City by the Ocean, Cilacap

(with Dian, Enti, Maria, Santi, Madame)

Friends canceled the Sawarna trip, so I jumped on the bus to Cilacap with a group of friends. the city is of Nusa Kambangan, Tanjung Intan Harbor, and of tempe mendoan fame.

we had fun, driving three hrs up to the stream. The prime destination was supposed to be Green Canyon but too bad, the water was flooding due to heavy rain the night before. (the water was muddy that we called it Brown Canyon!)

we were happy to dip in the beaches of Batu Karas, Batu Hiu, and Pangandaran. even after the wave rolled me and i landed on my belly! we had a pleasant holiday here.

J'aime Tegal

Long long ago, I, as once a Pantura-frequenter, thought it'd be nice to stop by and explore the city. So when Ent, Marcia, Cupay ignited the idea, I quickly yessed it. Besides i needed to attend a wedding reception there.

that morning on third week of Nov, we hopped on Dedy Jaya. The road was loooong and it was not our brother. bumpy one moment, smooth another moment. thankfully most of the time Dedy sped.

We arrived in the city at 14.15. it has malls! We, being constantly hungry, lunched at the nearest warung. The ready-to-eat menu was like what I usually see in Jkt with an exception of sotong cooked in its own black ink. (“where do sotongs refill their ink?” joked M). And here none puts a “warung tegal” sign or call theirs warung tegal.

We explored the city on becak (Been a while since I rode the last time in Yogya). we went to Pantai Alam Indah to watch sunset. we stopped by a military museum and then to Alun Alun Poci for exra heavy dinner.

Day two. In the morning we headed to Guci. At an intersection we got off for a transit. Like my previous experience in Yogya, some thugs forced us to wait in the minibus. this time I refused to give up. we chartered a mikrolet.

The driver offered to take us on a scenic Kampung Danawarsih (?). It has a beautiful river. Someone tried to cross the pillar-turned-into-bridge and trembled that he retrieved. Lol. And it was fun to dip my feet in the thigh high cold water. It’s probably the cleanest in-the-kampong-river I’ve seen!

Off we went up to Guci, stopping by to snap some Farmville-like views. The air is so refreshing here. It was noon and cloudy. We hiked up to the hills. The good thing is it has a warm springs which we dipped ourselves in.

Mr. driver insisted on taking us to the canopy bridge. It’s beautiful, stretching like 100 m across the river. Picturesque is the surrounding. Perhaps we can go there and camp! And it was good for us to meet a man “shepherding” ducks, never been as close! He’s got black ducks too, a hybrid of entok (mallard?) and duck. It is said they make tasty grill.

Speaking of eating, i should say yes. we came to the city to devour! our culinary feast consisted of: chicken and goat satay, soto balungan, soto gambyong, and soto tauco, nasi-jinggo-like (forget the name), durian and many more, and of course, being in Tegal, gallons of tea served in clay pot or teh poci.

Lift up my eyes to the hills (Puntang)

Lift up my eyes to the hills around Mt. Putang, to what I instantly fall in love with.

it's a lovely sight. the white lilies, 'netherlandische' aubergines, young coffee bushes, red rose and its hips, and of course the conifers (Pinus pinaster, probably). The wind sings through the branches of slender conifers, making the hills very much alive. Also there are many lovely ruins of kolam cinta, houses, cave, kitchen, tennis court. things must have been lively back then, yes? see the bw pictures.

Go there with my merry company.

we first hike uphill abt 100 m off kolam cinta. notice how the Dutch governed the water and the trees. unlike the 'sterile', pine-only Hutan Pinus in my hometown, i see thickets of bougenvillae, wild brambles, liliums, mats of grass and weeds, banana plants, even palm etc mashing up with the conifers. lichens and mushrooms are ubiquitous. pleasing to the eyes.

then the rain starts falling and wets us. sooo cold that we rush back to the warung and eat, eat, and eat.

Later join the rest in the evening. we build the tents of orange, silver, black and dark blue. four in all. Also the campfire is fun with DJ Echi playing, sweet potatoes roasting, storytelling, star gazing, and dinner. (long since the last time i went camping in 1999 at Curug Nangka).

the next day i go to the river with Yudhi and Echi. ice cold water runs endlessly, waking all nerves! then discover the wonder of swinging in the hammock. imagine myself wearing white shirt and pants inside green hammock (me nagasari cake!)

later we go trekking. first to the Cikahuripan ('river of life') waterfall. what a name, yes? and to the river where we dip and have a freezing fun (not to mention tent washing!). awwwwwww ice cold!

as for me, love the company and the experience.

Pulau Pramuka Pt II

morning on the pier

Previously I thought you need a blue sky hoooooliday . . . (citing Powter's Bad Day)

Well, there was a new color up above on the last holidays.

perhaps i was way too excited when Vit told me Dania was igniting the idea. the last time we went there was a good two yrs ago.

in my mind was blue and sunny sky and long pistachio (uhm, whitish yellow) beaches.

