December 7th, 2011 
nauval Belitung is an island located east cost of of Sumatra and parts of newly established province Bangka Belitung. It was famous after a based-on-true-story novel Laskar Pelangi became a nationwide best seller and getting even more after the book adapted to a movie with the same title by Riri Riza and Mira Lesmana. And two months ago, end of October 11, i finally able to go there and saw the island with my own eyes.
Somehow Belitung reminded me of my village when I was little, in late 1990s, felt so nostalgic. There were plenty of open lands in the neighborhood, a blue mail box marked with “PKK” letters in front of every house, yeah its so 90s. The houses, the empty roads, the trees would release you from the stress accumulated after all the activity you had in big cities. No rush, no traffic, no hurry that’s what you will enjoy when you travel to the countryside.
Tanjung Penyabong
So, where should you go if you were in Belitung? Well, if you talk about Belitung its means beaches. Belitung is famous with its white and full of massive granite beaches all over the island. So did my trip, me and my group focused on beaches, we visited 5 beaches and done island hooping among little islands next to Belitung. We visited 3 beaches in the first day; Teluk Gembira, Teluk Penyabong and Manggar. Teluk Gembira and Teluk Penyabong are non-mainstream tourist destination in Belitung, but don’t be wrong, it indeed provide you a beautiful and eye pleasing scenery. Greenish and bluish sea, white beaches, blue sky and clear horizon. In Teluk Penyabong there were a granite formation that kind of like a head of a lizard, unfortunately I dont have the picture of it. Beach in Manggar was a homebase of nearby fishermen. There we spent our evening waiting for dusk and the fishermen to returned home with their catches. One thing you should do here is to try the fresh-out-of-the-sea fish barbeque, its super delicious, i can guarantee that for sure. After having dinner in the beach you might want to try local coffee shop in Manggar. Drinking coffee its a culture for Belitung people, hence there are coffee shop in almost every corner of the island. We did try it once in the way back to our homestay after a full beaches day.
