Belitung in 3 Nights

The Bangka-Belitung province is located east of South Sumatra and it is easily accessible by plane from Jakarta. Return flights tend to cost just over Rp 1,000,000 and if you want to reduce that carbon footprint (which I am very guilty of), there is a boat (PT Pelni Lawit)that leaves twi ce a month from Tanjung Priok port in Jakarta to Tanjung Pandan, the main city of Belitung. I heard that it’s cheap to go by boat, but not many people know about it. I suggest looking into PT Pelni Lawit website for more information about the price and the timetable.

Belitung is famous among Indonesian tourists because of Andrea Hirata’s best-selling series Laskar Pelangi (“The Rainbow Troop”), which was made into a movie in ___. The movie displays stunning sceneries of the island: from its tranquil beaches and huge rocks to its mangroves and crocodiles. The book is inspired by the author’s ownexperience growing in the island and talks about the difficulty of cycling through muddy roads for ___km, to go to the nearest school.

Those dodgy, muddy roads are mostly gone.  My cousin and I rented a motorbike and sped from the West to the East of the island in just about 1 hour 40 minutes. The roads were paved and well-maintained, and I thoroughly enjoyed riding through the tropical forest (though not the palm oil plantations).

Most Indonesians travel to Belitung using a travel agency. It is easy, practical, and most importantly cheaper. Is it though?

My family paid Rp 1,700,000 for the whole trip whilst I paid around Rp 500,000 for the same amount of time we stayed there, and I would argue that our experience was worth the price. If you have the time to invest on a trip, then I’d suggest backpacking rather than going on an arranged trip because 1) it forces you to learn more about the place you are visiting, and 2) it forces you to meet locals and see the island as someone’s home than merely your own vacation destination. Plus, it’s a lot more fun to be adventurous. Here are some things we did that I’d recommend to you all when you are travelling to Belitung:

1. Stay with a local (e.g. Couchsurfing host)

What made Belitung even more memorable was our Couchsurfing (CS) host, Indah, and her family. They welcomed us like distant relatives from Bandung. Her parents, her sisters, and her nephew and niece, were incredibly kind and hospitable. When we left, I felt compelled to return to Belitung someday in the hope of exploring more unexplored areas as well as to visit this lovely family again.

You may have started Googling, what is Couchsurfing? Well, it is a website and an application where travellers around the world decide to host and be hosted for free. Yes, it’s free (this is not an AirBnB) because it’s both give and take – you let a stranger but a fellow traveller stay in your house for free, and then someday when you travel you worry less about accommodation cost. I joined CS to save money, but now I do it because I enjoy meeting other travellers and sharing our stories. Indah also used CS when she was travelling in Southeast Asia, and that’s why when we met, we had a mutual understanding of what it’s like to be a solo female backpacker.

I asked Indah to host me, telling her that I could teach her some English and in exchange I would also love to learn about Belitung culture and language. I didn’t do any research before I came, so I was surprised to find that the largest etnic group in the island is Melayu (Malay) and their local language is closer to the language of Malaysia than Indonesia. Even the wedding ceremony of exchanging pantun (poetry) is something my cousin has witnessed in Singapore. I also learned the local palate, which is a lot more “fishy” than any food you’d find in Bandung. The terasi (shrimp paste) is mostly imported from its neighbour island Bangka and it was hella delicious. Their sayur asem was also interesting because it is more sour than sweet, plus it’s red. Don’t get me started on the fish and seafood, because they are abundant and fresh. On our last day, Indah and her family took us to Tanjung Pendam beach for its regular Sunday fair, and we ate so much good food by the pristine bluish green sea. The fair was packed, though, and sinceit’s Indonesia, there is less awareness about the use of single-use plastics, which are strewn here and there among the hubbub, so I suggest that if you go to the fair bring your own container, cutlery, and Tumbler so as to not contribute to the plastic waste.

2. Rent a motorbike

We hired a motorbike to be delivered to the airport. It costs Rp 75,000/day plus the airport transfer fee of Rp 30,000. What we didn’t know beforehand was that Indah’s brother-in-law would have lent one of his bikes for a more affordable price, so that’s advice #2 for you ask your host about hiring a motorbike before you came because that might come in handy.

