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A Short Morning NYE's walk at Gunung Pancar I was thinking hard where to spend my Christmas and New Year holiday and come to no avail. I ended up spent yet another holiday in Jakarta. A nice twist to this scenario was a short morning walk in Gunung Pancar in Sentul, a conservative area that filled with a tad too many people. Daniel was eager to show me another side of Bogor, a city which he loves better than Jakarta, and scouted the place a day earlier only to report to me that there would be a chance of me getting disappointed with the spoilt nature. Nevertheless, being a curious person that I was (and am), I did not listen to him and wish to visit the place. After all, I believed it would still be better than another café hopping schedule that we usually have together. A nice change, I suppose. We started to drive from 7 AM from Cilendek and arrived at around 8AM-ish in Gunung Pancar. The ticket for car and individuals would be 50% more expensive in the holidays. We spent around IDR 35K for a car and two tickets. Mom and Pop stalls were everywhere, trash as well, alongside the parking lots and glamping/camping area. It was not what I expected, but I was quite content with the pine trees and all the green sceneries amidst all the activities in the area. We drove further until we reached Karang Tengah village located just by the slope of the hill/mountain before we realised that we passed through the recreational area and drove back. We parked near the bike track. I tried to locate a walking path before Daniel told me what he usually did was walking through the bike track. None of us know if the conservation area have hiking track and so we walked down the bike track, pretending that we were taking a wood adventure (with motorbikes and car engine sounds in the background) and tried our best to enjoy the scenery. We did have fun, although with mosquitos and bug bites here and there. It was a nice 1,5 hours walk before we sat down and took a break. Some of the pictures I posted in Instagram offered a utopian frame compared to what I see, and that was enough for me, it made me happy. On top of that, it was also a nice to visit the place in the morning as many more people flocking in after we finished our walk…to have a picnic or as simple as taking group pictures in the parking lot (o yes they were). My take on this spot is that it offered an alternative of Puncak or Bandung, and only an hour drive from Jakarta. A light weekend trip for a family or simply to enjoy the nature (if you ignore the trash scenery).

#bogor #indonesia #gunungpancar

ameliarhea

A friend’s story of our Mahameru journey

Take a look at some of the most amazing hotels in the world. Not everyone can afford holiday in one of these locations, however most of us would love to spend quality time with family or friends in these places. You might want to stay in the room underwater or perhaps enjoy your breakfast from&

OH ME SO WANT THESE ALL.

#holiday #hotel #travel #leisure

Journey to the highest point of Java: The Magnificent Mahameru

One can dream to conquer the mighty Mt.Semeru, while for some others, the peak of this mountain might not the hardest to be tackled. Whichever, Summit of Mt.Semeru (Mahameru) is a journey one should take once in their life. I begin the journey last October. While others celebrating the Eid al-Adha in most part of Indonesia, me and 6 others friends ride a 17 hours economy-train to Malang, East Java. We arrive on Tuesday, October 16th, and make our way directly to the Ranupani village (where we start our hike), by a rented jeep from Tumpang market. First thing first, on top of everything else, you have to prepare a doctor's note confirming your health (get it easily in the nearest hospitals/doctors) and few administration stuff such as the copy of your ID and stamp (Materai) to be handed over in the Semeru Post in Ranupani village. Ranupani Village Here is where everything begins. From Malang train station, we chartered an Angkot (or public transportation) to reach our rented Jeep in Pasar Tumpang (Tumpang market). From there, we are heading to Bentengan point and continue our pre-hiking-journey using ojek-foot-ojek to Ranupani village. We spent around IDR 25k/person for the ojek to Ranupani. Worth the price.

In Ranupani village, we register ourselves with all the administrative documents we have prepared earlier. For those looking for local porters, there are plenty porters to find in this area. A porter from Ranupani to Kalimati (one of the highest/final basecamp) cost IDR 150k/day, with extra 100k if you wish for them to guide you to the summit of Mahameru. The best time to hike from Ranupani village to the first base camp in Ranukumbolo is around noon, it takes around 4-5 hours hike (note: this calculation based on our fitness, which is not really fit anyway). There are 4 checkpoints from the village to Ranukumbolo, and the hike is really easy and are not steep (mostly). Pretty nice, yet long, hike. You can see the beauty of Ranukumbolo on the last checkpoint.

Ranukumbolo

The beauty of this base camp is well known, especially since the premier of 5cm movie which depicts the gracefulness of the place. We spend the night here, before continuing our journey to Kalimati basecamp the next morning. Although it is forbidden to lit bonfire in the place, it seems that many lit it up anyway.

