Historic Jewel Monument - Chateau De Chillon

On the rainy day on Saturday, 3 of my colleagues and I decided to visit Chateau De Chillon in Montreux. Montreux is also known as the pearl of the Swiss Riviera. The place could be reached by boat or by train from Lausanne, unfortunately one of my colleague easily get drunk on the boat, and the boat was only sailed on Sunday, so we decided to take the train, it cost CHF 20.4 for round trip. While waiting for my colleague bought a local phone card in the train station, I took some pictures of the train station, there’s a big clock in the middle of two beautiful guardian angels with the wings.


The train strolled along the edge of the beautiful lake which is surrounding by Alps mountains. Around half an hour we had arrived in Montreux, unfortunately we could not see the chateau when we went out from the station. I’ve informed that we could just walk from the station along the lake’s shore, because the castle is at the lake side, and you could see the castle right away. I didn’t bring any brochure or map about it, I think we would find it easily as informed. Unfortunately we could not see any castle, so under the rain and strong wind, I tried to find a person to find a person to ask the direction and any transportation needed. The worse thing that most people in Montreux speak French, they could not speak English. Lucky that I have written the place name, because when I pronounce it, people there could hardly understand it because of accent difference. Lucky that I could ask a girl at the bus stop, I tried to speak English with her, it seemed that she didn’t understand me, so I showed her what I wrote. Thanks God, she told me to go across the street and go down through the stairs that you could find many buses there. We didn’t know which the way, accidentally I saw a sign for tourist information office, I ran there to find the info.

The office was not too big, a girl at the receptionist desk gave me a very clear info with a map, she’s also so kind to give me coins change to ride the bus. It took 45 minutes to walk along the lake, while just 10 minutes by bus. I was confused to find my colleagues, none of them presented in front of the office. It’s very windy and chilly, I had to wear my gloves to avoid the chill breeze. Alas, finally I could find them at the lake shore, taking photos. Not taking along time for me to join them taking some pictures  Then, quickly we went to the bus stop, it cost CHF 3.2, we could see the castle when we step down from the bus.

An architectural jewel located in the most beautiful setting imaginable, between the shores of Lake Geneva and the Alps, this monument with over 1,000 years of history, has always inspired artists and writers, from Jean-Jacques Rousseau to Victor Hugo and Lord Byron, from Delacroix to Courbet. Excavations carried out from the end of the 19th century, in particular by the archeologist Albert Naef (1862-1936), affirm that this site has been occupied since the Bronze Age. Entering the chateau costs CHF12, and additional audio guide (iPod) rental costs CHF6 with French, German, English, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Chinese and Japanese language. It takes 1.5 to 2 hours to go around the place.

In its current state, the Chateau De Chillon is the result of several centuries of constant building, adaptations, renovations and restorations. The rocky island on which the castle is built, was both a natural protection and a strategic location to control the passage between northern and southern Europe. We didn’t rent the iPod, but we could go through the chambers because they provide numbers in each place, so the visitors could explore on the subsequent way, although they don’t understand exactly what’s the story behind each chamber. I met with cute children during the visit, I got a chance to take pictures with them. From the window of some rooms, you could see the lake with its beautiful scenery.

Unfortunately we could not finish visiting all rooms, because we’re starving. After taking the bus back, near the train station we stopped by an Indian restaurant, its chicken kebab was very delicious.

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Unforgettable crispy bebek bengil

When we had a business meeting in Bali, we decided to extend for weekend by personal account expenses. My colleague’s brother were kind enough to bring us to go around Bali. One of the most exciting place to visit was “Bebek Bengil”, in English it’s called “dirty duck diner”. Why is it called dirty? As the owner said during building the restaurant a flock of ducks ran quacking and squawking into the restaurant and across the floor and tables. They left muddy webbed footprints all over the place. They were their first guests - those dirty ducks.


