How to reach Karimun from Bandung or Jakarta (via Batam)?

I recently told about what Karimun looks like and where it is, and in this new post i would like to tell about how to get there by using airplane either from Jakarta or Bandung. Why do i want to write about it? Because some friends of mine usually think that visiting Kepulauan Riau especially Karimun is quite expensive. In fact, reaching Batam or Karimun is more cheaper than flying to Papua or even only to be arrived in Makassar.

As a student who studies in Bandung, i usually fly from Batam to Jakarta or directly to Bandung by using airplane but before that i have to sail to Batam first because i am from Karimun as well as if i go back to Karimun. It is certainly not possible to reach Java island by bus or car directly from Batam, because Kepulauan Riau is surrounded by sea and there are only 2 choices either using ship or flying with airplane.

Batam has a good international airport named Hang Nadim. Batam and Jakarta is connected by many airlines services, from low cost airlines until premium class airlines like Garuda Indonesia or Batik Air. The frequency of flight between Batam and Jakarta is more than 5 flights in a day. Besides Jakarta-bound flight, Batam is also connected to Bandung via direct flight operated by Lion Air and Citilink that each has 1 flight only in a day. Below i post snapped pictures from Traveloka website (accessed in February 22nd, 2017 at 6.30 p.m.) for flights operated from Jakarta to Batam:

and below is from Bandung to Batam:

For the ticket prices available on that website, there has almost similar price between flight from Jakarta and flight from Bandung. For example, we look at flight operated by Citilink, the difference is only about 22k between flight directly from Bandung to flight from Jakarta. Then let's talk about the other price we should have to pay including transportation to Husein Sastranegara airport in Bandung or Soekarno-Hatta airport in Cengkareng, Jakarta. We are not only having to take notice about transportation price to reach the airport but also about time we should take to get there.

I am living in Buah Batu region in Bandung, it is located in the south of Bandung city. First, let's detail about time and price we should have from Bandung to Karimun:

Buah Batu to Husein Sastranegara Airport takes 40 minutes or maximum 1 hour by using motorbike or gojek, if using self-owned motorbike only needs 10k rupiahs for driving to the airport for fuel. But if we take taxi, it almost spends 80k-120k rupiahs according to traffic condition and maximum time is 1 hour for standard road or 40 minutes via toll road. It's only max 1 hour to get airport in Bandung, and then 1 hour 45 mins to fly to Batam. After arriving in Batam, there is airport taxi which can be used to go to the harbour. There are 2 choices of seaport in Batam that serve ferry service to Karimun, they are Sekupang International Ferry Terminal which costs about 165k rupiahs from airport and it takes 30-45 mins according to traffic, otherwise for the nearest seaport from airport of Batam is Harbour Bay International Ferry Terminal which only needs 30 mins from airport with spending about 120k-135k rupiahs.

If it's compared to price and time we take from Jakarta, i usually use bus transportation operated by Primajasa directly from Batu Nunggal bus terminal to Soekarno-Hatta airport in Jakarta. Taxi service from Buah Batu to Batu Nunggal bus terminal spends about 30k-35k rupiahs and then for the bus service costs 110k rupiahs including baggage allowed 20kg. It takes 2.5-3 hours to reach Soekarno-Hatta airport in Jakarta from Batu Nunggal, Bandung. It takes longer time to be arriving in Batam if we're using transit in Jakarta first compared with flying directly from Bandung to Batam. Moreover, it cannot be predicted how many hour it will take to reach airport in Jakarta because traffic condition in Jakarta is rather difficult to be predicted.

After reaching seaport in Batam either it's Sekupang or Harbour Bay, ferry service to Karimun should be taken by paying ticket 90k rupiahs from Sekupang and 110k rupiahs from Harbour Bay excluding tax (last rechecked price in January, 2017). Ferry trip takes about 70 mins from Sekupang and about 95 mins from Harbour Bay. Ferry services are almost (and always) available in every 2 hours, the earliest is at 6.30-7 a.m. in the morning and the last is at 5 p.m. from Harbour Bay.

