It was just a reunion trip at the beginning..the idea started at small restaurant when one of my best friends, Putu, was visiting me in Duri. We miss the crazy moment that we had while we were on internship program in Cirebon. Then, we tried to contact our beloved chief of sisterhood and asked her to have a trip. Since we only have limited time, we put aside the idea of exploring Sumba and changed into a plan to visit the place called the Negeri Laskar Pelangi…it’s Belitong!

Once upon a time, Belitong was part of the province of South Sumatra with the capital city in Palembang. Nowadays, Belitong is the province together with Bangka. If you ever visited Bangka, you definitely can’t miss Belitong!. Likewise Bangka, Belitong also gifted with beautiful nature and this place become famous across Indonesia (or maybe the universe now) because the best-selling novel by Andrea Hirata, the tetra logy of Laskar Pelangi. The 3 days 2 nights trip left a beautiful memory about another God’s masterpiece on this planet.

First day of the trip started on the very early of morning…the flight from Jakarta take off at 6.30 AM *seriously…my eyes not wide opened yet*..We were using the travel agent since there were more than 10 people..it’s extremely fun!..

the agent picked us up with 2 cars and stopped by at small restaurant which sell the famous Mie Belitong, our stomach full with only 9000 rupiahs, yummy! *The bad thing from Belitong is about the food, because they are famous with the delicious seafood and I’m allergic to it..d***n!!

Our first destination was Tanjung Tinggi beach, located about 30km from our hotel. The next beach was Tanjung Kelayang and we welcomed by heavy rain. So, we have to stay longer until the rain was stop. When we go back to hotel, we passed the Tanjung Binga which famous with Durian and yes, it’s Durian everywhere!!!

The next day was a hard day since we have to wake up at 3.30 AM to catch the sunrise *again? Two consecutive days??*. And the cloud hide the sun….it’s okay…at least we didn’t get curious about the Kaolin Lake. The real photographer should include this place…beyond the word to describe!

What we have for breakfast? Soto belitong and coffee..rumor said that was the oldest Kedai Kopi in Belitong.. Another big thing for today is islands hopping which started from Tanjung Kelayang beach to Pulau Lengkuas. This island has a lighthouse which built before Indonesia’s Independence.

Even the view will be so beautiful but I offered myself to be a bag keepers and not to try conquer the steps..no way! From Pulau Lengkuas, we move to Pulau Kecil, Pulau Burung, before go back to Tanjung Kelayang beach. From the boat, we can see everything under water since the water was crystal clear. However, diving or snorkeling are must to do things when visiting Belitong. Another unique thing from Belitong is how rocks settled in the middle of the sea, it’s just like God were playing with those rocks and put them wherever God wants.

The last day in Belitong started with another sunrise mission and since I will have a long journey back to Riau, I skipped that part and stay in bed. My flight was at 1 PM so I still have couple hours to visit museums in the city. The cultural story that I got was about how a girl can have an arrange married at the age of 14! and she was trade off so the parents can have a boat! And the funny thing is about the operating hours at most public places, you never know what is the official operating hours in small shops, gas station, it’s all up to the owner! 🙂

If you are a true traveler, you should put Belitong as one of places must be visited before you die..how can you deny the beauty of Belitong?

– More stories are illustrated in my web album “An Illustrated Journey” –