Leaving Jakarta to Ujung Genteng
Trip Start
Aug 30, 2008
1
2
Trip End
Sep 01, 2008
Jakarta, Java, Indonesia
Saturday, August 30, 2008
We took a lunch break near Lido Sukabumi, this was our second time to eat in this restaurant, in the middle of paddy field, called Bumbu Desa. The food & ambience is good & I especially liked the fried/baked banana desert drenched in sugary sauce + pineapple cuts :)
We continued our road trip after 1 hour lunch break & went to Pelabuhan Ratu ("Queen's Port") Town, an important town, before reaching Ujung Genteng. Unexpectedly & fortunately, we ended up taking a wrong turn, which still led us to Pel. Ratu but via alternative road. The road is mostly on the ridge of the hills, where we could see beautiful rows of oil palm trees, rubber trees, and tea plantation, before whinding down near river paths, where people could do white water rafting. Plus, there was no traffic jam in this alternative road.so it was really a pleasure to drive thru.
We stopped in Pelabuhan Ratu to buy drinks and tissues, since we heard in U. Genteng the cottages were pretty basic and water may stop running in the toilet, if the gensets are down. so i bought water for toiletries purpose :)
We reached Ujung Genteng after another 2.5 hours drive from Pel. Ratu, thru zig-zagging road and just in time for a sunset right in front of our cottage. After a couple of minutes trying to find the reception desk of the cottage (which was combined as the cottage's kitchen), we packed in our stuff, got out to see sunset.
Dinner was at the cottage, just basic fried noodle & fried rice. There was a group of office people taking outing and staying in our place, seems they bought fresh big fish & lobster from the local fish market & asked the hotel to cook for them. they were big and awesome.
After dinner, we went to see a turtle hatching conservatory, to see turtles coming up from the beach to hatch their eggs and bury them in the sands. it was quite a sight, but still a little bit touristy, with us and all the other tourists watching with our torches & trying to take pictures with the poor turtle, hurryingly covering her eggs with sands and trying to find way back to water. We waited 2.5 hours in the dark, lying on the soft sand, until 2 turtles came up around 9.30 pm. We paid 'ojek'/motorcycle with driver to go to this place at IDR 30,000 a round way trip.
I think we could have gone by car, since it was dry season, and the sandy road along the beach was possible to be crossed by car. In the wet season, it would not have been possible/too risky since there were seasonal rivers breaking the sandy road.
