Day 5-10: Small Town of Bajawa

Bajawa Town with its Inerie Volcano background.

Bajawa Town with its Inerie Volcano background.

I finally arrived in Bajawa, the capital of Ngada Regency. The travel driver from Ruteng dropped me in one of the cheapest hotel in town. Bajawa, such a small and relaxing town in Flores, East Nusa Tenggara. Almost everything is within walking distance. If you don’t want to walk, you can hire an ojek for Rp 2000,- for every ride within the town. Although it gets quite cold during the night,  it’s hot during daytime. Bajawa seems to be just the perfect place to spend a few days and unwind, and indeed most travellers end up staying much longer than they originally inteded. However, the real jewels of the Ngada regency lie just outside of town. My personal highlights are the traditional villages scattered around the countryside (with Bena as the most famous representative), the Inerie volcano and the hotsprings Malanage and Soa.

Town market in Bajawa. Most of the goods are products from the local farms.

Town market in Bajawa. Most of the goods are products from the local farms.

I spent one day for exploring the town, doing some computer stuff, and gathering more information about the places of interest in and around Bajawa. I stayed in Hotel Kambera in Jalan El Tari, which is not in the tourist area. The tourist area is located in southern part of Bajawa, in Jalan A Yani. There are some hostels, a tourist information and a number of restaurants. Most of the tourists stay in that area. I was actually quite happy with this. Not only because it’s cheaper in Kambera, but it’s also easier to avoid all the guides roaming the tourist area, trying to sell (often overpriced) tours to the famous sights.

The center of this city is a town market with mostly are grocery stores. There are also street markets, where people sell their farm products. Most of the sellers in street market are old women with reddish teeth and lips which is typical for Betel nut addicts. It’s so funny, since people there always say that Betel nut makes  their teeth become stronger. But from what I saw, it looks like the red saliva covering their teeth only accelerates the decay.

Post office in Bajawa

Post office in Bajawa

In the east side of the town, there is a post office. I went there to post some post cards. There are also banks and ATMs, scattered around the town.

A hundred meter from the town market, there is a bus terminal, which also a fish market. If you want to go to another town by bus, you can directly go to this bus terminal by walking from anywhere within the town. Remember, all the public facilities are within walking distance. You can also book from your hostel and asked to be picked by the bus. But be careful, sometimes you need to pay more. On my last day in Bajawa, I booked two seats to Riung from a guy in my hostel. I gave him Rp 100.000,- for two seats, because he said that’s the price. Then he booked me those seats from the bus agent. In Flores, the bus usually pick up almost all passengers from their house and deliver them to their exact destination points. Therefore, after being picked up, the bus driver still picked up other passengers within the town. When we stopped at the bust terminal, I felt something was wrong with the bus ticket price. Then I asked some other passengers how much they pay to go to Riung. And they said it is Rp 20.000,- each. I got so pissed off. I ran to the bus driver and asked about it. And he said if I bought from the bus agent the price is Rp 30.000,- because it includes the insurance. But I still paid Rp 20.000,- more! I went right away back to my hostel by ojek.  There I confronted the guy who sold me the tickets with this situation. He said it’s more expensive because I need to tip him, which he never mentioned before. I asked for my money back. So he rode me to the bus agent to get my money back. Luckily I could get all of my money back. Huff… why people always try to rip you off when they see that you are a tourist. Not all travelers are rich tourist!

Anyhow, Bajawa is still a nice town to visit. I can always find people really want to help me, not always sincerely though. Some of them asked for my phone number in the end. But it’s ok.

The route from Ruteng to Kambera Hotel in Bajawa.

The route from Ruteng to Kambera Hotel in Bajawa.

-edited by Ment0w-

Practical information:

Hotel Kambera Rp 60.000,- bathroom inside, breakfast fried banana and tea, cleanness is slightly below average.

Warung Lumayan Gado-gado Rp 8000,-

Dito’s Restaurant Bali sauce chicken and avocado juice Rp 55.000,-

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Day 2-4: Circular Shape of Manggarai

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Cone-shaped of Wae Rebo houses.