If you’ve been in Indonesia or lived here, you’d know that a motorbike is your friend. Unless you live in a big city, you can hardly find a public transport in Indonesia, and hitchhiking still hasn’t caught on. This is a sad truth, because a small town that grows into a big city will bring the motorcycle culture with it, causing a lot of traffic and pollution. However, in a less populated island like Belitung, you can hardly feel the pollution you are causing or the traffic. There’s no traffic. As a native orang Bandung, riding a motorbike and being able to 1) speed because there’s no traffic and 2) not wear a mask because the air is clean, feel a lot like breaking out of a prison. If you go with a travel agency, you will miss out on this opportunity.

But Elhana, I don’t have a license. Neither did we, so avoid the police.

But Elhana, I don’t know how to ride a motorbike. What other means of transportation are available? This is trickier to answer.  There are Gojek and Grab in Belitung for taxis and motorbike taxis. There are also inter-city buses, which you can check on Traveloka.com. Public transportation within the city is rare, and depending on motorbike taxis may be costly. Try renting a car instead.

3. Fishermen are your best friends

The most famous sites in Belitung are the small islands surrounding the island, and they are definitely worth a visit. What makes many of these islands unique are their large rocks – an island made out of rocks. These rocks have various shapes as well, and it is quite an adventure to imagine their resemblance. There are many islands with sandy white beaches, too. Head to Tanjung Kelayang in the Northeast to rent a boat to Lengkuas island, Kelayang island, Burung island, and any snorkelling place the boat-owners would recommend. My cousin and I paid Rp 400,000 to have a boat all to ourselves for a day. We paid Rp 20,000 for the lifejackets and brought our own goggles to snorkel with. The boat-owner showed us places to swim and snorkel in and the ocean underneath is truly beautiful. Don’t forget to bring biscuits to feed the fish!

Rp 400k is quite pricey, so if you join with other travellers you will end up paying less. For example, my cousin and I paid Rp 200k each, but if there are 5 of you, you will pay Rp 80k. Ask your local host for guidance, or ask the boat-owner if you can join with other people. Tanjung Kelayang has become a lot more commercial, so the prices tend to be more expensive in general. This leads me to the second option: fishermen’s boats.

When we travelled to the East of Belitung (Beltim), we ate lunch at Serdang beach. There were fishermen returning ashore in the afternoon and we decided to ask one of them whether they could take us somewhere. The fisherman, pak Yanto, hesitated on the price, and said “Rp 100k for an hour more or less.” It was rainy season and the dark clouds were looming in the distance. We knew that we wouldn’t be able to get far or stay for long, but we gave it a go. Pak Yanto and his son took us to Nyiur Melambai beach (which is actually accessible by land route), and we spent more than 2 hours swimming and playing with small purple jellyfish (they didn’t sting). What I really liked about this experience is how kind pak Yanto was to us, and how his knowlegde of the sea enriched our experience. He taught us how to hold a jellyfish and how to avoid getting stung, talked about the kinds of fishes in the sea, the seasons of crabs and mussels, as well as which islands to visit. We weren’t planning to stay overnight in Manggar, but it was getting late and Pak Yanto offered to host us for the evening. His wife cooked three kinds of scrumptious sea fish and we chatted throughout the whole evening. It was absolutely wholesome.

If you are planning to go to Manggar, do message me so I can give you his son’s number (he doesn’t use a smartphone). Pak Yanto offered us to come with him to fish, but unfortunately our flight was on the following day so we couldn’t go. He would leave at 2 am and come back in the morning. He fishes with a rod. That sounds like an experience you wouldn’t want to miss. Just don’t forget to pay them for their kindness.

So why travel with fishermen? Maybe we happened to meet the right person, or maybe because they are less commercial in general. Pak Yanto was humbler than the boat-owner in Tanjung Kelayang, and I would happily pay Pak Yanto the same amount of money for a full day trip. We would also be contributing to his family, and learn more about what it’s like to make a living in the sea. He taught us a lot about the sea, and knowledge based on experience is precious.

The only downside to this is if you don’t speak Indonesian. As a rule of thumb, backpacking in Belitung requires a basic knowledge in Indonesian as English is not widely spoken yet. If you can’t speak Indonesian, try finding a CS host like Indah who can guide you around the island in English. It may make bargaining with a fisherman harder if you have a language barrier, but hey, Google Translate could hel p you out. I’ve been in countries where I don’t speak the local language, but still want to get to know people – and sign language plus phone application are still better than dismissing the whole idea entirely.

