Karimunjawa, the Beauty of the Heaven

July 16, 2010, my second trip visiting another beautiful place on earth began. This time I was visiting Karimunjawa islands with some friends and there were 6 of us joined the trip. They were my self, my twin brother Dyat, Eka, Reno, Iwan and the last but not least Mila. Karimunjawa Islands was a group of islands located in the north of Central Java, Indonesia which actually quite popular these days because many foreign and domestic tourists were visiting Karimunjawa, at least this was according to the local people we met in Karimun jawa. Karimunjawa Islands was famous for its beaches and coral reefs which can be easily seen by snorkeling and Karimunjawa is one of the best diving and snorkeling spots in the world.

Before we visit Karimunjawa, we needed to conduct simple research first to determine which package that we were going to choose. There was a small problem occurred when we were planning out trip because the Yogyakarta – Jepara transportation is not included on its list of the 400,000 Rupiah tour package we chose from www.karimunjawa-islands.info, so we need to figured out by ourselves how to get to Jepara on time so we would not missed the ferry trip to Karimunjawa from Jepara.

July 16, 2010 Yogyakarta – Jepara

There were two options that we had a t that time to reach Jepara from Yogyakarta. The first option is to take the 3.00pm train to semarang from Yogyakarta and then to catch the last bus or travel to jepara and stayed in a small hotel in Jepara until the next morning and the second option was to rent a car for the total of 570,000 Rupiah from Yogyakarta to Jepara. But, then we chose the second option because to find the phone number for travel agents office which provided shuttle service from Semarang to Jepara was so difficult because many websites we opened during the research gave the wrong phone number. So, at 12.00am the car we rented arrived and the journey to the islands of the heaven was started.

July 17, 2010 Jepara – Karimunjawa Islands

The car we rented arrived at 04.30 am in the morning to the Kartini Harbor in Jepara where the KMP Muria, the ferry to Karimunjawa departed and we were a little bit surprised because we thought that we would arrive at 6.00 am or later than that but, there we were. The harbor was already crowded at that time and it was because the ferry trips to Karimunjawa from Kartini Harbor were not daily trips. After we took some rest and took some photographs, the ferry ticket office opened and I took the tickets that were already booked by the Karimunjawa trip package provider and I did not need to pay for the tickets because the tickets were included in the trip package.

At 7.00am we were going aboard the ferry and tried to find seat. We chose the seat at the second level, right side of the ferry which then we regretted. The weather was not too good at that time, with the thick clouds hanging all the way we looked at any directions and there was no sign that the sun would shine bright and the wind blew quite strong and then after more than one hour waiting for the KMP Muria to depart, at 8.45 the ferry started to move. The sea was quite calm in the first hour of our ferry trip and we could still have chat and joking, but then, at the rest of our ferry trip, the waves were quite big and strong wind blew. I could not let myself sleep because was so afraid if there was something happen to the ferry. But then because I was so tired and before I picked the seat I already noticed where the life jackets are stored, I fell asleep although I needed to wake up every 15 minutes because of the waves and the right side seat we picked made me feel so sick.

Then after a terrifying 6 hours ferry trip, we reached Karimunjawa ferry harbor, took some photos and picked by the tourist guide from the Karimunjawa tour provider. Then he asked us to get in the car that would take us to the home stay where we were going to stay during the trip. The homestay was actually just the common local people house which is rented by the tour provider for us to stay, so there was nothing special about it. We took a rest for a whole and had a chat with the house owner, took a bath and went straight to the alun-alun or the city center field to have dinner. But before that, Mr. Alex our coordinator came to our house and told that we should move to a new home stay tomorrow morning just after we felt comfortable with the house and the house owner where we stayed.

There were not many choices of food available there, so we decided to buy the fried chicken with iced tea for the total 17,000 Rupiah for each of us. Although we needed to wait for more than 1 hour just to get our food served but it could save us from hunger. After we finished our dinner, we walked straight back to the house we stayed and played Uno cards and went to sleep.

July 18, 2010 Pulau Tengah, Pulau Kecil and Pulau Gosong

At 8am the car that would took us to our new guest house came but because we were not ready yet and still wanted to have breakfast, we asked the driver to go pick the other guests first and then went back to pick us up later. So, less than thirty minutes later he came back and rush us to the new guest house which was only 1km from our previous home stay and there were many differences with our first home stay like the uncommunicative host and bathroom with big hollow window.

The weather was not so good at our first day tour. The sky was cloudy and the wind blew quite strong and we rush to the harbor where the boat that would take us to the first island docking. There were 4 boats that took the entire group on the tour and one boat was for 15 to twenty people. Before the boats left the harbor the guides passed us life jacket that should be worn during the boat trip to the islands. Then after less than 15 minutes choosing and wearing the life jacket, we were departing from the harbor and started to have quite terrifying boat ride.

Big waves were trying to crush our boat when we were far enough from the harbor and believe me that that was so unpleasant especially for me to see big waves rolling and hitting our boat like a toy boat played by little children inside a bath tub. After less than 1 hour terrifying boat ride, we reached the first island called by Pulau Tengah. White sand and blue seashore water which are the typical characteristics of islands in Karimunjawa attracted me to go to the shore and enjoy the beauty of the island. Although the sun was hiding behind the clouds and only it was not like the typical picture of tropical islands we saw on many travel agents advertisements where the sun shines brightly over the coconut trees but still the island looked so pretty.

After taking some pictures, we than went back to the boat and grabbed the snorkeling gear provided by the tour provider and started to plunge ourselves to the water. This was our very first time to snorkeling and it was so fun. I found it difficult at the first time because although I was wearing life jacket and I could float easily but to control how to move is a little bit difficult. I needed about 20 minutes before I can really control how to move my body in the water and try to enjoy the beautiful coral reefs underwater then we had lunch together at the same island after quite tired enjoying the beauty of coral reefs underwater and it was raining so the grilled fish, the men for our lunch was tasted more delicious.

