Solo Backpacking Adventure to Bali

This is my story about a solo traveling alone from Jakarta to Bali.

It all started in the beginning of the year, when suddenly I got a desire to spend a summer holiday in Bali. Without hesitating, I was very determined to make this plan to come true. After calculating and reading the weather forecast to find the best summer time, then I decided to go on my birthday.

 I spent 2 months preparing all the things I needed for this journey, since this was going to be my first solo traveling – pure purpose for holiday. The preparation included getting the money – I did some project internships and freelance jobs, browsing – and being very knowledgeable – about the tourism spots in Bali, making database about hostels, hotels, restaurants, and information about transportation, and reading tourists’ reviews and travel blogs. Then, the journey began.

It took 7 hours taking train from Jakarta to reach the first destination, Pekalongan. It is a city in Central Java which famous for its batik besides Solo and Yogyakarta. I spent a day here enjoying the quite surroundings without skyscraper buildings and monoxide in the air, and bought some stuffs for me and my friends at the Sentono Batik Market. 

Arrived in Pekalongan at 9 pm, I left the day after at 2 pm to Surabaya. Still taking train, the route passed the northern side of the island where it was close to the sea. Got a comfortable executive class seat, I enjoyed swimming in my deep thoughts, contemplating about life and wondering about the nature I saw on my way to Surabaya. Without realizing, my tears fell down on my cheek, thinking nothing about the feelings that sat on the vacant space in my heart.

 Arriving in Surabaya at 8 pm, I had to walk to go to different station. Relying on GPS and maps on my mobile phone, I confidently walked this route which has been said 4 km distance. Suddenly I was approached by a becak (pedicab) who offered me to take it to another station. Negotiated, I only had to pay 20.000 rupiahs from Surabaya Pasar Turi station to Surabaya Gubeng station. On my way, I had small talks with the becak driver while enjoying the night environment of Surabaya. It was my first time being there as well. Surabaya seemed busier and more crowded than Pekalongan. It has malls and the streets were bigger. The becak driver told me some things about Surabaya, and he sounded like he knew a lot about the train and the schedule as well. The topic of the talks then changed from talking about train to his children education. Again, some strange-touching feeling crossed my heart and it brought tears to my eyes, when I heard a simple-yet-had-been-ignored-many-times wisdom came out of his mouth. Coming from one of the lower economy class family, with insufficient affordability to experience good education, he reminded me about how important he thought education is and how he really wished to be able to put his children until higher education. A silent guilty feeling hugged me with flash back about what I have been doing with my wasted times in college.

 My train was going to depart at 10 pm, and I still had more than one hour waiting in the station. This time my train was heading to Banyuwangi, 7 hours travel time. Though getting a business class seat, I got no big problem because it was at a night time and nothing could be seen from the window anyway – it was very dark outside – so I spent all the time in the train by sleeping. I was awaken 20 minutes before the train arrived in its last destination, Banyuwangi Baru station. The time showed at 4.30 am. I walked out from the station, finding a way to the harbor. The sky was still dark, and I got to see a wonderful God’s painting of the night sky that night. Have you ever seen or imagining about seeing the galaxy in the perfectly clear dark sky? Yes. That was absolutely what I saw. Spread of beautifully sparkling stars saying hello and welcome to me.

 Banyuwangi seemed like a very quiet city to me. Maybe because I was on the edge of the island, so maybe it was a rural area. Moreover, it was still too early to start the day, so I barely saw people appearing on the street. The Ketapang harbor located near to the station. It only took 10-15 minute by walk. I paid 6000 rupiahs for the ferry ticket. At the harbor, there were ferries and buses, and many of them heading to Bali – even though I’m not sure whether all of them were heading to Bali or not – but it was easy to find a way to cross the sea to Bali. There will be some men trying to offer the transportation. From what I got from internet, it should costs 30.000-35.000 rupiahs for the bus. But when I was there, the lowest price I could get was 45.000 rupiahs, found out that the price on the internet is for day buses, AC or non-AC. Wanting to cross to Bali at 5 am, there were only night buses on operation and its fees are supposed to be 50.000 rupiahs. All buses are AC.

After sipping a sweet hot tea from a small stall at the harbor, I hopped in to the ferry. It was amazing seeing how all these giant buses trying to fit all in one single ferry. After the buses, cars, and motorcycles perfectly parked on the ship, all passengers then went to the second floor of the ferry. There were benches, stalls, and karaoke. I indifferently chose a seat on the back, looking for the best view to see the sunrise. 2 months I prepared this traveling plan perfectly, I set my goal to see the sunrise from the ferry. Realizing that knowledge in geography will always be useful in going out, only by knowing the sun rises from the east and the ferry will be heading to the east, I successfully got a paradise scenery of the sunrise. I almost forgot to take picture. I was so intimate with the view that time. In silence I said, “Good morning, Bali. Here I come”.

The ferry took one hour to reach Gilimanuk harbor. Arriving at the harbor, everybody was not freely come and go again. There was an ID check by the police, where every passenger had to come out from the vehicle and show their ID to the police. I didn’t know there was a checking, so I just stayed inside the bus with other kids who didn’t have ID yet. Well. The checking went fast, then the bus continued its journey after all passenger sat back in.

It was Friday, so I assumed everybody was still going out to the office. The traffic was busy and crowded and I got stuck in the traffic jam several times. It was at 6 am at the Gilimanuk harbor, and I arrived at Kuta beach by 1 pm. Yeah. That was a crazy 7 hours on the road. But the bus didn’t go directly to Kuta. It stopped at Mengwi terminal, and I had to take other 3 different public car transportation to go to Kuta. On my way, I felt like “this is what I have been wanting and planning.” So I spent most of the time in the car by looking around and letting my phone and camera calmly in my bag. It was 4 days after big day of Hindu religion, but I still saw many celebrations. Very cultural and I loved it. People were wearing traditional clothes with flowers and fruits completed their ceremony.

