Georgetown From Ferry's Perspective

When I came to Penang 6 years ago I could hardly recall anything. The only thing i could remember was Parasailing in Batu Feringgi beach. I didn’t think it was impressive at all. But I was finally back on November last year and it stroke me that Penang has so many to offer, particulary to this notes; Georgetown.

Georgetown generally known with its famous food. Hundreds of street delicacy’s scattered all over the town. The mixture of three major ethnicity traditional dishes; Malay, Indian & Chinese is  an epic combination for those who love to challenge their gastronomical senses. Apart from it, Georgetown also has the cultural and historical credentials to match with any asian top cities. And the people, don’t ask me, probably one of the most hospital I’ve ever met.

I was fascinated with the city right away after this trip . I have been telling everyone who comes to KL to make a decent  few days stop in Georgetown. Thou I didn’t have the luxury of convenient timing going around, but I managed (again)  to get the highlights of  it and as predicted, there were many amateur snapshots taken by me depicting the beauty of this city.

Gurney Drive

One Of Many Stalls at Gurney Drive

It’s a surely crowded place, it is also surely a strong magnet for most tourists who visit Georgetown, perhaps this place is a to do list in everyone’s itinerary. But for me that was the most fun part of it. Queuing with many people just to have a signature penang fried char kway teow, and being offered by so many hawker seller while wandering around. Satay, Sotong Kangkong, Pesambor, I could just go on and make your mouth becomes really watery, but I guess everyone has just to go there to prove it.

Some Chinese Dishes (couldn't recall its name)

Penang Peranakan Mansion

The glamorous mansion of former Penang Rich Man or what they called “Baba” in the 19th century is probably one of the most interesting highlights I saw when I was there. The meticulous interior design of the house, antique collectible items orchestrated with the decoration inside, as well as its architecture reflects the chinese strong presence with mixture acculturation to Melayu sense and british colonials. This mansion perhaps can give you a glimpse of extravagant lifestyle of Baba’s rich family live in the past and what legacy that he has left to his generation.  Entrance fee is RM 10.

Gazing at the back entrance

Interior Superior

Chow Rasta Market

What’s  a trip to Georgetown without visiting Chow Rasta Market and buy some of those exotic fermented fruit? For most local tourists, this place is a typical agenda when they make a visit in Georgetown. Chow Rasta Market sells variety of savoury of signature fermented fruit or locally known as “Jeruk”. The colorful fruits arranged nicely on those container box is probably one of the strongest attracting factors for visitors.

Festivities

Old Buildings 

Time constraint was the reason I didn’t have much exploring on the old buildings part of Georgetown. There might be probably tons of it. I didn’t go to many places nor I could go inside of those buildings I stopped by. However, I still managed to capture the preserved old buildings and to visit the old british cemetery remaining in the heart of this historical town.

A Typical old shophouses

Even bars incorporated a historical architecture

City Hall

Eastern Oriental Hotel Since 1885

Convent Light Street

The Graveyard

The Church

In case you decide to go to Malaysia, don’t be afraid to fancy Georgetown because it is always tempting.

It came to my surprise that on my way from airport to the hostel, I saw a long stretch of  many hotels in one street. The longest stretch of Hotels in a single street I might have seen. That clearly tells Siem Reap now is a progressive tourism option for traveller both western and Asian.

I was really lucky that the manager of my hostel “Hak” took special attention to each and every of his resident. He gave me considerably important information about how to maximize my 3 days 2 night trip without missing out the highlights of Siem Reap. He also told me to hire his designated tuk tuk driver, only cost me USD 12 for whole day. It would have been better if i was with the group to share the cost, because maximum it can take up to 4 passengers. but since the cost was not that expensive, It wouldn’t hurt to pay extra.

Walking tour (Old Market)

Flood Around My Hostel

Old Market Just Dried Out From Flood

Siem Reap was covered with flood few days before I came, and   water just dried out in the old market area. But it did not stop people from carrying on their activities and it surely did not stop me from going there. Old market consists of many shops offer typical cambodian souvenirs.  Wet market and bar street are part of the old market area as well, where options for cheap and decent dining are distinctive. I found a t-shirt cost only USD 2.  Quality? highly comparable to those t-shirt you find in malls. Bargaining is a common but don’t be too hard. Those people need business too. Fine dining in one of those restaurant will not rip your money off. It costs around USD 2-3 for one proper meal, and 50 cents for a glass of draft beer on happy hour

War Museum

War Museum

I had quite high expectation on the museum. I normally found that nation that was ruled by dictator regime has official war museums as way of looking back, respecting the people who were the victim of the war, just like saigon has with its War Remnant Museum. But after entering the museum, I didn’t feel it was like museum, because first it was outdoor , and most of the properties are not maintained well. Only few visitors sighted there. The admission ticket is  USD 5 but I think it was not worth going.

