North Sumatra - Medan, Parapat, Samosir Island

Awal April, mammynya Dame info kalo Etha mo married di Medan... cihuy... ada alasan buat jalan2 ke Medan neh.. so excited guys, mo ngeliat Danau Toba gitu lhoh...

Akhirnya ijin cuti udah keluar, tiket udah booking, tinggal cabut aja.. Danau Toba, here I m coming..

Udah terbayang nih, kalo jalan mo Dame n fam, berarti makan n makan.. 'Gerombolan Siberat' berkumpul kembali... xixixixixi.. kebetulan banget selera makan sama.. apa aja mau kecuali racun...

Durian.. mee

Busyet only in Medan, ada jalan yg disepanjang jalan tempat makan, jalannya sempit cuma bisa 1 mobil aja.. kalo mobil lewat n pengen mesen makananya, ya berhenti aja tinggal mesen sebodo amat orang di belakang orang gue laper gitu lho.. dan nggak ada tuh yg ngklakson... huahahaha everybody do it the same thing guys..

One day after the wedding, gue pamit karena mo jalan-jalan ke Danau Toba. Reaksi dari keluarga Dame, all of the uncles & aunts, 'you will go alone???', 'hati-hati ya'.. mereka semua kaget, nggak biasanya di keluarga mereka, cewek jalan-jalan sendirian. setelah gue ceritain kalo gue emang sudah biasa jalan sendirian bahkan keluar negeri, baru mereka bisa ngerti.

Barito - The Lying Bridge In The Sky

My first impression when I saw this bridge is WOW... like lying in the sky.. even the hot weather cannot stop me from taking picture...





This was my 2nd time visiting my aunt in Banjarmasin. Banjarmasin is change a lot from 18th years ago, shophouses everywhere, malls also but the floating market still there..

I missed the floating market because of the 'Lebaran', they closed a bit earlier than usual, but I got a chance to go to 'Kembang' island. The 'Kembang' island is the habitat of Bekantan (Nasalis larvatus) or known as Dutch Monkey, is a monkey with big nose..



Our Boat to Kembang Island

Ujung Genteng 19 - 20 Jun 2010

Our trip start from Jakarta on Saturday morning around 7am, then reached Surade around 3pm because we lost our way. Our first destination is 'Cikaso' Waterfall.

It's aboout 15 minutes from Surade village, we will reach the Cikaso river. We use small boat for 15 persons for about 5 minutes to go to the waterfall, the river looks dirty may be because of the muddy area then when it's near the waterfall the river become light green. Very amazing waterfalls with 3 waterfalls in a row. You can swim around the waterfall.

Our next destination is Ujung Genteng. We stayed at 'Pondok Adi'. One homestay concist of 2 rooms, 1 living room, 1 bathroom. In the nite, we tried to watch turtle in Pangumbahan Beach, but unfortunately no big turtle on the beach only the baby turtles.

We watched sunrise at Ujung Genteng Fish Market then we were back to our homestay for breakfast and continue swimming on the beach near there.

Our last destination around Ujung Genteng area is 'Sungging' cave. The cave is very dark, no direct sunlight, in some place you must squad.

Teluk Kiluan - 8 & 9 Mei 2010

Setelah nunggu di deket jembatan seberang RS Harapan Kita hampir setengah jam lebih dan bis Primajasa yang lewat full terus, akhirnya gue naik aja ke bis Armada kira2 jam 19.30. (Santo sms elu telat, gue udah di bis :( ) Bener2 pilihan yang salah, yack... nyebelin banget.. baru jalan bentar udah ngetem di pintu tol Kebon Jeruk luama banget, mpe dilewati bis tujuan Merak buanyak banget... abis itu jalannya lemot banget, bentar-bentar brenti nurunin or naikin penumpang, di dalamnya jalan tol.. Akhirnya jam 21.55 sampe juga di Pelabuhan Merak.. wait dan wait sampe temen2 semua nyampe ke Merak, totally 21 orang dari Jakarta, kita nyebrang selat Sunda pake KM Nusa Jaya jam 00.30 dan jam 2.30 udah sampe di Pelabuhan Bakauheni dan travel yang akan membawa kita ke rumah Heri di Bandar Lampung sudah menunggu. Sekitar jam 5 pagi kita sudah sampe di rumah Heri di Teluk Betung, Bandar Lampung and thanks to Heri for his courtesy preparing our breakfast... Bakso then Nasi Lemak.... Really heavy breakfast for me, secara biasanya cuma ngopi doang kalo pagi.

