Derawan Island and others small islands around is a cluster of islands in Berau regency located on the eastern part of Kalimantan (Borneo). Also part of the cluster are Kakaban Island, Maratua Island, and Sangalaki Island. The cluster is located on the eastern off Tanjung Redeb, which can be reached by two hours boat journey through Berau River or two hours driving from Tanjung Redeb to Tanjung Batu followed with 30 minutes to 1.5 hours sea journey.
The first resort in the cluster was established in Derawan to answer the needs of the divers who eagerly wanted to explore the water in the island. In Derawan and its surrounding islands, abundant green turtles swim in the shallow, to the common dive spot on the depth of 20-30 meter. When the dark falls, those unique shape animals digging nest and laying eggs on the beach along the islands shoreline. Spotting mating turtle is a common sight in this area.
Underwater, divers can also encounter schooling barracudas and manta rays in Sangalaki, a big view in a little cluster of islands. Unique creatures, such as crocodile fish, nudibranch, and squat lobster, are also the main attraction in this area. Those beauties are available for divers from the novice divers to the experienced one because diving in Derawan is relatively easy since its water is quite calm.
Kakaban Island is also a world famous site. Trip to Kakaban only takes 45minutes from Derawan. In the middle of Kakaban Island, after climbing many steps and walking on the around 400meter distance, is a prehistoric lake. Non-stinging jellyfish live in the lake as huge as 390 hectares with depth around 17 meters. These jellyfish are trapped in Kakaban Lake for hundreds or even thousands of years. The limited existence of the predator has slowly made the jellyfish of Kakaban became stingless, thus they are totally harmless to human. Beside jellyfish, divers can also spot nudibranch, seasnake, sea cucumbers, and some types of gobies and cardinalfish, as well as soft corals too. Kakaban Lake is a little prehistoric part of the sea that trapped in the middle of the land.
