Nusa Penida the Left Over Paradise (part 2 of 3)

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Cliffside nearby Atuh beach

The Mel Homestay

Mel Homestay for me is quite interesting, it's neither a luxury hotel nor a fancy resort. Quite modest I can say. I really appreciate how the owner make a limited land to a maximum use. When we arrived to the hotel, I didn't know that the shop and the cafe on its front owned by the same person. The entrance is merely a small alley with small pond at the end. The lobby itself consists of few wooden chairs and a table facing the supposedly receptionist which is a man chest high table. This makes us feel like home. 

It has a few touch of Balinese style on its garden with "Bale Bengong" (a square wooden structure with grass leaf roof for people to relax) on its corner, only this time made of modern materials such as tiled floor and pottery roof. There are five rooms facing the garden creates the letter "L", and another 3 rooms on the second floor. Luckily I got the room on the second floor, it was really nice when the owner told us to choose which room we wanted to stay.

I have no idea how much we have to pay for a night at this hotel, it was already included in the tour package. On the front, by the road side, we can find a nice cafe with wooden interior, with variation food on the menu like nasi or mie goreng and other typical Indonesian food. There is also a shop for our daily needs like toiletries and other stuff. I didn't get a chance to take a picture of the hotel so I took one of them from the internet.

Lobby and receptionist at Mel Homestay

Me, my friend and Mr.Kadek, the owner of Mel Homestay

Pulau Seribu a.k.a Raja Lima Islands

Day 2 at Nusa Penida, we set our next trip to be at 10.00 am with the driver. I didn't know that we would get breakfast, so we ate first before departing to the destinations. First destination is the Raja Lima Islands or some people prefer to call it Pulau Seribu. It is another instagramable spot to take photos in such a beautiful view. Like I said before, Kelingking beach is not the only place where we need to climb down in order to get better view. So we decided to climb down to the best spot enjoying the view of Raja Lima Island. It's another karst coastal area where we can find some small islands scattered on its surrounding, which is the main attraction here. Reminds us of Raja Ampat in Papua, in small version.

It was cloudy and the skies were a little bit dark. It even raining sometimes. We climbed down in search of the best view for background photos. There are some tree houses built in this place. Our driver said that people can rent the house to stay overnight. I wouldn't do that, coz it might look scary at night, although the surrounding scenery looks very pretty during the day. There is also a Bale Bengong on the hill top for 360' view. I took photos in every corner hoping to get good photos in the cloudy sky.

Raja Lima Island a.k.a Pulau Seribu

The infamous spot of Raja Lima Island

Famous Instagram background

Tree Houses at Raja Lima Island

Closer look on one of the Tree Houses

Atuh Beach

So we departed to the next destination after getting enough photos at Raja Lima Island. It is only 15 minutes drive from the earlier spot. I was curious with the beach that has unique pointy shape rocky island in the middle of the sea. I didn't know it was Atuh Beach that I'm looking for, I thought Chrystal Bay was the one.

We had to walk around 200 meters away on the newly developed concrete road. Yet the scenery is breathtaking, on the left we could see dense jungle on the karst hill and coconut plantation on its slope. On the right we can see the panoramic view of tropical beach down below. So again, we need to climb down. This time is further down. Fortunately, the way down is already built in concrete steps, so it's easier to walk. 

The beach can be seen from above. It looks similar to the beach on the movie "The Shallow", the newest shark attack movie. It has white sand with crystal clear water. Some shops are built around the beach. Couches are also available for us to relax, similar to Chrystal Bay. I cancelled my plan of getting wet playing on the beach. I thought we didn't have enough time for such thing. So we end up taking pictures in Atuh Beach then go back to the parking lot. Climbing up the hill twice in a day is something hard for me. My weight doesn't support me in this condition. It slows me down and get me really exhausted.

