Pls go to “JBR PART 1/7: NORTH OF KL: IPOH, TAIPING, C.H’s” for a ‘contents sypnosis’ of this 7 part JBR and how I have determined costings (items based on 2A for food, entry, etc or a fixed overall price for taxi’s, accoms, etc). Hotels are reviewed separately under Hotel Reviews on TA.
Thank you to EVERYONE who contributes on the Asian forums; your help and advice is, as always, invaluable.
So… continuing from end of Day 11 in Part 3/7 (Singapore):
DAY 12: MON
Leisurely breakfast at IBIS then taxi to airport. Flew Tiger from Singapore to Jakarta; then quick 2 hour transit to make our domestic Sriwijaya flight to Belitung Island.
Arrived and met by Erick, our tour guide for Tuesday through Friday (from belitungisland.com). Erick drove us to the Billiton Hotel & Klub in the capital, Tanjungpandan; gave us our itinerary for tomorrow’s tour and pointed out things in town (& stopped at supermarket for us on the way in). Nice young bloke.
Billiton Hotel And Klub is excellent value at IDR520,000 per room inc tax/sc/breakfast. We spent the arvo exploring the city by foot with dinner at KFC simply because it was stinking hot (39C in the shade with high humidity) and it had the coldest air con in town (besides our hotel).
Main Costs:
* USD50 2 VOA’s to Indonesia
* IDR80,000 2 Domestic airport tax from Jakarta to Belitung
* IDR40,000 Taxi from Int to Dom airports at Jakarta (fixed price for a large van)
* IDR11,590,000 TOTAL 4A. 4D/3N tour = IDR9,360,000 for 4A. The bal IDR1,762,000 was 2 extra rms x 2 extra nights at Billiton
* IDR2,080,000 + private pickup to/from airport of IDR150,000.
* IDR79,000 KFC for dinner – 2 mains, 2 drinks, 1 extra fries
* IDR50,000 4 cans Beer
* IDR55,000 various groceries (2 water, 2 icecreams, 2 pkts gum, 2 large pkt chips, 1 lemon drink, conditioner for hair, 2 crepes from a side stall)
* IDR6,000 English to Euro power adapter
DAY 13: TUE
Day 1 of 4 Day Photographic Tour with Belitungisland.com tours. Private tour for 4 of us in new, 8 seater van. Erick our guide. Trip centred around the right timings and light for various locations to be photographed (can also do sightseeing tours where the order of tripping is more logical but we are all budding ‘wannabe’ photographers)!
The tour is ‘all inclusive’ meaning it inc transport, guide, accomms, boat trip to outer island, all meals, snacks and water etc. Food is all local and our advance request ‘not very spicy’ had been already noted by each restaurant we ate at for lunch and dinner which was appreciated. Snacks were fruit, cakes and buns; fresh and plentiful. Very, very good value and made it very easy on an island where there is very little tourist infrastructure. Other packages are cheaper depending on what you choose to do AND what accoms you pick (we went for one of the best ones so cost was higher naturally).
GORGEOUS, STUNNING, FABULOUS, PRISTINE and left us GOB SMACKED is my base description for ALL BEACHES & outer ISLANDS up along the NW coast area. I could wax lyrical about Belitung Island’s beaches and outer islands for chapter and verse but this will suffice!
Sand is white, water is turquoise, palms are green, rocks are multi hued & huge. This is beach scenery at its breathtaking best. The beaches generally have a couple of little warungs set back behind them selling drinks, food, etc and a toilet available for use. That’s about it. Heaven…
Now I will just list the destinations we visited & you can apply the above description to each of them unless I state otherwise!
We visited Tanjung Tinggi beach & then Tanjung Tinggi Rainbow Troops rock area; Tanjung Kelayang beach (looking across to Batu Garuda) and finally sunset at Tanjung Binga fishing village.
Main Costs:
* Day already paid for in tour.
* IDR50,000 2 x Large bottles Bintang beer
Day 14: WED
KAOLIN LAKE: Up at 4:45am for sunrise photo hunting here, on outskirts of Tanjungpandan. Luck was in and got awesome shots as sun rose above the mining lakes and changed the water colour. Lakes are result of clay mining – white clay and surreal, sky blue pretty water.
Today was a driving day over to East coast to 2nd main city, MANGGAR. Lovely lunch at Lily’s and coffee’s at a traditional Kopi house. Went to Serdang Beach to see colourful katir fishing boats; then to Burung Mandi beach. Sunset at Tanjungpandan Port then dinner in town.
Interesting day but the inland scenery is not as good as Bali or Lombok, etc. Our next trip to Belitung will be based around the ‘awesomeness’ that is the NW beach and coastal area.
Main costs:
* Day already paid for in tour.
* IDR40,000 2 large bottles Bintang at dinner (for 4 of us)
* IDR78,000 6 cans Bintang for tomorrow’s day trip to the outer islands (this is for 4 people)
* IDR30,000 4kg laundry (for 4 of us) at overnight laundry service in town (came back pressed!)
