Summertime is about to come, but I started way earlier than any others. Simply, it’s summertime all the year in Indonesia and lots of tropical islands to explore across the Archipelago. This time I would like to tell you about my holiday trip to one of the outlying islands in Indonesia. It’s Berhala Island or in Indonesia we call it Pulau Berhala. We had a very very exciting time, from enjoying the white sands, the crystal-clear sea water, beach party to observing the surrounding Malacca Strait from the lighthouse, the island’s peak. So, check these ones out!
Pulau Berhala: What, where, and the story behind.
Pulau Berhala is located in the Indonesia’s province of North Sumatra. It is right in the middle of Malacca Strait, 03°46’38” North and 94°58’21” East, between Sumatra and Malay Peninsula. The island itself consists of three small islands i.e. Pulau Berhala, Pulau Nenek and Pulau Kakek, in which the latter two is uninhabited. Since it out lies, there’s a marine guard which do sea patrol and monitor surrounding waters. The islands mostly are formed of the big rocks, with the green canopy as the elevation gets high and absolutely white sand.
Just so you know, there is a story behind the origin of the island(s), just like any other places in Indonesia like Toba Lake or Tangkuban Perahu and many others. So, once upon a time there was a huge ship in which the passengers are rich people. They cruised around the sea and had party, fun, best time of life in the ship. Sadly, they let their parents live so in suffer in land that they cursed the children. The ships became the rock stranded in the middle of the sea and that was the origin of Pulau Berhala. It’s just a story, anyway.
How to get there: adventurous!
We can get there by taking flight from mostly major cities in Indonesia to Medan’s Kualanamu International Airport. We took Garuda flight from Batam to Medan.
We can take the flight from Penang and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia or from Singapore. For your information, the airport is big and very convenient (representative lah!), and it can be reached by any mode of transportation, from cab, bus, or even train. As we went there by group, we took train from the airport to Medan. We took Airport Railink Services which charged us IDR100,000 (USD7.70; EUR6.8) per person. This Korean-made train is very convenient and it only needed 30 minutes to Medan.
Our group left Medan by midnight to Serdang Bedagai, a small harbour town in North-Eastern part of the province and we got there after 2 hours. From here, the adventure began. We took a traditional fishing boat for our 5-hour voyage to the island. It is scary enough for those not getting used to take this transportation as we’re cruising the great Malacca Strait WITH A TRADITIONAL BOAT! It was a long journey so I decided to take a rest on the boat. Anyway the boat is open air so I can see the falling stars and the moon on the other side, and surely, sea surrounding. On the boat, we will see the sunrise in the horizon as well. Unforgettable!
After 5-hour voyage, here we come! There was a jetty for dropping passengers and luggage. Since it's the outlying island, there is marine guard camp built here and they do patrol around the surrounding waters. Once you got up from the boat and turned your face to the water, all you’d see's fish. Bunches of fish you clearly see go around beneath the surface, and the coral. Once you stepped on the jetty you’d feel like you wanted to get down and feel the white sand like really. The beach was clean particularly and amazingly, the water. On the certain depth like around 3-onward meters (10 feet-onward) was the best site for snorkelling and diving. Sadly, there was no diving equipment then. I didn’t really swim anyway so, basically I was fine with it. LOL.
In the afternoon we went around the surrounding waters to see Pulau Kakek. We took something-like-banana-boat-but-actually-not boat and paid IDR15,000 per pax (USD1.1; EUR1) and we saw the greatness of the island. The island’s formed of big rocks and it was so amazing to see it and I couldn’t even figure out how it’s turning into this island. We could see the eagle (they’re flying to the highest tree in the island and they STILL looked BIG, literally!!!), and surely, sunset!
The vibe’s getting more vibrant after the sun shrinking in the horizon. We could do whatever we wanted to do. Hanging out with friends, BBQ-ing, quality time with partners, even partying. And it turned out unstoppable until at least after midnight.
On the next day we went to the island’s peak which was the lighthouse. We had to walk up on hundreds of stairs, not to mention with the elevation slightly more than 50 degrees, it was one of the most exhausting hiking I’d ever done. But it paid off after getting up there. We could see the wide ocean stretching through the horizon, green canopy of the island, and we could even see the gradient of the depth of the sea. Beautiful!
Overall, regardless we had to take flight to Medan, regardless we had to take 2-hour bus to the small-harbour town, and regardless we had to take at least 5-hour voyage, it was freaking adventurous and crazily fun the holiday we had this season. It paid off! :)