Belitung Island Serenity!

To travel is to discover!

On November 2015, I made a weekend trip to Belitung.

Trip to Belitung is easier than I ever think. So I decided to arrange my trip by myself instead of joining a tour agent. Airline ticket price is affordable and it only took 50-60 minutes flight from Jakarta to Belitung. We went on Saturday early morning and back to Jakarta on Sunday late afternoon.

Prior to my trip to Belitung, I tried to find some blogger experience and review. My finding was a nice rental car. I am impressed to their service as they can be reached easily, listen to our needs as customer, and they provide more than just a car rental. For those who'd like to try his service during Belitung Trip, you could contact them at 0812 7805 3285. Rental a car is very useful because public transportation in Belitung is very limited.

Relating to where-to-stay-in-Belitung, you could do a simple review research at famous hotel booking website. My personal recommendation would be B&W Suites Hotel Belitung (previously known as Aston Hotel) or Lor In (you could reach the beach by walk!). I was staying in B&W Suites and it was a nice stay. They have a good swimming pool with direct view to the sea (I forgot the name of the sea), nice bar with sunset view, comfortable room, nice breakfast, 45 minutes to Tanjung Kelayang and 15 minutes to Kaolin Lake.

The Hotel - Where to Stay

Pool at B&W Suites Hotel

The Food - What to Eat

Belitung is a small yet peaceful island. Smooth road, no traffic jam, less people you could see at street, no mall at all.

We started our trip in Belitung by having a famous breakfast: Mie Belitung. The most famous Mie Belitung Stall is Mie Atep, unfortunately they were still closed when we arrived at Belitung. So we tried other Mie Belitung stall near to Mie Atep.

With a full tummy we continued our trip to do island hoping in Tanjung Kelayang. Tanjung Kelayang is a beautiful place. Water is extremely clean. This is the thing that we might hard to find in crowded destination like Bali.

The Place - Where to Go

To do island hoping you need to rent the boat at Rp. 450.000 and snorkelling device at 80.000/person.

From Tanjung Kelayang, we finally arrived at Lengkuas Island. There is a famous mercusuar (lighthouse tower) here. It has 70 meter height and you can see the beautiful of Lengkuas Island with a unique granite and clear water. It is hard to describe it's mind-blowing view. You should experience it by yourself :)

Our lunch was provided by the person who rented the car as well. It costs you Rp. 80.000/person and you'll get a nice package of seafood and enjoy it in the island.

After island hoping, we continued the journey to enjoy Belitung coffee. I heard that Belitung coffee is very famous. Many Belitung people spend their time at coffee shop at Tanjung Pandan coffee shop. If you'd like to try their original black coffee then you have to order 'Kopi O'. I myself tried their coffee milk. Apparently this coffee shop is famous as it has opened since long time ago. Unfortunately I forgot the name of the coffee shop as I was recommended and drove by our helpful driver to get here.

At that time I was asking our driver to bring us to the crowdest place at Belitung (believe me, you could not find so many people around the city so it made me curious and want to find a place with many people at Tanjung Pandan) so the driver brought us to Pantai Tanjung Pendam. At Pantai Tanjung Pendan we could find many cafes. Looks like this area get it's crowd every saturday night. 

Do you know that Belitung has a special stone which can only be found at Belitung? The name is Satam Stone. The seller that we found in Tanjung Pendam told us that the stone formed by a combination of meteor and tin which contained in Belitung land long long time ago. The special things about this stone made it cost you a fortune though :p 

Satam Stone

Well, the first day of trip has finished. And due to our limited time in our 2nd day of trip, we could not make a trip to East side of Belitung where you could find Laskar Pelangi school and Ahok's house complex. So that we went to another place called Batu Mentas. Batu Mentas is a kind of Sanctuary where a unique yet cutie smallest primate in the world named "Tarsius" live. We spent 1 hour to reach this place.

Tarsius

There is also a very refreshing water spring in Batu Mentas. And you could swim in that cold clear water!

Considering our starving tummy, we decided to go to a restaurant which sell Belitung cuisine in Tanjung Pandan city. I regretly forgot the name of the restaurant, however it located in the central of the city so you might find it easily. I am so in love to Belitung rice it is very tasty! and I like the way they serve our lunch in "Dulang".

This "Dulang" contained of a very special cuisine from Belitung named "Gangan". "Gangan" is a fish soup with a refreshing taste of pineaple soup, I should say that it's soooo tasty! Accompanied by some others dishes and the vegetable sauteed on the right side is my favorite!! Besides, there are some other dishes like grilled chicken with soysauce and chilli sauce and grilled fish cakes. It was so satisfying! Don't forget to order Belitung special beverages named "Jeruk Kunci" as well! So refreshing.

Unfortunately the time has came for us to leave Tanjung Pandan and heading back to Jakarta. So our helpful and friendly driver, Pak Surya, drove us to the airport.

Heavy Rain

It is very memorable to have a trip to Tanjung Pandan, Belitung. There is no party bar or some kind of it, but I really had a great time of serenity there. As it could be reached easily from Jakarta, it would be my one of favorite destination for a weekend getaway!