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! :)
