Stunning View of Iconic Tulips at Keukenhof Garden

Last month on the 3rd May 2019 at the last day of our tour, 5 of us (my mom, my sisters and my brother-in-law) visited Keukenhof after checking out from our hotel. It's the most exciting place we would like to see, people say the best to see Tulip in mid to end of Apr. Arriving Keukenhof around 09:00 o'clock, the weather was quite cold around 10 degree Celsius, so we wore our coat to protect us from the wind and weather. We had to walk from the parking area to the gate, the bus was not allowed to drop us in front of the entrance. While waiting for our tour leader bought the ticket, we took some pictures on the gate which already had beautiful colorful blossom Tulips. The Tour Leader (TL) only gave us around 2.5 hours to explore the garden, and he informed that the meeting point would be right in front of the gate.

Passing through the entrance one by one I asked a map from the guard, they said that free maps were available in different languages on a stand just a few steps after the entrance. The map was important, it's good to help us to see the whole area allocation, and discover the way during our journey. A beautiful girl with traditional clothes was standing next to the map location, she didn't mind when we asked her to take picture together. The area was quite huge, 32 hectares, while the time was limited, so we had to decide which part to be visited. Our TL suggested to go to the windmill area first by turning to the right direction from the entrance, but my family decided to go the other way (left side) to split from the group, 2 couples were joined us.

The 1st part visited was quite amazing already, so many beautiful tulips planted in the area. It's planted in square for different color and type of Tulips. Some of them already bloomed a lot, such as the "Yellow Sun" Tulip with its beautifully ruffled golden yellow blooms. Deep lilac Passionale tulip was attracted us, its color was stand out among others. Our friend was kind enough to take our family picture. Botanical Tulip (Giuseppe Verdi) were also beautiful with its lovely bright gold, wide red stripes on the inside and carmine stripes on the outside. We spent quite a long time there taking many pictures there, till we realized that there were still many other location to be visited in the garden.

We crossed a white bridge, taking the footpath to continue the journey. On the left side of the path we could see 5 big round pots surrounding a smaller pot, the pots dominated with red, pink, yellow and white color of flowers, very few leaves shown. At the right side we could sit on benches with background of Tulip to enjoy the garden, bi-colors tulip and fringe tulips type planted here. Unfortunately we could not take picture in the middle of the flower such as the previous place, they put ropes to avoid people step on the grass. Wandering the garden here was quite shady as some big trees were sheltering us.

Arriving at "Irene" pavilion, we saw a big organ displayed as the decoration. A small pond with its tree fountain was as the main attraction in this area, beautiful purple prince tulips were planted on a big pot at the edge of the pool. Some of us taking time to go to the restroom as the weather quite mild and we didn't know how long we could find another restroom again in the garden. While waiting for them, we kept taking pictures with beautiful rows of Tulips under the high trees. Queen of Night tulip which its color almost black was found near to the river stream.

We remembered that our TL had mentioned around the big pool is very beautiful view with many Tulips. We were rather lost track as we passed by many big trees with no flowers, we decided to turn and tried to find the shortest path to the big pool as the time keep ticking. After walking for a few minutes... finally we could find the right track. We found so many Tulips surrounding the pool, it made us very excited and speechless. Taking pictures from any angles were beautiful, it needed no photography expert to do it :-) They arranged the garden beautifully decorated with different colors Tulips. Combining with purple small flower (looked like Lavender) on the hilly contour had created an amazing view. We didn't have enough time to go around the big pool with its fountain, as our next destination to Windmill was far at the other side of the pool. I'm very fond of the combination of flower, water and blue sky, it's refreshing our soul.

We passed by small hut with Keukenhof signage, it's beautifully decorated with Tulips at the front, while the background big trees with green and red color such as during fall. Next to it was "Wilhemina" pavilion with a small cafeteria, unfortunately we didn't want to waste our time for drinking or snack time as we still had many places to explore. I wish I could have time to sit down admire the garden while having your coffee or tea, maybe someday I'll be back there with more time to explore the whole garden, not in a rush.

