To the northeast of
Jakarta is a collection of islands called the Thousand Islands (Thousand Islands).. After learning that Tidung Island is a must see place, we decided to go there.
Our Couchsurfer friend Nanda also decided to come with us.. Nanda is 28 years old and works as a director in a human resources company in Jakarta.. With the approach of Eid al-Fitr, the weekend and the holiday are on vacation.
Sabaha Nanda and her very pleasant and pleasant chat friend came and picked us up from the house in Nanda’s car.. At 6 in the morning, the streets of Jakarta are empty, there is silence in the streets where few cars pass in place of that heavy traffic.. After an hour’s drive, we arrived at the pier that will take us to Tidung Island.
This is also the fisherman’s market, making it hard to breathe from the smell.. Everywhere is littered with debris, dirty and dirty water and rubbish. Cats, dogs and mice running around. By the way, rodents such as mice and rats are a kind of street animal in Indonesia.. You can see it everywhere. You can see it climbing up the wall of a modern bar or in a temple.. They can pass by your feet in almost any restaurant.. Do not be afraid, do not be surprised.
There was no room left for us as the ferry was full.. When we found out we had 2 hours for the next ferry, we went to the nearby Dunkin’ Donuts cafe.. We had our breakfast there and tried to fill our time.. Here, too, a very large mouse ran off when it saw me by the upstairs sink.
We were there before the ferry time.. Nanda’s friend is back in town after dropping us off on the ferry. We settled on the ferry. We made life jackets as cushions for ourselves and slept.. Lots of Chinese Malays on board. The boat, which was told to us as 10, only took off at 11 and we arrived at Tidung island after a 2-3 hour journey.. We got off the pier and started looking for a place to stay in the very hot weather.. Many of the rows of houses lined up in narrow streets are used as homestays and hostels.
Although we knocked on the doors, we could not get an answer from most of them, and those who answered said they were full.. Tired and hungry we threw ourselves into a roadside warung. We ordered nasi goreng, which is fried with vegetables in oil and served with fried egg on it.. We sat for a long time in the warung in that tired and hot weather. We even played a hand of chess. Who will win, of course I won!
When we regained our energy, we started walking in the direction of the crowd.. The beautiful island and its shores are in garbage. The shore just across from the place where the houses are located is very shallow and about 20 meters away, the sea is dammed with a 1.5 meter high wall.
The front of their house by the sea is expected to be that popular place, clean and neat, as well. Here, it is only used as a garbage disposal or incineration area.
As many of you know, white skin is perceived as beauty and superiority in Asian countries.. That’s why those who have this point of view stay away from the sun and beaches.. Some are walking around with umbrellas, everyone has huge hats on their heads.
There is no culture of lounging and spending time on the beach.. In such places, they do as we do in picnics, but sit, eat and spend time as a family in covered places.. Very few people enter the sea, and those who do enter with their clothes, shorts and t-shirts.
Following the crowd, we finally arrived at the bridge, which is the popular attraction of the island.. Tidung Besar Island, which we are on, and Tidung Kecil Island (Little Tidung) opposite it are connected to each other by a small bridge and a long pier following it.. The crowd on the bridge is full of people jumping and watching people jumping on the bridge and throwing themselves into the water from there.. The color of the sea is wonderful, it has a greenish color. There are also those who enjoy water sports activities such as jet-ski, water skiing and banana on the shore.
After crossing the bridge, we started walking the pier towards the other island.. Some boards of the wooden scaffolding are rotten and broken. If you’re not careful, you may find one of your legs in the water under the pier.. You can easily pick out corals and fish in the water around the pier. The sea floor among the corals was covered with white sand.
More than ninety percent of the holidaymakers who came here on the eve of Ramadan Feast are Chinese Malays.. We did not see any other foreign tourists, except for 4 people we saw while looking for something to eat at the warungs (restaurant) for dinner.
We walked slowly on the long wooden pier, following the people, the sea and the fish, and arrived at the other island.. Now that it’s starting to get dark, we sat on this island’s sunset-facing beach and locked our eyes at the beautiful view of the sunset.. I always say, both sunsets and sunrises in Far Asia and Oceania are incredibly mesmerizing.. Being able to see that redness and the movement of the sun gives a unique pleasure.
We got dark on this beach of the island surrounded by white sand with coconut and banana trees, and we still had no place to stay.. If we can’t find a place since we arrived, we decided to implement my suggestion that if we can’t find it, we’ll sleep on the beach.
