Belitung Island Pt 1

I learned about this location from a friend in my crafty group. She had traveled with her family to this spot and when B asked for a destination for a long weekend, I pulled this one out of the stack of possibilities!

Belitung is one of the Bangka/Belitung Islands found east of Sumatra. Bangka and Belitung Islands are the largest in the group of about 400 islands.

Only about 50 islands are inhabited. It is an easy 45 minute flight from home! This island group is located in the Java Sea. Alternate spellings are Belitong and Billiton (English version). The islands were a UK possession from about 1812 until 1824 when the UK transferred the islands to The Netherlands. The name apparently means sea slug. As of the 2014 census, all of Bangka/Belitung had a population of 272,000 with ~ 25,000 or so in the capital of Tangung Pandan.

We were up at 2 am for a 6:45 am flight into Hanadjoedin Airport in Tanjung Pandan. OK, so the easy 45 minute flight required an interesting alarm time. I'll be the first to admit that. Due to weather conditions (aka cloudy with light rain) I didn't get many acceptable photos as we approached the island.

Agriculture.

This is a very small airport! We deplaned and walked a short distance into the Arrival Hall. A few more steps and we were outside of the airport on the other side of the building. We were met by our guide Bu Eksa and our driver Pak Rien and off we went.

It was way too early to try to check in at the hotel so our first stop was a traditional Belitung noodle and kunci orange juice breakfast. Kunci means key. The Belitung noodles were covered with a sweet fish sauce, small tofu, tiny shrimp and carrots. There was also a type of fried cracker on top. It was actually pretty good. By the way, seafood plays a major role in every meal!

Traffic early in the morning in Tanjung Pandan. Yep, pretty much non-existent!

We dropped our carry-on bags at the hotel then we were off to explore the island. First stop was the replica of SD Laskar Pelangi located in Gantong Village. Laskar Pelangi means rainbow troops. An author named Andrea Hirata wrote a novel about a group of 10 students who lived in poverty in Hanging village, Belitung, but this small group of students wished to have better lives. The book was made into a movie. SD Laskar Pelangi was basically a one room school house used for grades one through the equivalent of Junior High School. This replica might have been used in the movie as it was filmed partly in Indonesia. The entire movie (in Bahasa Indonesia without subtitles) is available on YouTube. Search for "Laskar Pelangi." The novel is apparently available in English under the title, "The Rainbow Troops."

Belitung is also known for massive granite boulders. There is even a monument to granite in a traffic circle. Yep, that's a big rock on top!

Certain granites contain tin ore minerals so tin was and is plentiful throughout many of the islands. Belitung Island was heavily mined for tin beginning in the time of the Dutch East Indies. Questionable practices left countless man-made lakes. After being mined out, locations are left as craters filled with acidic subsoil filled with stagnant water. Several global electronics companies support more responsible mining practices and urge miners to make changes. Indonesia is still a major resource for tin. Tin mining continues on other islands and includes offshore mining. The photo below was taken during landing. You can see water filled craters in this photo.

Belitung is now banking on tourism as tin mining is no longer a focus here.

We visited one spot that has been reclaimed and is now a wetlands and recreation spot. These cabanas were really neat.

About 70 km from the airport (on the other side of the island about 20 km from Manggar) we found pretty Pantai Burung Mandi (Bird Bath Beach). It is named for a nearby hill but I didn't get the full explanation of the name. The beach is lined with a lot of casuarina trees and a few coconut trees. The casuarina tree is also called an "Australian Pine." The needles resemble a pine. Interestingly, a few of the other common names for this tree include the word "oak." Hmmm. This plant was imported to the US in the early 1800s but it's suitable only for zones 9-11 and has become a nuisance in Florida. We enjoyed a nice long walk along the beach.

This a not only a pretty beach but also fisherman spot. It appeared that only a couple of the boats had gone out on this day. We could only see a couple of drag marks to the water. The boats are kater wood yachts.The boats have "hands" on the right and left made of bamboo or paralon pipes. These balance the kater while at sea.

The picture above is proof-positive we were really there. :)  The receding waters created a wonder of images in the sand. Here's just one! So cool!

We lunched at a cafe in Manggar. We weren't given options for our meals. The food was just delivered to our table*. (* The exception was breakfast eaten at the hotel.) Nearly all of the "no choice " food was really great. Lunch included curried fish, teriyaki fish, fried squid (not my thing), morning glory greens, hot tea and watermelon. And RICE! We lunched right next to a mangrove.

We learned from our driver that Manggar is nicknamed "the city with 1001 coffee shops." We did see a lot of coffee shops and most had a similar name. Example: Bob's Warkopi. Others simply replaced Bob with their own name. Had we felt like coffee at that moment, we could have had coffee at the "best!" place in town.

Our former governor hails from Belitung. There is a small museum across the street from his family home. We stopped only long enough to grab a couple of photos. (The museum shot is ours. The house shot is borrowed.)

Belitung Island Pt 2

Eating was a little more complicated to schedule on our weekend in Belitung because it was during Ramadhan. Most restaurants are closed until late afternoon as they prepare for customers wishing to break fast at sunset. However, our guide took care of us finding places which were open for breakfast the first day and for lunches on the other days.