At the edge of the pool we could find some colorful beautiful ducks, unfortunately I didn't have bread to feed them. Near another bridge to pass by, there was a small garden with white horse and its jockey statue. We asked the other visitor's assistance to take our group picture, as we didn't go with our TL who often helped us taking group picture :-) The garden also had a white statue of Tulip bulb as the symbol and decoration. I kept taking many pictures while others kept walking, I was almost always the last in the group then I had to run to catch them.

To cross the pool there were also step stones on the water, close to the fountain. Some people taking this path, actually I would like to try and ask others to take my picture. As I was the last, nobody could help me, so I just took the picture of the view. We still found bunch of Tulips on the way to Willem-Alexander Pavilion. It's an indoor museum where you could find display of Tulips and various flowers other than Tulip. As we ran out of time, we just saw at a glance while we passed, we didn't explore the museum. The museum surrounding by small pool, surrounding by a green field with Tulips. Our young couple friends took a nice picture sitting on the green grass field next to the Tulips.

Finally we reach the windmill area, there was some straw piles as the bench for people to enjoy the park, it's cool, unfortunately all seat had been taken although it's under the sunshine. There's also a high small hut with shelter contains of a person, you had to climb the wooden ladders to sit on it. While taking picture, lucky me there's a straw pile leaving by persons, so I took it over fast to take picture alternately with my sister and my brother-in-law. Some food sellers on the cart were available here. You could shop for souvenirs too in the store next to the windmill. We didn't have a chance to go up to the windmill, anyway taking picture with tulips as foreground and windmill as background was quite satisfying.

Near the windmill there's a boat on the river, you could go by boat trip, no time at all for this. The time given had been finished, so we had to go to the meeting point at the entrance gate. Walking to the entrance we pass through a big green field, picnic area where there's a playground for children. I took some flying pose of my sisters and friends there, while for myself, I ran to the other side of the fields attempted with many colorful Tulips. I took selfie with the Tulips as my background, then a kind woman brought SLR camera was helping me to take my picture using my iphone.

We still stopped by some places to take beautiful pictures. My brother-in-law was able to take a good picture of my sisters on the square long pool with Tulips at the left and right side of the pool. Some cone form trees were also decorated beautifully at the side among Tulips and flowers. Dogs are allowed in Keukenhof as long as they are leashed, we met some dogs with their master. We saw a cute white and grey hairy dog was walking on the garden with her master, we stopped by to greet and caress the cute long fur dog. The dog was very friendly, unfortunately she's quite old, 11 years old already. The dog enjoyed our meeting even her master welcome us to touch the dog.

Running to the exit, we could not find other participant anymore at the entrance gate meeting point, then we checked our WhatsApp group, in fact they were already in the bus at the parking lot, we were the last participants arrived. We still would like to explore more the beautiful scenery and flowers at Keukenhof, unfortunately the time was not enough unless we'll miss the bus. If you visit Netherland in Apr or early May, don't forget to stop by Keukenhof at Lisse, wander the beautiful fields, pavilions and flowers of Keukenhof is very worthy, relaxing and interesting. Weekend is quite crowded, Mon to Wed is less busy while for the hours before 10:30 is better. Free wifi is available around pavilions in the park, you could borrow wheel-chair free of charge (just need deposit which would be returned later) if needed.

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Fenghuang, China most beautiful old town

In Sep 2018, 15 of us majority friends from Kediri with my mom as the eldest among us joined tour to China, Fenghuang was one of the city we visited. It’s quite a long journey to Zhangjiajie using flight, train and bus, from Surabaya – Hongkong – Guangzhou by flight then staying overnight in Guangzhou. The next day riding around 3 hous bullet train to Changsha, then continuing by bus for 6 hours to Fenghuang with distance about 400 km.

