Pulau Derawan, Indonesia

Derawan Island is located in Derawan Islands, Derawan District, Berau Regency, East Kalimantan.

Derawan Islands has three districts namely, Derawan Island, Maratua, and the Biduk biduk, Berau. There are at least four famous islands in this Archipelago, which is Pulau Maratua, Derawan, Sangalaki, and Kakaban.

In addition to its coral and fish diversity, the Derawan chain contains Indonesia’s largest nesting site for endangered green sea turtles, which emerge from the sea every night to lay their eggs on the white sand beaches of Sangalaki and Derawan Islands.

Another island in the chain, Semama, is an important bird sanctuary, and Kakaban Island contains the world’s largest and most diverse jellyfish lake, with four unique species of
stingless jellyfish. Kakaban is being considered for nomination as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In the surrounding waters there is marine park and is renowned as a tourist submarine for diving spot with a depth of about five meters. There are a wide variety of marine life here, such as squid (cuttlefish), lobster, ghostpipe fish, octopus (octopus bluering), nudibranchs, sea horses, ribbon Eels and scorpion fishes.On a coral rock at ten meters depth, there is coral rock known as “Trigger Blue Wall” because of the reef with a length of 18 meters there is a lot of trigger fish (red-toothed trigger fishes).

Beside, in Derawan Islands there are several small islands and coastal ecosystems which are

very important such as the coral reefs, sea grass beds and mangrove forests. In addition, many protected species in the Islands of Derawan like green turtles, hawksbill turtles, whales, dolphins, clams, coconut crabs, mermaids, barracuda fish and some other species.

The Islands in Derawan archipelago is about 31 island, which is some of them are bar (gusung) and atoll. Atoll is a coral island surrounding by a lagoon partially or completely. The used of the lands by local inhabitant in these island is only limited for the home living. In addition, the land of the island in the Derawan archipelago still in the form of mangrove forests, thickets, limestone forest in Maratua and coconut vegetation.

The coral reefs in this Derawan archipelago wide spread throughout the island and bar or gusung in Derawan Islands. The shoal in these islands including Gusung Pulau Panjang, Gusung Masimbung, Gusung Buliulin, Gusung Pinaka, Gusung Tababinga and Gusung Muaras.

The types of coral reefs in Derawan Islands consist of reef edge, barrier reefs and atolls. These atolls have been formed into an island and being a lake of salty water and it has 460 to 470 numbers of species indicates that this is a wealth biodiversity, giving it the world’s second highest level of hard coral diversity after the Raja Ampat Islands in eastern Indonesia.

Derawan Island, One Of The Best Diving Spot In Kalimantan

In the eastern part of Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo and about 45 km from the Berau river estuary out in the Makassar strait lie several reefs ideal for scuba diving. The dive sites are famous for the large gatherings of manta rays and a jellyfish lake. But in the reefs in the Berau archipelago also live a lot of very interesting critters, beautiful nudibranchs, hidden crabs and shrimps and unusual fish such as ghostpipefishes, scorpionfishes and more.

There are several dive resorts, all are relatively easily reached from either Balikpapan or Tanjung Redeb.Derawan Island is a divers "HEAVEN" and offers many types of diving; walls, fringing reefs, caverns, and even a wonderful muck dive.

You are likely to see big sea turtles, schooling barracudas, whitetip and leopard sharks, napoleon wrasses, cuttlefish, jacks and many many other creatures.

There is a wonderful variety of hard coral around the island. Macro diving off the pier is world class, and you can find sea horses, scorpionfish, and other bizarre small marine animals.

The island is ringed by a white sand beach where thirty to seventy sea turtles nest nightly. Cottages sit back from the beach a bit to allow turtles personal space. Turtles lay eggs on the island, and you may witness hatchlings making it to the sea.

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Jiuzhaigou National Park, Sichuan Province, China

It is said that if there should be wonderlands on the earth, Jiuzhaigou Valley must be one of them. There is no equal elsewhere that has sceneries and fables of dreamlike eloquence, or natural purities like a fairyland as it.

Jiuzhaigou Valley is located in Nanping County, 450 kilometers (about 280 miles) to the north of Chengdu City. Its name is due to the existence of nine stockaded villages of Tibetan origin, and it is always regarded as a holy mountain and watercourse by the Tibetan people.