We ate dinner one evening at the time for breaking fast for Muslims during Ramadhan. As a result, we were served a traditional Belitung breaking fast meal. It was brought to the table on a large serving plate called a bedulang. The meal included really tasty hot tea which I suspect had kunci orange juice in it. And probably lots of sugar. The breaking of the daily fast usually includes a large dose of sugars. The items served included: fish balls, tiny fried fish, green beans, clams, mollusks, fish & potato curry, rice, fried chicken pieces, water spinach and cucumber slices. Our guide excused herself so she could break fast with her family. Our driver delivered us to the restaurant, then left to break fast and pray. He returned before we were finished with our meal.

Later, we wanted a little something for dessert. Back at the hotel, we ordered an non-alcoholic Oreo drink to share. Yum!

We were able to visit the oldest and largest Buddhist monastery on Belitung—Dewi Kwan Im Goddess Temple. The Temple is more than 266 years old, uses a lot of Chinese decor and has a lot of stairs!

The Temple is famous for the number of folks who claim their wishes were granted after praying here. There are gardens included on the site.

I'm still fascinated at how gasoline is often sold here. While there are large gas stations, these little sub-stations are far more common and sell gasoline in plastic soda bottles. In the background is a shop of some kind. The little stand in the foreground is the "gas station."

I mentioned that the Bangka/Belitung Islands are famous for giant granite boulders, right?  Very interesting works of art courtesy of mother nature.Here are few more granite boulders.

Belitung Island Pt 3

We spent some time island hopping, snorkeling, and applying sunscreen repeatedly. We arrived at Kelayang Harbor on the northeast coast of Belitung.

Here I am with Bu Eksa. We brought our own snorkel masks but they provided life vests. The vests are not at all suitable for short-torso people. When I sat down, the vest reached partway up my face! Long torso owner B had no issue.

Our boat is right behind us in this shot. Named Kapal Kita it means "our boat."

Notice the hat change. Even with sunglasses, I needed to borrow B's rimmed hat. He managed with just the ball cap pretty well.

Notice the bamboo ladder-- pieces of bamboo lashed together. We had to climb in and out of the boat using this ladder. We put on our life vests, climbed the ladder and we were off!

This small sandbar is particularly popular during low tide. B enjoyed Palau Pasir as the island is actually named (palau= island). He couldn't wait to climb down our bamboo/rope ladder to investigate.

In the background you can see Palau Lengkuas (with lighthouse).

Getting closer to Palau Lengkuas.

On Palau Lengkuas.

The lighthouse was built by the Dutch in 1882. A couple of weeks prior to our visit the lighthouse was closed to tourists so we couldn't take in the view from high up. A caretaker was taking unacceptable fees for using the public restroom here. B comment: did we mention the boulders? Here are a few more!

A small monitor lizard is hiding in here--a camera-shy lizard!

An artsy shot.

Our underwater Fuji camera is still going strong. Some snorkeling photos.

Notice the coral growing project trays in this shot. Researchers grow the coral in this sort of contraption until they are large enough to get placed.

I'll mention just a few species:Needle-spined sea urchin, copperband butterflyfish, blue-green chromis, some damsels, eight-banded butterflyfish (Chaetodon octofasciatus), vermiculate angelfish (Chaetodontoplus mesoleucus), sergeant major, scissortail sergeant, some wrasses, several white fish with either a single black dot or 2 black dots. And here's a feather duster!

I am not sure what this creature is. It could be a small snowflake moral eel, or some sort of ribbon eel, or possibly a sharpsnout snake eel, or a sea snake of some kind. Wish we could have gotten a better photo. B comment: I think it is a sea snake though we have a split decision.

Here's B swimming in from a snorkel foray.

Forgive me while I step onto my soapbox. I know they are banking on tourism on this island but some things need to change to achieve success. There was a high level of trash on the beaches (proper waste handling is just not yet part of the culture here) and there are some steps they could take to better protect the reef so tourists can continue to appreciate it for a long time to come. Our guide brought bread along to throw out of the boat to lure some fish to the surface. I don't encourage this sort of thing. A guide brought me a shell from the bottom. I politely said thank you but as soon as I could I dropped it back over the side. Off the soapbox now.

Another interesting lunch was enjoyed at Palau Gede Kepayang.

In case you were wondering what the above sign says: Smart people throw trash in its place.

The restaurant here serves freshly caught and grilled fish. Again no options, lunch was just delivered. Correction. There was one option. Hot coffee or tea was included—with or without sugar.  I asked for hot coffee with milk. At first this seemed OK, but in a few minutes several people came back to our table to explain that if I wanted milk it was extra. Due to refrigeration costs? Don't know.

Loving all of the white sand on the islands!

Another stop on our island tour was Palau Batu Berlayer (sailing rock island). Giant granite boulders with  high vertical rock shapes appear to resemble sails on a boat or so they say. The sand plays the part of the boat under the sails. Hmmm. Regardless, I think we can all agree it was cool and GORGEOUS!

I think it was near here that we saw a small octopus hiding in the shadows between two boulders right at the water's edge. I tried to get a photo but my movement caused the octopus to hide. We also saw this sea star! The water was so clear here.