Educated Transportation Museum "Museum Angkut", Batu, East Java

During weekend my friend asked me to accompany her to a temple in Batu, then I offered her to go to "Museum Angkut", one of the tourism place in Batu that I would like to visit few months ago, unfortunately no friend to go there, and I was too lazy to drive by myself as I didn't know the way. We hired a driver to drive my car, so we didn't need to worry about the way or parking lot.

We had lunch first in Malang before visiting the museum. The museum opens at 12:00, anyway I heard that during holiday the parking lot would be difficult to find, you have to walk far to reach the entrance. We're quite lucky as we could get a parking lot near to the entrance, it's not a long weekend, it's not as crowded as holiday. It costs IDR 90.000,- to visit both "Museum Angkut" (transportation) and "Museum Topeng" (mask). If you bring a camera, you have to pay for the camera, pocket camera is cheaper than SLR camera. I only used my iphone, while my friend used her Samsung and her daughter used Lenovo.

Many vehicles were displayed, we welcome by many antique cars, including horse carriages from Indonesian palaces. The horse seemed like a real horse because the fur looked original, I didn't know whether it's fake or real. My friend's daughter felt amused and disgusted to touch it. There was also a helicopter, we could take picture in front of the cars, carriages and helicopters, but we were not allowed to ride on it. Some of them were surrounded by fence.

There was a lift to bring you upstairs when you could see cow carriages. The cows looked real too, and children were allowed to ride on the carriage. Some rickshaws and tricycles from different country were available too. On the other side you could see some ships miniature starting from Titanic to Indonesian traditional boat such as "Pinisi". On the third floor was available café and flight simulation, you must pay again to play, go-cart area was available too. You could see Malang scenery from this 3rd floor, it's very windy, beware with the wind if you wear skirt or dress.

Continue the journey by going out the city area that describes Betawi, old Jakarta era with it's china town and train station including the harbor. I brought selfie stick, as that's the first time for me, I had to learn how to use it well to grab our faces without losing the background. Then we entered area for western car, with its big and long cars. One of them was very beautiful with wooden casing on the body. Some antique motor cycles were available here too. Continue the journey to Hollywood street, some artists were performed on the street, you also could take picture with the artists as if in the jail.

The next area I liked the most, described about Europe with beautiful scenery pictures, you could take good picture in front of it as if you're there. There was also Eiffel miniature, and 3D pictures as if you're the painter or handyman. I love this area, it's beautiful. There was a small store selling snack and beverage, I bought popcorn, it's very nice. At the next room you could see a very bright and magnificent room describing London. There was a free train to ride to go around, a big royal chair available for you to take picture as if you're one of royal family. Outside the room you could walk on the beautiful garden full of flowers and shows Buckingham Palace building with its fountain.

Las Vegas area was contained with Luxor hotel landmark, Liberty statue, full of light, it would be better seeing it at night so the light would be more festive look. A very long limousine available here, I had difficulty to take the whole body. From here you could see the "Pasar Apung" floating market below. To go there you had to pass through a train wagon, where you could feel the real shaking train as if on the ride. It's rather difficult to go through it as it's shaking quite hard, you have to manage your balance.

In the floating market so many sellers offering souvenirs, foods, clothes, etc. You don't need to worry thirsty or hungry here, the price was quite reasonable. I bought crepes, the traditional snack which was sold on the boat on the small river. There was some bridges to connect one place to another, you also could rent a small boat to row around the area. Beside small restaurant selling meat ball or snack, there was also big restaurants serving western food or Chinese food.

Mask museum was our last destination, it's around the floating market area. So many collection from masks, batik from different area, weapons, ceramics and antiques. A guide was available to explain about it. It's clean with air conditioner, so it's not stuffy. A stage with traditional live music entertained the visitors with "Keroncong" music. Most of the band members were also senior people. It's getting late, so we decided to go back to Surabaya. We enjoyed the place, until we didn't feel spending a very long time there. You must visit "Museum Angkut" if you have a chance to go to Batu. It's very near to Malang, around 3 hours drive from Surabaya.

