Derawan Island, hidden paradise in Borneo

Indonesia is an archipelago country with more than seventeen thousand islands spanning through almost two million kilometer. I spent my fare share of travelling throughout Europe, but it doesn't mean I don't explore my own beautiful country. Last year I went to Derawan island which located in East Borneo province. To reach Derawan you can either fly to Tarakan, which have more frequent flight, and use speedboat for 2 to 3 hours to reach Derawan or you can fly to Berau and continue with speedboat for about an hour. If you tend to have sea sick, choosing to fly to Berau is much saver choice.

Basically Derawan is the name of main island, if you choose to stay there, and during your stay you will do island hopping using a speedboat and do a lot of fun stuff. Most of the accommodation in Derawan are floating house, it's a great new experience just to feel the sea breeze in front of your room or if you decided to count the stars at night or simply sleeping with the sound of the waves beneath you. 

First stop for my journey was Kakaban Island, it took me around an hour using speedboat from Derawan. In Kakaban you'll find a lake where thousand of wild jellyfish live. Wait, what so special about that? Jellyfish is famous with its sting as a defense mechanism, so even though it really pretty we cannot touch them, but here in Kakaban the jellyfish have live their life peacefully and not developed their defense mechanism a.k.a the sting. So here we can swim and touch them freely. Psst, try to swim to the center of the lake and you'll see jellyfish with different color. And you can find this kind of jellyfish only in two places in the world!

The next day I went to different island called Sanglaki, here I will not found jellyfish but I found sea turtle instead. Sea turtle, as explained in Disney movie Finding Nemo, can live for hundred years. Sea turtle like to spawn here in Sanglaki, usually female sea turtle spawn hundreds of eggs at night buried deep down in the sand to avoid predator and when its time to hatch, the baby sea turtle will find their way from the sand to the sea. But if the sea turtle born during the day, they will be more vulnerable to the predator that's why here in Sanglaki they have a temporary place to keep the baby sea turtle and let them free in the middle of the night. If you walk around the beach, please take note of the sea turtle trail, you surely don't want to destroy their nest or worse step on the eggs. During the day I went swimming near Sanglaki and fortunate enough to swim close to a giant sea turtle. It's such a magical moment!

I spent my last day in Derawan to chase Manta. Manta is one of the fish species which eat plankton and have flat shaped body. Up close they have blue mouth, or what I'm considered as mouth, and swim very fast. It took quite a lot of courage and determination to find Manta in a very big ocean but it all worth it. All in all, I really enjoy my trip to Derawan, I learn a lot about sea creatures and even swim with some of them. If you like to see beautiful coral, Derawan might not be the perfect place for you but if you want to experience something new with say jellyfish or sea turtle, come and visit Derawan!

It's a family trip!!

Looking back to the dark history of Auschwitz

Auschwitz located in Oswiecim, Poland approximately 66 km west of Krakow. You can do a day trip from Krakow just because I'm not sure if you want to spent even just one night in that city. There are three available options to get to Auschwitz, first is to use tour companies where they will take you using tour bus and back to Krakow, there are also regional bus which will take you directly to the camp or using regional train. For me I choose to use train which is more authentic because you will use old train just as the prisoner of the concentration camp at that time, just another way to add more spoke to your visit.

The admission to the museum is free unless you are visiting during peak season (April - October) which you can only enter using a tour costed 40 zl. Bu if you enter the museum before 10 am or after 3 pm you can enter the museum for free, and this is what I'm choosing. 

When you enter the museum, the famous 'Arbeit macht Frei' gate will welcome you. For you who doesn't speak German, it literally means 'work will set you free' which a propaganda set by NAZI to encourage the prisoner to work all day.

Basically the museum was a complex of barrack which is then converted into series of museum to show how the life of the prisoner in the concentration camp. It's 8 am when I enter the museum complex, the barrack museums have not yet opened so I decided to stroll around the premises. That morning light rain showered the museum complex, the sun was no where to be seen and not many people arrived at that hour. While looking around I found several bullet marks on the walls, a scary electric fence and double barbed fence to keep the prisoner from running away from the camp. 

I don't know whether it is my bad luck but the first open building I found was this one. Since it's raining outside, I think looking inside a building would be a great idea, but it definitely NOT! I don't know what is this building and just went ahead, inside I can see soot on the edge of the wall as if something was burned inside the building. And then I spotted scratches on the walls, lots of it. It's just me and my friend inside the building, no one even near where we are and the sky was so gloomy, my mind suddenly gathered all the information and just took my friend hand and drag her out from the building. My fear came true when I read the sign : 'Gas Chamber' and my mood for the day just change dramatically.

Gas chamber

Gallows to hang the prisoner :(

When the clock reached 10 am, more people coming into the complex using guided tour. It's time to explore the barrack museum but what I found there still not a pretty sight. So each barrack have their own theme, one barrack displayed the bedding condition of the prisoner, 3 storeys bunk bed with more than 10 people each storey, the awful toilet condition, the item possessed by the prisoner before they enter the camp which showed how many people are inside the camp within that period of time, I even saw one room filled with human hair, yes you're not reading it wrong, real human hair of the prisoner. 

Shoes left by the prisoner 

Maybe Auschwitz not the best place to visit while in Europe, but it get me thinking about what mankind can do to others, such a horrible horrible things. When leaving Auschwitz, I feel so lifeless like my happiness was sucked by a dementor and I just got out from Azkaban. But I'm still glad that I visit one of the darkest place on the planet.

More info about the museum:

http://auschwitz.org/en/