Traveling to Pulau Tunda

Sunday morning, April 10th 2016, some groups of professionals gathered in Dermaga Ancol and Jalan Sudirman, to travel together not only for vacation but also for volunteering. Those groups were from Komunitas Inspirasi Jelajah Pulau (KIJP) Batch 5, which just expanded their area of voluntary works from Kepulauan Seribu to northern Banten province. Eventually there was also another group of KIJP Batch 5 that already departed on Saturday morning since they were heading to Pulau Sebira, the northest island of Kepulauan Seribu, even closer to Lampung province.

Membangun Generasi Jujur di Pulau Tunda | Photo by Harditya Pragola

I was blessed to be assigned into a group full of cheerful and creative people. They are professionals with various background: medical doctor, banker, marketing communication, humanitarian aid agency, entrepreneur, CSR planner, art director, environmentalist, fin-tech, social media consultant, digital agency, journalist, etc.


The recruitment committee placed 18 of us to Pulau Tunda. It is located in northern Banten province, 2-3 hours from Karangantu. The island is about 300 hectare with two main villages: east and west. There was only one elementary school there, and we were going there to share our life experiences while building connection with the local people and planting seeds of dreams to their kids. It was also a beautiful place to visit as seen on Instagram, especially for snorkeling, diving, fishing, or photo-hunting for dolphins.


That Sunday we departed from Jakarta around 7am. It took around 2 hours to get to Karangantu, Serang. Some people said that Karangantu was the second largest pier after Sunda Kelapa in the history of Sunda. Our bus stopped in front of sun-drying salted fish area where our boats anchored. If you want to get there by public transportation, you can take a bus from Jakarta to Serang, and then change to mini bus from Serang to Karangantu. Make sure you arrive at Karangantu before 1pm since there is only one public boat (KMP Tunda) from Karangantu to Pulau Tunda per day.


After waiting for almost an hour, our boat finally came. It was a small boat with a single machine, with maximum capacity around 25 people. We took a rest for a while since the boat was moving.. so.. slowly. [insert zootopia's sloth here] Make sure that you bring your powerbank or additional battery for camera since there is no electricity at Pulau Tunda during the day. Moreover, your cell phone will be useless unless you use Indosat or XL and stand in the corner of the pier to find proper 2G signal.
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Posted on 25 April 2016 Category: No comments

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