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| Tambak Beach |
BELITUNG (or local will pronounce and
text it as BELITONG) is one of Indonesian islands which has many beautiful
white sand beaches and is unique for many natural abstract granite boulders.
Belitung has become a popular destination, especially when one of Indonesian
best seller movies took scenes there, based on a best seller novel, called
Laskar Pelangi (Rainbow Troops).
Belitung is part of Bangka Belitung
Provence which consists of 2 big islands (Bangka and Belitung) which are
surrounded with dozens of tiny islands/granite islands. Bangka can be reached
by a ferry daily from Belitung. Belitung is a pretty small island which took
only about 2 hour from west to east coast.
My journey to Belitung started couple
months ago when I decided to join this trip with JJ Narsis (a great deal
package). Yes, I did not travel independently this time. Belitung is not quite
friendly for independent traveler, because there’s no public transportation.
YES! NO public transportation. So, you have to rent a car (start in about IDR
500k including driver and fuel), a motor cycle (about IDR 50.000,-/day) or like
I did, joined to a local tour.
Day One
(7.30 am) Our plane just landed safely
in Hanandjoeddin Airport of Belitung. A small airport located about 20 minutes
to downtown of Tanjung Pandan District.
First stop was Hotel Martani which is
located in downtown area of Tanjung Pandan District. A pretty wide old hotel
which unfortunately has less maintenance, clean enough, very cheap (it only
costs IDR 143.000,- including breakfast for two persons for economy class with
air conditioner and personal bathroom in pretty wide room), and serving very
good buffet breakfast in their class.
Done with check-in, we went to our
next stop, A-Ke coffee shop which is located nearby the Tanjung Pandan Square
(with big meteor stone replica as the center of the square), behind many shops
surrounding the square (so yeah, it will be a little bit difficult to find, but
trust me it’s worth it!).
Personally, A-Ke Coffee Shop is my
culinary Belitung’s Highlight so far. The coffee shop has been around since (at
least) 1922. The 4th generation running the coffee shop right now do
not know the exactly which year the coffee shop was founded. The oldest bill
ever found was dated in year 1922. A-Ke coffee shop is still using the same
shop, kettles and water pot from the 1st generation, which are (more
than) 100 years old! They serve ice/hot milk coffee, ice/hot milk tea and some
raw boiled eggs in the morning (so yummy and fresh with pepper and soy sauce).
The ice milk coffee and ice milk tea are very good and becoming my favorite
since day one I visited this coffee shop (me and my friends came here once a
day during our visit in Belitung).
The journey continued to SD Laskar
Pelangi (a movie scene building of elementary school for Rainbow Troops movie).
Well, it was pretty beautiful from afar, but it was in so bad condition when
you walked into the building.
About couple of minutes from SD Laskar
Pelangi, we stopped by at Bendungan Pice (Pice Dam). The name Pice is based on
the name of the dam’s founder, Peter, which was so difficult to spell by locals
at that time and became Pice (try spell Peter in Singlish haha).
We got a lunch box in Bukit Samak
before exploring many beaches around East Cost of Belitung.
Nyiur Melambai Beach is just okay for
me, it's not WOW, yet not bad.
Tambak Beach is a new beach open for
public, so the beach was almost empty with pretty wide and natural beach.
Actually, even the locals are still confused about the direction to this beach,
so we were kinda little bit lost before reaching the beach.
Bukit Batu Beach is pretty stunning
with many granite boulders scattered around the beach. We also stopped in
Avalokitesvara (Guanshiyin Pusa) Temple. A pretty small temple located in
hillside nearby the beach. Some of us had enough time for praying, including
me. There are 3 major places for worship inside the temple. The main places for
worship for sure is dedicated to Avalokitesvara Bodhisatva (Guanshiyin Pusa)
then followed by Buddha Gotama and some God/dess that we couldn’t
recognize.
Burung Mandi Beach is one of the
famous beaches among locals, especially people who live in east coast area.
Well, not surprising that we found the beach full of visitors (during long
weekend) with many shops and tents selling many traditional snacks, seafood
cuisine and a lot of beverages from cans to fresh coconuts. The name of Burung
Mandi Beach means bathing bird. Birds such as Pelican which is told used to
live in the area, but unfortunately can’t be found these days, because locals
hunt the birds.
Back to hotel for quick refreshment,
then went to some local restaurant to have dinner and also got some snack
(pempek/empek-empek) across the restaurant which is some hang out center among
locals who live in Tanjung Pandan District. The place is very close to a beach
(have no idea about the name of the beach). There are many restaurants and
Odong for rent. What is Odong? I can’t describe it but Odong is like this.
On the way back to hotel, our group
stopped in some local shop selling many local snacks for take away as gifts or
self consumption.
Day Two
The second day would be full with many
white sands beaches and islands hopping. The first stop was Tanjung Tinggi
Beach, which is one of the famous landmarks in Belitung, and is popular also by
Laskar Pelangi movie (Rainbow Troops), where they took some main scenes of the
movie in this beach.
