Picturesque panoramic view of OIA - Santorini

After a long journey from Jakarta, around 16 hours without counting waiting time during transit, transit at 3 airports in 3 different countries (Jakarta-Singapore-Istanbul-Athena-Santorini), finally we reached Santorini around lunch time. A bus picked us up in the airport, it's quite small for 16 of us with big luggages. The bus baggage could not store all of the luggages, so the last row of bus passenger seat had to use for piling up the luggages. Bus went directly to the hotel to drop all of us there. The hotel looked great with white walls and stone pathway to the lobby. We were waiting quite a long time to check in, the hotel lobby was not big, but it's quite nice, it could give us shelter from the hot weather outside. After getting the room key, we only got around 30 minutes to fresh up.



My sister and I took a bath in rush and change clothes, so it's very braces. Others had waited for us for lunch. We crossed the street in front of our hotel, Al Greco which has 4 swimming pools. A beautiful scenery of Santorini beach with its island and some small boats passing by were welcoming us. The layering rock on the beach with houses above it was complementary to the scenic scenery. Walking under the sunshine was very tiring especially when we were hungry. It's a pity that the bus didn't drop us to the nearest place to the restaurant.


We went through old town where we could only pass through by foot, or sometimes by riding donkey. The road was narrow, sometimes up and down. So many stores at the left and right of the road selling souvenirs, clothes, hats, bags, etc. A Malay restaurant that providing Chinese food was our destination for lunch after almost an hour walk.

After lunch by bus we went to OIA, exquisite small town, to see the best scenery of Santorini. Santorini is essentially what remains of an enormous volcanic explosion, destroying the earliest settlements on what was formerly a single island, and leading to the creation of the current geological caldera. During the trip to OIA, we saw that the land was very barren. Most of the building were painted white with no roof tile but concrete roof. There were many small chapels with bells as private belonging, but public may use it along the way to OIA.

The bus stopped, we had to continue walking to reach the cliff. The main pedestrian street connects its ends accross the top of the cliff, with many local branches. There was a church right on the edge of the cliff, we took some pictures in front of the church and the beautiful scenery on the cliff. OIA is famous for its imaginary sunset and its narrow passageways get crowded in the evenings. The most popular spot to watch sunset is by the Kastro walls. Before reaching the castle, there was a small way to the other end of the cliff where we could see the beautiful scenery at the right and left side.

It's very amazing, I took many pictures there. Some professional models were also taking pictures at that time, so the place was closed just for them. After another half an hour, they finished and we could take pictures from that side. While waiting for the sunset, my sister and I were sitting on the wall, enjoying the scenery. We didn't want to walk further to the castle, because from that place we could see the panoramic view of Santorini with its unique characteristic view of white buildings and blue dome for the church contrasting with the deep blue of the Aegean Sea in the background. Houses, paths, churches built up skillfully on the northern part of the island, with low-lying cubical houses, made of local stone and whitewashed or limewashed. From where we sat, we could see donkey go down and up the hill riding by tourists. I could not imagine if we stayed in the hotel there, it's very heavy and difficult to bring the luggage because you had to walk on stairs, no escalator, no lift :-)


During the beautiful sunset, we could not see the circle sun, but the red color sky before sunset was beautiful as the background of the OIA panoramic view. On the wayback to the bus stop, we passed by some stores selling cute souvenirs, restaurants, clothes, jewelry, etc. We often stopped to take pictures, because the store design was beautiful especially with its light at night. I bought sweet roasted pistachio nut with sesame, because the seller offered tester and I like it. It's difficult to bring back to Indonesia because it's easily break and they didn't have a good package to avoid the damage.


OIA is beautiful, an ideal place for those seeking peace and quiet. It's very windy, so prepare your jacket, especially for protecting the cold at night.

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Pamukkale, magnificent natural cotton fortress

Turkey is awesome with its magnificent natural resources. One of them was the fabulous white limestone that was used for bathing by people in Hierapolis era, called Pamukkale (a World Heritage Site). Pamuk means cotton in Turkish and Kale fortress, so the name means Cotton Fortress. The white mountain could be seen from the distance, it seemed like snow at the top of the mountain.


We had lunch in a beautiful restaurant with big swimming pool, on the background was the white Pamukkale. It's really amazing, we hurried to finish the lunch, we could not wait for visiting it soon. It's noon time, the sun shone so strong, we stopped by a garden with a nice pool with goose and duck, also a small fountain to take picture. We could see the beautiful Pamukkale from the garden.