Purchasing Angkor Wat Tickets

Hak suggested me to buy the ticket a day earlier around 6 pm just to avoid the queue next morning.  Interesting point about the ticket is, your picture will be taken on the spot and printed on the ticket which definitely become great memorabilia to collect. I also understand that local is allowed to enter the complex for free. I could have pretended to be a cambodian since when I did walking tour in old market, there were many people talk to me with cambodian, but i remember that I don’t speak their language. I was afraid that if they would find out, it could become troublesome. So it didn’t happen . Another gimmick that was informed by Hak when purchasing a day earlier ticket is I could get a free entrance to witness the sunset in one of the temple, Pnom Bakheng. A beautiful one indeed with rainbow appeared in the sky at the time of my visit.

Pnom Bakheng

The Famous Angkor Temple Complex

Most of tourists will try their best to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat temple. It is pretty heard of anywhere that sunrise watching there is something that shouldn’t be missed. But for me, waking up by 4 am in the morning was not as easy as i thought it would be. Especially because I did not have much sleep the day before. But, when you were to see the silhouette of the sun that gradually comes from behind the Angkor temple like you’ve seen in postcards, You sort of forgetting how heavy your eyes was. The sunrise was spectacular as it is told.

Since the complex is huge, the tuk tuk driver is allowed to drop you in any place within it. It is pretty convenient to do the temple hopping that scattered around the complex. After the remarkable sunrise watching, I went to most of the major temple located there namely Bayon, Elephant Terrace as well the famous Ta Phrom where tomb raider movies was shot. And  I was again amazed with how the government of cambodia with the help of UNESCO try to preserve the sites.

Angkor Wat Sunrise

Angkor Wat Complex

Angkor Wat - 3 Main Tower

I Couldn't remember the name of this temple

Also this

Bayon

Ta Phrom

Angkor National Museum

The closure for my whole day archaeological adventure ended in Angkor National Museum. A newly built museum with a combined modern and traditional  Cambodian architecture.  Admission ticket is USD 10 inclusive the audio device help. I was not allowed to take picture but the museum is so empty that I managed to take some inside picture. The museum mostly tells you about the kingdom in the past and buddhist establishment in Cambodia.

Angkor National Museum

The Siem Reap trip is definitely one of my favorite. It brought me to a realization that what remains from the great establishment in the past is still celebrated there and people care so much about preserving it. Well, it is always good to see how history of a nation has broaden your perspective. It is also a good reminder for us that we should be able to respect our own history and learn how other nations has taken good appreciation and care of theirs.

For more picture you can search in my facebook, just type my name “abdureza muhammad” and find it in my photos page.

Welcome to the magical yet unspoiled beaches mecca. Belitong has slowly become a tourist magnet for mostly Indonesian and even some slight number of foreigner has been spotted along my journey here.  If you are hoping to give yourself some serious relaxation therapy, Belitong beaches is one of the great choices you can have. While many common travelers will go for Bali with its many great tourism spot, nonetheless, Belitong offers the different experience you would never forget.

Belitong island is small part of archipelago in eastern Sumatra, enriched with many of its white beach and of course its geological wonder scattered around most of its islands.  In a way, the different variety and size of rounded rock that is spotted around islands of Belitong, gives you a tad feeling of alien-looking planet ambience. It feels like an accomplishment to witness those magical rocks against the clear blue sky whichever way will surely produce a great post-card looking picture.

Belitong is accesible by Plane from the capital of Indonesia, Jakarta, around 50 minutes. I havent had much research in other transportation means to go there. 2 local low cost carrier namely Sriwijaya Air & Batavia fly there and make the only 2 flights available for belitong. Thou, Internationally standard accomodation has not been established yet, but some of the 3 star locals hotel has been operated recently. Of course low budget hotels are available too.

Forget about the accommodation! The most important thing is the beaches that we should not miss once visiting this place. I started my trip from Tanjung Kepayang beach, where most of the boat operator for islands hoping activities is ready to rent here. It is advisable to travel in group because boat can only be rent by whole. There is no such single passenger island hoping service. So it’s better to plan this trip and do research in advance.

Tanjung Kepayang

The green and clear beach in Tanjung Kepayang is amazing, you can see directly most of rocks from the beach shore upon embarking your island hoping activities.  Our first stop in our island hoping was the small white sandy land that appear in between the islands. I don’t consider it as an island as it only looked of the surface in nowhere, However, people can do swimming and snorkeling around where some of the starfish easily spotted everywhere. Next stop was pulau babi. this island is mainly used for outbound activity and teambuilding exercise. I and some of office colleagues did the teambuilding exercise first before proceeding to out next spot as a part of our office outing activity. Our next spot was Lengkuas Island, where famous lighthouse from colonial stand tall and proud here. It is known that the lighthouse has been there for hundred years. But before going to the light house, I did some snorkeling around the island. A sufficient beauty for a snorkeler juvenille down there with variety of coral  reef as well as underwater marine to be seen.