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Exotic Nature of Klayar Beach, Pacitan, East Java

I’ve heard from my friends that Pantai Klayar is beautiful, I was attempted to visit it someday. My colleagues and I visited the beach from Solo, it took around three hours to reach Pacitan, continue with another an hour to the beach. There was no public transportation to the beach, so you have to rent a car or use your personal vehicle. Most of the road was quite good already, but nearer to the beach, the road condition was getting narrower. The lime-stone mountain was already cut to widen the street, unfortunately it’s not finished yet. You must have an expert driver to go there, as the street is enough for one car only. If we bumped into another car from the opposite direction, one of us should drive backward, as it’s not enough for 2 cars. The right side was the lime stone wall, while the left side was the cliff.

Approaching the beach was very amazing, we could see the beautiful wave from the street that was located above it. Unfortunately we could not stop as it’s in the middle of the narrow street. It seems that the government continue building the infrastructure, as we passed by heavy machine equipment to move the street material.

We’re afraid not having food on the beach so we brought lunch box from Solo, my friends had gudeg while fried chicken for me. The beach was close enough to the parking lot, ATV ride was offered right after we went out from the car. We’re starving so we tried to find place to eat first. As there was no bench available for visitors at the eastern coast, we decided to buy fresh coconut to drink and get permission to have our own lunch on the food stall location. It’s already 14:00 o’clock at noon, it’s hot and we’re starving. It’s very relax to have the delicious lunch while enjoying the beautiful wave with its white sand, and drinking cool fresh coconut which was only cost Rp. 7.000,-/pcs.

While eating we saw some people were patient enough to wait for us offering ATV ride to explore the beach. It cost Rp. 25.000,-/person for return trip, one ATV could bring 2 persons. One of my colleague didn’t dare to ride it, so I ride alone when 2 of my colleagues rode together on an ATV. My ATV guide was quite young and active, he was kind enough to take our pictures, and explain about the beach.

Reaching the western side of the beach near ocean flute, which also could be reached by walking, my ATV guide parked the ATV. This ocean flute is a term for the phenomenon where there are existing basin at the bottom of cliffs or rocks on the beach. When the basin hit by the waves of the sea, the sea water out gushes to the surface through the sidelines rocky and produce a beautiful sound like the sound of the flute.

If the tight was not high we could walk approaching the ocean flute location, unfortunately my ATV guide informed that the surf was high for the last 3 days, so the walking path was covering by the waves, and it’s not allowed and dangerous to approach it. As the alternative, he asked us to climb the small hill called ‘Bukit Indah Lestari’ to see the ocean flute from above. On the way up, we could see the other part of the beach with its small caves.

He’s right, from above you could see the ocean flute, unfortunately it’s against the sunshine, it’s rather difficult to take the picture. He was kind enough to take our picture, he was so patient to wait for the big wave to get higher fountain that could be up to 10 meters high. Although the weather was hot, but it’s so windy, I still could enjoy it.

After satisfying taking panorama pictures, we stepped down the hill, taking some pictures with the background of a giant rock such as Sphinx at the eastern side of the beach. We posed on the ATV, I wore a wrong costume, a mini skirt that made me difficult to ride on the ATV, so I had to sit sideways. It’s cool to have picture on the ATV with amazing beach.

The next stop was the black sand surround the black large rock outcrops which was divided the coast to east and west part. The sand was really black such as if bauxite. An interesting phenomenon when the waves hit this rock, it would pass to overflowing, the abundance of water would create interesting sights such as waterfalls. We had to wait for the big waves, to get the amazing scene. I really love it, it's very wonderful.

It’s time to go back to the western part of the coast where our colleague was waiting for us. My ATV guide was kind enough to let me drive the ATV. I had to step on the middle part of the ATV to able to drive. When trying handling the steer, it’s very hard, as the coast was sandy, so I asked help from my ATV guide to help. I’m afraid to get fall when it’s unbalance, so I asked him to be slowly. My 2 other colleagues were not as lucky as me, their ATV was broken in the middle of the way, loosen the chain. Their ATV had to walk slowly and I overtook them to reach the destination.

Reaching the eastern part of the cost, I took some pictures on the green rocks covering with moss. I asked my friend to take my picture with my iphone. The wave here was not as high as the eastern part, but the soft sandy was still nice to play around. I like the scenery with the green rocks. I took off my shoes to play with the wave.

We could not find our colleague who was waiting there previously, we decided to walk on the eastern hill to see the panorama view of Klayar from eastern part. There was a small bungalow on the top of the hill, you could take panoramic picture of the beach with its eastern coast part. We also could see the row of bungalows selling souvenirs, clothes and foods sheltering by coconut trees.

