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| Sulamadaha Beach, black sand beach facing the Hiri Island |
Sulamadaha Bay – a bay located at the north side of Ternate Island which is also one main attraction of North Moluccas. Sulamadaha bay is famous for the distinct calm water and the beautiful underwater world.
Ever
since I work at my current company, I’ve some chances visiting the North
Moluccas, especially the Ternate City which had once become the capital of
North Moluccas Province. Based on my few visits to Ternate, in this second
post, I wanna talk a little bit about Ternate City and the Sulamadaha Bay which
has thousands of miracles below the sea surface.
[2017, Februari 14]
To get to
North Moluccas, most trip requires you to fly to Ternate City, a little city on
the foot of Gamalama Volcano, which had once been the govern center of North
Moluccas Province.
One of
the flight I took the most was the SJ598 by Sriwijaya Air which normally took
off from Soekarno-Hatta Airport at 00.05 (West Indonesia Time) and arrived at
Sultan Babullah Airport at Ternate at 07.00 (East Indonesia Time) in the
morning. The SJ598 flight will transit at Makassar for 20 minutes; during few
trips, passengers going for Ternate wouldn’t have to leave the aircraft, only
those going to Makassar had to (felt like
taking a public transport, alight at your destination).
*fyi, during the trip to Ternate, we’ll be
crossing 2 time zones, the Mid Indonesia Time and the East Indonesia Time.
Therefore, people sometimes misunderstood the flight duration as 7 hours, which
actually only takes 4,5 hrs (the time difference based on ticket is 7 hrs). So,
imagine when we fly from Ternate to Jakarta! We’d have not only 24 hrs a day,
but instead we’d have 26 hrs (for that one single day).
As we
arrive at Ternate, the first thing we’ll witness is the clear blue sky, the
fresh morning air, and the pile of clouds decorating the sky which all warm up
our hearts.
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| Sultan Babullah Airport, Ternate |
And next,
as we step out of the airport, we’ll see the Gamalama Volcano right in front of
us! And yes, the Gamalama is still active up till now (around the mid of August last year, the volcano showed some activity,
erupting some volcanic ash which caused the Sultan Babullah Airport stop
operating for few days).
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| Gamalama Volcano, Ternate |
Talking
about Ternate, there will be no end. This city has too many interesting
cultures, unique food and so many other things (especially for me who stay in
the west part of Indonesia), therefore, I’m gonna skip all the intros and
directly talk about one of the main tourism destination in Ternate, the
Sulamadaha Bay!
To get to
Sulamadaha Bay (of course with backpacker manner), we just have to take “oto” (the way locals call the mini van
public transport) once to a terminal located across Jati Land (the biggest
shopping mall in Ternate) which costs Rp 5.000,- per person. Then, we need to
take oto another time to Sulamadaha
Bay (and this is a long distance oto
which costs Rp 7.000,- per person).
*taking oto inside the city normally takes half
to an hour to get to the terminal, and the journey next normally takes almost
one hour
In the
trip from terminal to Sulamadaha Bay, oto
will move to the airport direction, before then moving into Batu Angus Road
which will take us around the north side of Ternate Island. Here we will pass
by the Batu Angus (Burnt Rocks), one
tourism destination in Ternate which flaunts the leftover volcanic rocks from
the Gamalama. These rocks are now cooled down and harden, and black, and
they’ve become an exotic attraction! And before arriving at the Sulamadaha, oto will take a right turn into a little
coast area where speedboats to Hiri Island stop. And finally, in 15 minutes, we
will arrive at Sulamadaha Beach.
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| Sulamadaha Beach at the north end (B) and the route there |
It may confuse
you why I sometimes call it beach and sometimes bay... Is it actually a beach
or a bay??
So, we
will first arrive at the Sulamadaha Beach.
This
beach has black sand and calm water (thanks to the Hiri Island blocking the
waves). Around the shore, there are lots of gazebo to simply sit and hang out,
and lots of small stalls selling popmies
and young coconuts.
*this
beach is crowded during weekend; on the other hand, during weekday (Monday to
Friday), this beach looks empty and not even a single stall is open :(
Sulamadaha
beach is nothing special. But don’t worry because the specialty of Sulamadaha
is on the bay which requires us to walk a little bit further...
Finally,
we will arrive at the Sulamadaha Bay which is the main attraction of
Sulamadaha. The white sand (most likely because of the coral crumbs) and the
clear water will leave us astonished with peace. Because of the location at a
bay which makes the water very calm, plus the clear water and nemos swimming
around, this place is made for snorkeling!
There are
few spots where the water is quite shallow and suitable for those who can’t
swim but curious with the underwater. For the bravery who loves to swim, you
have to go to the middle part where the trench lays, and there are even more
fish there!
FAQ: What
about the corals?
A: Well,
living corals are not much. At the trench lips, there are few colorful corals
which are habitats for small fishes; but at the shallow water, living coral is
hard to find (but the fish are still a lot).
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| Boats in Sulamadaha (source: Instagram account: syashandy) |
The only
thing saddening me up is the fact that I didn’t have a waterproof camera, and I
couldn’t show off the underwater picture here. But, for reference, I’m gonna
put some pictures I got in Google which I can guarantee exactly like the real
one.
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| The clear water of Sulamadaha (source: Instagram account: lhegil.yois) |
Okay,
besides snorkeling, we can also rent a boat to raw round the bay, or even just
to sit drinking young coconut. And don’t forget to try the “pisang mulu bebek (= duck's beak banana)”, a fried banana crisp special from Ternate,
eaten with chili sauce!
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| Fish's Habitat (source: Instagram account: e.laccona) |
For last,
I think that Indonesia’s nature is too mesmerizing!
Instead
of going to Phi-phi Island or Maya Beach in Thailand, Indonesia can offer
something more beautiful, more natural; now it’s left for the government to
build and promote these panoramas to the world.