Belitung becomes so famous nowadays. It is because one of its residents writes the best seller series 'The Rainbow Troops' which the stories take place in Belitung. Belitung itself located in the north of Java. Straight above Jakarta in the map. Belitung provides us with the beautiful view, especially, of its beach and some place that become setting of 'Rainbow Troops' series. Unfortunately, I havent visited its popular beaches like Pulau Lengkuas, Tanjung Kelayang, Pulau Burung and so on. I hope someday I could explore those beach.
It is not so hard to visit the attraction. There are many places in Tanjung Pandan, the capital of Belitung, that provide us with car and motorcycle rental. For motorcycle is around 80 thousand rupiahs for 24 hours rent. For car about 500 thousand rupiahs include driver for 24 hours rent. The hotel is not so expensive also. I stayed on Rahat Icon Hotel. It costed about 300 thousand Rupiah per night. The staff was so helpful and nice.
I took morning flight with Garuda Indonesia from Jakarta to Tanjung Pandan. Oh ya, for motorcycle rental you can not ask the rental to meet in the airport. They will say that it is too far away from Tanjung Pandan, so if you rent motorcycle you need to go to Tanjung Pandan first by taxi.
I arrived at Tanjung Pandan at 9 am and went to the hotel afterward. I rent motorcycle at the hotel and went out right after. Our first destination is SD Muhammadiyah Gantong and Museum Kata Andrea Hirata. Actually me and my friend are fans of Rainbow Troops. For us, that stories is beautiful and meaningful. I am in love for Lintang in the novel and became fan of Mahar in the Cinema. Hahaha.
For me, visiting Museum is one of my hobby because I'll find many collection that is old and historical (sometimes I found it weird and funny). In this museum, what I found is memories and imaginations about Rainbow Troop. I could see how is Gulliver, remember when Ikal shouted in the film, remember how handsome Mahar is, remember many beautiful and encouraging statement from Andrea Hirata in the books. And So on. If you are fans of Rainbow Troops you should go there!
 |
| By motorcycle, from Tanjung Pandan it would take at least two and half hours to reach this place |
 |
| There is a small stage to express yourself by performing anything |
 |
| Ah ya~ Dont forget to visit the School "SD Muhammadiyah Gantong" which took only five-ten minutes from the Museum |
After that, because we were curious about how delicious the coffee there, we went to Manggar. But, unfortunately we could not find the right place to drink coffee. We drink in a small coffee shop near a lake and found that its taste was similar with instant coffee we usually drink. From Gantong to Manggar took at least one hour. From Gantong to Manggar, we stopped by Berage restaurant to eat Gangan (Belitung fish soup).
From Manggar we moved to Dewi Kwan Im temple. This temple has gigantic Dewi Kwan Im statue in the backyard. Unfortunately, at that time the statue was renovated. :(
After visiting the temple, we went straight to Tanjung Pandan. Belitung is typical small town which one village to another is separating by coconut forest and not so many people going out. It is soooo quiet comparing with Jakarta or Surabaya. And after small village there would be a long forest that make me frustating because I worry that something bad would be happened to us. Because of that worry I dont even care about my speedometer. What I only care about is I should have reached Tanjung Pandang before dark. I reached Tanjung Pandan at 6 pm. Hmm~ not so late.
Then we go to Mie Atep in Sriwijaya Street. It was delicious! You should try!
Second day, I went to Tanjung Tinggi Beach and Kaolin Lake. Both of them is beautiful! Tanjung Tinggi Beach has many gigantic rocks that looks stunning. From Tanjung Pandan it took at least one hour. Kaolin Lake is nearer. You would take only 30 minutes. But from Tanjung Tinggi it would take at least one hour drive.
 |
| I loved that rocks! :p |
 |
| In Instagram so many photos taken down Kaolin Lake but at that time none went down just some children who bravely went down and someone warned them. So I just dont know if it is safe to go down or not. |
