Unique Chocolate Hills at Bohol

Bohol is a prime eco-cultural tourism destination. My friend and I rented a car to reach one of the most famous tourism place in Bohol, the Chocolate Hills. Spread over the municipalities of Carmen, Sagbayan and Batuan, the Chocolate Hills is the province's signature attraction. They were similar to giant mole hills, consist of more than 1268 hay cock hills with heights ranging from 40 to 120 meters spread over an area of more than 50 square kilometres. They are covered with grass, which, at the end of the dry season, turns chocolate brown seemingly endless rows of chocolate "kisses" hence the name. From this color, the hills derive their name. When I arrived there, the hills are green, because it's not a dry season.



On the way, we stopped by at a photo corner among the kiosks selling souvenirs. There was a giant screen with chocolate hills picture. A photographer with digital camera were ready to take our action who stood right in front of the backdrop picture. He gave us a broom, first I didn't understand what it was for. He asked us to act as if we rode the broom, and jump as high as we could. Amazingly we were like Harry Porter who could fly with the broom among the hills. He had a small printer, we could select which pictures we would like to print, it cost 100 Peso per piece. The paper quality was not too good, but the idea was quite bright.


Two of the highest hills have been developed and provided with facilities such as a restaurant, hostel and view deck. We went to one of them, entrance fee was Php 50.00/person. My friend has been visited a few times, she prefered to wait me in the park area than accompanying me to reach the top. The very long stairs were discouraged me of tiring walk to the viewing deck, but my friend pushed me to go up, she said it's worthy to see the scenery from the deck. The driver was kind enough to follow me climbing the 214 steps of the observation hill, to take my picture. I had to stop a few times before reaching the top, to take a rest, catching my breath.


There is an explanation on a bronze plaque at the end of the stairs. My friend is right, the scenery from the viewing deck was very remarkable. As far as my eyes could see the scenic panorama of Chocolate Hills. At the edge of the deck, there was no fence, but the scenery was very beautiful. You had to be careful to take picture, don't jump as the land was very narrow, and the ravine was very steep and deep, it would be dangerous if you slip.


The unique land form known as the Chocolate Hills of Bohol was formed ages ago by the uplift of coral deposits and the action of rain water and erosion. Self-published, popular web pages present a variety of fanciful and less credible explanations about how these hills formed. The most commonly accept theory is that they are the weathered formations of a kind of marine limestone on top of a impermeable layer of clay.


In the middle of the viewing deck, there is a wishing bell among trees, you could make a wish by throwing a coin and ring the bell.


Going down was easier than going up, it's getting dark already. At the parking lot, I went to the toilet, as our journey back to town would take around 1-2 hours. There was no water at the closet, you had to fill the bucket with water from outside the toilet. It seems the water was very difficult to get there. The restaurant was also very quiet, I did


Formed centuries ago by tidal movements, the hills are considered as a National Geologic Movement. The Chocolate Hills is another contender to become one of the natural wonders of the world.

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Flying in the sky - riding hot air balloon in Cappadocia

In early morning around 05:00 o'clock we had to leave our warm room in Cappadocia hotel to chase the sunrise. Cappadocia, the place in Turkey which is unique in the world and is a miraculous nature wonder is the common name of the field covered by the provinces of Aksaray (Nevşehir). The name was traditionally used in Christian sources throughout history and is still widely used as an international tourism concept to define a region of exceptional natural wonders, in particular characterized by fairy chimneys and a unique historical and cultural heritage.



It's very cold, we went in a big van, picking up another tourists who were interested in enjoying Cappadocia from the sky. I'm still very sleepy, but it would be better riding the balloon before the sunrise. Arriving in the office, we were welcome by hot drink, tea, milk & coffee, accompanion with light snacks to fill our empty stomach and warmer our body. It's very cold, so the beverage and snacks were really helpful to avoid the chill. I could imagine how cold way above the air with the wind blows.


After waiting for half an hour, we had to go to van again, join another group. The shine was about to emerge. We went through some small road to reach the balloon. We saw many colorful balloon were prepared to fly. The crews blew the gas/acetylene on the balloon to bloom, it's from a huge tube such as oxygen tube. It's very hot and there was fire when the gas was blown.