There were some entrance to Pamukkale, our bus driver was selected the shortest way. On the bus stop we could not see the white mountain, we had to walk on foot around half an hour passing some ruin historic buildings to reach the leveling pools. For old people or anyone didn't like to walk, there was a shuttle cost 2 Liras/person.

It's so excited when we reached the racking pools. Visitors were able climb all over the "travertines" (collected pools) of mineral water. The water contains of various mineral, people believe that it's good for our health and it could cure diseases. My sister decided to put off her shoes and start playing with the warm water. There was a long dig that people were allowed to take a bath, not in the pool. The guard would shout if somebody tried to walk in to the pool. Because it's quite dangerous by the edge of the cliff, it's very slippery.


I wore sport shoes, it's difficult for me to take off, so I only took some pictures of my sisters from above the wooden bridge. Not too long I was attempted to try the water too. So I put off my shoes and left them on the wooden bridge to approach the travertines. The water was warm, it's not too hot, unfortunately it's not the place where we could swim or soak our body for relaxing. Too many people and too dangerous place for the activities. Anyway the scenery was very amazing, I wanted to stay there longer, but the time was limited.

My friend's children was running around, chasing each other. They played with the water, until their clothes were wet. One of them was falling, it caused her skirt was totally wet. All of us were enjoying visiting the place that we could not find in another place in the world, it's very unique.

Around 500 meters from the travertines, you could swim in the cleopatra's swimming pool cost 30 Turkish liras which has the hot, bubbly water. The swimming pool bottom was not covered with ceramic. It stayed as it was with some ruining of the building, you could see some broken pillars, stone, etc. People say if you open your eyes in the pool, the minerals in the water are supposed to be good for your eyes. You also could sit on the chair at the garden by the swimming pool with the ancient city as the beautiful background. There's also restaurants and shops facing to the pool.


We decided to take the shuttle to be faster going back to the bus, lucky it was raining hard when we arrived on the bus stop not during our visit to the pool. Our hotel was a thermal hotel, which had a thermal water in the pool that contains the same mineral as the travertines. Pam Thermal Hotel exists in the western part of Turkey, in Denizli city and Pamukkale Karahayit region, in the foot of forestry mountain. Karahayit region is also famous for its red water. This thermal spring which has its source within the hotel, fascinates everyone by its formation of beautiful red colored lime stones and thermal pools.


The thermal water of Pam Thermal Hotel all the year is 58 Celcius degree. The natural thermal mud has been used for medicinal and beauty purposes for centuries. This curative water with its thermo mineral and magnesium, calcium, carbon dioxide, sulfide and bicarbonate is suitable in many areas as a curative treatment. You could submerged your body inside the layering pool depend how hot you could stand. Nearer to the top would be hotter. You need to buy a swimming cap cost 2 Liras before you could enjoy the pool. It's very comfortable swimming and submerging in the warm water while the weather's cold. If you don't bring swimming suit, don't worry, you also could do it in the room. The water would be available only in certain hour period as written on the bathroom wall, so you could enjoy the warm curative water in the bathtub.

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Bandung, Paris van Java

During a business trip last Jun 2010 I visited Bandung, where people from Jakarta like to spend their weekend to enjoy shopping, dining and leisure. It’s quite crowded at that time, because it’s school holiday, so many domestic tourists came from other cities made Bandung full of cars and people. I’ve got a chance to enjoy lunch in Ampera restaurant, a traditional Sunda restaurant with beautiful view such as in the village with fish pool, coconut tree and some personal huts which could create more privacy room for any group who wants to gather with friends, relatives, etc.


It’s suggested by our driver to have lunch there, because the location (at Raya Rancabolang 1, Bandung, phone: 62-22-7510000) was near our office and they served traditional food. It’s really a great choice, I love the environment. When we entered the restaurant, we would be directed to go to a row contained of various food that we could select whatever we like to put in a plate. Some of them still needed to be fried, just pay right after finishing your selection, then the waiters would bring it to your table after frying. If you like chili, many kind of crush red pepper and dish of raw vegetables were available for free. You could select the seat location based on your preference, indoor or outdoor. The outdoor view was awesome, it seemed like in a village with some beautiful huts surrounding with fish pool. A big gazebo in the middle of the huts where you could sit on the chairs, sometimes a live music would entertain you while enjoying your meal.