For tourist, it’s not too easy to find the place, because it’s in the village in Padang Tegal, Ubud (phone: 62-361- 975 489), there was no clear address with number such as in the city. You could not park in front of the restaurant, but you have to park in the open air fields then walking to go to the restaurant. It’s rather inconvenience to walk under the rain. The ambience was very nice, rice fields just right behind the restaurant, of course there were some ducks were playing and finding food in the fields. Some separate bungalows or rooms were provided for visitors, you could sit on the chair or just sit on the floor such as in traditional Japanese restaurant. It’s raining, we had to close the curtain to avoid the water dropped to our tables, we could not see the fields from our table, but the weather became nicer and colder.

All of us were ordered the special bebek bengil, it took quite a long time, because all of us were starving :-), the time was already over the lunch time. The dish served in a big plate with complete garnish. A half of very crispy and yummy duck was the main course. We didn’t wait any longer to eat and enjoy the food. If you like spicy and hot food, they provide many kind of chilly to complete the taste. I really like the duck, although I don’t eat the chilly, the taste was still very delicious.


After finishing eating, we were lucky, the rain was almost stop, it's just a drizzling rain, we need to bring an umbrella to go back to the entrance. The scenery were beautiful, so I could not avoid the temptation to take pictures. To get better picture, I didn’t mind leaving the umbrella and pose under the rain :-), you could enjoy some of my photos here he...he… There were some pools with lotus and other plants, and also some ethnic Balinesse statues with the ducks.


I plan to go back there someday, whenever I visit Bali. If you like duck, please spare your time to visit the place, it’s very worthy to enjoy the food and the ambience.

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Awesome Montana Ski Resort

Do you want to experience white Christmas? You should visit Switzerland for it :-)
It’s unbelievable, everywhere I saw incredible scenery, such as in postcard. Today is Sunday, this morning it’s snowing, of course it’s freezing, but we plan to go to the mountain to see the ski resort. After breakfast, our lovely friend picked up us at Movenpick hotel, Lausanne at 09:00. On the way up to the mountain, I could not stop enjoying the scenery, I took many pictures from the car. The weather was not too good, it’s foggy, but sometimes the sun shone quite strong, so that I could get some good pictures.


It’s a nice surprised when our friend brought us entered a house in the resort area, hola.. he had a nice house there. It’s very hommy and comfortable with very beautiful scenery through all the windows. His family was there since Saturday, we had coffee while his family prepared for going skiing. They love skiing, his youngest daughter is 12 years old, but she could play ski well. It’s time for going to the ski area now, unfortunately I only wore a usual sport shoes, my friend was kind enough to lend me his daughter’s boot. Lucky that my feet could fit in well  We had to walk to the higher place to the cable car station, I never do any sport activities, so I was very tired and I could not breath well because of climbing and cold. Everyone had to slow down because of me, it’s quite embarrassing.

At the cable car station, there was a long queue for buying the ticket. What made me more amazed, most of them are family, even with very young children around 5 years old. They were very cute with the complete suits for skiing. The cable car took us to the top of the mountain, the beautiful ski resorts could be seen clearly from the cable car, it’s very gorgeous. The real Christmas trees were there, you only need to add light at night for celebrating Christmas and St. Claus flying on top of the trees , I could not stop admiring it. We arrived at the top, there were some activities for racing, the skiers were even dare to jump and split on the air. Most of them were experts already, it seemed easy but I’m sure that they had to practice it many times. Just a few minutes on the open air made us shivering, so we decided to have lunch at the restaurant.

Wine was one of our selection to warm our body, the wind and snow rain was getting worse while we were in the restaurant, but amazingly people kept skiing. My friend ordered fondue, while I ordered steak. Fondue was one of the popular traditional menu in Swiss, I tried my friend portion, it tasted good, I like it. The fondue served on a pan that they put on the small fire on the table. The bread must be torn by hand, then you put it on something like a fork but smaller and longer to be dipped on the cheese (fondue) in the pan. It tasted almost like pizza.

After having lunch, we took some pictures under the snow rain in front of the restaurant. Then we went down by cable car, because we’re afraid of the bad traffic jam back to Lausanne if we’re staying too long. On the way to the house, we stopped at an open area where we could play with the snow or taking good pictures with beautiful background. It’s very difficult to walk on the thick snow, our feet always sank on the snow, we could not step as stable as on the land. Thank God that I wore the boot not wearing my usual sport shoes. Actually we want to stay longer enjoy the fresh environment, unfortunately we had to return soon avoid the traffic jam.

