We filled our morning with another relaxing time in the hot spring tub, had a breakfast in the room and we were packed and ready to go at 10.30 am. We had one stop at another Alfamart to buy some drinks and tissues (I can’t live without tissues!), and ask the direction to Santolo Beach. By the way, I can understand why international tourist always said that Indonesian people are very nice and friendly, because they really are (actually, we are. Hey, I’m one of those people too, hehe).
Knowing our direction (as a turn out it’s actually only straight ahead and follow the road from the Alfamart), we saw the green sign on the Garut city border and it says 83 km to Santolo. It was closer than Bandung – Jakarta, so we're guessing it will take us about 2 to 2,5 hour t get there, considering the road condition.
The road was covered with pretty good asphalt, but because we were driving through mountains the road was full of curves. The scenery was awwwsome! At the first tens of kilometers we saw rice fields as far as our eyes can see. And next we were served by forest atmosphere. One thing caught my eyes were the signs of "Buying Gold" on several's of the villagers house. I think some of the villagers are gold mining. Maybe on a really small scale that we never heard of.
As a turns out, I don't think the distance of Garut to Santolo is really only 83 km, because it was feel like forever to get there! Finally, after 2,5 hour, we found the turn Shayang Heaulang Beach. But, because we palanned to find ourselves a hotel first, so we went straight to Santolo Beach. Shayang Heulang to Santolo only took 10 minutes. After we turn left to the direction of Santolo, we saw another rice fields and suddenly found ourselves in the middle of LAPAN (Lembaga Penerbangan dan Antariksa Nasional, it's like NASA in USA) rocket launcher field. It was a weirdest field I ever see. It's extremely large, and then we can see a small building with a lot of antennas around it. It's remind me, when I browse for places to stay in Santolo, one of them is called Wisma LAPAN. It's very cheap, below 10.000 rupiahs per person per night. Too cheap that makes me wonder how would the place looks like. Maybe it will be nice for large groups, because from what I'd read, they don't provide rooms, only barracks fill with beds. Okay, that's convenience,haha.. Anyway, we didn't have to wait too long to see the beautiful beach. It was on our right, we can see the white sands slope slightly to the blue sea. It was a little cloudy but it makes the view looks more beautiful. Blue sky, white clouds, and tints of yellow light coming through the clouds.
But before we step our foot on the beach, we wanted to found out for sure where will we stay that night. So we headed straight to the houses. We could see a lot signs of hotels in front of the houses, but we couldn't see anything decent. I saw one brick house (others were made of bamboo skins) and decided to asked for vacant rooms. Apparently, most of the rooms are already been booked. The owner said that there are only 2 rooms left. Both the first and second room are pretty bad. They're small, with a small fan, small bathroom, smell like fish, dark and the worst thing is the owner asked for 150.000 per room! It's silly. Anyway, we were becoming less anthusiastic of staying in Santolo. My brother said that hotel in Shayang Heulang would be better, but we can't swim there because the beach is filled with rocks. So we decided to go to Shayang Heulang immeadetly. On Shayang Helang road we found A ticket gate. There's an officer there, he's pretty nice and informative. He said that there's no real hotel in Shayang Heulang and Santolo area even in Pamengpeuk. There's only one place which can be categorized as hotel. It's called AMB (or something, I forgot) in Cilautereun street. So we decided we will hit the Shayang Heulang beach first, find the hotel, and then search for lunch in Santolo.
Shayang Heulang beach is beautiful! It's a little bit different from Santolo, because here, you cannot swim at all. The beach have bushes which looks like fence and it's steep reaching to the sea with corals. But the corals make a giant land floating above the sea, which is a heavenly sight. It's my dog first trip to the beach, so I was so excited! The weather was nice for playing in the beach. We had a great time enjoying the white sands and sea water. We also enjoyed our time with another local dog which looks like my dog, haha..
About an hour later we headed back to the main road to find the AMB hotel. We found it alright. But, it was disappointing! The rooms are varied from the very simple ones until the standard ones. We were already going to check in, until the front office said that we cannot stay in room because the hotel have a policy for adultery, what??!? There were three of us with a dog! What if I was with my brother. We're definitely not married, but we will have to stay in different rooms?? Come on!
We marched out of there and decided to go back to Garut after we find lunch. We search lunch in Santolo area, it turns out to be yucky. The seafood isn't fresh, and they didn't cooked it well either. So, the sum up, Santolo and Shayang Heulang beach is only fit for large groups who wants to hang out on the beach.
So, after our late lunch we headed back to Garut. It's almost dark, and there was fog every few kilometers. But, as exhausted as we were, we just focus on the hot spring tub in Garut. Although, when we reached Garut, we have the problem of finding hotels again. Fortunately, guided by insting, we found a very nice hotel (nicer than the first one) with a great price. The room was bigger, cleaner, have a better view, and a traditional complimentary breakfast (fried rice).
Time to get some rest!
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