After taking some rest, we went to the next destination, Pulau Kecil to go snorkeling again. The island was still as beautiful as the first island we visited with the various types of beautiful coral reefs showing their enchanted charm. Then, again we went snorkeling and saw the underwater beauty and we were snorkeling quite far from the shore and got exhausted. So me and my friend decided to go back to the shore and took some rest. We all went back to the boat and continued our journey to the last destination of the day, Pulau Gosong.

Pulau Gosong was a tiny island which only had less than 3 x 3 meters sandy surface with the rest of the island`s surface was underwater. We only took some pictures in this tiny island and continue our trip went back to the harbor and went back to the home stay.

We had early dinner which was prepared by the home stay where we stayed at 6.30 pm right after we took a bath then we played Uno cards again for 22 rounds until 11pm before we felt so tired and went to sleep.

July 19, 2010 Shark Shelter, Pulau Menjangan, , Pulau Nggleyang, Pulau Cemara Besar and Tanjung Gelam Beach

The main agenda of the day was still snorkeling and snorkeling, but the first destination we visited was the shark shelter. This place was not really looked like a shark shelter because besides there were many other fish there and the sharks were put in a not too big pond made from coral and rocks at the shallow beach. This place was not quite interesting since people who wanted to swim with those babt sharks were needed to pay. Only a few people jumped into the pond and swam with the sharks and then we continued our journey to Pulau Menjangan.

In this Pulau Menjangan, we did snorkeling again and the coral reefs were better than the first day. We did not snorkeling for a long time because we guide told us that we needed to hurry to visit the next island where we had our lunch, Pulau Nggleyang, or at least that was what I heard the guide said the name of the island to me. The view was quite good, with the blue water and super white sand and some trees at the shore. We did not snorkeling here because the water is too shallow so we just played in the water and got ourselves wet. After tired playing at the beach then we moved to the shore and started to build something which we never completed.

The menu for the lunch was still the same as the first day lunch, grilled fish. Various fishes were grilled with simple seasoning but still it tasted good, maybe because we were all hungry. After we finished our lunch, then we took a rest for a while and had chat with the guide guiding us. It was already afternoon so we needed to continue our trip to the last snorkeling spot, Pulau Cemara Besar. Our boat anchored quite far from the beach and again, set up the snorkeling gear and jumped to the water. This was the best coral reefs view we got in Karimunjawa Islands with various types of coral reefs like fire coral and even sea urchins. We swan quite far from the boat because we were so excited and we felt really exhausted when we got back to the boat.

The next destination was the Tanjung Gelam beach to see the sunset. It was still quite bright when we reached Tanjung Gelam so we needed to wait for the sunset. The beach was so beautiful with the white and soft sand and nice view. After the sun set we left Tanjung Gelam, tired but happy, and so our journey in Karimunjawa has officially finished. After the boat docked at the harbor, we took some pictures with all the people in our boat plus our guide and the boatmen.

Back to the home stay, we took a rest for a while,

had bath and had our dinner. Then after finishing the dinner and went out to buy some souvenirs from the local souvenir shops and went to our first home stay, had chat with the owner plus saying goodbye to them because tomorrow we would go back to Yogyakarta. Then after than we rushed to the home stay and we played another game of Uno cards with the other guess at the home stay who were at the same boat with us while we are waiting information from Mr. Alex our coordinator about the express ship ticket that we order to him earlier.

July 20, 2010 Karimunjawa Islands - Jepara – Yogyakarta

After all of us got up, packed all of our bags and take a bath, we had breakfast prepared by the home stay while we are waiting for Mr. Alex who will deliver the express ship ticket to us. Actually what we got from the tour package were the KMP Muria ferry tickets, but because all of us had seasick during the Jepara – Karimunjawa trip, we decided to upgrade the tickets to express ship which only took 3 hours trip and we needed to pay additional money for the tickets for Rp. 60.000 for each of us and the tickets were executive class express ship from Karimunjawa to Jepara.

Mr. Alex came to our home stay and brought the pictures that he took under water at the first and the invoice that we should pay. It was Rp. 400.000 for each of us plus the Rp.25.000 for the breakfast we had at the first home stay. Before Mr. Alex came, the owner of the second home stay also gave us breakfast bill that we need to pay because the breakfast is not included in the package so we needed to pay for ourselves for Rp. 25.000 for each of us.

The Express ship scheduled to depart from Karimunjawa at 11am, so we still had enough time to play Uno with our new friends until the car picking us up arrived and we rushed to the harbor where the express ship waited.

The executive class was quite comfortable with reclining seats, air conditioner and a pair of TV in front of all of us. The trip was quite smooth and no seasick struck, so all of us went to sleep during the trip. After 3 hours of smooth trip we reached the Kartini harbor in Jepara. After took some rest at the park near the harbor, we took becak to take us to the bus stop and we needed to pay Rp. 8.000 for one becak. Then at the bus station we took the medium size bus to the Semarang and pay for Rp. 11.000 for each of us.

It was already dark when we reached Semarang, we had a very late lunch first and the last bus to Yogyakarta has already departed, so we decided to take the shuttle bus to Yogyakarta. To reach the shuttle bus stop we took the taxi from the front of Terboyo bus stop and paid around Rp. 40.000 for one taxi to get to Srondol area where the shuttle bus Joglosemar office was. Then we bought the ticket for Rp.40.000 and took the 8pm bus back to our beloved city, Yogyakarta...