The weekend was very unforgettable and remarkable, I never forget it all of my life. Thank you to Giorgio who are kind-hearted to bring us there, I really appreciate it.

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Solo Kingdom - Keraton Surakarta

It took around an hour from Yogyakarta to Surakarta by car, there were 5 of us with a driver, so we jostled in a car with our luggages :-). Also known for Solo, is a small town which is famous of its historic kratons and local craft-making places. One of our destination was Surakarta Royal Palace, a palace ex Kasunanan Surakarta Hadiningrat Kingdom (1755-1946) which was build by Susuhunan Pakubuwono II at 1744. Now Indonesia government is acknowledge Surakarta or Sala or Solo as one of the city as part of Indonesia, no more as a kingdom.


The traditional ceremony is still happened during special event, some history stuffs are kept and maintained in the kingdom which becomes one of the interesting places to visit for any visitors in Solo. We had to park the car outside the area, buying an entrance ticket, then walking to the building along the streets. Some guides are available at the building entrance to accompany the guests explaining about the history. It’s very hot, so my colleague bought a batik wood fan for all of us. The guide showed us the hierarchy of the dynasti family before exploring the place.

The Sri Manganti complex is quite big, to enter from north, there is a gate called “Kori Kamandungan”. Two main buildings were exist e.g. Bangsal Smarakatha at West and Bangsal Marcukundha at East. Bangsal Smarakatha was used to held promotion for senior official staffs, now it’s used for traditional dance practice or puppet show while Bangsal Marcukundha was used to held promotion for junior official staffs or punish vonis for sending sentence for member of monarchy kingdom, now it’s used for “sunat” (circumcision) the kingdom family.

At southwest Bangsal Marcukundha is Kedhaton yard with the gate called “Kori Ageng” built by Susuhunan Pakubuwono IV at 1792. When we arrived there, the guide asked me to put off my sandals to enter the yard. I’m not used to walk on bare feet, so I refused to do it and preferred waiting on the bench outside the yard. My colleagues forced me to join them walking on the yard, I reluctant to do it, but I felt uneasy while all of them were waiting for me. Apparently the yard has no gravel at all, it’s covered with black soft sand from south beach, people were not allowed wearing sandal to keep it clean and sacred. Even people said that it could cure some illness. 76 rare “Sawo Kecik” trees (Manilkara kauki; Famili Sapotaceae) grew beautifully in the yard, it made the weather colder and visitors could walk comfortably under the trees’ shade. Some beautiful European statues were also adorned the yard.

Three main building in Kedhaton yard are Sasana Sewaka, the most important building to save heritage stuffs; Sasana Handrawina for gala dinner VIP guests; and the tower Panggung Sangga Buwana for the king meditation place and monitor VOC fortress, it’s an octagon tower around 30 meters height. The fairy tale said that the tower is for the king to meet the spirit of the queen (Nyai Roro Kidul) from south beach, only the king is allowed to enter the building, it's very sacred.

After enjoying the zephyr yard, we went to other part of the area to see the museum, where we could see king’s carriage that was used for important ceremony. Some historical stuffs, such as keris (Javanese weapon), a cannon, a giant row that people used to sail through the river from the ocean, also a giant umbrella, miniature of the buildings, etc.

At west side of Kedhaton is close for public, nobody is allowed to publish it so nobody knows the actual activities in the area. It’s for the formal resident of the king royal family, and it’s still used until now. At the other area called Sitihinggil Kidul with its small building, the area is used to maintain the heritage stuff e.g. an albino buffalo called “Kyai Slamet”. The buffalo was sacred and adored by people around Solo. During certain ceremony, there will be procession of the buffalo with many people greeting it along the street.

