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Bira
Island
by
: Mehru Jaffer
When busy, busy,busy
the best bet is a little break on Bira.
Espcially when short
on leave and tall on longing, it is not such a bad idea to start in
the vicinity of Jakarta itself for a night or two away on one of the
thousand islands. Scattered in the Bay of Jakarta and easily
accessible within an hour or two, Bira is a virtual paradise despite
all the spoilation of coral reefs surrounding the island. The largest
of all the resort islands, there are advantages in Bira that are not
available on the other islands. Built for golfers, the undulating
landscape of Bira is carpeted with finely manicured grass, circled by
a footpath where it is possible to ride a bicycle at sun rise or walk
around the island with its talcum powder- white beaches kissed
constantly by waves that are sometimes blue and sometimes green.
"Helmut Kohl,
former head of Germany has visited here for a game of golf,"
informs Dadang Tony.S, marketing executive with great pride. Former
president Suharto who has a home on Bira Kecil, the smaller island
opposite has also been here to practice the sport like BJ Habibie, his
successor.
Eko, a recent
graduate from a local university spent a weekend at Bira along with
three friends. While there he hired a wooden boat from a local
fisherman who rowed him a little away from the shores. Eko soon pulled
on his dive gear and disappeared under the sea to find a whole, new
world of technic coloured plants and creatures.
"It is like an
endless painting down there, just a few minutes away from Bira,"
exclaimed Eko on surfacing back on land holding the most beautiful
shaped shell in his hand. Although he did admit to feeling a little
frightened of the many octopus swimming past him, he was nevertheless
delighted with his short trip into the watery kingdom.
For those who are not
into water sports, the resort island offers a tennis court and boat
trips to nearby atolls like Kebayoran China that will transport the
visitor to a world of picture postcard beauty. An early morning walk
around the island means witnessing an entire orchestra of rare birds
and perhaps a glimpse of the biawak, the shy monitor lizard, cousin of
the more famous Komodo dragon. On the western tip of Jakarta is the
isolated National Park of Ujung Kulon, an exciting destination for all
nature lovers. Ujung Kulon is said to be a slice of what all of Java
must have been just a few centuries ago before intensive human
settlement converted the dense tropical forests into a concrete
jungle.
Rich in wild life,
Ujung Kulon is an annual destination for hundreds of students of the
Jakarta International School who live in the wilderness for an entire
week getting acquainted with nature. "Both the staff and students
look forward to an enjoyable educational experience each year,"
says Stephen Meade, the Middle School Activities Director. Travel
agents further help to discover some of the remaining grandeur of the
ancient sultanate of Banten also in west Java and its surrounding
areas. There are day tours from Jakarta that include sightseeing in
the old city, diving at Ujung Kulon, golfing in Cilegon, trekking in
Tanjung Jaya and fishing in rustic south Bantenese environs.
Traditional Banten is
a five day, four night tour with trips to the Baduy hamlets that have
kept alive their megalithic culture to this day. Excitement is added
to the trip as a short trek through hilly footpaths of the Kendeng
Mountain range is rounded off with an overnight stop in a traditional
bamboo house.
Beyond Merak and
Cilegon the salty sea breeze becomes even more tangy along miles and
miles of shimmering shoreline. Amongst numerous hotels, a popular
overnight stop is the privately owned Sambolo beach bungalows
available at long term leases for comfortable, hardwood, grass roofed
accommodation with an attached kitchen. To barbeque fresh fish in the
middle of the curved beach lit up by a full moon and to the
accompaniment of music made by the waves in high tide, is an
experience of a life time.
Once satiated with
the sea, there is always the towering volcanic massif containing some
of the most beautiful scenery of another kind to the south of Bogor.
The narrow winding road built nearly 200 years ago across the 1,450
meter pass known as Puncak (meaning summit) is an attractive but
crowded weekend resort. The idea is to leave the maddening crowd
behind and to bifurcate into the side roads along the Puncak Pass for
that special peace and quiet.
An overnight stay at
the HB Garden guest house at the foot of Mount Salak surrounded by
relics from the ancient kingdom of Tarumnegara and a mineral water
source in the center of a rain forest not far from the city of Bogor
is yet another pleasant get away from all the heat and dust of
Jakarta. However if tight on time even one afternoon on the grounds of
the picturesque Melrimba Gardens is enough to revive the spirit for a
while. Before a leisurely walk in the mist covered gardens on the
slopes of the Puncak Pass, a meal at the various food courts known as
Sendok Garpu on the premises itself is a must, especially for
traditional Sundanese food. For the youngster of today there is also
some pasta and burger meals to choose from.
Actually the
traveller within Indonesia is faced in the end with quite a baffling
choice of destinations, each one more exciting than the other. To make
life for the holiday seeker easier, tours have been divided into five
categories, including Leisure Holiday, Culture and Special Interest,
Adventure and Ecotours, Overland and Stopovers, by most travel agents.
Another way of
journeying through Java is by rail. Starting in Jakarta, Java on Rail
takes in Bandung, Yogjakarta, Solo, Surabaya and Banyuwangi then on to
Denpasar in Bali by a short overland journey. Stimulating Sumatra is a
11 day and 10 night program from Medan in the north to Bukittinggi in
the heart of the Minnagkabau highlands in the west. There is
definitely no lack of choices here, as a trip if you like, into the
strange world of the mysterious Toraja people is a rare adventure in
itself made all the more eerie by a visit to the haunting tombs. Then
there are the Komodo dragons to meet, temple ruins to marvel at and
the Batak and Dayak tribes to encounter.
So go away by all
means even this holiday season to the far off wonders of Paris, Rome,
New York and South Africa but do keep in mind that the 17,508 islands
here, home to 336 ethnic groups some of whose way of life continues
unbroken for more than 5,000 years, is just round the corner from
where you stand.
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