Spectacular Fjord Cruising from Flam, Norway

After a few hours riding bus we arrived in a beautiful fjord village of Flam is located in the inner part of the magic Sognefjord - the scenic Aurlandsfjord branch. We directly had a traditional lunch in a beautiful Flåmstova Restaurant with Norwegian style of stone, glass and driftwood. It's a pity that the service quality was not good enough because of the female waitress attitude. She was quite fierce and unfriendly not serving as "first in first serve", contrary to the beautiful village scenery and environment. Actually the food was delicious especially for the appetizer (seafood salad) and the dessert (mix fruit ice cream), but we had to rush to catch the fjord cruise as we were late to cross the sea from Bruravik.

We took the "must-see" unique and spectacular Norwegian fjord from Flam to Gudvangen. It's quite a big boat called Fanaraaken (Fjord 1) with capacity 190/384, people could enjoy the seat indoor or outdoor. Lucky it stopped raining when we embarked to the boat. People were queueing and rushing to go inside the boat. As we bought a group ticket, there was only one ticket, so we had to wait for the completion member of the group till we were at last to embark although we had queued on the front row.

After taking the stairs, we saw the indoor seat was full already, so we went outside taking the stacking plastic chairs to seat on the deck. There was a small cafe bar inside the warm cabin that sold beverage and snack then passengers could sit on the soft couch while enjoy scenery through the windows. We prefered to sit outdoor to get better pictures. It's very cold and windy, all the plastic chairs were wet caused of the rain. My mom felt very cold although she had worn gloves, scarf and hat, anyway we could take some pictures of her with beautiful background of Flam town also the fjord.

The boat started sailing, some beautiful seagulls always followed the boat. They twittered and often changed the leading formation while flying. Some passengers fed the birds on their bare hands. The boat went from Flåm to Gudvangen, it sailed around precipitous snow covered mountains, mighty waterfalls and small homesteads that cling to the mountain sides. Along the way we could see Aurland, the centre of the municipality with the stone church from the 1200's. We also passed by the village of Undredal, which hosts one of the world's smallest churches.

As the wind blew very hard on the deck, my mom decided to go inside. You still could enjoy the scenery from a glasshouse on the deck next to the cabin. When you sat inside, you also could hear the explanation from the boat's guide about the scenery while you could not hear it from the deck outside. Soon we reached the Naeroyfjord, a minor fjord branching off from the Sognefjord, which is the world's narrowest fjord at only 250 metres at its narrowest point. The Naeroyfjord was also added to UNESCO's World Heritage List in 2005. From here we could view the majestic Sognefjord, the longest and deepest fjord in the world. The fjord is framed by mountaintops of up to 1800 metres. In the early summer the waterfalls roar over the mountain sides and breaks in a white foam when the water hits the fjord, unfortunately it's still frozen when we were there.

After my mom went inside the glasshouse, my sister and I went upstairs to the roof top of the boat. The scenery was more clear here as there was no wall blocked it. We took some pictures there then we decided to join our mom in the glasshouse to warm ourselves because it become colder. Anyway when there was a good scenery, my sister and I would go outside to take the pictures for a while then returned to the seat inside. It took around 2 hours for the sailing till we arrived at Gudvangen.

At Gudvangen drizzle rain welcome us, we rushed to go inside a unique souvenirs shop with the roof made of dry leaf like grass. The shops located just next to the restaurant with glasses windows and roof to enjoy the fjord scenery. Many beautiful coats, jackets and hats made from animal fur such as rabbit, mink, squirrel, etc, they were very expensive so I only could enjoy by caresses them. The shop was kind enough to give us a box of Nordic Light Krill & Fish Oil as a sample. A new Norwegian omega-3 supplement that delivers the full range of health benefits from wild harvested krill and fish oil. Omega-3 is recommended for brain, heart, joints, skin, etc.

The bus already picked us up, we went directly to the classic Fretheim hotel where we stayed for a night before the next destination. The room was quite large, there was a wooden bed level at the corner while the twin beds next to each other were in the middle of the room, it could be occupied by 4 persons. We had dinner in the hotel with pork steak as the main course. I love the peacefull and fresh air of Flam village. The beautiful Flam valley with the Flam river & tiny farm houses, surrounded by spectacular mountain peaks, is an excellent area for hiking & biking trips.