Tip Of Out Of Nowhere Underwater Land

LightHouse Of Lengkuas Island

Like any other traveler who visits Belitong, the trip is not complete without climbing up the 18 storeys Light house. As we climbed the stair, the view from up there became more and more spectacular. At the top of the light house, there is an open balcony surrounding the light house that let us take so many beautiful pictures. But one should be careful when reaching the balcony because it’s windy and not much of safety fencing the balcony. The beach in lengkuas islands also a great spot to swim. It again, offers the white sand and a lot of unique rounded rocks that distinguish Belitong beach from any other beach in Indonesia.

View From Light House

View From Light House 2

View From Light House 3

The next day, I went the shooting location of “Laskar Pelangi” movie in Tanjung Tinggi beach. Giant rocks, pristine beach and calm waves is to name a few the excitement there. Thou, quite numbers of simple shops available in this beach, but still not many options food and drink you have. Most of the local visitors bring their own food and drink there, and do a little picnic. People would have chance to climb the giant rocks and just simply enjoy the view. Unfortunately, this place is not maintained properly so I kinda feel that a lot of trash scattered around the shops area. On our way to the airport there is another tourism attraction called “Danau Khaolin/Khaolin Lake” the ceramic mining site turned into amazing blue water lake. Danau khaolin is exceptionally beautiful with the combination of clear blue sky as well as white soil that made the whole lake interesting. Check more pictures on my facebook album http://www.facebook.com/abdureza.alizar

Tanjung Tinggi White Sands

Geological Wonder

Danau Khaolin

I finally reached an airport and left for Jakarta with a great memory and great pictures in my camera. This is a definite must visit place for everyone.

Top of Batur is overlooking Rinjani Mountain. Spectacular

Bali is one example of nation pride, blessed with amazing natures and some of the friendliest people you could possibly think of.  Everyone who visits Bali will have their own special bonding. Thou its heavy tourist traffic might not be as interesting anymore for some traveler, but for me I would never stop loving this place.

This time, me and couple of friends also with some couchsurfer friends went for a hike to Batur. An active mountain that sits 1500 meter above sea level.  The trekk is considered easy as juvenile like me did not have that much of trouble experiencing it.  The only trouble I had is my converse shoes was apparently not comfortable enough enduring the trekk.

We started gathering together around 2 Am in the morning in Ubud. We planned to have early morning hike to witness the sheer beauty of sunrise from the top of Batur. We stopped and park our car at Toya Bungkah (approximately 2 hours from Denpasar) as the start point of this hike.  We passed several small temple and some native residentials before we actually went into the trekk. We took couple of breaks in between drinking and taking some air that felt became less and less available. As we reached the top, the trekk became really steep and we really had to be careful because of its slippery volcanic sands. After almost 3 hours of walking, we finally reached the top.  We’re lucky that we still got time to wait for the sun to rise. As the sun started rising, the spectacular views just gave this great feeling of achievement.  I suddenly forgot how my shoes were kind of bothering my walk. The views actually surprised me because the sun rose from Lombok, we stood at the mountain which overlooking Rinjani mountain, one of the best mountain to hike in Indonesia as what I heard from most mountaineer. All the tiredness and the uncomfortable had subsided.

Gunung Abang From Batur perspectives

extreme trekk back

The trekk back is rather dangerous that one of our friends were freaking out and asked our help to hold her hand throughout the trekk.  But what we got after going further down is the fantastic view of Danau Batur and Crater. My jaws almost dropped watching those beauties. We stopped by to some shelter halfway and enjoy the view of Batur in depth.

Beauty in breakdown - Batur lake

Batur is another beauty that everyone should have a visit there. Next stop? I hope it would be Rinjani. Of course it requires more preparation as well more money, but surely it is on my bucket list.

Some tips to visit Batur:

1. Bring your own torch if you do early morning hiking.

2. The tour guide cost you 10.000 rupiah if you are Indonesian and 300.000 rupiah (for 4 people)  if you are foreigner.

3.  Make sure the whether is fine, some people couldn’t see anything but haze throughout the morning

4. Use hiking shoes and bring some foods and water

Shortly after getting dressed, we were picked by cars and proceed our ride to Penanjakan view point. Before we actually reaching it, we had to stop to the foot hill of  Penanjakan where public car should stop there, because it is not allowed to pass the road to the view point. So visitors should rent a jeep that is available around that stop point. A deal that we all should be careful of.  Since those jeeps all are managed by locals who live around that area, we should really bargain and try to find information on the average rent. It was IDR 350 K, where there were 7 of us inside the Jeep. The jeep not only will take you to the view point it also will take you the sandy land in the foot of Bromo where you can take a good snap and do some horse ride.

