Hello there! Let me introduce myself. My name is Syahrul but mostly my old friends, classmates, and fellow workers in the past called me Zafran because I told them to call me by that nickname. I took that name from a character in a film so that name sticks with me till now.
I was born 22 December 1998 in southeast Sulawesi, at the early age of seven, my family and I moved from Sulawesi to Misool, Raja Ampat because our livelihood was very bad at that time and the circulation of money in Sulawesi was not good at that time, many people experienced difficulties in earning a living. We arrived at a village called Yellu in Misool, Raja Ampat.
There my family and I lived in my grandfather’s house, who had migrated to Misool Raja Ampat in 1990. My grandfather ran a grocery store business and sold clothes, kerosene, petrol, and diesel since he moved there. When my family and I arrived in Yellu, we opened a new business, selling fried patatas, fried bananas, fried bread, and various other types of traditional bread. At that time our bread and fried food business was running very smoothly and was doing well because at that time villages in Misool, the economy was running very smoothly because at that time Misool still had several pearl companies running their pearl business and many Misool people working at the pearl company so they had a lot of money and we sellers made a profit and our sales also sold well, I could say that at that time it was the golden age of Misool and lots of immigrants from various regions in Indonesia moved to Misool to earn a good.
The advantages of running a food business in Misool or other businesses continued very well for the next few years at that time and until 2018-2019 the economic sustainability of Misool in terms of selling food, basic necessities, clothes or fried foods had started to fall very drastically , my parents’ sales and other sales owned by other people all experienced very bad income and some also experienced losses because their sales were not good, as did my parents’ sales and this kind of situation continued until the pandemic occurred and Misool was affected and sales of bread, food or clothes became increasingly low and this continues to this day even though the pandemic had ended.
But in terms of tourism business was booming. Because Misool is the only region or district which is part of the Raja Ampat region which is also in Indonesia which has 70% of the sea animals and marine coral reefs in the world, everything from large sea animals such as whales to small animals is in Misool and other areas north of Raja Ampat. In the Misool area, there are more karst rocks than in the north and there are also tourist spots such as lagoons, rows of karst rocks that are arranged in layers, which are more abundant in Misool and there are also more jellyfish lakes.
From one of them in North Raja Ampat there is also the Blue River which has clear blue water which can be drunk because the water is clear and clean. Misool also has a village called Kapacol which has a forest which is the habitat of birds of paradise. In the forest there are tall trees. The towering trees are the place where birds of paradise perch every morning to look for food from 06.00 am to 8.00 am. This is the time when these birds land there. After that hour, tourists who want to see these birds can no longer because of these birds. If you have already flown, it is advisable to arrive early.
Misool is famous for its good religious tolerance which can be seen from the peacefulness of the people of Misool where Muslims and Christians live side by side with each other. The Christian and Muslim villages are in the same area close together but they maintain tolerance and a sense of respect for each other between them and that is a plus point for the people of Misool, therefore I can say that Misool in terms of tourism has enormous potential because of its unique nature, its diversity is very extraordinary.
In the future I am sure Misool can become one of the best tourist attractions in Indonesia.
The Secret Life of Marine Lakes
