Inspirasi dari Sombori

Sombori, sebuah desa kecil di pelosok ibu pertiwi namun sungguh memikat hati. Desa ini terletak di provinsi Sulawesi Tengah, namun dapat diraih dengan 7-8 jam perjalanan darat/laut dari Kota Kendari. Masyarakat desa ini adalah suku Bajo yang biasa membangun rumah di atas air.

Hari itu, aku dan teman-teman disambut Bapak Kepala Desa atau biasa dipanggil Pak Desa di kantornya. Ternyata, karena kecilnya desa ini, biasanya para tamu seperti kami ditampung di balai desa. Beruntung, Pak Desa memberi kami izin untuk tidur di ruangan kosong di sebelah kantornya yang percaya tidak percaya adalah kemewahan besar untuk para tamu wisatawan.

Sombori, selain alamnya indah, desa ini juga memiliki orang-orang dengan hati yang indah. Pak Desa salah satunya. Pak Desa membuat saya optimis bahwa ada orang-orang lurus dan cerdas yang berjuang buat masyarakatnya, walaupun tiap hari tawaran uang bersileweran di depan mata. Pak Desa sendiri sering ditawari harta kekayaan agar dapat menjual pulau di wilayahnya. Aku juga bisa melihat betapa Pak Desa juga membangun aturan-aturan bagi wisatawan agar kedatangan mereka juga dapat membantu masyarakat setempat, contohnya mandi di rumah warga (tidak semua punya kamar mandi dan air bersih), pesan makan dengan warga, menetapkan tarif untuk tour guide yang merupakan warga setempat. Pak Desa juga dengan bijak mengatur giliran masyarakat yang bertugas agar semua bisa kebagian rezeki.

Aku dan teman-teman juga bertemu dengan nenek dan bapak asli suku Bajo di seberang pulau tempat kami menginap. Nenek dan kakek ini, berjuang menentang penjualan pulau ke pihak lain yang jika terjadi tentu merugikan masyarakat setempat. Hari itu saja, aku dan teman-teman tidak bisa masuk ke sebuah pulau untuk naik ke atas tebingnya, karena pulau tersebut ternyata sudah dikelola dan dikuasai orang lain.

Malam harinya, aku dan teman-teman duduk-duduk dan mengobrol hingga larut malam dengan Pak Guru sekaligus kepala sekolah di desa Sombori. Ternyata hanya ada 5 guru di desa tersebut (termasuk beliau) dan hanya ada 47 anak Sekolah Dasar dari kelas 1 hingga kelas 6. Semangat Pak Guru yang tiap beberapa tahun sekali pindah pulau untuk mengajar benar-benar menyentuh. Pak Guru sendiri bercerita dia juga banyak berubah karena karakter anak-anak. Tadinya Pak Guru adalah orang yang diktator, namun dia menyadari bahwa anak-anak semakin menjauh. Sekarang Pak Guru menjadi sosok yang lebih ramah, suka bercanda dan dekat dengan anak-anak. 

Ahh, kurang lama rasanya di sana. Perjalanan bertemu dengan orang-orang yang berbeda, alam berbeda memang selalu membuat rasa syukur tak henti-hati terucap dalam hati. Semoga bersama orang-orang berhati indah ini, Sombori semakin baik dan membawa manfaat bagi semua orang yang bersentuhan dengannya.

The Picturesque Belitung

Today is 31 May 2014, and this trip happened exactly two months ago, 29-31 March 2014. Start with a drama of mine, that I almost lost the flight because I had to attend the scholarship group discussion.

I did not concentrate on the group discussion because an edge of my mind calculate the probability to arrive at the airport on time. Fortunately, I made a precise calculation and fast movement so I arrived right after the officers announced it was the boarding time. Lucky me, that I have this traveling group (called BBC), they fully supported me to join the trip and waited for me at the gate of the waiting room. It's always fun having trip with them, because each of them is unique and their actions always lead to big laugh. 

We landed at Tanjung Pandan airport at 11 am, I changed my clothes since it was too formal, then ready to explore Belitung. First place we visit was Pantai Burong Mandi. Actually, it is the most so-so beach in Belitung but compare to several beaches in Bali or Yogyakarta, it is more calm and clean.

