Indonesia Abroad - Karimunjawa

Karimunjawa is an island north of Java, and one of the best times I had on my 6-month journey so far. It's a fairly remote tropical island where not a lot of tourists go to, so my friends and I decided it would be a great place to truly relax from the city life and usual busy touristy areas. The idea to go here actually stemmed from a classmate that had been there before half a month prior to us. She explained how to actually get there with some handy tips.

We took a bus to Jepara and stayed the night to get the boat the next morning. There are 2 types of boats going to Karimunjawa: The ferry and the fast boat. The fast boat takes around 2 hours and 30 minutes, whereas the ferry takes about 4 hours and 30 minutes. Getting the tickets yourself proved to be a pain in the ass, as it's not the most convenient experience to find a reliable website or service. Instead, the hostel where we booked our stay offered to buy the boat tickets for us, which is a much better experience. Most hostels will do this for you, as they know it's more reliable than buying it somewhere shady. The photo above is the fast boat and the boat we took to the island. Yes, it is fast, but make sure you're awake, drank enough water, and didn't eat much before parting on your journey. This boat is just phenomenal at making people sick. The speed of the boat makes it feel like you're on an unpredictable rollercoaster, blindfolded, for 2,5 hours. At least half of the entire boat was seasick, and people were puking left and right. I could also barely keep it together, and apparently I looked rather bleak, and I'm usually not that weak against these kinds of things. The slower ferry that we took on the way back was way more comfortable, and a recommendation over the other if you're not in a hurry.

Being in a hurry is not really something you'll experience as long as you're staying on this island. It's just chilling all over with different sceneries and people. There are no taxi's, Grab, or Gojek here. If you want to get around, you usually rent a motorcycle and go wherever you want. There's barely any traffic, but you have to watch out for the occasional potholes in the more remote areas of the island, though it's usually quite doable. There's not really a guide you should stick to when it comes to traveling. Be a little adventurous and just go on the road. The island and beaches are all really clean overall, and it's never really crowded that you can never be anywhere. We even had our own private beaches in some places that we found!

Sometimes, people like you see above ask for a small fee when you enter their beach area. It's a small amount to make sure that the beaches stay clean. Speaking of people: everyone on the island is so nice and friendly! Anyone is willing to help anyone, and there's basically 0 stress. The hospitality in Indonesia is already great, but this island just set the standard a bar higher.

You can find classic and fast-food restaurants, to tiny road-side warungs and even a fish market, where the fisherman on the island fetch fresh fish that you can just choose and eat on the same day!

The place we stayed at was L'isola che: a cozy hostel with the loveliest staff and amazing place overall to stay at. I met a lot of amazing people not only in our hostel, but everywhere on the island, made long-lasting memories, and great friends!

Oh! One of our little side-quests was visiting a legendary place which was said to be haunted according to the locals. It's an old and half broken down resort, seemingly abandoned for at least 12 years at the time of writing this.

And here are some more photos of the vibe.

And we're at the end again! I hope you had as much fun reading this as I had writing it, and maybe it sparked a little interest in visiting this island, or even traveling as a whole.

See you soon! ദ്ദി(˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) ✧