The sea here is not bumpy. The beach has never been hit by big waves. The water surface is always calm, and only small ripples touch the beige sand of the beach. It looked more like a lake than a sea. No marked differences have been observed between high tide and low tide here.
On the west coast of Sumatra, which is included in the province of North Sumatra, the headlands which are the ends of hills that come from the mainland appear to attack the sea, forming bays between one headland and another. All of these bays became known by a common name called the Tapian Nauli bay. "Tapian Nauli", in the local language means beautiful coast. Even though the headlands seem like they are invading the sea, it actually makes perfect sense that since millions of years ago, the sea has precisely confirmed its victory over the land. Its expansion then submerged the vast land mass, which we find today as waters that look like lakes.
Although this beach is still part of the coast of the Indian Ocean, the Indian Ocean and international shipping lanes are actually still many miles away from this beach, and are blocked by the islands in front of it. With a slower moving ferry, a person has only reached the outer islands, and is in waters that are truly Indian oceans after over 13 hours. With a fast boat, the travel time can be shortened to around 3-4 hours.
The bays which are known by one common name as Tapian Nauli Bay include Sibolga Bay, a city known as Fish City, Kalangan Bay, Hanjoran Bay, Pandan Bay and several others. Between the bays, the Kalangan Bay coast is the main area provided for marine tourism enthusiasts.
From the country where I live in Aceh, the distance to this coast reaches more than 700 km to the south. The road to get here is not always through the coastal areas, but also in some places has to enter into the mountainous interior. This is because several areas of the west coast are cut off by vast swamps that are impossible to pass, especially in the mouths of large rivers.
When we arrived at this beach, we chose to stay at a homestay in the Kalangan bay area, close to the mouth of the Kalangan river. Due to the calm sea, everyone can have a good night's sleep without being disturbed by the roar of the big waves hitting the beach. Besides providing a cool atmosphere, the sea breeze also repels mosquitoes and various other insects, so you can feel like in a calm and peaceful nature's cradle and caress.
The innkeeper also provides everything we need for our enjoyment of traveling, and also ... what you need to explore and discover new experiences about the waters here. The boats provided there for travelers are ready to take you to any part of these waters. In this calm and blue liquid stretch, you observe the land with its mountainous topography from the sea, small islands, as well as some of the unique activities of the fishermen on this coast. Let's just enjoy these sights.
The road across the west coast of Sumatra
The mouth of the Kalangan river, one of the rivers that spills its water into the bay.
Stilt houses built on the water form unique settlements that are characteristic of fishing settlements.
A restaurant by the sea.
One of the boats provided for tourists to explore the waters of the bay there.
The machinist.
Entering the mouth of a river located south of the bay.
A boat with people in it is sheltering in a mangrove by the river.
They head out into the bay.
A village on the river bank.
A fishing vessel in the Indian Ocean which is anchored on the coast of the bay. The traditional fishing vessels use outriggers to deal with sea waves and winds in the Indian Ocean.
Apart from the uniqueness of the land seen from the sea, the islands that appear on the horizon, there is one thing that I think is the most unique and doesn't seem to be found in other than the shallow waters of the northern part of Sumatra.
The most unique thing is the way the fishermen here catch a type of fish which is one of the mainstay products in this marine area, namely anchovy.
Anchovies are one type of fish that are very small, but always in very large schools. After being caught and dried in the sun, the dried anchovies have become a popular food commodity in many countries in Sumatra and Indonesia, and are even exported abroad.
To catch these schools of anchovies, the fishermen build structures with stakes erected at the bottom of the water. They call the wooden structures with a height above the water level reaching 2-4 meters in their local language as "Bagan" (stilts above the water). The stems are taken from the stems of the nibung plant (Oncosperma tigillarium) which is known to become harder and stronger when it is buried by sea water.
In the structure there is a net that will be lowered into the sea at a certain depth at night.
Why at night?
That's because at night, they have a technique to attract the attention of the anchovies, which is by turning on the lights from the generator so that the area under and around the structure becomes bright like day and the fish will gather there.
Because there are so many "Bagan" structures in these waters, at night, one will see the surface of the waters appear to change like a dense village where bright lights can be seen lining up from afar. I can't describe this scene very well, you should definitely try it for yourself! 🙂