Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Kakaban, An Island With A Beautiful Lake Inside

Kakaban is a little island, a part of Derawan Islands, located in the Sub District Derawan, Berau, East Borneo with an area of 774.2 hectares.

The divers like Kakaban because its natural attraction, swarm of barracuda in the water of Kakaban Island. And they will see also the emergence of sharks, rays and reef fish and other exotic fish. Like fish Napoleon (Napoleon Wrasse). Don’t you worry, at this time, there are three private companies serve as a diving resort and surrounding Derawan.

Kakaban attract foreign tourists with its characteristic. It has a beautiful lake in the middle of the island, Kakaban Lake. The lake is filled by a mixture of rain water and sea water from the soil pores and create a habitat different endemic in most other lakes in the world.

The closest airport to the Derawan Islands is the Juwata International Airport, Tarakan. The biggest airport in nort east Borneo. The only International flights to Tarakan is from Malaysia, with the Tawau - Tarakan. Domestic flight are available to almost all big cities in Indonesia. So tourist from Jakarta, Surabaya or Bali will not find difficulty to get their flight to Tarakan. The nearest International Airport to Juwata International Airport is Balikpapan Sepinggan Airport. From Tarakan traveler can take an internal flight south by either KalStar or Deraya Airlines (DAS) to Tanjung Redeb in the district of Berau. Boats will take you from here to Kakaban and other Derawan Islands.

Actually there is another choice, traveler can fly with SilkAir from Singapore and Air Asia from Kuala Lumpur to Sepinggan International Airport at Balikpapan, one of the big city of East Kalimantan But you still must go by internal flight to Tanjung Redeb.

Because there’s no flight to Kakaban or Derawan Island, when you are in Berau, try to find speedboat. You can hir it for the 2 hour ride to the Derawan islands. It usually has capacity of 15 people. You can directly rent it to go to Kakaban. But remember you must prepare to stay in neighbouring islands of Sangalaki, Maratua or Derawan, there’s no hotel in Kakaban. You can reach Kakaban in 20 minutes from Sangalaki, 30 minutes from Maratua and 45 minutes from Derawan.