To the beach!

  Pangandaran, Java, Indonesia
Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Okay, after that last VERY long entry in our travelogue, I'm going to make a concerted effort to keep this one shorter. Basically, all we did in Pangandaran was eat wonderful seafood and take a guided tour that led us through a village, took us on a boat ride up the green canyon, and took us to a beach to swim and ride the waves. In the village, we saw how brown sugar was made from the nectar of a coconut blossom. We were also treated to a tour around the village to look at various native plants and hear how they are used. I got to climb a coconut tree (photos forthcoming). We were shown how wayang golek (wooden puppets) are carved and were treated to a brief performance (with the option to buy a puppet afterwards, of course). From the village we went to the boat launch and loaded into a small wooden boat that took us up the green river canyon. Unfortunately, the river was very brown and running quite fast from several days of rain which meant we weren't able to swim. The next stop on the tour was for lunch on the beach followed by frolicking in the waves. They were offering surfboard rental and lessons but Lisa and I just opted to make our own fun in the surf. I did some body surfing, Lisa lounged on the beach, and I built a sand castle. The final stop on the tour was a krupuk (shrimp chip) factory. However, these krupuk were made with fish instead of shrimp and were made into a tuille-like design instead of a flat chip. The process is pretty interesting. They first cut up and grind the fish, add it to cassava (tapioca) flour, and season with salt, onion, garlic, etc. The fish-flour mixture is then put into an extruder where they hand-form the tuille pattern. The krupuk are steamed first and then put out into the sun to dry. Finally, they are fried in coconut oil where they puff up to about 4 times their original size. The krupuk that they made were much better than others that we had in restaurants. We bought a bag for 20 cents and have been snacking on them since.


Bamboo cups used to cool the brown sugar made from coconut flower nectar. Pangandaran, Java


Stacks of coconut husks being dried and then used for firewood. Pangandaran, Java

So, that about wraps up our time in Pangandaran. We left via a minibus which took us to a small 8-person ferry. The ferry route was a slow 3 hour ride through a mangrove jungle where we saw lots of different birds, monkeys, sea otters, crabs, and I even think I saw a mudskipper. After the ferry, we loaded onto another minibus 4.5 hour ride to Yogyakarta.

Tips for travelers - the Sofia Hotel in Pangandaran is very nice. They just put in a pool and are doing other renovations. We were able to get a low-season rate on a very nice room with A/C, hot water, and TV (with 3 channels) for 150,000 Rp. The ferry ride to Cilacap and then bus to Yogyakarta costs 125,000 Rp and, though quite long, is worth it.