Short Getaway Ujung Genteng

It doesn't matter where we go, but who we're going with. It's true, don't you think? I enjoy going on a trip to a not well-known location with people i love instead of going to Europe with people i hate.

Me and my gals :)

A week after Eid Mubarak, I went to for a short getaway to Ujung Kulon with my lovely Fat-and-Furious girls (Avi, Shalli, Gina and Zaki) and Arya (Gina's husband). By short I really mean short in time. We spend less than 2 days, including the journey between Jakarta and Ujung Genteng. Though it's extremely short, but we had a fabulous time during the trip!

Hello, Me!

Me and the gals 

Few days before the trip we had a difficulty looking for driver who willing to drive us a 6-7hours journey to Ujung Genteng. Though i can drive, yet I don't trust my self that much, thus I'm more of a-matic-vehicle type of driver. Since it's still a holiday season, rate for a-rent-a-car-driver is super expensive, around 400K a day! So, i decided to look for a free driver by posting it on twitter. Luckily, Attriya respond my tweet and he willing to drive us, with one condition, we must go back to Jakarta early in the morning on Sunday. Since we got no better offer, so we decided to say YES and take the offer.

Here comes the Day! Friday, August 24, the day for Ujung Genteng trip also my last day working in GTA! After having a heartbreak farewell with my colleagues I went to Plaza Semanggi, our meet up point. Once all gathered, we took off and start the trip, yeeaay, Ujung Genteng, here we come! As i remember from my late trip to Ujung Genteng, it took whole life to reach the location, but not this time. Though it took more than 7hours ride, but I really enjoy the journey, so it doesn't really felt that long! After 2 stops on the way, we manage to arrive at Ujung Genteng approx in 3AM and go straight to Pondok Hexa, an inn nearby the beach. Since our bungalow shall available at 12, they give us a small room just to take a short rest. Well actually there's only me, Avi, Shalli and Zaki who get to sleep in the room while the other had to sleep in the car *evil grin*

We're happy to help :)

Happiness is only real when shared.

That quote is suitable for my current post. No, it's not about my travel experience, it's about the time when we, me and my Fat-and-Furious girls held a fund raise to help our brother's and sister who hit by a disaster in early of August.

It was Monday night when a friend of mine, Attriya, post some photos of huge fire around Benhil area to our whatsapp group. I was shocked as it's located nearby my office. It was told that the flame was spread rapidly and cause huge damage to almost 300 houses, 500 families became refuge. I really want to do something for them, so i shared this info to my beloved Fat-and-Furious group and luckily they gave a good respond to what i said.

On the next day is started to spread the news to all my friends and colleagues through emails and social medias. Gratefully they're willing to help by giving some amount of money for the victim. By few hours, we manage to collect more than 2 millions rupiah in cash, and by Saturday (final collect day) we manage to collect around 7 millions rupiah in cash and several bags of used clothes, WOW! This is amazing!

Crazy Sukabumi!

Have you ever experience a-non-stop-eat-travel experience, by not stop i mean NON STOP CHEWING FOOD? Well, i had, with my fellow Fat-And-Furious girls. Sukabumi, that's where we heading. "Panen ayam" that would be the first plan.

After a looongg discussion, we finally actualized the plan on going to Sukabumi. No, not doing what they called "Panen Ayam" but to have a relax weekend and do some rafting. It was 4 of us, Me, Shalli, Avi and Gina. Not to forget, Pak Apud who willing to drive us to Sukabumi.

It was a cold saturday morning and i already on the road heading to Shalli's place, our meet up point. Around 7AM we took off to Sukabumi and picked up Gina on the way. Got no chance on having breakfast earlier, so we stop by at a hospital and grab something to eat while Gina doing a check up for her stitches. FYI, Gina got into an accident few weeks back. Done with the stitches thingy and with tummy filled with food, we're actually start the journey, Sukabumi Here We Come!

