I may be crazy but right after I finished visiting The 6 Hours : Spring Cave, Reservoir, A Film Studio , And A Chocolate Factory the next day, I visited two beaches that were an hour away from the city center. This beach is not your typical white sandy beach and I’ll take you to explore why it isn’t your typical beach.
This place was a two-in-one. Meaning, I find two things I love at the same place. There are some temples and also the ocean. The temples here aren’t the ancient one, they are recent temples that function for the hindu to pray. The whole atmosphere was serene,spiritual, and quite magical. Just simply imagine, praying facing the ocean with the sound of the waves and the breathtaking view.
It takes about an hour and half to reach this place. The exact location of this place is in a region called Gunung Kidul, a southeastern place of Yogyakarta that’s known for its famous beaches and nature tourism. Along this coastal region, there are plenty of beaches with pristine water and sandy white beaches with a background of karst mountain. The rock shapes around this region are interesting and once the tide is low, one can explore its marine life. Though, to reach most of the beaches here one would have to go smaller and winding roads halfway through the journey. It takes quite a skilled driver to get to this place. And that goes the same with a beach called Pantai Ngobaran. The road to pantai ngobaran feels long but those long difficult roads will be paid off once you see the sign of Pantai Ngobaran.
Translated to English, Pantai means beach. So you can say this is called Ngobaran Beach. Like many other beaches around Gunung Kidul, cliffs and pristine water remain to be its major characteristic. However this one is even more special because there are beautiful temples surrounding the place; Temples on the cliff facing the ocean.
The first that I noticed once I reached the place was seafood sellers rather than the temples. It's interesting that these settlements seem to take away the focus than the temple. The next one is the cliff with a breathtaking view and the wave that was hitting the rocky cliff. It was such a beautiful sight to see.
I saw some places were marked as “ enter with donation”. There are many around this place but I went on my own way to find the spot to take pictures.
I walked up around the cliff carefully to take some pictures of the surrounding cliff. And below you can see some of it.
While taking pictures, I also saw some people taking selfies in the paid spots. There were too many backlights and I don’t know how they could get a clear shot of the water. All I saw from my observation is that they focused on their face rather than nature. In this place, there are people offering photography services where some young male were carrying high-end cameras and sold a service to take pictures for the tourists around some of the spots. Anyhow, here is how the cliff looks from my lens.
I really wish I could go down there and just swim in that refreshing water.
It was cloudy then and I already have a bad feeling about the whole situation. I simply didn’t want it to rain but these days, the weather sucked. It is almost unpredictable and if you try going outside after 12:00 it usually will rain. So, I learned from my lesson to never go anywhere during the afternoon.
As you can see, there's one of the temple that I will now show you.
I took a lot of time exploring that cliff because I was simply mesmerized by it. After about 30 minutes taking pictures from that cliff, I moved on to the temple. I wanted to see how’s the temple looked like.
The temple was a typical balinese temple with some flower beds surrounding the place. Entering this place makes you feel like you’re traveling through another dimension and place. You’re no longer in Java but you’re now in Bali.
I wondered where they could get down and I found the way. Apparently, I have to climb down the sharp rocks in order to get to the small part of the beach with the pristine water.
That was the rock that took me on my way to get my feet wet with the crystal clear water.
I was up and then I was down. The long journey paid off as I saw the cliff and the water. I also found seaweed and I spotted a man was fishing.
something that looks like seaweed though it could be just a moss?
I also explored the place from side to side taking pictures from different angles. I also tried to get to the middle of the beach and it was quite scary but so thrilling.
As the sky got darker, I ended up going up and explored another temple. I know that it would rain and that was the second time I got my camera quite wet.
It was already drizzling as you can see the spots in my lens.
It got even more darker, so I decided to go back as it wasn't supportive to get a better picture.
I thought I would go home by then. But I ended up going to the beach that's located just next to it. The place seemed to be more crowded than this one. But I think, both have its own appeal. The vibe feels different too as the other one is quite mystical and the other one is just your regular white sandy beach.
Whenever you visit Yogyakarta, this place is a place that you should never miss. If you can spare 3 hours, this is definitely the area that you have to visit.
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| Mac is a jack of all trades. A typical introvert in love with literature, books, technology and philosophy. She is also so into nootropics, productivity, minimalist lifestyle, cybersecurity, and languages. Other than that, she is passionate about cooking and traveling. In her free time, she enjoys learning various things. If you like her content, don't hesitate to upvote, leave a comment or a feedback. A re-blog is also appreciated. |
