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.
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| in front of my house at 5 am |
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| in the public car to Lebak Bulus |
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| in the boat on the below. see? it's crowded |
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| 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.
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| 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
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| here comes the snorkeling troop! |
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| 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.
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| laying on the boat |
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| 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! |
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.
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| walking on the evening on the Sun Hill :D |
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| i know! it's beautiful! |
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| :D |
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| 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.
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| this was when we decided to walk through the beach instead |
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.
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| say heeeeyyyy! |
| the photo result :p |
| with @djorock and @cokcokcok |
| it said that you may not take/bring home living sea creatures |
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| 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! |
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| 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.
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| :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 |
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| clear water :D |
| at the very left of Pari Island! yeaaay! |
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| we went inside the water beside the path |
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| windy :D |
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.
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| 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.
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.
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| 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.
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| shallow water! |
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| 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).
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| oh yeah somewhere was already raining behind us. look at the clouds |
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.
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| the firework |
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| 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.
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| 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 |
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 :)
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| Pari Island, Indonesia - satelite view |






























Niceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
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