Pangandaran dan sekitarnya

About my last vacation to Pangandaran. Here's the review. Due to my laziness, I just finished this review by now, should've wrapped it weeks ago. Lemme start with the accommodation. My family and I were staying at Laut Biru Resort Hotel. It's located at Pantai Barat Pangandaran. For those who have never been there, Pangandaran is a bay -if I may say so-, it has two coasts, East and West. If you wanna see sunrise, then go to the east, and vice versa if you wanna see sunset.

Okay, back to Laut Biru. Since it was a family trip, I didn't know for sure about the hotel's rate per night. All I know was, my Dad told me that if someday I went to Pangandaran, just stay at that place. One room costs approximately IDR 500K per night (it consists of two king size beds, a TV, an AC, a porch outside the room complete with small coffee table and two chair, a bathroom with toilet, hot-cold shower, a bathroom sink and a quite huge mirror). Oh I forget to tell ya, it includes breakfast for 4 (four) persons. You really can share that big room with your buddies! There's also a swimming pool and a jacuzzi (which I forgot to take pics of 'em).

Oh! Here's a suggestion for you, don't choose a room with beach view, cos what you're only gonna see is this:

For food, just go to Pantai Timur. Find Pasar Ikan, in that place, you can find quite many of seafood restaurant. By mean restaurant, please save yourself from expecting it to be fancy, but I can assure you those seafood 'family' are fresh (sure they are, it's next to the sea *rolling my eyes*), its taste quite so-so, a bit far from authentically Balinese seafood yet it successfully made my belly bloated.

I don't think there's much to do at Pantai Pangandaran, but yes, you can ride an ATV, do water sports just like in Bali, watch sunset and sunrise, and eat fresh seafood. Or you can rent a bike, and ride around the coasts. But don't expect some crowd here. My cousins and I went for dinner around 8 pm, and outside our hotel was somehow quiet, not many stores and cafes around there, hmm, I don't think there were any (hotel cafes aren't included). There were lots of hotel and motel vacancies also, which explains the tranquil night. So you better have many traveling buddies to avoid the dullness.

To watch sunrise, you need to make sure your visit wasn't in the rainy season, cos when it's gloomy, there's nothing you could see. Only dramatic clouds above the offshore. Sure it's still a beautiful view, indeed. But watching sunrise is something cannot be replaced, don't you think? That's why I promise myself to chase another sunrise. Soon. *crossingfingers*

gloomy sunrise at Pantai Timur Pangandaran

Alright, back to my suggestions, if you're wandering at both beach, East and West, somebody will offer you a visit to Pasir Putih. Just say yes, it's near from both beach, and will only take few minutes to get there. But don't forget to bargain the trip fee. You're gonna sail by traditional boat, each boat can only consist of five persons plus the driver (or whatever they're supposed to be called). The water is clear, you can actually swim or do snorkling around Taman Laut.

a glimpse of Pasir Putih

If you had quite a lot of spare time, you might wanna do another sightseeing at natural reservation at Pasir Putih beach. I heard there's an interesting cave inside it.

Another destination worth seeing near Pangandaran:

at Sungai Cijulang, way to Green Canyon

-taken from my sister's photo album-

super fun and thrilled, too bad the water run too swiftly, I didn't have that too much guts to swim ;p

-taken from my sister's photo album-

Cukang Taneuh, known as Green Canyon, it's like a river with beautiful green forest view on the left and right side. I sort of felt like I was at somewhere in Kalimantan, wondering when that Anaconda would emerge and eat us all. Okay, kidding, there are only (ONLY??) small snakes and biawak (small crocodiles), according to site's guide.

Batu Karas, here's another beach near Green Canyon, I don't know why many of my friends are falling in love with this place, cos I prefer Pasir Putih to it. Maybe because of its huge wave, I heard it's one of the best place to surf.

Batu Karas, Cijulang

PS: our guide at Green Canyon said there's one hidden beach not far from it. He said a foreigner found it and not many people aware of it (including me and my family). UNFORTUNATELY, I forgot the name of that hidden beach. Shoot. I think it's sort of sounded like BulakBenda. Maybe. Sorry.

Silly Girls on Vacation

Alright, finally I wrote about this.

Me and my sister traveled to Bali again last March. Just the two of us. You know what was witty? We planned this journey just because we saw travel ads on facebook. Next thing I knew, we browsed airasia.com, and booked our flight. We left Bandung on March 21, and came back on March 24. We arrived at Ngurah Rai International Airport at 7 pm. Since we planned to travel on strictly budget, and we heard that airport taxi is expensive, we walked to the exit gate just to get a blue bird taxi. I have to tell you, the exit gate wasn’t that far, didn’t take us 5 minutes to get there, and didn’t take us more than a minute to get bluebird taxi in front of the exit gate. From airport to Kuta Beach cost only 15K IDR. We asked the taxi driver to bring us to poppies lane, as you all know, that place was flooded by cheap-yet-comfortable inn.

The taxi driver dropped us in front of benesari street (it is at poppies II). Then we walked through that street, a bit confused, and found a signpost that written “Cempaka III”. Yeay! That was the first option we made regarding where we’re gonna stay. We checked the room, it was great. Every room has a porch with two chairs and a table. The room was clean and smelled good. There are one king-size bed, wardrobe, mirror, and table. The bathroom was clean, it has a western toilet. Overall, it was way worth the price per night, which cost 120K IDR with fan. There are also room with AC and hot water, but you’ll have to pay 250K IDR for that. The owner and his employees were seriously wonderful. They served breakfast, a toast and a cup of tea. And thanks to my silliness, I forgot to take a picture of this place. But believe me, we wouldn’t bear staying in for three nights if the place weren’t nice.

