Fioritura Fiori: Two Out of Thousand Islands

June 28, 2010

Two Out of Thousand Islands

Posted by MaYaNG's @ 9:03 PM

In 2010, Kep. Seribu (Thousand Islands) suddenly became one of the most visited tourism site in Jakarta. In my opinion part of it is probably because the Jaks are just fed up with the highways, skyscrapers, malls, fusion foods, and branded fashions. This is proven later, when I went to Pulau Tidung, one out of thousands islands at Kep. Seribu.

So it all starts with a mass email at my office, few of the youngsters are planning to for a weekend gateaway. And with a few click here and there at Google, Facebook, and Kaskus, we found this amateur travel agent whose expertise is providing accomodations & trips to P. Tidung *info will be available later*. They even offer various packages you can choose, right from cheap to slightly expensive (as the most expensive trip will only be around 400.000 IDR). Make sure to travel in large groups, as the price will be cheaper, plus they also have minimum limits of people for each group. I guess this is will make them easier in head counting and arranging transportation & guest house. You see, the transportation that we used to reach P. Tidung is a big boat that can fit around 150 people, without seats. So we will all be sitting on the deck, and sometimes to reach your assigned boat, you will need to jump over other boats. The boat sails from Muara Angke Port and it takes around two hours before we reached P. Tidung.

As an inhabited island, you willactually find this place a bit dirty. I guess it is no wonder, as it is a really small island, in the middle of the sea, and quite populated, so sanitation will be an issue. If the governments are really serious to build this place as one of tourism spot then they need to came up with ideas that can:

harmonize tourists with locals
preserve the natural beauty
provide more facilities without making it too commercialize

Despite all that, P. Tidung is still worth the visit for a cheap weekend getaway. Especially if you're going there with friends. Bring your guitar, some fireworks, some cards. Because when the night came the only entertainment you can get is singing, talking nonsense, playing fireworks or cards, BBq-ing at the pier or shore under the moonlight. Yap, no honking cars, no house music, it's a stress free zone.

If you're going for the complete package, you will be provided with bicycle to ride around the island, plus snorkeling kit. This P. Tidung is actually consist of two islands, P. Tidung Besar where the people live, and P. Tidung Kecil which is uninhabited and surrounded by mangrove. To reach P. Tidung Kecil, all you need to do is bike to the east of P. Tidung Besar and cross a bridge that connects the two island. This bridge is called Jembatan Cinta (Love Bridge). I don't know why it's named that way, but surely a walk along the wooden bridge while waiting for sunset or sunrise is actually nice.

When I was there, we took another boat ride to snorkel at P. Karang Beras. Once here, you really need to look around for the best spot. And be really careful with the coral reef, some coral reefs are still too young and will easily break if you use it as supports. I found the snorkeling really entertaining, but I guess, the place is not as mesmerizing as Ujung Kulon's Citerjun.

To wrap this up, I give this place 3stars. Don't think will miss it much, but P. Tidung definitely makes me want to visit other islands at Kep. Seribu.