First, I’d like to say thank you for all the kind wishes from family, friends and colleagues on my wedding party. I am so grateful to be surrounded by them. I am pretty sure that my wedding couldn’t be real without their help.
We were not literally planning for a honeymoon. But then we had an idea to plan kind of short escape to Banyuwangi. Why Banyuwangi? At the time, Bali was threatened by Gunung Agung eruption and we didn’t want to go to some crowded city or place. Plus, mas suami (read:husband) has an old friend that can be visited. We commit to ourselves that during our leisure trip we will give a spare time for silaturrahim by visiting friends or family. Without further due, I am going to share my two cents travel experience.
We decided to use the train (Probowangi) from Bangil and get off at Karangasem train station. If you plan to go to Kawah Ijen, Karangasem is the best starting point. You’ll find a motorcycle rental and backpacker hostel right in front of the station which was quite surprising. We thought that it is going to be hard to find motorcycle rent service so that we googled and booked a motorcycle online. The rental company provide free of charge pickup service. They actually offered to Kawah Ijen tour but we only have limited time really. Save for next visit, maybe?
I like the ambience of Banyuwangi once arrived in station and start our journey by riding the motorcycle around the town. It is not so crowded, free of traffic jam, very nice road in explicit way, and less high-rise building. There are some fancy and nice hotel like Santika, or if you really want to stay in the heart of Banyuwangi, you can try Blambangan Hotel. But as what we committed at the first time, we try to find a tranquil place to stay in Banyuwangi. Thanks to booking.com who made it come true (use this code to get cashback on your credit card). We found a homestay named Nini Pondok which is truly awesome. Here are five things that make us fall in love with Nini Pondok.
- It is a whole house. You can call it mini house, but it is so homey really. You will have a parking space, a terrace with garden view, a bedroom in the main house and a large bathroom. The room is also complimented with wifi, TV, and AC.
- We would say that the house is built in a sustainable way.The natural lightning and air circulation is perfect so that we didn’t really use AC so much during daylight.
- The bathroom is so large with separation between wet and dry area. It has large mirror too
- It is very clean and tidy house. It makes us keep it as tidy as possible
- The interior and façade design is a classic Javanese house design with wood domination. The bedroom also reminds me of my granny’s bedroom with a thin layer of wardrobe on its surrounding. All we can say is superb.
After took a rest and drop our luggage, we went to mas suami’s friends house in Blokagung. It is 2 hours riding from our homestay. There is a beach namely Pulau Santen close to the homestay. You can simply go there to see Banyuwangi’s beach before evening and try to taste grilled fish restaurant on its surrounding. On the night, you can explore Taman Blambangan (15 minutes from homestay) to see if there is any show or exhibition.
On the next day, we prepared to go back to Bangil by train at 13 from Karangasem. What? So you just only have 2 days and a night? Yap, I told you, it was very short escape. In the morning we went to Pantai BOOM. It is definitely perfect beach for sunrise, but pardon us for wake up very late. The sand is not white obviously but yaa it just a good place for chill. The ticket is only 4 thousand rupiahs for two persons.
Before going back to Karangasem, we tried to find original and tasty food of Banyuwangi, and we found it yeayy… the name is sego Tempong. It is so cheap and sell in very big portion. We bought 2 pack of sego Tempong which cost around 35 thousand rupiahs. Finally, we made our first short escape! I know this post might look silly LOL. Now, we really craving to go to Banyuwangi again. Still lot more places to visit, Baluran, Ijen, Bangsring beach, Benculuk timber forest and many more.
Details budget of our short escape (for 2 persons, in IDR) :
Probowangi (Bangil-Banyuwangi) return 216.000
Nini Pondok one night 360.000
Motorcycle rent (prepared ID and 200.000 deposits) 100.000
Fuel 20.000
Sego Tempong 35.000
Pantai Boom 4.000
Food, snack, misc. 100.000
It is so freaking cheap, isn’t it?
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