Beteng Pendem- Translation: Old Dutch fort

After a LONG week of work, Austin had a day off! We took it easy in the morning and left late morning to visit both tourist attractions in town in one fell swoop. The first is Teluk Penyu or Turtle Bay. Turtles USED to come up on the beach to lay their eggs. They were killed off, though, or found other beaches. So now, it is just a trashy beach with fishing boats all over it. The water is still very pretty, though, although Austin says it is polluted. Anyway, we walked this way because there are these awesome shell shops on the way down to the beach, and we wanted to purchase some souvenirs. We ended up with a cute little white and blue turtle made out of shells and ceramic, and a cool looking green/blue fish. We bartered down to about $7 for both. I think that was fair for what we purchased. 

Ammunition bunker

Barracks- i.e. holes hewn in a hillside

After bartering, Landon fell asleep on our walk along the beach. There were little fishermen huts and restaurants all along the beach, and Austin experienced first hand how everyone yells at you as you walk by. We walked past the oil tank farm and finally made it to the fort- which was further away than I thought. Anyway, it was about 50 cents each to get into the fort, and we walked in. At one point, they tried to make the fort into a kids amusement park, so there was an interesting mix of the very old brick work and structures of the fort with these gaudy brightly colored children's playground equipment and randomly some dinosaurs as well. Landon woke up and was fairly excited to go on the slide and the swing- which luckily were not broken like the other play equipment. The fort was built in 1861 by the Dutch to protect this natural port that occurs in Cilacap because of the sea coming into a narrow channel between the main body of the main island of Java and an island just a river's width away. They even had a channel from the water into the fort so boats could sail right in when they wanted them to. There were rooms for eating, an infirmary, barracks, LOTS of prison cells, and a cool old wall with look out points and everything. It was worth seeing, although there was no information available in English about the fort. All I learned I learned from wikipedia in Indonesian translated to English

This group of teens was making a ton of noise behind us and finally just came out and asked for pictures with us. So here we are with all the kids. They even had the selfie cell phone camera stick that they used for some of their personal pictures. I never know where to put my hands when I'm taking pictures with strangers with different cultural backgrounds. I definitely don't want to hug them, so I think all those type of pics just turn out awkward!

Prison bars

Landon didn't feel like being a lookout

These are the only deer I have seen in Cilacap, a buck and everything!

The back gates to the canal

A beam of light from one of the dungeons

It says "Klinik" we're guessing infirmary

The moat... at this point, Landon was asleep and rolling away from
Austin!

On the hill

There was a definite hill in the middle of the fort that had dungeons built in the side. We climbed up to the top and looked over the whole fort. It was cool to be in something that had at one time been functional and was 150 years old! As we walked around the different areas of the fort, it was easy to imagine what kinds of activities went on where. I wonder if there were pirates in the dungeons, or just locals and misbehaving Dutchmen like Austin postulated. 

Thank you, Google Translate for letting me know this was the armory

The fort was taken over by the Japanese in 1941 during WWII, and then they abandoned it when Japan got nuclear bombed and it has been abandoned ever since. I'm sure the locals appreciated when everyone just left them alone!