4. Study the map

Open Google Maps and study the shape of the island. Are there any interesting coastlines? Any mountains or hills? Unnamed beaches? I don’t know about you, but the more obscure or remote a location, the more curious I am to visit it. This is one of the things we did when we were travelling in Belitung. As we rode back from Tanjung Kelayang to Tanjung Pandan, we decided to stop by some places we saw on the map. We went to Terong village, which had a plantation field of various kinds of organic plants (though unfortunately no one was there to sell them to us) and we decided to check out the coast before Tanjung Pandan. That’s when we discovered how many mangroves there are in Belitung. Many Indonesians look for white sandy beaches, but I love all kinds of beaches, whether they are rocky or brown, cliff-edged or mangrove-ridden. We parked the motorbike by someone’s house and walked into the forest. Remember to always wear insect repellent because boy there were a lot of mosquitos. Sadly there were rubbish here and there along the way, which made me wish that I’d brought a huge rubbish bin with me, but by the time we reached the coast, it was mostly mangroves and shallow water. Pay attention to the water, the crevices of dead coral reefs that make up the beach. The mangrove is a living ecosystem. There are myriad kinds of crabs, small fish, snails, hermit crabs, and mussels. We spent the afternoon feeling the soft, moist sand under our feet, and following crabs to their hiding places. It was also empty. It was only around 17.30 that one or two fishermen started appearing with their bags, ready to collect some mussels in the distance. We would have followed them to the sea if we had had more time.

Additional information

The Dinas Pariwisata of Belitung Timur (East Belitung’s governmental tourism centre) gave us useful information about places to visit and homestay accommodations in East Belitung, including in islands off-coast. Here is the list:

And here you have the website address:

Our travel itinerary was

Day 1 – Tanjung Pandan

• Danau Kaolin – a bright blue lake with white mineral deposits, the result of mining china clay (kaolin).
• Tanjung Pendam beach – the city’s main beach; it’s not exactly for swimming, but more for sitting and relaxing as well as drinking coconut water (bring your own straw)
• Eco Wisata Gusong Bugis – a mangrove park with information about the forest and its preservation attempts
• Mie Belitong Atep – try the famous Belitung noodle

Day 2 – Northwest Belitung islands

• Tanjung Kelayang beach – white sandy beach, a point where you hire a boat to get to the small islands
• Island-hopping and snorkelling – Lengkuas island with its lighthouse is the most popular destination, and for a good reason too. We went to the Kelayang cave, Garuda beach, and other tiny islands in the surrounding area
• Tanjung Tinggi beach – head over to Tanjung Tinggi, which is one of the most beautiful beaches in Belitung, with its enormous rocks and white sands
• Stopover on the way back to Tanjung Pandan – we stopped by Terong village and the mangrove forest
• Mie ayam jelo in Tanjung Pandan – seriously, try their noodles

Day 3 – East Belitung

• Gantung – a small town with Andrea Hirata’s museum called Musium Kata (“Word Museum”); the entrance fee was Rp 50,000, so we didn’t go in, but I’ve heard that it’s beautiful inside, especially if you love literature. Instead we went to a coffee shop next to the museum, which serves local coffee kupi kuli and we enjoyed it. Afterwards we went to Replika SD Muhammadiyah Laskar Pelangi, a replica of the school that Andrea Hirata used to go to, and Rumah Keong, a tiny lake with some decorative snail houses. Honestly, Gantung was a place where you can take Instagram pictures, but not really a town to enjoy for the sake of it per se.
• Serdang beach – locals don’t think this beach is any special, but we had delicous seafood at RM Sinar Laut whilst overlooking the white sands and clear blue sea. This is also where we met Pak Yanto and hired a boat.
• Nyiur Melambai beach – a tranquil, white-sand beach with occasional jellyfishes; you can walk for miles towards the sea and still step on this soft, clear sand like a wide natural swimming pool.
• Manggar’s town centre and Warung Kopi 1001 – Manggar is famous for its coffee shops, so be sure to try their coffee. The town centre is full of fairy lights and food stands and it’s quite nice to see what young East Belitung kids are up to on Saturday nights.

Day 4 – Ride back to Tanjung Pandan

• Tanjung Pendam Sunday Fair – head there in the morning for good seafood and snacks by the beach.
• Kong Djie Siburik – a historical cafe where miners used to get their “energy drink”; order the boiled egg for a signature Belitung miner’s breakfast
• Fly back 