After visiting Pantai Burong Mandi, we went to Kwan Im Temple. Unfortunately, it was in renovation so we could not see it in full reddish color, yet we could enjoy sea scenery form this temple, it's wonderful. We didn't take so long there, and decided to go to Andrea Hirata Museum. Andrea Hirata is the native from Belitung who has written many novels based on true story which setting is Belitung, and his books have been translated to many languages. Museum Kata - Andrea Hirata was not the last destination on that day. We went to a school replica that being one important setting in Andrea Hirata's novel.

In front of Dewi Kwan Im Temple

The gate of Museum Kata

One of my fave quote from Andrea Hirata

Took a sip of Belitong Coffee at Museum Kata

On the next day, we did Island Hopping. It was about 5 islands we visited, but I can remember just two of them: Pulau Burong and Pulau Lengkuas, but don't worry it's not because they were bad, but because I lost my memory after two months ;p. 

The unique character of the beaches in Belitung is big stones. The stones make them look tough but beautiful. Don't believe it? Please take a look pictures below:

View from the lighthouse at Lengkuas Island

Clean and calm sea water

with the starfish

You should climb to the 17th floor of the lighthouse to get this view :)

View form the lighthouse at Lengkuas Island

View form lighthouse at Lengkuas Island

Picturesque, right?
Go there and you will find more amazing scenery that I didn't post in this page!

Enjoy the wonderful Indonesia!

Photo courtesy: Pritha, Kara, QQ

Dieng: Abode of God

After so many times of cancellation since last year, finally I went to Dieng with quite bad feeling and tiredness because I just came back form my tiring job duty to Sumatra two days before this trip. Though, my curiosity about Dieng killed my body need to get rest. The name "Dieng" comes from Di Hyang which means "Abode of the Gods" (wikipedia). Dieng is located in East Java, near to Wonosobo.

'Festival Culture Dieng' is my biggest reason to do this trip on that day because it just happens once a year. What is special about it? In Festival Culture Dieng, we can see the process of the "Anak Rambut Gembel" have their hair cut.

Anak Rambut Gembel (Dreadlock hair Kids) are the kids who were born and growth in Dieng area who have dreadlock hair. Their hair is not intended to be dreadlocks, but it grows naturally. Commonly, the hair were normal when the kids were just born, but when they grow older the hair changes and the kids will get a fever. There is a magic story about this phenomenon. Society believe that it will bring a bad luck for them, so the kids should have their hair cut when they are about 7 years old. There is a requirements to do that: the parents should grant all of the kids request because the hair can't be cut if the request hasn't fulfilled yet.

So, that was my mission visiting Dieng on last June, and here are my report.

 The night of the festival:

Fire camp

Lantern Festival

Fireworks

It's very cold at Dieng, I can't tolerate it to stay outside for a long time, so I and friends went to our homestay and sleep because we had to wake up about 2.a.m and trekked to Sikunir Top at 3.p.m.

Our homestay owner said that it was 9 degrees Celsius and it could reach under 0 degrees Celsius on August. Brrrr.....I think it will be easy for Dieng people go to 4-season country in winter, haha...

We're success to wake up at three, and oh my....trekked for an hour at 3 a.m was so challenging. Three of my friends reached the top faster than me...fortunately, there were many people around so I wasn't afraid.

Taraaaa....top of Sikunir Mount! with Sindoro Mount behind us..

These are the view on the way but we didn't see it for we walked at darkness before..

Telaga Cebong

Telaga Cebong

Traditional performance greeted us in the morning

This is the original fruit from Dieng, they called it Carica. They said that if we plant it outside Dieng, it will grow as Papaya. Strange, isn't it?

Carica

After the failed sunrise hunting and before we attanded the Rambut Gembel Ceremony, we visited this Telaga Warna (Coloured Lake)

Telaga Warna

We were very lucky that our homestay were passed by the procession.

Actually, I recorded it as video, but I can't publish it yet...
And theeeen....even the Slovakia ambassador for Indonesia, Stefan Rozpokal and his daughter attended this ceremony.

