Wanderlust

In the year 2009 i want to go to this places:

1. BATU for Parasailing in conjunction of turning a year older! Any daredevils interested to join me?
2. PICNIC at either Coban Rondo or Tlogo Mas
(being coup in the room too long does leave me wanting to bask in the sun or see some daylight at least)
3. To be at  Borobudur during WESAK Day (i’ve been waiting to do that ever since i step foot in Indonesia)
4. Bali (again!) but for more fun and basking in the sun purposes during the JULY-AUGUST.
(any takers? I know u want to join too!)
5. Phuket ( The Unexpected! 24 days left)
6. Bale Kambang ( must get them to organise it)

oooohhh… my wanderlust are all base in Indonesia (except for Phuket) this is because i’m base here more than elsewhere, so my as well do some visitation in the Jawa island. I’m anticipating the chance to go Makassar- just to see their famous spotted cows! Huhuuhu!

Bali: Observing Prayers

DAY 1

The night before i stayed over at Ayu’s place. It was my 2nd time there only even though i known her like 2 years. I get a little edgy going over to people’s place and stay when i have a place to stay, what more when you’re a student staying in a Kost. I woke up pretty early because Ayu’s family wanted to make an early road trip to Bali. We left at 3am in the morning after having filling our stomach with Tante’s simple fried rice. Although the road was rather empty, there were quite a number of vehicles who beat us on the drive.

Om and Tante told me that the drive to Bali takes up 9 hours the most and hope i will not feel uncomfortable. *gulps* I’ve in the car the longest is for a 4 hours drive and that is to follow my parent’s ‘balik kampung’. I don’t like long road trips especially when i’m suppose to sit and do not much. Om with only a few hours of sleep actually took 4 hours to reach the Jetty!! Hahaha… he drove at a highway speed and we left earlier before the road started to pack up. Throughout the drive, Om was very informative and nice, he told me the places that we pass thru. I was mesmerize at Peyton! Peyton has Jawa’s biggest wave energy generator for electricity called JAWA POWER! The montstrous structrure looked like a abandoned ship decorated with thousands of lights! Then i passed the infamous Pasir Putih (yes, we have one in Perak,Msia and somewhere in Kelantan too!) beach! LOL, to my amusement… it was pasir Hitam i saw! Yeah the sand was black!! However, i heard the water there is clear and the place is famouse because they have many corals growing.  There are many chalets to stay there. Driving up from Pasir Puteh the roads and trees took another look… it looks like as if i went to one of the roads in europe, where birch trees lined up at the side.

Jetty at BayuWangi there is big! From the Jetty you can see the differences between the landscape of Jawa and Bali. Jawa looks terribly, bald compared to Bali. It was a 30 minutes ride.

Hinduism the Balinese style

one of the road side Pura, where lots of people selling prayers offerings

the offerings for everyday prayers

springklng holy water on oneself before attending prayers

a priest conducting prayers- the little jug of water is poured 3 times on the devotee’s hand to cleanse themselves on the head and with the last pour of water to drink.

the shrine of the pura

Paddy fields so close to the sea!

That was moi first time seeing the way Hindu Balinese pray. Being abroad i’ve been too many of the Hindu prayer’s conducted by my friends, i hereby say Culture changes the religion by making it more distinctive in different region! Same gods but different way of praying.

My first day was pretty much like that =) obviously i had a absolutely authentic balinese cuisine on my arrival but the culinary post will have to wait.

Overview: Bali

It’s been a week plus since i last blog, heh.  Well, it has been a wonderful experience being away from Malang and the norm of life. With so much drama and changes in the past one month, my nine days in the island of colours was relaxing.
Yes, as u all might have known i went to Bali. Hahaha.. It was a preplanned trip, but a spontaneous one. Ayu invited me to stay with her family in Bali since Malang will be dead. Hehehe… what an opportunity to experience the Bali way  with a Balinese family

I’m going to try to blog and put as many pic of what i did  and what i ate there :p I hope it won’t be a bore.
The rays hols was a good time for Marriage, Temple rituals and etc. I was lucky enough to witness some of the few.

I will try to blog chronologically for the remainder of my stories… but first a short entree on what went on…

Day 1

:: vendors selling offerings for prayers ::

Everywhere on the road there are so many temple called Pura. It is so easy for any Hindus to stop by to pray anywhere. Each family in their own house they have their own Pura for the gods and their ancestors. Their Pura(s) are build by intricately carved stones.

Day 2

:: holy water bathing site at Tirta Empul- Tampak Siring Temple::

Bali is maybe widely known by many for it’s splendid beaches and cheap boozes, but few only knows of its breathtaking scenery and rich culture and many interesting myth and stories kept in that island.