After going through the extreme ride with the considerably old jeep for 1 hour, we got into the Penanjakan view point to wait for the sun to come. Since it was only 3.30 Am in the morning, we still had 45 minutes to rest. There were cafe and public toilet available. To those who do not feel warm enought with their personal outfit could also rent jacket or buy some gloves, hat and other stuff to prevent the cold temperature.

Around 4:30, we started walking from the cafe to the view point around 100 meters away, thou it was still quite dark but we already saw the glimpse of the sun and its light that produced great color in the sky. Surprisingly, this place is a tourist magnet also, and most of them are foreign tourist. No wonder Bromo is probably one of the most favorite place for photographer to take a landscape snaps. Everyone was on their hope to feel the sun rise blooming that embody the beauty of Bromo’s presentation that morning. And Everyone did have the feel after watching the sun that finally rose there.  Some of friends told me that I was lucky to witness the beauty of the sunrise, because she went there several times but didn’t manage to see it. She said it was covered by the fog and there was no beautiful sun rise appeared as she expected. So, Thanks to mother nature to let us see the beauty.

As I left the scenic yet mystical Bromo’s, I promised myself to make a comeback, with of course, more professional camera.

The flight was a little bumpy but inflight Entertainment in Garuda Indonesia was a savior. After approximately 4 hours flying, I and some other colleagues who went with me arrived in picturesque land of Ambon.  I was fascinated to see the circling pristine beach around the island. I stayed at Aston Nestapa Hotel, with beach front view. The recently four star hotel warmly welcomed us with a refreshing cold towel and drink.

I discovered that my joyful romp through the wonderful landscape and serene cityscape of Ambon would be one of my most memorable traveling experience within this country.  The not so touristy land yet it has some of the best tourism spot to explore, a homework that our Tourism Ministry should take into high consideration. Besides its natural resources and spices plantation which long known centuries ago by some colonials that conquered Maluku, tourism in Ambon is something that can’t be underestimated.  The City of Ambon is rather quite and peaceful at a time of my visit.  If we recall few years back when muslims and christians ambonese clashed into one of the most terrifying religion turmoil  in entire nation , it has surely  left some wound. But from what I saw this time I believe everyone has finally come to their senses and live side by side with greater tolerance and respect.

Thou the highlights of my trip is a typical itinerary of most of tourist who travel to Ambon, I still think those places are worth visiting, and something that you absolutely shouldn’t miss. Here are some of the “go see” that I did during my visit.

Natsepa & Liang Beach

Natsepa beach is quite famous and has been always packed by local visitors especially during weekend. The clear and calm water has made this beach a popular swimming spot for local kids also who live around. But what makes this beach so special is you would find many rujak (traditional fruit salad) stalls stretching on the roadside of the beach. Mixed with its famous peanut paste, your delightful rujak natsepa is perfectly enjoyed while watching sunset. Notes: becareful if you want your peanut paste spicy, because the small red pepper cost you around IDR 3,000 per piece. I ordered 10 piece of them, luckily all was paid by the company .

Around 20 Minutes from Natsepa, I stopped by to Liang beach, another famous beach with relatively less visitors. Different from Natsepa where a four star hotel located there, Liang Beach doesn’t have fairly good amount of facilities, even transportation to go there is rare. However, food stalls and some changing room and shower for those who swim are still available.  The water is crystal clear and the view is breathtaking, the beach is opposed to the mountain.  Unfortunately when I arrived there, the dark cloud was covering the blue sky that I expected.  It was almost raining too. It made my amateur digital camera shot less enjoyable because of less light that should have appeared along with the sunny sky, didn’t.

Pintu Kota

At another edge of Ambon Island, I  & some colleague who was doing the business trip set out acompanied by a driver from our Ambon office branch.  We were driven around to places that commonly visited by people who come to Ambon. We cruised from our Hotel in Natsepa passing the city of Ambon to a place callled Pintu Kota.  The thought that came when I heard Pintu Kota was a historical place where someone probably started building this city. But I was totally wrong.  Pintu Kota occurred to be beyond my expectation, a rocky beach with a what I called “geological wonder” (look at the pictures).  Stones with different size are scattered in this short shoreline beach, the water is stunningly green that I felt that I wanted to jump into the water right away well of course I didn’t. It was even emptier than other beaches that I visited earlier. Only 2 or 3 visitors beside us were there. Thou the beach only visited by few people, visitors shouldn’t worry much, in case they get hungry, food and drink stalls are available, with some traditional snacks and drink sold there. It was serene to relax there, if you have more time, you can try bringing your picnic set. This place have good picnic spots.

