Korea Korea Korea

Finally, a week of relaxation mind away from Jakarta Office, even though it was still related to work and training but so much different there in Korea. I miss Korea so much, especially all the great people I met there. I flew to Korea on 9th Oct and stayed for almost 10 days there until 18th Oct 2010.

It was a little awkward when I touched down one of the best international airport, Incheon. I felt like an alien; no directions, no one I knew, no connection in my cell phone, hard to communicate with the people and I just felt alone and really really needed to burn my in-dependency.

LG Twin Tower

From the airport I went to LG Chem Twin Tower to meet one of my colleagues.  I think he forgot that I was in fatigue for 6 hours flying, that he brought me to visit Everland, an amusement park in Gyeonggi-Do area.

Let's act like one of the Korean hehehe

Everland Theme Park

It was so exhausted that I have to be honest to him, I needed him to drop me in Osan, which is 2 hours driving from there. Inside my heart was actually screaming for "hot water, shower shower shower, bed pillow and blankets!!!!!!"

I spent my first night in Osan.It was very cold and I really needed to adapt with the weather. In Jakarta it's usually 27-30 Celsius, and Korea was 8-10 Celsius and was not winter, note that down. What a hard time to get compromise with the new temperature. My room floor was very warm, they applied heater the room floor in the Learning Center. I couldn't sleep easily that night, I decided to open my window so that I could hear some noises from outside. It was very silent, I let the tv on with no sound, my laptop was also on with no internet connection, and nice place with no one I knew. Oups, I forget to inform the time different between Jakarta & Korea. Korea is 2 hours ahead then Jakarta, so not really a jet-lack to me, but it effected my wake up time. For instance, I have to be in the conference hall or discussion room every morning at 09:00 AM, which is 07:00 AM Jakarta time. So I have to wake up even earlier. Oh my!!!!

On my first night, I said to my heart that I didn't have to be worry, because tomorrow I'll be meeting some new friends and you're not gonna be alone hehehhehe.... and lovely, it's true! Even though Alice is not the first person I met, but she is the first person that I felt to have a connection to communicate with. Then followed by Yulia and Kim in our firts tea break.

Alice Leung fr New Jersey

Yulia Valeeva fr Moskow, Rusia

Hee-Kyung Kim fr Germany

Sharma fr New Delhi, India

Further just a couple of hours, I've known almost all of them. We had a simple fine dinning, did toast in different style that usually been use in our country and gathered together in groups to get to know each other more. I was the only Indonesian in that event, we have 7 polish, a girl from Moscow, 1 Turkish man, 4 people of Vietnamese, 6 of Indians and 1 from USA.  .

Kim & Anna were in the same table with me that night

full team without one girl from Vietnam

After that we continued for our "own section" in the cafeteria with beers & snacks. I was glad that we could immediately cohesive as good friends. It's a cross culture relation that easily became like a family with so much harmony ^^.

the girls are mingling on our first hangout

we gathered in the cafeteria after the welcome dinner

For me, what matter is how do we manage to be friend and get along during the training and group discussion... and we did it! I mean, we over doing it, hahahaha.. like you can see in these pic, there were no days without hangout, did so much silly things and drink drink drink... wooowww

 
Beside the weather, I also adapted with the foods and not much of them I could eat, because I can't eat pork and they served pork very often. Everyday I eat Kimchi, Ho Bakjun, and Korean Salad.

I also visited many other places in Korea... and I think It was amazing...

 

journey to indonesia

Sempu Island

I had this trip in the long holiday of Lebaran 2010. Among many beaches, I picked Sempu Island into my vacation list.

Sempu Island is a small island in the south of Java Island. This island is in Malang District, East Java province. From city of Malang, we stay for one night in Turen. Early in the morning we packed and drove through around 1 and half hour to Sendang Biru, place where we had to take the small boat to get to Sempu Island.