Day 3

:: Balinese Wedding ::

Tis the season of Marriage. Love is in the Air…
Marriage ceremony are one of the busiest event- the Balinese wedding means of preparation is no feat. The whole Village will come and help prepare meals, setting up and rituals. Everyone is known as family there.

Day 4

:: Personal Bathtub- a visit to the farm ::

My first time staying in a village… is filled with simpleton of enjoyments and laughter just by watching how others live their life.  It’s probably every little kid’s dream to owned their personal bathtub and have the whole area to oneself. hehehe.

Day 5

:: The Beach at Tanah Lot ::

The ever famous Tanah Lot but the pic taken is a view of Batu Bolong Temple. Tanah Lot is famous for its beautiful sunset (sadly, it was a cloudy evening for me to watch the sunset) and the temples.

Day 6 and so forth

:: flower decorations on water- last few days ::

My last few days i was soaking up the sun in kuta… as many thinks the Kuta Beach is magnificent, i beg  to pardon. Kuta Beach is famous for it’s surfing site but not for it’s spectacular scenary.

I will continue the rest account of my trip on later post. Need to get back to cleaning up my room.

4 a.m.

Things to do at 4am in the morning, when your Travel (van like mode of transport) brought u to the airport 4 hours earlier than expected.

First take a picture of the time u reached at the airport as evidence

This is how dark the airport of Juanda, Surabaya was at some ungodly hour… kind of reminds me of the movie The Terminal, starring Tom Hanks. Good movie! must watch!

:: L.A. lights:: One of the most famous cigarettes brands in Indonesia. They usually endorse concerts for the musicians of Indonesia.

Even though darn early, their was lots of kiasu people queuing up edi

Then take a photo of your friends ‘muka beria-ria;’ face ‘ nak balik nih’!

Walk around the airport aimlessly just to kill time and snap some shot on the people and surroundings.

Things that other people do to catch a wink or two at the airport

That position is really rather uncomfortable. But when u’re tired anywhere will do to sleep… especially like this one below

A young man was sleeping on the wagon of his vehicle la! Haiyor! Things that people do for sleep.

I saw a mother and her kid lying on their own ‘tikar’ @ straw mat curled up together asleep. A bunch of AngMohs that sat on the floor together-gether, reading or catching some winks. One of them was heavily tattooed that it intrigued me to take a photo of him, but i rather not again because he looked rather unfriendly and he will pulverize me for doing so.

As early as it was we were hungry. So we went to this eatery that open quite early- Soerabajoe Cafe.

By the way, food in the airport is super duper expensive k! It’s like you my as well spend the money in Malaysia to eat a nice plate of Char Kuey Teow, one portion of Chicken rice and a bowl of Pan Mee, with a few kuihs! Rp30 k in an average for food. Drinks are half the price of the meal.

Why eat if so expensive? Well one thing is… we got nothing to do, 2nd thing is we were quite hungry, 3rd thing is we needed a place to sit and pass the time by doing nonsensical stuff…

like taking a pictures of your luggages

and pictures of your company making silly faces

See being at the airport so early does drives u mad when u didn’t get enough sleep at all!

::tengah syiok tido::
out of curiosity and fun.

like i said earlier on.. that is not comfortable at all!

Taman Wisata Waduk Selorejo

Last Sunday 15 July, only a few days after exams itself i was getting restless. I had a big mess in my room that i couldn’t even be bothered to clear it up, piles of clothes waiting to be wash wash was also put on hold. Initiially backpacker planned trip to Pasir Puteh, Situbondo, JATIM was cancel due to several reasons and trip to JATIM PARK 2 had to be postponed until mid July because it was still the peak holiday season then. Albert my Indonesian chinese friend suggested i visited Selorejo. I did lots of searching before making a trip there (i don’t even make such preparations for exams!) Those websites i found online was really awesome! The pictures put up was enticing and the list of activities that you can do there are outdoors activities like camping, fishing, farm harvesting, paintball, outbound activities and swimming.

It’s so easy to get to that place, public transport can take you there by the (jalur angkut) Malang-Batu-Selorejo road. Take any angkut that will bring you to the Ladungsari terminal (Rp 2500 if you don’t oper=change angkut), take the Pink angkut to Batu Terminal (Rp 3000), then take L300 angkut (boxy looking van) to Selorejo (Rp 6000). It took total of 1 hour only. Entrance perperson into the Selorejo Recreation Park is Rp 7500.

