Enjoying Quiet Island CubadakCubadak island with beautiful beachesA trip to Sumatra, it is not satisfied if it has not stopped at the island Cubadak. The
island still has dense forests and numerous wildlife is one of dozens
of small islands in the region off the coast of West Sumatra. Together
Mentawai Islands have started work on this Cubadak and promoted as a
tourist destination in the chic and beautiful country.Cubadak
island is also one of the mainstay of the South Coast tourist district,
West Sumatra province has an area of approximately 5749 square km,
with a length of 218 km coastal reach.The island is Cubadak advantage of its natural exoticism. If
the Mentawai is a paradise for surfers, the island Cubadak is a
paradise for divers as the seas around this island has a coral-reef fish
beautifully interspersed with thousands of gorgeous color.Of the hill looking down to the beach island of CubadakIn this island also, my friends could all calm down once spoiled by the sun while enjoying the fresh young coconuts. Then,
can also enjoy a walk along the beautiful beach and collect shells are
occasionally washed up on the beach as the waves swept away.What's interesting about this Cubadak island is also the tourists who came were more foreign tourists, especially from Germany. Reportedly, it is because once there is a German TV station to make a documentary about this Cubadak Island.And
consequently, a successful documentary film made a lot of Germans
curious about Cubadak Island, and found time to travel directly to the
island. Cubadak island not too crowded, not least with the charm of Bali or Lombok.Cubadak island presents a stretch of blue sky and the sea flowed white sand beachOf
its charm, too, a German women's magazine named Bild de Rau makes
writing about the island of Pulau Tersenyap Cubadak with the headline in
the World. That's because the silence and peace that come from the island Cubadak.Cubadak island may not be too familiar as one of the attractions of national interest. In fact, as I have already said, the island is not less beautiful in Bali or Lombok. Paired water sports and nature is likely to bear the silence longing for those who've been to this island.Oiya, Cubadak island itself is precisely located 24 miles off the beach in Padang. To get to this island, all my friends can ride a boat from Padang beach earlier. Then, for those who want to spend the night on this beach, can also take advantage of the simple resorts there. Ehmm .. how, interesting is not it? Happy traveling. Picture: http://www.maxx-m.com, http://www.panoramio.com, http://deviantart.net
Ganges Island Marine Park is one of the existing marine parks among the islands in North Sulawesi. Marine park has a distance less than 6.1 kilometers from the city of North Sulawesi Islands North Minahasa.
The island has white sand save thousands and charm of this marine park with coral reefs and hundreds of colorful fish of various species ragam.Pantai Ganges is one of the tourist sites which could be the belle of tourism in the district of Minahasa. This is due to the Minahasa Regency coastal management, and the city of Manado City North Sulawesi Bitung very professional, from the arrangement of objects to the promotion so no wonder the current occupancy rate is relatively high. In addition to these locations are still many coastal areas that have the potential to be developed as a maritime tourism.
Ganges tourists on the island is able to perform various activities such as fishing, diving, snoekling, berengan, beach recreation and research biota. Also on the island Ganges has a very beautiful sunset, that we can enjoy along with the waves.
The Karimunjawa – the 27 islands that make up the island group — are
located about 90 kilometers north of Jepara, off the Central Java coast,
and about three hours by direct fast boat from the provincial capital
Semarang.
Until now something of a backwater, improving transportation
connections are slowly making the islands, which were declared a
national marine park in 1999, more accessible to visitors. The result is
that more people are coming from farther afield to visit this island
paradise.
My hotel manager informed me there had been a 200 percent increase in
the number of visitors during 2011 compared with the previous year.
That’s a sign of success, and yet it also poses something of a problem
for the limited accommodation options on the main island during the peak
season from May to October.
Home to some 9,000 residents who live on five of the islands — the
remaining 22 islands being uninhabited, the population is largely
Javanese, with pockets of Bugis and Madurese too.
A view of Barracuda Beach on Pulau Kemujan to the north of the main island and connected by a bridge. — Photo by Peter Milne
Arriving by kapal barang (the cargo boat) in the principle town, also
called Karimunjawa, I found something incongruous about the strong
Javanese feel to the place at first.
Then I realized the difference was just that in all my island travels
in Indonesia, I had never come across a Javanese island before:
Karimunjawa is after all the only Javanese collection of islands in
Indonesia — they are the only islands off Java where bahasa Jawa is the
lingua franca, and where Javanese culture dominates, even down to the
song birds in cages hanging outside many of the modest dwellings.
Notwithstanding some of its white coconut-fringed sandy beaches,
undoubtedly Karimunjawa’s main attraction is its wealth of marine life,
including its pristine coral reefs, unusually rich marine biodiversity,
and its rare and graceful white-bellied sea eagles.
