Free Diving – Pulau Pramuka meaning (Scout Island) – Indonesia

It’s been 2 long months since I have been in the ocean again to swim let alone do any diving and it has been a long wait.

Finally I had a chance to visit one of the islands of “Pulau Seribu” or “Thousand Islands” as its called in english. Its a collection of islands in Indonesia right of the coast of Jakarta and is still considered part of Jakarta even though it stretches a vast amount of water which would take about 2 – 4 hour boat rides if you travelled the islands on a standard ferry. My good mate, seasoned traveller and fellow bum Mark from Hong Kong joined up in Jakarta and we both headed to Pulau Pramuka to get a dose of sun, wind and water.

So how did the trip to the island go ?

We caught a taxi to Muara Angke where the ferries are docked. Muara Angke is where fisherman offload their catch and have it cleaned, cut and shipped throughout jakarta, possibly even other parts of Indonesia. This place absolutely reeks. The taxi driver had to open the window to ask questions and the smell that came rushing made me feel sick, so I just *held my breathe* … I had people tell me before my trip, why not go from pluit and use the long (billionaire style) speed boat, BUT Me being a bum and knowing Mark to be the same thought WTF, NA , we would rather use a $5 ferry. Anyway it was an experience worth remembering partly because of that smell 😛

After we finally got to the docks we boarded the ferry, which in its self was another experience, Boarding the ferry required us to jump between other ferries to get to the one we were scheduled for. This isn’t so bad but let me tell you … if any of your stuff fell into the water it would probably melt and disintegrate because the water right on the docks of Muara angke was so polluted that the water was literally brown in Color and had rubbish everywhere. Sad knowing that this dock could be so much cleaner and possibly even a tourist site like circular quay in sydney.

Then this was followed the boat trip to the islands, which was totally awesome. Mark and I sat on the roof of the ferry like boat people trying to get from Indonesia to the coast of Australia 🙂 But because of this we were able to see the ocean, and from a distance spot and see flying fish jump out of the water and experience dolphins swimming by the boat, such a beautiful site.

The boat stopped of at Pulau Pari (Pari which in Indonesian means manta ray) and picked up a few additional passengers along with also dropping of a few passengers before our final stop to Pulau Pramuka. Pulau Pari is apparently known for some good diving spots too so it will be something I will checkout later if I get some time 🙂

What happened on Day 1 ?

Accommodation was pretty basic, room, bed on the floor, aircon and kinda running (hot water) LOL. It’s good enough though, we aren’t there to enjoy the room, we are there to enjoy the island, the great out doors, the sun and the water above and below. The first activity was to go snorkelling so we went with the rest of the group out on the boat and went to the snorkelling site.

The reefs and coral at this particular site were pretty much grey and dead but they had interesting shapes and there was some depth, the water would go from 1.X meters to 15-20 meters pretty quickly. In many of my dives i followed the ridge down and before I knew it when I looked up the snorkellers would be points in the distance, nerve racking but awesome at the same time simply because as you follow the ridge down you just don’t realise how much deeper your going where if you follow a line down you know your going deeper and be conscious of this fact.

After the snorkelling area we went to a place called samak daun which sounds like “Smack Down” as one of the fellow Indonesian travellers told us 🙂 Samak Daun is a really small island with beautiful shallow waters, nice coral and relaxed waters. No diving here really, just put on our vibrams and walked around and enjoyed the water and coral. The water color was turquoise and just something I hadn’t seen in a while, it was really beautiful to see and the sun was perfect, not hot but just right.

After Samak Daun we went to a shark/large fish cage, nothing to see, pretty boring actually and I think a time waster, we walked around, saw how much a beer was Rp 35,000 (which is about 3.50) complete rip off knowing that a beer usually costs $1 AUD so went back to the boat and just waited to head back.

What happened on Day 2 ?

I had asked the tour organisers what was going to happen on day two and they told us we would be visiting some fish parks and a few other DEAD boring things so I asked if we could replace it with another snorkelling session. They said we could but we had to add Rp125,000 which is about ($12.50), $12.50 Aud ? For a boat of our own so we can go to all the reefs and coral that the island had to offer ?! No worries mate ! Lets dooooo iiiittt.

So on day two all we did was go diving/snorkelling all day on our own boat, this was the best decision to make and we saw some great locations, awesome dive sites and just really enjoyed the day. We were out in the water for about 5hrs and got to see the some of the best the island had to offer.

Next time I visit any of the islands of the “Thousand Islands” I will definitely be customising my trip and not just going with the standard packages 🙂

We had a great time, took some great videos and some great pictures displayed right here in this post. I will definitely be back to visit some of the other islands here, sum suggestions are