Stunning Crystal Clear Sulamadaha Beach, Ternate

Reaching Sulamadaha beach at noon, walking from the car park which was just next to the black sandy beach, I was rather disappointed as it's not as I imagine based on the picture I've got from internet. There were many food stalls next to the beach. My friends said that we should take a long walk to reach the place that I saw in the internet. I don't mind with it.

As we parked under the shelter trees, I forgot to bring along my jacket, hat and sandal. We walked through the path at the edge of the beach, it's hilly and quite challenging and I felt quite tiring as I hadn't had breakfast and it's already lunch time. Actually you could ride motor bike to go there along the path, unfortunately there was no "ojek", or motor cycle rental that could bring us there. I stopped a few times to take a break and taking pictures.

Finally we reached the motor cycle parking lot at the end of the path which towards to the beach, the scenery there was very beautiful, we could see the beach from above with boats and some huts hanging on the beach. I took my time to relax and taking picture again before going down through quite steep stone ladders. My colleague was kind and patient enough waiting for me :-) I asked my colleague to hold my hand as I was afraid falling down on the ladders.

Going down to the small bay, fractional shells and corals produce white sand, many local visitors swimming on the beach. A traditional boat was parked on the beach, my colleague offered me to go by boat to the middle of the sea. It's an interesting offer that I could not refused to enjoy the crystal clear beach. It cost IDR 50.000,- to rent the boat, our colleague from Ternate's office decided to row the boat, so the owner didn't need to go with us.

There were 4 of us, it's very sunny and hot, but it's windy. We went to the sea, although it's further from the beach, there was some shallow area, that we could see beautiful coral underneath our boat. It's very nice to see the beautiful coral reef with colorful fish swimming around it. If it's not very shiny and made my skin burnt, I would like to stay there longer. The scenery was like in heaven, combination of crystal clear sea with its beautiful coral reefs and mountains behind produced an incredible beauty. Unfortunately I didn't bring swimsuit, it would be more fun if we could swim on the crystal clear water.

I would like to take picture of the boat from the other side of beach which could show the crystal clear water, so I asked my colleague to row there. When we reached the hut hanging on the beach, I climbed the ladder while all of my colleagues stayed on the boat waiting for me to take some pictures from above. It's wonderful, it almost similar to the picture that I saw in the internet.

A group of teenagers had fun there, they jumped to the water one by one with different style. It seemed that the sea was shallow, I was afraid that they will hit the bottom. In fact the water was so clear, it's quite deep for them to jump but you saw as if it's only 0.5 meters deep. I asked permission to them to cross their hut to another hut to take better angle.

I returned to the boat and we returned the beach where we started sailing. One of our colleague who didn't dare to go with us because he could not swim was waiting for us there, keeping our bags :-) We ordered coconut and fried banana at one of the hut to fill our stomach before walking back through the path to our car.

Although we were starving, I really enjoyed it. The scenery was amazing, it's a very wonderful God's creation. You should visit the beach if you plan to visit Ternate. Don't forget to bring swimsuit so you could enjoy it more by snorkeling or just swimming on the calm and crystal clear sea.

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High Waves at Water Blow Nusa Dua Bali

After completion of our task during exhibition in Bali, we returned to hotel to take a rest, it's around 16:30 already, all of us were tired. Unfortunately my hotel key was not working well, I went to hotel receptionist to ask them fixing it. During reprogramming my key, I asked the reception where the location of water blow, as I saw in the map it's one of the tourism place which's near to our hotel. He said that it would take only 10 minutes drive and 500 meters walk, the best time to visit is in the evening when the wave could blow very high almost 4 meters high.

As we didn't have time anymore to stay another night, so I rushed to go to my room and called my colleagues asking them whether they would like to visit it. All of them agreed to go and gathered in the lobby soon, no need to shower first as the time was ticking, we had to go fast unless it would get dark. None of us had visited the place, my friend activated the GPS to avoid getting lost.

Reaching Nusa Dua beach parking lot, it's so full, lucky we still got a slot to park our car. We ran to the gate, asking the guard where "Water Blow" location, he said just go straight ahead, no entrance fee. We walked fast, even running. On the way we kept asking people where the direction so we would run to the correct direction, no time for getting lost. Actually the park was nice, but we could not enjoy it as we focus to reach the beach on time. Lucky we saw a golf cart, when we asked the driver where the location, he said it's right behind Rama Sinta statue which's in the middle of large field. He didn't mind riding us to the beach. Wow... it's a nice offered, of course I took it and shouted to my friends to run unless they had missed the cart.