Perjalanan kita dimulai pukul 8 pagi, 2 Suzuki APV & 1 Elf membawa kita menelusuri jalanan menuju Teluk Kiluan, melewati Pantai Padang Cermin dan Teluk Ratai dimana Pangkalan Angkatan Laut dan Pusat Latihan Infanteri ada di sebelah kiri & kanan kita. Kita melewati jalanan yang kelihatannya tidak terlalu jauh tetapi penuh kerikil & debu dan sempit banget jalanannya sehingga membutuhkan 1.5 jam untuk sampai ke dusun Kiluan Negeri..

by the way, penduduk asli menyebut Pekon atawa Dusun dan di sepanjang jalan kita jumpai penduduk yang sedang menjemur cocoa alias biji coklat di pinggir jalan... sebelum menyeberang ke sisi lain dari Teluk Kiluan, kita jalan-jalan dan foto-foto di Pantai Pasir Putih.. di perjalanan menuju Pantai Pasir Putih kita melewai jembatan yang dibuat dari sebatang pohon kelapa digulingin dan juga pohon-pohon coklat di tepi jalan menuju pantai..Pantai yang indah dengan deburan ombak yang cukup keras..


Setelah puas main-main di pantai, kita menyeberang ke sisi lain dari Teluk Kiluan menuju penginapan kita menggunakan 'Ketingting' alias 'Jukung' yaitu smal boat isi 4 - 7 orang termasuk supir boatnya.

Teluk Kiluan terletak di dekat Selat Sunda & Samudera Hindia, which has great marine life surrounding the bay and the dolphins dancing in the sea.. Di Kiluan kita bisa snorkeling di seputaran Pulau Kelapa. Rencana awal kita akan tinggal di Pulau Kelapa, tapi apa daya Pulaunya lagi dibooking ma anaknya petinggi Lampung..




Paginya Lumba-lumba menanti kita di Samudera Hindia... Kita naik lagi Ketingting,tapi kali ini max. cuma 3 orang + 1 supir dan semua diharapkan pake life jacket, takut kalo tiba2 ada ombak gede dan boat-nya kebalik..

ough, baru jalan 15 menitan, tiba2 hujan lebat, hiks hiks hiks, udah kebayang nggak bisa ngeluarin kamera.. but thanks God sekitar 30 menit kemudian hujan tinggal rintik rintik aja, jadi nekat aja kita keluarin kamera buat motretin lumba-lumba yang lucu dan keren. Lumba-lumbanya buanyak banget seliweran di seputaran Jukung kita, sayangnya nggak bisa ngambil spot foto yang keren, coz kamera pada ngembun nggak bisa ngintip enak gitu..



Overall, kita menghabiskan 10 jam di jalan untuk mencapai Kiluan, 2 jam dari Jakarta - Merak, 2 jam penyebrangan Merak - Bakauheni, 2 jam Bakauheni - Bandar Lampung & 3 jam Bandar Lampung - Kiluan, 40 menit Kiluan ke laut lepas. Tapi it's really worth it, lumba-lumba cantik, snorkelingnya juga apik.. Apalagi ditambah temen2nya asyik..

SAWARNA - THE HIDDEN SURFING BEACH IN WEST JAVA

It's public holiday on 27 November and it's Friday... tralalalala... long weekend long weekend... Since early October, we already posted in milis gathering some friends who wanna join and share all costs . Maximum 8 persons, as per our car seats. Our route is Jakarta - highway Jakarta Merak exit at Balaraja Barat - Rangkasbitung - Malingping - Bayah - Sawarna. It's about 210km but it take about 5 hours because in certain area the road so narrow and under repair.But... it's worth waiting for.. very lovely hidden beach.. so quite, only a few surfers in the beach.. No hotel in Sawarna Village, only some local people rent their houses for tourist. We stay at a 'Widi' homestay owned by Pak Ade and family. Our homestay consist of 3 rooms, one rooms can be occupied by 4 persons. It's a bamboo house, typical and traditional houses in Indonesia with the Javanese style house.

The next morning, we woke up at 4am as we wanted to catch sunrise in Lagoon Pari beach and it would take about 45 minutes walking. Actually from Ciantir, we can see sunrise and sunset also, but we got information that the best spot to see sunrise in in Lagoon Pari. OMG, I never imagine that I will walk through rice fields and up hill..

After watching sunrise, we were back to homestay and having breakfast.. Our breakfast is Yellow Rice with sunny side up egg and prawn cracker.. nyam nyam nyam.. very yummy. but full of calories, because Yellow rice is rice cooked in coconut milk and coloring yellow from tumeric.

Another tourist spot is touring inside 'Lalay' cave. According to local people, it needs about 2 days to go until the end of the cave. It's a muddy,waterly and extremily dark cave. You must bring flashlight and may be stick o hold on from the slippery mud inside Lalay cave.. but it's worth to go inside, the stalagmites so beautiful.

