This trip happened because of Garuda promo. Hahaha
So one of my friend, Wulan post in group and asking whether we want to go to Belitung since Citilink just opened new route to Belitung, so they give special prices. Only IDR 800k all in, and we (Me-Ditra-Fitri) agreed. And as usual, am the one who searching for hotel and transportation.
While also, to minimized the budget, I asked to other girl friends that I know they love to travel, Tasya and Dhea. And they agreed to joined, since it's very cheap.
I booked Grand Hatika Hotel, since it's medium price and also near Pantai Tanjung Pendam that apparently also a place where local people go during weekend, lot of cafe and restaurant there and also within the walking distance. While I asked one of my friend that already went to Belitung before for the car rent contact, and apparently, you only need to rent the car that already included local tour guide and he can also help to rent the boat. Since we obviously need boat for the island hopingfa
Actually it's not quite a good choice to go to Belitung during Nov-Dec, since it's rainy seasons. But well, no other (promo) option. lol. We chose to depart on Saturday morning and return on Tuesday, and then the guide would said that it's a good choice, since the Lighthouse will be full during weekend and also apparently the waves during weekend is really high so less boat can go there.
Here we go the Belitung Journey...
Day 1 - City Tour
We're focusing on City Tour on the Day 1. First thing first after we arrived was eating. lol. This is Mie Atep, local food from Belitung
After eating, we continued our journey to the famous Kwan Im Vihara. It's the oldest vihara there and located at Desa Burung Mandi, east Belitung. The temple has big Kwan Im Goddess statue outside the praying area. Since it's located in hillside, so from this place, you can gaze at the open sea.
It's actually only an usual tourist attraction and took some pictures there.
After finished photo sessions, we looking for lunch, and since it's Belitung, why not looking for seafood? Our driver took us to Fega Seafood Restaurant, that has boat design and floating areas.
We chose to have Ganam Fish soup, locale taste, that he referred us to try. I dont really like fish soup, but apparently these's quite good.
After finished our lunch, we continue our city trip to Laskar Pelangi School. Actually this building was a replica of the Muhammadiyah Elementary School that famous because of a movie about Belitung children based on novel from Andrea Hirata, named Laskar Pelangi (you can read more about it in here). This was where all of Laskar Pelangi went to school during their childhood, and only used for tourist destination instead of real school. If you ever watch the movie, those places that appeared in the movie will be our main city attractions.
Some of locale children were curious with us and eagerly joined our photos
As told earlier, after went to the school, we went to Andrea Hirata Words Museum. Andrea Hirata is an Indonesian author best known for the 2005 novel Laskar Pelangi ("The Rainbow Troops") and its sequels. Since Belitung is his hometown, thus there's a museum to acknowledge him.
Inside the museum, there're some memories and pictures from the movie, photos about Belitung, old news, and also Andrea Hirata's childhood memories.
And since he's an author, there're lot of quotes and words inside.
If you want to try and sip Belitung coffee, with Tempo Doeloe view, you can try small cafe inside the museum called Kupi Kuli.
On the backyard of the museum, there's a small way that leads to,,
Miniature and another replica of Laskar Pelangi school.
Belitung also famous with it coffee, so we want to try it in local coffee shop. So our driver drove us to Manggar area where there're lot of coffee shop. Even it has a monument about the coffee shop
He forced us to take pictures of it. lol
Let's have a coffee break at Warung Kopi Millenium, Manggar
The coffee taste good, and it has roasted taste and smell when you drink it.
I ended up day 1 with strolling around Tanjung Pendam beach during the night. But nothing special since it's night and the water was receded.
Day 2 - Beach Day
The weather already gloomy since we're woke up, and start raining during our journey to the beach. We already booked the boat 2 days, one day for island hopping, and the next day for snorkeling. But looking up at the weather, we'll just see it later then.
Our first stop was Tanjung Tinggi Beach, it was once used as one of the beach for shooting the Laskar Pelangi film. So we can found the inscription right in front of before we entered the beach.
Big granite rocks welcomed us
Our tour guide showed us a way up and voluntary took our pictures from below.
And Posed.
Here what it looks under the big rocks.
I fall in love with the blue water already.
And here we go the sea. Let's go island hopping.
The tides was really, really high. Sometimes it also raining and no sunny appear during our sea journey. Our guide said that maybe we're not able to visit all the island within one day because of the tide. And lucky us that we rent the boat for two days, he said.