My phone battery was 5% left, and i was still lost somewhere in Poppies street. I tried to remember the way and everything from my last visit to Bali 4 years ago, but i didn't recall. I was sweating and feeling exhausted. I asked more than 3 local people about where my destination was located, while carrying a 9 kg backpack and one super big tote bag containing batik souvenirs i bought in Pekalongan. I walked around 30 minutes and just when my phone was dead, i finally found it. i stayed at Masa Inn in Poppies 1. It was a peaceful place to stay. the guests were mostly Australian, and i barely met people at my age. Most of them were about 40's to 60's years old. After taking a shower and a little nap, i was ready to start my first day in Bali. At the inn, i met an Italian guy who was traveling alone as well. We got along well, and we decided to travel together for a couple days with a motorbike he had rented. He let me to make the itinerary. Then, on our first day, we went to Garuda Wisnu Kencana (GWK).

GWK is a huge beautiful place with its famous giant statue of Garuda bird and Wisnu God statues. Not only that, it also had huge magical natural formed rocks surrounding the park. From in front of the Wisnu statue, we can see some part of Bali from above. it was wonderful. at some particular hours, this place also has performances, including Kecak dance. I really wanted to see the dance, but we had to keep going, so we decided to see the dance at another place.

  

After visiting GWK, our next destination is Uluwatu. I had a crazy experience. It was about 4 pm, as we were trying to find our way to Uluwatu. Still not far from GWK, suddenly we were stopepd by some policemen that were doing some sweeping. Then he pulled us over, and asked for "international driving license". That time, it was my italian friend who was riding the bike, and bad luck that he left his license at the hotel. Then the policemen wanted to hold our motorcycle license and we had to take it back at the court by paying some amount of money (i forgot how much, i think about 350 thousand rupiahs). We tried to negotiate, as it would take 2 weeks to take the license back from the court, meanwhile we were only staying there for less than 2 weeks. Then the policemen "offered" us to "finish it at the spot". It means they want money from us. He asked for 250 K and we said that we only had 100 K in the wallet. Then he called someone who was wearing a shirt, not a police uniform, and told him our situation. They were talking in low volume almost whispering, and they came back to me saying they couldn't take our 100 K. I was still trying to negotiate and starting to get a little bit upset, until he finally accepted the money and let us go. I was really angry then. There, i saw many indonesians riding motorbike without helmet just passing over without being pulled. Only foreigners got pulled over. There were 4 foreigners across the street being pulled, and one poor couple on our side of the street seemed like having trouble with the policemen. As an Indonesian i felt ashamed having a broken law system like this. Naughty police.

* to be continued *

A Memorable and Fun ASMOPS!

Hello!

gw mau cerita tentang ASMOPS nih hehehe ada yang tau apa itu AMOPS?

ASMOPS adalah singkatan dari Asian Science and Mathematics Olympiad for Primary School. Tanggal 6 - 10 November kemaren, Surya Institute ngadain ASMOPS yang kedua kalinya di Grand Zuri Hotel, BSD, Tangerang Selatan. daaaan yes, gw ikutan di acara ini. jadi apa? yah meskipun muka gw masih imut2 kayak anak SD, tapi tentu aja gw disini bukan jadi pesertanya hehehe karna ini lomba buat anak SD. Gw disini jadi panitia acara, sekaligus juga jadi tour guide dan MC :)

ASMOPS ini dibuka di tanggal 7 November pagi, dan di opening ceremony, ada penampilan paduan suara yang dibawain sama anak2 SD Papua, bimbingan dari Surya Research and Education Center (SURE). Tugas pertama gw di ASMOPS adalah, jadi guru nyanyi mereka! Pada awalnya ketika mereka ditawarin untuk tampil, guru kesenian mereka lagi sakit, jadi ga bisa ngelatih. Tiba2 gw ditawarin untuk ngegantiin guru keseniannya untuk ngelatih mereka. Sebagai orang yang suka hal-hal baru, gw terima tawaran itu. Gw ngelatih mereka sekitar 2 minggu lamanya sampai opening ASMOPS.

Kesannya adalah seru, lucu, seneng, terharu. Capek? mungkin. tapi capek itu ga ada apa-apanya dibandingin sama rasa kepuasan dan rasa seneng yang gw dapetin selama ngajar mereka. Anak-anak papua yang gw latih ini ada 11 orang. Dari kelas 4 sampai kelas 6 SD. Ini pertama kalinya gw berhubungan dengan orang papua. Dan tau ga sih, mereka masih polooooossss banget. Awal ketemu, mereka malu banget kalo bertatap mata sama gw. Kalo ketika kita yang malu, paling kita ngapain sih? diem, nutupin rasa malu, atau sok2an sibuk mainan hp, atau buang muka. Kalo mereka, malunya lucuuu banget. Ketika mereka malu, mereka nutupin mukanya dengan tangan atau kertas atau benda apapun yang ada di dekat mereka. Ada yang ngumpet di balik punggung temennya, dan yang lebih lucu lagi, ada 2 anak yang sama2 malu dan sama2 nutupin muka mereka pake tangan dengan kepala yang saling nempel satu sama lain. Gw gemes banget ngeliat tingkah laku anak2 ini yang masih polos.

Awal disuruh nyanyi pun, mereka malu dan suaranya belum keluar. Tapi setelah latihan berjalan, lama kelamaan mereka berani buat nyanyi kenceng dan suaranya...... bagus.........

Selain itu, bahasa yang mereka gunakan untuk bercakap-cakap sehari-hari masih pakai logat papua. Bahasa indonesia baku masih jarang mereka pakai. Dan mereka ini kalau ngomong cepet banget, jadi kadang gw suka ga ngerti mereka ngomong apa hehehe. Sebuah tantangan buat gw ketika gw harus ngelatih mereka untuk nyanyi lagu bahasa inggris: I Have A Dream. Karena berbicara bahasa indonesia baku aja mereka masih belum terbiasa, apalagi bahasa inggris. Akhirnya sebelum nyanyi pun gw ngajarin terlabih dahulu pelafalan dan cara baca liriknya ke mereka. Seru.

