Pelabuhan Ratu

The trip

My trip this time takes me to a “mystical” beach, known as Pelabuhan Ratu.. It’s NOT one of those beaches with mystical beauty, not at all. In fact, it is one of the dirtiest beaches I have ever been to. So why even bother going there?

Well, simply because it was a family trip. My uncle invited our family to stay at the Samudera Beach hotel for 1 night. I thought that it will be a perfect opportunity for my body to relax after some hectic job-related stuff that I had to finish before the year ended.

Pelabuhan Ratu is located at Sukabumi, which took us around 4-5 hours trip from Jakarta . The road that leads to Sukabumi area used to be filled with green sceneries, but now all I can see is housing developments everywhere. It is saddening, really. I choked at the air pollution, sighed at the number of cars lining up along the way and especially cursed at the number of houses built close to the mountain area.

Upon arrival, I felt a bit of disappointment towards the beach. The beach right in front of

Samudra Beach Hotel
The Samudra Beach Hotel from afar..

the hotel is quite clean—however, all you have to do is to look around a little and voila ! Around 40 meters from the hotel area, you can see trash coming from the food stalls. I could only imagine this beach on its past glorious days. Indonesia ’s 1st President, Soekarno was a frequent visitor here back on those times so it must be pretty good.

We stayed at Samudera Beach hotel, which was build around the 60s. It is the only hotel with a 4 star rate in this area. Please be reminded that the rate was given when it was newly build—so it really didn’t meet the expectation. Soekarno loved to stay at this hotel, not only for its beach view rooms but for some other “mystical” reason I will elaborate later.

While waiting for check in, we decided to go to the local market to buy their fresh produce. Ow, it is definitely paradise for a seafood monster like me. The goods were fresh and quite cheap. 10 pieces of HUGE shrimps cost around Rp 150,000 ( US$15) – 2 kilos of squid is around Rp 120,000 ( US$ 12), among many others ( those

The beach ( view from the hotel )
The beach ( view from the hotel )

are my favorites so I remembered, ha ha ha)

Then we went back to the hotel and started grilling the yummy food. It was definitely delicious. Then the day was spent with playing at the beach. Swimming is NOT allowed ( I am NOT kidding), however surfing seems to be the very common thing to do here (how can someone surf without swimming? Well?). The waves were quite big, so it is quite fun to have a splash at the seaside. Then, there is nothing else to do besides strolling along the coast line. But still, due to those garbage and insanely numerous food stalls, it is not as enjoyable as it should be.

Dinner provided by the hotel was blah (read : not yummy at all). The hotel was even in a brown out condition for a while. We ate with candles and decided to go directly to sleep.

The next day was spent pretty much the same with one exception, a visit to Nyi Roro Kidul’s room. Nyi Roro Kidul is a very famous legendary female that is believed to be the queen of the ocean (sort of like Neptune's counterpart-- the female version) .

Yummy crab
Sea food

Most Javanese believe or at least respected this folklore. Strange occurrences often happen at the beaches where Nyi Roro Kidul is said to be reigning. Numerous people drown at the ocean, which is said to be caused by her adding more companions to her kingdom. She loves to "kidnap" people of whom she likes. She is usually charmed by color green, so it is NOT advisable to wear green when visiting this beach area.

The Samudera Beach hotel shared its legend to another level. Soekarno asked the hotel management to make a room within the hotel especially for Nyi Roro Kidul. This room is situated at the 3rd floor (room 308) . Upon entering the room, I didn’t feel any strange sensation; however the incest smell is quite overwhelming, it gave me quite a headache. The room consisted of furniture which is covered by green items. There are several Nyi Roro Kidul’s paintings which depicted her as a beautiful Javanese girl. My favorite painting must be the one created by Indonesia ’s artist, Abdullah.

After that visit, we headed back to Jakarta . The trip was a long one since it was the last day of the holiday

Nyi Roro Kidul
Nyi Roro Kidul

season which meant traffic all the way back.

How to get there

I have noticed several transportation coming in and out Pelabuhan Ratu, either by bus or by angkot ( Indonesia ’s public transportation). There is a bus and angkot from Bogor to Sukabumi, and from Sukabumi you can take an angkot to Pelabuhan Ratu. I am not sure about the fare or safety – but it looks like it’s a common tourist destination , at least for the locals

What to buy

Besides from sea food, other goodies to bring home will be varieties of fruit ( depending on the season). During my visit, soursop and banana is the most common thing to see.