Green lush and the coconut plantation

The Panoramic View

Atuh Beach view from the steps

Me arriving at Atuh Beach

The famous postcard view of Atuh Beach

I would say enough with the hiking and climbing hills. But for sure, results don't betray big effort. Everything was perfect. Me as a traveler, seeing these images of God's creations, though in a very small Island like Nusa Penida is mind blowing. makes me wonder more on other corner of the Island. The story doesn't end with the Atuh Beach though. We still have another one destination to visit.

Supposedly we would go to the Teletubbies hill somewhere in the middle of the Island. But I wasn't really interested by the destination. Pictures of it are not really picking my curiosity. I'd rather curious by the Pura Giri Putri. A Balinese Hindu Temple lies within a cave. The wife of Mr.Wayan, the tour operator, told me a huge cave nearby the northern coast of Nusa Penida. The peculiar thing is that the entrance of this cave is merely a hole of a man size. "I am a big fat women, but I could get in to the cave on that small hole which doesn't make sense" she said earlier. I was thinking "Okay, that is interesting"

Entrance Hole from the inside

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Nusa Penida the Left Over Paradise (part 1 of 3)

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Kelingking Beach at Nusa Penida, Bali

The Paradise Lost

The stories goes when God decided to destroy His last remaining paradise on earth 11.000 years ago. It was the Sundaland, which geographically now known as part of Indonesia and Malaysia, the Island of Sumatra, Malaya Peninsula, Borneo, Java and the lesser Sunda islands (small islands compound including Bali and the Nusa Tenggara Islands). Some say it was Atlantis, the sunken and highly civilized continent, Eden in the East says other. For whatever they may call, the Sundaland was the most possible place to nurture life and human civilization during the last Ice Age or we call it as Pleistocene Era 11 millennia ago. Other places especially the northern and south hemisphere of the earth was covered by thick ice.

Sundaland was rich with active volcanoes, as it is now. The ancient Super Volcanoes like Toba, Tambora and Krakatoa, believed to erupt at the same time around 11.000 years ago. This triggered mega tsunami and made most part of the earth covered with thick cloud. As the cloud came upon the ice, it melted down the ice cape and rising the water level around 60 meters. The event then sunken part of Sundaland and created what is now Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java and Borneo Island with the small islands on the east of Java.

The current territory now is mostly belong to Indonesia where paradise really exist. Who doesn't know Bali? a perfect escape for millions of people just to  relax and enjoy time. The number one Island for holiday rated by some travel magazines over and over again. What we do not know is that, Bali has three small islands on its southern territory, namely Nusa Lembongan, Nusa Ceningan and Nusa Penida. The last name is the biggest island of them all.

The Sundaland

The Journey Begins

I went to Nusa Lembongan long time ago, during trip organized by the company I worked for. Only to enjoy turtle breeding site. What I didn't know was that the neighboring island of Nusa Penida has so much natural beautiy to offer. Early of June 2017, I went to Nusa Penida to witness myself the natural beauty that have been shown on Instagram so many time. It was like booming on Instagram, as traveler, I couldn't possibly miss those places. So I set my trip together with my travel mate, just the two of us.

We literally arrived in Bali at midnight, the bad thing was that, Uber is not allowed to pick up passengers in Airport territory. So I took initiative to walk around to avoid airport taxies and set meeting point with the uber driver just outside the airport fences. Problem came out when the driver could not locate our location, so he went around and around the airport in order to find us. It took more than one hour waiting for Uber. I couldn't just cancel it, coz using normal taxi will charge us much more expensive than using Uber.

Once we're in the car, I got a little bit relieve. Another problem showed up when the driver could not find the alley he supposed to drop us. So we make U turn to find that particular alley. As we decided the drop zone, the alley shown on map was part of big hotel. So frustrated with the night, we ate at the nearby KFC to regain our strength and calm down our mind.