After I stayed one night in Labuan Bajo, I continued my journey eastwards. My next two stops were Wae Rebo then Ruteng.

Way to Denge

I left Labuan Bajo with Benny, my guide, by a motorcycle at 7 am. Wae Rebo is located 60 km (straight distance) southeast of Labuan Bajo. To go there from Labuan Bajo, take the Trans Flores highway, the road conditions are generally good and well maintained with a few potholes. There are many blindbends along the route. We passed a hilly road until we were near Lembor.  There the scenery changes to vast flat rice field terrain. Lembor is a district in West Manggarai and the biggest rice supplier for East Nusa Tenggara. We made a stop there to buy meal for our lunch. Once we left Lembor, we went through a hilly road again.

After Waenakeng, we turned right to a village called Enteer. This is a local road. The conditions are not too bad, although there were more potholes now. The width is only enough for one car, but it’s not a problem since there are not many vehicles that pass through this road. Follow this road until Pela then turn right in the junction (the left turn will take you back to Trans Flores highway). We followed this road until we reach the southern coast. The road was getting worse. But for me, it is still not that bad. Some parts are not paved yet. From 1 to 10 scale i give 7 for this road, with Trans Flores highway is a nine.

On the way to Denge we can see Mules Island.

On the way to Denge we can see Mules Island.

Once we arrived on the coast road, we drove westwards to reach Dintor. From here you can see Mules Island. This island is very magnificent with a 200 m (my rough estimation) cliff soared from the island’s hilly terrain. We had lunch at a beach, somewhere before Dintor. The beach here is not a sandy beach. The beach filled by pebble-couble stone, a kind which originated from volcanic stone. Arrived in Dintor, we turned right going north to go to Denge (there is direction board). From here we saw a misty mountain, Benny said Wae Rebo is located up in that mountain, whose peak couldn’t see due to the mist that covered it. The scenery on the way to Denge is very beautiful, with Mules Island in the south, misty mountain in the north and large golden rice fields surrounding you.

Denge is the starting point to hike to Wae Rebo traditional village. There is a homestay that is also an information center in Denge, managed by Pak Blaisius, who is also a teacher in the nearby elementary school. When we arrived in Denge, it was already 03.15 pm. Pak Blaisius said it usually takes 3 hours hike to go to Wae Rebo village for local people. I was a bit worried that if I cannot make it in 3 hours, means I have to walk through the forest in the dark. Actually I don’t mind that, but the problem is neither me or Benny brought a flashlight. With a dense forest and canopy along the path, it would be very dark inside the jungle. But Benny convinced me it will be ok. Then after I left some of my stuffs in the homestay (I only brought water, jacket, sleeping bag and first-aid kit within my bag), we left Denge at 03.30 pm.

Hiking to Wae Rebo

The first part of the path to Wae Rebo is an unpaved local road. It is 3-4 m width, it seems that the local government plan to build car access until the first rest point at Wae Lomba river. It took me less than an hour to reach Wae Lomba, since it’s been a while didn’t do many outdoor activities, it was quite a hike up for me.

It was foggy when we hiked up to Wae Rebo.

It was foggy when we hiked up to Wae Rebo.

Next we entered the jungle, a dense tropical forest. It is a narrow path inside the jungle with one side edged by valley and a bit slippery. We had to walk uphill, but it wasn.t very steep. It was foggy when i hiked, so I could not see the far view. Especially when we arrived in Pocoroko, the second rest point. Benny said, usually people can see the ocean from there, but we could only see white fog. Pocoroko also known for village people to look for mobile signal, since there is no signal in the area.

After the last resting point in Nampe Bakok, the path went downhill. Just before Wae Rebo village we entered a coffee plantation. Some of the coffee beans were already turning red. Then behind the mist and after three hours hiking (yes, I made it in 3 hours!), I finally saw the cone-shaped houses of Wae Rebo.

Ameh was talking to the ancestors in Nyiang Kendang.