It is a great masterpiece of nature having dreamlike scenery, which combines blue lakes, waterfalls, verdant forests, snow-covered mountains, and the folk customs of the Tibetan and Qiang peoples. Legend has it that long long ago the deity of mountain named Dago had a crush on the goddess Semo, and he gave a mirror that was made from wind and cloud to the goddess. However, the devil appeared and made trouble to Semo. Inadvertently, Semo broke the mirror into 108 pieces, which fell down to the earth and then turned to 108 colorful lakes. The lake is also called Haizi by local people.

In addition to the dreamlike sceneries, there are numerous flora and fauna in the scenic area. The natural forest covers an area of nearly 30,000 hectares (about 74,132 acres), including 2,576 higher plant species (24 species of national protected plants) and over 400 lower plant species (212 species of algae). The diversity of flora has provided a good environment for wild animals.  There are 170 species of vertebrates, 141 species of birds and 17 species of rare animals. Among them the first rank has giant pandas, takins and golden monkeys and the second rank has lesser pandas, marmots, and blue sheep.

This region covers more than 600 square kilometers (about 230 square miles). Shuzheng Valley, Rize Valley and Zechawa Valley are the three main valleys, but the sceneries are far more than you expect. There are Panda Lake Waterfall which has the longest drop in Jiuzhaigou Valley and freezes to a crystal world in winter, the giant calc-sinter beach Pearl Beach, the Arrow Bamboo Lake that has a large area of bamboo, the favorite food of pandas, and Swan Lake where swans inhabit ...

Transportation

By Air: Jiuhuang Airport is about 88 kilometers from the mouth of the valley and about 52 kilometers from Huanglong. It takes 40 minutes to fly from Chengdu to the airport and a half hours' ride from the airport to the scenic area. There are direct and connecting flights here from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xi'an, Kunming, Chongqing and Xiamen.  Please use China Flight to search for the latest schedule and price.

By Bus: Regular buses from Chengdu Chadianzi and Xinnanmen coach stations depart around 7:00, 8:00 in the morning. It is suggested to buy the bus ticket in advance. It takes about 10-11 hours from Chengdu to Jiuzhaigou. The highway along the west route (Chengdu-Dujiangyan-Wenchuan-Jiuzhaigou) has still been constructing and there is occasional traffic jam, the coach will go through the east line to Jiuzhaigou via Mianyang, Jiangyou and Pingwu.

There are approximately two buses every day between Jiuzhaigou and Songpan, 7:00, 13:00 from Songpan and 7:30, 12:50 vice versa. In addition, there are regular buses from Guangyuan, Jiangyou and Mianyang to Jiuzhaigou. The bus schedule is adjusted to changes. Here is the travel time information by bus from some surrounding places to the scenic area:

from Jiangyou: 7 hours; 

from Songpan: 2 hours;

from Huanglong: 3 hours;

from Mianyang: 8 hours

 Source: http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/sichuan/jiuzhaigou/page1.htm

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Siwa Oasis, Egypt

The Siwa Oasis must seem very mysterious to us, even though today it is slowly becoming more of a tourist destination. It has its own airport now, and is sometimes visited more for a few health resorts located there than for its antiquities. Nevertheless, it is certainly off the beaten path, or at least the antiquity path forged by the Nile River, and so it may never become a mainstream tourist destination. It remains one of Egypt's most isolated desert oases, and therefore it has today, as it always has had, a unique and interesting culture, as well as a fascinating history.

Even though the Siwa Oasis may ever receive the millions of tourists that visit Giza or Luxor, it is nevertheless famous for one specific reason, at least to those interested in history. It was here that Alexander the Great traveled to consult the Oracle of Amun, and there to be confirmed as God and King of Egypt.

In fact, the reason why this oracle was so important to him remains somewhat unclear, but go there he did. He continued to correspond with the Oracle of Amun until his death through messengers when he needed answers to important questions.

Most of the antiquities of the Siwa are now gone, many victims to illegal treasure hunters, though others succumbed to the harshness of time combined with the desert. Still, tourism is growing here, and if one is going to take the trouble of going out of their way to see this very different part of Egypt, some background information on the geography, geology, people and customs may be very useful.

The Geology of the Siwa

The Siwa sits in a depression, as do most of the oases, which today is frequently referred to as the Siwa depression. The depression is 82 kilometers (52 miles) long and between 9 and 28 kilometers wide.

