Saleh Bay Expedition With Adventurous Sumbawa

Go on a cruise ship visiting beautiful places around the world, who doesn’t want that? I really do, too bad I’m not rich enough to do that yet. But luckily I got a pretty much the same kind of experience. Go on a boat visiting some beautiful islands in Saleh Bay – Sumbawa for few days.

Saleh Bay? Sumbawa? Yes, yes! Maybe many of you don’t even know where it is but lemme tell you. Sumbawa is a 10^th biggest island in Indonesia. It is in West Nusa Tenggara Province, located between Lombok & Flores. And Saleh Bay itself is the biggest bay in Sumbawa, on the north central part of the island. Saleh Bay is also known as the aquarium of the world with 64 islands within its territory, mostly uninhabited. Saleh Bay has an area of 1459 squares kilometers and length is 282 km covering 3 of 4 regencies in Sumbawa.

Supported by DPRD of NTB, NTB Tourism Board, Sumbawa Tourism Board and NTB Bank, local tourism observer community called Adventurous Sumbawa (I’m a member of it) got a chance to do an important mission to explore this bay. For 3 days 2 nights we went on a boat visiting the islands, checking the underwater by our diver and snorkeler team. Taking pictures and  making videos of the trip, and most important was collecting data of whatever we have found during the trip.

The trip started on March 25^th, about 50 people participated in this expedition. At 9 am we got on a boat ‘KLM Bintang Laut’. The boat was pretty nice and comfortable with 4 cabins, kitchen, 2 toilets and many mattresses on its deck. Our 1^st destination was Dangar Rea Island. It took about 3 hours to get there and our diver team did their 1^st dive for 45 minutes while others were waiting on the boat taking videos and pictures. My job was as one of the hosts, but I have to admit that I did it terribly -,-.

The diver team consists of 7 people, 5 from Sumbawa, 1 from Bandung and 1 from Germany. Their result was till 6 meters depth, it was still good but not so many kind of fish. But they found sharks, fox fish, parrot fish, anemone fish, etc. Visibility was 7 – 9 meters. Then we continued going to our 2^nd diving spot, Gili Dua which was just about an hour away from Dangar Rea. There are actually 2 islands called Gili Dua so we just call it 1^st and 2^nd Gili Dua. Our diver team did their 2^nd dive in 18 – 22 meters depth with visibility up to 7 – 10 meters. The corals were pretty good and many kind of fish, but small size fish only and the current was pretty strong. There were Giant Murray Fish, Garden Eel, Parrot, Angel fish, Murrish, Starfish, and many others. It sucks that I can’t swim I couldn’t enjoy Saleh Bay underwater :(

After Gili Dua, we went to our camp site Gili Tapan but unluckily it was raining so we decided to stay on the boat which was fun. We were singing, playing games and dealing with headache -,-. Next day not so far from Gili Tapan, there is Gili Dempu, another uninhabited island which was just like 10 minutes by small boat. Only some people went there for trekking. Dempu has 35 meters hills and the view from the top was just amazing. There are also some big rocks that shaped like Lion’s head and Dragon’s mouth. While some people were trekking in Dempu, we dropped the divers near Gili Meriam which was like 30 minutes away. Some other friends and I went snorkeling near the island. I was just in the water for few minutes tho, it was pretty strong current but it has pretty nice underwater.

After Gili Meriam, we went to another beautiful uninhabited island which was like an hour away, Gili Lipan. Gili Lipan belongs to the region of Teluk Santong, Plampang. The island covers by 40 meters high hills and surrounded by white sandy beaches. The water was so green and clear, we stopped here for swimming and snorkeling, I didn’t join tho, we supposed  to take another video explaining about that place but it was so windy, it was even difficult to open our eyes -,-. Then we had to drop 1 of our diver and his friends to Teluk Santong cause they had to go back to Sumbawa. Teluk Santong itself is a fisherman village, one of 11 villages in Teluk Santong. We got like an hour to buy some stuff, so some people and I went to the village to find some cold drinks, something we didn’t have on the boat, I had been thinking about those cold drinks dall night and day -,-. We bought some fish too for dinner but since most of the girls got headache, the guys took over the kitchen but they cooked really good \\(^o^)//.

That 2^nd night our camping site should be Gili Panjang but it was raining and it was impossible to camp so we change the location to Labuan Jambu which was an hour and half away. We slept on the boat again and the village mayor even came to our boat to discuss about our activity and he even invited us to have breakfast in his office. So the next morning they picked us up by some small boats. Labuan Jambu itself is a fisherman village in Tarano District. We walked for like 200 meters from the port to the office. The breakfast was yummy and they have bathroom where almost everyone tried to take shower -,-. Too many people so we asked if there is another place we can take shower and they took us to an elementary school behind the village major office. I felt bad after I took shower when I opened the door, already 5 school girls were waiting to use the bathroom :D.

That was the 3^rd day which was the last day of our trip, after having breakfast and taking shower in Labuan Jambu we continued the trip to Gili Panjang. This actually one of my favorite uninhabited islands in Sumbawa. Been there once before and the view from the top of the hill was just amazing. The green grass meets the blue ocean and white sands made such a perfect combination. Some friends went diving and snorkeling around the island while me and the other friend taking a video about the island. Gili Panjang has an area of 8 ha with 30-40 meters high hills on it covered by savanna and mangroves. As I’m writing this I feel like going back there again, maybe for camping next time.

Aaaaand our last destination was Dangar Ode, we actually didn’t get to the island but we stopped near the island to watch Tambora mountain view and it was just so wonderful. The water was so clear, the sunset was beautiful and it was a perfect closing of the expedition. No one went to swim or dive, we just stayed on the boat taking videos and pictures before our trip ended. I could feel the togetherness, how this expedition made us so much closer than ever, not only to each other but also to nature. It was such a wonderful feeling that I would love to feel and experience again and again.

Around 6.10 pm we continued to get back to Sumbawa and arrived at 9.30 pm. It was so tiring but i’ve got a very amazing trip with amazing people visiting amazing places. So many things to see in Saleh Bay and hopefully by our effort to promote it, it will attract people to come to Sumbawa especially Saleh Bay.

P.S : Few days after the trip, after spending 3 days on boat,  I still feel like everything around me is shaking -,-