It was already dark when I arrived there. All the people were already inside their houses. Benny knocked at one of the house door. It’s apparently the main house, called Nyiang Kendang. They were quite surprise that there were visitors that arrived in the night. But then they welcomed me into the house and we us to introduced each other. Before I could start any activity in Wae Rebo, I needed to pass a permit ceremony first. The village head, Ameh, talked to their ancestors spirits, in Manggarai language, to let us (me and Benny as the visitors) alone during our visit, because we are his and village people guests.

The circular, cone-shaped buildings were built in a traditional way. The massive roof, made of ijuk (palm fiber), is supported by a central wooden pole. This wooden pole usually made from Worong wood, according to Ameh. Ameh said, the circular shape is very important for Wae Rebo people, not only for their houses but also for their farms. He said it is easier in heritage division. Nyiang Kendang is a house for eight families. There are eight rooms in this house, one room for every family. Other houses, called Nyiang Gane, only has six rooms. In front of every room they hang chicken feather as ancestors guardian. The kitchen is located in the center. They still use fire woods for cooking and using stones as the stove. They have small windows around the house as ventilation.

After small talks, Ameh brought us to one of Nyiang Gane. There is one house built specially for visitors, since there are more and more people who visit Wae Rebo village. Unlike other houses, the house where we were going to sleep at has no room. There is only one large room without border. There is also no kitchen in the center. They built the kitchen in the back of the house. There is also typical Indonesian toilets beside the kitchen. Mama Nina and Yustin cooked a dinner for. We had dinner with Ameh, mama Nina, Yustin and Bapak Huber. They cooked us cassava leaves and green pumpkins soup. It was very nice, also the rice. To be honest sometimes, food cooked by firewood are not as good as cooked by gas stove, because you still can taste the firewood burnt, especially if you drink water boiled with firewood. But I think, this time all tasted perfect for me.

We slept on a tikar, a woven mat made from pandan leaves. The also have pillow made from tikar and filled by kapok. At that night, me and Benny were the only visitors.

Bapak Huber, Ameh, Mama Nina and Yustin told me many things about people in Wae Rebo. These are some facts about Wae Rebo:

  • Their new year named Penti, indicates the beginning of planting period.
  • The average married age of Wae Rebo people is 25 years old.
  • People in Manggarai started to plant rice in 1938, and people in Wae Rebo started eat rice in 1957.
  • They sell their coffee in Dintor market for 30 thousands rupiah per kilogram.
  • Although they have Luwak coffee, they do not sell them.

Coffee beans being dried.

The next day we left Wae Rebo at 09.30 am and arrived at 12.00 pm in Denge. We left Denge at 01.00 pm and arrived in Ruteng at 06.30 pm. I said goodbye to Benny in Ruteng.

Ruteng

New day in Ruteng, I started my day at 9.30 am. I planed to go to Cancar and Liang Bua today. Cancar is the place where you can see the spider web rice fields and Liang Bua is excavation site of Homo florensis.

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Spider web rice field in Cancar.

I went to Cancar by bemo (car used for public transport  in Flores). I went to Ruko to take a bemo to Cancar. I arrived in Cancar market after an hour. You can ask people where is the look out point for spider web rice field. It is only 300 m from the market. I walked to the look out point and went straight up. There is stair path way to the look out point. It was only 10 minutes walking up. It was very nice view. The only circular rice field in the world. Too bad I didn’t find anyone to ask about the meaning of this shape, or why they built the rice field like this.

After I finished taking pictures, I went back to Cancar market and took bemo to Ruteng. Initially I wanted to stop between Cancar and Ruteng. Because I saw direction board to Liang Bua between Cancar and Ruteng. But people in bemo told me better to go back to Ruteng and to find an ojek or bemo from there. Since I was in a hurry (I had booked a travel car to Bajawa at 15.00), I decided to take ojek. Then everybody in bemo tried to help me to find the ojek.

I took an ojek from Ruko. Then the road to Liang Bua led to a local road, I rated 7 for this road. It took 45 minutes to go to Liang Bua. There is an information center in Liang Bua. A guy from information center welcomed me then brought me to the cave. The 50 m width cave is fenced, so you need key to open the gate.

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Replica of Homo florensis bones.