Actually, Sawarna is a surfing beach, the best spot for surfing in Tanjung Layar beach. From our homestay we just walk about 5 minutes to Ciantir Beach, we wait for sunset here. We paid Rp.75.000 (USD 8) per person for accomodation and 3 times meals, so cheap. Pak Ade and family is very very nice persons, they are very helpfull.

Bali - The Island of Gods

In the last 4 years, I always spend some days in Bali for relax, enjoy my days, escape from works... Thanks to my friend, Joko, who always open his door for me every time I come..


Balinese flowers to praise the Gods

Bali - from beach to beach..
Pictures say more than words....




Dreamland Beach - Pecatu


Suluban the Surfer's Beach of Uluwatu Padang-padang Beach, surfer's beach - Uluwatu



Tulamben Beach - snorkeling & diving place

WEEKEND @ KEPULAUAN SERIBU

After some emails through facebook, we decided to have a weekend at Kepulauan Seribu.. Kepulauan Seribu can be translated as Thousand Islands. Thousand Islands is Marine National Park, that are scattered in the Java Sea about North of Jakarta. Thousand Islands is divided into 2 subdistricts, North and South Thousand Islands. North Thousand Island i.e. Pramuka Island, Panggang Island, Kelapa Island. South Thousand Island i.e. Tidung Island, Pari Island, Untung Jawa Island.

1st day - MUARA ANGKE TO PRAMUKA ISLAND (31 October 2009)

We started our journey from 'Muara Angke'. Actually Muara Angke is a port for fisherman boats, and also fish market, so imagine the smell of fish around you.. the ferry from Muara Angke to 'Pramuka Island' supposed to leave Muara Angke at 7am, but because of weekend, many people wanna spend their weekend to Kepulauan Seribu so the ferry left when it is full and it left on 6.30 am.... Hiks hiks hiks hiks I missed the ferry, all my friend already inside the ferry... The next ferry schedule is on 1pm, but I m lucky they have additional trip about 8am because still have about 100 people cant get on board.Our Ferry route is Muara Angke - Untung Jawa Island - Pramuka Island - Panggang Island. It take about 45 minutes from Muara Angke to Untung Jawa Island. and about 20 minutes from Pramuka Island to Panggang Island.


We reach Pramuka Island at 10.20am. I missed the trip to turtle conservation at Pramuka Island. I walked around the pier and take some fotos of the Tower & Orange Mosque in Pramuka Island, then we boarded the small boats to cruise around Kepulauan Seribu.



We are 9 persons, 4 boys (Yudhis, Obi, Iway, and RIcky) and 5 girls (me, Christy, Desi, Uni and Tika) Some of them I met on my trip to Bali last September like Christy, Desi and Iway. it's my first time meet Yudhis (our coordinator), Obi, Ricky, Tika and Uni.







KARYA ISLAND

Our next destination is Karya Island. It takes about 20 minutes from Pramuka Island to Karya Island. Here, we try our snorkel equipments such as masker, google and fins. It's the first time snorkled for Uni and Tika and even Uni said that she cant swim, but she eager to try and she master it. The beach surrounding Karya island is like a big swimming pool, so quite and no big wave, it's good to learn how to snorkeling.. Lucky we have Rizky, our contact in Pramuka Island, and Iway. They are damn good on snorkeling and diving.. They are our teachers and our life guards.

SEMAK DAUN ISLAND

After we know the basic of snorkeling, we move to Semak Daun Island. We were snorkeling around Semak Daun Island. Our boats didnt berth at Semak Daun Island, we berthed about 100 m from the sea bed, where we can see the Marine Park, full of colorful fishes, corals and ..... Sea Urchins.. Dont touch or step on Sea Urchins, they have thick hair around their body and if you step on them their hair will snap on your leg or hand then you will feel stiff for about 4 - 5 hours

LAYAR ISLAND

Our next destination is another snorkeling spot called it 'Balik Layar' Island. Actually no such an island.. It's a strange place like a white sandy swimming pools in the sea. but near there they have a beautiful marine parks, more colorful fishes and blue starfish. and... no sea urchins..

TIDUNG ISLAND

We choose Tidung Besar Island to spend the nite. There are 2 islands, Tidung Besar Island or Big Tidung Island and Tidung Kecil Island or Small Tidung Island.. There is a connecting bridge between Tidung Besar & Tidung Kecil. No star hotel in Tidung, you can find homestay. We rent a homestay consist of 1 bedrooms and 1 livingroom for Rp.200.000/nite (about USD22). Tidung Besar Island is an amasing place for biking around the island.. You can rent a bike for just Rp.15.000/day.



Sunset @ Tidung Island

The amazing about Tidung Island is that you can see sunset and also sunrise from the bridge.