Finally almost dark we arrived at a bridge decorated beautifully with phoenix bird lighting at the left and right of the bridge. It's Fenghuang, at the Southwest of Tujia-miao Autonomous Prefecture of Xiangxi in Hunan, we checked in to Fengting hotel, having dinner before start exploring the city. During dinner we also celebrated my mom’s birthday, the birthday cake from our tour agent was beautiful and yummy, I preferred eating the cake than the main course :-). The main attraction in Fenghuang (Phoenix) ancient town, is the traditional house decorating with beautiful lighting at the edge of the Tuo Jiang river. It’s not too far from our hotel, just went across the street, then going down to the river bank. Although it’s raining, it didn’t stop us for enjoying the scenery. I brought a small umbrella, but it’s difficult for me to take picture while bringing the umbrella, sometimes my mom or my friend helped to hold the umbrella for me.

I didn’t bring a real camera, just using my smartphone (iphone 8), the quality and zoom feature were limited comparing to SLR camera. Anyway I’m quite happy with the result as the actual view was fascinating. I kept taking countless pictures of the magnificent scenery traditional house and bridge decorating with colorful light that illuminated to the river. Using iphone, the face of persons were too dark, if I use flash the beautiful background could not be captured well. Our tour leader was creative enough, she turned on her smartphone lamp to light up our face while our friend taking the picture.

The trail along the river bank was not smooth, we had to be careful, the path was made from stones and quite slippery while raining. I tried to guard my mom, walking hand in hand slowly, it’s quite embarassing when I was the one who slipped and falled down when stepping down stairs. Lucky nothing was hurt and my smartphone was not broken, just getting wet on my pants and a little bit dirty of the dust. After that my mom didn't trust me anymore, she preferred walking by herself and refused me to hold her hand. We've got a chance to take some pictures together on the colorful light bridge on the river with glittering houses belong to Miao ethnic as the background.

It's getting late, almost 22:00 o'clock, our guide asked us to rush as she was afraid that the shops would be closed soon, they were located around 20 minutes walked from our starting point. Passing by the seller either on the street or shop, we were not allowed to shop as she would like to show us the landmark of Fenghuang first.

The 21-meter tall Wanming Tower stands at the foot of Qinglong Mountain, on the north bank of the Tuojiang River was our destination. It’s very beautiful at night with yellow light surrounding the tower. We queued to take picture in front of the tower. Diaojia Building the landmark previously was home of the richest man in Fenghuang facing directly to the river and near the beautiful rainbow bridge. There were some traditional boats which could be rent for sailing along the river, we didn't take it as we still would like to explore the village.

The 2 storey rainbow bridge art building was built in 1368 AD, we didn’t go on top of the bridge, just admired the charming lighting decorating the bridge from the river bank. Illumation of yellow light on the arc of the bridge created an awesome scenery. Sometimes a traditional boat decorating with lights passed under the bridge. Under the bridge there were some bronze statues showed people activities.

We stopped by at a shelter where we could take the picture of Wanming Tower and the river from the other side. There were a service for taking picture wearing the traditional clothes. My couple friend rented the clothes and took pictures from different angles with colorful light scenery as the background. She looked beautiful like the local people as she has a fair skin and small eyes.

It’s free time after that, so I kept walking to explore the shops with my mom and my friend from Jakarta. Some restaurants, coffee shop and bars were also available along the road. We tried to find souvenirs for our relatives and friends, this is one of Indonesian people habit when traveling. Some pastel colors pashminas were attracted us, we bought some soft beautiful pashminas in the store. We passed by a fruit seller on the street, the fruit was yellow with some small bulges, we didn’t dare to buy and taste it, do you know the name and the taste?

As it’s getting late, and we’re afraid of getting lost, we decided to turn back to the hotel using the same way, actually we could go by taxi there, but I still would like to take some pictures of the river and stroll the narrow alley. On the way back, my friend accompanied my mom to go first as I often stopped taking some pictures. We also got a chance to stop by at the seller on the street to buy imitation silver bracelet, necklace and beautiful hand embroidery paintings. You could bargain to buy stuffs both on the street and in the stores.