So we continued our way walking. It was a very dark and small alley, looks like the setting of a horror movies, where big trees and darkness surround us. I didn't want to get my mind filled with horror stuff, just trying to get a clear mind and hoping to find the hotel I reserved online the day before. As we walked deeper in the alley, we found only houses with very limited lighting on front. We walked following the direction of the map shown in GPS, only to get wrong address. My mate already became emotional at this particular time and started to blame me. So I blame him back for not giving solution for our problem. Finally we took the turn that wasn't shown on the map and found this damn hotel. Luckily the gate was unlocked so that we could get in and knocked the host's door. I, by heart, cursed that night to be the worst night ever, during my trip so far. I don't mind walking around the jungle in the middle of the night as long as there is a guide or a friend whom I trust to be expert doing such trip. But that night is so tiring and frustrating.

The next morning, we continue walking to the meeting point, the Sunrise Beach at Sanur. Breakfast is a must for the boat trip we didn't know how long it would be. As I met the guy called Bli Nyoman, the tour operator, he passed me two fastboat tickets departing to Nusa Penida Island, which only take around two hours journey time.

I met another Bli Nyoman, the tour guide and driver, once I step foot on the Island. He took us to the hotel, The Mel's Homestay, which was in the tour package for 1 night. After the toilet time, I met the hotel owner, Mr.Kadek, a very friendly guy, and a couple of Bule. We did the chit chat and joke around for several minutes, just to get my welcome drink finished. I didn't realize how Bules could get my jokes at that time, or maybe they just pretend to understand and laugh around so that I wouldn't embarrassed myself. Who knows?

Kelingking Beach far view

The Karst Cliff at Kelingking Beach

Klingking Beach

We departed at arround 10.00 am to our first destination, known as Kelingking Beach, some say Klingking. Kelingking literally means the small finger. Maybe it's how it looks like, I wouldn't know. Groups of other tourists, both local and Bules, were already there. But it didn't ruin the scene as they just go around taking pictures with the amazing background, the Kelingking Beach. It is actually a beach that is under a very unique shape of karst cliff facing the Indian Ocean. Maybe the early man who visit this place imagined the shape of the cliff that look like a small finger. For me, it is more like a branched small finger. Anyway, it is beautiful as hell.

This is the iconic picture of Nusa Penida Island. It is similar to the famous Zakynthos Island, the Shipwreck cove in Greece, just different in size and colors. I never been to that place, but the pictures are everywhere on the internet. It is like telling us, we don't need to go so far away in order to see such similar beauty. Indonesia has it all.

There is a semi man made steps down to the beach. So I walked down to see a better picture. The closer I get to the beach the better sighting I found. So we took pictures in many pose. It was half way down to the beach, I thought I wouldn't go further down as I will struggle hard for getting back up. I thought this place is the only one that we need to step down in order to get a better view. I was wrong, but at least not in the same day.

Nearby coastline at Kelingking Beach

Me and the stunning view

Broken Beach and Angel's Billabong

Next destination would be the Broken Beach. You read it right, it's Broken Beach, not Broken Heart or Broken Angel. Only around half an hour away from the Kelingking Beach. Another famous spot in Nusa Penida. I thought these two destinations are in one spot, I was wrong again. The beach is literally broken. It is a rocky coastline actually, where some part has collapsed creating a circular shape ravine about 8 - 10 meters deep with one big hole connecting to the ocean. Lead the upper side of that hole intact which looks like a natural bridge.

The same tourists were already there, I think Nusa Penida is not as famous as other destinations in Bali, say Ubud or the Kuta beach. It has only been two years where many tourists started to visit the Island. Local tourists especially. If we see hundreds of Bules in the same area in many parts of Bali, we could only see teens of them in Nusa Penida. Most of them rent a motorbike in order to go around the Island. Unlike us, we prefer a car to go around the unknown places. With the driver of course.

