Good morning! I was beyond excited to start this Derawan day 2 adventure, even though I had to wake up at 04.00 am today. Do you know why? Because I was going to search for whale shark, the biggest (but the kindest) shark on earth! The whale shark usually appeared from 4-9 am, searching for food. So waking up early in the morning was a requirement if I didn’t want to miss the chance, furthermore the whale shark point in Talisayan was quite far from the place I stayed in.
Meeting Baby Whale Shark
Sadly the plan unlikely changed and my group had to depart a little bit late. That was because we had to wait the local restaurant finished our food for breakfast and lunch. The time was 05.15 am when we finally departed from our cottage.
The whale shark usually appeared around bagan, a floating area where the local people caught fish, with which they fed the whale sharks. Because we departed late, they had fed the whale shark before we arrived. We had to move from one bagan to another in order to search and all the fishermen told us that the whale shark had appeared, eaten the fishes, and gone by the time we arrived.
My group had lost our hope when we visited the fifth bagan. We told our guide that we should go back and continue to the next spot so our itinerary didn’t get ruined. Our guide insisted to try for the last time and asked the fishermen to throw in the small fishes.
After waiting hopelessly for a short time, the fortune goddess took our side. Suddenly the giant came to the surface and ate all the little fishes thrown. Everybody on the boat cheered excitedly upon meeting this giant buddy. Then all of us prepared to jump and swim together with the long awaited Mr. whale shark.
Honestly I was so scared going inside the ocean. When I looked down, it was so blue and dark and it gave me an uneasy feeling. Especially when the whale shark came up so suddenly and swam towards my direction. I was so nervous and screaming while swimming away. Hahaha. I know I was being so stupid but I just really scared getting hit or bitten by it. Anyway, it would not bite people but in some cases, when it felt disturbed by the human presence, it would splash its big tail.
My guide told me that the whale shark we encountered was still a baby, not the big one. Oh my, I think it was big enough to scare me. I couldn’t imagine what I would do if I encountered the big ones.
After being satisfied swimming with whale shark, we continued our journey to our next spot, Danau Labuan Cermin.
Having fun at Danau (Lake) Labuan Cermin.
What made this lake special was it has two layers of water, the upper part was plain water and the bottom part was salt water.
We had to cross a river first before arriving at Labuan Cermin. Once we entered the lake, we were welcomed by a beautiful color of turquoise blue. And maybe it was called cermin, mirror in bahasa, because of the turquoise color of the water. The lake itself was surrounded with a lush forest, making it felt like it was a hidden paradise. We spent almost 3 hours in here, swimming, jumping, and of course taking photographs.
Sangalaki, the place for seeing baby turtles and snorkeling.
Last spot for today was Sangalaki. It was an island where the local government hatched little turtles. The beach surrounding this island was really pretty as well, with its white sand and clear water.
There was a snorkeling spot next to Sangalaki. The snorkeling activity here was our last activity before heading back to Derawan.
We managed to watch beautiful sunset from our wooden cottage. It was really a breathtaking moment watching the sun goes down and disappears from the horizon.
I had to tell that the night sky in Derawan was beyond perfect. The sky was so dark and full of stars. I really enjoyed laying down on the wooden deck of the cottage, doing nothing, and just watching the thousands of stars sparkling so beautifully. I felt that it was the best activity to do here after the sun has set completely. Sometimes I could even see a shooting star while looking at them (not really sure though but I did hope it was a real shooting star, and not just my mind playing a trick on me).
So that was the end of Derawan adventure day 2.
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