28 November 2014

Thousand Happiness from Thousand Islands (Kepulauan Seribu)





This holiday travel to Thousand Islands or Kepulauan Seribu is another old trip that I make in early 2010. Well, the good memories there are hard to keep only for myself, so that is why I share it here. 

Thousand Islands is just a few hours from Jakarta, Indonesia.

I start the trip with some friends by gathering at Kota, the China Town in Jakarta. From there, we go to Muara Angke port in North Jakarta to take a big ship that takes us to Pramuka Island. It takes around 3 hours to arrive in Pramuka Island. On the way from Muara Angke port to Prramuka Island, I can see dirty and oily water on the sea, and the water does not smell nice. I am wondering if this is the kind of water that I will see in our destination. Let me see what happen, okay! 

From Pramuka Island, we take small boat that has been prepared by our guide to go to Bira Island, the place where we will stay. It takes around 2 hours to arrive in Bira Island. The small boat can take from 10 to 15 people inside it. On the way from Pramuka Island to Bira Island, I start to see that the quality of the water is getting better and the colour is a bit dark green. When we almost arrive at Bira Island, I can see that the water is clear and clean. Woho! This is what we want!

We arrive in Bira Island in the late afternoon, so we take our time to have late lunch. While we eat our lunch, it is beautiful to see some black Sea Urchins or Sea Hedgehogs in the shallow water, especially near the quay. If I walk a few meters from the beach, I can meet many black Sea Urchins on the water. Pretty!
After lunch, we start to sail from one corner to the others to know a bit about the sea around the Bira Island. It is a huge sea and it is beautiful. Some of us have prepared the snorkelling equipments. So yeah, we just jump to the sea and meet the beautiful fishes. But it does not happen to long as the sky becomes dark. We need to go back to the Bira Island and rest.
While resting, I can hear the sound of the waves at the sea. It is so beautiful and peaceful. Some of us singing and the others burning the woods to light up our sitting place. We sing and laugh. Such a happy moment!

The next day, we wake up very early to have an early breakfast. Why? Because we want to hit the sea very early too! Yeha!
So that day, we do island hopping from one island to the other. Some of the islands are owned by the Indonesian rich people and they have helipad areas in their islands. Wow!




Between the islands, I can see mangrove forrest, pandanus trees, coconut palm trees, and the white sands over the islands. Beautiful!

We also snorkel around the islands and meet our beautiful sea friends. Oh they are so pretty! I love them!




What we need to be careful is the waves and the Sea Urchins! I give up fighting with the waves while snorkelling, so I let one of the guides to drag me to the boat. Oh well ;-D

And I almost step on some Sea Urchins while snorkelling, if the guide does not catch my feet and lift them up. If I step on the Sea Urchins, I will get fever and sick.
In the late afternoon, we go back to the Bira Island and watch the sunset from the pier. So beautiful!




The next day, we wake up very very very early again. No, not because we want to sail again this day as this is our last day, but because we want to see the sunrise. Yes, the sunrise there is beautiful! I also have the chance to practice my yoga there. Double beautiful, double happiness!




We go home to Jakarta by taking a special boat that chartered by some high school students, so we do not have to get to the small boat first then the big ship one, and we can go straightly to Muara Angke port without having to stop by at Pramuka Island. God bless the students!

By the way, one of the days in the Thousand Island is my birthday, so I take this trip as a birthday present for myself. Happy Birthday, Astrid!

Enjoy your holiday trip, guys!

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