There was only one active excavation hole when I was there. The cave has 50 m width, 20 m height and 30 m depth. There are many stalactites on the cave roof and some tree roots penetrate the cave roof. In the information center you can find many information about the archeology activity in Liang Bua and about Homo florensis. Discovered on 2003, Homo florensis has height less than 1.5 m. Their fossils found at Holocene horizon at 595 cm depth.

To Bajawa

Back to hotel, I was waiting for half hour until the travel arrived. It arrived  at 3.30 pm, 30 minutes late, but it was ok.

The road to Bajawa has a beautiful scenery. It passed through mountainous hill with rice fields between the valley. Too bad It was getting dark after 2 hours. I arrived in Bajawa at 9.30 pm.

Labuan Bajo-Wae Rebo-Ruteng Route

Labuan Bajo-Wae Rebo-Ruteng Route

-edited by ment0w-

Where to Stay

  • Che Felix Hotel in Labuan Bajor for Rp 150,000/night include breakfast.
  • Hotel Ranaka in Ruteng for RP 150,000/night exclude breakfast.
  • Denge Homestay for Rp 200,000/night full board.
  • Wae Rebo for Rp 275,000/day full board.

Transport

  • Ruteng-Cancar by bemo for Rp 5,000 one way.
  • Ojek Ruteng-Liang Bua for Rp 30,000 return.
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Day 1 Flores Trip: Plan change

Plan changes. That’s part of travelling as an independent traveller.

I arrived in Labuan Bajo airport, Flores at 9.35 am. Just like I mentioned in my earlier post, that I might get a ride to Ruteng, I finally met the guy who gave me the offerto go to Ruteng. He picked me up at Labuan Bajo airport. His name is Dino, he is a tour guide. He said, he is on his way back to Maumere, so I can go with him until Ruteng. But he said, that he doesn’t have enough fuel to leave today, as the next place to get the fuel is in Bajawa. Dino said that he needs to wait until this afternoon for the new fuel supply from Reo. And because all the public transportation have been departed since this morning, my only choice is to wait until tomorrow.

Me and Dino were having a discussion about what I could do for my trip here in Flores, how to get there, the cost and some recommendation for the local guides. Dino is a professional guide from Maumere, he has been a guide for several years in Flores. He knows much about Flores and he is happy to tell you everything.

He suggest me to take a guide from Labuan Bajo and go to Wae Rebo village by motorcycle, stay one night there, then go directly to Ruteng the next day. He said it is probably cheaper. And ya, I said why not, since the route to Wae Rebo is the same from Ruteng and Labuan Bajo. Let see tomorrow 🙂

So, doing this kind of trip in a place like Flores, you need to be flexible. And being an independent traveler makes it easier to be more flexible, since you don’t need to stick to the itinerary set by your travel agent.

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Anyone ever slept at an airport?

In front of Quiet Room in Doha Airport.

Have you ever spent an entire night in an airport? Me have done this a couple of times, Manila, Singapore and Doha. Among those airports, only Doha airport has a special room for sleeping, which is called ‘Quiet Room’. It doesn’t mean they have beds there, but it is air conditioned so you can get some sleep. What serves as beds are some sort of beach deck chairs, at least that’s how they look like for me. They are comfortable enough for me, since the surface is soft. The room has no light, the only light comes from outside the room because this room has glass doors. And as its name, the Quiet Room is also quite quiet, unless someone opens its door and doesn’t close it again. I found this Quiet Room only after my 3rd transit in Doha. Maybe because its location is in the less crowded area and more in the corner, not many people know about it. If you arrive in transit terminal in Doha, just after the security check, take the escalator to go one level up then turn left (you probably will automatically turn right, as I did in my first 2 arrivals in Doha airport). You will find the room on your left side, next to a mushola (praying room for muslims).

Changi airport, despite its title as the best airport in the world, doesn’t have special room for sleeping (as far as I know, so correct me if I’m wrong). At least I didn’t find any special room for sleeping outside the check in area. But even though there is no special room for sleeping, Changi airport is quite comfort for you to sleep. For me the best area for sleeping is in Terminal 2, since there are less people passing by during the night compared to Terminal 1, and also because its floor is covered by carpet, so it doesn’t feel very cold.