I didn't know that the other famous spot, Angel's Billabong, is just nearby the Broken Beach. So we walked in around 10 minutes to the Angel's Billabong. I have no idea how to describe the word Billabong, I will leave you with your own research regarding that word. Angel is already in English, no need to describe it further. I wasn't sure how to connect the word Angel to this particular place. It is a niche that formed a natural pool, like infinity pool in some resorts, where the pool connects directly to the open ocean. If the wave is not too high, we can literally swim on it. Just don't think to swim during the high tidal time, you might end up dead dragged by the huge wave, like the one we were seeing that time. I, personally, wasn't really amazed by the place. Only for the shake of being there, was my purpose of visiting. 

Broken Beach at Nusa Penida, Bali

Sea side of Broken Beach

Crystal Bay

Enough with Angel's Billabong, we continued our trip. Next is Chrystal Bay on the west coast of the Island. This beach supposedly beautiful and enchanting if we came earlier. Unluckily, we arrived at the afternoon. So the sun is already on the west horizon, makes the water reflect the sunlight like a mirror. I like the tosca or turqoise beach, it didn't happen. So I just sit around and drink coconut water as if I'm in tropical beach, indeed I was. I wasn't so curious with the sunset at Chrystal Bay, coz I got exhausted by the trip. So then we decided to drive back to the hotel.

The different between Indonesian (including me) and Bule tourists is that, Indonesian visit the touristic place just to get the pictures, and once they feel enough, they would leave the place and go to another. Bules, on the other hand, just stop there to enjoy the view as much as they can. If possible, they would go to the beach, sit on the cozy couch and relax from the morning to evening. Do the chat with locals and drinks coconut water, like they were in paradise.

Broken Beach

Me and Angel's Billabong

Me and Travel mate

Reflected sunlight

Chrystal Bay at Nusa Penida, Bali

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Greenbay a.k.a Teluk Hijau, Banyuwangi's best beach

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Greenbay at Meru Betiri National Park

The Journey Begins

"Why is the name Greenbay?" I asked myself. So I searched everything about it on the internet and saw some pictures of it. Now I see why, the water looks green, as simple as that. It is a beach located at Banyuwangi south coast apart of Meru Betiri National Park. I have been wanting to go there for the past 2 years. I didn't get a chance until I saw a cheap open trip to Greenbay on Instagram last March 2017. The second I get the information, Me and my friend booked the trip right away. It was only for IDR 250K, and there wasn't a better deal than that.

I, actually, wasn't so sure if the trip is for real. It might be a scam, some people just post an open trip and gain money out of it, but then, the trip never happen. Thanks God it was real, I met the tour guide-supposedly, right after I arrived in the meeting point. Few other participants were also there waiting for the minibus to depart. Once everyone is at the meeting point, we started our journey.

Despite of 5 hours drive from Surabaya to Banyuwangi Regency, it took only 4 hours to get there. The driver drove the car quite a speed. It was one hour before we reach the Meru Betiri National Park, we stopped by at small Musholla- a muslim praying building. Which is actually apart of some Islamic Saint tomb. Everyone get down to perform Subuh prayer. We were at Mount Gumitir, area with dangerously meandered roads.

Meru Betiri National Park

The sun had emerged in the east when we arrived at Meru Betiri National Park. All I could see was nothing but a dense jungle on both sides of the road. The road itself seem to be far away from the word maintenance. It used to be covered with asphalt in, I don't know, decades ago. Only a few kilometers, a village is seen. It is the Pesanggrahan Village, part of our destination. I asked the driver, how could a village established in the middle of a National Park. He replied to me, the village was there long before the jungle bear National Park status. It does make sense.

Rajegwesi Beach, starting point before Greenbay

Scenery at Rajegwesi

Small Cliff going to Greenbay

The Rajegwesi Beach, Where it all Starts

Not far from our parking point, a beach in brown volcano sand appeared, decorated with many multicolored small fisherman's boats. I couldn't wait for the rest of us to get to the beach, so I went alone to get a picture of my own at the Rajegwesi Beach. "Rajeg" means fences and "wesi" means steel, so it is literally mean a fence made of steel. The local said that long ago, during the Japanese occupation, the Japanese troops set a serial fence made of huge steel bars in the middle of the sea not far from the beach. It purpose is for defense against the enemy's attack from the sea.