Conclusion

I don’t recommend people to go here. The beach is not pretty, the waves are OK for surfing, but since I don’t surf it is not an enjoyable place to visit. And really, there is not much to do. I guess, the old charm of Pelabuhan Ratu will only remains as a history from the past.

Playing...
The beach

Some scenes
The beach scenes..

Playing around
Small waves..

Nyi Roro Kidul's bedroom
Nyi Roro Kidul's bedroom

The beach
Kinda spooky..

Rocks
Rocks

The view
The view

 

 

from : http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Java/blog-558730.html

Singapore & Nusa Lembongan

Day 29, November 10th, we had an early morning start for a cooking class at Bumbu Bali. The class started with a visit to the local produce market and then to the Jimbaran fish market. It was really great to learn about all the different ingregients and understand what foods you find in a typical Balinese market. Then we headed back to the cooking compound to learn to cook 26 different traditional Balinese dishes. It was a fun interactive class led but the energetic Swiss ower, Heinz. He has lived in Bali for over 20 years and is married to a local woman. After Heinz walked us through his favorite dishes and the key components of balinese cooking we indulged in an amazing lunch. We surfed Uluwatu at sunset to get some exercise after a day of eating. The waves were small but we saw the most amazing red sunset. We had dinner with Greg, a friend from Santa Cruz, at Swell Café.

Day 30, November 11th, we were headed to Singapore for a night since it was the last day for our visa. Our flight left at 4:30pm to arrive in time to meet friends for dinner. Johnny surfed

Jimbaran Market - Cooking Class Tour
John and I took a cooking class at Bumbu Bali with Heinz. He led us on a tour of the local markets.

Uluwatu and I did yoga in the morning. Then we went to the Moka internet café to do a few things for the wedding, pay bills, and take care of other responsibilities. We left for the airport to get us there an hour before the flight. Unfortunately the traffic can be heavy in Southern Bali. We arrived at the airport 45 minutes before the flight. We were not able to print our flight itinerary so we had to go to customer service where they confirmed us and walked us through security. We arrived at the ticket counter about 35 minutes before flight and the Garuda Air agents told us the Jet Star desk had just closed and the agents were gone. We spent the next two hours with customer service finding out we had missed our flight and trying to book a new one for the next day. We finally sorted it out and headed back to Uluwatu for the night.

Day 31, November 12th, we went to Sandat Mas for breakfast. John was still determined to get eggs cooked over easy. Unfortunately, it has been a lost cause no matter how he tries s to explain it in

Jimbaran Beach

Indonesian. We went to the Airport very early and finally made it to Singapore. We arrived just before sunset so we were able to see a bit of the city. Singapore is a very unique place with manicured gardens everywhere “like a giant country club”. The living space and businesses are housed in tall buildings in order to maintain as much green space as possible. The population is just over 6 million but it does not feel crowded and the people are very friendly. Also it is a very clean place since there are major fines for littering. We stayed at the Santa Grand – which was less than grand yet expensive compared to where we had been staying in Bali. We did have a great time exploring the city. We met our friends in Singapore’s Little Indian neighborhood for dinner where we had tasty Indian food at Banana Leaf. You choose your dishes from a counter and the food is served family style. There were five of us and we each ordered a couple things but they just kept bringing out more dishes. You eat from large banana leaves that they just keep piling with rice. After dinner we

Jimbaran Fish Market
Fresh Fish from Jimbaran Bay. We cooked it for our feast.

went out to an outdoor promenade where there are tons of restaurants and bars. It had kind of a Miami vibe with open-air places on the water with night clubs mixed in. We checked out a couple bars and enjoyed some $20US drinks. Alcohol is highly taxed in Singapore, and the interesting thing is top shelf liquor is about the same price as well and Champagne is almost the same price as beer. So prices are comparable to a nice SF or New York bar. We moved on to another part of town and went to a bar that was built in an old abbey. We caught the end of a local live band covering Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. It was an entertaining end to the night.

