Paisu Pok Lake is a beautiful blue lake in Banggai, Indonesia that was still a hidden gem until very recently, although pictures of this amazing lake are going viral all over social media now so it seems the word is officially out.
We visited Paisupok recently and it’s just as nice as it looks in the photos. It’s not very hard to get to there if you’re already traveling in Sulawesi, which you should, because Sulawesi is a huge island with so many wonderful things to see and do.
This travel guide will explain how to get to Paisu Pok Lake in Banggai, and everything else you need to know before you go!
Floating in a boat on Paisu Pok Lake
How To Get To Luwuk & Banggai
Paisu Pok Lake is located on Peleng island, which is part of the Banggai Islands Regency in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia.
To get there, the first step is getting to Luwuk. There are daily, non-stop flights to the Luwuk airport (LUW) from Makassar in South Sulawesi. If you’re coming from Bali, Jakarta, or somewhere else in Indonesia, then you’ll have to transit in Makassar on the way to Luwuk. You can shop for flights on Skyscanner.
Once you arrive in Luwuk, there are taxi drivers waiting to take you to town and the drive is only about 20 minutes. We paid 50k Rupiah for the airport transfer.
From Luwuk town, you can take the public ferry from Luwuk People’s Port (‘Pelabuhan Rakyat’) over to Leme Leme on Peleng island. It departs every day at 2 PM and the journey takes 2 hours, although it usually leaves an hour late (Indonesian rubber time).
Tickets can be bought on the spot for 54k Rupiah (~$3 USD) per person. Currently there’s no way to book this online, but the tickets don’t sell out.
The ferry is a big wooden boat that carries about 50 to 100 passengers. It has bunks and benches to sit on, but they’re not very comfy.
If you want more privacy, you can rent a small room for two people which has bunk beds and a fan. This costs an extra 50k Rupiah per room.
Drone view of Paisupok Lake
Alternatively, you can arrange a speedboat to take you over to some of the best sights on Peleng island, including Paisu Pok & Poganda Beach. In that case, the journey takes about 1 hour from Luwuk, and you can sometimes see dolphins on your way over.
A day tour with a private speedboat like this will set you back anywhere from 1.5 to 4 million Rupiah (~$100 to $250 USD) for the roundtrip, so it’s not cheap, but it’s quicker than the ferry and it could be economical in some cases if you’re traveling with friends to share the boat cost.
Regardless of whether you choose the ferry or speedboat, the sea is very calm between Luwuk and Peleng island, so I wouldn’t expect waves to ever be an issue for crossing in normal situations.
Underwater shot in the lake
How To Get To Paisu Pok Lake
The ferry from Luwuk will bring you to Leme-Leme port on Peleng, which is still 23 kilometers from the Paisu Pok Lake.
You can then rent a scooter from Novpitri Homestay near the harbor, or hire a private driver with a car. Google Maps says it’s a 40 minute drive, but it actually takes closer to 1 hour by scooter because some parts of the road are broken and you have to slow down to pass them safely.
There’s very little traffic on the road and it’s easy to find the lake. You can’t get lost, especially if you download an offline map beforehand. Here’s the location to use for navigation.
From the parking area, it’s a quick 5 minute walk to get to the Paisupok Lake, and the path is paved all the way.
After visiting the lake, you can return to Luwuk by ferry from Leme Leme, which goes back at 8 AM daily, or you can head east to Salakan and continue exploring the Banggai islands!
Read More: Banggai Islands Travel Guide
Paisupok Lake
Overhead view of the lake
Paisu Pok Lake: What To Expect
Paisu Pok Lake is just as nice as it looks in pictures. We first saw it in the morning, and we thought that was stunning, but the color and clarity gets even better when the sun shines on it.
You can rent a small boat, canoe, or standup paddleboard for exploring the lake, or you can swim and snorkel in it. The water is cold in the morning, but by midday it felt perfect and it was a great escape from the heat and humidity of Sulawesi.
The inside of the lake is almost as beautiful as the outside, with fallen logs and rocks that give it personality, and the color of the water seems to change with the lighting.
It’s extremely clear, almost like glass, and you can usually see all the way to the bottom, even though the water is actually more than 10 meters deep in some places!
In case you’re wondering, I didn’t add any extra color or saturation to the pictures in this blog post. This is how the water really looks. The name ‘Paisu Pok’ means ‘black water’ or ‘dark water’ according to the locals.
There are only a handful of other places like this in Indonesia, such as the Labuan Cermin blue lake in Kalimantan, or the smaller Danau Kaco lake in Sumatra.
The water color is unreal
Conservation At Paisu Pok Lake
This is a small lake and it’s very beautiful, so there’s a danger of it becoming overdeveloped. I hope the locals and visitors will be serious about conservation.
My wife, who is Indonesian, made sure to thank the locals for protecting the lake, and politely asked/encouraged them to keep the natural scenery and not cut down too many more trees around the edge of the lake in the future. I’m afraid of that happening as it becomes more popular.
The jungle is half the beauty, and it would be really sad if they turn it into a tacky concrete theme park with swings, fake bird nests, and other silly photo ops everywhere, kind of like what’s happening now at Alas Harum and some other popular places in Bali.
If you feel the same way and speak a little bit of Bahasa, you might also want to encourage the locals to conserve this place. As long as you’re polite, it can’t hurt. Nature like this is already perfect. There’s no need to try to improve it with more buildings.
Conservation sign — no soap, shampoo, or detergent in the lake