Although guide books speak of a “zoning system” with Zone 4 being
totally off-limits to visitors, in practise this seems to have proved
impossible to enforce.
As a result, I had no problem visiting a small uninhabited island
called Pulau Burung with a nesting pair of sea eagles and an almost
fully adult offspring. My boatman even asked me if I wanted to land on
the island, but this would have only disturbed the eagles and made them
harder to observe.
Still, it was an incredible sight to come across this family group of
three majestic birds perched on a dead tree beside the shore, the
younger one apparently eating his fish breakfast, probably caught for
him earlier by his parents.
Captive reef sharks in a pool on Pulau Menjangan Besar. Photo by Peter Milne
Although the eagles seem to enjoy remaining quietly perched while
surveying all around, when they do take to the skies, they display their
true majesty.
Gliding effortlessly above the water, they demonstrate their full two-meter wingspan and characteristic white undersides.
Having previously visited the rather sad spectacle of captured or
injured sea eagles undergoing rehabilitation on Pulau Kodok in the Pulau
Seribu islands north of Jakarta, it made me wonder how many of those
eagles taken away from their natural environment could be re-introduced
into a safer setting such as Karimunjawa, where they might once again
flourish in freedom.
One of its other special attractions, Karimunjawa’s coral reefs are
still in pristine condition and comprise 90 different species of coral,
inhabited by 242 species of reef fish. They include several varieties of
clownfish, one of my favourite reef fish, which live among the normally
fatal tentacles of a type of sea anemone.
With its absence of strong currents and its rich biodiversity,
Karimunjawa offers excellent snorkelling, with local boats ready to take
small groups or individuals out for half or full days at Rp 250,000
(US$28) and Rp 350,000 respectively.
Most of the coral islands are within two hours by small boat from Karimunjawa Island, which is central to the island group.
For more serious divers — and those with deeper pockets — while it is
possible to organise diving trips from small operators on Karimunjawa
Island complete with equipment hire, the best option is probably to use
the Kura Kura Resort on Pulau Menyawakan, which is a five-star PADI
diving resort with its own private island, 800-meter sandy beach, hotel
and facilities.
In fact, Pulau Menyawakan is the only island that seems to be truly
off-limits to visitors to Karimunjawa, or at least those who are not
booked into the resort, even during off season.
During the season when the resort is open, from May 1 to Oct. 31,
Kura Kura Resort operates daily flights from Semarang on a small Cessna
aircraft to the otherwise very quiet airstrip about 20 km out of
Karimunjawa’s main town.
One of Karimunjawa’s other special features is its wealth of mangrove forests, which cover 300 hectares of the national park.
Whereas much of the mangrove forest on Java has been destroyed by
development, the authorities on Karimunjawa are now beginning to
actively conserve the mangroves and make them accessible to visitors.
For example, there is a “Mangrove Forest Walking Track” close to the
small bridge that connects Karimunjawa Island to its neighbor Kemujan
Island to the north.
Resources gleaned from Karimunjawa’s status as a national park have
been used to build a wooden walkway that allows you to walk from the
road through the mangrove forest and out to the edge of the open sea, a
total circular walk of about half an hour.
One of the drawbacks of Karimunjawa is the lack of public
transportation — there isn’t any! This leaves two options: negotiating
trips around the main islands (Karimunjawa and Kemujan) with one of the
handful of small private mini-vans, or alternatively renting a small
motorbike in Karimunjawa town at a cost of about Rp 75,000 per day.
Another drawback is that electricity is supplied to the main part of
Karimunjawa Island for only 12 hours a day, from 6 p.m. until 6 a.m.,
with very few places running generators during the day. Other parts of
the island receive even less power, at only six hours a day.
The flavour of Java: the Amore restaurant housed in a traditional Javanese house. Photo by Peter Milne
Karimunjawa is also certainly no food-lover’s paradise. Ibu Esther on
the alun-alun field has a reasonable self-service warung food stall,
but there is hope — a new waterside restaurant called Amore, in a
beautiful Javanese-style house, is starting to push the culinary
boundaries a little, and also serves refreshingly cold Bintang beer —
and all day too! They also have an intermittent wireless internet
connection.
While things are gradually starting to change — with the exception of
Kura Kura Resort, which is in a class (and location) of its own — there
are only four small hotels on the island at the present time.
Three are reasonably priced at between Rp 190,000 and Rp 250,000 a
night with air conditioner, while the fourth, the Nirvana Hotel, is
really the luxury private home of a Belgian family that only visits a
few times a year. The rest of the year the rooms, of which there are
only nine, are rented out from Rp 650,000 to Rp 1.7 million a night.
If that seems a bit steep, you can at least make use of the hotel’s secluded sandy beach for a mere Rp 12,500 a day.
