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span class="inline inline-center">Sea parade: Residents of Kampung Laut take part in a decorated boat parade in Cilacap, Central Java. The sea parade, held to commemorate Independence Day on Aug. 17, attracts tourists to the area. (JP/Agus Maryono)

The Cilacap regency administration of Central Java has declared that Kampung Laut, a district that seems surrounded by the sea and borders on the Nusakambangan prison island, is now open for foreign tourists to visit and stay in.

Cilacap administration'€™s spokesperson Ansar Basuki said that a number of improvements had been made in the district, including providing cafes serving seafood that is prepared from local fishermen'€™s catches of the day, such as crabs, shrimp and local eels.

'€œHomestays are also ready to accommodate tourists,'€ Ansar told The Jakarta Post, on Monday.

Ansar said the village offered a mixture of a lagoon panorama and local people'€™s housings.

'€œThis is seawater-based natural tourism,'€ he said.

While in Kampung Laut, he said, tourists could enjoy the Segara Anakan waters surrounded by mangroves, as well as fish in an unlimited area on board of a local fishing boat ready to take them wherever they want to go.

Kampung Laut in one of 24 districts in Cilacap. It gives the impression of being located almost in the middle of the sea, separated as it is from the rest of the districts in the regency.

The only land, other than the mainland of Java, that borders Kampung Laut is the island of Nusakambangan, where high-security prisons for high-profile inmates are located.

To get to Kampung Laut, visitors need to go on board of a boat that is easy to find at Sleko Port, Cilacap, not far from the Indonesia Tanjung Intan Seaport. The fare for this boat service is Rp 10,000 per person per trip.

'€œYou will need about one and a half to two hours of cruising to get to Kampung Laut from Sleko,'€ Ansar said.

Kampung Laut, according to Ansar, could also be reached from the Pangandaran Beach area in Ciamis, West Java, also by boat.

Kampung Laut district head Nurindra said that the district currently has a population of 17,000. They were spread across the four subdistricts of Ujung Alang, Ujung Gagak, Klaces and Panikel.

All of the subdistricts are separated from each other by tidal waterways, which means residents use boats as their main means of transportation.

Within each of the subdistricts, Nurindra said, people also use motorcycles to get around.

'€œIf they want to ride motorcycles to go to downtown Cilacap, then they also have to put the vehicles on board of the boat with them,'€ he said.

All the people of Kampung Laut mainly depend on fishing for their livelihoods. Most of them catch fish around their respective houses and not in the sea. '€œSome use nets; some others prefer to nurture crabs here,'€ Nurindra said.

The Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry, the Public Works and Public Housing Ministry and the Research and Technology and Higher Education Ministry earlier coordinated to prepare Kampung Laut to become a model innovative fishing village.

Many of the tourists visiting Kampung Laut, including domestic ones, said that it was their first visit to the district.

'€œI am a Cilacap resident, but this is the first time I set foot in Kampung Laut. It turns out to be very beautiful,'€ Herni Nuryunia of Kroya, Cilacap, said.

She said she found it very fascinating to cruise along the estuary waterways of Segara Anakan surrounded by mangroves for about one and a half hours.

'€œI'€™ve been here twice. I do think this deserves to be developed into an incredible tourism destination because as far as I know only in Cilacap can we find such beautiful sea tourism,'€ visiting Yono from Banyumas regency said.