Northern Thousand Island

re-post

19 – 21 September 2009

The four of us me, Olive, Suryani and Micky arrived @ Muara Angke, we were lucky knowing our boat heading Pulau Kelapa were not full that morning. Or if I must say a little bit empty. The boat was running so slowly. Estimated arrival usually in 3 hours when it became almost  4 hours. That day was the last day of the Ramadhan Month and tomorrow would be the celebration of Lebaran. Yeah.. we were heading Pulau Kelapa for short holiday. I didn’t expect too much with this trip. Specially when we landed at Pulau Kelapa. This island is totally arid. No trees only an overcrowded housing area. But well… we’re there. By, the way, did I tell you that we saw some dolphins? Yeah.. we saw them on the way from Pramuka island heading Pulau Kelapa ;). So, if you will go someday to this island, and after you passing by Pramuka island don't be surprised if you see some dolphins swimming next the boat, we already did .. HA!  

Day 1

Just look around Pulau Kelapa. Finding the homestay and looking for food - desperately hungry. No shops opened and we ate only instant noodle.. hello Lia.. this island is not a tourist destination girl!! We planned to go to Pulau Harapan but I don’t know why we canceled going there. Maybe because we were too tired so we just stayed sitting next to the beach and watched the sunset. At night, we were lucky to have a special dinner provided by the local people . It was actually their food for tomorrow’s lebaran. Since its last day of Ramadhan, so after they had the break fasting time then the sky was full with "Takbiran". From dusk ‘till dawn our napping time  was sung  a takbiran’s lullaby .

Day 2

Nothing to do but sitting on the balcony of our homestay. Lucky us staying at this overlooking to the harbor house with awesome color sea and refreshing sea breeze.  We felt nothing but a relaxing moment until 4 hours left from the time we woke up at 8am. It was 12pm .. and again we got a special lunch with Lebaran’s menu in front of us.. Isn’t life is GOOD ?? . After lunch we decided to move our ass  out off the house. We rented the boat and we hitchhiked the North Thousand Island. The day was perfect.. sunny yet windy.

The 1^st destination we landed was Pulau Kayu Angin. With its white soft sandy beach and  trees in the middle of the island, I don’t know what to say but for me this island is just perfect. Not a big island, it took 10 minutes only to go around this island but we spent almost  1 hour 30 minutes there!! Just swimming and laid down, hearing the wave sound and feeling the sea breeze caressed our skin. Time for us to get up and continue our trip.

2^nd destination was trying my goggle  under the sea,.. yup we were snorkeling at Karang Atol. Lots of fishes and according to Miky there is lots of soft choral down there.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to see more the undersea beauty. That afternoon was too windy and it caused the sea wavy a little bit and made me easily tired. We pulled off the anchor and heading the island in front of us, Pulau Perak.

Our last destination was even more perfect. That time showed us 3.30pm in the afternoon. And the island harbor is heading to the west which we can see the sunset directly. This island is bigger compare to the 1^st island we visited, more green and relaxing maybe because it has 3 hammocks, a hut, 1 set wooden chair and table and … a swing. And… it’s only US on that island …. and the boat guys off course :D.  We went around the island first and then we decided just to lay and enjoying sunset. That day was perfect. I couldn’t ask for more but a little bit more time to enjoy this lovely island but that afternoon should be ended soon otherwise we would get trapped in the ocean with big wave and wind.

Day 3

Woke up at 530am, had a quick bath (read: only brushing teeth and face cleaning J) and breakfast, then we left our house for chasing our morning boat. We left Pulau kelapa right on time at 7am and reached Muara Angke by 10am. Felt that we still have more time to do things then we decided to see the Muara Angke Sanctuary nearby the harbor, where the home for monkeys and big trees. Well, its quite a big surprise to find this small jungle in Jakarta .