Manila airport is very big, and there are many people sleeping at the airport. They are scattered around sleeping everywhere, but mostly near a power outlet.

This time i have just spent my night eat Ngurah Rai airport in Bali. Unlike the other three airports, Ngurah Rai is not a transit airport, so there are not many people who sleep at the airport. I didn’t see anyone sleeping on the floor here. People tend to spend their time in 24 hours restaurants or caffè if they need to spend the nite at the airport. Me, I spent my night in Starbucks, although i didn’t sleep. There are not many 24hr restaurants or coffee shops in Ngurah Rai. Beside Starbucks, I only saw 2 fast food restaurants open at 3 am. Compared to those two restaurants, I prefer Starbucks to spend my night in. The chairs are more comfortable, they have power outlet near their chairs, and the lighting is not too bright.
So, how about your experiences with staying overnight in airports? Which airport do you consider as the best for spending the night at? If you think of yourself as a true backpacker, you must have done this at least once in your life. Share your experiences with me and my blog followers! (even if you’re not a backpacker, just share me your experiences, i want more people to read my blog :p )

Thank you for sharing and wish you a very nice day! :)

 -Wrote by Argapadmi and edited by  Ment0w-

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Runaway Plan to Flores

This writing is about my plan to travel to Flores and the reason I do this trip.

For some people, being out of work from office and doing nothing at home make them go crazy. It is not that there is nothing to do at home. Maybe at the beginning of their unemployment period, they were still excited doing household activities, also probably some studying. But as time goes by, jobless people could get so damn bored and not excited anymore doing their daily home activities.  They probably go out with their friends once in a while, but of course that’s not enough to occupy their mind. It is an uneasy situation for them. Someone in this situation could become offended by somethings and comments easily. They might reply someone’s comment a bit harsh, which is unnecessary at all. These situations would lead them to feel guilty about it and angry with themselves.  They need to do something that can make them feel good about their shelve and do more positive attitude. Travelling could be a very good idea. It will make these people keep moving everyday and meet new things along the road. Hopefully it will refresh their mind and give them more positive things going on their mind.

My estimated route for this trip.

My estimated route for this trip.

Ok, enough talking about other people, seems that I am one of those unemployed people at the moment :p My only regular outside home activity is teaching math for junior high school students. So now, I am planning to do travelling after i lodge my visa application for studying abroad. I plan to go to Flores. This time i will go further to the east, since last time i only went to Labuan Bajo. I will fly to Labuanbajo from Denpasar. I have booked a flight to Denpasar for 1 May and i will arrive around midnite. I will book Transnusa for my morning flight to Labuanbajo. I plan to sleep in Ngurah Rai airport. My rough itinerary will be RutengBajawa-Riung-Bajawa-Ende-Maumere. Yaps i will skip Labuanbajo and Komodo, since i have been there. Actually it is still worthed to visit there again, but it is too special for me to visit there alone 🙂 I probably will get a free ride to Ruteng. A guide just offered me a ride there. His route is actually to go to Maumere, but he said i can go with him until Ruteng, that’s very nice 🙂 hopefully i will meet many nice people along my trip. So… wish me luck!!!!

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one day in Jayapura

So…it’s Jayapura. It is capital of Papua Province. If you asking me what you can do in Jayapura for one day. Here is my answer. You can cross the border to Papua New Guinea from Jayapura. So..i made this happen to me, crossing Indonesia-PNG border on August 2011. Although that  wouldn’t get my passport be stamped, but i think it’s cool too :p  For crossing the border from Jayapura, you should go all the way eastward to Skouw. This trip took about 2 hours from Sentani. We passed  through the hilly road with so many crooks, there was sea side view sometimes. I also crossed the flat area with rice field, just like in Jawa. Seems that Javanese people live there.

PNG-Indonesia border gate.

PNG-Indonesia border gate.

Before entering the border area, we must report to military post first. Actually both PNG and Indonesian are freely crossing this border, but only for one day trip. Usually people from both side will go to other side market for buying their daily needs. Maybe because we look like tourist group, so we have to report and left one’s id before we entered the border. We have to report again at Indonesian Custom office, but it looked like only for saying hi. Then we parked the car in Indonesia side, i could see the light house from here. Apparently this border is located near a cliff of sea-side. But i couldn’t see the sea directly, there are a lot of trees along the edge.

