Travel: Pandansari Beach, Kampung Samas

My father was feeling a bit adventurous, so he dragged us to this small beach in Kampung Samas—I used the word “drag” cause we were actually planning to go to Yogyakarta that day, even though we still visited it afterwards. To get to Pandansari Beach, we drove through Bantul and Kasongan—two areas that had suffered major destructions on Yogyakarta’s earthquake last May 27^th. So the journey was somewhat felt like a disaster area tour; this made me remembered a TV report about a woman who was a tour guide in New Orleans. She changed her tour theme after the Katrina hurricane and showed devastated areas to tourists. It was really sad to see crumbled houses and building—some were still hopelessly standing with lopsided parts and torn apart roofs, the survivor’ tents, etc.

By the way, Kasongan was a great area for those who like to buy ceramics or other ethnic decorations for your house. You can find artistic wooden flowers; shellfish picture frames, wind chimes, etc; water fountain statues; drapes; and many more with reasonable—sometimes even considerately low—prices. After the quake, the shops were looking rather heartbreaking, but seeing some of them already began opening their businesses again—with high spirit—made my heart warm.

The beach itself was a bit desolated, there’s only one warung (foods/beverages vendor) active, but there were also two or three other empty huts in its surrounding. Perhaps they were out of business after the quake, or maybe earlier than that, judging from the not-so-developed-area. One interesting point of this beach was the lighthouse; never saw a lighthouse first handily before. It was white and cool and made me remember a lot of romantic stories ;-p. You can climb its stairs with 2000 rupiahs, but I didn’t try it.

The wind was so strong that day; I have to set my feet rather deep into the sand when taking pictures with my back facing the sea. The waves were menacingly big, really gave me the chill when picturing such powerful waters hit the land as tsunami. The lighthouse keeper told us that there were small earthquakes very early that morning, and this probably was the reason for the strong wind and big waves. Oh dear God, cannot image living with constant fear after a natural disaster, wondering when will it strike again…