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Wonderful Granite Boulders Beach in Belitung

I took one day leave on the 7th Jun so I could spend a long weekend with my sisters and mother to Belitung that I've dreamt to visit. Frankly speaking it's because of "Laskar Pelangi" movie that I've seen which shows the beautiful beach in that island, on the East coast of Sumatra. I spent 4D3N in the island, I didn't join any tour, just rented a car from internet with the driver to bring us around the island

The car rental (Avanza) cost IDR 250.000,-/day while the driver cost IDR 100.000/day. It's a brand new car that picked us up at H. AS. Hanandjoeddin airport, Tanjung Pandan. We had to wait quite a long time for the baggage, the aiport was quite small and hot, only 2 baggage belt available. I decided to meet the driver outside the airport to arrange the trip while my sisters were waiting for the baggages. Lucky we had a kind, polite and smart driver, we had finished the plan when my sisters got the baggage.

On the 1st day we would visit the closest beach to our hotel which is the most popular beach for tourism and used in the movie. The second day would rent a boat to go for island hop at least to 4 islands depend on the weather. The last day would go to East Belitung which would take 1.5 - 2 hours drive from our hotel, where "Laskar Pelangi" school was, and the home of the current famous vice major of Jakarta, Ahok, came from.

I would share with you my second day trip story, it's very satisfying. Our driver wouldn't mind accompanying us. The boat cost IDR 400.000,-/day with 2 boatman. We could bring the food by ourselves, or ask them to provide for us. My driver had suggested us to order meal box before the day, and he had brought it when he picked us in the hotel at 07:30 in the morning. We also bought a cartoon of water in the bottle as it would be difficult or more expensive in those visited islands.

The sun shone very bright when we sailed from Tanjung Kelayang beach, we're glad it wasn't rained at all. The first island we visited called "Pulau Pasir" (Sand Island). No human/plant live there, just beautiful white sandy island with some big beautiful starfish. The island would be submerged after midday or during high tide, so you had to visit it in the morning. We're lucky two boats just left the island, so we could enjoy the island alone as if it's our own island. We took many pictures and enjoy the soft white sand. It's very hot though, you should wear hat or scarf to protect your skin. After enjoying the sand and beach, we decided to leave when another boats had arrived.

"Pulau Batu Berlayar" (Sailing Rock Island) was the second island we've visited, it's very amazing. So many beautiful granite stones formed beautifully, no people live here. Some shells were attached to the stone looked like flower at the bottom of the stone. Be careful to step on it as it's very sharp, it could hurt your skin. My sister found "sea urchin" at the other side of the island. There was quite a big population of the poisonous animal, although it looked cute. My youngest sister was dare enough to climb on the stone, while we prefered just to pose on the beach or among the stones. After walking around the small island, more and more people came, we continued our trip to another island.

We're headed to "Lengkuas" island where the 129-year-old lighthouse operated. The visitors always had a lunch here while enjoying the beach, some groups had team building activities. Before disembarked at the island, we stopped in the middle of the sea. It's the time for snorkling or feeding the fish from the boat. You could rent the snorkeling equipment. I was the only one who would go for snorkling, as my sisters and mom prefered to feed the fish from the boat. Try to wear the rental snorkeling mask I had difficulty to wear the pipe because the edge of the pipe to the mouth was designed vertically instead of horizontally, I didn't use to it. Lucky my sister brought her swimming google, so I could still enjoy the very beautiful underwater park. Our driver and one of the sailor were accompanying me. Many colorful fishes came because my sisters and mom kept feeding them, I could enjoy them eating around me.

The wave was quite high, after tired swimming around the boat, I boarded to the ship. With the wet swimsuit I put on my clothes. We went directly to the island where we could take a bath and visit the toilet, you had to pay IDR 2000/person for toilet while IDR 5000/person for bathing. We went to the beach with its big stones, taking some pictures with the lighthouse background. It's very hot, and we already felt hungry, so we decided to take lunch. If you ordered the food, they would grill the seafood in this island. The boat sailor would provide ground cloth to sit on the beach while having lunch. My sister was not feeling well, she got seasick when I was snorkling. If you're in the boat when the wave was high, you would get seasick easily. We ordered hot tea cost IDR 5000/glass, we had our lunch accompany with the popular fish cracker in the lighthouse's office building aisle. After having lunch and drinking the hot tea, my sister got better.

The next island was called "Pulau Burung" (Bird Island), as there was stone looked similar to the head of eagle. Our driver was kind enough to become our photographer, he took our pictures on the stone right in front of the bird stone. He brought us to the huts area where people could rent for staying overnight. Anyway it's very quite, I didn't see anyone stay there, it seemed abandon as it's rather smelly. He brought us to the wooden pier next to the biggest hut there, it's very beautiful, you could see the gradation color of the sea.