Namalutu Beach

About 5 minutes away from Pintu Kota, another wonder awaited us. Namalatu beach also famous for again its rocky beach line and clear water. Some sea faunas were easily spotted.  The breeze was also fantastic. Good place to sit watching the sunset and think about yourself.

Christina Martha Tiahahu Statue

If  ones wish to maximize  their itirenary in Ambon and its surrounding, it’s better to rent a car. Public van (angkot) is widely available but if time also a constraint, you’d be easier to move around with car.  We made our stops to the statue of notable national hero from Maluku  “Christina Martha Tiahahu”.  The statue wasn’t so special, but the location that is spectacular.  No public van was caught in our eye, I assumed this place can’t be visited without personal vehicle. So it was our advantage to have a car. This placed strategically located in the one of the peak land in Ambon where we can see the view of Ambon and its overlooking sea. Such a tremendous feeling to experience the view.

The Holy Giant EEL at Desa Waai

By the end of the day, I ended up my short tour to Desa Waai, a home of famous the Holy and Giant Eel. I was told by my driver that the Eel has been living in a shallow pond alongside with the residents of the village since long ago. When I went there, I saw the residents of the village crowded the pond to do their daily activities. The pond is mainly used to bath and even to wash clothes. There was an “old guy” who is known as “pawang” or master of those eels. For those who want to see the giant eels, they need to call them out, because the eels were somehow hidden below the pond. The old guy use egg yolk to attract those eels so people can see them closely and touch them too.  I was too grossed out to touchthem  so I was just busy taking pictures and watch those visitors who wanted to touch the holy eel and probably to get some bless.

Desa Hila, Amsterdam Fort, Old Church and 400 years old of Mosque

My returning flight was in the evening, before I embarked home that day, I decided to made my last stop to Desa Hila, around 1 hour and 15 minutes by public van from Ambon city. I left my hotel very early in the morning, hoping to catch the public van as soon as I could because from what I know, the van is not as often as the ones in the city, so I have to make sure I would catch the van. I askedfor some directions from a lady the moment I left my hotel. She was so generous that she actually walked together with me to the terminal and showed me the particular spot for van that goes to Desa Hila. I got into the car and waited for almost a half an hour until the whole van were fully occupied.  Interesting situation I got there inside the car,  a girl who spits like she was never introduced to hygiene, to a guy who brought a rooster (alive) and put it under the seat and some squawky old lady, really made my day. But all the situation wasn’t nothing in comparison to the breathtaking view throughout the ride. The van went up to the hill, passing villages, watching big sea from up and went down again passing the long beach shoreline.

I alighted in Amsterdam fort, a one single building probably that has been standing strong for hundred years. There was a guy that I assumed would help out visitors in case they want to go inside the fort. I did pay the guy small amount of money and asked him to open the door. As soon as he opened the door  bats and birds are flying around. Scary. So I was there only for one minute and went out to snap some pictures. The fort was facing directly to the sea, but unfortunately the maintenance is again so poor that I felt there was no moment to enjoy it. I walked abit further and saw the Hila Old Church. I wanted to go inside but did not manage it because the doorkeeper was not around at that time. So I only saw wha’ts outside.  I continued walking again around 2 minutes  to see the mosque.  The Old Mosque is claimed to be 400 years old, and still using its original structure. Thou it has gone through some major renovation on the floor but some of inside’s stuff which was almost the same age of the mosque are still there too, such as the Holy Quran that was written by hand. There was an old guy (again) who were known as the caretaker of the Mosque. He offered me to sit an  started telling me stories about how the Mosque was built.  Listening stories from a person who has lived for so many years with history of this Mosque gave you different feel , because you somehow could relate more with the story rather than knowing a story from a book or an article.

Not long after the old guy finished the story, I came back to hotel and rushed into the airport.  Ambon has truly left me sweet memory and experience. Another business trip that combined with short tour was done in some of the most exciting ways I have ever been. Ambon is a truly unforgettable beauty that everyone in this country/outside should see and feel.

For complete pictures visit my facebook page:  www.facebook.com/abdureza.alizar –> Photo Album –> A home Of Thomas Matulessy Pattimura

But of course, by having its “low cost” terms mean there are things that will not exactly meet people’s expectation, especially those who have been only familiar with the regular flight, in regular terminal.  Some low carrier airlines have its terminal separated from regular terminal of one Airport.  And because Air Asia’s base is in Kuala Lumpur International Airport and has its own many passengers,  passengers are handled not in the regular terminal, instead they are handled in low cost carrier terminal (LCCT), around 8 Kilometers away from the KLIA terminal (shuttle bus available).

So what are the drawbacks that you’d encounter when landing in LCCT KLIA as your transit place?  What you have to bear in mind is whether your connecting flight is available according to newest Air Asia’s connecting flight services (previously, there are no connecting flight services available). If it is available, you would not have to worry because you don’t have do all of the claiming baggage and checking hassle again. It will work like normal airlines service, you only need to report to the connecting flight desk, and the waiting is still tolerable (approx 1-3 hours).  But when your flight is not connected like any other regular Air Asia services, you have to think how much hours will be spent in the airport.