Five of us in the cart, it's over loaded actually, we had to hold tight to the pipe unless we'll fell down. The road was rather hilly in some part, the driver was very excellent, we arrived near the beach right away. We're very happy and run to the path towards the hut jutting towards the sea. The sun started to get red, almost sunset. Lucky we rode the golf cart, when taking the pictures, a very high wave was occurred made the people on the path getting very wet. We hadn't been that close so we were safe. I took some pictures for my colleague, unfortunately they could not take mine with high wave at the background. I took wefie so we could have a group picture with myself inside. I'm not expert enough in wefie, although the wave was quite high, it's not too obvious in the photo.

High wave was not quite often, the highest was when the 1st time we reached on the beach. We continued walking to the end of the path. There was fence protecting people from the rocks and waves, anyway you still could go down to the rock to take nearer picture to the water blow. The pounding waves froth created by the crashing waves against the rocks created the stunning beauty of the sea water flow. I was afraid to go down, when I saw my friend there, I asked him to hold my hand so I wouldn't get slipped as it's sandy and many small rocks.

On the other side you could see the sunset, anyway there was no good object in front of the sunset, the water blow at the East side. I only could take silhouette of the people who sit on the stairs to enjoy the scenery. One of my friend was hungry, so she sit there while eating snack watching us taking picture and enjoyed the wave.

It's' getting dark, my iPhone could not get good picture in the dark, so we decided to go back to the hotel. We had to walk back to the parking lot, no more golf cart to bring us, so walking 500 meters as exercise at night. My friend who stayed in Bali, just know that time that there's a good place to visit near by, at Nusa Dua beach. He could bring his family there to spend weekend. Some people have used it as pre-wedding photo location.

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Amazing black stone at Batu Angus, Ternate

Last Sep 2016 I visited Ternate with my friend, we had difficulty to find rental car, lucky that our office colleague in Ternate were kind enough to pick us up from the airport. We selected Wings air the earliest flight from Manado to Ternate, although the plane was small, we didn't care. They only allowed us to bring 10kgs luggage, so we could not bring many things. Our Ternate colleagues offered us to have breakfast and check in to the hotel first, but to save time we refused it, we preferred to go around Ternate first.

Sultan Babullah airport at Ternate located at North Maluku was not big enough, only one entrance for departure and arrival flight, anyway the airport was quite modern, although air condition was not operated in all areas. As our plane was small, we had to climb down the ladder and walk to the airport building. The scenery was quite beautiful, we could see a mountain at the side of the airport. While waiting for the pickup car, I saw beautiful black stones created wall across the airport.

Batu Angus, when I told my friend that I would like to visit it, my friend said it's only stone. Anyway we still went there, there's an entrance fee to go to the place, we could drive the car to go through the stone park, there was a nice path ways leaded us to the parking area, next to the beach. Our car was quite big, so the driver needed to be careful as the stone formed sometimes protrudes into the street. In the car I was admiring the phenomenon black lava stone, the park was full of lava that had been turned into stone as if just newly burned. My friend also admired it, he said previously another friend brought him even not entering the gate, just at the edge of the street. No wonder he said it's just stone, he didn't see the real park :-)

Some shelters has been built for visitors to enjoy the marvelous scenery. Although the sun shone so hot, it's windy so we didn't feel very hot. While my friends chatted under the shelter, I went around to take pictures of the beautiful park. Some flowers were planted to decorate the park, the landscape was strangely beautiful with contradiction color of black lava stone and sparkling blue sea. While on the other side you could see Gamalama mountain where the lava came from its eruption in 1673. The unique form stone stretched from the foot of Mount Gamalama up to the beach. My Ternate's friends said that Ternate island is Gamalama which its top was covered by cloud at that time, so people live at the foot of Mount Gamalama. Go around the island was not too far, just around 60 kilometer distance.

There was no fence or stair between the rock area and cliff to the beach, so we had to be careful to take picture. I love the stunning scenery where we were presented the blackened rock, bluish sea and greenish Halmahera mountain. My Ternate friend was brave enough to go down to the cliff, I didn't dare to do it. I took my friend's picture on the black rock, the result was very nice. He said that it's a pity if I didn't take any picture there, he offered to hold my hand going down, so I followed him. After reaching the place he went up to take my picture with my iPhone. He's very kind, he didn't mind at all to go up and down the slope :-). I'm very satisfied with the result where the background scenery was amazing, some ships were sailed on the clear blue sea.