So, there are two gates at the border, the Indonesia gate and PNG gate. Between those gates is the neutral zone. Passing the PNG custom, we could not bring the SLR camera to PNG. Only pocket digicam or hand phone are allowed. I don’t know why, maybe they are afraid that we will do the espionage activity, haha…lol. And after that…here I’m in Papua New Guinea! This border is located at Wutung village in PNG. Generally the situation is similar with Skouw, but the market here is smaller than Skouw. They sell canned food, PNG souvenir such as hat, small flag, and t-shirts. There are also some food stalls, I tasted one of the food. The seller is a woman with her two sons. She sells fried lamb and fried banana. I tasted both the lamb and banana. Actually I did it, not because it looked delicious, more because I was curious. It tasted “different”, especially the lamb, I think it was cooked less well. You still can taste a bit of the unwell-done meat of lamb. She gave me the salt to be added. Yeah..it tasted better than before, you just have to make sure that the salt covered the unwell-done meat taste. I don’t know how to describe the banana. It is only the simple fried pealed banana. I think I could feel a bit of the unwell-done meat of lamb in the fried banana. This woman btw and I think also other sellers in that PNG side market, they know several Indonesian words. Usually the words that can be use for transaction, such as numbers, greet, say thanks, delicious, 5W1H words. And the English skill is quite good, at least for the transaction activity. One funny think i found here was, i saw the poster of Lukas Enembe, an Indonesian politician from one of Indonesian party from Papua electoral area. Hm… is that allowed?

PNG people in Skouw market

After more of photographed session, we went back to our car in Indonesia, and continued to went back to market in Skouw. The market in Skouw is bigger and there are more people shopping there. I think more PNG people go to this market and shop here than the other way around. But there is one minus thing that I don’t like in Skouw, this market is dirtier than the one in Wutung. The variety of the selling goods is more here, they sell basic needs such as clothes, movie dvd’s (the piracy version), household goods, vegetables, and of course the most favorite thing in Papua that is pinangPinang is the most favorite fruit in Papua, I think. You chew this pinang with kapur (chalk), then you seep it until it becomes red, and maybe until the taste is gone after that you have to throw the pinang, spit it out from your mouth. The pinang spit has red color, so no wonder there are lot of red stains everywhere in most public area in Papua. But there are some places that put on a warning board written the prohibition to spit pinang in public area.

Base-G beach.

Then we drove back to Jayapura, through the different route this time. I didn’t really notice how was the route, because I got a pretty bad stomach ache because of my period. So I fell asleep. But one thing I notice was I think we drove near the beach. And then we stopped at Base G beach in Jayapura (forget the name), quite nice beach, I tend to say that it is not a very clean beach, but ya…not a dirty one too, quite well, not a disappointing beach. We paid I think 10 thousand per car for entering the beach. There are benches in the beach, that you can sit on, but you have to pay for that. It is a creamy white sand beach, it’s too bad that we can not see the sunset from here. The sun set almost behind the beach. And the hill blocked our sunset. I walked around the beach side, watching some kids play around in the water. Most of them are really excited to be photographed, and they did pose for me.

Where to eat : We had dinner in Blue Cafe. It is a quite nice restaurant, located at the sea-side of a gulf. People here call this area as Ruko, near Swiss Bell Hotel. You can see city light of Jayapura from here, even they have live music here. They sell vary of grilled fish, but also another sea food such as crab and their friends :p they offer 4 kinds of sauce for the food. First is the usual Indonesian red chili sauce, then dabudabu, yellow sauce (made from ginger), and sweet soya chili sauce. The food here definitely way much better than the one we had for lunch. I like the dinner!

Where to stay: Rasen Hotel. Quite nice hotel, clean, they have ac, tv, hot water. I stayed at a twin bed room at Rp 290000 per night for my room. And only 5 minutes drive from Sentani airport.

