Belitung

Belitung, a small island just north of Jakarta. Very small in popularity on an international scale, but very famous to the Jakartians for their very beautiful abstract sights. Sounds like a good place to relax after a hectic two weeks of studying? My dad thought so too. So for the last three days, that is where we went.

Being in Jakarta with little enforced security measures taken place and many deaths being unregistered, it's always a little scary flying on local flights, where international rules and regulations take little effect in this situation. The fact that it was a small, low budget aircraft didn't help at all. The seats were ripped and most of them fixed only using duct tape. My mother even had to sit on a broken seat! However my dad, being the daredevil that he was, thought that it was fine and we flew off anyway. 

The turbulence was frightening, and I forced myself to sleep to get rid of this terrifying moment and to hopefully never feel any sense of fright or panic if I were to pass away. One could say that I do have a slight flight phobia, probably spurred on by the sometimes ridiculous reasons for a flight crash on the famous series Air Crash Investigation on Discovery Channel. However we made it in one piece, which was all I was thankful for. 

The place did sure know how to live to its name, and sure enough the views were amazing, something that many Westerners would pay millions to see (and to enjoy the tropical climate of Asia of course). 

One of the highlights of the trip was what my dad liked to call "island hopping" which was hopping from one island to the next using a boat, and snorkelling along the way which would have been very enjoyable to many, but not really to me. (I also tend to have a phobia of the sea, but that's another story). There was also a huge lighthouse that we had the opportunity to climb and see, which was a little frightening as well as it occured to me that there was little foundation to support this approximately 200 year old lighthouse, of which has never been strengthened since after the Dutch left. The little foundation we found was created using moldy planks of wood, which would be an overstatement  if I were to say that it was weak.

The view from the lighthouse was pretty amazing though. 

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However the place truly is enjoyable, with good food and good infrastructure, friendly people and beautiful animals. I do recommend a trip there, if you could survive the plane ride. I mean to express the term in a figurative form of course. 

Cheers,
Matthew Tan