9 MARCH 2016
The alarm has been ringing several times at 3.15 am to wake me up haha...that is the best one I can do to manage my sleeping time, slept late the night before did not mean to wake up late, oh please I better sleep in Jakarta than here, my itinerary is really rush today. We were finally ready at 4.00 am, hotel prepared us fried rice in a take away box, we decided to eat at the hotel and at 4.15 am we left heading to Tanjung Kelayang beach. In the quiet road we can see this small Tanjung Pandan town look not so busy on the D day, just found some cars on the same road with us. This is not Jakarta so not to be worry with the traffic. Road from Tanjung Pandan Town to Tanjung Kelayang beach is not the big one, it is sufficient for one car each route. Yes the TSE chasers are here on their way haha...
Arrived at Tanjung Kelayang before 5 am, I saw so many cars have been parked and many TSE Chasers are around. We follow the flow, going to the beach side and waiting that event to be starting. There is a stage, theater seats are built facing up the stage, in the area that closed to the beach. I saw people bring the mattress (and some bring newspaper too) to the beach haha..good preparation, i like local people here. Ohh, I met Jakartans people a lot too, knowing them from the dialect of course, everyone looks be patient to wait for the TSE time shows. FYI, The sunrise started at 6 am, the sky looks red and gold and it lies in the horizon BUT too much cloud covering the sun. Arrghh, sun was hiding behind the cloud and yes it has been predicted already by the Meteorology office (BMG). But for the chaser like us, it doesn't matter though we only see the small part and process of this rare phenomenon, it was absolutely fine. Actually at 6.20 am the Sun is starting to be covered by the moon but because Sun is hiding behind those thick cloud we cannot see it / the process properly. Finally with the special Spectacles we can see the process around 7 am as I remembered, the process took one hour so the Total Solar Eclipse looks perfect at 7.20 AM. To describe it, I can't say much only I praise the Lord Almighty for the beautiful stunning view that I can see through the special TSE glasses. How gold is the sun and the dark slowly cover that beautiful gold sun, words can't describe only and amazing feeling I got. Oh, I can't capture the picture to the sun straight away because the instruction is we must use the spectacle but must take it off every 15 minutes thus I have no idea how I must took the picture through my spectacles. I saw some people put the spectacles into their mobile phone screen and phone is direct the phone camera facing to the sun, that is a beautiful capturing technique btw. And of course I also can get the picts from them lol, because mine is only like a messy light when i try to capture without the spectacles directly to the sun. Here is those pictures that I can collect from the guys at the scene
Witnesses are happy and claps their hands when the TSE happened in 2 minutes 10 second, I joined in a euphoria (checked it on my video too). It is amazing I can witness this rare phenomenon in my life. First time actually in 1983 I was just a young kid and my mom locked us, me and my sister in the house, closed all the window and covered it with curtain ahhhh...that was in the past when we still get very few information about this TSE (Gerhana Matahari Total) phenomenon. Time changes, we have been really educated in recent days, ohh and actually according to the expert if cloudy, we can even see the sun directly because the light is not too shine into the eyes. But I keep not seeing the sun directly for sure, if seeing it, must wear that spectacles, so I keep the rules on.
Well, about 5000 thousands people joined in the crowd at this time at Tanjung Kelayang beach. The Tourism minister was here and the Minister of Transportation was here too joined the crowd (and actually Mr. Jokowi was planed to be here too but the visit was canceled).
Well, after 2 mins 10 sec we enjoyed the 'first Twilight' at the day because the situation was not like at night but it was exactly like a Twilight, that means the sun has been down to the horizon, STUNNING and TREMENDOUS view, exactly we all enjoyed that time. Thank you God Almighty for His blessing for me to see this rare phenomenon.
Shortly after the moon slowly left its shadow covering the sun, we feel very hot, too shinny then the crowd slowly dismissed, but the event has not done yet, there are Bazaar, Music, local dancing and a lot more as a series of the TSE event. However we have to leave Tanjung Kelayang for the Island hopping, we know that the Island Hopping is the VERY famous attraction in Belitung. Anyway, i am not the sun worshiper & the sun chaser either but crossing the ocean with the boat is an adventuring part that I like, hop on/off from the boat is an exciting one. Well, I have hired the boat that can carry up to 15 people inside for IDR.400,000 and the life vest cost IDR.25,000 per person, the snorkeling stuff at IDR.50,000 per person. But I did not rent the snorkeling one, only the life vest as it is a must required equipment one. So we started the journey of Island hopping activity at 9 am.