Ini waktu lagi Gladi Resik untuk opening ASMOPS. Sayang goyang fotonya :( Atas kiri-kanan: Yunita, Gina, Esther, Fredrik, Thomas, Diana, Sisilia. Bawah kiri-kanan: Agus, Tania, gw, Neta, Sarah.

ini di salah satu ruang kelas yang kita pakai untuk latihan nyanyi di Surya Research and Education Center (SURE). Dari kiri ke kanan: Agus, Sarah, Diana, Esther, Tania, gw, Sisilia.

Tiga anak ini yang paling suka bercanda. Suka difoto juga. Kiri ke kanan: Agus, Fredrik, Thomas

Nah kalau dari acaranya sendiri, tahun ini diikuti oleh 5 negara: Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, China, dan Taipei. Di hari pertama dan kedua, peserta full mejalani seleksi yg berupa tes tertulis dan eksplorasi.  Mereka dikasih soal dan mereka harus ngerjain itu di ruangan ber AC yang waktu itu dingiiiiinnnn banget. Untungnya, di hotel banyak tersedia makanan jadi selesai ujian bisa langsung makan semua >,<

peserta Indonesia sedang di-briefing

Hari ketiga, waktunya City Tour! semua peserta diajak jalan-jalan pake bus ke Taman Mini Indonesia Indah. Karena ini acara sains, jadi yang dikunjungi pun adalah museum sains hehehe.

nah di hari ini nih kerjaan gw agak hectic. Gw bertugas sebagai co-PIC sekaligus sebagai tour guide dimana gw harus mengatur jalannya City Tour ini dan men-translate pembicaraan PIC ke bahasa Inggris (karna PICnya ga terlalu lancar berbahasa inggris hihihi).

Kenapa hectic? karena City Tour ini berlangsung sampai sore, sedangkan malamnya adalah closing ceremony dan gw harus bertugas sebagai MC. Jadi di siang harinya, gw balik ke hotel duluan dan harus meninggalkan bro PIC gw di TMII karna gw harus mempersiapkan diri dan briefing2 untuk closing ceremony nanti malam.

seluruh peserta sedang foto bersama di depan Keong Mas, TMII

Katanya ini namanya buah ara. oleh-oleh dari Yunani :D

Malam pun tiba. Selesai dinner, closing ceremony pun dimulai. Di closing ceremony ini, ada penampilan dari masing2 negara peserta. Lucuuuu banget liat anak2 SD ini nyanyi2 dan joget2 di atas panggung. Agak deg2an juga buat gw, karna gw harus bisa nyesuain dan membawa diri dengan cocok. Gimana caranya gw nge-MC dengan gaya yg tetep sopan di depan juri, guru, dan orang tua murid, tapi tetep asik, nyambung, dan ga ngebosenin buat anak2 SDnya. Alhamdulillah, acara malem itu berjalan lancar, meskipun di tengah2 acara sepatu gw jebol dan gw harus pinjem sepatu salah satu panitia yg lain hehehe

peserta dari Medan: Sule! lucuuuu banget :3

  

the winner medals and trophies!

Malam itu berakhir dengan foto2 dan tukeran account facebook sesama peserta. Senang juga rasanya ketika ada beberapa anak2 yang menghampiri gw untuk minta foto bareng dan nanyain facebook dan email gw hihihi

Peserta pun ada yang langsung pulang, dan ada yang kembali ke kamar masing-masing dan baru pulang besoknya. Gw pun sama beberapa panitia yang lain langsung kabur keluar untuk makan sate kambing dan kembali lagi ke hotel malamnya :)

Over all, ASMOPS ini seru, lucu, menyenangkan, memorable. Semoga gw masih bisa berpartisipasi dan berprestasi lagi di ASMOPS berikutnya dan acara-acara serupa lainnya :)

photo session: Music and Rebel

hola!

if you have read my previous post about Girls Just Wanna Have Fun photo session, now i would like to present you another photo session of mine and my beautiful friend @viratiara. we were so lucky having two talented photographers @Fariz|Adnan and @ebyariza and their funny-but-could-take-a-good-photograph as well @kikioktaf to frame us into their shining lenses.

the day was so bright as if it was our day for it, and i was happy that we had got a cool place for our session. it was a small cafe located in the corner of Kemang. i go to Kemang oftenly, but honestly i never noticed that there was such an unique place like this. but yeah, we had the session at @tokove_ID (read my review about Tokove in my other post).

so, after about 5 hours working on lighting, wardrobes, make-ups and lenses, here's the results......

captured by @Fariz|Adnan, edited by me

the first shots was meant to be a little bit rebel, taking the place setting on the stage and with guitars, but yeah it still got the "sweet" impression (i think). Let me know what you think ;) 

Clothing: American flag tank top, light brown cardigan, white striped jeans short, converse added with red shoelace, and a robot ring.

follow her at @viratiara

captured and edited by @Fariz|Adnan

I fell in love with the brownish ambiance of the bar table and the wooden wall of the cafe from the very beginning i saw this cafe. So when it came to the second shot concept, i used the wall where it was epicly written "Cable Buffet" on it with cable rolls. Still in brownish ambiance, i also used the bar with its bottles.

captured and edited by @Fariz|Adnan

captured and edited by @ebyariza

captured and edited by @ebyariza

second shot clothing: orange long coat, mini orange polka dress, black heels, leaf earrings, card symbol ring.