For facilities and infrastructure at the beach was good enough, we could find a mushola, clean bathrooms, and food stalls. I would like to stay longer, but thinking the journey to Solo would take another 4 hours, we had to leave the beach soon. Finding the driver we’ve just known that our colleague was sleeping in the car while waiting for us. Before going back, we asked her to take some pictures on the beach. It’s a pity if she didn’t have any picture on the beautiful beach after struggling for a long journey. It’s true, Klayar beach is very wonderful and amazing, it should become one of the list for your holiday.

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Beautiful Schobrunn Palace Garden, Vienna

After a long flight journey from Jakarta, Indonesia, we arrived in Vienna in the morning. We didn't stop to the hotel to save time, directly we went to the tourism places. Schönbrunn Palace as one of the World Cultural Heritage sites, located a few kilometres from central Vienna was our first destination. A baroque summer palace built in 18th century contains the authentically furnished residential & ceremonial rooms of the Imperial Family (Marie Antoinette’s childhood & Empress Maria Teresa). It's very hot almost mid day, we walked through the entrance gate to the huge yard surrounding by long buildings.

Two beautiful fountains were decorated the yard where we could take picture with the palace as the background. As the area coverage so wide, we had difficulty to take the whole scenery, only one side of the building and a fountain could be reached. Under the strong sunshine, we took pictures in front of the fountain which has beautiful statues in the middle of the pool. The fountain was surrounding by fresh green grass, my friend stepped on the grass to sit on the edge of Danube-Inn-Enns statues fountain. The other fountain had Galicia-Volhynia-Translyvania statue.

The tour leader kept calling us to follow the local guide, he said we still had time on the way out to take more picture. Entering the building we had to wait for the local guide to buy tickets and deposit big bags and backpacks as they're not allowed to bring to inside of the palace. There was a souvenir shop that sold souvenirs, snacks and drinks, so we could shop while waiting for the ticket. I put on one of the beautiful cap from the shop which was really matched to my blouse to take picture. My friend bought one of the caps to be worn to avoid the sunshine with “Vienna” picture or letter. The local guide gave us the earphone to enable us hearing her explanation well during the journey, she didn’t need to speak loudly to the group member. Firstly the local guide spoke English, then our tour leader translated to Indonesia as some tour members didn't speak English. As it's taken longer time, I asked the tour leader to stand near the tour members to translate directly to whom didn't understand the explanation.

Unfortunately we were not allowed to take picture at all in the palace, so I could not share you any picture of the rooms, painting, sculpture, statue, furniture and anything inside. Only 40 of the Schönbrunn Palace's 1,441 rooms were open to the public, they were enough to provide visitors with a sense of how magnificent the place. From the window, I could see the beautiful garden, it’s looked very neat and maintained well. The structure of the Baroque park layout was virtually untouched, the ancient techniques were still used for trimming its trees and bushes. I would like to rush to the garden as there was no photo object could be taken in the palace, unfortunately the local guide would like to share a complete story about the history. At the end of exploring the palace, there were some souvenir shops which made my tour friends excited. Actually I prefer to go to explore the garden soon, but I had to wait for the group.

A small rubber wheeled train and horse carriages could bring you around the palace if you don't want to walk. I heard it’s only operated during summer, not enough time for us to ride them. I didn’t know where the transportation route would go, but I passed them went walking on the yard. Maybe they would go to the other part of the palace which’s located crossed the garden. For many tourists, a ride with the two-horse carriage is one of the highlights, it’s called flacker. If you would like to enjoy the journey, you should ask the flacker coach for a "porcelain ride", which is a particularly calm and steady drive, it was provided long ago to transport precious porcelain safely from one place to another.

Walking to the garden was quite far, especially under the sunshine, lucky I was wearing a cap. Sunglasses would help too, unfortunately I didn't bring them. We found the beautiful roses arch aisle as the sunshine shade, the red roses were amazing, it’s very big and layering. My friend took many pictures there with various poses, until I beg them to take my picture. After waiting a few minutes I decided to leave them unless I could not explore the big garden.

