This little island, situated in Central Java, is, in one word,
ASTOUNDING. I chanced upon it when some of my friends who went to Indonesia
posted some pictures - turquoise blue water, blue skies, beautiful corals - I
was hooked. This island also holds special memories for me for I encountered so
many hurdles just to get here and also because I met many special people.
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| Location of Karimunjawa Island
After Mt. Bromo, I
returned to Surabaya to get the night bus to Jepara, where I can take the ferry
to Karimunjawa Island. The night bus was comfortable enough, and I arrived
Jepara at about 3am. I spread out my sleeping bag on the stone chair to the
curious looks of the locals, who at 3am already have stalls open and selling
hot drinks.
What I remember distinctly about Jepara is the
mosquitoes. By the thousands. Little white and black striped body nuisance
buzzing on my ear, my eyes and hovering all over my body.I wrapped myself from
head to toe and still never managed to beat it. At last, I just sat up and
wrapped my body with the sleeping bag and waited until the sun rised.
I asked some locals how to get to the jetty
and went with an ojek. Then I realized that I don't have enough rupiahs. Sure,
I have some RM's, but I definitely cannot make rupiahs appear out of thin air.
Back I went into town again looking for a money changer, but there was none.
The ojek rider who took me kept saying it is still too early. I suppose you can
easily think it's already 12pm when you have that kind of sun blazing on your
face at 6am.
So it was on to some ATMs where I had to
endure ridiculous charges for withdrawing cash from international location
(sob!) and with some money in hand, I went back to the jetty. I got a ticket on
the slow boat which is going to take 6 hours, but I was conned into buying a
VIP ticket, so the whole 6 hours was spent sleeping and chillin' out in a nice
air conditioned room with only a handful of people.
In
Jepara I met a lovely Dutch couple who has been on the road for 5 weeks. Kobus
and Soyin were very helpful and we ended up staying on the same homestay too.
They were going to be in Karimunjawa for a week while I was leaving in 2 days.
The next day I booked myself for a snorkeling trip and went out to the sea with
a couple of university students on holiday from Surabaya
Karimunjawa Ahoy! From left - the ferry going towards the island, the lovely Dutch couple Kobus and Soyin, Karimunjawa's clear waters and corals
Karimunjawa Sunset
The snorkeling was amazing. The corals and
reefs were so colourful and alive I was in trance underwater. The boatmen
cooked up lunch for us on the beach on an isolated island, and afterwards we
spent the day lazing on the beach with its soft sand and turquoise waters. We
returned to Karimunjawa Island around 5pm. I quickly changed and walked to
Café Amore, a western style restaurant overlooking the beach where you can
get good sunset views. The Dutch couple was going to meet me there
for dinner since I was leaving the next day to Yogyakarta.
After dinner we
strolled along the deserted road in the island, which by now is already quiet.
It was barely 10pm. We said our goodbyes and I packed my backpack, ready for
the next days journey.
Next morning, we went
to the ticket office and got ourselves the fast boat tickets back to Jepara,
which does not leave until 1pm, so we were hanging around the guesthouse with
nothing to do. The Governor of a province was visiting Karimunjawa and the
harbor was packed with little schoolkids waving the Indonesian flag. We were
only given the all clear to board the ferry after Mr Governor's ferry arrived
and he disembarked!
We arrived back at
Jepara after 3 hours, and I was forced to stay over because there was no buses
going to Yogyakarta anymore that evening. Jepara was full of big, fat, juicy
and ferocious biting aedes mosquitos ( the kind that causes dengue ) and it was
impossible to stay outdoors without getting bitten by the bucketful. I
retreated to a hotel close to the bus station, it was called Hotel Segoro and I
remember a guy at the guesthouse telling us about it. The price was about Rp
100,000 per night ( roughly RM30 ) and the room was decent and had breakfast
thrown in too.
The staffs at the
reception were so friendly and nice, that I booked a one way journey to
Yogyakarta with one of their affliates. Good decision :)
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