actually i brought almost 10 pairs of clothing, but because our time was limited, so we only had 3 pairs of clothing. The third and the last one's concept was meant to be seen as a geeky or a nerdy, so that you can see the big glasses decorated my face. but i realized that there were two different impressions when i put my glasses up to my head. with the microphone near me, it seemed just like someone chic going to sing.

captured and edited by @Fariz|Adnan

captured by @Fariz|Adnan, edited by me

captured and edited by @Fariz|Adnan

third shot clothing: white-blue long-sleeve polka shirt, black stocking, brown gladiator sandals, brown-black scarf, and some bracelets.

it was almost at 6 pm, and our session was about to finish. Oh btw we had the photo session from 1 pm until 6 pm. All taking place at Tokove ID, the rent fee is Rp 350.000 :)

And when it was all finished, one thing we really must do was taking photos together with all crew! yea so this is it! :)

all crew!

it was really a great session. i would give score 8 out of 10 for the concept, the wardrobes, the place, the crew, and the most importantly, the photo results! :)
cant wait for the next session!

words of wisdom

Jika setiap pertempuran kita selalu menang, darimana kita dapat belajar tentang perjuangan?

Jika semua yang kita kehendaki terus kita miliki, darimana kita belajar ikhlas?

Jika semua yang kita impikan segera terwujud, darimana kita belajar sabar?

Jika setiap doa kita terus dikabulkan, bagaimana kita dapat belajar ikhtiar?

Seseorang yang selalu tekun berdoa, bukan berarti dia tidak ada masa sulit.

Biarlah tuhan yang berdaulat sepenuhnya atas hidup kita, karena tuhan tahu yang tepat untuk memberikan yang terbaik.

Ketika pekerjaanmu tidak dihargai, maka saat itulah kamu sedang belajar tentang ketulusan.

Ketika usahamu dinilai tidak penting, maka saat itulah kamu sedang belajar tentang keikhlasan.

Ketika hatimu terluka sangat dalam, maka saat itu kamu sedang belajar tentang memaafkan.

Ketika kamu lelah dan kecewa, maka saat itu kamu sedang belajar tentang kesungguhan.

Ketika kamu merasa sepi dan sendiri, maka saat itu kamu sedang belajar tentang ketangguhan.

Ketika kamu harus membayar biaya yang sebenarnnya tidak perlu kamu tanggung, maka saat itulah kamu sedang belajar tentang kemurah-hatian.

Tuhan meletakkanmu di tempatmu yang sekarang bukan karena kebetulan.

Orang hebat tidak dihasilkan melalui kemudahan, kesenangan, dan kenyamanan. Mereka dibentuk melalui kesukaran, tantangan, dan air mata.

Tetaplah bersabar menjalani hidup dan selalu berikan yang terbaik.

Setiap masalah pasti akan ada jalan keluarnya, dan setiap masa sulit pasti akan ada akhirnya.

Have a nice day J

Pari Island New Year Holiday Trip!

this part of my life is called HOLIDAY!
so.... it was the last week of December and i was on my school break until my high school friend asked me to join my other friends to Pari Island for new year. i was so excited. i've never had a new year celebration by having a trip outside the island before. so i said yes.....

There were 19 of us (yea that's a lot of us), me and my high school friends, having our holidays in Pari Island for 3 days and 2 nights. We went from December 30th in early morning (about 5 am) from Pamulang (my hometown) to Muara Angke Harbor. We took public vehicle from Pamulang to Lebak Bulus (Rp 4000) and Trans Jakarta Bus from Lebak Bulus to Grogol (Rp 2000). From Grogol, we took another public vehicle (the color is red) directly to Muara Angke (Rp 5000). It took about 2 hours to reach Muara Angke from Pamulang.

in front of my house at 5 am

It was my first time stepping my feet in Muara Angke. The entering traffic was a little bit jammed, maybe because it was raining and the street was pretty rough. But when i got out from the car, i saw many boats parking near the bridge we were crossing. We needed to walk for about 10 minutes to the harbor. We walked through the traditional market where there were sold so many fishes (well yea it was on the sea side so no wonder they sold fish) and honestly the road was not so good. it was broken everywhere and wet. so if you would like to take this wise suggestion of mine, DON'T wear high heels. you better wear rubber shoes or even better, boots. you would not want your good shoes to be splashed by dirt, would you?

in the public car to Lebak Bulus

Then we arrived at the harbor at about 7 am. It was soooo crowded of people. Seemed like they chose islands for their holidays too. Well then, we met the man that was from the travel/holiday agent that we paid, and that man showed us the boat. I felt so excited because honestly this was my first time going outside Java Island by boat.... Okay okay. It was a pity that we came late, so the boat was already full and we couldn't sit on the top of the boat, so we sit inside. But some of my friends were cheating! When we were crossing the sea, they climbed upstairs and sat happily on the top of the boat. If you would like to take this free advice of mine, if you are going to ride this boat, COME EARLY so you can sit on the top. On the top, crowd was not a problem because you could still feel the wind. Below? I was sea-drunk, frankly saying. Looking for fresh air, i looked outside the boat from the window but suddenly i was splashed by the wave. Half of my clothes was wet, my friends laughed at me, and everybody stared at me.....

in the boat on the below. see? it's crowded

i was sitting next to the girl in blue shirt for a while

heading to Pari Island with this boat cost Rp 30.000

After 2 hours waiting in the boat, with low batteries and dead phones, finally we arrived at Pari Island! i felt like i wanted to jump directly to the clear sea water. Yea, clear sea water and white sands....
We arrived at Pari Island at about 9.30 am. That time, our lovely cottage was not ready yet, so we stayed temporarily in the villager's house. And it was the house of the agent's wife.

