Open Trip to Pahawang Island - First trip in 2016

Yep, it's already on my bucket list and my friend asked me to go too since he wants to go there too. He and his friend already settled the date to go, they planned to go at beginning of 2016 and me..hmm I will just follow them whenever they want to go kkkk

We went to Pahawang Island, like I always do lately, an open trip, leave at Friday night and back to Jakarta on Sunday, 8 - 10 January 2016 (3D/2N), cost Rp470.000 meeting point at Merak. 

Day 1 - Friday, 8 January 2016

When we plan this trip we looked for starting point from Plaza Semanggi and we found the operator but on D-day, the operator said since we are the only people who start from Jakarta so he asked if is it possible for us to go to Merak alone so the starting point start from Merak. I am okay with it even little bit disappointed coz I prefer Plaza Semanggi for its convenience.

But since I am not going there alone so we said yes and we met at Slipi Jaya then off with the bus which written Merak on it. We took the bus and the cost is Rp35.000, you can also go with Prima Jasa or Arimbi Bus (cost around Rp30.000) to Merak. We will take one of this bus at first but since we found another bus, smaller but looks more empty so we can sit and have written Merak on it so we took this bus eventhough at Serang we should change the bus, they told us to move to Prima Jasa, but no worries, no need to pay again.

Red Pin for Pahawang Island location

Arrive at Merak after around 3 hours. We gathered with another people who will go to this trip and actually that was first time join trip who consist of different operator, there were 28 people for this trip, wow, quite a lot, right? We took the ferry around 01.30 AM which actually already Day 2 hahaha..been a while since I took Ferry. When we arrived on the Ferry there will be some different class for seating, and you should pay again based on class that you want like Business except Economy.

We go upstairs and we saw couple mats laying down on the floor, I thought its some kind of facility from the Ferry, we took the mat and laying down there, we saw another passengers and we thought we should share this mat so from 1 person 1 mat, we packed ourself and become 3 persons 2 mats, strangely those passengers won't sit next to us and only few family use the mat then we thought okay if you guys don't want to use it, byee and these 2 mats are ours. Then suddenly there is a guy come to us when we laying down on the mat and said, "1 mat charge Rp8.000" and our face like "whuattt?!?" geezzz..this is experience that you might find anytime or anywhere when you traveling so be careful. Okay leave that one and nooo...the ferry is still not leaving so we waited at Ferry for I don't know maybe around half hour, then there was some guy and kids who asked money Rp2.000 and he said he will jump from this Ferry and I think it might some attraction from them but I don't really care by that and continue my sleep. Since I didn't feel very well before so I just thought that I should get some rest, I just got sick for 4 days from last Saturday until Tuesday and still healing time, actually I still got some fever on D-Day but hehe I really wanna go and have fresh air so I packed my medicines just in case ;)

Day 2 - Saturday, 9 January 2016

From Ferry we arrived around 3.30 AM at Bakauheni, Lampung, its a harbor then we continued to go to Ketapang Pier by car for about 3 hours, there are 4 cars with 7-8 capacity. At Ketapang, we ate breakfast and get ready for snorkeling. Our first hopping island is Kelagian Besar Island and we went to some islands like Tanjung Putus Island, Gosong Kalangan etc. We did snorkeling, finding Mr. Nemo, get to see Pahawang Island sign under the sea. And in the afternoon we went to our homestay at Pahawang Besar Island, get some rest and it's rainy in the afternoon so our planning to do another snorkeling is failed but no worries for me because I will get some sleep.

heading to first spot of snorkeling

chilling out~~

Pulau Pahawang Sign under the sea

view in front of our guest house

Our home stay located just in front of the beach, so when we open the door we could see coconut trees and beach. Around 4 PM we heading to Pahawang Kecil Island waiting for sunset and actually that is a private island rented by French, I hear that French already rented for 20 years and decided to extend the rent, they can't buy the island so they only allow to rent the island. We go there and we just playing outside the area. In the afternoon you can see at some part there are white sand that you could see in the surface and actually it connect between island but since its already afternoon so the water already cover the white sand. We bought Coconut Ice there (Rp10.000) and waiting for sunset. Its just felt so nice to be there and enjoying all of this during weekend ;) At night, I just remember that I go to sleep early and I wake again, had a nice talking with others and we did some horror stories to share..haha, apparently there were some barbeque but I didn't eat it, because I'm already fulled. 

Pahawang Kecil

Private Island, Pahawang Kecil

Sunset yet to come

Day 3 - Sunday, 10 January 2016

We checked out around 7.30 AM heading to our boat and do another hopping island and snorkeling. There is another spot with Pahawang Island sign under the sea and there was a small temple under the sea. Our final hopping island is Kelagian Island and they have water sports there such as Banana Boat, Donuts. The island is pretty, the sea colors were beautiful and I found it interesting to sea different blue colors. The white sand feel soft so you can just go around with bare foot. 

Sunrise in front of our home stay

our home stay, left one

Welcome Sign of Pahawang Island

YAYY! :) cr. Om Harun

hahaha xDD they put lot of effort

Kelagian Island

my happy face :D :D nice shot

Going back to Ketapang Pier and did shower at public restrooms (Rp5.000) we had our lunch and ready to go to Bakauheni Harbour. Along the way we did stop to buy local snacks or souvenirs. I bought Chocolate Banana Chips and Lampung Coffee. From Ketapang Pier to Harbour took a little longer, about 3,5 hours. We arrived at Bakauheni around 6 PM but still waiting for another participants and when we were heading to our Ferry, it's too late because they just leave. So we need to wait the next Ferry and finally we leave for Merak around 7.30 PM, when we go inside the Ferry, the officer said you can choose whichever room that you want for free. So we deciced to choose one room and join another group, the room had aircon inside and there are some pillow placed above the mat. Hmmm based on our experience before we shouldn't trust easily with some facilities on the ferry including this pillow. So we decided to not use the pillow and put them on the corner. There is a guy who came in our room and join us, he slept directly with that pillow and after few minutes there is a guy who come in and checking those who used pillow and ask Rp5.000 for one pillow and I saw the face of that sleepy guy like "whaattt.." and give that money, kkkk been there done that. 

our ferry heading to Merak

Inside our room at Ferry, watch out the pillow :p

This ferry is bigger than the first one that we took and surprisingly it only takes about 2,5 hours to arrive at Merak and we feel so happy for it because we want to arrive at home sooner because especially me, I will go to work on Monday. Arrive at Merak Harbour, we walked to Bus Terminal and we took Arimbi Bus and I get off at Slipi Jaya-Menara Peninsula, before you get in the bus you should ask the bus to stop at Slipi Jaya, cost Rp30.000 journey about 3 hours and after that I took taxi to go home. Hmmm welcome to the reality and can't wait to my next trip haha ;p 

Me, Febri & Nelly ;)

Here is the itinerary :