Gili Labak, a Little Paradise in Madura

0

Gili Labak Island

Travel Ever After

Talking about weekend, our brain will automatically spin around searching for possible destinations that we can spend during the off days. Right now I'm thinking about Bawean Island, an Island lies on the Java Sea that is 120 km away north from Gresik Town in East Java. But this will hopefully be done in the coming long weekend.

Right now I'm not talking about Bawean Island since I haven't been there, instead, I will talk about the trip I recently did last weekend. I didn't have quite long weekend last week, since I had to go to work on Saturday. But this didn't stop me to do my trip to Gili Labak, though it almost canceled.

Gili Labak

I, actually, had been there once before, but the feeling has almost gone. So this time I felt like being there for the first time. I had more joy-able time and more great pictures. I searched for info of open trip to Gili Labak on Instagram, luckily I found this account - @gililabaktrevel - that   have open trip during weekend with affordable price. No, I didn't write it wrong, it's written 'trevel' not 'travel' and please don't ask me why.

Spot At Gili Labak

Once we reached the Gili Labak Island, my eyes couldn't blink for a while. I couldn't believe I was here again. The sea, the beach, the Island, everything remains the same, it was as beautiful as it is before. The traveler crowd were more or less the same. But I saw more food shops from the local residents, each with the sign written "Welcome to Gili Labak island".

The Famous Welcome Sign

Gili actually means Island, so the original name of the Island is Labak Island. But people already get use to the name Gili Labak. It is one of 150 small Islands nearby The main Island of Madura, some of them are quite big such Puteran, Sapudi and the Kangean Islands. As I was told by the boat owner after my breakfast, the name might comes from the word "Lambak" wich means a long time in local language, in Indonesian becomes "Lama". So the story goes that people used to feel that to reach this Island takes a long time.

Crystal clear water, white sand beach, and last but not least the bright sunshine, everything about tropical paradise we can see on this truly tropical Island. The best spot I could find was the one with the sign written "Welcome to Hidden Paradise Gili Labak". Unlike my previous visit, there were  a lot of Pine Trees planted along the beach here. From this moment I realized that the people started to have the awareness to preserve the Island existence. I didn't see lot of trash across the beach which is good.

Hidden Paradise Sign

There are many activities that we can do on this Island besides tanning or doing sunbathe. We can do snorkeling to see the remaining coral reefs and fishes, I said remaining because most of the coral reefs were damaged. But still, it was fun to play around with the fishes and taking underwater photos or videos. We can also camp here for a night or two as I did before, the locals wouldn't mind to see young people build their camp around the beach. They only have electricity after 18.00 pm to 06.00 am. So need no worry about the night without lights or recharging your mobile phone. Moreover, food shops and public restroom are easy to find.

So I thought I had to go far away from the place I live to find such Tropical Paradise, I was wrong. I haven't explore my own region fully. There are a lot to explore in East Java. Madura, the Island that I thought had nothing worth to visit, has many beautiful places like Gili Labak Island. The only thing I need is more time and more money, so that I can explore more and write more. That's the main point here. I want to be a professional Travel Writer, and write more about Tourism Destinations in Indonesia.

Crystal Clear Water at Gili Labak Island

Underwater Beauty at Gili Labak Island

Boats taking passengers from Kalianget

Beach at Gili Labak

Complete Story »

There's more than meet the eyes in Madura

0

Madura Island

Madura Maduratna

Madura, an Island on the north of eastern Java that connected to Surabaya City by the Suramadu Bridge. The Suramadu Bridge is considered as the longest bridge ever built in Indonesia, it's stretched for about 5.4 km long with two huge pillars at the center of the bridge crossing the Madura Strait. Madura is 5.168 km2 wide that stretched 180 km long from the west to the east and around 40 km width from the north to south.

If I am talking about Madura, it reminds me of a lot of thing. Mostly negative though, but this is only stereotype given to the Madurese people. They say that the Madurese people are bad people. Wherever we find Madurese, trouble will come. It is true that Madurese have commonly high tempered, that they like to cheat other people in many things, but this is not always the case. I went to Madura Island for several time. I only found good people. This make me think that maybe only those who live outside Madura are the one that make the bad stereotype.

Most of the land are dry land, it is a flat land with only few hills exist. During dry season, we rarely see green lush from the trees. Everything got dried, the land itself is not a fertile land. If tourists heard about the Island of Madura, they will surely not interested to visit the Island. They think that there is nothing good or interesting places to see in Madura. But they were wrong, There are actually more to see in Madura.

Kangean Islands

One thing that they did not know is that, Madura territory comprises not only one Island, it has more than 150 Islands which most of them are on the east side of Sumenep Regency. Say the Sapudi Island, Raas Island, and more to the east we can find Kangean Islands. Gili Labak is a newly well known island for the local travelers. It is a small Island two hours away from the Kalianget seaport in Sumenep. The Island has crystal clear water with white sand on the beach. It's a new paradise for the local travelers.

Gili Labak

 On the mainland they have the Toroan Waterfall, a unique waterfall where the water falls directly to the Java Sea. It's a mixture between a waterfall landscape and coastal landscape. At here we can also take a nice picture of ourselves with the Java Sea as background. Toroan Waterfall is on the north coast of Sampang Regency.

Toroan Waterfall

Sumenep Regency has long historical story dated back to the 14th century AD during Singasari Kingdom to The Great Majapahit Empire. It was one of special territory within the kindoms where the leader of the region was called Adipati, or Governor at present time. The most famous one was Adipati Arya Wiraraja, one that helped Raden Wijaya to establish the Kingdom of Majapahit. Once the Majapahit Empire collapsed, it became an independence small kingdom/state lead by the descendant of the Adipati. Here we can find historical remains such the Masjid Agung Sumenep or the Grand Mosque of Sumenep and the tombs of the kings. Sumenep also have the famous beach named Slopeng Beach that grows Beach She-Oak all over the place.

Bukit Kapur 2

On the west side of the Mainland, Bangkalan Regency, we can find two limestone hills namely Bukit Kapur and Bukit Jeddih. The first one is the left over limestone mine which created a magnificent structure of limestone caves. The second one is the limestone mine on the go, though the people is still mining the limestone bricks, the others make it as tourist destination. It even have blue colored lake, which was dug by the miners to get the limestone bricks.

Bukit Kapur 1

Not to mention the Mandangin Island on the south of Sampang Regency. Though the Island is already crowded by the people who lives on the north side, it still have pristine Tosca beach on the south with an Island extension called Batu Candi, that make it perfect to hunt Sunset. I went here twice though, and more visits to come.

So, there it is, more or less, that I can tell you about the beauty of Madura Island. I promised myself to discover more about the Island on the next trip, and tell you more about it in future. I hope this will inspire you to do the same exploration I did before, even more. 

Mandangin Island

      

Complete Story »