Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Holiday in Belitong (Belitung) Island Part 1

It's such an awesome holiday i had.
Why? Because since I live in Bangka, I never go to Belitung which is actually an amazing island that is part of this province, Bangka Belitung. Bangka Belitung menjadi New Province in Indonesia (the 31st province of 33 provinces included, inaugurated on 21st of November 2000) i never get in Belitong as one of  the most significant and magnificent place in this province

By the way, I prefer call this magnificent place as "Belitong" than "Belitung", because Andrea Hirata (the author of Tetralogy Book of LASKAR PELANGI or Rainbow Troops) mostly said Belitung as Belitong in his book. The  Laskar Pelangi or Rainbow Troops successfully improved an image of Bangka Belitung Province as "Negeri Laskar Pelangi". The film of Laskar Pelangi has been released on 25th of April 2008 in Indonesia and has been awarded as Best Film in many categories of Movie Awards in domestic or even overseas.

Well,why the name of "Laskar Pelangi" becomes so famous since after?
One of the reason is because of this small island has very magnetizing beach panorama. This is actually not only known in Belitong, but also in Bangka as the main island of this province.
Our eyes will be surprised by such paradise with unique contour of the big stones surrounding the shore. Besides, the water its self is still very clean and is the sand-very soft.



I remember during the visit in Bangka Belitung, Miss Tourism International was mesmerized by the beauty and she said "How did the people lift and arrange those big granite? This is so beautiful!"





How did I get to Belitong? Well, my close friend told me about Belitong several times and it made me very curious. Then I got the chance to go there with some friends by ferry. We just need to pay less than Rp 200,00.00 for the ferry ticket

We departed from Pangkalbalam Harbor, Bangka.Then finally arrived in Tanjung Pandan, Belitong after 4,5 hours journey a long the sea. Then my friend's father picked us up at the harbor to his house. We were so glad because we didn't need to pay expense for the accommodation and also transportation. My friend's family has a car which we can use everywhere we go. Alhamdulillah.

Because we stayed in my friend's house I am so sorry I don't know any information about the accommodation. But we can just check in www.agoda.com/Belitung_Hotels
And for the transportation, we can rent car for a day and cost about Rp 400,000.00 to Rp 600,000.00 . Or Motorbike rent for approximately Rp 50.000,00 per day.

It would be better if we know local friends or relatives who live there. Because they somehow will help you to travel around the island. Directories are not that easy to find compare with some other developed places. So, friends or relatives will be very useful to be asked for help though sometimes you can cut off your budget for accommodation and transportation like what I did hahaha.


The next journey, I will tell in the next post ^_^

No comments:

Post a Comment