An old guardian that still stands alert

What I mean with an old guard actually is an old lighthouse which was built in 1882 by the Dutch on a small island called Pulau Lengkuas (Lengkuas Island). The lighthouse is still in use up till now to guide the ships pass through or to Belitong Island. As for Pulau Lengkuas itself, it located off the north shore of Belitong Island. Travelers can easily come to the island by boat which is departed from Tanjong Binga or Tanjong Kelayang.

the old guardian of lengkuas island

Pulau Lengkuas, which has a total area less than 1 hectare, is surrounded by clear and calm sea water. It is a perfect site to do snorkeling, since the water is relatively shallow and the underwater world form a beautiful underwater garden decorated with various kinds of colorful corals, many unique shape rocks, and a lot of beautiful fishes swims among them.

There are also several rock islets protruding here and there off the shore. Those islets can be easily reached just by walking from Pulau Lengkuas, because the water is only around 1.5 meters deep. On Pulau Lengkuas’ white sandy beach, palm trees and scattered yellowish white rocks created a unique but pretty landscape. It will be more beautiful if it is seen from the height; and for that sole purpose, travelers can climb to the top of the lighthouse.

I tried to climb to the top too, but when I peered out through the window on the 12^th floor, I saw one of the lighthouse operators motioned me to come back down immediately. Reluctantly I climbed down, and as soon as I reached the base, a storm started its rage. The operator who called me to came down told me that it would be dangerous to be in the lighthouse during such a storm 😦

Not long after it began, I saw a twister formed in the middle of the sea. Fortunately it only took around 10 minutes before it vanished, and once again the weather became friendly  🙂

weather condition when i left the island

Sunset in a fishing village

After several days break, let’s continue with pictures that I got when I visited Belitong. So far, I’ve already up-loaded the pictures of Batu Belayar Islets as well as beaches of Tanjong Pandan, Tanjong Tinggi, Tanjong Kelayang, Burong Mandi and Serdang, each with their own uniqueness. This time is the turn of another place which also bear the name Tanjong. It is actually a traditional village inhabited mainly of fishermen came from Sulawesi. The village is known as Tanjong Binga.

Tanjong Binga is located at Belitong’s north coast, approximately 22 kilometers to the north of Tanjong Pandan. It is, however, very close to Tanjong Tinggi. Although the village is a traditional village, the houses along the shore are looked relatively modern. Almost all have their own simple pier to tie up the boats that the inhabitants used to catch sea water fishes.

tanjong binga fishing village

Formerly there were two wooden wharfs which were stretched 100 meters long to the sea. Now there are another two wharfs been built in the place to replace the old ones. The new wharfs are made of stone. Travelers can still find the old wharfs, since those two wooden wharfs are still being used by the local fishermen.

At that time, I visited Tanjong Binga in a cloudy late afternoon, hoping that I could be a witness of a nice sunset, because I saw that the cloud was hanging pretty high and the horizon was quite clear. When I entered the village, Tanjong Binga was quite empty and looked deserted, except for some children playing around the pier.

And . . . here are the results of my visit to Tanjong Binga  🙂

Colourful traditional fishing boats on the shore

After visiting some beaches on the west coast of Belitong, in the third day of my visit to Belitong I decided to go further than usual, to see other beaches on the other side of the island. So off I went to the eastern part of the island.

Belitong’s eastern beaches are not as famous as the beaches in the west part of the island. They have a very different characteristic too. There are no boulders on the beach like those on the west. The beaches there are either only have brown sands along its shore or white sands like other beaches in the west.

At that time, I only visited two of many beaches in the eastern coast, namely Serdang Beach and Burong Mandi Beach. The two beaches are located in Manggar District, Eastern Belitong. To reach these two beaches, one should drive for about 2 hours from Tanjong Pandan on a relatively good but empty road. And although the beaches are not too far apart, they have different kind of sands on their shore. Burong Mandi has brown sands, while Serdang has white sands.

Serdang and Burong Mandi were relatively empty when I went there. There were no tourists, but only traditional fishermen that I met. The fishermen, who dwellt in villages nearby, use those two beaches as their base, as well as a place to make a new boat or just to repair it. That was why I easily found many traditional fishing boats in there.

The boats, which were painted in bright colours, have unique wooden ‘arms’ at both side which means to stabilize it. With those ‘arms’, the boat will not easily turn upside down while being used to fish on the open sea. The locals usually called this kind of boat as “Perahu Katir”

regeneration

ready for the sea