The ceremony was held at Arjuna Temple Complex:

This kid had had his hair cut in the ceremony

This girl hasn't had her hair cut yet

There are several place in Dieng that I haven't visited yet like the most famous one: Kawah Sikidang, and I hope the next trip to Dieng, God will let me see the Sunrise at Sikunir :)

Ujung Kulon : Row Your Boat!

.....day 1....

Not to much agenda and story in the second day at Ujung Kulon. Hunting for sunrise and canoeing at Cigenter river were the target of the day.

I don't know why, but I was never lucky seeing perfect sunrise when I was traveling out of Jakarta, and the same one happened when I was at Ujung Kulon. 

Back to homestay, took a shower and had breakfast, packed our bag and got ready for my first canoeing experience. Yuhuuu!!! Ehm, I made a video while canoeing but it still needs some cutting and I still find out how to do it, so I can't post it now.

Before canoeing, we have to picked up the canoes at Handeleum Island:

At Cigenter, we expected to meet One-horn Rhinoceros and river crocodile, but we just met a green snake in a tree :(

It was very hot and the sun bit our skin, but we still had fun.

f

Tired of canoeing and it's already lunch time, we attacked the food that has been cooked by the ladies of Ujung Kulon. Actually they live at Sumur and frequently go to Peucang Island just for cooking food for the tourists who comes there.

this pic was taken by Mba Ella :)

That was not very end of the journey, some friends did snorkeling at one spot on the way to Sumur, but I just sat on the boat because I was to lazy to change my clothes and they said the underwater view was not special so I didn't regret it.

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Bonus! Here are some random pictures from the previous day, hope they can give you description about Ujung Kulon. Enjoy!

Small fish near the harbor 

Scary Piggy!

Home-stay

Ujung Kulon: Where you and animals are in the same home

UJUNG KULON! is one of national park in Indonesia. It is located at the westernmost tip of Java. Honestly, I've forgotten about this trip detail because it happened in the mid of June. My bad is I didn't write right after I came back, but I'll try to grab the story in my memory store.

It needed about 8-9 hour trip by bus from Jakarta to Sumur, Banten. We continued our trip by using boat to cross the sea and it took 3 hours. Finally, we arrived at Peucang Island! Seriously, it was a fascinating view that we saw billion small fish swimming under the boat even at the beach because the water was very clear!

We put our bag at homestay, then jumped into the sea...

taken by Satria's camera

Ops, time's up! Back to homestay, changed our wet clothes, had lunch and prepared for the trekking.

Oh, there was a funny story when we had our lunch, there was a monkey suddenly entered our homestay and stole the chicken at the table. You know, the monkey that stole our food just had 1 hand and she carried her kid when stealing. smart yet annoyed monkey! At Peucang Island, the home-stay is just about 100 meters from the beach and harbor, and you will find many monkeys, pigs, and deers freely walk around you.

You can get this view in front of the home-stay

The thief

Jungle trekking is a rare experience for me, so I was so excited. I met many plants that won't be found in town. We trekked for about 3 hours and it's tiring for me..huhu

Very huge tree, isn't it?

We met this cute deer at jungle

 I always love capturing wave tossed the stone

The clock shows it's 4 pm, it meant that we had to go back to the harbor and went to a savanna at Cidaon Island to chase the Sunset and saw the One-horned Rhinoceros, Banteng (Bull) and Peacock. It might be too late to see them all, the ranger said that the Rhino and the black Banteng had entered to the forest that's prohibited for us. The Peacock didn't open their beautiful tail. If you want to see the Peacocks open their beautiful tail, you should come on August or September.

Savanna at Cidaon

Disappointed by Banteng, Peacock, and One-horned Rhinoceros, we left the savanna and walked quickly to the harbor to chase the Sunset, we're almost late, but I had taken this view on our way to savanna before.

The sun visited other side of the earth meant we had to back to our home-stay to take a bath and have dinner. It was too early to go bed, so we continued playing card at the terrace. Even, the deer got curious about what we did...

Like other beach-y trip, there's always barbequing session at night. The night became more special because our tour guide sang and played guitar beautifully. The wind touched the skin and it's very cold outside, about 12 pm we decided to met the bed for recharging our energy for the next day.

....day 2....