 Travel date: August 2011

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my first Bali and Diving

The first time I went to Bali was at 2011, and yes I was already 24 years old that time. Hmmm… it’s normal if you don’t live in Indonesia, but as an Indonesian… Most of my friends had been to Bali when they were in high school. But not me, I preferred to climb volcanoes around Jawa at that time. But maybe also because I didn’t have enough money at that time :p But ya, I went to Bali for a holiday finally and took PADI open water diving course in MolaMola Dive Center, Nusa Dua with a friend from my company, Rere.  Rere flew from Timika on Saturday January 22 with Airfast. She spent a night by herself in Bali, because I took off from Jakarta to Denpasar the next morning with Merpati Airlines. We stayed at a nice-clean hotel at Poppies Lane 1 in Kuta. This time I wrote about my journal during my trips in Bali. 

Day 1

From upper left clockwise are Lilo, Balangan and Geger beach.

1st day Sunday January 23 – First day just arrived and we’re ready for beaches. We’re getting around by car, drove by Rere’s friend plus Rere’s friend’s friend. Totally we visited 3 beaches; Lilo, Geger, and Balangan beach. All of those beaches are on Uluwatu direction. We didn’t do much activity there, only sight seeing and play around the beach. I wasn’t in the mood for swim, because I just arrived this morning. But swimming around is one of the activities you can do in those beaches, don’t expect to do snorkeling here. The current is fitter for surfing.

Rere in front of a restaurant in Seminyak (left) and Bomb Bali Tragedy Monument in Legian (right).

Rere in front of a restaurant in Seminyak (left) and Bomb Bali Tragedy Monument in Legian (right).

2nd day Monday January 24 – Second day in Bali and first day for my diving certification class. We walked around in Legian before we went to Nusa Dua for our diving class. The first day we only studied in a class room. We went back to hotel in the afternoon. Then again we’re walking around in Legian, before we decided to rent a motorbike. According to Rere, I drove the motorbike a bit dangerous :p Then we ended up in a restaurant in Seminyak.

Balangan beach (left and bottom), me in pool class (upper center) and kids in Nusa Dua beach (upper right).

Balangan beach (left and bottom), me in pool class (upper center) and kids in Nusa Dua beach (upper right).

3rd day Tuesday January 25 – The second day diving class, it took place in a pool. We’re practicing what we learnt from the theory yesterday. After class, we rented a car from one of master dive at our dive center,  he also drove us around. We decided to come back to Balangan and did some more photo sessions :p

Nusa Dua dive site (upper center).

Nusa Dua dive site (upper center).

 

4th Wednesday January 26 – The third day of diving class, and finally we’re going to the sea. We’re going to Nusa Dua for our diving practice, for real now. It’s located about 2 km away from Nusa Dua coast, it took less than 15 minutes by boat. It was my very first experience diving in the sea. One word ‘AMAZE’.

Tulamben dive site.

Tulamben dive site.

5th day Thursday January 27 – The fourth day and last day of our diving certification class. The MolaMola guys  picked us at our hotel, and took us straight Tulamben. It’s about more less one hour driving from Kuta to Tulamben. Tulamben diving spot is a wreck ship from World War II. The last day, and finally we can fill our diving log book. No diving tomorrow, so it’s time for late night sleep.

Day 6

 

6th day Friday January 28 – First day of no diving-related activity day. We rented a car plus driver to explore more beaches and see more of Bali cultures. Spent the morning till noon in Dreamland beach, lunch at Jimbaran beach, and see more Bali culture in Ubud. What a complete day 😀

Day 7

7th day Saturday January 29 – Yups last day, we’re only walking around Kuta and Legian. Visit to one shop to another. I tried a short surfing lesson in Kuta, which ended with an accident.

Rere flew to Jakarta at 7 pm, and I flew to Timika at 1 am.

