Weekend getaway - Harapan Island

Start with a tweet, and viola, here we are, having a weekend getaway to Harapan Island, one of the island located at the north parth of Pulau Seribu.

After planned this trip for less than a month, i finally able to gather a group of 11 pax for this weekend getaway. Most of the participants are from Fotodroids, a mobile photography using android community. As the EO, I'm a bit anxious for this trip.

We meet up at Muara Angke harbour at 06AM and took of to Harapan Island using a public boat approx at 0730AM. The harbour was super crowded with people who also wants to have a weekend getaway to Pulau Seribu. 3 hrs travel seems like forever, especially when we couldn't get a good spot at the boat. But once we reach the island, the tiresome was totally gone. Beaaacchhh! Hurrraayy~~

At the pier i finally meet up with the-home-boat-meal supplier whom I usually talked to on the phone. His name is Pak Rambo (not that "rambo"), he introduced me to our guide for today. The guide took us to the house, a 3 bedroom house which i rent for tonight. By the time we reach the house, lunch is already served. What a perfect time!

Photo courtesy @shey_p

Photo courtesy Alex Chandra

Today itinerary is island hopping. I usually love island hopping, but not this time. It was sucks. No, it's not because the underwater is not beautiful, it's because I'm on my 2nd day of period. Aarrgghh totally sucks! All i can do is looking at my friends swimming at the ocean, snorkeling and say hello to the fishes, enjoying themselves.We stop at 4islands, first stop is nearby the infamous Macan Island for snorkeling, then continue to gosong island to enjoy the beach and of course, taking some cool photos. The third stop on this day is snorkeling around pagan island (if i'm not mistaken). Fourth and last stop on this day is Kayu Angin Bira island to enjoy sunset. I think today's island hopping can be consider as a success, we all happy!

Photo courtesy @shey_p

Felt exhausted and starved, on our way back to the house i've rent for tonight, we stop by at a meatball "bakso" stall and enjoy ourselves a bowl of bakso a la Harapan island although dinner is already served at the house. Stay overnight in as island won't be complete without BBQ-ing! So, we (5 of us) went to a fishpond to buy a fish. The interesting part is we got the chance to grab the fish ourselves using a string and a hook! It was really fun to see omar scared to death whenever a huge fish approaching the hook. After a while, we finally managed to catch a over-2-kgs fish for our BBQ night, yeaaay! Some of the groups felt tired so the off to bed early (including me) while the other still chit-chat-ing.


As this considered as a-photo-hunting trip, i scheduled a sunrise photo hunt for the next day. But, since sleeping felt more comfortable for some of us, so there are only Adut and Alex who went out to catch sunrise. Feeling lazy and a bit of stomachache, i spent the whole morning before going back to Jakarta sleeping, eat and chit-chat-ing while some others went out for a stroll around the island. At 1300-ish, the guide came and informed us that the boat which will take us back to Jakarta already at the pier, it's time to say goodbye to the Island.

Fam photo @ Kayu angin Bira, courtesy @shey_p

Since Harapan Island is the first stop, we manage to have a good spot at the boat, until.... the boat pick some other passenger in Pramuka Island. It was absurd, because I think the boat is already overload yet, they still allowed those passenger to get in the boat. Wow, another 2hrs boat trip with this condition quite freaking me out. But thank goodness we arrived safely at Muara Angke. It was around 4-5PM and we felt hungry as hell. So we decided to stop by at Mall Ciputra (first timer!) to grab something to eat. After the lovely early dinner, we're go on a separate way to go back home.

Though it sucks can't jump it to the ocean to meet the lovely fishes, i really enjoyed the getaway. This should be done more often!

Angkot time!! photo courtesy @AdhityaWijaya