This place could reach single degree at night, pretty cold and damp, it is wise to have a proper apparel for sleeping, double socks should be worn. Kalimati One of the highest base camp before the summit is Arcopodo base camp, which is higher and nearer to the summit, but Kalimati is the last point where we could find water. This place is pretty windy, and colder than Ranukumbolo, but it has a drier air. it took around 3-4 hours walk from Ranukumbolo to reach Kalimati. During the walk, we are passing a vast savanna named Oro-oro Ombo (literally means big savanna). Pretty beautiful, pity that we come at the wrong time, for if we do the hike in the high season (during march-august), there would be purple flowers blossoming on this area. I could imagine how beautiful it may be.

walk to Kalimati is pretty laid back, too. not steep, but a long walk. gotta hike, but right after Cemoro Kandang (pine forest after oro-oro ombo), at Jambangan, we could see the peak of Semeru from a far, and it just rejuvenate our stamina to finish our walk for Kalimati.

It takes around 30 minutes from Kalimati to reach water spring called Sumbermani, it is the only spring in the area.

Arcopodo We are leaving the tent for summit attack from 11 pm, pretty early but we don't want to rush. Before reaching the last point to the summit, we have to hike the last vegetation forest to Arcopodo. Headlamps or light is compulsory if not a must, pretty steep path and many roots on the ground.

The path to Arcopodo quite exhausting for me, mainly because my lungs haven't had a full acclimatization, and it was forced a hike to the top. The hike got more challenging after we passed Arcopodo. Cemoro Tunggal - Mahameru When we reached Cemoro Tunggal (the very boundary from the last vegetation to the summit), it got steeper. We had to climbed a sandy/rocky path, more than 70 degrees steep, to the summit. I almost gave up. It was a very exhausting journey, since every 5 steps ahead, you surely would have to take 2 step back, the path forced you to. I had to catch my breath every 5-10 minutes because of it. Therefore, it took me awhile to step my feet at the top. practically 4 hours from Cemoro Lawang. T.T advise: do bring some sweet snack and big bottle of water for summit attack journey. you will need it a lot. In the end, we I finally reached the summit, it was all worth the effort, 3676 mdpl, dang!

The blue sky above the clouds, while at the same time that freezing wind in the morning on a top of the mountain, I thought how could I ever think to climb such mountain (a bit dramatic here, but hey, spare me :p) instead having myself a journey to some white sandy beach. Although the journey back seemed excruciating for my feet, the journey has not yet stopped. It took me another 3.5 hours back to our tent in Kalimati.

Spent almost 11 hours hiking and walking..yet we had only 3 hours of rest before continuing our journey back to Ranukumbolo. Planned to spent the last night there. all in all, a fun adventure it was! :)

#semeru #mahameru #Journey #java #beauty #nature

travelthisworld

Mamberamo River, discharges into Pacific Ocean, Papua, Indonesia.

(by y4Nu4R)

neverendjourney

awesome!!

#papua #indonesia #view

ameliarhea

25 and going fab!

Basically the search engine, namely Google (haha), and the office celebrated the quarter-of-century birthday of me.

Great sky, great food, great people, great cakes (that cupcakes..nyum!), great presents (thanks for the lovely batik materials from my colleagues), and that ticket for ‘Ariah’ play in National Monuments. Couldn’t be happier this far. I know some others are still on their way..:p

Thanking everyone who had ever been in my life for whatever reason, I think this is going to be a really super great year since…the best is yet to come ;)

