Batu Dulang Eco-Tourism

Along with the increasing progress of Sumbawa tourism, making more and more new attractions began to emerge. One of the newest spots which are getting pretty popular lately is in Batu Dulang District. Located in the mountainous area makes Batu Dulang has beautiful scenery. It inspires them to build this spot called Teba Panotang.

It is a tiny tree balcony that local people made so visitors can enjoy the beautiful mountainous scenery of Batu Dulang. It attracts so many people, not only teenagers but also adults and old people to come to take what they call ‘Instagramable’ pictures -_-. And of course I don’t wanna miss the chance to experience taking those Instagramable pictures even tho mine wasn’t as good as other people’s :(

From Sumbawa Besar to Batu Dulang, it took us about 35 minutes driving, wasn’t that far yes but 1 km before our destination, the road was pretty bad and bumpy. I guess it could get worse on rainy season. I actually have been to Batu Dulang once before trying to find a waterfall but I didn’t find it so this time we went to 2 spots. 1^st one was Teba Panotang, the tiny tree balcony where we could get on it and took whatever pictures with mountainous view. We arrived there around 7 am and there were some other people already which were my cousin and friends -,-. They meant to take the sunrise pictures there, well they got lost and couldn’t take it on time but I saw some other’s people’s pictures in Teba Panotang on sunrise and it was wonderful.

But I think we should have came in the afternoon cause the morning sunshine was too bright and couldn’t really see the view through camera. I think my pictures are not as good as I expected -,-. But anyway the spot is free to enter, we just had to pay for parking which they didn’t mention how much but they said ‘up to you’ -,-. We spent like an hour taking pictures and enjoying the view then we continue walking to the waterfall. You will see the signs near the parking lot to give you the directions to go to Teba Panotang or Waterfalls. So we followed the sign and walked for +/- 30 minutes. It was pretty much the same route that I walked through before but we didn’t find the waterfall. Now I realized we took the wrong turn before and now we found the real waterfall.

Actually the waterfall wasn’t that high or beautiful but when we arrived, no other people and the water was so clear that we couldn’t wait to swim in it. But before we got wet we took some pictures and even tho no one brought swimming suit, all of us got in the water and it was freaking coldddd,,like really really cold. But no one wanted to stop -,-, I even got sick, catched a cold till few days after that -,- We were swimming till some other people came. Btw it was pretty slippery when you climb down to the waterfall/river so be careful cause I experienced that, i fell to the hole right after I told my friends ‘be careful’ -,-

But the whole trip was nice and pretty adventurous, I’m pretty sure Batu Dulang has so many other things to offer like coffee plantation or other waterfalls. Hopefull they can manage and promote their tourism more and attract more people to come and enjoy their village. And hopefully those visitors know how to keep the place clean -,-. Usually the more people come the dirtier it gets, but I really hope it’s not gonna happen in Batu Dulang :)