Karimun, Indonesia

Saturday 07/23/2011 Patrick and I decided to take a last minute trip to go biking in Karimun Indonesia—the trip was originally supposed to be with Gitt and Nicole but they decided to run a 10K instead this weekend.   Karimun is a small island about 2 hours by ferry from Singapore.   We rented bikes in Singapore on Friday night so that we could start biking from East Lodge starting at 5:30am and make the 8am Ferry down at Harbour Front Ferry Terminal.  We got to the Ferry at 6:30am, but it turns out that you can’t take bikes on the 8am Ferry even though  we were told you could when we called the ferry company. So we had no choice by to take the next ferry at 11:40am.  Now I was under the impression that the last Ferry back was at 6pm, however when we got to the island the last ferry back was in fact at 2pm—so we ended up having to spend the night.  Unfortunately, we hadn’t made any hotel reservation and we ended up needing to check with about 5 hotels before we could found Paragon Hotel which had any vacancies. 

                The trip got off to a bit of a rough start, but after we got situated in Karimun, it ended up being one of the best experiences I had so far during this whole summer.  Karimun is not a touristy place.  The city of Tonjun Balai is small—about 100,000 people and in the country people live very simply in corrogated metal houses which didn’t seem to have electricty. The main mode of transportation is motorbike--you’d see whole familieswith mother father and two children riding on one bike—and there didn’t seem to be any traffice rules.   It also seemed like we were the first white people that many of these Indonesians had seen by how much they stared at us and how often we got stopped to take pictures with people.  The people of Karimun were some of the most friendly and helpful people I’ve ever met.  Even though they spoke very little or no English, time and time again people went out of their way to help us and bring us to wherever we had asked directions for. 

                Saturday afternoon we rode ~15km to Ponkar Beach.  Along the way we saw the Soccer Stadium and Masjib Besar Mosque.  Saturday night we ate some of the best food we had had since arriving in Singapore.  We went to the night night market near the hotel and ate Mie Goreng from one of the Stalls.  I had Mie Goreng in Singapore, but it was nothing like the Mie Goreng I had here.  While riding into town, we saw banners for a Gebyar Raya concert—so after eating we decided to check it out.  Gebyar must have been a big Indonesian Rock Star because everyone knew his songs and I must admit that even know the words where in Indonesian I was humming along.  The guy was so talented with a great stage presence!  The highlight of the concert though was when the MCs came out during intermission.  Patrick, a 6’3 white red head, really stood out from the Indonesians from the crowd and when the audience lights came on the MC’s singled Patrick out “Hey Mistah Mistah where you from”  Well just about everyone from the island must have been at the concert, because the following day everywhere we went everyone yelled to us “Hey Mistah Mistah where you from”.  It was like we were rock stars. We had girls on motor bikes following us as we rode back from Air Tejong Water Fall in the north of the Island. What a great feeling and self esteem boost!  It was really an amazing weekend—I am so glad I ended up getting to go to Karimun!

At the Harborfront Ferry Terminal waiting to board the ferry to Karimun

At Masjib Besar Mosque

We stopped at this place in the middle of no where and they only thing they sold was Bakso--one of the best things I've ever eaten!

Ponkar Beach

Me in front of the Soccer Stadium

Patrick and me with a fellow biker we found on our way back to the city.

Mee Goreng--2nd best food I've had since being in SE Asia--after talking to the locals we randomly stumbled upon the best Mee Goreng in Tanjon Balai  

MCs at the Gebyar Raya concert who singled Patrick out in the crowd.

If you look closely at the screen, you can see Patrick's head standing out among everyone else.

After the concert, there was was seemed like a march-a-thon with all these teams dressed in uniforms.

March-a-thon went on all night into the morning.

View of Tanjung Balai from Paragon Hotel Room.

Sunday we hired a blue shuttle van to take us and the bikes to the Air Tejong Waterfall

Patrick with the shuttle driver.

Air Tejong Waterfall

Small shop on in the country where we stopped to get what I call Ramon on Steroids which Nishita used to bring back for me when she went to Indonesia.  Those yellow bottles are gasoline.

More Mee Goreng with Satay Ayam-mmmm yummy!