Pictures of the Pamplet *Clickon pics for bigger view*

Below are some picturesque scenery capture from the place:

:: Lake Cottage::

::Boating::

:: the hanging bridge ::

I wanted to attempt to find the place myself, but it’s not so wise. Thankfully there was Sarah who was as bored and adventurous and on the spur-mood as I. We enjoyed the scenery of the journey more than anything else towards our whole trip, no photos of the ‘padi huma’ site taken, the running river, the tall monsun tropical trees, the out-look of the village when seen from above because the car was moving and the camera ain’t anti-shake. Batu is on higher grounds than Malang, the temperature then was 22 degree Celcius, that u don’t mind basking under the sun =)

When i saw the website that there are cottages and hostel like to be rented if anyone wants to overnight there i was thrilled! But after touring the whole place and checking out the cottages, Sarah and i decided that a one day trip should do. Unless we planned to get a really big group for camping, outbound and paintball activities.

:: Cottage Mawar which has 3 unit::

:: the back porch of the cottage ::

:: mini front yard with swing ::

There is a swimming pool in that place, but to use it per entrance there is another amount of money is needed to pay. Both of us only took a look from the outside and saw the big pool (not olympic size though) but it was dirty due to infrequent cleaning that you can see at the middle of the pool is greenish. It gross both of us out.

Walking around the park there were many families, couples, group of friends that goes there for picnic, basking under the sun and enjoying the view with the cool breeze. There was quite a few foreign tourist too from the West and China. They have lots of eateries there too and it’s seafood… okie freshwater food la. The big prawns that look like tiger stripes is the most salivating menu we saw on display!

:: Freshwater food ::

:: the long stretch of stalls selling more or less the same menu ::

We just enquire how much is one portion of prawns sold for… it’s cheap but i don’t remember the rate. After that we went exploring the other side of the park.

:: saw Ibu-ibu selling live fresh water fish ::

:: crossing the bridge ::

There was a sign board stating that only 30 people can cross the bridge at one time, so both of us waited a bit because there was a lot of people from both sides were ignoring the sign. Fed up as the bridge traffic was not much difference from the wait we cross too. Boy, it was shaky!! The weight of the bridge wasn’t balance, i felt as if i was Jack Sparrow swaggering as i walk! hehehe. I dare look below the bridge but i dare not look up the bridge, just in case i saw some screws not tightly screwed in place or the architect of the bridge that ain’t looking safe.

There was quite a lot of snack stalls selling keropok of all sorts savoury and sweet and gorengan (fried kuih) and other stalls that sells Bakso, Nasi Rawon, Nasi Soto and other foods.

:: sweet keropok, that is heavily drizzled with brown sugar syrup ::

I bough this because the smell was so nice! It looks like the potato keropok (Chips) slice thinly and deep fried, it is usually marinated to taste sweet and spicy too. It did smell sort of like that but it is not. Taste ok la… cost Rp 2500 for a packet, which has 2 inside. Sarah bought the banana chips and again the better tasting one is from Kuantan, Pahang where my dad can get from his friend!

:: Fruit Farm ::

see the other side of the lake? There is actually a fruit farm there were u can pick and eat to your heart content and it’s cheap! There are motor boats ( rowers offering Rp 10k to ferry us to the other side) and sampan to take you there. You can pick fruits and bring back too but it is charge more than picking the fruits to eat at the farm. They also have durian farm! Hehehe… but it is not the durian season now and it is not at the other side of the lake.

:: the hillside view of the trees is very pretty ::

that is if you see it for youself in person.

:: simple fishing rods ::

colourful handmade fishing rods were made and sold there for those fishing enthusiast!

:: souvenir stalls ::

selling lots of traditional stuff from shoulder massage hook, little hand drums… etc.

For lunch we went back to the freshwater food stall but sat behind- where the diner area was facing the lake.

We both ordered Wader(mix platter) Rp 10k so that we can try more stuff. We shouldn’t have done that in fact but should have gone for the fancier menu like ikan goreng or bakar (bigger fish) or order the plate of big prawns instead because….

our food look like this:

:: WADER ::

somehow my fishes to me look like it died due to water pollution instead of died being caught in the fishing net! Little fishes were so small that people here do not clean the fish gills, so it tasted bitter >.< bluek. Thankfully there was the sambal and lalapan to wash the taste off!

:: sambal ::

:: lalapan ::

Drinks there are the usual stuff that you can get anywhere but the best part of the drink is that 1/5 of the drink is constitute of sugar, which is like one inch! People here have a habit of mixing like warm tea or juice with generous amount of sugar and add ice without mixing the drink or wait for the sugar to be diluted!

After the wrong choice of lunch, we headed back =)
By the way below is the map of the place and the rental rates if you want to stay there

:: map ::

:: accommodation rates ::

*click on the map and rates for clearer view*

For more information go to this website that i find most informative so far about this place
Wisata Selorejo