Belitung (or in English, Billiton) is an island on the east coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. It covers 4,800.6 km2, and had a population of 271,868 in 2014. The island is known for its pepper, tin, and white sand. In case you're looking for a short-getaway that has query such as beach, quiet, and affordable you need to pay a visit here! It's not under-developed, only crowded at seasonal peak, yet has breathtaking coastline. It's enough if you only had four days off.
Before the trip, I have searched the accommodation online. I have limited budget but don't like creepy stay. I was interested in MaxOne Bellstar Hotel. Their room is modern minimalist with affordable price. I booked through Traveloka via Flight + Hotel, where I could get discount if booked them altogether. I don't know precisely how much discount that I get but it's quite convenient with single payment only.
I arrived there and enter their lobby, it's above my expectation. I thought it would be like Amaris Hotel Solo, but it's not, it's huge ceiling. The receptionist is also provided by iMac, quite impressive huh. I love their hospitality! The room is standard, but I got the blurred mirror connecting the bedroom with bathroom...jeez. It's quite unique, but not my cup of tea. It's enough to cover the window by curtains, but how do I cover it...never mind just sleep the other way round.
About cleanliness, I would rate 5 out of 5! I always label myself as initial stage of OCD which tends to clean every edge whenever I want to place something. I prepared wet tissue on the bag, and start to wipe the table off. You know, it's all clean. Mean it.
Southern Belitung.
There is a private resort located at southern part of Belitung Island, around 43.5 miles away from Tanjung Pandang named Arumdalu. Actually, I have not heard any of our plan to the resort at the itinerary brief meeting so I was not prepare any extra cloth. Even though it's very far away from the city but it's actually took shorter time to reach the resort, around an hour and half. Definitely because of its empty road and rarely monitor lizards crossed the road carelessly.
When we reached the area, from the gate I got that feeling that this place would be awesome. I still got no idea that this place is a private resort. I thought this some kind of restaurant on the coastline. Someone from our group asked the receptionist, and he told us that we will have minimum spend around 250,000 IDR each person. This price is for the food, and we could explore the area freely. They allowed one of us to take a look first to help the decision. I'm all good, I had the feeling that this would be awesome. And here we go, all of us agreed upon this.
Whoa, it's very unique. They built the plain wood bridge to reach the restaurant. I was okay until I was paying attention to the detail as I recorded the ambiance, it's pretty high to the ground guys.
I was fascinated by the breathtaking view! The sand is white, clean, and soft. Fyi, they sweep away all the trash and the dried leaves every day. I think it's daily routine for every resort with private beach.
Inside, you could see several white semi-craft-building for romantic dinner purpose, windmill building, iconic triangle semi-craft-building up on the huge stone, and several private villas for rent.
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| From left: Andrew, Wenly, Gono, Me, Winston, Gunawan, Yulius, and Zaky |
There are 8 of us, and we spend around 2 million IDR for lunch only. Overall, my friend told me that their food is good. I was tasted it but maybe it already turn cold lol. I was fasting there. Oh, and they don't have praying room but they will provide one if you need it.
It's worth it to pay a visit, and surely will come back some other time.
Northern Belitung.
Island hopping is a must! They have several tiny islands on the northern part. You could rent a boat, snorkelling equipment, and life vest. During island hopping, there is an island for lunch -- some kind of resort, but you could bring your own food and do picnic at Tanjung Kelayang beach like my group did! Ah, don't forget to bring a large plastic where you could keep your trash and bring it back to the main island.
First stop is Batu Garuda, Belitung is well-known for its huge stone as well. There are so many stones here, I have mistaken it once. I thought it was a hill, but it turns out a huge stone during the trip to Arumdalu. Wow. And here it is a stone that somewhat similar to garuda.
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| From left: Winston, Yulius, and Batu Garuda |
Next stop is Pasir Timbul. This small island only contains white sands, and only came up when the water recedes. What a pity we could not bring drone.
After that is lighthouse, I've never ever been to a lighthouse. I just watch a movie about lighthouse named Yours, Mine, and Ours. But it is different, this lighthouse built in a middle of island which could not be accessed directly with cars.
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| Zaky is being left for his private-business haha. |
Next is snorkelling!!! I never do snorkel before, so I hear their suggest carefully like don't forget to breathe using mouth with more pressure. It was hard at first like how should I dip myself to the water, but thanks to Gono who ready to pick me at the water lol! Then when I was too tired to swim, I just want to be back on the boat, but then I found it hard to climb up. But fortunately I was capable to climb up on my own on the second chance. Haha, so proud of myself.
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| I'm not take the snorkel equipment off, I'm not ready being one with water yet. |
Alert: for you who don't like to snorkel and thinking to stay up on the boat is wrong choice. You would get motion sickness.
Lastly, we visit Tanjung Kelayang Beach. Here we have our lunch together. There is a cave in this island, so we decided to take a look. It's worst scenario for me, lol. It's difficult to walk, as the guide lead the way on the front and I was left behind with Gunawan. So embarrassing. But finally I reached the end of the cave. Because I found no interesting activity back there, I decided to go back to the beach as I knew already that I would took longer time than the others, lol.
It's a wrap, then we went back to the initial point having light shower there and move on to Tanjung Tinggi Beach. It contains another huge stones again, but what a pity the sand is not as smooth as the others. Because of it's calm wave, it's perfect for family to swim with children.
Tips: Pay a visit to northern part then southern part to increase your excitement.
Eastern Belitung.
We are told that the eastern part is not developed as much as west did, so we might not be able to have lunch there. Before going to east, we decided to visit Kaolin Lake first. The white part is named Kaolin. Kaolin is one of the ingredients that commonly use in cosmetics.
Then we moved to Rumah Keong, located in front of Laskar Pelangi replica. I thought we would visit Laskar Pelangi school replica, but no. I could only see it from car, as we are heading to Dewi Kwan Im Temple. It was raining outside so we are competing with rain.
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| In frame: Gono |
Dewi Kwan Im temple is just like any other temple, but it is located far away from the city and has a huge statue of Dewi Kwan Im. When I arrived, I feel so relax as the wind is very calming and thinking about Karate Kid movie. I'm so delusional.
For the closing, we went to Open-pit. It was once a tin mining, but abandoned now. We tried to follow Google Map, but then natural obstacle came out so we need to find alternative route. Fyi, it's not an official tourist activities, but you could pay a visit. You need to walk around 15 mins to reach the mining. As expected, there are no other visitor beside us.
Overall, that is my itinerary. To summarize, you better don't choose travel package but rent a car with driver instead. Some of you might be not that fluent riding the car in medium size road with truck. Yes, there are a lot of truck with high speed.
See you again, Billiton.
PS. Don't forget to watch my documentation here.
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