I always thought that Sukabumi is nearby Bogor, so it won't waste much time to go there. HOWEVER, it took us around 6 to 7 hour to reach our final destination! Before we reach the place where we'll stay for the night, we stop by at a local restaurant and have an empal-ayam-goreng lunch. It's just about 15 minutes after our arrival when Teh (a sundanese call name for sister) Pur offer us a package of es-kelapa-muda with singkong-goreng. "We just had lunch like, 30minutes ago, save it for later lah", that what I say first, but when the menu served at the dining room I was like "hell why not??" (LOL). We're spent that afternoon with a non-stop-chewing activity.

Weekend getaway - Harapan Island

Start with a tweet, and viola, here we are, having a weekend getaway to Harapan Island, one of the island located at the north parth of Pulau Seribu.

After planned this trip for less than a month, i finally able to gather a group of 11 pax for this weekend getaway. Most of the participants are from Fotodroids, a mobile photography using android community. As the EO, I'm a bit anxious for this trip.

We meet up at Muara Angke harbour at 06AM and took of to Harapan Island using a public boat approx at 0730AM. The harbour was super crowded with people who also wants to have a weekend getaway to Pulau Seribu. 3 hrs travel seems like forever, especially when we couldn't get a good spot at the boat. But once we reach the island, the tiresome was totally gone. Beaaacchhh! Hurrraayy~~

At the pier i finally meet up with the-home-boat-meal supplier whom I usually talked to on the phone. His name is Pak Rambo (not that "rambo"), he introduced me to our guide for today. The guide took us to the house, a 3 bedroom house which i rent for tonight. By the time we reach the house, lunch is already served. What a perfect time!

Nusakambangan, an Indonesian version of Alcatraz?

Cilacap, everytime i heard that city, all i can think of is Nusakambangan prison, one of the famous prison that located in the island of Nusakambangan, about 5 mins ferry ride from Cilacap harbour.

Having a group of friends who love to travel is a gift for me who also tends to love travelling. The idea of going to Cilacap, one of my friend hometown popped while we're discussing our next trip to Banda. Since there will be a-4-days-off in May, my friend, Mas Danny ask us to join him "pulang kampung" to Cilacap. He planning on going to Cilacap with his wife, Mba Terry and daughter, Kande. At that time, I'm still influenzed with one serial about Alcatraz, replied "YES" right away. I thought the prison might be the same with Alcatraz (yeah, rite!). Beside me, there's one other friend, Attriya who willing to join the trip, so you can say me and my friend escorting the "lil fam" back to their hometown (LOL).

Our trip itself actually start from 16May and ended at 20May, yet 9-10hrs drive between Jakarta to Cilacap made us spent 1 day on the road. After a hard day at the office, me and Attriya waiting at a mall nearby my office waiting for Mas Danny to pick us up. We're using a 150K-cost travel that day. Due to an extreme traffic, we decided to pich the travel to a-less-traffic-location, that would be Gelael, nearby tebet. After 1 stop by at the restaurant for a super late dinner (or maybe an early breakfast), we finnaly arrived at 8AM, the next day.

A Lovely Birthday Trip

I wanna go somewhere on my birthday, to a place i love the most, the beach. That idea kept on popping in my head from early this year. My birthday falls on May 25, and by March i decided to spent my birthday in Bali, one of the paradise in Indonesia.

The first plan i had was experience land tour from Jakarta to Bali using bus and train as i never experience ferry crossing from Banyuwangi to Bali (viceversa). But since it took over a day to reach Bali by land, and I only have a limited time, so I decided to take flight to Bali instead and go back to Jakarta via Surabaya so I can still experience the ferry crossing. Well, it set then, time to have some fun!

Packed! Let's roll~~

24May12. Still got to work in the morning really frustrating as my mind keep on focusing to the holiday. Then, the best time has finally come, Bali here i come! My flight that day running smoothly, no delay, no turbulence, what a best way to start a holiday. To save cost, i stay over at my friend, Dita’s place. She also pick me up at the airport, using her bike, same bike that took me wander the city.