Lengkuas Island
We decided to go to this island that seems very far away from Tanjung Kelayang beach first, it took about 45 mins from Tanjung Kelayang pier and here on this Island there is a famous Lighthouse built by Dutch stands. I like this island, of course it is just a small one, only stand a Lighthouse complex and the local eateries that sold hot and cold drinks, noodles and some snacks. But it is amazing when we found the granite stones at the end of the island on the right side with various stones and beautiful scenery for selfie with Tongsis (the Selfie Stick) haha or capturing with drone, also the fact that the sand is sooo white here will make the pictures look so stunning beautiful and amazing. All in all, however, we are really not lucky when we found that Lighthouse is closed for public entrance, it is very disappointed but that is the fact we must accept it. People said that actually according to the goverment rules, the lighthouse cannot be entered by tourist, but okay if the rules said so, thus it is confirmed that I can't get the stunning view from the above hikksss..hiksss... So selfie at the stones and around the light house were enough at this time. And ohh how about the boat ? It can only be parked nearby the beach side, not even that close one as only few boat could park right on the beach so the crew told us that they will be on our right side a bit far & just waving out our hands they will approach us (heyyy did they recognize us from the distance ?? Wow it is a good vision then lol) but that is perfect they know us. So after enjoying the island we moved quickly to other island, it is called Kepayang Island.
Kepayang Island
Here there is one and only restaurant and the Eco Resort here. This island is more bigger than Lengkuas Island but same white beach sand with granite stones too. Nothing to see more here but it is still interesting one of course and swimming here is good, because it is more quiet.
Batu Berlayar Island
We moved to Batu Berlayar Island, very small island only sands and the stones here but the view is an amazing one, we can be wet here too, play with water among the stones. Because this island is very small, only 3 boats can park here, so we have to queue wait for one of them left.
It could take about 20 mins here because you only need selfie here as much as you can, you can produce very stunning view here.
Pulau Pasir
We skipped this Island, because the tide is high and this island only appear when the tide is low, it is a only the white sand but it's beautiful if you want to catch the stunning photo
Because I was not bring the complete sun battle equipment, I decided to go back to the pear at Tanjung Kelayang, time showed almost 1 pm, hungryyyyy stomach hikss, it has already made me weak hahaha...Oh well, the driver rushing pick us up and we asked him the recommendation for seafood restaurant for our lunch. He brought us to Tanjung Binga, however there are a lot of seafood restaurants at Tanjung Kelayang and along Tanjung Tinggi but he dropped us at Tanjung Binga. The restaurant is fine, food is nice enough only the price is a bit shocking. However we really enjoy the Gangan (Fish soup) here, my friend ordered the grilled fish and this one is the most expensive one *_*, make sure you have to ask the price before you order the food if there is no price on it. Anyway we are on holiday so not a big problem, but I really do not like the treatment if it is totally different with local price hikksss..Well, the sambal is super lekker, very good taste because they used Jeruk Kunci (local lemon) to splash on that sambal, thus not a problem for the price issue only a note lol.
After feeling so full then we continued to Tanjung Tinggi beach. Honestly speaking here is the best spot for photography due the many stones with the very different sizes and ages, stones are huge and old. Again we have to deal with the sun (smileeee) my skin finally burns !! no questions but it does, hikss hikkss cryingg...mmm but that is fine. Until 1,5 month later when I completed this story, my skin color still stay a bit dark brown maybe mut wait till 3 months later to get it normal again hikksss...Ohh here this is the place where the famous Laskar Pelangi movie shooting venue and scenes, there is a signage about this. You can also swim here but most of the people come here only to take the pictures for sure, because you can get many spot of an amazing view. So do not prepare for swim or sun bathing here. This beach is a little bit close to the road, fyi.
TANJUNG TINGGI BEACH
After enjoy beaches (not all of course) we feel enough, my skin has burned and I feel pain already, we left to Bukit Berahu (Berahu Hill) to enjoy the sunset there. Time showed at 4pm, it took 30 mins to arrive at Bukit Berahu from Tanjung Tinggi beach. It is really in a hill but Bukit Berahu spot actually inside the Bukit Berahu Hotel & Resort. The place is really cool for relaxing, chit chat, beer, snacks and wait for the sunset. We ordered drinks here and banana platter and we check out the price for seafood at the restaurant, Oh wow..it is actually a little bit cheaper than the restaurant in Tanjung Binga, weww...if we know from the beginning we will come here and having lunch here for sure, it is a decent restaurant, clean, comfortable and it is truly a restaurant with an affordable price, cool, LIKE this place. Oh the entrance fee here is at IDR. 5000 inclusive the welcome drink, could be choices of a hot tea, hot coffee or mineral water. It is cheap actually. The beach is down the hill, there is an access, the stair down to the white sand beach from the resort complex. I was happy to chill out myself here until the twilight come. Thus, we enjoyed Belitung from the hill, with a glass of beer make your feeling complete for today. Well, we must move to the city because we still have to buy some more local snacks and again I wanted to eat Mie Belitung at Mie Atep and plan to order few portion to take away to Jakarta for tomorrow. Argghh...the day is over but still left an exciting foot step in my mind.
We back to the hotel around 7.30pm, actually we wanted to visit the museum in town but it was closed at 5pm so we did not had a chance to visit it but today is enough for me, I need more sleep and rest and of course the hot shower.
-Continued-