This is the most distant Egyptian oasis from the Nile Valley.

The southern parts of the Oasis have succumbed to dunes from the Great Sand Sea, which extends over 500 kilometers north to south and 60 to 80 kilometers east to west. The Siwa sits at the northwest edge of this Great Sand Sea. There are portions of the Siwa Depression that lie as much as 60 meters (192 feet) below sea level, but its average depth is 18 meters below sea level.

Salt is a problem in the Oasis. A number of its fresh water springs run into salt water lakes, making the water mostly useless. To the west is Birket al-Maraqi, which takes up about nine square kilometers, and the largest of the Siwa lakes, Birket Siwa, which covers about 32 square kilometers. To the east, the only remaining lakes are Birket Azmuri, which itself is often dry, and Birket Zaytun, a lake covering some 16 square kilometers. These lakes are so salty that no marine life survives, and there is no tradition of fishing in the oasis. Both the British and, more recently, the Egyptian governments attempted to introduce fish into the lakes in order to create a fishing industry, but still no one fishes. Some of the lakes are so salty that crystals are visible in the water.

Interestingly, one of the lakes, though not necessarily one of the modern ones, for there are others that are now completely dry, is legendary, though the stories varies. Depending on who tells the tale, on an island in this magic lake is buried either the saber and seal of the Prophet Mohammed, or the ring, sword and crown of King Solomon. Another fable records an apparent treasure on an island in Lake Arachie. The French secret agent, Boutin, transported his own collapsible canvas boat through the desert in an attempt to discover it, but the Siwans would not let him search. Later, in the 1920s, Byron Khun de Prorok did make it to the island, but discovered only evidence of human habitation,and no treasure.

These lakes are mostly fed by springs. There is plenty of water in the Oasis, with some 1,000 springs currently in use, but even the spring water has an elevated level of salt and is not good for watering many types of crops. Therefore, the Siwans are limited mostly to growing dates, olives and a few vegetables. The salty soil of the Oasis is called karshif in Arabic, and ererig by the Siwans. It is used by the locals to build their traditional mudbrick houses, which creates another problem. While the salt helps strengthen the walls of the houses, it also is unhealthy, and melts in the rain, making the houses potential death traps. While Siwa does not receive much rain, it doesn't take much to destroy these homes. In 1928, a major storm resulted in the local inhabitants abandoning their ancient town. These days, there are more and more prefab houses in the area. There are also some three thousand mountains and hills in the oasis. Many of them may have no names, but the four most important mountains are Gebel al-Mawta, Gebel al-Dakrur (Daran Breek, Bayle St. John's Edrar Abou Bryk), Gebel Hamra and Gebel Baylin (Adrar al-Milal, Edrar Amelal in Siwan, Mount Khamisa, Gebel Ghaffir). These mountains are riddled with caves, which were sometimes used as tombs, and at times inhabited both in antiquity and during more modern times. Though there is no evidence of it today, Arab historians also tell of great mines in Siwa where iron, lapis lazuli and emeralds were excavated.

Source: http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/siwa1.htm

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Radhanagar Beach, Andaman Islands, India

The Radhanagar Beach (also known as Beach No.7 ) on Havelock has been voted as the Best Beach of Asia by The Time Magazine in the year 2004 on the basis of the quality of sand, sea, depth.Most of the tourists therefore, flock to the Radhanagar Beach in Havelock.

It is a long, crescent-shaped beach with silver white sand.  The sunsets from this beach is famed as being the picture- perfect view.

The beach is extremely gorgeous with its brilliant, pristine and blue water. Walking on the pristine sands along the shore, one can hear the sound of waves gently splashing against the beach.

Anyone can fall in love with this place ……Be it the adventure lover, the sports freak, the family guy or the romantic soul!

It is also a great place to spend some quiet, quality moments with family and friends. A silent walk on the beach or around the lining forests, lazing around reading your favorite book and experiencing the picturesque sunset. #CompleteBliss

Activities to do : Scuba Diving,Snorkeling,Swimming,lazing around the beach,Beach volley,boat rides

How to reach here: Book a ticket on seaplane or Makruzz (catamarine) from Port Blair. Apart from these, there are two government boats that connect Havelock to Port Blair.

Source: http://thetalesofatraveler.com/2013/05/11/radha-nagar-beach/

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