From facebook I found an old friend from my hometown, she’s quite success as a branch manager of a foreign bank. We agreed to meet in Paskal - Hyper Square, Pasir Kaliki 25-27, Bandung. It’s a shopping area where you could find a factory outlet, some restaurants, cafes, and also a food market/court where Bandung people hangout. A daughter of my mom’s friend also met me at the same time. I was glad that we could met after a long time never contacted each other.

The foodcourt ambience was quite fun, so may stalls providing from light snack till heavy meal. One of my colleagues from Bandung’s office accompanied me that night.
I walked from start to end of all stalls to select foods that I like to order. The stand would give a coupon contained your order, you had to collect it and paid together in the cashier. The food would send to your table after you paid. I love light snack, so I ordered quite many kinds of food such as moon cake, fried banana, fried cassava, curry chicken prata, and the traditional mix ice which contains many kind of ingredient such as coconut, jelly, fermented cassava, pineapple served with syrup and coconut milk. If you like heavy meal, don't worry about it, so many variety food from Indonesian, Japanese, Malaysian, Vietnamnesse, Western, and others were available there.

At that night world football tournament was happened, they provided some giant screens for the visitors to see the match with their friends. The weather was quite comfortable, it's colder at night time, no mosquito :-), so the open air environment foodcourt was quite suitable for Bandung. I was interested in the lovely environment, so many young people enjoy the night, they went with their group, even brought a computer. I brought my new camera, I was attempted to take some pictures of the shiny night at Paskal foodcourt.

My friend and I were chatted about many interesting topics, until we didn't realize that the place was closed. The tenant had turned off all the lights around 24:00 o’clock, so it’s time for us to go home. At the gate of the foodcourt there was a garden with water fountain as my beautiful background picture to end the amusing night.

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Magnificent Bromo Mountain

At end of April 2010, we had an Asia Pacific conference, for leisure Bromo was the destination for the foreigners to enjoy beautiful scenery in East Java, Indonesia. The trip from Surabaya to Bromo took quite a long time, about 6 hours, there were 3 buses full of the team. Around 22:00 o'clock finally we reached the hotel in quite cold weather. It's too late, so no many option in the hotel for dinner, just fried rice and fried noodle. We didn't have much time to rest, to see the sunrise we should wake up very early, at 03:00 o'clock in the morning, we would take jeeps from the hotel to Pananjakan. Although there was no aircon, inside room was very cold.


A queue of jeeps with the driver was ready in front of the hotel, there were 4 passengers in a car. It's so dark, but the driver was expert enough to drive on the sandy road and avoid the hole. Because it's dark, we could not see the environment at all, around 45 minutes in the bumpy car, we reached Pananjakan. We had to climb to the top, it took around 20 minutes walking distance, but the road was reclining and it's very cold, until I had to stop to take a long breath and recharged my energy :-)


At the top we're waiting for the sunrise, it's still dark, there were some benches to sit without any roof. Unfortunately it's so cloudy at that time, when the sun was rising, it only showed orange color on the sky, we could not see the sun. It's so windy and cold, the committee brought us some hot drinks such as coffee, milo and tea that could warm our body. If the weather was nice, you could see a beautiful scenery of Bromo and Batok mountains with the sun as the background.

We continued the journey by jeep again to go to Bromo. We started feeling hungry, lucky that there were fruit in the car, so we could feel our stomach with either banana, apple or orange. We stopped by at the slope that we could take pictures of beautiful Batok mountain. The dissatisfaction of imperfect sunrise was healed here. No cloudy weather anymore.

The jeep took us to Bromo mountain through a very steep and small road, some of them were sag, it's very dangerous to drive if you don't know the environment. Only four wheel drive car could pass it then continues to pass the sea sand. At the foot of Bromo mountain, we took a horse to bring us to Bromo's ladder.

I was the last batch, there's not much horses left. I've got a small horse, I was afraid that I was heavier than the horse. My friend said that my legs were longer than the horse's legs :-) Lucky that we could reach the ladder safe and sound. The horse riding was not too easy, although it walked slowly, it had to climb a small path with some stones on it. It's quite slippery, but the horse was trained well already to pass the difficult path successfully.


To go to the top of the active mountain, you should climb a long stairs. It was cloudy so the crater view was not too clear. Anyway the scenery from the ladder was quite beautiful, you could see the horses at the bottom of the stairs who waited for their passengers and also the Hindu temple as the background. Batok mountain with its green color wall was on the other side of the scenery's background. We had a chance to take some group pictures from different angle at Bromo's foot and in front of the temple.