The next morning, after breakfast I rushed to go down to the river again. It’s already the time to check out and go to the bus, as I saw some of our friends were still not there, they were not check out yet, I asked my friend to accompany my mom so I could run to the river to see what it looked like. My tour leader said that the picturesque night scenery is much more beautiful comparing to the day scenery.

Quite surprising I met my couple friends from Semarang at the river bank. I saw 3 women wearing traditional clothes taking picture, they have difficulty as it’s drizzle, making the stairs and footpath were wet while their dress was quite long, so they had to manage it well avoid the dirt. From my opinion, the day scenery still looked good with the traditional house and beautiful form of the bridge with the mist pervades the scene, only the water was not too clean, the colour was brown at that time and the houses were looked rather gloomy. It's different from the night scene which looked brighter and shining.

Lucky my friend was there, so we could help each other to take picture. We didn’t dare to go further as we’re afraid the group will leave us soon. Some pictures were able to take to capture day scenery in Fenghuang. In front of our hotel was nice too, we could see the mountains covering with cloud at that morning.

Although the journey to reach Fenghuang was quite a long time, we’re quite happy with the amazing night view with it’s traditional unique wooden houses built on stilts, settled by Miao & Tujia ethnic, the minority tribes in China. The natural beauty scenery which well-preserved more than 300 years looks like traditional Chinese paintings.

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Modern Cheonggyecheon Stream in Seoul

In early Apr 2016 after visiting the secret garden at Changdeok Palace, my friend and I would like to go to Cheonggyecheon stream, which was renovated in 2003 to its present form today, it's one of the place destination that we must visit as it's quite popular for Korea's people hanging around. We planned to walk from the palace to the place, we passed by many stores and restaurants, even go cross some streets, but it seemed a never ending walk, we're so tired, we called a cab to continue

Most of taxi driver in Korea could not speak English, anyway they are very friendly, I showed him the map where we would like to go, as I also could not pronounce well Cheonggyecheon stream :-) We asked him to stop at the edge of the stream which run through downtown Seoul, it's very obvious near Cheonggye Plaza and you could see the crowd, so you would not get lost. With high spirit as finally we could find it, we took some pictures under the sunshine, we're facing the sun until we could not see our camera screen so just count on our feeling, taking picture for selfie above the stream, before we're going down to the river.

Actually there's a fountain on the beginning of the 11km modern public recreation stream, unfortunately it's not played at that time. A small water fall was quite interesting beside the stairs to go down to the river, it flew from the level of the fountain going down to the river. At the left and right side of the river were pedestrian that people could walk, but we also could sit at the stairs at the edge of the river for chatting, or just enjoying the clear water and mild weather.

We continued strolling the river, till we found some square stones put in the middle of the river for people to cross from one side to another side of the river, we took many pictures there. Then we took a rest and enjoy by sitting on the stairs at the edge of the river. Our feet were soaring as we had walked around Seoul since morning. It's a good place to take a rest and seeing others enjoy the environment with their own activity and style. Creating an environment with clean water and natural habitats was the most significant achievement of the project, it could invite more fishes & birds, also cool down the temperature.

Almost sunset so we decided to continue exploring Seoul, we tried to find toilet, all of a sudden when we went up the stairs, we're just realized that the place was really close to 20,000m2 Gwanghwamun square where we could find two statues of Admiral Yi Sun-Shin and Sejong the Great, who are great and influential people in Korean history. The square was quite huge, I tried to take photos while jumping, unfortunately my friend had difficulty to catch it, lucky finally my friend could get my jump after several jumps. Some tends were available on the square, we didn't visit them, it seemed they were selling something, we're too tired to go there.

My friend was exhausted and feeling cold because it's very windy. She preferred to wait for me below at the basement where there were some shops while I was taking some pictures of beautiful colorful flowers decorating the square. The flower was quite beautiful with many colors and they arranged it well in the ellipse pots. The distance between 2 statues were very far, I walked to the front of the other statue to be able taking both statues with the flower and Bukaksan Mountain as the background. It's very difficult to get the proper angle, I had to be patient to wait for other people finished taking picture. My friend was kind enough waiting for me to finish my desire capturing all of them.