25May12. Happy birthday to me! Hoorray! As per today, i’m officially getting older by year. To celebrate it, I bought myself a package of Balihai cruise tour to Nusa Lembongan. Yes, i will spend the day of my birth in an island, enjoying some of “me time”. Since i bought this package through my office, so the sales person treat me very well, he even offer me to upgrade to a better package, on the house. Suprised of knowing i love diving as much i love snorkeling,  before taking off to Nusa Lembongan, he introduced me to the diving master and gave me some discount for diving trip. Once we arrived at Nusa Lembongan, the dive master encourage me to take the diving trip. Having a short budget i refuse the offer. When he knew that this was my birthday trip, he offer me a short diving trip for free! Yeeehhhaa~~ best birthday trip ever! Though it wasn’t the best diving spot, but for a free cost dive, it was more than enough! I love it~~

Saya Jatuh Cinta dengan Taman Nasional Komodo

The Map

Akhir Oktober tahun lalu salah seorang teman mengajak berkunjung ke Pulau Komodo, dan tanpa berpikir panjang saya langsung meng-iyakan ajakan tersebut. Wow, Pulau Komodo! Kalau tidak sekarang ya kapan lagi? Berhubung biaya yang harus kami sediakan tergolong banyak, maka trip ini kami jadwalkan di bulan Maret, tanggal 22 - 25 tahun berikutnya.   

Berdasarkan penelitian (ya kali deh), salah satu cara termurah dan memuaskan untuk menikmati keindahan kepulauan komodo adalah dengan live aboard. Informasi mengenai live aboard ini banyak sekali terdapat di internet, dan ada beberapa tipe trip yang ditawarkan dan kebanyakan adalah diving trip yang pastinya lebih menguras kocek. Kami memutuskan mengambil regular live aboard (2malam menginap di kapal dan 1 malam menginap di Pulau Kanawa), pick up/drop off point di Airport Labuan Bajo untuk 20orang. Biaya yang kami keluarkan juga tergolong murah, hanya 1500K IDR tiap orangnya. Dikarenakan jadwal penjemputan di Airport Labuan Bajo agak pagi, saya dan beberapa orang teman memutuskan untuk menginap semalam di Bali dan berangkat menuju Labuan Bajo menggunakan pesawat keesokan paginya. 

2 Weeks Indochina, What a trip! -Part 3-

Wow, third part! Okay, I did told you that this day is a horrible one? Well, there’s a story to complete it. Since we bought bus ticket from an agent, so they gave us transfer to the bus stop. But the crazy thing is, the tuk2 driver doesn't have any idea where’s the bus stop location is! So he took us (me, my friend and 2 other tourist) wander around the city searching for the freakin’ bus stop! Feeling a bis desperate because we have passed the bus departure time, all of us can only pray and leave it to the driver. But thank GOD, we finally got to the bus stop and succeed cathcing the bus to HCMC. Made it to the bus, now it’s time to sleep! Yes, I spend most of the time sleeping in the bus because I knew that we’re gonna facing something big tonight, so I need my energy.

We reached HCMC at 1900-ish, the good thing is that the bus stop is located nearby our former guesthouse, which means only few feet away from our HCMC-SR bus company! Aware that we might need an english speaker Vietnamese, we walk to our former guesthouse and ask for help to the receptionist. She was shocked when we told the story and agreed to help us. After few phonecall, she told us that we can go and ask for our money at 2300 when the driver came to the office, which means another 3.5hrs! So, we decided to get some dinner around the corner and look for wifi so we can contact our family back in Indonesia. Around 2230 we walk to the bus company, yet unfortunately the driver hadn’t arrive yet. So we wait there and try to calm ourselves. After waiting for a while, the driver finally arrived, and somehow by the he talked, I sensed that he didn’t trust us. He kept on saying “there’s only 2 of you, why are you asking us to return for 3 people?”. My friend so pissed, she talked back to the driver with high tone, and by the way she looked, I knew she’s really angry with the driver. It’s already past midnight, I really tired but it seems there’s no good end in this “gimme back my money” drama. So, I decided to take over and talked to the driver, and not so long after my explanation, he gave us our money back… YEAAAYY!! Not long after that, we’re on our way to the Airport. It’s passed midnight, the airport is closed, so the only place we can rest was the chair in front of the terminal. We manage to sleep for 3-4hrs that night, and continue it during the flight to Hanoi.