Bromo and Pananjakan had a beautiful scenery unfortunately the facilities for tourists were not good enough. Right in front of our hotel we also could see a picturesque Batok mountain, the concept of the hotel itself was quite good enough, unfortunately it's not maintained well. The proper accomodation, transportation, and other facilities should be improved to attract more tourist, so the excited feeling to enjoy the magnificent scenery won't be ruined with inadequate facility.

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East Kalimantan Beautiful Jewelry

It was the third time I visited Balikpapan on early June 2010. We had lunch at Kemala beach, the sand is light yellow and very soft. It’s located near the city area. The restaurant seemed similar to Jimbaran restaurants in Bali, you could see from the restaurant signage, also from the decoration with black and white square sarongs coverage the pillar and also at the ceiling. There were some stands providing different foods. You could eat inside under the roof or outdoor on the sea sand. We preferred eating indoor, as Indonesian people we don’t like sunbathing, our skin is already too dark :-)


While waiting the food, I went to the edge of the beach to take some pictures. I took off my shoes to feel the soft sand. Based on my colleague’s info, there are sport activities on the beach, such as banana boat, parasailing, etc. At weekend Balikpapan people like to have entertainment/leisure there while enjoying the beach and watching the plane flying on the upper of the beach. The plane seems very close because the airport is very near to the beach.

At night we went to the middle of the hill at Pertamina houses area to take pictures of the eternal flame from the oil drilling with its oil refinery site as a revitalized center of petroleum production. It’s very beautiful shining in the dark of the night. My friend, the professional photographer suggested the proper measurement for getting the good result. It’s very satisfying to see the wonderful picture, as if I’m professional already :-) I only used pocket camera, so the result was not as detail and excellent such as my colleague taking it with SLR camera.

On the next day after working, we got a chance to stop by half an hour in the popular market called Kebun Sayur. You could find beautiful accessories, gemstones, ethnic souvenirs, jewelry made of combination of gemstones and silver, crystal, handicraft, etc. You should good in bargaining so you could have a very competitive price, you have to pay cash, no credit card or debit card.

My friend bought Dayak (tribe in Kalimantan) souvenirs while I bought many colorful and beautiful bracelets made of silver and gemstones, some of them made of glisten crystal. Although it’s very short time, I was happy that I could add my accessories collection with beautiful ethnic ones.


We reached the airport an hour before the flight took off, there was a place that you could see the airport area in front of a restaurant. We should pay Rp. 3.000,- per person to go inside the place right on the top of Sepinggan airport. It’s very windy, it’s good to see the plane landed and flied. The airport is just next to the sea, you could see the sea as the background of the airport.

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Sunda Kelapa, traditional harbour in Jakarta

On early May 2010 at weekend, some of us who like taking pictures went to explore Jakarta oldiest part accompanying our friend from Lausanne, Swiss who's interested in exploring Indonesia. Departing from hotel at 09:00 we directly went to Sunda Kelapa, at present is an active and an inter island port in Indonesia. It's crowded with many trucks unloading their commodities.


Formerly Sunda Kelapa, better known as Pasar Ikan (meaning fish market) is located at the mouth of the Ciliwung River. The fish catch of the day was auctioned in the early morning at the old fish market. The harbor is still one of the most important calls for sailing vessels from all over Indonesia. The magnificent and brightly painted Makassar schooner called Phinisi is still an important means of transporting goods to and from the outer islands. This is one of the best touristm place in Jakarta.


We parked near the traditional big boats, it's rather cloudy at that moment, so we could not get a clean blue sky, anyway there were so many objects that're good to capture. An old man followed us wherever we took pictures, he kept offering us to ride a small boat along the harbour with Rp. 40.000,- for 3-4 persons/boat. There were 6 of us so we decided to take two boats.

There was no special ladder or stair to go down to the boat, so we had to climb the wall and jump to the boat carefully. The boat was not steady enough, so you had to maintain your balance avoid failing down to the water while you had to take care your camera too from water splashing.

Fisherman village was the first place we visited, the people were living on the boat and floating small house. Everyday they find fishes for their living, some fishermans were fixing their nets, cleaning the boat, tuning their motor boat to prepare for sailing. Some childrens were playing on the boats, or just chatting with their friends.

The water is not clean at all, it's muddy, sometimes oily from the boat fuel, I don't think that we could get a fresh fish here. Our sailor kept sailed toward the firth, it's quite a long journey. After around 30 minutes sailing, we could see a big wave at our see sight, the sailor didn't dare to go through the sea, because our boat was small and we didn't have any motor, it's only manual sailed. They were turning back, return to the way where we were.

