Of crashing waves and gondola rides…

Visiting Timang Beach in Indonesia has easily been one of the most unique beach encounters ever: the trippy ride to the beach, our hearts skipping multiple beats, people debating if they should cross over to the other side, waves crashing against the cliffs and deep exhales! This pretty much sums up our experience.

 What is Timang Beach?

We are not getting into details. You have Google for that. To us, Timang Beach is a peculiar and oddly-laid out beach at Yogyakarta (Jogja), Indonesia that entails the following:

• Gorgeous sunset scenes
• Gondola ride to the other cliff
• Humungous waves reaching out to you
• Water crashing on all 4 sides
• Lobster meal

The most unique beach ever

The jeep ride:

Reaching Timang Beach is no easy task (read on to know why). You ought to book your initial ride in advance and reach the other end of the cliff by various modes of transport. To begin with, we booked a car ride for the entire stay in Indonesia. We headed to the jeep spot at the outskirts of Yogyakarta. A jeep ride to the shore was a rather bumpy one. I ended up scratching my hands and bruising my elbows, but it was worth getting thrown around. Cling on tight and you should be just (almost) fine.

Pic 1: Cliff-1 Pic 2: Cliff-2

The gondola ride:

Let’s put it this way. You have 2 gigantic cliffs with heavy-duty waves that howl and whine as you cross over on a manually-operated gondola. Yup, it’s operated by 2 men on either side. They gather their strength to pull the ropes of the horizontal pulley system created with a wooden cubicle to sit and enjoy the ride. Do they provide life jackets? Hmm.. will they be of any help? 😉

The deadly gondola ride

Who said it would be easy? Upon reaching the gondola spot, we paused for a second, wiped our sweaty foreheads and let the beckoning waves mock at us. But then, there is something called adrenaline that gushes impulsively and mars your (over-)thinking. Thanks to that rush, we hopped onto the gondola, one at a time and drifted to the other end. The ride barely lasted for 45 seconds, but our hearts were pacing, our pupils dilated with wonder and mouths opened wide to scream WOW! Is this normal? Any doctor in the house, or Dr. House? 😉

Watch the waves.. aren’t they fierce?

The lobster tale:

Here’s the story of the red crustacean (although the ones we had were brown). Timing Beach is not meant for strolling along the shores and dipping your feet or even swimming for that matter. The waters out here are rich in lobsters, but the waves are so strong that it becomes difficult to go rowing. Thus, the smart fishermen came up with a brilliant idea. They built a gondola by hand and started using their fishing nets to hunt lobsters. You know how it works.  One event follows another and before they knew it, it became a fun tourist ride.

The lobster meal:

A bungalow-shop cum restaurant serves a delicious meal, a little off the jeep-hailing point. On your return jeep journey, make sure you stop by and relax for a while. If you want to order a lobster, go inside and take your pick and pic.

Cost:

Jeep: IDR 3,50,000

Entrance fee + Gondola Ride: IDR 6,00,000

Total cost for 3: IDR 9,50,000 + car ride

Victory smiles on crossing over

To do or not to do?  

Should you take the plunge? Depends on you. We really enjoyed the ride. It’s something we will never forget. Those with aching muscles, back issues, neck sprains and similar medical conditions should simply read this post and take a virtual tour. 🙂

Sunset-gazing and whale-spotting

Oh, and we spotted 2 whales cresting in the furious waters too…. Woohhoooo..

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