Dear Mom, thank you for
being such a great traveling partner. I said this first because although my mom got her
ankle twisted two days before we left, she handle herself very well in the trip
and she always showed excitement until the end part of our getaway
It was very early on
January 2012, which was after the New Year celebration, and at that moment, I
was waiting for my entrance of my new office, which was still on Jan 16th.
Something forced me to go on the vacation to Belitung since I’ve wanting to go
there since last year. So I decided to take mom in this trip and my plan was to
treat her for the best thing that I could find in Belitung; the food, hotels,
transportation and attractions.
The best thing about this
trip, I didn’t have to make A-Z itinerary, I just said to Mas Harry the owner
of ‘Gerbang Belitung’, one of trip organizer in Belitung; “Please prepare the
best hotel, food and transportation for me and my mom”. We stayed in Belitung for
3 days and 2 nights. That year, all
my waiting paid off, I finally got my chance to take a trip to the island and
explore its beautiful scenery in Belitung.
Situated off the
eastern coast of Sumatra, Belitung is well known as one of the world’s main
tin-producing centers, but it rose to fame as an exotic tourism getaway after
the movie Laskar Pelangi, a story based on the best-selling novel by Andrea
Hirata on the struggles that some kids in Belitung faced in reaching their
dreams, hit the cinema in September 2008.
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| Tanjung Pandan Airport |
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| Laskar Pelangi :) |
We were lucky to
have Erik (tour guide) and Mas Harry because they showed us some immaculate
spots, far from the hustle and bustle of tourists and they were really caring
to my mom and me, they even bought me medicines and fruits when they knew I
felt sick.
Since It’s been
long enough to recall all the name of beaches and places we’ve been, I will try
to write it randomly.
Erik took us to
a ‘used kaolin mining site’ located in Air Raya village. What’s so special
about this place? The white kaolin ground, the clear blue sky and the fresh
water that reflected the sky were a perfect combination and nice spot to snap
some photos. It felt like standing on the frozen sea, very nice and beautiful.
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| Kaolin Lake |
There’s one
whole day we explored many islands by fisherman boat since there’s no speedboat
yet in the Tanjung Tinggi harbor. We were blessed, very lucky as the weather
was very friendly to us so it was totally a great moment for me and mom to
captured and snapped pictures. In Lengkuas Island, I went up to the top of the
lighthouse where I was able to see wide blue rocky beaches with many other
small islands around Lengkuas, I was really blown away by the beauty. My mom
was not coming up with me, she sat on the side beach, waited for me under a
short coconut tree, drinking coconut fruit, with a super cool, windy and nice
beach coast in front of her.
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| Lighthouse in Lengkuas Island |
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| View from The Top of The Lighthouse |
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| Beautiful Beach Lengkuas Island |
We also stopped
by to the other Island like Burong Island, Pasir Island, Batu Berlayang Island,
Lutong Island, Kepayang Island, Tanjung Tinggi Beach, Binga Beach, Punai Beach,
Mambalong Beach, Tanjung Kelayang. I’m running out words to describe how
beautiful the beaches in the islands there.
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| Borung Island |
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| Pasir Island |
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| Another Picture of Lengkuas Island, Taken from The Lighthouse |
On our last
night after dinner, we went to Billiton Hotel and Club, not to spend the night
there but to see many unique parts inside the hotel. The hotel occupies the
former home of the Chinese Captain that later became Societeit Building, an
entertainment place for the Chinese and Dutch elite in the past. Although most
of the buildings have been transformed, there is one very unique part that
remains in the same condition as it was since the first time made, it is the
Shrine of Toapekong. Honestly it was a little bit creepy and somehow the
air was chilled, glek gosh, I was shivering but yet amazed to see such heritage
inside a modern hotel. My mom and I was so funny, we made a small run chasing
each other to be in the front because we felt the same feared. Mas Harry and
Erik were laughing to see our behavior.
Foods there are
really good and cheap, we tried Mie Belitung in the center of Belitung city
then went to one of the beach, very far by car to reach there around an hour,
they called it Mendung Beach, were you can dive in the ocean of Mendung. My mom
bought 4 crabs and a kilogram shrimps for only IDR 50.000 all in total, which
is around US$ 6. In Belitung we ate a lot of seafood, yeah it was called heaven
on earth. Oh, don't forget to stop by at Warung Kopi Ake in Kafe Senang Area in Tanjung Pandan. Warung Kopi Ake is an old coffee shop from 3rd generations. I ordered Kopi O that morning and a half cooked eggs. You will feel a strong vintage atmosphere in this place, with old wooden chairs and aged stone table. Somehow I felt so relax that morning.
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| Mr. Crabs!!! |
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| Nyummy Steamed Shrimps |
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| Great Breakfast Experience in Warung Kopi Ake' |
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| Our Tour Guide and Owner of Warung Kopi Ake' |
Hotels in
Belitung are considered cheap. We stayed in two different hotels. The first
hotel was a resort, just right in front of our cottage is sea view, I took some
pictures in the morning, but too bad I don’t remember the name of the resort.
The other hotel was a nice 4 stars hotel in Grand Hatika. You can go up to the
roof top to take pictures of a beautiful sunset or sunrise.
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| Sunrise in Front of our Cottage |
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| Sunset, Taken from The Roof Top at Grand Hatika Hotel |
I’ve never been to Maldives before, I’ve only seen them in the pictures of the magazines, but I could almost said that Belitung is Indonesia’s Maldives, really cool.
Here’s a contact
Information and suggestion I can share if you wanna come to Belitung without
any confusion to think about. You can contact Gerbang Belitung to prepare all
your itinerary, accommodation and transportation, +62819 0804 7095. You can
actually customize your travel request, only to rent a car, booking hotel or
may be to prepare a boat for island hopping. I’m suggesting you for more
adventure experience to camp in the one of the island, wheater in Lengkuas or
Borung Island, definitely cool to try or you can stay in Lengkuas Island,
there’s a huge old plot where you can stay there with more than 10 friends,
with several rooms, a very nice backyard that headed to the beach and the front
entrance is a lighthouse.