The spectacular sculpted garden is called the Great Parterre. Many colorful flowers arranged beautifully on the spacious garden. Most of our tour friends were going back while I went to the garden. Lucky I met our tour guide who helped me to take picture with the palace as the background. He could not take my picture with the garden as it's against the sunshine. I ran to the middle of the garden to be able to take the garden as my background, unfortunately nobody there to help me taking my picture. With my iphone, I tried to do selfie, the result was not too good, because I was not used to it. With both my pocket camera and iphone, I took many pictures to record the wonderful scenery. One of them was posted on the top of this article which shows the beautiful garden with the back of the palace, residence of the Habsburg emperors from 18th century to 1918.
On the other end of the French garden actually was very interesting, I pushed to take the picture although it's too far and against the sun light. I’m happy as the result was quite good to see the garden axis points towards a 60-metre-high hill, which since 1775 has been crowned by the Gloriette structure. I really didn’t have time to walk or even run to the edge of the garden where we could see nearer to the Neptune Fountain and Gloriette in the background. No time for us to exploring other side of the garden such as Roman ruin, palm house, zoo, etc.

A particular pleasure is simply wandering the numerous paths alongside the park's flower beds while trying to spot all 44 of its 18th-century mythological marble sculptures. I took one of the beautiful sculptures displayed “Abduction of Helena”. The tour leader shouted to call me as I was the last one in the garden. Although it's hot, I love staying longer in the garden, I still wanted to take more picture.

I had to run back to gather with our group who had been at the front yard of the palace. On the way back to the gate, I still had a chance to help my friend taking picture in front of the beautiful pool. Near to the entrance gate, there was a 3D steel map of the palace, which described the whole area of the palace, most of them hadn't been explored. While waiting for the bus at the front of the gate, a golden man imitated Mozart was standing on the golden box. He would change pose if we gave him money, my friend put a coin on the golden tin in front of him to take a picture with him. He even kissed my friend’s hand to give honour and also posed gracefully for the photo. It’s very hot, I could not imagine how he could stand under the very strong sunshine covering the whole body with golden paint, wearing thick wardrobes. It must be very suffering, hot and burnt, what's a life.

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Banska Bystrica Historic Town in Slovakia

On the way from Budapest to Krakow, we went through Slovakia. We stopped by a beautiful city call Banska Bystrica as the most important historical, cultural and economic centre of the central Slovakia. The earliest history of Banská Bystrica was connected with the exploitation of its abundant deposits of copper. We walked to the downtown, it's free time around two and a half hours including lunch.

Nobody told us about the history and the beautiful building at downtown, so we just took many pictures surrounding by beautiful buildings. The weather was nice, quite mild and the town was not too crowded, it's perfect to enjoy it. It lies in the the middle of Europe on the banks of the river Hron surrounded by breathtaking scenary of Low Tatras, Kremnické Vrchy and Slovenské Rudohorie mountains.

The slender Hodinová veža tower (The Clock Tower) built in 1552 was dominated and became the central attraction at the main square. In front of the tower was The Plague column of the Virgin Mary. While City Barbican (Banská Bystrica Town Castle) located next to the tower was once formed by several ancient buildings in the central Slovakian metropolis Banská Bystrica. Its task was to protect the income proceedings of copper and silver mining for the royal treasury.

Across City Barbican was St. Francis Xavier Cathedral Built in 1715 on the site of the chapel of St. John the Baptist and on the house called Oberhaus. The church with one nave is the copy of the church " Il Gesù" in Rome. It is a Baroque building, later transformed into the classical style. The dominant twin-towers were built during the renovations in 1844. The church's interior from the first half of the 19th century consist of the Empire main altar, the side altars and the pulpit.

Continue walking we could find the historic Radnica (townhall) of Banská Bystrica then we could find Thurzos house, the social science exposition of the Museum of Central Slovakia. It is formed from two Gothic houses completed with some Renaissance elements. As we didn't notice it at that time, we didn't visit the museum. Many cafes were available along the streets for people to take a rest while they still could enjoy the scenery.

Strolling the lower part of Námestie SNP, the natural center of the city, we found an art fountain and a black Obelisk in Slovak National Uprising Square as the memorial to honor the Soviet soldiers killed during the liberation of the city in 1945.

We stopped by to buy ice cream, before continue exploring the street. So many beautiful small shops selling souvenirs, clothes, handy-craft etc. My friends liked to buy clothes, we spent some minutes in a big shop selling clothes and shoes. I preferred to find souvenirs, many unique souvenirs we could find here, most of them made from woods. Most of the shops didn't accept card, but they didn't mind accepting Euro.

Decided to have lunch at Pizza restaurant, we could get extra bonus using the toilet, it's very clean and auto sensor implemented for the lighting. While waiting for the pizza, it's raining very hard, lucky that we had taken many pictures and got a chance to explore the city. We had to move our chairs to avoid getting wet, the pizza was very delicious & crispy. After finishing lunch, God was kind enough, the rain stopped so we could go back to our bus.

