I Was There,

Ujung Genteng, Sukabumi, 16-17 Juli 2011  

A fortnight ago, I have quite an adventure. At last I had a chance to visit the place I wanted to visit for a very long time. I've heard about it since high school. One of my teachers told me about it. 

I made up my mind to visit it this year. But, time and money were not good friends of mine. Until last week, my friends ask if I want to go there with them. Definitely, I would.

UKI become the starting point. We left at eight thirty. The highway not too crowded but it became on-off system out after Ciawi. We've also got lost coz we took the wrong turn at Sukabumi. After asking several people we've finally found our way. And it’s still a long way to go.

We had arrived at Surade around four in the morn. You couldn’t imagine how bad the road we through. The turns are crazy, with the dark gorges on the other side. And by subuh we finally landed in Ujung Genteng. 

 

The Full Moon

My first impression of that place: it’s so quiet. And nobody loitered around, while in Jakarta at the same hour people might already scramming in a rush.

Sunrise

 

We were looking for a mosque to pray. And then, we just scattered in the beach until sun rises. We almost disappointed when the sun wasn't as we expected. And the most interesting thing was we can see the sun in the east and the full moon in the west. The sky seemed not so far away.

 Sunrise of First Day

After taking several photos we headed to the home stay, getting showers and breakfasting then we headed to our first destination. Since we didn't know where it is, we asking our renter. But the lady says she also didn't that place. Then some of the local people offered to guide us to Curug Cikaso, only (!) costing us for 150K. Of course we declined; beside we came with our own car. 

Curug Cikaso 

The road to the curug was not that bad, but not that good either. it’s quite narrow too. To reach the curug we paid 80K to ride a boat. Actually we can walk there, if we want to take a bit of adventure. Since its in the dry season, the waterfalls volume didn’t to much exciting. There were three waterfalls. The rocks were superb. And again the atmosphere was calming.

We were having lunch on the way back. And it’s the weirdest lunch I ever have. I ordered tongseng, but the ingredients were not usual. They used green vegetable, and the broth was white. And not to mention the service took sooooo long. We almost starved to death.

When we’re on the way back we took another stop at the beach, when the sea a low tide. Then we planned to go to Pangumbahan Beach to participate in turtle extrication. But again we’ve got lost. And the sun was already setting in. Oww… we hurried to get to the beach. Didn’t manage to take sun setting photo but quite satisfied with what we’ve got. 

 Senja

But because of that we missed the event at Pangumbahan. FYI, the extrication started at 5 o’clock. We stay there to watch the turtle laying eggs at night. There also some room to be rented if you want to stay close to the beach. We watched the documentary about the green turtle and why they became endangered because what human did. The hunting, eggs stealing, and garbage we threw to the sea could also caused their extinction. And again we’re not so fortunate because they won’t come out until ten o’clock. So we decide to back to the inn, but before we taking dinner. After that, the spirits back, so we thinking to return to Pangumbahan. And we’re lucky this time. There were two turtle already laying their eggs. Finally, we could watch it. The sand in Pangumbahan was so soft and quite deep too. We were not permitted to use any light because it would scare the turtle whom going to get to the shores. Beside, the full moon already shone so bright. I wasn’t able take the turtle photo. It’s me getting sentimental, mostly because of what we watched earlier. I imagined if it’s was me on her shoes. And I was angry with the people who ignored the warning not to use their flashlight. Arrgh… I really wanted to bash them all. 

We got back to the inn at two o’clock. Early in the morn the next day, we back to the fish market to get the best sun rise. And again the sun wasn’t friendly to us. It rises so fast and clouded too. My friend got absorbed taking a fisherman boy who fixing the boat. While I watched them from afar, a boy come close to me and asked what I was doing. I said we’re taking photo. Since his so friendly, I asked him if he know the boy there. And he said he was his brother. The boy said his name but I couldn’t hear it clearly. But then he introduced himself as Odos (whatever that mean). And then I asked if he wanted to joint to be photographed. First he got shy, but then more eager than his brother. We taking him to breakfast with us, but his brother refused.

After that we’ve back, showered, and packing to get home. On the way home, we stopped by at Amanda Ratu. There was an atoll look like the one in Tanah Lot, Bali, without the temple above, of course. There was this calming atmosphere again. How I loved it. It was a nice place to just laying around enjoying the wind rushed in your face while listening a nice music or reading a good book. 

Then the vacation was over already. We’ve back at Jakarta at the same time we left. But overall, it’s quite refreshing adventure. And I would love to go there some other time.