Taking example from may latest experience flying to Hong Kong from Jakarta on April 2010, I  learned a  new lesson on travelling with Air Asia when transits in LCCT, or this may apply to other low cost airlines and terminal too. I arrived around 12;00 AM midnight, expecting to continue my flight to Hong Kong which would depart by 7:00 AM in the morning. Well, waiting for 7 hours in LCCT is definitely not as convenient as waiting in KLIA. I have done my little research before,  and discovered there should be quite preparation in budget traveling if you still want to keep your budget low. Because most of the unexpected thing would cost you a lot. So here are some of the things that hopefully could be useful for you when transits in LCCT KLIA.

Lesson number 1. If your next flight from KL scheduled more than 4 hours, it is truly recommended to stay that Tunes hotel to rest, a walking distance budget hotel  from LCCT owned by Air Asia too. I wasn’t so lucky because when I tried to book it one week earlier from my flight it was fully booked. It works like Air Asia too, way advance booking is better. I booked my ticket 9 months before my embarkation, I should have at least booked 2 months earlier. Because when it’s close to your departures date, the price would gradually increase too, just like Air Asia.

Lesson number 2. If you didn’t get to book Tunes Hotel for your over 4 hours transit, you can try booking the plaza lounge at LCCT. Based on information I have seen in Internet, with 128 RM (equivalent to USD 30) you can wait there and relax. Shower room, massage chair and food are available to kill time. But it’s way too expensive for me, considering its price is equal with my jkt-kl return ticket, so I definitely didn’t go there. But funny thing, I couldn’t locate it when I was there, I am not quite sure whether LCCT still has it or not.

Lesson number 3. If you don’t want to spend money on plaza lounge, bring something to kill time. If you are book afficionados, just bring one or two more than 400 page books . If you have gadgets like iTouch/iPod/iPad/Laptop with movie file to watch, bring it. Free Wifi is available. So you can browse for hours if you like, but from what I know, the wifi only enable you to browse for 2 hours in one gadget, so better to bring at least 2 wifi equipped gadgets.

Lesson number 4. There are some restaurants that open 24 hours. Because I was there from 12:00 Am so it was also good to just hang out in one of those restaurants. You can really use the 2 hours as your killing time plan. McDonald,  Old Town Coffee (Malaysian authentic coffee house with traditional Malaysian food) are to name a few. You can also bring snacks or light bites from home depending the length of your transits, because food there could be really boring. Or if you want to, you can have coffee in Starbucks.

Lesson number 5. Still want to sleep but do not mind sleeping on the floor like refugee? If you want to sleep, since the chair in the departure hall are not that many, you can actually use some spots to sleep without being bothered by security. I saw bunch of people sleeping on the floor looking like refugee near to the check in counter. Since my eyes were too tired, I slept there too. The tips is that you should bring jacket and thin blanket to cover up your body because it was cold too and if you shades also wear it because the light is too bright.

So, thou you’d suffer a little bit from transits in LCCT, but considering how cheap it is to take us to travel to one place with Air Asia, I think is really OK to experience this new level of transits during traveling. Well of course, travelers with kids is not recommended to go through this, but for some young traveler who is on shoe string, I don’t think we should be that picky. But I also heard, the new development of LCCT is on its way, I’m not quite sure yet, but hopefully in coming years, transits in LCCT will be more convenient.

Check more about LCCT :  www.lcct.com.my

front view (courtesy of LCCT.com.my)

Adjacent to the annual International Banking Division  of my company (where I currently work) outing & team building event, my return to Bali is something that I have been waiting for.  Well, a little reluctance when I found this was not all paid by the company, instead we need to start some monthly savings prior to this, but I can tell you it was all worth it.

Day 1:  Mother of all frustration = DELAY

The trip didn’t start up so well. The last thing you want to hear when traveling is “delay”. That word creep me out every time I am flying.  But sometimes, or I may say, most of the times, “delay” is very likely to happen in this country’s aviation industry.  I  knew I was lucky enough for being able to tag along with my managers who apparently own a platinum card that let her & companions to wait in airport lounge.  But, lady luck didn’t last long with us. After almost 1,5 hour of waiting, we started to worry on why the announcement is not made yet. Why the speaker hasn’t mentioned our flight number yet. Questions are rambling in mind. We kept asking the information counter at the lounge regarding our flight. We repeatedly coming back and forth to the information counter, to demonstrate our frustration. We were flying Lion Air, one of the most aggressive airlines in Indonesia in terms of expanding their network, but not so much on expanding their service.  No announcement over the delay, and no compensation over our suffering (based on the national transportation ministry policies, Airlines should have compensated us with food for over 1 hour delay). After almost 4 hours wondering and whining, we embarked with a little unsettling feeling.