Tanjung Tinggi Beach is located in
North Belitung and absolutely, definitely, for sure (what else? Haha) is
stunning beach with hundreds thousands of granite boulders scattered around the
beach from the pretty tiny sizes to the massive one. What an artistic art made
by nature, I do love it and thank God, He let me see this before I die.
The second stop was Tanjung Kelayang
Beach which is also kind of the port for islands hopping activities, snorkeling
and diving. Life Vest in, and we were ready to jump in to the boat and
continued our trip in a single motor wood boat.
First island destination was Batu
Berlayar Island which is very small and full of huge granite stone.
Next destination was Burung Island
which has a pretty long beach, quite clean and comfy for relaxing swimming.
From the right side of the beach, we could see a tiny island consist of granite
boulders shaped like a bird’s head.
The islands hopping continued to
Lengkuas Island which has a lighthouse, built in about 1918 by The Dutch.
Lengkuas Island was so crowded with visitors, because every boat stopped by at
this island for lunch break and exploring the lighthouse which has about 18
levels inside. Lengkuas Island is not a big island but it has many beautiful
spots (again) with many granite boulders scattered in some spots of the beach
and it also has cemetery for john doe boat crash’s victims.
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| John Doe's cemetery |
Sailed about hundreds meter from
Lengkuas Island, we did snorkeling and actually that was my first time, haha!
Terrified enough because we snorkeled in some high seas with about 7 meters
depth and I can’t swim at all. The flow was pretty strong so I decided to
snorkel very close to the boat haha. It was quite quick but full of fun, still
not a big fan of snorkeling though.
The next island was Babi Kecil Island
which has a pretty wide shallow sea. So, for those who can’t swim well or at
all, like me, this island is very friendly haha.
Back to Tanjung Kelayang Beach we
spent an hour to do some refreshment and snack break before continued to our
last destination for the second day which was Tanjung Binga Port for chasing
the sunset. Unfortunately, we had to skip it because rain fell down, hiks. So,
instead of chasing the sunset, we directly went back to the hotel for
refreshment before dinner.
I (and some friends) decided to have
some ice milk coffee by A-Ke before dinner, which is located nearby the hotel.
We just walked about 15 minutes from hotel, passing by The Meteor Square. Ah,
what a perfect evening with perfect ice milk coffee to close a perfect day.
After got a wonderful dinner with
grilled beef rib, our group stopped by in a souvenir shop, spent some time for
our group to buy some souvenirs from Belitung. One of the famous souvenirs is
meteor black stone and beside it will move like a “dance” when touched by our
nail, I don’t know what it is used for.
Back to the hotel the night was still
so young. It was not only 9 pm, so we decided to walk around the hotel with no
purpose. About 5 minutes walk from hotel we noticed a tent selling “Mie Pampi”
which is one of famous street foods among locals and yes, indeed, we decided to
order some haha. Mie Pampi is like a rice noodle with pretty big diameter
(about 3mm) but not like an ordinary noodles which is served long, the pampi
noodles is served in short cuts (the longest cut is only about 4cm long). It
can be cooked in stir fried and in a soup. The taste of mie pampi was not bad
(for me).
Day Three
Last day in Belitung (hiks) started
with another session in A-Ke coffee shop before we all went to and try the
authentic dish of Belitung, called Mie Belitung. Mie Belitung consist of boiled
ordinary yellow noodles, with some slices of tofu and flour cake (called
bakwan) then served in shrimp thick sauce. It is a light meal, but yet
tasty.
Next destination was Ethnic House of
Belitung, which is interesting, but less information about what we saw.
Kaolin Lake was our next destination
in our last day in Belitung. Kaolin Lake was told a former mining of tin, but
already abandoned after the exploitation (I guess). The lake pretty looks like
Kawah Putih (White Crater in Ciwidey Bandung) with its white blue in light
green water.
So Long Belitung
Our last destination in Belitung was
(back to) Hanandjoeddin Airport and like it or not, we had to close this
vacation and got ready to fly back to Jakarta.
Three days of long weekend, indeed,
well spent. What a great destination with awesome fellas. Full of many
beautiful beaches, many stunning spots, awesome granite boulders, “reunion”
with old friends, met new friends, and many great memories. It was a wonderful
weekend getaway!
TIPS:
Sun block with high
spv is so recommended from face to toe haha and keep re-put every hour. I
forgot to put sun block in my legs and yes, it got burnt, hiks.
We can find many of
small to huge starfishes in those beaches, but we have to be careful when we
want to put them out of the water and make some pictures of it. We must often
put it back in the water otherwise it will die.
My concern about
Belitung is that it should have some public transportation and keep the city
green, because the city looks so arid. Many stunning beaches need (some in
seriously condition) to be looked after and maintained about their cleanliness
and maintenance.
Special thanks to Resviana for my English translation review
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