The house where we stayed temporarily

we were so tired, but when we arrived at Pari Island, it felt like our energies were back. We were then sitting, talking, walking around, taking pictures, until it was the time to have lunch. There, at Pari Island, our meals were all prepared. It was already included in the traveling package that we paid to the travel agent. We had lunch in the home stay, and as you see in the picture above, there was a bamboo seat in front of the house and also a small stall next to it. It was the place where i and my other 18 friends mostly sitting, relaxing, and spending time.

fisherman parking boats in Pari Island

It was at 1 pm and it was the time for us to go snorkeling! woohoo! actually we didn't plan to go snorkeling at the first time, but some of us just thought that it would be so unfortunate if we didn't go for it. We were here! So let's just enjoy this holiday to the fullest! So then we called the agent for him to prepare us the snorkeling equipments. We were given time of 4 hours to do snorkeling. From 12 to 4 pm. Wow yea that was long... but we just went snorkeling at 1 pm and finished at 3 pm because we were tired already haha

here comes the snorkeling troop!

It was my first snorkeling experience and i was so amazed.... At first i was afraid, honestly. Afraid of jumping to the water. Then i braved myself and i just jump to the sea! We wore life jacket of course, so we were not drowning. When i was in the water, some of my friends had been plunging their head to the sea and swimming around the boat. I was still just floating like a baby who swims for the first time with a floater. Still afraid, though. But when i looked into the sea....... I praised God. "This is what i've always been seeing from television and internet, now i see it with my bare eyes!" i said that time. Beautiful corals, in the various sea depths, reflecting different kinds of colors. Some of them shaped like brain, some shaped like very beautiful roses, and some shaped just like the ones we usually see in tv. And the fish? At the first time the agent said we should've brought some breads for luring the fish, but none of us brought it. A little bit disappointed, because i thought that there wouldn't be like people who i've seen in television that swimming in the sea with fish kissing him all over. Wait. What i saw was beautiful fishes swimming below me, touching my feet, and almost grabbed by me when i reached my hand to them. No bread is fine. No nemo fish of course if you are wondering by now. But some fishes that i've seen in television did exist, from the most beautiful ones until the most ugly ones with a really ugly face but had a tail almost like a wedding dress tail. Amazing. Advice: if you're going snorkeling, just try to bring some breads. Who knows you could get more memorable experience with that breads. Hopefully the fish will kiss you :p

thumbs up for the adorable snorkeling!

The agents took us about 1 km away from the beach by boat to the place where beautiful corals and fishes exist. We went to two spots. The second one was nearer to the beach and more shallow. In the second snorkeling spot, i saw many sea urchin. How big do you know sea urchin is? As big as a palm of your hand? Here, i saw sea urchins as big as car's tire even bigger! When i plunged my head in the water and swim around the boat, following the various corals, i saw many of sea urchins hiding around corals. Luckily they were just stay still there, because their stings are poisonous.
Here, in the second spot, the corals are not as colorful as the first one. But here is more shallow so it was clearer to see sea creatures. There were still many fishes, even though the size was smaller here. And you can feel the scary-tingling sensation when you look down into the sharp edged corals under your body spreading on the sea land that takes you deeper and deeper..... Amazing.

laying on the boat

at the first snorkeling spot

Done with the snorkeling, we went back to the beach and had showered. We took shower in the public bathroom. In Pari Island, you would see many public toilets and bathrooms. Actually our home stay had a toilet of course, but my friends preferred to take shower in the public toilet/bathrooms. And because our lovely cottage didn't have any bathrooms,.... ah i haven't told you about our "lovely cottage" right? so if you're wondering..... i present you our lovely cottage....................................

ta-da! yep, that single green tent!

19 of us, i repeat, NINETEEN of us stayed in that one single green army tent! its size was about 4x5 meters. and all of us slept in that tent hehehehe
Okay so because of our tent didn't have any toilets/bathrooms, so we took shower in the public toilets. In the public toilets, you need to pay for some amount of money depends on what you do in the toilet. Say if you take a bath/shower, you have to pay for Rp 5.000. If you just pee, it's Rp 1.000 and Rp 2.000 for poo-poo. Even if you just wash your hand or feet, you're still charged for Rp 1.000. Want a free one? Go to the mosque's toilet. There, free of charge. And it was cleaner and the water was fresh too. Oh let me tell you about the water. Some toilets/bathrooms still used brackish water. You know, mixed water between freshwater and salt/sea water. Some already had freshwater. My experience, i brushed my teeth with mineral water because once i tasted the brackish water it felt strange so i decided to not to brush my teeth with brackish water hehe

We took shower, and we moved our luggage from our home stay to the tent. Why we didn't just stay in the house? Because it was already booked by other people, so we got the package that included sleeping in the tent, not in the house.
It was still at about 5 pm, and we were sitting and talking in the bamboo shacks behind our tent. We enjoyed that evening with fun conversation and happily spent the evening with taking pictures and watching sunset. FYI, our tent was stood in a land that juts to the seafront, and it was called "Sun Hill". At first i was wondering why was it called like that. But on that evening, i found out why it was called Sun Hill, because we can see sunsets and sun rise clearly, both from that hill. So beautiful.

walking on the evening on the Sun Hill :D

i know! it's beautiful!

:D

sunsets viewed from Sun Hill. Well it was a little bit cloudy

Aaaaand night came. We had our dinner and we fun talked. Some of my friends told us that they went to the Virgin Sand Beach after we had snorkel this afternoon. They said the beach was nice, and the sand truly seemed like "virgin". So that we decided to go to that beach just after we had dinner.
From our tent, to go to Virgin Sand Beach was just needed to walk about 15 minutes. It was not so far, the distance was only about 1 km. We walked through the village, crossing the island. When we arrived there, there was not so much crowd, only about 50 people came to the beach that night. The beach itself was not too big, but it was long. Just right in the middle of the beach curve, there was a small island. We chose our seat facing that small island. As my friend said about the beach, it was so nice and comfy. The sand was really soft, pillowy, clean, cool, and sooo comfortable.
We played with the sand, pouring it over my friend's feet, until he was half buried. When he got up, the sand dune still there, and we laid our heads on it. Our sights facing to the moon. Yea, that night, the universe seemed bright. The moon was big and clearly hanging low above the sea line, shining us with its golden light. So romantic. There were no stars. Just the moon, stealing our attention with its light reflected on the sea surface. Ah, you should've been there that night! For a short moment, we didn't talk. We were just laying down together, side by side on the cool and comfortable sands, drowning in our own imaginations, as the silence went by singing its lullaby..............

