Wonderful Nias Island ~ Exploring Indonesia

Nias Island lies about 125 km of west Sumatra Island on the Indian Ocean. It is part of North Sumatra Province. The water surround the island is great for sea activities, such as surfing and scuba diving. The people also have curious culture, which will enrich visitor's heart. The island has some prehistoric remains, which built on megalithic Stone Age, and considered came from the oldest megalithic culture in Indonesia.

The local call their land as Tano Niha or "land of the People", while the people calls them selves as Ono Noha. Ethnically, the Niasers are involved in to the Ptoto-Malay ethnic who once ever get with the Asian Proto-mongoloid world. Niasers speak a kind of language related to Malagasy. Because of the similarity in languages, custom, body size of the Niasers with the Bataks on Sumatra mainland, it is possible that the Niasers have derived from the Bataks.
Surfers will call this island "Paradise on Earth". Together with its beautiful white sandy beach, Lagundri Bay challenge surfers with spectacular waves. In the high season, the waves told to be as high as 3.5 meters. The waves of Sorake Beach on Lagundri Bay have ranked to be within the best ten waves of the world. It is true if some surfers referred of Sorake Beach waves as "the most notorious right-band reef breaks". There are events held for surfers, including the World Professionals Qualifying Series. Surfers are better being ready when your heart cannot leave this island after a visit.

Enormous breakers pummel of Nias Island attracting the best surfers in the world to Lagundri Beach. The unforgiving power attacking the shore seems to have bred the same qualities in the people, whose militaristic culture has fascinated anthropologists for decades. This island lies off West Sumatra in the Indian Ocean. Bawomataluo and Hilisimae villages are curious places to visit, where visitors can see performances of traditional war dances and thrilling high- jump sports, i.e. people making dangerous leaps over 2 meter-high stones. Typical scenes are dancers clad in traditional costumes with bird feathers on their heads, a hall for the Chief-of Tribe built on wooden logs with stone chairs weighing up to 18 tons. There are daily flights from Medan to Nias Island.

To reach this place, there is weekly ship from Jakarta (the capital city of Indonesia) to Gunung Sitoli; There are Ferries from Sibolga to Gunung Sitoli, Teluk Dalam, or Lahewa every day; Before the crisis hit Indonesia, there is daily flight from Medan to Gunung Sitoli, however it is less frequent nowadays. Gunung Sitoli is the capital city of Nias and it is the center of administration and business affairs of regency. There are several travel agencies hotels, public busses and rental cars to support tourism here. There are also some government and private banks available.

Geographically
Nias Island lies on 10 30' north latitude and 970 98' east longitudes. It covers of 5,625 km2 areas, which is mostly lowland area of ± 800 m above sea level.

Population
It is the biggest in a group of islands on Sumatra side that is part of North Sumatra province. This area consists of 131 islands and Nias Island is the biggest. The population in this area is about 639,675 people (including Malay, Batak, and Chinese). Nias has a very unique culture and nature, which is far different from other areas in North Sumatra. This is because of its separate and remote location from the rest of Sumatra.

Unique Tradition
The many stone sc

ulptures, from uncarved blocks to fine relieves and figures, are witness to festivals of merit or passage. In the southern villages, whole groups of obeliscs, benches, tables and seats can be situated in front of a house. In Central Nias, groups of horizontal sculptures, called behu, are found. They can be plain obelisks or anthropomorphic figures.

Segments of stone walls are the main objetcs of a ritual in South Nias villages: the lompat batu, jumping over the stone.

How to Get There

By plane

A large number of international airlines fly to Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, from where several domestic airlines fly to North Sumatra's capital, Medan. There are also direct flights to Medan from Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It takes a 45 minutes flight to reach Nias from Polonia Airport, Medan.

Merpati Airlines (20 seats) and Riau Airline (50 seats) operate twice daily flights to the Binaka Airport in Gunungsitoli, which is located in the northern part of the island. It is here where your journey to discover the southern part of the island will start! Bookings can be made directly with these airlines or with any travel agent.

Please reconfirm your return flight 48 hours before your departure from Nias to ensure seat availability on the day you are due to leave.

From Binaka Airport to Sorake Beach

From Binaka it takes 2.5 hours by car to reach the Sorake Beach area in the Teluk Dalam sub-district, South Nias. To make your travel more comfortable and spare your surf board from damages, you can arrange a car in advance through your travel agent or guide to pick you up at the airport..

For those who have not rented a car in advance, it is also possible to rent a car upon your arrival at the airport. Several rental car owners offer their services at the airport.. They charge around Rp 500,000 for bringing you to southern Nias. (Rate in 2008)

Alternatively, you can take a minibus, which is much cheaper. There are minibus services (operated by Sabang Merauke Air Charter and Riau Airlines) from Bineka Airpot to Gunungsitoli (Rp 35,000). The bus terminal is located around 1.5 km south of the center of Gunungsitoli from where minibuses go to Teluk Dalam. The three-hour drive will cost you around Rp 60,000. From Teluk Dalam, you can take a local bus to Sorake Beach for Rp 6,000. But if you want to enjoy fresh air while travelling, you can take a motorbike-taxi (ojek), which costs around Rp 20,000.

By Ferry

To experience a more local and challenging way of travelling, you can travel over land to from the Sibolga Seaport in North Sumatra, wher you can take a ferry to Nias Island. When the sea is calm, the ferry trip to Gunung Sitoli port takes round nine hours and around 12 hours to Teluk Dalam.

Car and motorcycle rental

Public transportation in South Nias is not readily available. Pick-up transportation service is common in which a car takes passengers from one village to another. It is also possible to rent a car or motorcycle in Teluk Dalam or the Sorake beach area. The car rental rate is around Rp 500.000 per day, including gasoline and driver, rental rate for a motorcycle is around Rp 200.000. If you ride a motorcycle, please don't forget to wear a helmet for your own safety.