So, that was my 7 days holiday in Bali early of 2011. Lot of new stuffs I found here. Definitely I’ll go back here, to do other new cool stuff i didn’t do last time. Gunung Agung, bungee jumping, and Menjangan are still waiting for me 🙂

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Kerinci Highest Volcano of Indonesia

I did this trip back in 2006 with my college friend Taufan Wiguna. We did a week-trip. We flew to Padang, then took mini bus to Kerinci, climbed Kerinci, hiked to Gunungtujuh Lake, sightseeing in town of Sungai Penuh (capital of Kerinci Regency), took mini bus to Jambi, then took bus all the way untill Bandung. Gunung Kerinci (Gunung means mount in Bahasa Indonesia) is the highest volcano in Indonesia, but not the highest mountain, located in Sumatera island. This post is about my story climbing Kerinci.

Mount Kerinci from the plantation.

Mount Kerinci from the plantation.

Here we go.. After all the discussion a night before with Bang Andi (our guide), we decided to go early morning at 07.00 am by ojek (Indonesia motorcycle taxi) until park’s gate. We crossed a large tea plantation (was belong to Dutch colonial) to reach the park’s gate. We found no office for the national park at the gate, but there was an abandoned building. Maybe it was the office. So my conclusion is, you do not need any special permit to climb Kerinci.

The typical of wet tropical rain forest was welcoming us, right after we entered the gate. Seriously it was wet, although it wasn’t raining. Whatever you touch, it was moist and wet. But they have much of flowers here, especially orchid. Very beautiful and i love to see them, although I don’t know any of this orchid types. But although there are quite dense canopy and big trees, I still got cell phone signal even after almost 1 km I walked into the forest. My mom called me.

We only met 2 Spanish tourist with their guides and porters climbed down to Kersiktuo (the village at the foothill of Kerinci), when we climbed up. We arrived at base camp around 02.00 pm. This base camp is located at 3100 m above the sea level. The base camp is quite flat with space enough for about 3 tents. There was no water source along our path to this base camp.  Our guide said the only water source is about before the summit.

Taufan near the summit

Taufan near the summit

We started for summit climbing at 03.00 am. It was steeper today, compare to our climbing yesterday. After leaving the vegetated zone, it was only gravelly rocks there. They are volcanic deposit, product of Kerinci’s eruptions. It’s getting more sandy near the summit. But the sand here is coarser compare to Semeru.

The sunrise came before we reach the summit, too bad. But it’s okay. It was amazing and beautiful though. We saw the orange horizon was starting to open the eye of day (sun in bahasa is matahari, it means “eye of the day”).

Kerinci summit.

Kerinci summit.

We reached the summit at about 06.00 am. I had no words to say. It was so beautiful. I was the highest person in Sumatra at that time. The sky was clear, I could see Gunung Tujuh with its seven peaks. But its crater lake was covered by clouds. Kerinci crater is quite small, maybe it’s just about one-third of Gunung Gede crater. But the pyroclastic layers is quite obvious.

Gunung Tujuh view from Kerinci. The lake was covered by clouds.

Gunung Tujuh view from Kerinci. The lake was covered by clouds.

We spend about one hour at the summit. It would be more danger around the summit if we spent more time there. Because poisonous gas would be spread from the crater.

6386d-001f3Band Andi took water near the vegetation boundary. Taufan and me didn’t follow him, we were waiting for him. So we didn’t know exactly where the water source is. After we arrived at the base camp, we were only there for having early lunch, then went right away to Kersiktuo.

We met one whole family from France were climbing, when we climbed down. So, the Spanish guys and France family were the only tourist we met during our climbing. No other tourist.  I think it was a nice thing. Because I only found the pure nature sound and atmosphere here, without polluted by people crowd. 🙂

I took more flower pictures today, mostly orchid. They are colorful with very unique patterns. I really wanted to bring them home. 🙂

We arrived at park’s gate afternoon. And ojek took us from there to Bu Paiman house, through  tea plantation covered by the golden array of evening sky.

Our guide

Our guide

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First Blog!!!

Hello World! Welcome to my blog. As I write my first post, I announce that I launch my newest blog https://argapadmi.wordpress.com. My next three blogs will be about my  scattered previous trips, they are actually transferred from my old blog. Since I will travel to Flores, Indonesia soon, so my blog will be filled by my travel journal then. I will manage my blog again after I finish my trip. So, for the first 3 weeks you will find my blog very simple, since I still learn how to manage it anyway.

So, happy reading everyone!!!

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