Selamat Datang...Selamat Datang...

Yippee!! I finally managed to go on vacation!! I went to Karimunjawa island last weekend (December 22nd-24th, 2007) with Nining, Mbak Yuli, Ahmed, Yudi, and Hatta. It was really awesome (but not my sea sick part when we got back to Semarang of course..haha). We left for Karimunjawa from Semarang port, Tanjung Emas, by KMC Kartini (a speed boat). It was a nice trip, but I spent most of my time sleeping...haha. Terrible, but I didn't want to get sick in the boat, heheh.

The boat arrived at Karimunjawa after sailing for almost 4 hours or so, and we finally smelt Karimunjawa. It looked really cool, clear water and all that. Then we spent the night in a homestay, and the best thing is that it was cheap, and we shared the room for 3 people so it was much cheaper, heheh. The room was clean too. Food was easy to find, you could find a small diner near the homestay and the price is affordable too for backpackers. It rained a lot when we were there, so I guess December wouldn't be the best time to visit. You could hardly do anything but staying at the homestay and had some coffee or tea. The wind was pretty strong too. We spent the night playing poker before going to bed. We smeared the loser's face with baby powder so we looked terrible. And bad part was that I lost many rounds of the game, so there was barely any space left on my face...haha..well, Ahmed lost many rounds too so I guess I didn't do that bad, heh. Hatta never lost any single round...we just "hated" him..hahaha.

You can't say you have visited Karimunjawa if you don't try snorkeling and see the coral reef. So I tried though I couldn't even swim, hahah. I was terrible in the water, but it was fun though. You could also take a glass bottom boat to see the underwater coral reef and other marine life. It looked really awesome! I kept looking for Spongebob and friends, hahah. It was raining when we were on the boat and did the snorkeling thing, but the water was pretty warm when we swam, so it wasn't that bad. Then we went to this shark breeding or hatchery (or whatever the name is), played with the sharks some (and they were all tame, at least no one got bitten, haha). I didn't swim with the sharks though, but I would surely love to next time. Other thing we did was walking on the beach.. something like that. I looked for hermit crabs but I didn't find any. But I did get some cool shells, heheh.

We should have got back to Semarang on Sunday 23rd, but the wind was too strong and the weather was so bad that the boat were not allowed to sail (wave was 5 meters high they said). So we decided to go back to the homestay and spent one more night there. I think in May-August the weather is good, so it will be a good time to visit. Sun shines and all that.

I think there are still more to explore in the Karimunjawa islands. I only visited two of them. The biggest ones I think. Still would like to see the other spots of course. There has to be Advanced Karimunjawa, hahaha. If I even failed in this introduction course I wouldn't mind repeating it another time...hahahah.

Here are some pictures I took. Better pictures are from my friends' camera, but they haven't uploaded them. Will upload some more later.

PS: I have added some pictures from Ahmed and Nining's camera.

Sunrise...too cloudy I guess.

Huts on the sea

StrandedHail to the sea, Nining
On becakWhite sandPoker night