Finally we took group picture using selphy mode in front of the welcome monument at Batu Angus. The welcome space was surrounded by the black rocks with various formation, it's beautiful. If we had much time, I would like to stay longer there, enjoy the breeze while admiring the natural phenomenon of the black rock unique composition. It's worthy to visit, just 10 kilometer from Ternate city.

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Jungleland, children adventure park at Bogor

During fasting period in June 2016, my niece and nephews were in school holiday too, my brother decided to bring them to Jakarta for holiday. We stayed at our sister's home at Raffles Hill Cibubur for 2 nights, actually we planned to go to Taman Mini on Saturday morning, unfortunately it's raining since morning, so we stayed home till afternoon.

It seemed the raining would stop, we went to the sport club restaurant called Bistro to have lunch there. The restaurant's view was facing to the beautiful swimming pool with its slides and bubble water. We promised them to go back there at evening or the day after, as we'll go to other place after lunch. Going out from Raffles Hill area, it's already around 13:30, the traffic was so crowded. Taman Mini was quite a far distance and it's too late to go there, we changed the plan to Mekarsari, unfortunately when we had to take the U-Turn, the traffic was even worse to go there, so my brother decided to take the highway to Jungleland. None of us had visited the place before, so we were blind just reading the signs and using GPS from smartphone.

The highway was not crowded, unfortunately when we entered Sentul area, it's very jammed. It's caused by car accident, we still could see the passengers who got the accident. The traffic was jammed because people were slowing down, they would like to see the accident, the white saloon car was broken heavily on the front, the front windows were broken. The passengers sat down in the middle of the street and made a call. Reaching Jungleland area, we decided to park in VIP area because my niece was sleeping so we had to carrying her to the entrance gate. It's almost 14:30 when we arrived, we're quite lucky as there was a promo from one of popular bank in Indonesia to give discount, the woman at the ticket locket was quite surprised that we would enter the theme park so late, as they'll close at 17:00.

We're lucky that we could take group picture helping by one of the visitors, although it's very difficult to take children's picture, my niece woke up already as she could see attempting colorful environment. At the entrance gate we could not get the map to go around, so we had to take picture from the billboard size map at the entrance. The zone was divided into 5 zones, carnivalia, tropicalia, mysteria, eksplora, dino world. Most of them for children, anyway if the child below 90 cm, they could not ride some vehicles.

The first selection was "harvest time", it's like a small roller coaster, my niece was crying as she was not allowed to ride as she's too young (3 years old) and short, so her brothers and father join the ride. After the ride, we brought them to "mini ferrish wheel" where my niece was accompanied by her mom, while her brothers together on the different cart. She's quite happy as she's allowed to ride it and could see us from above.

The next ride was "North Pole", where the children could sit as if on the sea lion, this time the eldest brother was not allowed to ride, it's only for the small children. The sea lion was on the water going around following the path which also went through a small cave and a small speed bump, they enjoyed it.

Rainbow train was attracted the children, it's colorful and all of them could join the ride. Lucky there was no long queue as it's fasting period, so they could ride some attractions in a short time, although some attractions were closed as it's under renovation. After twice circulation, the train was stop. I thought all of them could play "mini bumper car", unfortunately my niece was not allowed to play, to comfort her, I bought a colorful ice cream. She's happy to eat it as there was pink color as her favourite color for everything from clothes, shoes, bag, spoon, etc.

As the theme park quite huge, we decided to take the train with a long carriages to bring us around. It's like the real train with open carriage, my nephew was excited to see the train's mechanism. It took a few minutes to wait for the other passengers. We could see a giant octopus and dino statue on the way, the eldest brother insisted to visit it.

To see the panorama view of the park, we stopped by on the ferris wheel that allowed all of us to ride. The view from the top was magnificent, we could see the mountains as the background covering by the cloud, also the ripple river water flowing in the middle of the park. It's a picturesque view with lovely cool weather. My eldest nephew kept saying that he would like to visit Dino, so we followed him to Dino World.

The gate was quite attractive with Dino's statues, there was a guide wearing adventurer costume such as Indiana Jones. Entering the close room was quite scary as we were welcome by a loud sound of Dinosaurus and its moving. My niece was scared, she immediately asked her mom to carry her. I like this Dino World, they used censor to detect people movement. The Dino would move and sound only when there's a person passing them. It contains all kind of Dino with its explanation about Dino's type. It's good for education.