Day 32, November 13th, we woke up in Singapore. We met our friends for yummy Dim Sum. Then we went to the Reservoir to trek to the tree top bridge. The bridge ended up being too far out of the way for the time we had before our flight so we scratched that and went to Singapore Botanical Gardens instead. It is said to be one of the best botanical Gardens in the

Jimbaran Fish Market

world (so I guess we should see it). We only really had time to see the expansive orchid gardens. The orchids were so beautiful. There were so many species it was really impressive. We headed to the airport very early right from the gardens. The Singapore airport is a trip. It was decorated for Christmas and they even had a show with some girls dressed as holiday elves. I of course had to see what this free show was about so I dragged John along. It was a female quartet singing some made up holiday songs in front of oversized decorations (very cute). It was the only Western Holiday exposure we had seen during our trip so it was kind of fun. We also stocked up on some duty free vodka for wedding week (at $22/bottle it was much cheaper than the $75 at the Bali market. We headed back to the Gobleg Inn when we arrived back in Bali.

Day 33, November 14th; we surfed Uluwatu in the morning. The swell had come in so the waves had really picked up. There were some big sets coming through and people were getting boards snapped. Luckily, John and I

Fresh Fish at JImbaran Fish Market

didn’t break our boards. After our surf we checked for photos. There are many surf photographers set up in the Uluwatu warungs. The snap tons of photos all day long so there is a good chance they will capture your waves. One of the photographers had gotten some great photos of the amazing red sunset from a few nights before and he said I could choose a free photo he would enlarge. That night we surfed during another beautiful sunset. That night we had a great dinner at Bumbu Bali , where we did the cooking class a few days prior. We enjoyed yummy crab and seafood curry.

Day 34, November 15th, we slept in and had a laid-back day. I had a hair and make up trial for the wedding at 3pm. Since I was all gussied up we decided to have a big night our. First we went to the Rock Bar at the Ritz for sunset. Then we went to Jimbaran Beach for a seafood dinner. We found a perfect place for our rehearsal dinner. We met with the owner, Kami to talk with him about the rehearsal dinner. He turned out to be a really

Kalapas on market tour

cool guy. He told us the name Tosick spelled “Tasik” in Hindu but pronounced the same was their reference for where the ocean breaks on the sand or salt of the earth. We were really excited about that.

Day 35, November 16th, we arrived in Nusa Lembongan in the afternoon via a 1 hour boat ride. We checked out the hotel options. We were able to negotiate screaming deal for Villa Aman. We got the two bedrooms with a personal swimming pool for $50 (only after talking with the super cool Aussie woman that owned it). Once we were settled Johnny went to surf at Shipwrecks. I was dying to explore and really wanted to cook in the great kitchen. I jumped on the motorbike and went exploring. I stopped at several small markets and used all my Indonesian and applied the knowledge from the cooking class market tour. It took tons of time and was not as inexpensive as I was hoping (some places charged me tourist price) Finally I arrived back at the villa after sunset. We had a nice swim and made a nice meal. I realized I did not miss cooking and doing dishes as

Bumbu Bali - cooking class

much as I thought I did.

Day 36, November 17th, woke of to amazing view of the Nusa Lembongan Harbor from our bed. We chartered a small private boat for the day with Captain Made. First we went and checked the surf breaks. We decided to surf shipwrecks for a few hours. It was a fun right hand wave and the vibe in the water was really positive. Then we headed to the mangroves to do some free dive snorkeling. We saw a rainbow of different coral and tons of tropical fish including a nemo fish John found in a plastic cup he picked up. I also saw a large eel which was kind of freaky. Then Made drove into the mangrove bay up to a small café at the waters edge. We had a delicious chicken curry lunch at Made’s Café (different Made) and talked with some nice Canadians and a quirky old Aussie (who may have been Made’s boyfriend). After lunch we went snorkeled at the wall at Nusa Penida. It was incredible to see all the colorful coral and tons of unusual fish. The only sad thing was there was a lot of plastic in the

Bumbu Bali Kitchen

water. We kept collecting but barely made a dent. I felt something on my ankle and looked down to find a tiny crab crawling into my fin. I collected it in my hand and tried to place it back on the reef. It would not let go. I continued swimming for another 20 minutes before getting back to the boat. When I surfaced Made noticed the crab was still attached and crawling on my back. Again, I tried to brush it off but it stayed on me as I got back in the boat. Finally it fell on the floor and I put it back in water. Then we convinced Made to drive us around the rest of the island. The current was strong and there was a lot of swell in the water so it was a bit of a wild ride. It was incredibly beautiful. John decided he wanted another surf session so we dropped him at shipwrecks. I decided to relax from our full day with a cocktail at this hip little lounge on the beach called Taman Indiana (for our Indiana peeps). I had a delicious strawberry mint cocktail while watching surfers and the perfect sunset

Cooking Class

from a lounge bed. Perfect end to a great day.