Day 15: THU
INCREDIBLE DAY. This is our BOATING DAY TRIP day.
1st stop: TANJUNGPANDAN PORT at 5:00am for sunrise pics over fishing boats and fish markets.
2nd stop: KELAYANG BEACH to jump in a small boat (covered for sun protection but open sided).
3rd stop: PASIR (STARFISH) ISLAND which, with the right tide, is a tiny sandbar in the middle of the sea with huge red starfish on it. Also had a snorkel and swim here. Pristine.
4th stop: BATU BERLAYAR, another small sandbar with MASSIVE artistic, vertical granite rocks on it; and lots of barnacles and crabs in the rocky waters. Fantastic for photography. Inspiring stuff.
5th stop: BURUNG ISLAND: HEAVEN IN AN ISLAND - We have found our PERFECT beach on a PERFECT island (think it is called Burung Island). Swaying palms, huge granite boulders to explore, whiter than white, soft sand b/w our toes and Erick had packed our lunch time beer on ice with our picnic lunch. Could have stayed here and slept on the beach overnight easily. Words can’t describe the beauty of this little island. Did not want to leave this island…
6th stop: LENGKUAS (LIGHTHOUSE) ISLAND: putted over to nearby Lighthouse Island. Climbed the lighthouse for AWESOME, MAGICAL views back across a myriad of small islands and outcrops in the sea looking back to Belitung. This is ‘IT’ for photographers. So much to explore.
It is another white, soft sand, palm tree fringed, rocky boulders island.
Then we jumped in the boat for a quick putt around to some rocks (to the left of island as you look at the front of the lighthouse) and SNORKELED in what would have to be described as VIRGIN SNORKELING waters. Crystal clear, no coral bleaching and lots of fish. The coral is some of the MOST COLOURFUL I have ever been fortunate to view; masses of huge table and staghorn corals. The staghorn coral was the brightest lime green. Also saw a turtle. Mostly smaller fish but lots of them and very colourful themselves. Water visibility excellent.
7th stop: KELAYANG BEACH back on the mainland. Back into van and to beat the sunset we zoomed (well you can’t zoom anywhere on these roads but Erick did his best ha ha) up to Bukit Berahu.
8th and final stop for day trip: BUKIT BERAHU; a hotel on a hill with lovely pool and restaurant area - perfect for sunset and dinner.
What A MAGICAL DAY. One of my most fave day trips in all my years of travelling. Laid back, not commercial, no other tourists jostling for position, friendly local people, great guide in Erick, good picnic. We have come away with incredible memories; aided by incredible photo’s of an incredible day.
Main Costs:
* Day already paid for in tour. No other spending for day whatsoever.
Day 16: FRI
Last morning of our tour. Breakfast at Billiton again (good hot & cold choices as usual) then Erick picked us up at 5am to go catch sunrise again at Kaolin Lakes. Sun rose differently this morning so shots are good with a different mood/feel to them.
Erick then took us to a Traditional house to learn more about how the people of Belitung live.
Today was so hot we decided to free Erick and we would use the time to laze by the Billiton pools and have a walk down to the local beach area at leisure.
Main costs:
* IDR40,000 Tip to guide at Traditional house (b/w 4 of us)
* IDR30,000 2 icecreams
* IDR15,000 3 coffees over course of day for hubby
* IDR10,000 2 rolls & 2 drinks at Bakery
* IDR130,000 Dinner & drinks at Billiton Hotel – 2 mains, 1 fries, 2 strawberry fresh juices (yum)
Day 17: SAT
Lazy morning. Erick picked us up at 10am for our Sriwijaya flight. Tipped him but will not inc that in costs below. All smooth to Jakarta then flew Garuda to Lombok. Excellent flight also and on time.
Rosa from Villa Sayang in Lombok sent her driver to meet us at the airport; about 10 – 15min drive back to accoms (around 8:30pm). We booked the 2BRM Villa Srikandri for 3 nights. Set amongst lovely grounds with a nice pool and dining area.
Main costs:
* IDR380,000 Fruit juices and poolside snacks etc over 6 days/5nights at Billiton Hotel (bkd to room)
* IDR22,000 2 x 11k Domestic departure tax from Belitung to Jakarta
* IDR80,000 2 x 40k Domestic departure tax from Jakarta to Lombok
* IDR78,000 Lunch at Jakarta airport – 2 mains, 1 fresh juice
* IDR47,000 1 Coffee from Coffee Bean at Jakarta airport
* IDR35,000 1 Fresh strawberry juice at Jakarta airport
* IDR18,000 1 Fresh lime juice at Jakarta airport
That’s it for Part 4/7 and our time at Belitung Island. If you are still reading, and still interested, the next instalment is Part 5/7: Lombok Island (in the Bali/Lombok forum).