When it got dark, all of the local tourists had returned to Tidung Island and the island we were on was now our island.. We gathered together a large number of logs and tree branches that were dragged ashore by the waves.
My companion took care of lighting a fire in Farid as I went to Tidung Island to get something to eat with Nanda.. We returned to the beach with our dinner and drinks of fried rice, chicken and some vegetables wrapped in banana leaves.. It was just the place to drink, but alcohol is not sold on the island.
While sitting by our fire and having our dinner, I witnessed something more that I had never seen in my life.. In just half an hour, the sea level rose by more than 1 meter.. We had burned maybe quite a distance between our fire and the sea.
Now, the sea water had almost reached the bottom of our fire.. We waited to see if it would rise any more, but after we got close to our fire, the tide stopped.. The warmth, which was hot at first and felt bad when we stood near the fire, began to be replaced by a sweet coolness.. On an uninhabited island, by the fire we lit, I spread my sarong on the white sands and lay down on it.
When I woke up, it was 2 am.. I just fell asleep. While the side near the fire was comfortable, my left side was cold.. Right next to me Farid and next to him Nanda were curled up asleep.. They were obviously cold.. The smoke of the fire blows from the place where we sleep to the other side of the fire.
I chose the most suitable position to sleep close to the fire and since there was no other suitable place, they slept on my back as well, but because I prevented the heat of the fire, they could not sleep as comfortably as I did.
I woke up and fed the fire with bigger logs and slept again. A few hours later, when I half-opened my eyes, Farid was dragging several large logs on the ground.
Nanda was sleeping in the thin and light fabric sleeping bag Farid had given her.. When I woke up at sunrise in the morning our fever was still strong. The weather was slowly starting to warm up.. With the sunrise, the sky again took on a red-blue mixture color.. People who got up early were walking around the pier.
You can’t light a fire on the beach in any developed world country.. It is forbidden. Beaches are holiday places where people relax, sunbathe, and children play with the sand.. The beaches in Indonesia, the country with the most coastline in the world, are just like a piece of land.. You can see the white sandy beaches all over the country.
The beaches such as Fethiye Ölüdeniz, Butterfly Valley, Kaputaş are on every coast here and are unclaimed.. Most of these beaches are littered with stumps, branches, plants, and trash drifted by the sea.. The falling rains wash away the ashes. While we humans pollute the air, nature and the environment, nature provides the balance with the wind, rain and rainforest in this country.
After going to the warung where we had breakfast yesterday and having a bite to eat, this time we try to knock on the door of every hometown from street to street and try to knock on the door of every home we come across. We started to ask the person. Today is the eve of Ramadan and some of the Indonesians who are on holiday have thrown themselves on this island.
Everywhere is full, prices are twice the price of accommodation in other places we stop by.. Nanda casually asked a girl who was shopping there while we were getting water from the market.. He also took us somewhere, but the place we went was full. Then he told us to follow him again and took him to his house.. After meeting the girl’s wife, they showed us the house and rooms and said that we could stay if we wished.
After we said yes excitedly, they offered us juice and asked us to wait outside. They quickly prepared the house, gave us the keys to the house and left.. We looked at each other in surprise.. We had a house with two rooms, a living room, air conditioning, TV and 2 bathrooms.. We each chose a room, took a shower and went to sleep.. For some reason, I don’t sleep much during the day on this trip and I don’t like to sleep for a long time.. I grabbed my bag and threw myself outside.
The island is pretty hot.. Across the pier behind the bridge, which is always crowded, I lay down on the sarong under the tree by the sea.. This area is very lively and there are hundreds of people. Bicycles and motorcycles can be rented from the parking lot just behind.. It was a little difficult to walk on the street because of the bikes. I spent some time reading my book, listening to music, watching people and taking a nap.
We went to the bridge with Farid and Nanda, who joined me later, and dropped ourselves into the sea from that height.. It’s not very loud but for some reason it’s scary for me. I am not a good swimmer and I feel awkward during the jump even though I know it is not a problem.
I jumped 47 meters in New Zealand and it is very difficult to express the paradox of the brain at that moment.. The same feeling even at this short distance is interesting.
I have no fear of heights, but things change when it comes to jumping.. We spent our time swimming, having fun, walking, and then returning home and watching TV.
Day 391, ID:48, Tidung Island, Java. Tuesday, August 30, 2011