Day 37, November 18th, woke up in Nusa Lembongan. We had to catch the ferry back Bali at 12noon so we had a little time to explore in the morning. We had just enough time for breakfast and a loop around the tiny island. First we stopped at beautiful Sunset Beach when we had a great breakfast at Scallywags. We wish we would have had dinner at this place since it had great food and was in a perfect location to watch sunset (hence the beach name). Then we headed to Dream beach and on to tiny Chennigan island. You need to cross a narrow wood planked bridge to get the Chennigan so it was kind of sketchy on the motorbike. We made our way around the island and back to the ferry just in time for the launch. That night we had a surprisingly delicious Sushi dinner at this touristy looking place near Nusa Dua. We had a deluxe Sashmi Platter with very fresh fish including lobster. They also made us a yummy soup out of the lobster shell. It was a great little getaway before our wedding

Johnny learning new skills

guests arrived.
source : http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Bali/Nusa-Lembongan/blog-559066.html

Chiang Mai: Trekking, cooking and plenty of temples

Back on a new travel adventure, this time with Jorn :)

On the 6th of January we flew directly from Amsterdam to Bangkok with EVA Air and after a 3 hour layover there, we flew to Chiang Mai with AirAsia. We decided to avoid the chaos of Bangkok and opted for an easier start. We had booked a hostel that morning so it was an easy transfer to our hostel in the Old Town (MD House). It was located set back from a nice street with a couple of shops and cafe's so we chose one that looked busiest. After ordering a small meal and a drink we noticed the people around us were also Dutch and seeing an 'FC Utrecht' flag on the wall, we realised it must be a Dutch cafe. After flying 1000s of miles we still end up in a Dutch cafe.....

After sleeping about 10 hours we were somewhat refuelled and decided to explore the town. We walked to one of the nearest temples, Wat Phan An, and got chatting to one of the men there. He asked us where we were from and told us he had visited the Netherlands as part of

Abba with his squirrel Noi

a government tourism programme, promoting Thai culture. He gave us a few suggestions on what to do around the city, of course also promoting a tour agency and asking Jorn whether he really didn't want to get a suit tailor-made (Jorn: "I don't wear a suit for my job, I'm in games design"). He also advised us not to buy at the night market, it is too touristy and expensive ("kijken kijken, niet kopen").

At this point our first priority was finding an electronics store. Despite packing and re-packing my bag and completely emptying my room, I managed to forget quite an essential item: my camera charger. We walked along the city moat to a big electronics store and eventually found a charger for 540 baht, but after testing it once it didn't recharge my battery so I'm hoping it wasn't plugged in right otherwise I won't be uploading many photos!

We then found an agency that offered a trekking tour that we liked (everyone offers the same ones, the price might differ a little) so we were ready for the next two days. That night we headed to the night market to have a look (not to

Our trekking group at the campfire

buy :) and had a delicious dinner at Le Spice, an Indian restaurant. We decided to get an early night and pack our bags for the next days.

We were picked up the next morning and we met our trekking group: a Dutch couple in their 40-50s, an American couple from California (this prompted Jorn to sing 'California knows how to party' several times...), a couple from London and 4 Canadian nurses. Our guide was 'Abba' who had a grey squirrel on his shoulder, chained to his shirt. Very cute at first, but then you realise he is pissing and pooing on him. Still, very entertaining.

We started at the Butterfly and Orchid farm for a 20 minute stop, then we went on to the Longneck village. Some of our group had this in their package, we didn't, so we waited outside. Then on to the village market where we could buy some supplies for that night (candles, water, snacks). Finally, at about midday we headed for the mountains to start our walk. But, we first got our lunch so we had to walk with filled bellies.

The trek was pretty intense to start with (this may

The village where we stayed the night

also have had something to do with the fact we just ate and we're not in great shape...), we were walking mostly uphill and it was pretty warm. After about 2,5 hours we stopped in Lahu hilltribe village where we stopped for tea which we drank from some nifty bamboo cups and sat among the chickens. After 4 hours of trekking we reached our overnight destination: a few huts alongside a stream where we could wash off the dirt and sweat from hiking. Refreshed we made a campfire, had a few beers and had a good time chatting to the rest of our group. It was also interesting (attempting to) speak with the local people, some of whom spoke relatively good English (he called himself Mike). We then had a delicious dinner (rice, lots of cabbage, tofu, and a sort of sweet and sour chicken) by candlelight. The local pets, a few kittens and a mischievous puppy called Dip-Dip, were lucky enough to get some too.

