Dreamy and Hot - The Magical Semau Island

Creamy sand, blinding sky, and magical aquatic water. Run as fast as you feel like running to any direction that your heart desires, without worrying of bumping any crowd. This is an exotic yet innocent kind of lass that will charm you over and over again.

Liman Beach, August 2017.

Where are you lass?

Semau Island sits 20 miles off the harbor of Kupang, in East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. There are at least 5 beaches you can visit while you are there such as Liman Beach, Otan Beach, Onanbalu Beach, Uih Make Beach, and Uitiuhtuan Beach. In this post, however, I'll be focusing more on Liman Beach. It is just as beautiful as you can see in the pictures.

Keep reading to find more!

How to get there

Come and visit Indonesia, boots! The easiest is to land in its capital city, Jakarta, then book a plane ticket to El-Tari Airport of Kupang. I was pretty happy being on board with Sriwijaya Air. It is a medium-service local airline that gives you both bread as a snack and rice as a meal during the 4-hour flight from Jakarta to Kupang. The seats have comfortable leg space and the service is great as well. Once you get to Kupang, I suggest you take your time to rest and start collecting supplies to bring along the trip. Also, I highly recommend you to take a local with you as a guide. In this case, I got lucky with Sriwijaya Air staff who knows someone, so the trip was easier to organize.

Early in the morning, we went to the nearest harbor named Pelabuhan Tenau with motorbikes, then we sailed with a traditional speedboat for about 30 minutes to Pelabuhan Hansisi, a harbor in Semau Island. From there, be ready for another hour of off-road trip to Liman Beach.

What to expect

Once you arrived at Kupang you will immediately notice that the island is typically dry and arid, so do expect a similar view in Semau Island. Semau is a small island with a small number of inhabitants. There are no pavement roads nor mini markets, let alone ATM, restaurants, or hotels, but rest assured because Kupang has a huge supermarket in Lippo Plaza mall for you to gather supplies. It is best to bring everything you might need from Kupang, including foods and water. Leave the thoughts about wilderness aside, it will all paid off once you see the beach.

Besides the beach itself, my favorite part was the view of the traditional houses and the friendly locals. On my way back, I waved to all of the local children along the way and they LOVE greeting passerby with words or giggles while waving their tanned little hands.

Tips

• The best time to visit is from April to October when it's Dry Season and not rainy.

• Rent a motorbike from Kupang too, and yes, the motorbike is getting on the traditional speed boat with you.

• The maximum fee of crossing is IDR 50,000 with a motorbike.

• Make sure to be on time for a day trip, because the boats are only operating from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on presumably nice weather. If you missed the boat, you'd need to find overnight shelter in one of the houses nearby.

• Leave messages and make important phone calls for the day when you are still in Pelabuhan Tenau, Kupang, because there is very little phone reception in Semau Island.

• Remind yourself, because no locals will ask you, to leave the beach in the same condition before you arrived. In other words, no littering. Let it stay beautiful for the next adventurers.

Author's Story

After running around, playing with the waves and taking pictures, the heat started to get into my head, so I looked for a shady place to rest. Once I sat down feeling the breeze, it was hard to get up for quite a long time. Anyone could easily be falling asleep given this spot!

Knowing we should head back around 3 p.m. to the harbor, I forced myself up. Glancing at the whole dreamy scene once again, I said my farewell. The tide was low that afternoon, so we turned to another harbor that had stairs down to the traditional speed boat below. I got to admit the view of the local men helping to get the motorbikes on the boat was stunning. If it were me, with these stick-like arms, I'd drop them all into the sea and could as well open a motorbike museum underwater. Haha.

The risk was crazy, don't you think? As you can see there were already a few motorbikes on the second boat.

On my way back to Kupang, the wave was such a tease. Fortunately, the boat keepers know what they're doing, so as long as they agreed to sail, it means they can handle the sea. Even so, I gotta admit this is not for the faint of heart. It was like riding 30 mins of Kora-Kora ride. Except that Kora-Kora doesn't have motorbikes on it. Once you get used to it, look around and be proud that you have conquered one more bravery point from your adventure.

Finally, burnt and exhausted, I took the last pictures with the sunset background to close the great adventure of the day.

P.S. I was told after, that Australian Crocodiles often are seen crossing the sea area because it is geographically very close to Australia. Unfortunately, I did not see one. :)