It’s noon time, lunch time, all of us were starving and could not stand the hot weather. We stopped the exploring to go back to the car and of course our next destination was the famous restaurant called “Adem Ayem” at Jl. Slamet Riyadi. They provided traditional menu, such as gudeg, timlo, fried chicken, mix rice, soto, nasi langgi, nasi liwet, etc. I selected 2 portions, timlo and nasi langgi for my menu, it’s quite nice, and it really made me full :-)

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Repository of Cultural Treasures – Todaiji, Nara

During breakfast in the hotel, I wonder why my travel friends brought quite lots of white bread wrapping them with tissue papers, I thought they would eat them in the bus during our trip to Nara. When we arrived in the park, I’d just realized that they would like to feed the deers. Nara Park (Nara Koen) is a large, pleasant park in central Nara, established in 1880. The park is home to hundreds of freely roaming deer. Considered messengers of the Gods in Shinto, Nara's deer have become a symbol of the city and have even been designated a National Treasure. Actually you also could buy from the sellers in the park, something crispy for feeding them. My friend gave me some bread in the tissue paper, the roaming deer was not patient enough, they even ate the tissue paper, there’s not enough time for me to open it. Unfortunately I could not speak Japanese :-), so I could not prohibit them to eat it.

It is the location of many of Nara's main attractions including Todaiji, Kasuga Taisha, Kofukuji and the Nara National Museum (specialized in Buddhist art). Todaiji ("Great Eastern Temple") is one of Japan's most famous and historically significant temples and a landmark of Nara. By paying 500¥ you could enter the temple, which opens 7:30 (8:00 from Nov through Mar), closes 17:30 (16:30 from Nov through Feb, 17:00 in Mar and Oct). The main entrance to the temple is through the 13th-century Nandaimon (Great Southern Gate). It features two impressive guardian statues of the Nio (Benevolent Kings), carved in 1203 and each more than 8 meters tall.

Todaiji, a temple complex in the city of Nara in Nara Prefecture, was constructed in 752 on the order of Emperor Shomu as the head temple of all provincial Buddhist temples of Japan and grew so powerful that the capital was moved from Nara to Nagaoka in 784 in order to lower its influence on government affairs. At the time Buddhism was at its height, and served as a state religion. Todajji's main temple building, the Daibutsu-den (Great Buddha Hall), 48 meters (157 feet) in height, is said to be the largest wooden building in the world. This is especially impressive in light of the fact that the present reconstruction (from 1692) is only two thirds of the original temple's size. Within the precincts of the temple, aligned along one-kilometer north-south and east-west axes centered on the Daibutsu-den, are an array of other buildings, including halls and storehouses, seven of which are National Treasures. By virtue of being one of the major historical temples in Japan, Todaiji Temple also possesses many valuable cultural artifacts. More than 20 of these Buddhist statues and other works of art are National Treasures. The repository for them, Shosoin, lives up its name of the Treasure House of the World.


The original complex also contained two 100-meter-high pagodas, probably the tallest buildings in the world at the time, but these were destroyed by earthquake. Todaiji is famous for housing Japan's largest Buddha statue. It depicts the Buddha Vairocana and, like the one at Kamakura, is commonly known as the Daibutsu (Great Buddha). The Daibutsu is made of copper and bronze, weighs 250 tons and stands 30 meters tall. His intricate hairstyle is made of 966 bronze balls.

Also of interest in the Daibutsu-den are the rear support pillars, which have holes through the bottom. Popular belief has it that if one is successful in squeezing through one of these "healing pillars," he or she is guaranteed a place in Heaven. So many Japanese students visited the temple during my visit, some of them were dare to try to go through the hole. The hole was very narrow, it’s almost impossible for a fat girl or boy to go through it. Whenever anybody succeeded to go through, the people would give applauses.

Outside the Daibutsuden at the bottom of the steps, don't miss the bronze Octagonal Lantern, one of the oldest treasures in Todaiji — it dates from the original 8th-century temple. The lantern's support post is inscribed with a Buddhist text on the merits of lighting lanterns.

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World Heritage Tourism - Prambanan

Prambanan, locally people called Roro Jonggrang is one of the largest Hindu temple compound in Yogyakarta, Central Java. It takes around 20 minutes (17 kilo metres) from Yogyakarta city. Built in the 10th century during 2 different kingdoms, i.e. Rakai Pikatan and Rakai Balitung. Since 1991 it became the member of Unesco World Heritage Center



Unfortunately some parts of the temple were ruined during the earthquake on the 27th May 2006 with 5.9 in Richter scale. Now it's under renovation, they do the rehabilitation step by step, as you could see in the photo, the main temple was on renovation during my trip on Nov 2008. If you want to donate some funding, I think it would be very helpful and it will speed up the recovery.