loving the day so far xoxo

Short visit: Taman Mini Indonesia Indah

I should have written this from a month ago, but lacking on the visual (read: pictures of the journey) I postpone the article until today. Not that my dear friend (read: Anchy) had given me the necessary pictures, but well… Anyway, for many of Indonesians, especially primary school students, “Taman Mini Indonesia Indah” or literally translated as Miniature Park of Indonesia, is an obligatory field-trip they had to visit at least once in their life. I did too when I was in my kindergarten stage, if I’m not mistaken, but I hardly remember what I did back then. This place isn’t a place that is attractive for party-goers or city-entertainment seekers. Honestly, this Park is a good option for any tourist who have little time, but willing to know a lot of thousands of Indonesian Cultures in one visit. The park owns almost all traditional houses replicas, and they have several museums related with cultures. Not to mention additional museums on technology and planes, train museum, philately museum, and many other like butterfly garden, Komodo dragon museum, etc. It is a big place for sure, you will need to bring car (or opt for public transport inside the park, which may fun, but not really my preferable option) or try to get into the cable car where you could see the view of the park from up on the top. I visited this place a month ago after years, despite the location of the park that is near my home (which is like, less than a kilo away, not that this info important lol) with several of my friends, just because they are willing to get deep into Indonesian cultures in a short time. We visited one of the traditional houses (due to the lack of time), Indonesia museum (where they display traditional costumes, traditional music instruments, and a little information about several traditional ceremonies), and tried to watch 3D movie about Indonesia in IMAX theatre of Keong Mas, but cancelled this because they didn’t play the movie. We were heading to Komodo Dragon Museum instead…which I trully love among the places we had visited. I mean, I just found out that in the museum, there were living crocodiles, and living Komodo dragons, and snakes (which we can took pictures with for free!). One of my friends freaked out about taking the pictures with those adorable reptiles (I’d say adorable because the reptiles were tamed and totally safe for human), I was afraid a bit too, especially when the snake were put onto my shoulder, but at the end, it was a fun experience. :) which come to the first issue, that I am waiting for that picture of me and the snake, and the Komodo dragon, but they have not sent yet..pft :p Despite the different fun I experienced in the park, it was such a pity that many of the attractions/museum were not taken care nicely. some of the displays looked old and dusty, and some others were broken. Nevertheless, it still a good tourist attraction to visit. O yea, although there weren’t any at the time we visited, sometimes there would be traditional shows or dances in some of the traditional houses, you just gotta check the schedule :) well, that’s all I gotta say for the park you might well find this place interesting when you visit Indonesia, especially Jakarta PS : avoid weekends/holiday though, as this place would be cramped by thousands of people and their families cheers, xx

#tmii #taman mini indonesia indah #indonesia #visit #travel

nathlawrence

neverendjourney

words can't describe how beautiful this scenery is

#iceland #stars #magnificent

my dear Kiwi friends, is this accurate? ;)

Being called Australian is like being mistaken for your big brother who's a racist asshole.

#kiwi #new zealand #joke #article

Thailand's street foods! I could not gather some pictures, but nonetheless, I like the Ketan Durian among all :)

#street food #snack #Thailand #nyum

Thailand 1.0: The Festivities

First of all, I thanked my office for arranging this office outing in Thailand over the weekend. It was a tremendous and joyful trip and I am enjoying it a lot :) Thailand is one of Asia's well known tourist destination. It is famous for various stuff such as shops, foods, and the lady-boys :p. Here are the highlights of the trip: Songkran Festival Songkran is a festival usually held from 13-15 of April to celebrate Thailand's traditional new year. The fun part of this festivities is the water war among the people. to celebrate the new year, it is a custom to throw the water to people as a symbol of blessing. During this time of the year, there will be a lot of water containers by the road, and people who are using water gun. The festival can go as long as six days in Chiang Mai region. Lucky me, by the time I was in Pattaya, they were having the Songkran festival! Pattaya held the festival a week late than other places, which made it cool because otherwise I wouldn't have joined the festivity :P Me and my colleagues hop off from the bus and tried to grasp and enjoy the street buzz first hand. We were trying to avoid all the people who are going to throw their water balloon or shooting us with the water gun, which was useless, of course. I got myself pretty wet because of it, but nonetheless, it put smiles on my first day in Thailand. There were several open stages and clubs who celebrated the Songkran with special show/concert, and it went on until after midnight. Imagine this happen for almost a week. Such a heaven for party-goers for sure. As night went by, there were a lot of drunker by the street karaoke-ing and open their own stage, so funny seeing some of the she-man there singing and dancing.

water war on the street - photo by Putra

get off from the bus, have fun with us! - photo by Putra

let's dance and shake your butt - photo by Putra Aksara Cabaret After changing our clothes, we headed to the Aksara Club where they held the lady-boys cabaret show. Quite excited for this, one of Pattaya's magnet for tourist and I couldn't help myself imagining how good the show would be. I was wowed the first time I saw all the she-man. They were that gorgeous I hardly believe they once men! We gotta pay for taking pictures with them around 40 Baht per she-man you would like to take picture with (using your own camera), or 200 Baht for a picture taken by the management. The cabaret show itself was pretty good. They have great backdrops and the costumes were really beautiful! The numbers of songs performed ranged from various Asian's songs, pop-songs, traditional ones, even Bollywood. You gotta spend 700 Baht for the show, but it was worth, and it's still PG-13 friendly to watch. There were other shows and cabaret around the area, and all the guys proceed to the 'Tiger Show' (the club name was Big Eye) after we finished the Aksara Cabaret. The girls passed this show, as we were quite sleepy by that time the cabaret finished. Anyhow, the so-called tiger show were (as I heard from the guys) pretty entertaining and more 'adventurous' a.k.a for adults only. It contained some amount of exhibitionist performance in a hilarious ways :p