All of us had taken many pictures, although it's cloudy, we still felt burning on our skin, so in the middle of the journey back, we decided to stop. We stopped the sailing and went through the gap in the middle of big boats who berthed on the piers. When we walked back to the car, we've just realized that it's still far from our destination. We're very thirsty, but we're satisfied of taking pictures and experiences the boat riding.

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Journey to Senado Square Macau from Hongkong

Landing in Hongkong airport, I decided to buy Turbojet ticket to Macau, it cost HK$260. It’s quite convenience, you don’t need to go out the airport, even you don’t need to pass the immigration to take the luggage. Give the luggage tag to the teller when you buy the ticket, they would take the luggage for you and put directly to the boat free of charge, but at least you have to be an hour before boat’s departure. The boat to Macau from Hongkong airport is not every hour, so please see the schedule carefully to get the best time for you to depart.


It took around an hour from Hongkong to Macau by the speedboat, no drink is available on the boat for the passenger, please be ready to bring water before you go on to the boat. Arrived in the Macau harbour, I didn’t have any map or clue how to go to the hotel with our big luggages, my friend and I decided to take a taxi. If we didn't bring luggage, bus riding bus was the best option. We also saw some ricksaws park in front of the harbour.

We were hurry going to the taxi queue, it was quite long, it took more than half an hour to get a taxi. We showed the hotel name and address to the driver, unfortunately he didn’t understand English, lucky that he had a book contained hotel list in Macau. I appointed London, because it’s the most similar name with Ole London, but I was not so sure whether it’s the correct hotel, so on the way I called the hotel using my Indonesian number, and asked her to talk directly to the driver. To avoid paying an expensive roaming, I was in hurry when giving my mobile phone to the driver, it’s not a proper time at all. At that time he was taking a U-turn while receiving my phone, and a big bus was right behind us, fortunately he was quite agile to avoid the accident.


Not taking a long time we arrived safely at the hotel, it’s a budget hotel called Ole London Hotel (Praca de Ponte e Horta 4-6 Macau City, phone: +85328937765) cost HK$400 without breakfast. The hotel reception was very welcome and friendly, the room was clean and simple with modern style, equiped with plasma TV, king size bed with nice and clean soft bed and white bed cover, a sophisticated shower. Shortly it’s quite comfortable to take a rest. The hotel location was quite strategies, just a distance walk (10 minutes) to Sedona square.


Along the way you could find many small restaurants which open since early morning, so you also could have a breakfast. It’s around 18:00, we decided to stop by at a small restaurant having dinner before exploring Macau. My wonton noodle portion was quite big, so I asked my friend’s help to finish it, the soup and thin yellow noodle tasted good. The weather was quite cold, around 14 degree Celcius, it’s a good food to warm our body.

Senado square was crowded with many tourists, it’s the central city where people gathered for relaxing. There is a fountain in the middle of the square with a metal globe in the middle of the fountain. The street was built from small black and white wavy pavement. Pastel-colored neo classical buildings surrounding the square created a consistent and harmonious Mediterranean atmosphere. Institute of Civic & Municipal Affairs was built in 1784 decorated with magnificent blue and white Portuguese tiles. A magnificent building with yellow and blue light was used as tourism information center at the left side of the square.

Many food stalls were available at the aisle of the main street, where you could find fruits, fried snacks, peanuts, etc. If you like to shops, on the main streets are available various shops such as Giordano, Bossini, Bauhaus, Sasa (parfumes and cosmetics), Body Shop, Mac Donald, etc.


Walking along the street we met a beautiful St. Dominique church with yellow wall, unfortunately it didn’t open at that time, so we could not go inside. I heard the Maria statue inside is very beautiful. My friend brought SLR camera with wide lense, his camera is much better than mine to get the whole building from a near distance while mine, pocket camera only could catch half of it. We ignored the crowded, tried to get a good angle and pose, to take the picture we had to sit on the street.


Continue strolling Senado area we arrived at The Cathedral of Macau (re-built in 1937) at Largo de Se, Macau. The church was quite beautiful and shiny connected to pastor dormitory. It has two solid towers and massive doors and fine stained-glass window. It’s very difficult to get the whole area using my camera, so my friend was kind enough to take my picture with his camera to capture the beautiful elegant Catholic church. This is the end of Senado square area, so many benches available on the park beside the church, people were sitting there enjoy the mild night.

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