The last island was called "Pulau Babi / Kepayang" (Pig Island), formerly it's used by people to raise pig farm, not anymore now. To reach the other side of the beach we had to walk through small forest. It's quite far around half an hour walking. There was a small turtle conservation, which's trying to save turtle from extinction. We visited the conservation while we're waiting for our order at the small restaurant. It contains many babies turtle and some bigh turtles on the cement ponds. A small field was in the fence where the turtle eggs burried. Back to the restaurant we enjoyed our banana fried and fresh coconut, my sister was also ordered black coffee, they didn't have the milk for the coffee. In front of the restaurant was quite a beautiful beach where some boats disembarked there. The sand here was rather rough, it's not as soft as the other side where our boat's landed. The visitors could also stay in the island to enjoy the sunset or diving/snorkling. We're tired already, to go back to the boat we had to walk another half an hour to follow the same path in the forest. Walking back to the boat felt faster now, we still took some pictures on the beach.

Visit Belitung would be incomplete if you don't go by boat to reach the beautiful islands where the stones were amazing formed by God with its gradation color. If you would like more islands to visit, it's easy, just ask the boatman to stop by.

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Amazing Moscow Metro Station

During our visit to Moscow, the tour brought us to explore Moscow Metro station. There were 30 of us including the local guide and tour leader. They kept saying that we had to be careful with our stuffs (be careful with pickpockets) and we must be together in one group. The train door only opened a very short time, so we had to hurry to enter the train. Waiting for the local guide bought the tickets, it's decorated by some golden colour carving on the pillar. One ticket could be used by all of us, but we had to wait for our turn one by one passing the electronic gate.


We headed directly to the very long escalator to go downstairs. Standing must be on the right side, unless the hasty people would hit you. Entered "Prospekt Mira" Metro Station, we're stunned by different decoration style from the common metro station. The overall station was made from light coloured marble. Some marble benches attached to the wall available for people to wait for the train. The pillar decorated with flared white marble, ceramic bas-relief frieze (sculptor G.Motovilov) made of floral elements and a golden medallion at the center described agriculture development added the beauty of the environment. The chessboard floor pattern's made of grey and black granite. The ceiling vault is decorated with casts, and lighting comes from several cylindrical chandeliers.


The track walls decorated with dark red marble, a golden iron sculpture on the track wall displayed "1951" when the station was built. The local guide gave us chance to take pictures and enjoyed the environment by letting some trains passed by. The station was quite crowded, so we had to be patient to get the good shoot. After satisfied with pictures, we took the next train, it was quite clean inside, unfortunately we could not read the metro map as it's in Russian language.


We stopped at the next station called "Komsomolskaya". It looked more luxurious, dominated with yellow colour painting on the ceiling. Komsomolskaya was the apogee of Stalin’s Empire style of Moscow underground, designed as entrance of the visitors to give the best first impression of the capital. Designed by Dmitry Chechulin the platform had 68 pillars pinkish limestone and blue-grey marble, while the floor was tiled with grey granite. No sculpture on the pillar, but the imposing Baroque celling, was decorated with eight mosaic panels of smalt and precious stones. Using filling flash in the camera could get better color for the photo. The chandelier here was bigger than the previous station. The theme of the panels represented the Russian fight for freedom and independence throughout history created by Pavel Korin.


The last one we visited was Novoslobodskaya station, it's full of stain glass mosaic such as in church, designed by Alexey Dushkin, opened on 30 January 1952. Each panel was surrounded by an elaborate brass borderand illuminated from within. Both the pylons and the pointed arches between them are faced with pinkish Ural marble and edged with brass molding. Pavel Korin also designed a mosaic with a woman carrying her baby protected by couple doves, entitled "Peace Throughout the World" at the end of the platform. The elegant conical chandeliers fitted up to the overall artistic design of the platform.


If you visited Moscow, definitely you have to see their metro station, it's artistic and made people comfortable to enjoy the environment while waiting for the train.

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Beautiful Natural Prigi Beach

Taking one day leave on Friday, I joined my friend from other cities to Kediri, our hometown. Most of them were my friends in elementary school, they went with their family. Our plan was going together to Prigi beach at Tasikmadu village, Watulimo district, 69 km from Trenggalek, it's around 3 hours driving from Kediri. We went on Saturday morning, there were 4 cars brought us to the beach.

 We passed by Tulungagung, we stopped at Toyota small restaurant to have lunch. The black sticky rice with coconut milk called "bubur ketan hitam" was nice, I also took the delicious mix rice with its very tender delicious meat was worthy to eat. The restaurant was so small, we had to eat alternately to give chance to the other person to sat down eating.

