Belitung!!

Sometimes I have a sudden urge to travel. But when time wasn’t available, I made a must-visit list. One of the places on that list was Belitung and luckily I have a chance to go there last holiday with Hanifa and Vania.

We flew to Tanjung Pandan (Belitungs airport) on the 27th of July. The ticket (Sriwijaya Airline) price is about 900.000 rupiah. We joinned a tour package for 3 that cost us Rp 2.000.000 each including a tour around the island, a private guide, car rent, 3 traditional meals a day, and a 3 star hotel (we stayed at Maxone Hotel).

Day 1

We spend our first day exploring the cultural heritage and nature of East Belitung. Our first destination was an open pit that is used to mine tins. We have to walk pass trees for about 600 meters until we reached a highland with a view of the blue skies and a greenish blue lake at the bottom of the open pit. A great view to begin this journey. I felt really happy, despite the furious wind blowing.   (Open pit)

On to the next destination, Dewi Kwan Im Vihara, the first Buddhist monastery in Belitung. It has a view of Burung Mandi Beach, where boats were lining at the white sandy shore. The scorching heat made me want to jump and cool myself in the water. Then, we ate seafood and tried Belitung’s signature coffee at an area called 1001 Warung Kopi.   (Dewi Kwan Im Vihara) (Burung Mandi Beach)

Okay, this next destination was one of my favorite. So you guys must have heard about Andrea Hirata, a famous writer from Belitung that was known for its best seller novel, Laskar Pelangi. He established Museum Kata Andrea Hirata, the first literary museum in Indonesia since 2010. This unique and colorful museum is filled with different kinds of literature, starting from art to music. There are also facilities such a reading and writing spot, post office, a stage for free jamming, and a free school. Inspirational quotes are written everywhere, on the wall, table, floor, you name it. One of the most memorable quote was “One step to education, 1000 steps to civilization” written on the path towards the free school. This showed how important the role of education is and how grateful I am to have the opportunity to easily access education in Jakarta.    (The entrance to the museum)           (Us pretending to be students at the  museums free school) Our last destination for the day is the replica of the original Laskar Pelangi school, used for the shooting of the movie. I felt like one of the characters of the film, singing Laskar Pelangi with a wide smile and twirling happily. I did’nt realize there were 2 policeman laughing at me. 😦  (Laskar Pelangi School)

Day 2

Beaches. This was what brought us here. So obviously we MUST spend one whole day at the famous beaches and islands. And our agenda was island hopping and snorkeling (YEAH SO EXCITED!). We took a boat and head to the blue sea. The water was really clear and you could definitely see fishes swimming. The color of the sea was between light blue (shallow) and dark blue (deep).   (Tanjung Kelayang Port)

We visited Batu Garuda next to Kelayang Island that lits at night cause of the lights. There are also island like Batu Berlayar and Pulau Pasir that disappears when the sea level rises. When we arrived at Pulau Pasir about 10 in the morning, almost all parts of the island was covered by water. The unique thing about Pulau Pasir was that the island has nothing but sand and a pair of starfish.   (Batu Berlayar Island)(A pair of starfish at Pasir Island)

There was also an island called Pulau Burung that was in the movie “The Philosopher.” Lengkuas Island was the last stop before we snorkel. It has a light house, a place called Batu Susun where the legend says that angels love take a bath there.    (Burung Island)  (The beautiful gradation of the sea water) (Batu Susun)

Now for the part I’ve been waiting for.. SNORKELING WITH DA FISHES. Life jacket. Check. Goggles. Check. So whats left to do was jump in the water. It was AWESOME. The fishes were more diverse and the corals were quite alive cause some of them were dead :(. The life jacket was getting annoying (we couldn’t swim deeper), so we took it off and jumped from the top of the boat, straight to the water. Oh yeah, we also fed the fishes with bread, so them fishes were all around us. We took underwater pictures with a go pro lended by our tour guide (big thanks to him!).  After enjoying the sea, we ate delicious fish at an island. It was so far the best lunch ever cause of the spectacular view!

We went back to shore and stop by the famous Tanjung Tinggi, where they shoot the film “Laskar Pelangi”. The rocks were huge and tall, and scattered around the beach, pretty much the same as the other islands. We ended the day at Berahu Hill eating fried banana and coffee while enjoying the sunset. (Us wondering around the rocks)

Day 3

We spend our last day visiting 2 places. First was the traditional house of Belitung that was made entirely of wood. And our last destination was the Kaolin Lake where plenty of sky blue lakes were surrounded by white sand.   (Kaolin Lake)

From this trip, I learned that I’m lucky to be an Indonesian with all our magnificent nature waiting to be explored. I would rather travel around Indonesia rather than going abroad. So my wish is to visit as many places in Indonesia as possible. How about you?

Ps: check out our vlog (part 1 and two) by clicking this link!! http://youtu.be/3zTEG-nWTec or visit Youtube.com/vaniadesideria