It has its wide around 877 hectare and formally becomes a sanctuary under the government since 1928. Based on finding in 2000, there are 223 kinds of plants, 144 more kinds of birds’ species, mammals, and others. Just for your info, the guide told me that they recently just released 700 hundreds of snakes in that island.

The most exotic destination in Sempu Island is the Segara Anakan Lagoon. It is a lake with a salty water behind a huge reef of Hindian Ocean. There are two gates to get into Sempu Island, depends on your destination.  If you want to visit Segara Anakan Lagoon, you have to choose Ant Bay (Teluk Semut) gate.  If you want to visit Lele Lake (Telaga Lele), you have to choose Waru Waru gate. The guide also told me that there’s another good spot, called Pasir Kembar (Twin Sand), but too bad we didn't have enough time to get there, so we passed this time.

Just sharing a bit of my experiences, frankly speaking getting into Segara Anakan is not very easy as I thought. You have to trek for almost 3 hours through the juggle with tarnish all over the regular trek, so all over my body was almost covered with mud. I was hoping for God 's mercy to rescue me and hoping that He could send a helicopter to get me back to Sendang Biru. My foot was bleeding and I got so many scars, especially under my foot step. So many people gave up on the quarter or half way and choose to return to the start line, so I could be a little bit snobby since I could make it in my way (screaming, yelling, almost crying, bleeding, so sloppy ^^). Somehow, I was amazed and very proud of my mom, aunt, and my two sisters because they are really strong and spirited, two thumps up guys! So the total of trekking is  around 6 hours… but side of that, this is what I've got there:

Entrance Slit of Sea Water

Camp Sandy Beach Inside The Jungle

Hidden Paradise

Mystery of The Blue

Getting there from Malang - Turen - Sendang Biru

Calculate The Budget

- Boat IDR 100.000

- Guide IDR 100.000

Other Info:

- Guide contact number, Pak Hadi +6281233926575

- You have to stay in Turen, there's only one hotel there : HOTEL CAKRA

- Check the weather by calling Pak Hadi

- You can actually camp in Sempu Island

water all around us

The way we see things could be as beautiful as we thought it could be..

dew drops

wet look of white flowers

the roar of river flow

wreckage water

aperture water slip

lilo beach in bali, uluwatu

The beach is located on the South end of Bali, in Uluwatu close to Dreamland. The name probably is not the world famous among other beaches in Bali. But it is actually well-known in many foreign countries especially among upper-class expatriate. It’s strange because this beach offers beach location privatization. The beach is reserved for people who stay at the resort Karma Kandara.

Coastline from Above

For visitors who only come to see Lilo beach have to pay IDR250.000 / USD20, which includes the food and beverages which you might gained IDR 200.000 for them. So actually the entrance fee is only IDR 50.000 and it’s worth paid for privacy.


There's such a beautiful swimming pool for the resident and from the pool and restaurant area you can see a dramatic beautiful landscape of coastline, really amazing, awesome.

nice pool

Lilo Beach & Nammos Beach Club

To get to the beach, we need to slide down by an elevator about 100 meters height. I was speechless when first time step into the restaurant headings directly to the beach. Very calm, so blue, not much people like in Kuta, Benoa or Dreamland. It lies beneath the high cliffs make the sea water rarely exposed by the sunlight and that makes the water feel so cold. 

sandy, nice, blue of Lilo Beach

This place is highly recommended, especially I suggested the Indonesian to come and know better than the foreigner. Believe me; you will be proud to have this beautiful scenery of Indonesia ;)


http://www.karmakandara.com/nammos-beach-club/

tidung island

Crystal Clear

Tidung Island, South Kepulauan Seribu is divided into two, Tidung Besar and Tidung Kecil. The island is one of the districts in Thousand Island (Kepulauan Seribu) that has a considerable population. Tidung Island is a unique place, especially for marine tourism and diving. Coral reef ecosystems in this island still beautiful, especially when snorkeling or diving activities in the area of bluff. Research activities are also often done in this area. Its water is still clean and the island is still virgin. Really amazing, after scouring this island, to be honest my heart has shrunk to go to Phi-Phi Island, though indeed we can not compare the pleasure. I became more interested in nature along our beloved Indonesia.