one of the beautiful she-men Nong Nooch Tropical Garden & Bee Farm The biggest disappointment when visiting this garden was that we were not sight-seeing the garden. We watched the elephant and dance show instead. Not that they were bad, but it was not really different from one we could watch in Taman Safari Indonesia. Anyway, the highlight for me was the picture with the tiger. I was quite excited with it, although on the other hand, I feel really bad because it seemed that the tiger so afraid of its trainer when posing it for my photo-session.

The fur felt like carpet The Bee Farm was a stop we gotta make before we arrived at Pattaya the day earlier. Nothing special from here honestly, despite the one picture I took with the bees :)

Honey Bees! Tuktuk ride So it was five of us, in a tuktuk, as the others had gone earlier. We were heading to Pat Pong from MBK mall, and I could not believe that it fitted us all! lol the driver himself was riding quite fast for a small tuktuk with 6 people (including him) in it! But you haven't gone to Thailand if you miss the chance for tuktuk ride :)

5 in 1!

the speedy driver Pat Pong This is the red light district of Bangkok, which cater mainly tourist and expatriates. A night life was offered for the tourist quite assertively by the people on the street. Be aware though, that Thailand also has the biggest HIV/AIDS spreading in Asia. Moreover, don't be tricked by the scam offered by the people that lure you to see the show for free because they usually ask for a big amount of money later on. Honestly speaking, although there are a lot of sexually explicit bar shows around Pat Pong, there were also quite enjoyable bars for people to hang out there, and the night market were also not really bad.

Pat Pong night market ------------------------ There are other highlight from the trip. I will post later :)

#Thailand #trip #fun

Shoot Shoot Shoot My first experience in the shooting range. Thanks boss, t'was cool to let us tagged along with you :p All was shot with semi automatic .22 and looked like I was doing okay.. :p (lie! I got jumpy for sometimes with the sound it produced..haha, but it was such a fun time) Spent around 40-50 bullets, from 7 and 10 meters range. Definitely going to try some more rounds in the future

#pistol #fun #Adventure #shoot

rarasekar

Berjalan Lebih Jauh (Album Teaser) - Banda Neira

neverendjourney

These songs in the teaser are that good, that after listening some of their songs, I feel obliged to promote them (padahal gak disuruh, haha). They're a duo on the move, they defined themselves as Nelangsa artists, they have nice accoustic songs, very very talented, and they're my friends :). Please enjoy, Banda Neira!

ameliarhea

Norwegian Wood: A novel

I have just finished reading Norwegian Wood, A world best-selling novel, after quite awhile. Been a long time since I actually finish reading something, lately I just read them until half part before losing my interest and not continuing until the end.

Well, what can I say about this novel?

It is a love story full of darkness and hollow. Many of the characters fall too deep thinking too much about something that happen to them, and they were dragged to the darkness side they created, some of them unable to bear the feeling, as it drained their emotion until the last bit, and there where the core of this story took place. Sadness, loneliness, senses of responsibility that…out of place. The author made the characters look depressed most of times, even the happiest one.

A quite interesting angle Murakami use to create the story. I was a bit overwhelmed with the sexual openness (or weirdness? Lol) of Japanese even back then (the story took place on late sixties and beginning of seventies), it just odd. Not that I do not know about the culture, yet I still have a culture shock reading this. It does not have many sexual passages, and considered polite when describing such things. Still, how the author described the culture back then, I was wowed. Haha.

I find myself do not satisfied on how it ended, that ‘too darkness’ side of some characters is not explained thoroughly until the end, and if it got filmed, I got a sense that there is a big chance it could turn as a story of a young adult try to understand the world. Too much philosophy, yet much impulsiveness of the youth took many of the big decisions. I know it’s been filmed already, but I have not yet watched it. maybe soon.

It is a readable book. Dark, but in a way, it describes the emptiness people usually feel even today. The characters (by that I mean most of them) were unable to find happiness (the one complete happiness) and sadly, unable to love and be loved, they are trying to search how they could end such darkness in them, and ended circling in such hollowness of their thoughts most of the time, but.. it is readable.

Whether I like the novel or not would be irrelevant. The author is a nice storyteller, and the translation by Jay Ruby that I read, pictured the genuineness of the story pretty clear, using simple but sophisticated words of translation.