Hot Air Balloon Tour is one of the most popular activities in Goreme. To join the tour, we need to pay US$250/person including the return pick up transportation from hotel to the balloon area. Typically lifting off at sunrise, these rides last about an hour in the air and literally go wherever the wind may blow in the Cappadocia Valley. Our balloon basket could only hold 8 people with the pilot riding air currents much like a boat. To go inside the basket, we had to climb, some staffs were helping us, because it's quite high. In the basket there were 2 rows where we had to stand, we hardly could not move or even turn our body on the narrow space. There were some additional tubes tied to the basket for the fuel reserve.


It's amazing, the sky was almost full of balloon, one by one was started to airborne. Our balloon was almost the last to fly, we could see so many balloon above us. The pilot drove well, he made us get higher and higher up above the other balloons by releasing some fuel. It made us feel superior to go higher than others. Unfortunately if it's too high, we could not see the marvelous landscape of Cappadocia, it looks flat, like 2 dimension object.


The scenery was amazing, floating down the valleys, sometimes quite close to the chimney rocks for around an hour. From above we could see some farmers were drying tea, fruits, etc. for candy, snack or herbs. The sensation of ballooning is very gentle and it's calming effect seems to put the world below into perspective. Rock formations and world-famous fairychimneys drift into view, giving you the unmatched feeling of being above it all. During the sunrise, the sky became red, then brighter, till the sun shine so strong. It became hot, not as cold as we experienced before riding the balloon. To go down and up, the pilot should measure the fuel. He would release it if he wanted to go down, and add more gas to go up.


The relief consists of a high plateau over 1000 m in altitude that is pierced by volcanic peaks. Due to its inland location and high altitude, Cappadocia has a markedly continental climate, with hot dry summers and cold snowy winters. Rainfall is sparse and the region is largely semi-arid. The Cappadocia region is largely underlain by sedimentary rocks formed in lakes and streams, and ignimbrite deposits erupted from ancient volcanoes approximately 9 to 3 million years ago. The rocks of Cappadocia near Göreme eroded into hundreds of spectacular pillars and minaret-like forms. The volcanic deposits are soft rocks that the people of the villages at the heart of the Cappadocia Region carved out to form houses, churches and monasteries. Göreme became a monastic center between 300—1200 AD.


The Göreme Open Air Museum is the most visited site of the monastic communities in Cappadocia, it is one of the most famous sites in central Turkey. The complex contains more than 30 rock-carved churches and chapels, some of them have superb frescoes inside, dating from the 9th to the 11th centuries.


It's a fantastic ride, if you've ever had the urge to splurge on a balloon ride. After an hour we landed on the ground again. The car who brought the balloon has been standby following our path to land. They brought a table with table clothes. On the table they put the glass, some crackers and traditional champagne toast for all of us to celebrate the success riding hot air balloon, non-alcoholic beverages were also available. A certificate was distributed one by one to the passengers by the pilot. The next passengers were waiting already for the next ride.


Beautiful Cappadocia would be the perfect place to experience the magic of riding balloon, not only for growing wine grapes or its beautiful landscape, but also for soaring peacefully in hot air balloons. There are 15 balloon companies in the region, and they are profesional enough to provide the best service.

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Amazing Virgin Island in Bohol, Philippines

Virgin Island in Bohol, Philippines was very beautiful. I got a chance to visit the amazing island with my kind friend by renting a boat last May 2011. On the boat while reaching the island, we could see the barsand, it's very beautiful white sand span towards the sea from the main island.


If you're lucky and come early, you still could walk on the soft and clean white sand beach. The sandbar would dissapear when the tight is high around 12:00. We berth on the main island, my friend asked me to go around the island, it's not big, but I refused it. I was attempted with the sandbar. If you need water to drink, there're some sellers who also sold seashells in the main island.


We was lucky, we arrived on the right time, so I still could walk from the main island followed the sandbar almost to the end of the path. It's quite long, I liked it very much, because the sand was very soft, I put off my sandal and asked my guide to take my pictures. When taking picture on the sandbar, as if you were walking in the middle of the sea, because it's only a white sandy line contrast with the blue of deep water.


My friend prefered to ride on the boat from the main island sailing to the sandbar. I really like to walk on the sand, unfortunately my friend asked me to go to the boat for having lunch first. We brought grilled fish and squid from the previous island, because no people living in virgin island. Our guide also brought grilled pork and sausage from the city. The fish and squid was very delicious, maybe because it's cooked from fresh materials.