Tidung's Bridge, 2km Distance

Tidung Kecil

Getting there, you can reach this place by speed boat in Marina Ancol or fishing boat from Muara Angke. It takes you about 3 hr to get to this island. On my second visit to Tidung Island (June 2010 which was on my birthday), I stayed in Pramuka Island and I'm suggesting you to stay better in Pramuka, rather than in Tidung, because it is much more convenient and you can have a great dinner in Keramba Seafood Restaurant very near to Pramuka Island, they will fetch you by personal speed boat, lovely.

And by the way, this is one of the cheapest happy vacation I've ever had!

Calculate My Budget

Budget around less than IDR 300.000 for 2D/1N,

Incl. boat from Marina or Muara Angke : IDR 30.000 - IDR 40.000 (one way)

Incl. meals 4-5x

Home stay -/+ IDR 350.000 - IDR 500.000 (can occupied 5-10 persons)

Boat transfer to Islands in Pulau Seribu IDR 250.000

Snorkel equipment IDR 50.000/day

why vacation

Do you wondering what, why, where, when, how to go for the best vacation experiences ever? Even sometimes you making it so hard just to pick one place for vacation. I think it's a cruel irony for you to be so much confused.

I do quite a lot of vacations and road trips with my friends or family. Never think so much about this and that, just go with the flow. Just make sure that you will be happy, what ever it takes. For me vacations is lesson of learning to be more positive in yourselves and one of the most valuable medicine to cure my sickness of damn stupid things that may be just happened recently. Instead, it's an appreciation to your body and soul from daily routine that stick with you from time to time. Remember focus on the positive aspects and don't forget to look at the unique side.

Don't worry about the budget, it did not matter as long as we focus on positive aspects of the vacation, especially for your health. I'm taking this information from www.vision.net) that researchers have demonstrated that vacation was highly recommended by doctors as having an influence on health improvement, those are:

Living longer

A study of 749 women aged 45-64 years in America shows both housewives and working women who take vacations have increased significantly in the decline in heart attacks. The housewife who took a vacation once every six years or less had almost twice the risk of heart attack compared to a vacation of two or more per year.

Keeping brain cells 

James Sands of the South Coast of the Institute for Applied Gerontology studied 112 women aged 65-92 and found there is a relationship between the routines of life that many of the decline in intellectual function. Although there is a positive relationship between the holidays with intellectual function.

Increase life satisfaction

Linda Hoopes and John Lounsbury, Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee researchers surveyed 128 employees before and after the vacation. They found there is an increase in life satisfaction after the holidays/vacations.

Reduces tension 

External stress and life events both in the workplace or home can make a person feel happy or stressed. Symptoms include feeling tired, do not have the drive, not interested in doing something, not enthusiastic, and even fear. Researchers from the Department of Psychology, University of Tel Aviv. Mina Westman and Eden Dove found in 76 depressed employees decreased significantly during the holidays.

Improve family life 

Reported in An experiment in leisure (Science Journal, 1968), WJ Kaiser analyzes the responses of 390 employees of the steel mills that make a holiday for 13 weeks. He found the holiday turned out to provide benefits to family life. The workers reportedly more interested in and share activities with your spouse and their children.

I think that five above are very sophisticated, you can get happiness and health at the same time, even if you can see in other view, you can get more advantages. There is something that contains elements of treatment out of the daily routine and enjoy a different environment. Every holiday has a unique advantage. Even for some one-week vacation package that is set to have a durable advantage. Sometimes a journey is an exploration of the struggle and the people change the way they view themselves and their difficult circumstances at home. So what are you waiting for? Pack and get going! :)

Rock your vacation guys!