2 Weeks Indochina, What a trip! -Part 2-

D04, Sep 22, 2011. Where were we? Ah, so we took the night bus to Siem Reap (SR). My calculation we shall arrive at SR at 1300 (local time), but unfortunately I was wrong! It turns out we arrived at 1730. There were some reason why it took us a longer time arrive in SR, Vietnam – Cambodia open close timing is one of the reason. The border opens at 0600, while it took only about 3hrs from HCMC to the border, so we spent another 3hrs outside the gate! Just to make it short, at 06AM one of PIC from bus company asked us to come down to the border office, we didn’t have to bring our luggage for check. Since it’s still early morning, so there were not many people at the border. We got our stamp easily, and at that time we just realized that there are no Visa in our passport, we only got stamp. We ask to one of border officer, he said “as per SEP 22, 2011 Indonesian passport holder no longer need visa to enter Cambodia”. At that time we were like “HURRAAYY” and after a second we realized that we already gave our money for Visa to the bus company!

By the time we reached Pnom Penh for a short transit (changing bus), we asked for our money back to the bus company (which happens also has an office in Pnom Penh). Unfortunately the officer can’t give us our money back, and told us to take our money at their office at HCMC *super crap*! Finally we agreed to it and asked the officer to write down a statement so it will easier for us to take our money back. Just make short, so there were we arrived safe and sound at SR, and thanks y got a free picked up service from guesthouse using tuk tuk (cart which attached to a bike). Happy Guesthouse, that’s the name. It is located nearby the bus station (approx 15mins ride) and it was a cozy place with a little restaurant in front. This is one of a recommended guesthouse in SR, it only cost us 7USD for a triple room with fan for 1night (exclude breakfast)!

2 Weeks Indochina, What a trip! -Part 1-

Planning on writing a blog about my trip to Indochina for some times, but stuck on the first line. Maybe it's because that was the least enjoyable trip I had so far. Don't get me wrong, #Indochina is quite okay, but there are some things that made me wary to go back there again.

Here we go. Sep 19, 2011, There were we, 3 girls looking for some adventure in Indochina, the destination are Vietnam and Cambodia, 2 of the famous countries in Indochina. The first pit stop was Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). Me and my 2 friend planned this trip since early 2011, we've booked all necessary things to support our trip. By the time we arrived in HCMC, the sky is already dark so we arranged a pick up from hotel. It cost us 15USD from HCMC International Airport to our hotel in Pham Ngu Lao Street (PNL). PNL street is quite similar with Jakarta's Jalan Jaksa, it's the backpackers district in HCMC. There were so many tourist from all over the world stays in this area. We stayed in Nguyen Khang Hotel (1*) for 2nights. We spent our first night strolling around the district and look around for a nice “view”.

The power of Photo editing

I once write about how i love taking photos, yet i found difficulty in photo editing, until... I found loads of photo editing applications in my mobile phone and tablet! It kinda gave me an addiction. For the past few weeks i couldn't get enough time to edit photos in my tablet. Some of the apps that i love most are : Photoshop Express (iPad), reflection (iPad), Photo Toaster (iPad), Camera (iPhone), Picsay Pro (Android) and many more.

Now, i want to share some photo which i edited using above applications. I took the photos using etheir my cellphone, pocket camera or my Canon 450D. Please do enjoy them :)

Street nearby my apartment in Osaka, using rain effect at Pixlr O Matic