Teri Dashfield invited me to join a five day photo challenge with song. I decided to post images related to places that I had visited and matched the images to the songs that represents or about the place. I should post the last post challenge yesterday but I had a quite busy Friday and I was unable to post this. I invited all readers to participate in the challenge. I had great time in preparing the posts, thanks Teri! 🙂

Day 5: Bangka Island

I hope you will not get tired with my posts about Bangka Island (North Sulawesi, Indonesia). I am afraid I will keep posting about Bangka Island to update the mining’s impact to this small Island. It is sad situation in Bangka. The Island is small but it holds unique nature that endangered species could be seen there from time to time. Dive Site Lihunu Garden near to the Island, has large sea grass field, which is the food source of endangered species dugong. Endemic animals of the island like Tarsier can be found during the night time even on the resort where we stayed.

Floating Flowers on Bangka’s Island River (click for larger image)

The song that related to Bangka Island was sang by an Indonesian rock singer, Kaka Slank, written by his rock band, Slank. It was used for campaign to save Bangka Island from the mining. The title is “Alami”, which in English translation is “the Nature”. The song is about someone who regrets for being ignorant and unwilling to care the nature although he enjoys the beauty of the nature. Randall Collis in his recent post, a very beautiful post with amazing images and I recommend you to read, has written a thoughtful quote, “Nature holds something true and intrinsic within our souls; a beauty that burns deep within our cells.”

Nature has inspired us to write, to take pictures of, to paint, to create a beautiful song, and like Randall said, it burns deep within our cells. However, do we care enough to protect the nature that has contributed so much to us?

In this music video, Kaka Slank was diving in Bangka Island. The underwater scenery of the Island as in video was exactly how I witnessed in early 2014. Sadly, now it is, after the mining, no longer as beautiful as in the video.

Daun dan pohon liar, Burung biru melintas
Kutak tau namanya, tapi indah, indah sekali
Oh merdu, sampai ke hati

Bodohnya aku, yang tak mengenal dan tak mengerti
Sungguh bodohnya aku yang gak mau belajar bersahabat
Dengan alam..

(Partial Lyric of Alami)