Rising above the centre of the last of these concentric squares are three temples facing to the East, decorated with reliefs illustrating the epic of the Ramayana, dedicated to the three great Hindu divinities (Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma) and three temples facing to the West, dedicated to the animals who serve them. Each of this God shrines facing to a smaller shrines for their vehicles. The cow, Nandi, is the vehicle of Shiva, the destroyer god, and eagle, Garuda, is the vehicle of Vishnu, the creator god, and the swan, Angsa, is the vehicle of Brahma, the guardian god. The temple height is 47 metres, higher than Borobudur.

In the middle of the area, the government built a large green garden. You also could enjoy the water fountain with some beautiful water plants. Shiva is in the middle with 4 rooms, each room is facing to different direction (East, South, West and North). The first one contains 3 metres high of Shiva statue , while others contain a smaller statue for, Durga (his wife), Agastya (his teacher), Ganesa (his son).

The Durga statue is called as Roro/Loro Jongrang (slim girl) by local people. It's a legend that a king named Boko had a very beautiful daughter. Bandung Bondowoso was interested to marry her, unfortunately she refused him because she didn't love him. Finally she agreed to marry him as long as he could build 1000 temples for a night. He agreed and started building the temple helping by the spirit. Roro Jonggrang was worried that he could finish it, so she started to wake up her waiting maids to start hit the rice, it made the cock cackled as if it's morning. The temples had reached 999 temples, he was very angry to know that she was deceitful him, so he used his magic to make her the statue to decorate the last temple.

When we walked back to the park area, we could visit some stalls which sold souvenirs, such as becak and bicycle miniatur made from iron, various handicrafts, batik clothes, etc. You have to bargain to buy here, unless you would get a more expensive price comparing to buy in the supermarket or mall. If you like historical place, don't forget to visit it, take it in the morning to avoid hot.

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Hideous Lawang Sewu

The name Lawang sewu means Thousand Doors, but among the local Javanese the name conotates an eerie haunted house with a tragic history. This Dutch colonial building was built in 1863 by C. Citroen. It was the branch office for the Dutch Indonesian train company. The Dutch architect were Prof. Jacob F. Klinkhamer and B.J Queendag. In 1920 it was used as the head office of Nederlandsch Indishe Spoorweg Naatschappij (NIS).


When you entered the main door, then climbing the stairs, you could see a big beautiful mozaic windows, at noon when the sun shines, the beautiful colour painting on the window glass were clearly seen. Most of the rooms were broken and unconserved, but the building was still strong. It took quite a huge area in the middle of Semarang city, you could see a beautiful round garden accross the building. I could imagine that there used to be many people working in the building a long time ago during Dutch colonial.

The building were divided into some parts, the bathroom were separated from the main building, until now the guard still uses it for taking a bath. The building consists of 3 levels up, and a level down. A long alley with some pillars were surrounded the building, it's good to take picture he..he.. Some small domes were build on top of the building. There was a wide yard with some old trees in the center of the building. I'm sure the building was very luxurious during 19 century.

When the Japanese invaded in 1942, they used it as a gruesome interrogation headquarter where they jailed and killed a lot of Indonesians. They used the basement as the squat jail and standing jail with no windows at all, just a small square ventilation hole for getting air (oxygen) and sunshine. You could see the basement ventilation in the picture at the bottom of the building. Sometimes the basement were flooded with water. At the squat jail you could not even stand, because it's too low. I could not imagine how they could keep alive in that kind of rooms. Poor them.

Long standing reports of multiple ghost sightings in this building has turned it into a local destination for tourists who would make their visit on weekend nights to experience this legendary haunted house. I don't dare to visit it at night, how about you? If you visit it, there were some guides who could accompany you to tell the story, unfortunately some old pictures, the building itself seem not taking care well. Anyway Semarang government has counted it as one of the historical assets that should be maintained.

Pictures were taken by Made Agus S, thanks for sharing it with us

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