MORNING TO LATE AFTERNOON: PINK BEACH
Whenever Pink Beach is mentioned, most people usually think of the one at Flores. Turns out Lombok also has its own Pink Beach which is locally known as Tangsi Beach in Jerowaru, East Lombok. The beach used to be the transit spot for fishermen who are fishing all the way from a village named Tanjung Luar. Nowadays, the beach has become a famous spot to visit amongst domestic and international tourists. A trip to the beach starts with either a fishing boat trip from Tanjung Luar port or a two-hours drive from the city of Mataram. However, the drive is not an easy drive because the road to Pink Beach is not properly maintained. Our tour has reserved two fishing boats for me and my family so we are taking the ocean route to the beach.
I think I am easily pleased with whichever method of transportation that we selected because after all every kind of trip has its own different flavour. For instance, our ocean route has shown us certain interesting stuff such as the structure which is built by the fishermen to catch fishes. There are nets below what looks to be flimsy bamboo structure to catch unaware fishes. A lot of birds are flying nearby too to find food.
The boat trip to Pink Beach takes around 40 minutes, which is way faster than taking the road approach. The view around us is pretty much theraupetic because not everyday you can admire the beauty of the calming ocean, under the clear blue sky.
40 minutes later, we have reached Pink Beach, one of the seven beaches in the world which have pink sands. The pink color of the sands is actually caused by the mixture of the white sands and the pieces of pink corals. The reflection of the sun and the sea water creates the pink color. Hmm but I wonder if you have to see the beach from certain angle or anything though because I expect the color of the sands to be much pinker than what I saw that day.
It's so fun to play and sit on the sands at the seashore of Pink Beach because the beach is so calm and there are only small waves crashing upon the beach. At the left side of the beach, there is a small hill with a wide patch of grass. The view from the top of the hill is simply gorgeous and definitely not to be missed. A bit of climbing is required to reach the top of the hill so if there are children or elderly with you, please be mindful.
Our tour guide has prepared lunch for us at Pink Beach. Since there are no other visitors to the beach, I feel like I am the private owner of the island. Such a great privilege to be able to eat fresh seafood (literally the fishes are caught from the ocean in front of us and even washed there) on the beach. We were having family picnic under the shade of the trees and the menu for the day is of course none other than grilled fish. The coal and the kitchen tools are brought over from the land by the tour staff who's taking the road route. While the sanitary aspect of the dishes is kinda questionable (being the fishes washed by using sea water and all), it feels that we are bonded with the nature that day. Kinda having our "survivor" or "law of the jungle" moment. Hahaha.
The best activity to burn the consumed calories from the lunch is snorkeling. The fishing boat brought us to the clearer section of the ocean and the corals at the bottom of the water around Pink Beach are so pretty. You can see the color of green, pink and blue corals. You are not supposed to snorkel barefooted because (1) the corals may hurt your feet or (2) your feet may break the corals so please exercise caution when snorkeling. You can also find blue starfish living under the water in this area. So pretty~~
LATE AFTERNOON - PULAU PASIR
After we are done snorkeling, the fishing boats brought us to visit another unique island in Lombok, Pulau Pasir (directly translated to Sand Island). We are used to see small island which has greeneries on it, even sometimes the island resembles a small hill on the water. However, Pulau Pasir is nothing like those islands. This island only have white sands as far as you can see without any trees, grass or even food stall. This is because the island can only be seen and walked on when the tide is low. When the tide is high, the whole island is submerged under the water and hence, it's impossible for any trees to grow on this small island.
The only thing that I could find on the island was this flimsy branch of tree which I suppose is stuck there by the previous visitor.
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