I think that's enough for this post. See you in next post and let's visit Kepulauan Riau! #wonderfulkepri

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Karimun, the infamous paradise in Malacca Strait

Karimun, as shown in the picture below is actually located in the famous Malacca Strait in Kepulauan Riau province. It is only 90 minutes away from Singapore which is located in the north of this island and also only 60 minutes away by ferry from Kukup, Malaysia. Sometimes it's funny how i heard question from some friends such as "Karimun? Karimunjawa?", it's totally different between Karimun in Kepulauan Riau and Karimunjawa which is one of best tourism destination in Central Java province.

Photo by @arkurniadi

I also have been asked about how close this island from the other neighboring countries is, it is exactly as close as your eyes may be able to sight the skyscrapers in Singapore or lighthouse in coast of Malaysian if the weather is not too cloudy, but also it's sometimes having a good view when it is sighted after the rain. It also has a nice view in the evening because the lights of the skyscraper will be sighted from afar. Usually the people of Karimun spend the night of new year eve by gathering around the coastal area of this island which is faced directly to Malacca Strait and they are able to have a fabulous view of fireworks.

For reaching this island, there is a port (seaport) which serves some destinations like domestic destination to Batam or another island and also international destination such as Singapore and Malaysia. The ferry services are available all the day, it's usually started at 6 a.m. in the morning until the last service is usually at 5 p.m and 6.30 p.m. for the last arrival. Frequent ferry services serve Karimun and Batam route, it has 2 destinations to Batam from Karimun, they are Sekupang Ferry Terminal and Harbour Bay Ferry Terminal. Karimun seaport also has destination to Riau province such as Dumai, Bengkalis and surroundings.

Most of the people in Karimun use sea transportation for reaching another island including the central of trading in Batam or the capital city of Kepulauan Riau in Tanjung Pinang where 2,5 hours apart from Karimun. Moreover, there are 2 flights in a week fly from Karimun to Pekanbaru (capital city of Riau province) operated by Susi Air and it only takes about 1 hour to reach Pekanbaru instead of spending 6-7 hours if using sea transportation.

I will tell more about this island in the other post, writing more about the island where my home is located and my past was spent. Thanks for reading.

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Welcoming speech

Hi, this is the first post of my new blog. I have already had few blog before, one of them was my academic (purpose) blog which is used for submitting some task(s) or just for sharing about my campus activity. My previous blog can be accessed in bimagty.student.telkomuniversity.ac.id, i have some posts (actually only 2 posts) there, those are about my internship program and about an advanced optical communication which is posted for completing my campus assignment.

In malayan or indonesian culture, there is some saying (or adage) like Tak kenal maka tak sayang or It will never be a love without knowing each other first. So i will introduce my self, usually some friends of mine call me Bima, i am 21 years young. For this blog, it will be written in some languages, they are English, bahasa Indonesia and even bahasa Melayu (Kepulauan Riau). I may be writing in bahasa Melayu-Kepulauan Riau because i come from an island in Kepulauan Riau named Karimun island (or Tanjung Balai Karimun as the capital) where the spoken language is bahasa Melayu or Malay but having some differences in some-word(s) with Malaysian spoken language, so that i can use that language well to be written in this blog aside from english or bahasa Indonesia.

I decided to write and share in blog because i think that writing in blog is very useful and more simple to express about my opinion in some issues. As we know, blog is accessible by using many kinds of gadget and can be accessed (or updated) wherever we are, as long as we can be connected to internet. In addition to share about my opinions, i will mostly try to post and write with using english as the main language because i want to improve my ability to write (and also read) in english quicker than before. For some mistakes that i will be doing in grammar or anything in english, it is such a good appreciation for me to have correction(s) and pardon(s) from the reader of this blog. ENJOY!

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