There was a unique nature fact here that i found in Pari Island. As i know, normally sea tides in the evening to morning, and recedes in the afternoon to the evening. Here in Pari Island, sea tide has its own schedule. At the night like this, the sea water receded. That's why we could just laying down on the beach near to the sea water, without being aware of the tides. Then we walked from the beach approaching to the middle of the sea. There was no lights at all, but we could still saw each other and the water, because we were shined by the moon light. Can you imagine walking on the beach under the moon light? Wow. So we just walked in the middle, stepping on the sands that ups and downs. Drowning? no way. Quite surprising, the sea landscape here was flat. Not literally "flat", the sand also has its ups and downs, but the water depth was flat to the middle, about 300 meters from the beach to the sea. The depth? It varied. The deepest was only at my thighs, and the shallowest was only at my ankles! That's why we could walk to the middle of the sea, looking for fishes and crabs. There was no fishes, unfortunately, and the landscape mostly were only sands and sea weed. No corals, but i found something that was green and pillowy, looked like a cow's poo, but when i touched it with my feet, it felt more like a sponge. I still wonder what it was.

The clock showed at 11 pm that time. Feeling sleepy and tired (because we went from 5 am today, and hadn't been stopped moving since then, remember?) and i asked my friends to go back to our tent to sleep. Some of my friends threw a serious joke that he said he wanted to sleep over there on the beach (until now i don't know if he really has slept there or was it a real joke). Then we went back by walking to the tent, and sleep.


The next day, we woke up, had our breakfast, brushed our teeth on the beach with the mineral water, and we planned to go to another side of this island, to Kresek beach. Only 11 of us who went to Kresek beach. At about 9 am, we departed. By walking of course.
As we walked, i paid attention to surroundings. To the houses, the tourists/visitors, the road, everything. We walked on the main road. What i mean by main road is the walk path formed with conblock. The street was only 2 meters wide, lied between villagers' houses. The houses mainly have no gates or fences. Even so, the fences were bamboos. The houses were only one floor, not the kind of terraced house. Some walls were already built with bricks and cement, but some still with wicker wall. The house where we stayed at the first day also still built with wicker wall.

the main road

Main belief here was Islam. So there were some mosques i found and i almost didn't see any churches or temples here. Then talking about the culture, i thought villagers here were used to accept tourists or visitors in their houses. Seemed like there was no privacy here. Tourists could just stay and sleep in the room, on the villagers beds, watching their televisions, using their toilets, and sitting in front of the houses just like it was their own houses. Seemed like the villagers just had a high level of trust to everybody here. They (the villagers) were also very friendly and smiling. Helpful, and didn't seem like wanting to interfere any of tourists' affairs. Ah what a peaceful place.

So, we were on the way to Kresek beach. In Indonesian, kresek means a plastic bag. So it's supposed to be just a name of "Plastic Bag Beach", or there were so many plastic bag on the beach. We didn't know yet.
We just walked following where the street took us, until we saw an open beach and decided to walk through the beach instead, rather than on the main street.

this was when we decided to walk through the beach instead

 When we walked through this beach, well yea unfortunately, there were many plastic bag wastes everywhere along the beach. But the good thing was, okay then Kresek beach, we almost there. The sand was not as soft as the sand in the Virgin Sand beach. The sand here was more rough and big sized, but still white. Not only plastic bag. Confusingly, there were also some diapers wastes, and bags. i didn't know where did these things come from. Well, but the trip continued, until we realized the sands that we stepped on was getting softer and cleaner.

We arrived at a nice beach, where the water was almost transparent, blueish, not so many people around, soft sands, trees on the beach, and some swings made from nets. I think this is Kresek beach we were looking for.

say heeeeyyyy!

the photo result :p

  

with @djorock and @cokcokcok

When we were here, clock showed at 10 am. What? That was only an hour? It felt like 2 hours or longer. Well yea people, welcome to the place where time moves so slow here. And time warping did exist here. The more often or frequent you check your watch, the slower it feels. i thought there was only me who asked about the time frequently. My friends preferred not to care about the time. Let it went, let it spent. We only took care what was in front of us: holiday. You know what, there was NO BURDEN here. PEACEFUL. Maybe that's also the reason why the time feels so slow here. And none of us felt like we have to be worried about spending or making a productive time.

it said that you may not take/bring home living sea creatures

i swear i didn't bring it home!

Then we kept walking, to the very left side of Pari Island, and we arrived at a place with buildings and a gateway written Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia (LIPI) - Indonesian knowledge foundation, handling oceanography research.

LIPI gateway

Maybe if you read what's on the gateway, you're not that interested to see what's inside. But GO INSIDE. from the gateway, we were led by a straight cement/concrete walk path above the sea water. Right after the gateway, there were mangroves on our left and right side. Then the mangroves just didn't seen again as we continued our walk and......... praise God....
I was standing in the middle of the sea. My left and right, all were blue. Felt like i just wanted to jump to the water and swim. It looked so fresh. I could see other islands spread around us. The wind blew, felt cool, even though the sun directly shined above our head because it was about at 11 am, but it didn't feel so hot, but bright. Beautiful.

everybody look to the left!

everybody look to the right!

there!

There still path ways left in front of us, but some people just gave up and turned around. But i and my other 10 friends, had so much spirit to walk here, so we walked it off until we reach the very edge of this path, until there was no path left.

