I will return to Parai when coronavirus contained!
Under normal circumstances, I have an unexpected weapon in my pursuit of happiness – walking down either sandy beach or the banks of an old city river. When the sunlight burns my skin, I keep strolling along the beach of Parai Sungailiat, Bangka island, Sumatera Indonesia. And the long night left me back at the lovely, peaceful and quiet place of Parai. But, some places especially public facilities, including resort hotels have been imposed on partial lockdown recently. The country’s death toll from the coronavirus has reached hundreds of people. But I will return to Parai by the time Indonesian government manages to contain coronavirus.
Below the horizon, Parai beach in Sungailiat, Bangka island lies with the white sand. A light wind of the sea likely swings together with a very distinctive voice of Michael Franks, especially the hit Antonio’s Song. Although it is mellow and jazzy, giving soft touch to the hotel guests, but not the big wave. It is rough by the noise. The combination of Michael Franks’ song and the big wave go hand in hand with the equatorial glittering jewel of Indonesia. Parai can be reached within 45 minutes from Depati Amir airport, capital city of Bangka Belitung (Babel) namely Pangkalpinang. Parai resort and spa is not only a place of leisure, with its light wind and breezy leaves of coconut tree. Parai is growing with MICE (meeting, incentive, convention and exhibition) industry. According to Merlin, the Manager of Jaguar Parai, the resort grows with our one stop entertainment, such as karaoke, discotheque. It is Jaguar. There are foreign guests, crude palm oil investment company. They came here last month. The location of the plantation is in Koba, South Bangka (58 kilometers, one hour driving from Pangkalpinang).
The management of entertainment business, restaurant and hotel in a remote area such as Parai is not not simple. Besides the best view which has been favouritism especially the beach, promotion is likely a wow sense of marketing. Parai operator promotes through social media, and foster their familiarity among them, the workers, staff and manager. Several months ago, it is quite. Merlin contacted a Disc Jockey, Ayu. Besides her appearance with tattoo, she has travelled throughout Indonesia (performing as DJ) in Manokwari (Papua), NTT (East Nusa Tenggara), Ambon.
Anyhow, entertainment is such a remote area like Sungailiat, far from the city center, it is not always with prostitution. That is true, Parai Sungailiat has always become one of the family recreation and destination. If only, there are foreign guests, the entertainment is not more than karaoke, live music. They finally checked in three rooms here. They only needed entertainment, not something like ‘plus’ (sex). Management is strictly not allowed to entertain the guests with sex service.
MICE industry goes hand in hand with tour guiding. Especially for Bangka, there are some freelance tour guide. And the number is growing. Foreign tourists, and local tourists always need to find uniqueness in every destination. Tour guide is supposed to elaborate every unique feature of tourism. The geographical condition of Bangka is nowhere we can find volcano, but we can find a source of hot water with sulfur smell. Hot water with sulfur comes from volcano such as the one in Ciater (west Java), Banyuwedang Bali and many other places. Tourists can use the sulfur hot water. But the hot water with sulfur in Belinyu (8 kilometers, two hours driving from Pangkalpinang) is so special, it is different from the one in Ciater. Many tourists get recovered (from sickness) after dipping (their bodies) into sulfur hot water. There is no volcano here. Besides that, tourists can enjoy the religious destinations such as Goa Maria (Maria cave) for Catholics, Tri Agung temple (Buddhism), and the cracker with fish taste, made of flour from Belinyu, and many other things. So the significant role of tour guide will improve MICE industry in such a remote area. (Setiawan Liu/IM)
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