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Belitung Island

 

Tj. Kelayang

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Belitung Logo.gif (23365 bytes) The morning of the 25th of September brought us in site of Bellington (Belitung) Island.  The guide book talked about a 300 room world class resort that was being built in 1994.  Surely it would be completed by now, so we set off to find it.  Approaching the harbour it looked very promising.  A big tile roof rising from the palm trees, an area where there was obviously a swimming pool, a nice big dock with a new marina office at the head. 
Belingtung Beach.jpg (11090 bytes)

Bellington Island has some very beautiful beaches.  This one is an ideal location for a resort.   Still wondering why this one did not get built.

With thoughts of hot showers and fresh hot cooked meals we turned for shore.  The depth gauge showed that we had gone from 14 meters of water to ½ a meter of water in a very short distance and we were still 2 miles off-shore.  Looking over the side of the boat we could see a very beautiful reef right under us (not what you really want to see while moving).  A quick reversal got us out of there and a friendly fishing boat came over to show us the way in.

The beach is very shallow so we anchored out about ½ a mile from shore (good for building rowing muscles) on a nice sandy bottom.  Dave and Dave went ashore to scout out the hot showers and the dancing girls.  Unfortunately, it appears that work on the resort stopped the day after the book was written.  There was nothing there but half completed buildings and a hole in the ground for the pool.

Luckily for us, in the house at the head of the pier was a small store with a girl, Iyut, who spoke halting English.  Dave D. immediately latched onto her and she gave us a very warm reception, including a ride into town for fuel and food, and a party thrown that night just for us.   We made lots of new friends that night.

 

Belingtung Sunset.jpg (7446 bytes)

The unfinished Bellington Resort looks very inviting in the sunset.  Unfortunately on closer inspection, it was not to be. 

In all we had a great time despite the lack of hot showers.  We did find that there is a  resort there of sorts.  Not quite up to world class standards, but we approached the idea with an open mind.  Iyut was the manager but for some reason seemed reluctant to tell us about it.  Dave D.  went to check it out and reported back that they had retrieved his college mattress from a rubbish bin 15 years earlier to use in the rooms.  The padding appeared to have been bolstered by a copious amount of cockroaches.  The bath water was a dark brown and slightly smelly.  Not bad when you consider the nightly rate was only US$0.50, but we decided to sleep on the boat instead.

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Last modified: February 01, 2009