Karimun Jawa

Floating Villa and crystal clear Sea
Photo by Baby Bro

Too tired with all stressful routine, the busy polluted city, with all the noisy and crazy traffic. I took a break and went to KARIMUN JAWA listen to the sea breeze, looking at calming blue sea, relaxing on the sand beach and eat seafood all the time....

DAY 1

Our trip start from Jogjakarta, we depart by car at midnight and we arrived in Jepara around 6 in the morning. We had breakfast and then board to the ferry ship. The ship left harbor around 8. Since the man from the tour give us the ticket a little bit late we board a little bit late, soon all the seat left are taken, and the hallway also full of passenger. The only place left is the deck, So For the first half of journey I should deal with the sun heat, before I decided to go to cargo room, join the pile of rice and deal with seasickness in the rest of ferry trip. 

We arrived in Karimun Jawa at 12.30 pm, and soon the guide/person in charge pick us up and bring us to lunch. Once arrived at the lunch place, I asked the guide, where is my room? I need to take shower soon, because I'm so sticky and smells bad. But he told me to have lunch first then he'll show us our room. So I just quickly eat. After the lunch he shows us our room and I just quickly take a bath. The room is ok. I try to upgrade to the room with AC but unlucky none was left. No Kidding the room is steamy hot, though they provide the fan, I could not turn it on since the electricity is only on from 6pm to 6am. But I too tired to even care about the heat, that I just laid down and take a nap. I woke up sometime around 3.30, since it's too hot and I became to uncomfortable. 

The guide came around 4, and telling us that we are going to the Joko Tuo hill to watch the sun set. The hill is nice and breezy, I give the view of the harbor and Menjangan island. We wait a while for the sunset, but it's covered by clouds.

The sunset from Joko Tuo Hill

The Village, harbor, and Menjangan Besar Island from Joko Tuo Hill

Late at night we visit Alun Alun Karimun Jawa, which is basically a park/square/soccer field. At night you could find many stalls sells foods, drinks, snacks and souvenir. We are still too tired from the ferry trip. I only bought some coconut water and going back to our room.

DAY 2

This is where the real adventure starts, I woke up at 6.30, pack all my swimming gear, and had my breakfast. Today we finally going to see the beautiful beaches, swimming and take a lot of photos. Woooo...

So we board on the boat and sailin' to the first site. I was so nervous since It's been a while since the last time I actually really swimming. But not too afraid since I had life jacket on hohohohoho. This is really my first time ever to snorkeling. It was super fun! We use to be seeing the life under the sea from the documentary video. I used to see the ocean on the surface, the blue water, but now I know that there is an whole beautiful ecosystem, there are the coral that been a house for the fishes. Since I don't really know how to stay under the water, the guide did this trick to help me get a beautiful underwater photo shoot, he drown us.

Our Boat on the left side

The little hut on the top of rock

Little hut on the rock in the middle of the sea

For lunch we tie up in and Island, the guide prepare the lunch for us. While wait for the food ready we spent sometime exploring the beach. You could see the crystal clear ocean water, white sand beach and a little hut build on a rock in the middle of the sea. We had grilled fish, veggie, rice and watermelon for lunch. After a lunch we chillin' a bit before depart to the next site for snorkeling.

Second site, the wind so strong.

Third site, much more tranquil, shallow but there's a lot of sea uchirin

We change the site two times, the first place the current was too fast, so we change to other place where much more tranquil. But actually there a lot of sea urchin in this second place. they literary super big and hides between the coral. But I don't have the picture to show :(

Cup Noodle and Coconut Water

Then we went to Tanjung Gelam. I'm not much amaze since the beach was crowded. I saw sea cucumber for the first time, the one that still alive. I want to touch, but I was afraid. So I poke him instead, now I feel sorry for him. He must be feel uncomfortable hahaha.. We had our second lunch, I order cup noodle, pisang goreng (fried banana), and coconut. After that we took some photo, we would like to stay for the sunset so badly but we must leaving.

The Pretty sun

Late at night we going back to Alun-Alun I had grilled banana, and the other had grilled corn. As I said there many food stall that served seafood, you can choose the sauce to go along with the fish, crab, lobster, squid or shrimp.

Fish from one stall in Alun-Alun Karimun Jawa pic by baby bro

DAY 3

It is the last day! We depart to snorkel around Pulau tengah. The ride is super rough this time so I couldn't take picture, because I should hold on the boat all the time. The guide show me Pantai Nirwana resort and a sand island but know completely sunk because of global warming :( the first site for snorkeling today was so pretty, it is located near Pulau Gosong Tengah. The water is crystal clear, that we can see the fish swimming approaching the boat. This is so far my most favorite site, because there a lot of fish around. I found different kind of fish, I found many beautiful parrot fish, which is in my eye their scale look like a rainbow.

First site,  Pulau Gosong Tengah.

For the lunch, we went to this pretty private island (they told me the name but I forgot). Since it is private, we must paid every time there's a ship tie up. They have few floating villa with the beach few, and two other villa situated in the middle of the island. It cost 750k IDR per day to rent the villa. In front of the floating villa they have a sharks pond. The island is quite small, we did a round the coast. They planted grass in the middle of the island, making a nice green carpet to take a nap.

Floating Villa pic by my Baby Bro

Mythical site that I found in the island

The green grass and coconut trees

After the lunch and nap, we went to the second site not to far from the island for snorkeling and then depart to Menjangan Besar Island for taking picture with sharks, turtle, star fish etc.

TIPS:

- Speed Boat much more efficient!
- Bring flash disk for the photo.
You can ask as many as you want underwater photo so bring your own flash disk. 
- Mosquito repellant,
although the claimed that the mosquitoes don't bring malaria etc. you just don't want your sleep disturb.
- Bring your own snorkeling gear, 
- or if you rent one bring alcohol swab to sterilize it. (I got pimple around the area where I use the mask) 
- Bikini is Ok! Yeah!
- Bring mat, if there isn't any seats left in the ferry just unroll your mat and pretend you're having picnic somewhere... 
- More beauty tips coming.

Notice: I bought a tour pacakage from MBAKDISKON for 650k IDR (ex. transportation to harbor), they provide you with a room of 5 people, or you can upgrade your room for two with fan for 100k IDR and AC for 200kIDR.