Note to self: Never expect too much on punctuality from any airlines in this country.

Day 2:  The knockoff Amazing Race, The Award Winning Spa & The Ubud Warmth

Sleep deprivation is the result you’d get when you checked in to the hotel after midnight, slept at 2 am in the morning and required to wake up again at 6 O’clock in the morning.  It happened to me. But it didn’t less excite me over the “knockoff-amazing-race”.

We began the game with some sort of ice breaking session at our briefing point, Kuta Beach. But it didn’t work so well because most of us were not too excited, I mean we were doing something that we have done before so we only made fun of those organizers who tried really hard to boost our energy.

The first clue of the race was received by the team leaders, the assignment was to translate some words into Balinese language and surrender it to the “King”.  I was really keen to complete the task in this race as appointed leader of my group, I rushed into some random dude who was around us and asked him to translate. Such a bad strategy because he is not native and what he translated is considered rude by the “King”. So went find someone else who potentially would translate up to the “King’s” expectation.

The 2nd task was easy that we need to find our first pit stop where we were asked to tattoo ourselves and received the next clue after showing it to the guy who were assigned there. The 3rd,4th,5th and 6th task was also easy that we were only asked to take some photographs with some statues, Harley Davidson, buying some souvenirs in different pit stop that we should wear through out the race. Since this is not an actual race, we took a break for more than 1 hour, in some cafe nearby our 4th pit stop, relaxing and relieving tiredness from previous pit stop. We could have become the first, but we didn’t, but most importantly, we had fun.The last task was the only task which required thinking. We were asked to finish some words puzzle that led us to the last pit stop. All tasks were done quite easy. The last pit stop ended up in The Restaurant Ayam Bakar Wong Solo where we had our lunch.

Walking under Bali heat could become really exhausting, or worst leg aching.  However, the next agenda on our second day seemed to be set as the significance pair for our tiresome. It felt really relieving knowing that we were going to do the massage, a very particular water spray massage, Aquatonic. We were taken to Ayana Resort & Spa. I heard about this resort quite sometimes. People has been saying so many good verdict about this resort.  Thou we merely experienced the spa, but it was one of glamorous thing that I have ever done in Bali.  At first glance, you would have known that this award winning resort and spa is a total captivating compound. It is also a home of one of the currently hype bar in Bali,”Rock Bar”.

Before plunging into the pool, we all were served with ice ginger drink while the staff distributed the form that we must fill, stating that we have no particular condition that would affect us after  having the massage.  From what I understand Aquatonic is basically a large swimming pool divided into segments with different massage function.  The massage was done by the high speed water jet pumper inside the pool. To experience the whole massage, one must follow the instruction given by the staff. There were steps to be taken and flow as to be instructed. The water pumper intensify every time we move to different segment, making different sensation to each part of our body when they got massage.  The overlooking beach’s sheer beauty were too awe-inspiring that all the skin rash and irritation seemed to be paid off.

We proceeded to Ubud to have dinner in Laka Leke Restaurants alongside with the rice field. There is always calming and soothing effect when you visit Ubud. This world class part of Bali has been voted so many times as one of the best destination in International travel magazines, even  the upcoming hollywood movies starred Julia Roberts and Javier Bardem “Eat, Pray and Love” was shot here too.  Entertained with Traditional Balinese Dance called Frog Dance, the dining became rather interesting.  When the dining and the frog dance was over, we still hadn’t called it a night yet. There were something that was waited by everyone of us, The outing door prize. It is one of the most important part of this annual event. The prizes are vary from the household equipments, TV, Itouch and Blackberry. The winner were called one by one from the regular prize to grand prize which is the blakcberry, and guess what, your lucky writer’s name popped up and he was called to receive it. It is of course as I was saying before, was all “worth it”.

The International Banker Noise of Conspiracy

The King want you to say It right *picture: courtesy of Syiska Diranti*

The Tattoo Assignment *picture: courtesy of Syiska Diranti*

Overlooking beach Aquatonic *picture: courtesy of Syiska Diranti

The Frog Dance Warrior *picture:courtesy of Syiska Diranti*

Day 3:  Bon Voyage!

The last day, we set off for the gifts shopping bonanza in “Kampung Nusantara”, a comprehensive balinese art, handicraft & gift premises close to the airport. Since I’m not obliged to buy anything for anyone yet back in Jakarta, I skipped this and made my little own adventure. Renting a motorbike and cast away to one of my favorite scenic Bali beach, “Dreamland”. Big waves, pristine sands, preserved ambience,are some of this beach could offer. Somehow this surfing beach reminds me to Bondi beach,with of course less populated visitors and relatively shorter beach shoreline. For me, it is also the best place to enjoy ipod while relaxing with the beach breeze.  There are also some beach bed to rent, some traditional massage service and if you are interested to become surfboarder juvenille, some boards are ready to rent. I went swimming and surfboarding till noon. Too bad, my ignorance to applying sunblock in my face cost me a surn burnt. I should have asked the sunblock from someone before going there. So, there I was leaving Dreamland with so much pain. I felt that someone was trying to peel off my skin.