A Perfect Escape in Greenbay

After a stomach filling breakfast, we departed on one of the fisherman's boat. It took about 20 to 30 minutes to get to Greenbay. The surrounding area is eyes spoiling, there is a cliff bordered with the sea about 15 to 20 meters high with dense green lush on the top of it. "It is green" I told to myself, as I saw the beach from far view. The closer we get, the more beautiful the beach to be. A perfect combination of white sand and crystal clear water, with dense trees as the background and rocky shores on both edges. The most beautiful beach, on the East Java south coast, so far.

Me arriving at Greenbay

Me

Boat arriving at Greenbay

My heart couldn't stop pounding, all I want to do is to jump of the boat and swimming around, and I did. Fortunately, there were no crowd at the time. So the scene is just perfect for pictures. I remember the Maya Bay beach in Phi phi Island, Krabi, Thailand. Only less people, and minus the high limestone cliffs as background, though the water is clearer here.

My beloved underwater camera has become a  truly best friend for the moment. Though they might not be the best pictures in photography, it captured the best moments I have, and it is all I ever wanted. The white sand is so smooth, and the water is so green. Luckily the sun shine brightly, what of the beach without sunshine right? But wait, I don't see any Bules here. I think this place is out of their knowledge, which is good. Once a Bule (Caucasian tourist) step foot on the beach, the rest will just follow in short time. And they will be all over the beach. I'm not against Bules, only that this beach will look better with less people.

West corner at Greenbay

Rocky corner at Greenbay

Catching the wave at Greenbay

I went around from one corner to another, searching for the best angle taking the beach photos. At the west corner we can see piles of big rocks with trees on top of it decorating the scene. And not far from that point, there is a sign written Welcome to Greenbay, famous spot to take picture with. I sat on the small underwater rocks and enjoy the scenes in meditation position. Trying to absorb the nature's energy. It keeps failing, coz the scene is just too tempt for another more pictures.

So I decided to go in the middle of the beach catching the waves. There's nothing I could get over here but enjoyment. The excitement has reached the peak in my head. I feel like I'm already in paradise, without being death. Every corner of Greenbay is beautiful to me. No words can truly express this Eden on earth.

The rest of the activity was to swim around and taking more pictures. I forgot to mention that there is a small waterfall on the east corner of the beach. It usually used by visitors to wash themselves with fresh water from the waterfall. I did it too, then just sitting around watching people enjoying the beach. It is noon and more people are coming. I talked to the seem to be local baywatch, he said that the average visitors in a day can reach 50 to 60 people, and it will be doubled during the weekends. Moreover, during public holidays, more people will come and they usually set a camp here. I said "Wow, maybe I should do the same".

My tour guide has been calling us to get on the boat. It is time to go back now. We still have another destination to visit as part of the tour package. At first, I didn't wanna go coz it's hard for me to leave the place. I wanna stay longer here and enjoy the beach for more. At the end, if I'm not coming to the boat, how will I get home later. So we departed with the same boat taking us to the beach earlier. I said goodbye to this beautiful beach by heart. I promise that I will come again later and stay longer.

Man walking on the beach at Greenbay

White Sand at Greenbay

Greenbay a.k.a Teluk Hijau

Tiny wave at Greenbay

Greenbay, Pesanggrahan Village, Banyuwangi

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Pandawa Beach, The Beach Inspired by War Winners

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Pandawa Beach

Pandawa

I'm not sure why this beach is named in such way. Pandawa is the name for five Brothers that went to war with their cousins which were considered as Villain called Kurawa in the Mahabharata epic. The story is the symbols of Good vs Evil where the Winners in the end, Pandawa, symbolized the good and Kurawa played the opposite role. Anyway, still I can't answer the question in the beginning of this paragraph.