Our bus parked near to The Museum of the Slovak National Uprising (SNP). An architecturally unusual building built in 1969, located in the middle of a park that includes an open-air museum of heavy military equipment. It's quite satisfying visited the nice town on the long way to reach Krakow by bus.

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Famous Mirabell Garden Salzburg, Austria

I really want to visit Salzburg as I saw its beautiful scenery in my favourite musical movie “The Sound of Music”. During my East Europe tour, we visited Salzburg, one of the best-preserved city centers north of the Alps, just for half day.

We arrived at noon after lunch time, Mirabell Garden was the only place that’s scheduled to be visited in the tour itinerary. A bus tour with “The Sound of Music” branding was parked on the parking lot, we took some pictures while waiting for our friends stopped by at the toilet. Entering the garden, we welcome by a woman statue fountain in the middle of an circle pool surrounding by flowers. The Mirabell Gardens were opened to the public by Emperor Franz Joseph in 1854, it becomes a horticultural masterpiece and popular backdrop for photographers.

The next part of the garden was larger, it’s the main garden decorated with beautiful flowers, statues, also a big fountain. As my friends were busy pose and taking many pictures, I had to make myself available for others helping them taking pictures so they could take my picture in return. Otherwise I would only had the scenery without me for documentation. Lucky after quite a long time, they remembered me :-), asked me to go to the middle of the garden to take some pictures behind the flowers with the Mirabell palace as the background. The Baroque masterpiece of Schloss Mirabell Palace was initially built as "Schloß Altenau" under the reign of Prince Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau in 1606. It was a present for his concubine Salome Alt and most famous for its splendid garden.

When I’ve returned to Indonesia, I explored Mirabell garden, I've just found and realized, actually Pegasus fountain is one of the landmark beside the palace. Unfortunately we didn’t go through the Pegasus fountain to run down the hedge arcade along the Grand Parterre what Fräulein Maria and the Trapp children did in the movie. It’s quite very short time to visit the beautiful garden, no time to enjoy the scenery by sitting on the available benches for visitors. We left through the gate which was guarded by sporty man statues at the left and right side formed the gate arch.

Our guide brought us to the other side of the city, the Makartsteg, a bridge over the Salzach River in Salzburg′s city centre. It was named after the 19th century Historicist painter Hans Makart, who was born and raised in Salzburg. It’s raining when we crossed the bridge which was full of various padlocks from couple lovers who’re falling in love. Makart became famous as a painter of the Viennese Historicism, providing artwork for many of the pompous buildings of the Ringstraße. The Makartsteg is open for pedestrians and cyclists only.

Continued walking to the old cities to visit Mozart’s house, we went through many small aisles, the guide didn’t allow us to split as there were many people around, he would find difficulty to find the lost one. Finally we reached the house, it’s not too big, you must pay to see inside the house on the 2nd floor which has become a museum now, none of us was interested in it. The guide was giving us free time to explore the area, so many beautiful shops around it, which sold souvenirs, bags, etc. Some restaurants and attractive café design were also available there, we passed by a restaurant which displayed the big size shrimp, bread to attract people.

I visited some souvenir shops to buy small stuffs such as cute magnetic for mom and myself, also visited chocolate stores which sold Mozart (the genius musician who was born in Salzburg) chocolate for gifts. Actually many souvenirs were cute, unfortunately it’s quite expensive when I calculate in IDR, most of the time I cancelled to buy because of the price. Beside that, it’s quite difficult to bring the easy breakable once, such as house miniature, glasses, decorative plate or crystal, clocks, etc. Most of souvenirs I bought was chocolates and magnetic decoration for fridge 

The local guide brought us to the bus stop area went through the same way, including Makarsteg bridge, as now it’s not raining, we could take some beautiful pictures with the padlocks, the river and beautiful mountains as the background. So many tourist buses were parking on the area where we were waiting for our bus, there were benches for us to sit. The city was ready for tourist visit, they kept maintaining well the tourism places which were existed many years even centuries, also provided and arranged well the infrastructure to progress with the modern world. I also like the weather there, although it’s quite cold and windy, we should wearing jacket at least. If you would like to experience “The Sound of Music”, you should at least spend one whole day in Salzburg. You could join the local tour with has short or long hour trips to trace the movie places.

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