But the night before, it was raining hard. Vit and I got wet even before waking up on the d-day (we went out to eat some instant noodle and were met by heavy rain). I ignored it, hoping that the day after would be clearer.

in the morn, Apis, Adi, Dania and Adi, Lenny, Sofyan, Ninus and Lia met us at Grogol and took a drive to Muara Angke Port. for Apis, Adi, Dania's Adi, Ninus and Lia, it was thier first time.

It was drizzling. We boarded on the top of the boat to get the best view. Thankfully this time we had a nice and fast boat with tolerable engine noise. I hardly slept but Sofyan's demeanor and Lia's makeup session kept me entertained.

two and a half hour later we landed on Pulau Pramuka safely. We had nice housing there by the beach which Sofyan reserved for us. Vit and I darted to Two Flowers Cafe (formerly Two Flower Cafe) and ordered what Vit called affectionately "soto yang ngangenin" (I dont know it in English, perhaps homecoming soup, so to speak). I din know but my appetite soared here. I was constantly hungry.

anak pulau (LR: Lia, Dania, Vit, Adi, Lenny)

the real anak pulau

I saw many a sad face as if they were reflecting the gloomy sky. It was the day of high school graduation announcement. I overheard the crowd, they were in the middle of a hot topic, topic of the island, topic of the week: 97 students din make it (one and only high school in the nearby islands) only 16 made it. (And i felt a bit sorry too.)

We later paid some visit to turtle sanctuary and had a good laugh especially when Sofyan found a new species, Penyu Kundang (perhaps cousins to Malin Kundang). And the tukik (the hatchlings) were so cute and it was the first time for us to see them feeding on fish flesh.

LR: Sofyan, Vit, Ninus, Adi, Lenny

Finally, it was sailing time! We jumped on board. the driver of ojek kapal (chartered boat) was no stranger. He drove us two years ago with the same boat. The clouds was heavy on our head but we din lose hearts. We headed to Pulau Air.


The island remained the same and I had the opportunity to observe the towering conifers (native to the island) from a close distance. The ship was halted to land because a local said "X is here". So we chose a remote spot of the island where the strait was calm and turquois.

the sky above Semak Daun Island

Adi was first to jump into the water and crossed the strait. Sofyan and Lenny later joined and crossed the 10 meters strait. When Pak Salim carried the buoy, I thought I could make it. So I swam. Good Lord, it was a big mistake!

the current below was fast and I began to tremble. I was exhausted in the mid and felt that the current was holding me and drifting me further. But i managed to cross and landed my feet on the sharp reefs. It was no fun at all.

Later Sofyan and I swam together across. Every move seemed to take us nowhere. Stupid eh? I wished I stayed ashore and adopted "turtle laying eggs" style of relaxing :)

Surprisingly, Ninus, Dania and Lia were brave enough to swim across together with the buoy. The current drifted them farther. But their faces were bright with smile. Me ashamed

While laying on the sand I could hear a strange but beautiful music the wind made. It blew smoothly through the conifers and it was like the sound of smooth whistling . . . This music lulled me to sleep as I felt headache and heavy breaths onboard. Apis was also running out of breath, so we slept.

I woke up as the boat reached Pulau Karya (formerly Pulau China). We stopped to drink some hot tea and coffee here to revive our strength. The island itself is relatively small island with a football field in the middle. In weekends it is calm because people (pegawai negeri, government employees) only come to work on weekdays. It was nicely decorated island with some government buildings around. There are Police Office, Navy Office, etc and--I dont know it in English--Departemen Agama where Sofyan, Vit and I took temporary shelter from the rain (I forgot to ask the divorce rate on the islands).

A half round trip (we stopped a while to inspect Pembangkit Listrik Tenaga Bayu or Wind Powered Electric Engine to imagine our friends named Bayu work their muscle to power the engine, haha) and we went off to bandeng fishery island nearby. We couldnt land because they were mending the pier, so we went to a giant floating swimming pool.

I thought if we plunged, we would go straight to the ocean floor, but Pak Salim said no. It looked inviting and calm but only Adi and Sofyan dared to swim. As soon as Sofyan plunged, a dead fish afloated. See how strong Sofyan's smell was, we joked.

the night fell and the rain was a loyal friend. We chatted at the saung (gazebo) and later gathered on the terrace to greet four fellow travelers. and in the midnight the rain poured and lightning blasted. we had a good night sleep.

In the morning there was no sunrise view. It was still gloomy but we were happy to take some walk on the pier and the beach, discussing that there was no sleep walking here but sleep fishing. This kind of activity proved to be stress relieving as a local confessed in the night on the pier. He was fishing (squiding?) for squids using mock prawn (plastic) lure.

After breakfast, we combed the left side beach and did some shell collecting (Lenny started it when she found a giant clam, complete with both disks. Sofyan also did). I finished first so i waited for them and ordered some hot noodle and tea.

It might not be a blue sky holiday, but we had a very good time here and are looking forward to return there.

Xem