After Dino World, the kids would like to take another train, the circus train with Circus locomotive and colorful carriage with elephant on the top was the final ride as the park was closed. They didn't want to go home, they still wanted to play as it's too short, unfortunately none of them was operated anymore. On the way to the gate, we stopped by at Starbuck which has funny building. The rooftop looked like bananas with monkey on the top of it, while the wall looked like woods. We bought some coffees and snacks. Before going home, we took 'wefie' for group picture in front of the nice world globe from metal with jungleland signage. I felt glad that we had a chance to enjoy jungle land. If there was no children, definitely we (my mom and sisters) would not get a chance to visit it. We were happy, also the children.

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Unique Javanese Ganjuran Church, Yogyakarta

During our vacation with elementary school friends, I decided to go to the church on Sunday morning. My friend suggested to go to Ganjuran Church with its unique decoration that's worthy to visit. Only 3 of us joined with 4 of our female teachers on that Sunday. The mass would begin at 07:00, so we had to leave the guest house at 06:00. I felt so sleepy, wanna to sleep longer as I slept late on the day before, around 02:00 o'clock.

Our teacher was ready earlier than the time, lucky we were on time, so they didn't need to wait for us. It took around half an hour to reach The Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus located at Bantul, 20 km to the South from Yogyakarta which was established in 1924 by Schmutzer (Dutch) family. It's the first time I visited this Roman Catholic church, I heard that there were some miracles happened to some visitors including my mom. Our car had to park on the left side of the church's area, on the way to the church, there were many stalls sold holy things such as rosary, bible, medal, statues, candles, etc. It's attempted to stop for shopping, but we focused to go to the church first.

The gate was like temple decoration, and the church formed as 'joglo' (Javanese home) decorated with Javanese carving. It's beautiful especially the ceiling with its yellow light illumination. Only half of the capacity occupied at that time, maybe it's still too early. I brought our teacher to the middle of the church at the front seat, but they preferred to sit at the middle of the left wing behind the choir. They said that they were not fluent with the language. The mass would be held using Javanese Language. The mass would last for around 2 hours.

During the mass, I had difficulty to follow it well, I could not reply or follow the choir as there was no book to guide us as we use to have Indonesian mass. They should provide Javanese book for guests as there were many visitors come, and they would like to join the mass actively. Lucky that the Catholic mass ceremony is the same everywhere, although we could not reply, but we understood the meaning and the ordered.

The church complex was quite huge, behind the church were St. Elizabeth hospital, abbey and orphanage. A replica of Hindu's temple (Prambanan) for adoration was at the right side of the church beside the chapel. People could lit the candle and put some fruits in front of the temple. They also could wash their face or drink the holy water from the taps next to the temple. One of our teacher washed her face with the holy water then she prayed fervently in front of the temple. Two rows of pine trees were lined beautifully flanking the temple. At the back and right side wall were full decorated with 15 Stations of the Cross reliefs.

After the mass, we took some pictures in front off the altar, with its beautiful golden carving. The angels were displayed worship with its Javanese hat such as in puppet show. Maria was displayed as Javanese queen carrying Jesus while Joseph as the Javanese King were also wearing Javanese clothes. I like the dramatic manifestation decoration to accommodate Javanese Culture. It made people in that area easier to symbolize their beliefs.

We had drinks tea and eating snacks such as traditional steam bread and the yummy crispy peanut brittle at a small hut outside the church, we returned to the church's area at "pendopo" (open hall) to wait for our friends. There was a wide area with benches in front of the church. Some of us went to the toilets next to the bathroom behind the "pendopo". Not waiting too long our friends arrived bringing some snack boxes to fill our stomach before having lunch.

I got a chance to take picture at the adoration cave for Maria at the corner of the church. The status was in black color with Javanese costume. Many candles lit in front of the statue, people could kneel or sit on the bench to pray. Here was not as crowded as the temple for adoration. My friends who just arrived took some pictures in the church before we continue our trip to the other place. A pilgrimage place with Javanese nuance is worth visiting especially for the Catholics. Schmutzer family were success to uplift economic condition of the society around the church. Ganjuran church plays an important role as the history of Javanese enculturation process of the Christian faith.

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Natural beauty of Samigaluh, Yogyakarta

In May 2016 I went to Yogya with my elementary school’s friend, some of them brought their family, it could happen because of the initiative and generosity of one of our friend. We gathered from Jakarta, Surabaya, Semarang and Kediri using various modes of transportation. On the 3rd day we went to Samigaluh by mini bus and micro bus, it took around 2 hours from Yogya to reach Samigaluh at the north of Kulon Progo in Yogyakarta Province.