Batu Garuda Island. Well, we cant visit this island actually, only can take a photo from a far.
Dropped by at Batu Berlayar Island to take some pictures before we have our lunch
We have our lunch at Kepayang Island. Lunch with a view indeed..
Home made meal from our tour guide wife. We ended up ordered Ketam Isi and some fish ball to bring back home later.
Found turtle conservation in this island
Next stop, Babi Island.
Special message for the two other guys whom cannot joined the trip. lol
We finished our day two trip with dinner in Belitung Tempo Duluk cafe, after cleaning up ourself in hotel.
We ordered Berego for dinner. Well, it tasted so-so actually. But this cafe is more into selling the decoration than food. lol
Day 3 - Sunrise, Island Hopping & Snorkeling.
We woke up really early. Since we need to go to Kaolin Lake for sunrise and it's quite far from our hotel. Even though it's cloudy, but the view of Kaolin Lake is really beautiful.
Kaolin lake located in the Village of Lake Water Kingdom Tanjungpandan, Belitung. The location of the lake is still fairly close to the city center Tanjung pandan. It has a clean white color that land and water are colored light blue.
It's actually not a real natural lake, At a glance, Kaolin is similar to the white crater of Ciwidey, Bandung. However, the water in this lake is much clearer and brighter., but it was formed from the former site of the abandoned mining Kaolin. Kaolin itself is a materials that can be used as industrial purpose such as for the mixture of floors, ceramics and cosmetic ingredients.
Water from Lake Kaolin is used by locals to shower. However, the water is not drinkable because of its kaolin exposure.
Even though it looks beautiful and can be swim, but our tour guide didnt allow us to go near and ask us to watch our step. Since the sand-based land in this location is quite fragile, as it is easily eroded
After that, we went back to hotel to take a shower and then went to have breakfast before continue the island hopping.
Our guide brought us to a small restaurant, called Kedai Mak Jannah. And we have breakfast like local time, Soto Lontong Belitung and hot Coffee Milk. I do like local coffee taste here.
After that, let's go back to the sea.
I must admit that the tide was really, really high today. Even sometimes we felt that it was higher than our boat. Scary, isnt it? And it made us took longer time to go to each island, especially to our first destination, Lengkuas Island, which not access able yesterday. These is the farthest island compared to another island hopping, but it's one of the main and must visit destination here.
In Lengkuas Island there is an old Lighthouse that built by Dutch colonial in 1882 and still actively working for marine navigation. Before entering and climb the lighthouse, we must wash our feet with fresh water in front of the entrance. The caretaker said because of the lighthouse constructed from steel, the sea water can cause rust on the building.
And we decided to enter it and reach the top.
Even though I was afraid of height, but it's really beautiful up there. We can see the boats and the horizon. Even we can feel that the world is round like globe.
But since the bad weather, the wind was also really strong and even sometimes I need to grip the bar.
You can see how strong the wind from the coconut leaves and the waves.
Way down back. See that lot of rust and kinda creepy.lol
Back to the beach, we went to a spot called Bidadari (nymph) Pond, that only has the water during the tide.
We can take pictures with the lighthouse as the background
Hello from Patrick
We cant wait to feel the dip of the sea. Let's move to another island, shall we?
We moved to a snorkeling spot near Burung Belitung Island and have snorkeling.
I wish to have longer time and more than one snorkeling spot, but since the tide and waves is really high, we decided to park in the island and do a little walk.
We're guided to another side of the island, up and down the rocks.
To find that, we also have a color changing trees in here. Feels like autumn, no?
We finished our island hopping. Let's go back to hotel. Long way to go to the sea journey, not to mention the tides. lol
Before we went back to hotel, our guide forced us to take mandatory photo here. lol
Well, since we're not satisfied enough to play the water and we already have wet suit, so we decided to continue playing in the hotel pool.
Day 4 - Last Day
Since this was our last day in Belitung, we choose to have short walk to Pantai Tanjung Pendam that right in walking distance from our hotel.
Still cloudy morning that we got. No sunrise at all.
Hotel Lobby. Quite nice isnt it?
After check out, we went to souvenir shops and local shop (warung) to buy souvenirs and especially coffee.
And the holiday has ended. Back to Jakarta, Back to reality
Ja Ne