The beach lies on the south tip of the Paradise Island, Bali. It was hidden by the limestone hills. It is impossible to reach the beach if the local government did not make the roads by demolishing part of the limestone hills. As we all know, The Island of Bali depends so much from its tourism as non-tax domestic income. As world class tourism destination, the Balinese must aware of anything that could become tourism objects, like this beach for example. Anyway, I've never heard about the Pandawa Beach untill a year ago.

My vacation in Bali was nothing but a surprise. When I went back from shopping, my neighbor asked where I would go for Christmas holidays. I said I might go to Malang and he said that he will go to Bali by driving alone, then he offered me and my roommate to join, how could I say no! So it was a sudden trip, we depart at 00.30 a.m. West Indonesia Time, and arrived in Bali at 10.30 a.m Bali time (central Indonesia time) after one and a half hour on ferry crossing Bali Strait, then continued another 5 to 6 hours drive to reach the beach. Since we used the Waze app, a GPS application, the driving hours got longer than expected.

Pandawa Beach is close to the other newly famous beach, the Melasti Beach. I didn't know until I went back home to Surabaya. Four o'clock in the afternoon we arrived at the Pandawa Beach. The road offers unique beauty of limestone hills, the newly built gate to the beach made of limestone crafted beautifully in Balinese style. 

Since we arrived late, I thought there would be less visitor, I was wrong. There were still visitors arriving to the beach, I found many of them enjoying the view from the road side nearby the cliff. We stopped there too to get pictures of our own. From this point, we could see the beach from far view, it's beautiful, the straight line borders between blue ocean water and the beach white to yellowish sand stretched 1 km west to east.

On the other side of the road we can find the Statues of Pandawa and their mother Dewi Kunti. Started by the statue of 2 meters tall Dewi Kunti then Dharma Wangsa or Yudhistira, Bima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sadewa in Balinese style of stone-craft. Each placed on the man-made cave on the cliff-side. Enough with the photos we took on this site we move down to the beach. From the start I didn't want to get wet so I didn't change my trouser. But the wave were quite big, so I get wet half of my body. I prefer to swim in the calm water like in Gili Labak. I have childhood trauma on the south beach of Jogjakarta where I almost swept away to the ocean by the similar wave. Though it look more save here.

I saw my friends enjoying their time playing around in the water. We argued a little when I proposed my friend to get ready for another spot, Uluwatu, to watch Kecak Dance and to see beautiful sunset. He refused, he said that he rarely go to the beach and he really enjoy playing on the beach, so I stopped arguing in the end. I got starved so I bought food on the foodshop nearby. When I sat on the beach couch with huge umbrella, someone came to me that I need to pay for 50k in order to enjoy the beach on the couch. Wow, I had to pay for just sitting there? of course I refused, then I sat on the sand and enjoy my coconut drink and snack I bought.

I'm not really a fan of this beach, coz the wave do not allow me to swim. But, it is a good experience just for the shake of "have been there". The beach is quite famous, so if people asks have I ever been to the Pandawa Beach, I'd say yes I have.

At 05.30 p.m we depart to our hotel in Seminyak, the Maxone hotel, at Jl.Petitenget Seminyak, Bali. We booked on our way via Traveloka App. We enjoy the night in Bali eating the hot Penyetan nearby the hotel. So hot until I got sweat a lot. There are a lot of nice cafes on Seminyak, and of course a lot of Bules. Only that there's no Christmas signs at all, it was like a normal daily holiday. 

    

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Tanjung Papuma, Serenity in Nature's Beauty

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Tanjung Papuma Beach

South Beaches

The southern coast of East Java is blessed with beautiful & exotic beaches. Stretched from Pacitan on the west to Banyuwangi on the east. Unlike on the north that has shallow and muddy waters, East Java's south coastal beaches are mostly a white sand and clear water beach, with its huge famous tidal wave. Often, swimming on these beaches are prohibited. There were many lives have gone due to the wave. But the wave itself could be the main attraction for adrenaline sport lovers a.k.a the surfers. Each year, they have world class surfing competition at G-Land Bay on the tip of Banyuwangi Regency. Its wave is world class, many surfers from around the world come to do the challenge.

