Anyer early 2010; Quality Time

It was quite at the last moment actually, when my big family decided to have a getaway trip at New Year holiday. Within a week, we arrange the whole thing starting from accommodation, transportation, food and activity. I have been assigned to arrange the accommodation, you can imagined how hard it would be to get room during the high season like Christmas and New Year Eve, so having my friend’s-friend connection I was lucky enough to have one huge house at Anyer as a place to stay for the whole family. It is called Pantai Dwi Nusa and located just 1 km after Pasar Anyer. The house is huge, I mean like very huge. It has 4 rooms and each room has 2 king size bed. Unfortunately we could not swim and play at the beach because of the condition of the beach (no sands only coral or rocks) itself but it compensated with a nice swimming pool and we kind of felt like the place was only for us, because there are no others tenants at that time. We stayed from 2 – 3 January 2010 hence people were on their way back to Jakarta after spending New Years Eve while we are just about to start the holiday.
We arrived at the house on 2 p.m and headed straight to the nearest so-called beach while the ladies were preparing for the lunch.

There are 4 families at that time, and each of us brought our own preference food. My wife has prepared the Balado Telur while my brothers and sister brought some Mie Goreng, Ayam Goreng and Kering Tempe. Prior on having my lunch, I was shocked by my baby girl’s condition. She is just recovering from her illness (fever) and when we arrived at our bedroom, she was crying and screaming out loud, kind of felt like she was being possessed by ‘something’. I and my wife were so scared and panicked because she kept crying for another 15 – 20 minutes but luckily after continuously reading some Holy Quran (Ayat Kursi Al Fatihah, etc.) she was slowly relaxed and went straight to bed after my wife breastfed her. Alhamdulillah.
I came to my parents’ room after that and told them what has just happened. They told me to be careful next time, especially at the beach and always say Assalamu ‘alaikum when we are about to enter a room, and of course to always pray to Allah under any circumstances.
We spent the rest of the afternoon by swimming, I have the courtesy to teach my little sister on swimming, well I am not actually a good swimmer but at least I could manage not to get drowned at the swimming pool. It is divided into 3 areas: children, not so deep and deep area. After we finished swimming, we went along the beach line and admired on the scenery. Some serious photo session were involved at that time because the view was just exquisite.




At night, we prepared the barbeque stuff: grilled fish, chicken and sausages were served on the table and the whole families were entertained by the behavior of their respective children who were just 2 – 4 years old and also by the recording video that my brother took during swimming, totally hilarious. Later that night at 10 p.m, we headed to sleep and woke up early in the morning to have another round of swimming. This is when I felt the intimacy between our families become stronger and better because everyone was swimming at that time, even my Mom and Dad. It was priceless to see the whole family gather at the swimming pool together and just enjoying the togetherness. Again my little sister asked me to teach her on swimming, well I would not mind to do that. And after spending 2 hours of swimming lesson, and some serious sore on her thigh, she finally succeeds to swim without my guidance.
After having our lunch, we prepared our self to head back to Jakarta. The driving took about 2 hours because the traffic was not that heavy only few toll road maintenance at the Jakarta – Merak toll road. In the end, it was definitely a good way to start our new year: to spend a big quality time with our lovely big family!

How to get there:
Pantai Dwi Nusa: Take the inner city road or the JORR and then take The Jakarta – Merak toll road that head to the Merak port. Exit at the Cilegon Barat and just follow the road until Pasar Anyer. After 1 km, you will find big houses and a hotel at your right side, just in front of the Koramil office.
The cost to stay at the house varies from 1.750.000 – 2.250.000 rupiah, depends on how many room on the house. We took the 4 bedroom that cost us 2.250.000 rupiah. Toll fee is 27.000 rupiah for exit at Cilegon Barat while the inner city toll road will cost you 7.500 – 10.000 rupiah