After having lunch, I wanted to continue playing on the water, unfortunately it's already reached the waist, I didn't want to make my clothes wet, it's a pity I didn't wear swimsuit at that time, so I could not play on the water. I only took some pictures from different angle, it's very beautiful. Because we could not do anything else, so we decided to go back home after another half an hour. If you visit Bohol and you like beach, definitely you have to visit Virgin island before 11:00 o'clock in the morning, so you still have a chance to walk on the beautiful sand bar.

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Batu Night Spectacular (BNS)

Now Batu has a theme park, where people could bring their family to enjoy the ride, food and entertainment. The location is next to Jatim Park II at Oro Oro Ombo village around 45 minutes from Malang. It opens at 18:00, because they have many beautiful lights shining on every corner of the park. At weekend it's very crowded, you should come earlier unless you would have difficulty to park your car. You need to pay for the entrance fee cost Rp. 12.500,- at weekend or Rp. 7.500,- at weekdays.


I went there with my friends alumnus of St Maria Kediri elementary school. Although we're not children anymore, we enjoyed to ride some of the play. You have to pay for each play. Alibaba was my first ride, it's not too scary, just sitting on the bench contains of 2 rows and 2 columns, each bench could accomodate 4 persons. The bench would move slowly in ellipse vertically, then becoming faster and faster. When it's on the top, I tried to take picture, but the result was not good, it's shaking.


The next ride was flying chair, actually I didn't dare to take the right, but my friend convinced me that it's relax and fun. I pushed myself to try it. We sat on the chair with bare foot, because no stand at all for the feet. The chair backrest was also so low, you only could hold on the chain which hung the chair on the four corner. Each passenger sat on the chair one by one on a circle. When it's started, it's quite frightening, because your feet were flying without anything to stand. The movement became faster and faster, we flew on the chair in a circle. It's scary but also fun. When it stopped, 2 of my friends said that they won't ride it anymore, they're dreaded, even one of them closed his eyes when riding it.


There were some other riding that I didn't try such as ski ring road, crazy bike (turn the passenger upside down vertically, very scary), bom bom car, carousel, trampolin, gokart racing and some other play for children. If you would like to see the theme park from the height, you could ride a sky bike contains of 2 persons. You should paddle it to move faster on one rail to go around the park. You could turn the vehicle 360 degree to be able exploring the scenery.


Our next destination was lampion (paper lantern) garden, at weekend it cost Rp.10.000,-/person to enter. There were very colorful and beautiful. We welcome by animal band group lantern at the left side. In the middle there was a shell contains of pearl decorated with fountain and "lampion garden" letter bended above the orange shell. Continue walking through the path, you would find many kind of fish at the left and right of the aisle, such as aquarium. We kept taking pictures on the different decoration.


There was big "LOVE" decoration, my friend wanted to take picture with his wife, to make him look taller he stood on the sidewalk while his wife on the lower road. We took group photo here to express our feeling of our friendship :-) We had to be patient waiting for the street empty of people that almost impossible on the weekend.


Snow white and the dwarf with the castle were in the garden too. My friend's daughter was enjoying to become a model. When I took the scenery, suddenly she had appeared in the middle of my camera focus. She's so fast and her pose was nice to see. There was also a stage with life music from keyboard, and a magician was playing beside the stage. If you are thirsty or hungry, there was cafe which provided food and drink.


A wide pool full of goose, duck and lotus lantern with Eifel tower as the background was very beautiful. There was also some big flowers and tree lantern. A colorful air baloon was the highest lantern beside the Eifel. There were some benches with beautiful heart lantern as the background, it's suitable for the couple to take pictures.


Outside lampion garden, there's also ghost house with guard wearing skeleton clothes. A glass house with maze path was free to entrance. If you want heavy meal, you could have it outside the lampion garden, some restaurants such as Bethany were welcome you or if you want more various food, there was a foodcourt. If you like shopping there was night market, some stands providing toys, clothes for souvenirs, snacks, etc.

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Sweet Ambon - Ambon Manise

During my visit to Ambon, I got a chance to come by to their beautiful beaches. The first beach which I visited was Liang beach or Hunimua beach in Maluku island. The crystal clear water with a white sandy beach, a magnificent gradation of the blue color shows the deep of the sea with beautiful mountain as the background and white cloud on the sky created a very peaceful and beautiful scenery



There were some simple foodstalls on the beach if you need any food or drink, you could enjoy the beach by sitting on the soft white beach sand under the tree shelter. You also could bring food from home to eat together with friends. It's not too crowded at that time, some traditional small boat were also available for rent to bring you sailing through the sea. It's already noon time when I arrived there, so it's very hot and too shiny to ride the boat.