If I'll go to Korea again, definitely I would visit Cheonggyecheon stream, as I haven't explored many sides at that time, such as visiting the coffee shop along the stream.

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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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Beautiful Hallim Park, Jeju Island, South Korea

I joined Jeju daily tour to West course on 28th Apr 2016, one of the visited place was the colorful Hallim Park. The park was divided into 9 sections, unfortunately we didn't have enough time to explore all of them as the tour guide only gave us 70 minutes to explore around 100.000 square meters park. The tour guide shared the park map then he brought us to the entrance of Hyeopjae & SsangYong cave passing through the palm tree avenue. As the time was limited, and we're more interested in flower, my friend and I decided to skip the cave.

On the way to the cave we saw beautiful cherry blossom, so we went back to the path. To take pictures under the white cherry we had to wait for a family finishing the shot. Lucky they were kind enough to help us taking photo with both of us under the tree. We also took our own picture alone for recording the short season of cherry blossom.

To save time we directly went to tulip garden which was located next to the cave in "wild grass & flower garden" section. The path was decorated with colorful tulips on the big pot and some human stone statues with stone benches to take a rest and enjoy the scenery. My friend loved the stone statue and wanna take some pictures. We kept walking until finding overlay white flower unfortunately we didn't know the flower's name.

Continue walking following the path we're happy to find bunch of tulips, the color was very attractive, bright orange combining with yellow while the other was pink combining with white. The red one was quite beautiful, the white color looked like lace decorating the edge of the flower. We took some pictures from different angle to capture its beauty. They're planted in the plastic bag, not directly on the ground.

Crossing through a wooden bridge on the pond, we took picture in front of a woman brought water to fill the big water jar. At the next area we found another bunch of light pink tulips and orange tulips. It's surrounding by some stones for decorating. On the way out from the area we passed through the line of human stone statue again.

We skipped "Jeju stone & bonsai garden", continue to the "Jae-Am folk village" where we could see Korean human stone statues to describe their daily activities such as playing with their children, also some animal stone statues such as horse, pig, etc. The house was also built from stone and wood with thatched roof. The real food seller in the traditional house were available to sell Korean snacks.

We kept trying to find cherry blossom garden, I saw cute kindergarten children enjoyed the bird park. I could see a peacock in the cage spreading its beautiful wings to attract others. An ostrich was walking back and forth near the peacock's cage. Beautiful orange combining with yellow color flowers were arranged next to the bird garden. We tried to use our selfie stick to capture it, unfortunately the selfie stick's button was not working, so I took a video instead of photo.

On the next path beautiful cherry blossom trees became shelter of a family monument. We thought it's the cherry garden, the end of our searching. I still liked to take some more pictures while my friend would like to find souvenirs in the shop near the exit gate, so we were split. 10 minutes before the gathered time, I've just realized that the cherry garden was at the other side, I met one of my friend in the trip from Singapore, she confirmed the direction to the cherry garden. As it's a very short time, I ran to the location. I found many cherry blossom trees there, I took many pictures, lucky that a woman was kind enough to help me taking my pictures on the bench in the garden. The result is very satisfying, she took three times with different layout without me asking for it. Finally I ran to the pink cherry, and did selfie pose :-)

Running to the exit gate was very tiring, actually I passed the "water garden" which must be quite interesting as it became the campaign picture of Hallim park. Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to see it, unless the bus will leave me behind and I had to catch the bus by myself to the next destination. Lucky I could arrive on the bus on time. I think they should provide more time so we could enjoy the park more relax and visit all of the areas in the park.

Don't miss to visit the park, I think it's worthy to stop by there especially in spring or summer. I was lucky that I could experience cherry blossom. Jeju is warmer than Seoul, so the cherry blossom is earlier.

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