Trips to the bathroom were quite an adventure, not just because it was very dark but also because there were gigantic spiders everywhere. Luckily, our 'beds' for the night had a mosquito net

Dip-Dip

(with holes, but whatever, it made you feel safer). Nonetheless, we didn't sleep that much. This was partly due to the fact we were sleeping on very thin straw mats with thin covers, but also thanks to our neighbour Carlos the Mexican from California who was quite the snorer. He heard about it the next day.

The next morning we had breakfast - including a local Lahu snack, a type of rice cake baked in the campfire ashes - and a tasty local tea. We then walked for about 15 minutes to the Elephant park. We got assigned an elephant and we got the mommy elephant with a little baby walking next to it (aaaw). This also meant she was protective so she growled as soon as another elephant got close to her. Halfway down we bought some bananas to feed our elephant and the baby. This also attracted the attention of the elephant behind us and before Jorn knew it, he had an elephant trunk tapping his shoulder for bananas! So we had 3 trunks to feed, very entertaining! It was a short ride back to the main camp, but a nice experience. Hopefully the experience wasn't too

Our overnight village

bad for the elephants either...though it seems they are cared for well.

Next we went on a bamboo float along the MaeTang river. Our float set off with the 5 of us on it, the rest of the group went on another float. After a few minutes it unfortunately started raining, which meant it was pretty cold and less relaxing. When we arrived at our destination, we didn't see the others anywhere. After joking they must have got off at the wrong point, after about 20 minutes they finally arrived. Turns out their float had sunk when they got on and they needed to get a new one. It became the running joke that wherever the Canadian girls went, something would go wrong!

After a lunch we drove up the MaeTang river for white water rafting. Me and Jorn got split up into different boats and I was with the 4 Canadian girls. This promised adventure! After the very brief safety instructions - "When I say Forward, paddle forward, when I say Backward, paddle Backward. Don't fall out. OK have fun!", we got in our boats. The water was pretty shallow and it is dry season so the

This elephant wants to eat!!

water wasn't too rough, but the start was quite bumpy. For some reason our guide let us board the boat in the rough part so we all got pretty soaked from the start. Jorn's boat had a run in with the two Korean boats, who were not happy that they were being overtaken, so a water fight followed.

After the rafting we had an hour drive back to Chiang Mai. We wanted to switch hostels as we wanted to pay a bit less than at MD House (700baht a night), so we went with the Canadian girls to their hostel (SK Junior house, 300 baht a night). The staff here was super friendly and our room was really comfortable. I had a cold shower, as I hadn't figured out how to reset it (oops) but Jorn, technical as he is, had a nice warm one. Refreshed we headed out into the city for a dinner and went to a beergarden restaurant (Pop Cafe) along the moat. They played classics on TV all night, Tom Jones being the highlight. Even the grumpy restaurant owner cheered up when his song came on.

The next day was our last day in

DSC02845

Chiang Mai. We slept in to catch up on lack of sleep during the trek and then got a taxi to Doi Suthep (we chartered a red truck taxi for 400 baht total, there and back). The weather wasn't great so it was probably a slow day for them. It was so cloudy at the top, it was hard to see the tip of the temple! Still, it was pretty impressive. As we were standing at the lookout point which is supposed to give a great view of Chiang Mai, the clouds started to open up and we could see the city. The sun even came out for a bit, so we went back into the temple and took a few photos. We went back to the city and had a quick drink before getting ready for our evening cooking class at Baan Thai.

We were picked up by Baan Thai and with our group of 9 we walked to the local market to learn about typical Thai ingredients. After that we headed back to the school and chose our 4 meals that we were going to make. The preparing of the meals was fast and very efficient, some

Doi Suthep

things had been prepared already, i.e. chicken. We made a stir fry, a soup, a curry and spring rolls. After two meals we thought we were full, but even our third meal went in fine. By the fourth we were full but as this was the main course, we kept eating and it was delicious! With our round bellies we went back to the hostel to pack up for the next part of the trip, a long bus ride to Luang Prabang, Laos...where we are now! More about that in our next blog.

DSC02881

Squishing out the coconut cream for our curries

The end result of our cooking: 2 delicious green curries

source : http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/North-West-Thailand/Chiang-Mai/blog-560142.html