Ignorant Indonesian in Belitung

Belitung, a part of Indonesian province Bangka-Belitung.
My first ever visit to Sumatra island.

Had no expectations prior leaving Jakarta to Belitung. All i've heard was how beautiful scenery the island will present, unknowingly how much beauty it will gave me.

A friend asked of me to join the trip only five days before departure. By then, we have yet to book tickets, arrange tours and accomodation. All was done very quick. Luckily, she knew a tour provider that will arrange tours, transport and accomodation while we're in Belitung. They're called Belitungisland.com. All we have to do was just enjoy ourselves in Belitung, everything is taken care of.

Sweet.

9 AM, Thursday Jan 21st, the four of us took Sriwijaya flight from Soekarno-Hatta to H.AS. Hanandjoeddin airport in Belitung. Of all the airports I took flights to in Java island and Bali, this by far is the smallest I've seen. They only have 1 belt for our luggage claim.

Outside the terminal, our tour guide, whom later we called bang manca, was holding a huge sign of my friend's name. The sign was so huge, it stands out in crowds of pick-up drivers and rental cars' drivers(?)

We're on private tour, so just the four of us and bang manca throughout the 4 days tour.

According to him, in Belitung, there is no taxi. From that I gathered, those people standing outside the airport terminal was renting their cars to visitors (them as drivers too, i reckon).

Drove pass the airport to our hotel, the view of Belitung looked too bland for me. Houses are faraway from each other, and most of them surrounded by woods. Yes, Belitung is full of em, deep and wide forests. The route from airport to our Pondok Impian Hotel was crossing the main city, Tanjung Pandan. It's a small island, so is the main city. Crowds weren't much hectic as compared to small village in Java island.

Our Hotel was good, liveable and clean.
It gets good view of sunset when the weather permits, given the backyard of it was the ocean. Pretty great deal for our holiday price.

All four days of our trip were packed with Beach sightseeings.
Belitung Timur has, by far, the greenest most gorgeous beaches I've ever seen.
And what makes them special is the rocks lie across the beach. Another unique finding told by locals was decreasing sea level in Belitung beaches happened on the afternoons and not in mornings as usual beaches we have in Java (and others?). The ocean has low tides and given the location of the island, it would be impossible for Belitung to be struck by Tsunamis. It really is a hidden Indonesian gem.

Us four girls weren't the typical girly-girls, so walk up the rocks we went!
Tried as many rocks we could climb -- with help from our local guide of course. The view from the top was astounding! Mind you, top of rocks for us weren't really the highest top for the locals. If our highest we could reached is already this gorgeous, you could imagine how near the horizon and edge of sea looked from that highest top.

I'm awestruck when I first stepped my feet onto the white sands in Tanjung Tinggi, couldn't take my eyes away from the wide sea lies in front of me. Taking it all in and hoped memory could save it well in mind.

We took a stroll across the beach in Belitung Timur.
Sneaking in through small pathways between rocks, climbed up the rocks to get to the next path. I'm a big girl and climbing these rocks can be difficult to do at times, but not doing them would be a massive loss for tourists. That's where the fun exist when you're in Belitung!
Walking through inside these scattered rocks, could get tricky at most times. There's this one pathway where we had to slide within small gap between two big rocks. My fear was, I got stuck while sliding. We wouldnt want to get headline on the news 'Jakartan tourist stuck between rocks in Belitung' do we?

Fortunately, I slided with success. Of course, we took a different route when we went back. I won't let the rocks took that chance of me twice. :grin:

Our guide also told us that Belitung is also famous for its' thousand lakes and coffee shops (warung kopi). For the latter, we could be proud of it, for its uniqueness.
However, it's ironic if to say Belitung's thousand lakes are beauty attractions of the island. Why?
Simply because those lakes exist due to abandoned tin mines caused by the Dutch and the Japanese. If they were to continue forcing nature to fulfil human's greed, I was too scared to imagine that Belitung island would no longer be up the surface for next generations to see.

It would be devastating to even imagine.


Belitung is also surrounded by small islands. We took fisherman's wooden boat to visit these islands. One of which is called Lengkuas island (pic above). To our surprise, the island is an asset to DKI Jakarta province. Politic plays major role in this. I wouldn't look into much in this.

Oh! Belitung has this stranded island covered by white sands. Just abandoned white sands, mounted up as tiny ground. It's called Pulau Pasir (Sand Island). Pretty self-explanatory, right? We sipped our coconut drink on the island.
It's sooo Cast Away, lacking Tom Hanks. It also becomes the home for the biggest starfishes I've ever seen. They're beyond beautiful too see.

Then comes our time to bid farewell to one of Indonesian gorgeous islands.
A trip I would never forget, and got me to appreciate Indonesia tops more.

Belitung,
perhaps one of thousands of islands in Indonesia that is often ignored by its' own nation. It shys away from the bright lights of metroplitan that Indonesians prefer to worship upon. It doesnt snob its beauty to the nation, let alone to the world. I could say, Belitung then becomes one of Indonesia hidden beauties. The weapon to gain power to the world but being kept away from spotlight. Belitung is our Cinderella island.

It's Belitung that had me at Hello.
A God's creation is truly beyond words to say.

Andrea Hirata has drew very detail the beauty of the island in his books.. I dare not to put much wordly about the island here. His words have done well to bring his home-island up to the nation's attention.

I'm here, merely, to left a space for future me to reminisce one of my awestruck moments in Indonesia.

Trying to diminish the ignorant Indonesian tattoo on my forehead, one layer at a time.