It took another hour to reach the beach, the winding road needed an expert to drive carefully as it's quite narrow and sometimes occupied by the village people who did their activities. Stopped by fruit stall to buy snake fruits and mangosteen. We had to be patient when trying overtake another car. Entering the gate to the Prigi beach, we stopped by the guard at the post to pay the entrance ticket both for passengers and the car. You could go to the white sandy beach near to the fish market if you turn to the right, we didn't go by there, we continued going to the hotel.

Finally we arrived at the Pondok Prigi hotel, phone 62-355-551187. It had some units which was contained 2-3 rooms for each unit. Its large garden was green with some trees that helped to shelter under the shiny sunshines. We could see directly the beach from the porch of the units. It was quite hot when we arrived, so we used the time to arrange and allocate the room for all participants and unpack our belonging.

My friend brought a lot of food as we could not find a proper restaurant around the hotel. Even they brought stove and griddle to fry our foods. While waiting for the sun not shining too hard, we opened the snack, such as fried tofu, spring roll, moci, cracker, mooncake, etc. Fruit mix ice was a very good alternative to reduce the heat.

It was not too shiny anymore, so we went to the beach to sail by boat, unfortunately we had to wait around an hour to get another boat cost IDR 200.000,- each, as one boat was not enough for all of us. The boat brought us around an hour to go to the small islands near to the beach, it's quite beautiful. We could see a small white sand beach, its magnificent rock formation, one of them had small cave, a very small island full of green trees with no people living on it.

After sailing we returned to the hotel, preparing for dinner. It's satay time, one of our friend from Kediri just arrived with his family to bring the lamb satay and beef satay, although we had brought many chicken satay and rice cake. Barbeque was also available for us to grill the fish and corn. It's really full of food. The skin cow cracker and peanut cracker "rempeyek" were very nice, I prefer to eat it than the main meal.

Felt very full with many kind of foods and snacks, we tried to find another activity. Some of us played card with the children too while others were chatting about the old days. It's full of laugh, especially when we were teasing each other. We slept very late at that day.

The next morning we wake up around 06:00, after brushing our teeth, we went along the beach without taking a bath. As we could not walk to the white sandy beach, a boat's sailor offered us to go there cost IDR 75.000,- vice versa, so we decided to take it. Five of us with a boy, the son of our friend went to sail without asking permission from his parents.

We enjoyed walking along the white sand beach more than an hour, some visitors enjoyed swimming on the beach, others were fishing from the port. Feeling hungry, my friend asked our boat's sailor which's foodstall he knew. We had fish ball and fresh coconut ice at the foodstall although we didn't bring any money. We asked helped our boat's sailor to pay later for us. Actually one of my friend were interested to buy the smoke fish, unfortunately we didn't have money at that time, so she canceled to buy. As it's getting late, we decided to go back to the hotel by the boat.

Arriving in the hotel, all of our other friends who stayed in the hotel already taking breakfast. There were fried rice, fried fish also white rice. The supply was much more than what we could eat. Finally we decided to go home around lunch time, as some of us still needed to continue the journey to other city, further than Kediri. It's a memorable vacation with my childhood friend, we had to go back to work on Monday with fresher mind.

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Ethnic Show Phuket Fantasia

On the first day in Phuket, after having a few hours city tour, we checked in to the Patong Tower apartment. My friend was kind enough to offer me the very competitive price using his membership. The apartment was quite spacious, the main room was big with king size bed and a bathroom. In the living room another king size bed was available also another bathroom. A dining room with kitchen and refrigerator was available for you to cook including a dining table. It's suitable and convenience for family staying a few days in Phuket at Patong beach area. The view from the balcony could be to the city or to the beach. Just 5-10 minutes walking distance to the popular Patong beach.

The car was waiting for us changing clothes to go to the next destination, Phuket Fantasia cost 2200 baht for the admission fee including the buffet dinner, show and transportation. We had to rush as we need to get there at least at 19:00 to enjoy dinner before the show would begin at 21:00. Arriving at the place we were welcome by beautiful girls wearing traditional Thai clothes. A photographer took our picture, then they would sell it during and after the show would be finished.

The place was very nice, it's an entertainment park was a beautiful pool with some statues full of light decoration. There were some artists performing music, acrobat, dancing, etc. Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to enjoy all of them. We had to rush to the dinner area to catch the show.

