This Is Journey X ADCOM

On Monday early morning in Soekarno Hatta Airport, we were already at the airport to do check in for flight to Sumba. This time we did the outing trip with ADCOM. Everything went smoothly, and we were already on the plane ready for boarding. After waited for 10 minutes inside the plane, there was an announcement from Pilot, telling us that due to Mt. Agung eruption, all the flights from and to Bali are cancelled, Ngurah Rai airport is closed until tomorrow. We went back to the gate and discussed about what we gonna do for the plan B since ADCOM already take day off for 4 days. After trying to call some helps and browse so many option for reroute tickets and looked up some destination, we finally decided to go to Belitung since it’s easier to go.

It was the longest 11 hours waiting at the airport until we finally boarded our flight to go to Belitung. We landed at Tanjung Pandan Airport around 5pm, and straight away we headed for dinner at Restaurant Pak Udi, close to our hotel, Premiere Santika Beach Resort, about 45 minutes from Tanjung Pandan. Back to hotel, everyone was really exhausted and ready to have some sleep after such a long day.

The next day, we did some Islands Hopping. We were so lucky that it wasn’t raining the whole day so we could enjoy a bit of sun. We spent the day swimming and relaxing until lunch time at the famous Lengkuas Island. This island has a white lighthouse built by Dutch Colonial in 1882. Too bad, we could go up until 3rd floor only. They closed the rest of the floor because the stairs are too fragile if too many people comes and step on them. After lunch we went for snorkeling not too far from Lengkuas Island. The visibility was not clear enough, but many of us just loved to float and swimming around the boat, enjoying the salt water and the weather. After snorkeling we went to Pulau Kelayang Kecil, which is smaller and more private than Pulau Kelayang.

After finished the Islands Hopping, we went to Pantai Tanjung Tinggi which is famous as Pantai Laskar Pelangi, because the famous movie Laskar Pelangi by Andrea Hirata, did some scenes here. It was beautiful beach and very clean. But too bad, the sunset was too cloudy so we decided to go back to hotel to have shower before dinner.

Day 3 at Belitung Island, we went for road trip and do some Laskar Pelangi tour. We went to SD Muhammadiyah Gantong, the school where Laskar Pelangi did most of their scenes for the movie. After that we went to see Ahok’s house and have lunch next to the lake. Based on votes, we decided not going to the Temple, because everyone prefer to go back to hotel and relaxing there. We had dinner at the same place as the first night, at Restaurant Pak Udi, because the food was very delicious.

 

Day 4, after check out, we visited Kaolin Lake, then doing some charity to orphanage in town. And after that,  we went for coffee at Kong Djie and mie Belitung before going to the airport.

 

Sumba to Belitung, it’s definitely different destination and has different beauty of nature. Many of us got disappointed because we wanted to go to visit Sumba. But, we can’t blame on natural disaster. Within hours, we had to reroute our destination, change flight tickets, book hotel, book car, and plan the itinerary in short time and arrange everything so we could still go for the holiday since Adcom already takes day off for 4 days. It was a big headache on Monday morning, but thank God we managed to do everything until the last day.  We hope ADCOM enjoyed their days off even though it’s not their main destination.

 

This is Sumba

Sumba, the small island in Indonesia, below Flores island on the map, was our destination for our first This Is Journey open trip. Our small group, with only 6 people in it, ready to explore the beauty of the island.

 

Day 1

Arrived at Tambolaka airport in the afternoon,  we headed to Weekuri Lake, straight after lunch at Gula Garam Restaurant, and hotel checked in. Weekuri Lake is a salt water lake surrounded by rocks and big cliffs. The water flows between the hole in the cliffs to inside the lake from the Indian ocean. It’s quite shallow, has crystal clear water, and the beautiful view, makes the Weekuri Lake become most visited place in West Sumba.

After had enough of swimming and took lots of picture, we went to Mandorak Beach. It’s only 15 minutes driving from Weekuri Lake. Too bad the waves were too big so we couldn’t go down to the beach. But the view was still beautiful, it was pure orange sky with the perfect shape of the sun setting down, also some local kids came and accompanied us there watching the sunset together.

After sunset, we headed back to the city, had dinner at Warungku Restaurant, and back to Sinar Tambolaka Hotel.

 

Day 2

After breakfast, we visited Ratenggaro village in Southwest Sumba, 1.5 hours driving from the hotel. This village has the tallest roof among other villages in Sumba, about 22 meters high. Traditional houses in Sumba materials were bamboo, woods, coconut leaves, and alang-alang grass. It has similar shape like Joglo, the Jogja traditional house.

Be prepared of the aggressive kids trying to sell some necklaces or asking you to ride their horses. They will keep following you everywhere you go around in the village. The view of the village is beautiful, located next to the beach, and has some tombs at the beach.

Bwana beach was our second destination that day. With almost 2 hours driving, we finally arrived at the beach. The big waves made us stayed on top of the cliff and enjoying the view of the ocean.

Because the tides still high, we decided to go to Pero beach, another nice beach in Kodi area. This beach has very unique rocks and blow water between the rocks.

But that afternoon, it was a bit late for us to catch the sunset, so we went to the harbor close to the hotel to watch orange sky and surprisingly the harbor has a vey clean beach and clear water.

 
Day 3

We checked out the hotel in the morning and visited Praijing village and Lapopu waterfall. It was beautiful weather in Lapopu. we swam and play in the water for an hour and continued our journey to Tarimbang beach, where we gonna stay for a night there. It was a long driving to arrive at the Tarimbang, but we managed to stop and watched the sunset between hills on the way there.

When we arrived at the hotel, we were a bit disappointed because they haven’t prepared the rooms for us yet. And after shower and dinner, we went to the beach to watch the milky way, and called it an early night.

 
Day 4

Spent early morning watching the sunrise lights at the beach, and the whole afternoon at the beach. This beach is the best beach in Sumba. With long shoreline, white sands, crystal clear water, blue sky, and nobody’s there. This beach is also the favorite beach for surfers to ride their surfboards because it has good waves. There is one significant dead tree at the beach that really good for photo background.

After lunch, we continue driving to Waingapu, our last destination. Stopping by at Warinding hills, where you can see never ending hills accompanied by warinding kids.

And for the sunset, we went to Walakiri beach. This beach is a mangrove beach and has some unique shape of their trees. It became popular after the shooting of Pendekar Tongkat Emas movie. The golden sky during the sunset, the thousand starfish – you should be careful not to step on them when you walk, the unique shape of mangrove trees, and the white sand, it was a perfect scenery to ended our journey on the forth day.

 

Day 5

We woke up very early tried to catch the sunrise. But we were not lucky that morning because it was too cloudy, and the sun showed up a bit too late. So we spend the morning to have breakfast and buy some Sumba cloth in the market before headed to the airport.

Edit
 

SUMBA! The people and the place completely stole our heart…. Discovering Excotic Sumba with THIS IS JOURNEY…. Explore a beautiful place and amazing experience