm proud to tell the world about this place. But dilemma strikes me. I really want to tell everyone about this amazing place but are the people ready to take care of this place while they're having fun? It's kind of sad seeing people traveling to great spots just to ruin them then move on to another spots like what happened to Bali, Bunaken and many more spots in Indonesia. Can't we go to those great spots, take care of them so that other people can enjoy them as well instead of moving on to other spots? These people, I'm talking about here are all people who visit, travel or live around the area. Honestly, I'm not ready to see these beautiful places ruin by crap from irresponsible people. Anyway, I can only wish they could care more about the environment. And specifically for locals, after all these places belong to us, treat them like we're the owner. It's our own backyard!
-vc-
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