Carita Beach, West Java

  Jakarta, Indonesia
Sunday, October 22, 2006

Had been wanting to go West Java, Carita Beach, Krakatoa Volcano, Ujong Kulon National Park for the past few weeks. A Tour operator I contacted was quoting outrageous prices to "arrange" trips to Ujung Kulon. That just piqued my desire not to pay him and find a way. Copious searches on the net led me back to Bartletts Travelogue, right here on Travelpod - the most recent piece of advice/travelogue I could find (May 2005). Then my Bahasa Indonesia instructor gave me a wonderful surprise by sharing a map that the government of Indonesia produces for Lebaran (the time when after fasting for 40 days, Muslims go home to visit their families for Id-Ul-Fitr) Since a lot of traveling happens, they figure it is important enough to warrant printing a good map to help people get around to wherever they have to.

This suited me perfectly because it is an amazing map, which I have uploaded for all to make use of....enjoy. (A lot of time goes into obtaining, creating a panorama map, uploading ...If you like it/use it, I would be happy if you could leave me a comment/send email/tell me about anything interesting about you, places you have been to...)

Not too many people head to West Java because not too many people call it home. Northwest tip is Merak, a fishing village with connectivity to Sumatra (didn't go there). Lower down is Anyer, Carita (where we ended up going), close to Labuan (the District center).

It is about 130 km or so directly west of Jakarta - almost 80 km by the Toll Road. The last 50 km took us about 2-2.5 hours because it passes crowded towns, 2 way roads that are essentially rendered one way by the horde of vehicles in a direction opposite to where you are headed (of course!). It was a scenic drive because it was time for sunset and we saw awesome panoramic views as we were driving on this 2 lane road close to the coastline.

Carita was about halfway down the coast (6 km from Labuan) - we checked into Lippo Carita Hotel - there were about 3 floors of townhouse like rooms - they had like 500 rooms. We liked it because they had the best beach. Natural Beach was grey in color (probably because of volcanic eruptions - Krakotoa, the mother of them all, was like 2 hours away). This hotel had probably got tons of golden sand dumped on it to make it "prettier". It worked for us and we checked in. Gratis breakfast and one complimentary dip in a great pool by the beach sealed the deal for us - me, my wife and our daughter. Unfortunately, it was the Id-ul-Fitr weekend so the prices were nearly double of the usual weekday rate. The bonus was that there were fireworks on the beach that night (people celebrating that they can feast after the 40 day lebaran (lent for Muslims)).

Morning time was good fun - the usual touristy stuff - the body boards, jet ski, motorboat cruises, the banana boat(with the obligatory splash at the end), parasailing...The dip in the pool was great by the beach and we relaxed while drinking coconut water (air kelapa).

There wasn't too much by way of food - Indonesian stuff mostly - which I like but having recently "turned" mostly vegetarian , didn't have too many choices. Mostly vegetarian also because we were no more than 50 km away from the area where more than 51 human deaths have been confirmed because of Bird Flu.

We checked out - abandoned the plan of going to Ujung Kelong, the only rainforest preserve of the Indonesian rhino on Java. Did drive 6 km down to visit the Park office to find out more for the "next trip". We passed like 4 times this non descript, decrepit office. ASking for directions wasn't too much help with my broken Bahasa Indonesia (it only made me worse off than if had I just stuck to gut instinct). Spotting a broken statue of a rhino, I took a chance and pulled in. Sure enough it was the office and it was closed -- Id ul Fitr. Did manage to get in to take pictures of some maps to die for if planning a visit to Ujong Kelong. They are posted above. Will upload some maps of Other areas of Java soon.