Entering dinner area, called Golden Kinnaree Buffet Restaurant. The restaurant looked pretentious, it's painted with golden colour surrounding with fountains. Going inside, it's very huge area with many long tables capacity around 4000 persons. The ceiling decorated with Thai's picture and story was inspired by 7 half-bird half-angels called the Kinnarees. Various kind of food set just next to the wall against a background of the legendary Himmaphan Forest, guest wouldn't need to have a long queue as they always refilled the food.

After dinner we went directly to the show area, "The Palace of the Elephants" around 20:00. It was a unique creation inspired by the ancient stone palace of the pre Sukhothai era. We're not allowed to bring camera, smartphone, etc. which's possible to record the show, all of them must be deposit in the locker, that's why it took a long time for entering the theater which's capacity for 3000 people. The "Fantasy of a Kingdom" was a spectaculer Thai cultural show, provided in both Thai and English which last around 90 minutes. The stage was over 37 meters wide with extendable side stages to 24 meters on each end. With cutting-edge technology and special effect element, the 4-dimensional stage could be changed dramatically from rice field to river to village including the traditional house, etc. to describe the journey of the Prince of Kamala in discovering and learning to be the perfect Thai person. It was very amazing show some angels also flying on the stage, big population of the real animal such as elephants, sheeps, chicken, etc enliven the show. After the show ended, we were queing again to take our camera and went out the theater.

No street performance anymore, the park was closed already, so we only could take some pictures with shiny beautiful light decoration. All your welcome pictures were set near to the gate, you could buy if you like it. I was not satisfied with the photo result, so I decided not to buy it, unfortunately the beautiful girl showed a very unfriendly face when she knew it. I think, she should treat the guest well whatever the condition, it's not an obligation for the guest to buy, so she should keep behaving well, with her friendly attitude as Thai's girl trademark.

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Legendary Lake Louise

Lake Louise is one of the heart of beautiful place in Banff National Park, within UNESCO World Heritage Site. It's right behind The historic Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise at 111 Lake Louise Drive, Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada T0L 1E0, which is popular for tourism. It was raining and windy when we arrived there, it was quite cold. Our tour leader suggested us to take a buffet lunch cost US$50/person in the one of the hotel restaurants in order to explore the hotel.


Going down from the bus, the tour leader brought us to the lobby, explaining about hotel areas. The chandelier in the lobby was very nice, describing ladies bringing lamps which were in the history the woman brought the lamp behind the windows to show the way home to her husband. He showed us the "Poppy" restaurant location for lunch, there was 1.5 hours before lunch time, so we were free to go around the hotel and exploring the lake.

He brought us the the backyard, while he explained about the lake, we prefered to take picture and enjoy the scenery as it's very attempting looking from the window. We walked fast to the lake, taking pictures in front of a majestic lake, surrounded by snow Rocky mountain peaks and Victoria glacier right at the middle of the background.

Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise

The iconic chateau also had a very beautiful garden full of flower, you could take beautiful pictures from many angles. Some wooden benches were available for people to enjoy the scenery, unfortunately we could not sit there as it's wet because of the rain. There was a unique flower called Poppy which only grows in that place, it's a pity I didn't take any picture of the flower as I'd just realized after leaving the chateau when checking internet.

As the rain getting harder, my younger sister decided to go back inside the hotel as her coat didn't have any head cover, we didn't bring any umbrella, while 3 of us continue taking some pictures at the edge of the lake. As we didn't have much time to go around the lake and it's still raining, we didn't stroll along the lake, just walking for a short distance. The lake water was very cold when we tried to touch it.

We decided to go inside the hotel as my younger sister as our coat became wet and the weather was colder. We walked exploring the spacious hotel interior with wooden stairs and railing, also some arches on the aisle of the stores selling various merchandize, post office, etc.

We sat on the couch enjoy the marvelous vista of lake and mountain through elegant big glass Palladian windows in the Lakeview Lounge. All rooms and interior inside the hotel were maintained as the original one. In the middle of a hall there was a lady playing harpa wearing traditional clothes, if you're interested to her music, you could buy the CDs.

An hour lunch time in Poppy Brasserie restaurant was not too impresive. The food taste was not too special, although there was a small live music band entertaining the guests. It was so crowded with guests, only available a few seat next to the window, those had been occupied by the guests who could come earlier than us. The service was not too good, we had to serve ourselves even we had to wait quite a long time to have a clean spoon or fork.

Only around 40 minutes spent for eating we hurried to decide to go to the lake again as the rain had stopped, the sun shone so bright, unfortunately we didn't have much time to go to the edge of the lake, as we had to go to the bus soon. During winter season, you could play ski on the frozen lake.

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