So, don’t delay as long as I did — birdwatchers, sun-worshippers,
snorkelers and divers, pack your bags and head to the Karimunjawa
islands, and escape from the pressures of mass tourism. Or, just bring a
heap of books that you’ve been meaning to catch up on. Either way, you
won’t be disappointed.

Travel Notes
Karimunjawa Islands are not the easiest of places to visit, which has
helped to preserve their special character and natural environment.
Things are improving, but at present there are these main options to get
there:
•On Monday, Wednesday and Saturday a ferry — the Murni — leaves from
Jepara at 9 a.m., and returns from Karimunjawa at 8 a.m. on Tuesday,
Thursday and Sunday. The trip usually takes seven hours. It’s worth
checking the timetable on the internet because it can change at the last
minute. And beware: the ferry stops running for a month of maintenance
in November, which meant that I ended up having to snuggle up on a local
kapal barang (the cargo boat).
•The fast boat, called the Kartini, leaves from Semarang port on
Monday at 9 a.m. and Saturday at 10 a.m., and returns from Karimunjawa
at 11 a.m. on Tuesday and 1 p.m. on Sunday. Booking tickets directly
with the Dinas office of the Transportation Ministry office is
problematic (0291 591048), unless you use an agent. The direct trip
takes about three hours, while fast boat trips via Jepara (the
Monday/Tuesday trip) take a total of four hours.
•The three main small hotels are: Hotel Escape, Blue Laguna Inn and
the Karimunjawa Inn and charge between Rp 180,000 and Rp 250,000. The
Nirvana Hotel is more expensive, the suite costs Rp 1.7 million a night.
There are numerous cheaper home stays both in Karimunjawa town and also
in some of the villages on the two main islands, Karimunjawa and
Kemujan. These range from very good, some with AC, to rough and ready,
without as much as a fan.
•Boats for day trips and motorbikes are easy to arrange through
hotels and home stays as is the renting of snorkelling gear and diving
equipment. The best time to come is from April to October. The weather
is more unpredictable from November, and can be stormy and very wet in
January and February.
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ISLAND PANGKIL
Pangkil Small Island is an exclusive tropical resort island we are located close to the equator. Pangkil is a private island and is only rented as a whole. It is not possible to rent the homes of individuals ('Palace Driftwood' is what we call).Pangkil
is the perfect â € ~ buckets and Spadea € ™ end of the week for
families with young child.Hal is also very suitable for corporate team
building events and retreats. The island is ideal for couples seeking a romantic hideaway and a place to celebrate birthdays, weddings or anything elsePangkil offers nine elegant, driftwood palace apart, all of which have unobstructed ocean views. None of the palace is more than five steps from the beach. We have the perfect blend of elegance and simplicity â € "even a tree house has a four-poster bed, fan and electric lights. Pangkil can accommodate between ten and thirty people in comfort, filled with more than twenty staff.Pangkil Small Island is a nice little island close to Singapore in Indonesia. â € ~ Pulauâ € ™ means â € ~ islandâ € ™ and â € ~ Kecilâ € ™ means â € ~ smallâ € ™ in the Indonesian language. Pangkil Pangkil island and resort are one and the same. When
you hire Pangkil, you got it all: driftwood palaces (our luxury
accommodations), bar, sound system, pool, kayaks, snorkeling equipment,
boats, kitchens and more than twenty staff! ŒSurvivor fact â € "a helper
and servants.The weather is similar to Singapore but remember you'll be outside. Sea breeze is usually more than enough to take the edge off the tropical heat. In fact, we recommend bringing a light jacket during the winter months, December and January. We are close to the equator so that the light rainy season and we are entertaining guests 365 days a year.The
majority of our guests are expatriates based in Singapore, but we often
have guests who travel long distances to be with family and friends on
the occasion of our specialist.Singapura â € ~ jump-off pointâ € ™ is the
Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal Fast, namely about 10 minutes from Changi Airport.We value our guestsâ € ™ privacy â € "and our own â €" so you can not drop in uninvited. However, if you are interested in booking the island, we can easily arrange a visit.We are often asked about the safety and security issues. Indonesia is archipelagic, varied widely with some friendly people in Asia. It is unfortunate that the international media attention is sometimes focused on negative issues. We are thousands of miles from the political hotspot. Riau is one of the richest and most developed provinces in the country.The security of our guests (and staff) is very important to us. Rest assured that we have good contacts within the local community at all levels. Our staff and their families are all closely examined, and we have contingency plans for all possibilities.Mobile
phone coverage extends to Pangkil and we have a large clinic and
hospital complex in Deer Park, opposite the island Pangkil Bintan.Don't
worry, we'll make you safe or tell you not to come.Travel to Pangkil fun and relaxing. Record trip from Singapore to the island stands at 2 hours and 40 minutes. Travel time varies with time, group size and the choice of companies feri.Than, trip usually takes a little over 3 hours.