:D

And so there were we.... at the very left side of Pari Island......
we were sitting there for about an hour, facing to the sea, spoiling our eyes with God's precious creation, almost hypnotized to jump to the sea. We haven't eaten lunch, and we were blown by wind but none of us thought about sick... hahaha

we walked from that path edge with trees to here

clear water :D

at the very left of Pari Island! yeaaay!

At about 12 pm, we went back to our tent to have lunch and rest. On our way to the tent, the temperature suddenly felt so hot. Or maybe because when we were on the LIPI, the wind always blew so it didn't feel so hot. But we walked back with sun right above our head, and burned our skin immediately. My advice, if you don't want to burn your skin, bring sunblock wherever you go. Apply the sunblock on your skin just as soon as you need it. Because it won't feel like you're burning, but in the end, it results sun burn. Trust me.

we went inside the water beside the path

windy :D

So that we were back to our tent to eat lunch, rest, take a nap, and meet our other 8 friends. They went to Virgin Sand Beach, and swim and play with the sand. I told them that we went to LIPI, and they really should've joined us, because we were going to Virgin Sand beach again tonight.

I was half asleep that afternoon, until my friend woke me up and asked me to ride a banana boat. Well yes, in Pari Island, you would find 2 kinds of water sport entertainments. Banana boat and jumping donut. well i didn't know what was that jumping donut actually called, but it shaped like a big square rubber boat with 5 holes on it for people to sit. It was pulled by a speed boat just like a banana boat, and it was jumping as the speed boat pulling it. They looked fun to ride.

I experienced Banana boat before, so i was not that interested to ride it again. I wanted to ride that jumping rubber boat but i saw that a lot of people queued for it, so then i and my friends just canceled to ride it, and decided to go to Virgin Sand beach instead, to swim. Yes, this time we will go into the water again!

I haven't told you about bicycle rent here. Almost every 3 or 4 houses you pass, they must have bicycles to rent. Another entertainment you could find in Pari Island, right? The rent cost is Rp 15.000 per bicycle per day. Yes, per day. And it is up to you to ride your bicycle wherever you want. Pari Island was not very big, though. 3 hours must be enough to go all around this island, walking.

My girl friends really wanted to rent the bike, but unfortunately it's all rented out :( Yes, this time we went to Pari Island when the number of arrivals was high, probably because of new year holiday. One villager said that this time could be the highest number of arrival in its annual cycle. Yes maybe because people outside this island wanted to spend holiday in this island. No wonder, it is indeed a peaceful and wonderful place for your holiday. So we didn't get the bike.

it was available in many colors actually

When we arrived at Virgin Sand beach that noon, a lot of people already there. People were sitting on the beach, playing volley ball (yes you can play volley ball here, there were 3 or 4 volley ball courts here), swimming, sitting in the bamboo shacks, drinking coconut water, and riding a boat. I was so excited to play there. We took off our sandals and shoes, and some of my friends already ran over to the beach and some played volley ball. Me? I and my 3 friends rode a boat. It was called "sampan" in Indonesian. We rent it for Rp 30.000, and the man will take us around the beach and mangroves with that sampan. It was a really fun experience. That time, the sea water was on its time to recede, so actually we were riding a sampan above 1 meter deep water. Our sampan once stucked on the mangrove tree, and my friend just jumped to the water and pushed the sampan. Haha it was so funny.

on the sampan. taken from instax polaroid

Done with the sampan, now we walked from the beach to the middle of the sea, just like yesterday night, only this time we walked to the left side of the small island. Last night we walked to the right side. Nothing much different, just wanted to explore different area :D
Because of the recede, the water was only at our feet. The landscape was flat like i've said before, with the sands ups and downs. Many people also walked and swam to the middle. This time, because it was still bright, the sun was still there, so we could see clearly the sea colors and the mangroves spread around this beach. I was so thanked that we didn't go too far yesterday night, because here i saw clearly the sea water colors were different. Just like light blue-green on this side and dark blue right next to it. You would know that the sea water color tells about its depth. Light color means shallow, dark color means deep. So yeah, the landscape was not really that flat. It was flat only for about 300-400 meters away from the beach. Then it was directly deep. Like real deep. I could imagine if last night we just walked to the middle, we could've just suddenly drowning because it was dark and we couldn't judge the sea color.

shallow water!

close to the middle of the sea

We were playing with the water until it was suddenly raining and people were running back to the beach. The sky suddenly was cloudy and got a little bit dark. We then went back to the beach as well. At the beach, we stood in the bamboo shacks as our shelters, some of my friends had indomie, and some just sitting waiting for the rain to stop. I then asked my girl friends to go back to our tent and take shower. When we went back to our tent, the rain has stopped. We took our clean clothes and bath apparels, and went to the public toilet. We chose one public toilet that was clean and had freshwater, but seemed like everybody else just liked that toilet too, so we queued. Until the toilet guide (the man that received payment for the toilet usage) suggested us to use his house's toilet. I was ordering a hot tea at the stall in front of the toilet. And i found out that the stall belonged to the man's house too. So there were me, sonia, fiqa and mela, we took shower together in the man's toilet. Haha. After we took shower, we still paid to the man for Rp 20.000 (Rp 5.000x4).

oh yeah somewhere was already raining behind us. look at the clouds

It was then our dinner time! We ate our dinner and we sat in front of the house, just wasting the time left while waiting for the new year's eve. Yes! it was December 31 and it was only 4 or 5 hours left to celebrate new year. But suddenly, the rain came. Heavily. The rain came along with thunders and cold weather attacked us. We sat very closely until we touched each other in order to warmed up ourselves. We talked, laughed, watched videos, and played logo quiz. Felt long enough and like we had spent all night that time, but the clock still showed at 9 o'clock. Oh i almost forgot that here in Pari Island, the time ran veeeeeerrrrryyyyy sloooooooowwwwwwww.........