The next day, we woke up early in the morning, about 7 am, we walked to the beach and took some pictures there.

Me and the tranquil Kuta Beach in the morning

I was curious about another inn, it was located in poppies I. So I asked my sister to walk through the street, on our way back to the hotel, because I knew it would lead us to poppies II as well. We’re supposed to be at the hotel at 10 am. And again, silliness was always beside me, we got lost in poppies I. The map was made it seems too easy, but it wasn’t! Thanks God people whom we asked directions to were so nice. By the time we got there, the driver from rental car service has been waiting for us (I hope he didn’t think that we’re “so Indonesian” with the “jam karet” thing, hehee).

The first destination was Joger, pabrik kata. As we got there, the shop hadn’t been opened yet. So we’re waiting in line to get into the shop. While waiting, we watched its employees doing their yell-yell. Interesting, really. They’re singing and then entering the shop with harmony, so amusing. After bought some clothes, we had our lunch at Nasi Pedes Bu Andhika. It was located near Joger. You should try it, it's yummy, spicy, low budget Indonesian food. It's also halal, FYI.

Then we went to GWK. The site is great. But visiting GWK in the middle of day was a bad idea. We missed all the traditional dances performance, and the heat was making me lightheaded. However, we found our favorite spot in that place. It's called Bale Bengong.

A view from Bale Bengong, GWK

You'll get to sit down and relax while gasping the fresh air and enjoying the beautiful view of Jimbaran Beach and Tanjung Benoa. There's a funny thing about it's rest area. It contains some food stalls, and they sell most of Bandung’s culinary. Even their employees are all Sundanese.

Oh! There's a funny story. My sister was doing her pray in the car as we’re entering the GWK’s entrance gate. The ticket officer was unbelievably confused looking at her doing. He glanced over my sister, then talked to me, then glanced over again, then gave me tickets, and glanced over my sister again. Hahaaa. Maybe it was his first time experience seeing a Moslem praying in the car complete with mukena. Then we left GWK for Dreamland. And I must tell you, apart from the beautiful large shocking wave, I dislike this beach. And I don’t like the way all the massager forcing us to get a massage.

Next destination was Uluwatu. I couldn't say much about this place. It was extraordinarily beautiful. All the mesmerizing landscapes, enjoyable ambience, or even the cute-naughty monkeys, and leave alone the Kecak Dance performed during sunset.

Finished enjoying sunset while watching Kecak Dance, we went straight to Jimbaran. Time to spoil our belly! The driver took us to Damos Restaurant. We ordered black-peppered crab, Balinese grilled squid, steamed scallops, with Balinese extra-hot-and-spicy-which-happened-not-to-be-that-hot-and-spicy “sambal matah”. And that’s a wrap. We went home with a smile on our faces, and a bloated belly ;D. Totally an exhausted yet amusing, laughable, pleasant day.

Third day, we enjoyed our morning with a toast and a cup of tea in the hotel. While waiting for the driver, we’re walking down the poppies lane through legian street. Today’s agenda were visiting Bedugul, Besakih, and Tanah Lot. On our way to Bedugul, the driver took us to a restaurant. We found out that the place was unbelievably expensive and decided not to eat there. So, we walked out that place, and found a mosque not far from it. While walking to the mosque, we found “Warung Nasi Muslim, Nurani”. Yippiew! Me and my sister ordered soto ayam and mie bakso with two glass of hot tea (it was chilly in Bedugul), for only 18K IDR. Then, we took a pray in the mosque, the view from the mosque was utterly beautiful. Too bad it was under reconstruction.

beautiful view from the top of the mosque and the mosque itself

I can easily say that Ulun Danu Bedugul has a wonderful delightful sight-seeing (best place for narcissistic persons like us)

Next, Tanah Lot! (oh, btw, we didn’t make it to Besakih) Well, it appeared that it was a lengthy journey. As we reached Tanah Lot, I was just like having a jetlag. Hahaa. There are lots of kiosks selling Balinese products, quite as same as Pasar Sukowati. Tanah Lot is indeed a remarkable site. If you like the panorama you used to see on most Balinese paintings, where there’s a temple and a sunset view behind it, you’ve got to visit this place.

The dazzling panorama of Tanah Lot

Last day, we’re having breakfast at hotel as usual. The plan’s supposed to be visiting Ubud or Kintamani. Unfortunately, the driver was kinda sick. And for safety reason, he took us to Bali Zoo, near Ubud and then to Pasar Celuk Sukowati. To be honest, I won’t recommend you to visit this place, since it’s too expensive, and the place wasn’t so big. But I was quite enjoying that place. Last time I visited a zoo, it was in 1994. And, yeah, I love animals. They’re so cute and adorable, apart from their bad smell.

Next destination was Pasar Sukowati. Thanks God there’s a mushola. We took a pray, and finally, shopping time!!! We visited Pasar Sukowati III, so there weren’t so many kiosks and not too many customers also. I guess that’s why I had lots of good offers of many things I bought.

Before went back to the airport, we wanted to taste Ayam Betutu, a special culinary from Gilimanuk, Bali. Luckily, we didn’t have to go to Gilimanuk to taste it, there’s a store near the airport. The taste was really great. Really hot and spicy.

And that’s a wrap! What a fascinating journey. Consider it was a well-planned and a successful vacation for me and my sister. There’ll be another silly vacation story, I assure you guys! ;D