Actually there are many tourism places at Samigaluh, such as waterfall, cave, flower garden and tea plantation. When we arrived there, the next 2 km distance upward to tea plantation could not be reached by mini bus, so we had to cramp the passengers to our micro bus, it looked like the public transportation as some of them must sit facing to the back. Lucky that our friend also brought a car that could bring some other friends from the mini bus. Fortunately the micro bus could arrive safely to the parking lot near to the plantation area although it’s overload and the road was very steep. The air conditioning was shut down when driving upward.

There were restrooms near to the parking lot, as the weather was much colder than the city, most of us wanted to go there first. Nobody guarded the restroom, just a small box available next to the toilet to put our money after using it. The toilet was quite clean and the water was cold. To reach the tea plantation we still had to walk on the hilly road, no vehicle was allowed to go up.

Although the weather was mild, we were sweaty because we struggled to walk on the steep road. Four persons of our elementary school teacher which were around 70 years old joined us in the trip. Some of them even walked backward, she said it was lighter. Unfortunately they could not reach the top, they took a rest on the bamboo bench at the edge of the road, then decided to return to the parking area. Some food stalls were available to take a rest while waiting for others, some of our friends were kind enough to accompany them.

When we reached a crossroad, a local person informed that we could go straight to reach the top of tea plantation or take the left path to go for photo spots. Of course we chose the left path as the road looked easier, it’s sloping while the other way climbed very steep. We took some pictures on the intersection, I didn’t realize that our teachers were not there anymore. Not further from the intersection, we could find the very nice spots for photo. I was very surprised and happy to see it as I didn’t expect that I could see that amazing views. They have built 2 storey bamboo bench on the trees that enable us to enjoy the view on the cliff. Actually I have seen in the internet the place called 'Kalibiru' that had the facility, I really want to go there, but my friend told me it’s difficult and took a long path to walk, he’s afraid that our teacher could not reach it. That’s why I have dropped my desire to enjoy Kalibiru.

After taking pictures together on the bench below the tree with my friend, and no more people at the bamboo bench on the tree, I rushed to climb the ladder to reach the bamboo bench on the tree. Unfortunately a young couple were faster than me to reach it. I gave my smartphone to my friend to take my picture from below to show the height of the bench. We asked the couple permission to take picture. Finally my friend and myself stayed there longer to take more and more pictures while the couple decided to go down. Only 3 of us dare to take picture on the bamboo bench, while others took picture on the leader. I really loved the scenery, I could see the panoramic view from above the tree, the natural beauty presented just in front of my eye. I would like to stay there longer, unfortunately there were still many interesting objects below the tree.

Our friends had taken many pictures together below the tree, as they didn’t dare to climb to the bamboo bench on the tree. We didn’t want to miss it, so my friend and I went down the tree and would like to take a picture on the wood swing. Unfortunately we had to wait a long time for 3 girls that never stop taking picture, so we decided to take the other object first, where there was a heart frame on the bamboo board above the cliff. Unfortunately it’s cloudy, so my photo was not as good as my friend, my face looked dark, almost like a silhouette.

Finally I was the last person who got the turn to take a picture on the bamboo bridge protruded into the middle of the canyon. It’s rather scary as there was no handle at all on the side of the bridge, we had to be careful and kept our balance well. After standing pose, I also took a sitting pose to show the height of the bridge, actually it’s more frightening because the edge of the bridge looked somewhat torn. My friend who took the picture was shaking, she said that she was afraid that I’ll be falling down. I really loved the result of the picture, thank you my friend who took the beautiful shoot :-)

We didn’t feel that we had spent a lot of time there, my friend, one of the committee, asked us to stop taking picture and going back to the parking lot. On the way down, I asked them to take picture together in the middle of the tea plantation, as we didn’t have the picture at all with the environment. It looked very beautiful in the middle of green tea, it’s very fresh and nice to see.

The natural panoramic view was really very refreshing, our effort to reach the photo spot was worthy. We could enjoy the winding river surrounding by mountains make us drift away. If you like nature, you should visit Samigaluh. We didn’t have much time, so we didn’t have a chance to see the waterfall, flower garden and cave. Back to the mini bus we were starving and started having lunch, lucky that the committee has prepared a really nice lunch, grill 'kampong' chicken with vegetables, and very nice rainbow heart pudding as the dessert.

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