I almost sleepy, and the snacks in the stall almost spent out by us. Until it showed at 10 o'clock, everybody had passed and walked around bringing fireworks to celebrate new year. Just when the rain stopped, we then headed to the beach. YES, Virgin Sand Beach. haha we were just from there right, and we went back there again this time, for the last time here, to celebrate new year.

When we arrived there, it was way more crowded than before. Like more than 100 people gathered in this beach to celebrate new year. Luckily, we got our previous spot to sit, just across the small island. We sat there, small talked, a little bit bugged by the loud music that made me wanna dance. Oh yeah there was a clubbing, but it was not open for public. You have to pay for Rp 125.000 to get in to the club. Not like a city club, just a corner closed and arranged to be a dancing floor. But the music was quite loud so we could've just danced on the beach. But nobody wanted to accompany me dancing so i wouldn't dance alone........

We laid down on the beach again, but this time the moon was hiding, maybe the clouds still hanging there covered the moon and the stars. People were preparing their fireworks when i saw it was approaching midnight. When one group of people initiated to light up the firework, we stood up, moved back, and watched the fireworks. Then other people followed to stab their fireworks on the sands near to the water, light them up, and the fireworks rocketed up high and exploded, colored the dark cloudy sky with its beautiful colorful lights.

About 200 meters long people stood, making lines along the beach. Some people stood on the small island with their own fireworks. I didn't remember there was any people who counted down to midnight, but the ambiance was so fun, crowded, and glamorous. Maybe they forgot to count down, they let the fireworks explosions counting it down for them.

Then more people stood up and firing up their fireworks. It was soooo beautiful. We were gifted a free firework show for about 15 minutes. Millions of rupiahs was burned that night. Resulting colorful fireworks, various sizes and shapes, loud launch and explosion sounds, applauses, laughs, scream and shouts, as people blew their wishes and resolutions to the sky with the fireworks. I won't remember that beautiful and memorable night. Happy new year.

After all fireworks were burned, I and my other 18 friends were stood up in a big circle, our hands hugging each other, and we started to say our wishes and resolutions for 2013. We wished for success, happiness, wealthy, joy, health, romance, and friendship. A moment that almost brought me to tears. Just as we finished our circle, some people flew some lampions to the sky. Maybe it was their symbol for their wishes. Our symbol too, to just let go our bad memories in the past years, and start this year with a fresh new leaf of life. We then back to the house to have a barbeque and sleep.

the firework

happy new year 2013 :)

At about 1 am, we went back to the house to have BBQ. We didn't join the burning, just the BBQ food only. Because it was roasted at the same time when we was celebrating new year at Virgin Sand beach. The BBQ food was fish and calamari squid, and it tasted good even though it was not so hot anymore.
After having BBQ, we talked, pulled jokes, laughed, until it was at 2 am and i was very sleepy and spoiling to go to bed. Then I went back to the tent with some of my friends who were already sleepy too, and we slept away our last night in Pulau Pari. Hoping that tomorrow our body would be fit to face our way back home.


That morning, unfortunately i didn't see sunrise. I preferred to continue my sleep inside my warm jacket and my socks. But that morning the sky was bright and the sun rises so beautifully.
We took the boat at 9 am this morning. So had our breakfast, took shower, packing, and bought some snacks. The clock showed at 9 am, and we ran to the boat, wanting to get seat on the above of the boat. Some of my friends were already there and they booked the place on the top for all of us. Bravo, i finally could sit on the top.

captured from instax polaroid

just before we went home

The boat departed late, because some people were not coming yet. So that the boat departed at 10 am. The sensation of sitting on the top of the boat was kinda tickling. It was so different than sitting inside the boat like our way here. On top, you could always feel the wind blows. Some of my friends directly just laid down and slept, and when i checked out the space for me to sleep, yes it fit. Even though on the top there were many people too, but it was not as crowded as on the inside the boat. So then i laid down and slept, as the boat kept swinging and wind blew me lullaby..

Lutfi fell asleep on the boat

 When we arrived at Muara Angke, it was at 12 pm. It was raining and we directly went home by the same public transport we took on our way here. In Muara Angke, you didn't have to be afraid of getting public vehicle, because when you walked outside from Muara Angke, public vehicles were everywhere and there was also one man that we called as "kenek" who told you which car was heading to where. If you are not sure which car to ride, you can ask him.
So that we went back to Grogol, took busway and went home to Pamulang. At Pamulang, we still had dinner together and actually we were so tired but we still had that euphoria so we decided to do karaoke :D

they were tired and fell asleep in the bus

we were perfectly tanned and burned!

BUDGETING

Travel Package (3 days and 2 nights)                                                Rp 260.000

    including

       - meals 3 times a day (rice, vegetables, fish, calamari, shrimp, mineral water)

       - BBQ (on the new year's eve)

       - tent

       - boat (commute)

       - snorkeling (Rp 30.000)

Public Vehicle

    Pamulang - Lebak Bulus (commute)                       Rp   8.000

    Busway Lebak Bulus - Grogol (commute)               Rp   5.000

    Grogol - Muara Angke (commute)                          Rp 10.000

                                                                                                        Rp   23.000     +

                                                                                                        Rp 283.000

*if you want to rent bicycle so just add Rp 15.000

That's it. So you can have a 3 days and 2 nights holiday at Pari Island with 300K rupiahs only!

My last advice, if you want to have a saving trip, bring your own mineral water. Because at Pari Island, you have to buy mineral water for Rp 4.000 (330 ml). This is kinda expensive.

I recommend you who love beach, water, nature, and want to get away from your routine look for a calm and peaceful place, to go to Pari Island for your holiday. And you better get a travel agent (available on google) and get the most suitable facilities and prices for you.

Thank you for reading my post! Let's keep and conserve our beach with not littering and promoting it to other people :) ♥ Indonesia :)

Pari Island, Indonesia - satelite view