Pasir Putih Manikam, Papuma

The beach I am going to talk about is somehow close enough to that surfing beach. It is at Papuma peninsula, a small peninsula facing the  Indian ocean on the south. It is called Papuma Beach. The name Papuma itself is abbreviation from " Pasir Putih Manikam", literally meaning the very small white sands. It's true, the sands on Papuma beach is like grain, very small. It is located at Jember Regency at the region of Ambulu East java. It is not difficult to find the beach, there are signs on the road heading to this beach.

Last weekend was my traveling time since I had one more off days after the long weekend. My first plan was to go to Bawean Island, since it'll cost a lot and I wasn't on the budget, so, me and my friend decided to go to Jember to Tanjung Papuma Beach. We rode motorcycle and departing around 00.30 a.m. in the morning. I like to depart around that time coz in the next morning we will arrive to the destination. It took around 7 - 8 hours ride from Surabaya to Jember (normally around 5 hours).

Like usual, we stopped for a rest on place the Indonesian usually made of bamboo on the roadside, I don't really know what its name. And another hour we stopped because of the rain, it was already close to district Ambulu. Untill we arrived at the Tanjung Papuma Beach around 8.30.

Route Surabaya - Tanjung Papuma

It was public holiday, the birth day of Muslim's Prophet Muhammad, more like Christmas but less in celebrations. There were a lot of people visiting the beach. Since it is a peninsula, there are two beaches we can enjoy, the famous one is the one on the east side where we can find food shops parking lot and the bungalows run by Forestry Department of Indonesia (Perhutani). I went straight to the western side of the peninsula, less people with majestic view of Indian Ocean.

Google Earth View of Tanjung Papuma Beach

The water clarity on the western side is better than the one on east side, most people doesn't know about the western side, they only know that Tanjung Papuma Beach is the one on the east. Most of the pictures on the Internet is showing the eastern part of Tanjung Papuma Beach. I never like visiting destinations with people crowd, besides it's disturbing my background view of the photos, the natural feeling of the place becomes less than it should be.

Once we found the spot to built our camp, me and my friend went straight to the beach to hunt photos. The water doesn't show blue color like the one in Gili Labak Island, due to the bottom of the seabed that mostly sea rocks and others. The white sands are mainly on the land side, this is because the wave always carrying the sands to the coastal area. Mixed with circular stones with variations in color makes the beach looks so exotic. On the north we can see high cliffs that stand strong facing the Indian Ocean. There are two small rocky Islands as the background view, and also at the far southwest we can see the Island of Nusa Barong, the Island of Snakes they say.

Rocky Islands

We spent hours taking pictures with many poses, it's too bad that the clouds were not supporting our activity. Most of the day are cloudy and the sun disappeared most of the time. It didn't stop me to get nice photos when the sun showed up once at a time. There were few people built their camp here, it's not officially a camp site, the official campsite is the one on the east side of the peninsula. One ranger went to us to take retribution for camping and he suggested that we moved our camp to the east coast. He told us that there was a robbery the night before when a bunch of travelers lost their belongings which cost around IDR 20 Millions. Such a bad news for a place like this. All the time we argued whether we're gona camp here or move to Jember to stay for the night. But than we decided to sleep at the hotel in the Jember City.

Our Camp

Midday felt like as if it is already in the evening, I decided to cook the instant porridge as our lunch. Enough with our meal we took a walk around the beach enjoying the serenity view of the nature God has given to us. Around three o'clock we packed our stuff and move to Jember City to get a hotel, turns out to be a scary old hotel in the middle of the city.

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