Undeniable Dreamland

The Joy Of Ipod

The mixed up feeling when holiday is over occured to me once again. As I rushed the airport, I ended up this trip and told my self to come back to the land of Goddess sometimes in the future I don’t know when.

Thou I only spent one day in Samarinda, but the moment I reached the city, I knew something has changed. The city is somehow cleaner than what I remember long time ago. But what captivated me the most is the new Islamic Center Mosque, which built along side with the Mahakam River. The Mosque is so huge, that I got a little lost when looking for wudhu  (ablution) place. I think it’s the biggest mosque I have ever been and prayed at the same time. The Mosque is expected to portraying the great symbolism of Muslim in this city. This newly built Mosque, to my believe will be the iconic landmark of Samarinda. And of course maintainance should be kept at its best to avoid making this mosque just like another great landmark of Indonesia, sometimes abandoned, dirty and lack of maintainance. Well, I just hope.

I arrived in Balikpapan on second day, with some exhaustion left over from the bumpy road.  For what I noticed, there are some serious development in the city. 7 years has changed the city’s face quite well. More infrastructures, hotels, entertainment center and some new shopping malls are built, decorating this compact, clean and quite developed considered as one of the largest city in Kalimantan. I and some colleagues from BCA Headquarter who went together for the event stayed one night in Hotel. The rest of my office colleague left the next morning with earliest flight meanwhile I stayed for another day to meet up some high school friends. Before checking out and moving to my friends house to stay there, I decided to plunge into the overlooking beach swimming pool. It was great feeling and great view to have.

No visit to a city in Indonesia is complete without making a stop to any of its special culinary.  Balikpapan is no exception. My pick was  “Roti Goreng Mantau” (Fried bread) and young deer meat cooked with cashew nut and red dried chilli. The gentle texture of roti mantau was so amazing. The meat however it’s juicy and tender, a perfect dishes for fine lunch. The name of the restaurant is “Depot Simpang Lima” , located in kebun sayur area nearby the market, this place is easily spotted when you are around this area. What you need to prepare is that the restaurant is not airconditioned and it could get really hot especially in the afternoon.

What’s the ideal weekend for me is also found in Balikpapan. For some big cities people, you can bury your cynicism a little bit towards Borneo. Cinemas, famous American coffee chain, and some nice yet affordable hang out place just to indulge sunday laziness here are not bad at all.

While having awesome time with some friends and enjoying every quintessential of this city, I reminiscent how much memories of this city left in me. The stupidity of high school kids, the pressure of exams and the good times that we used to spend together.  For a moment, everything coming back in flash, to value what was learnt and what wasn’t. I seem to have them all.

Mesjid Islamic Center Front

Front Space

Tower

Lobby

Pier of Aston

The Swimming Pool

Balikpapan From Up

Roti Mantau & Daging Menjangan

Beach House 1

Beach House 2

This time when I went back during Eid, Of course I did stop by to some of my favorite place to eat. I can tell you the list of the food choices here, but if I do, the list will go on and on, and I don’t think this blog page won’t be sufficient. My pick this time is the signature light bites called “Pastel Mandarin” probably by its look, I can tell its quite similar with curry puff, only what the stuff filled inside is different.  The stuffing consist assorted vegetables, mince beef, rice noodle and boiled egg with special dipping, sour & spicy sauce.  Located in the heart of city Jalan Lasinrang, you will stumble upon some shops too selling similar snacks and light bites in this particular small street. However,  only one has the best “Pastel” so far, the shops called “Lumpia Sulawesi”.  Lumpia means spring roll, was initially sold as the favorite snack long time ago when the shops started to open, but they came up with one of the best light bites at later, the “Pastel” itself.  Not only “Pastel” and “Lumpia” , the shop also also sells other traditional snacks and home made soya bean milk. I normally take three to seven pieces of those snacks if go beyond crazy and hungry, and yet still sometimes  I feel not enough.  So you know the reason why my belly turn out really really big.  I highly recommend this place for those who always have special interest in gastronimical adveture. And do bring some takeaways if necessary. It can be half fried for those who want to takeaways, will last up to one weeks if it is refrigerated.

Of course you will come across other best food experience in Makassar, but I will tell you in later posts for my top picks. Now you can enjoy the snaps and picture the taste of the bites of pastel dipped with the special spicy and sour sauce.