Seaside escape comes with pretty ghost

Seaside escape comes with pretty ghost

Peter Janssen, Deutche Presse-Agentur, Pelabuhanratu, West Java

Few public relations officers would deem a ghost with a
fondness for green bathing suits as a great selling point for a
beach resort, but don't tell that to the hoteliers of
Pelabuhanratu - one of Jakarta's favorite getaways.

Pelabuhanratu, a picturesque seaside resort 90 kilometers
south of Jakarta as the crow flies but four hours drive as the
road winds, is a popular weekend retreat from Indonesia's
bustling capital that has remained remarkably underdeveloped over
the decades.

Sukarno, Indonesia's first president and an avid hotel
builder, between 1962-65 constructed the Samudra Beach Hotel -
now part of the government's INNA Hotel Group - on the stretch of
black sand beach that extends to the west of Pelabuhanratu town.

Rumor has it he intended the 100-room establishment to become
Indonesia's first casino, a dream that was not to be.

The hotel site is near one of the resort's chief tourist
attractions, the Karang Hawu cliff, an impressive lava flow
formation from which the legendary Nyai Loro Kidul (Princess of
the South Sea) flung herself into the waves below in an effort to
restore her beauty and end a run of bad luck.

Under Sukarno's instructions, Room 308 at the Samudra Beach
Hotel has always been left vacant for Nyai Loro Kidul.

"Our first president received a message when he was praying
that it would be possible to build a hotel here, but please spare
one room for the queen," explained Yayat Hidayat, marketing
manager for Samudra Beach Hotel.

The Nyai Loro Kidul legend runs deep in Pelabuhanratu, where
the rough surf and strong undertow have claimed many unwary
victims.

Nyai Loro Kidul was the daughter of the West Javanese King
Prabu Siliwangi and his beautiful young wife Princess Kadita.

As the legend goes, Siliwangi's other wives were jealous of
Kadita and her equally beautiful daughter so they used black
magic to bring down a horrible disease on the twosome that
destroyed their good looks and made them stink.

The stench forced the king to send the pair packing, and after
some wondering and privations the mother died and Nyai Loro
Kidul, harking to sirens in the waves below, took her famous
plunge.

Instead of dying, she was transformed into the beautiful sea
goddess who continues to haunt the bay, preying on fishermen and
sea bathers, especially those wearing green - her favorite
color.

Over the years, the Samudra Beach Hotel has turned Room 308
into a shrine to the Nyai Loro Kidul legend, which can be visited
by guests.

The room is packed with lavish green furniture, a green
wardrobe in the closet and decorated with numerous portraits of
the famous sea goddess along with one of Sukarno, not in green.

If anything, the room adds to the hotel's rundown and slightly
spooky ambience.

"I've tried to change the room's image a bit, to advertise it
not as a place for her to rest but as a place to remember the
legend," said Hidayat. "Some people were scared of the room. I'm
trying to change our image as a hotel of mystery."

That might be a good strategy for the entire resort, which now
boasts about 1,000 hotel rooms, and appears to be searching for a
market niche.

New establishments at Pelabuhanratu (Queen's harbor) include
fairly upmarket resorts such as newcomers Ocean Queen and Kuda
Laut, which cater to Jakarta's expatriate and well-heeled
Indonesian crowd, especially those with their own vehicles.

The resort is only reachable by road, and the poor condition
of the stretch between Bogor and Pelabuhanratu means the drive
takes at least four hours, although the scenery is nice.

Kuda Laut, run by Dutchman Rob DeLange, is attempting to push
the resort as a energetic getaway by offering trekking tours to
the nearby Sukabumi forest reserve, in which he has helped
establish 15 different walking routes.

"There is no other organized trekking operation in Indonesia,"
said DeLange, who is working on his soon-to-be-published book,
aptly titled, "Hiking in Sukabumi".

DeLange, who opened Kuda Laut in 2000 with a dozen tastefully
constructed bungalows near the beach (no TV, no A/C and no
phones) has devised his own practical way of dealing with the
Nyai Loro Kidul sea goddess.

"We always tell our guests to watch the waves," he said. "If
you watch the waves, I think nothing can happen, but if you turn
your back on them, anything can happen."