I didn't get bored at all to see all the spectacular scenery, taking some pictures to record the feeling and experience. Watching children jumping from the pier to race getting the ball on the sea, some of them were swimming on the beach, and a cute small boy was playing on the sandy beach while their parents having lunch on the mat under the tree shelter.


The time was ticking, my driver informed that we had to go back to the hotel soon, as we had to catch the flight. On the way to the hotel, we still had a chance to stop by at Natsepa beach. Its popular for rujak (various fresh fruits with peanut sauce mixed with palm sugar), so many seller foodstall along the pedestrian street on the beach. The beach was more crowded, there were many water sport such as jetski, banana boat, etc.


It's very cloudy when we arrived, the wave was harder than Liang beach. We sat in the hut drinking a young coconut ice while waiting for rujak. Suddenly it's raining very hard, all the benches became wet, the seller dropped the plastic shelter to cover us from raining. Rujak was served on the small plate with a toothpick for eating. It tasted very nice, fresh and yummy with many amount of peanuts.


If I had more time, I would stay longer on this beach to enjoy it. I'll go back someday to Ambon, the beaches were naturally beautiful and still virgin. There were some hotels on the beach, so you could stay there if you would like to play around the beach. For transportation, you'd better rent a car, because taxi was very rare and public transportation was not covered all destinations.

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Mangrove forest for Tourism in Surabaya

Do you know that there is a mangrove forest for tourism in Surabaya? At weekend I joined some of my friends to go there for hunting pictures. All of them like photography, so we try to find a good object to learn and practice. Our destination was at Surabaya East Coast, "Ekowisata Mangrove Wonorejo".



The road to the place was not too good, after following a narrow macadam road, we found bumpy and muddy soil road. It's very difficult if there's another car from the other direction. We had to move to the people's yard to enable passing through. Anyway you still could see many green rice fields and also some huts, good for photo objects. We arrived there around 09:00, the scenery was quite nice. We're waiting for the crew to clean up the boat, because there was some water in the bottom of the boat as it rained at the night before. The boat was quite beautiful with colorful paint, you don't need to row.


By paying return ticket Rp 25.000,- per person, you could ride the boat for around 30 minutes. They would bring you to the sea, then stop at the guard hut to enter the mangrove. They built a bamboo pathway for people to go through. Lucky it's not too shiny, so it's not too hot. The pathway would lead you to the gazebo on the sea. It's built by Pertamina, one of oil company in Indonesia for people enjoying the scenery for the mangrove and the sea.


The mangrove was quite fertile, unfortunately there were so many garbages among them. The pathway was not too long, on the way you could see many beautiful alley as result of the mangrove on the left and right side of the pathway. It's good for prewedding photos :-)


Finally we reached the gazebo, it's built from bamboo and hay for the roof. There were 2 gazebos connected by a small path of bamboo to each other. It's rather scary to walk on the bamboo. Sitting on the gazebo was so cool, you could see the sea view, and also enjoy the breeze, unfortunately no food or drink seller, so you have to prepare by yourself. Birds sometimes were flying from one mangrove's branch to other, but it's difficult to catch by the camera, because it's already too light.


After satisfied enjoying the gazebo and taking picture, we went back to the guard's hut waiting for the boat pickup. It took a long time, so we took some pictures there. Some people were fishing, they could get quite a big shrimp with wide red thin worm as the bait. It's a good place to escape from the crowded city, to get more tourists, the government should build a more convenience road for accessing to the place.

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Culinary tours in Bogor

Bogor is just an hour driving to South from Jakarta (around 60kms), it's popular as the rainy city because of the frequent rain showers. The city has a presidential palace and a botanical garden (Kebun Raya Bogor) – one of the oldest and largest garden in the world in the middle of the city. In the yard of the predential palace you could see many flock of deers relax or finding food on the greenish field. It's a nice amusement for people who pass by the palace. Some deers have long and branches anthers, it's very beautiful. On the road you would find many "angkot" (public transportation) passing by.



It's lunch time when we reached Bogor, we directly went to Gumati Cafe - Resto - Gallery at Jl. Paledang No. 26 & 28 Bogor 16122 (Telp. : 0251 - 8324318, 8313422 email : gumati-cafe@cafegumati.com) to have lunch. The restaurant ambience and concept is nice, unfortunately the cleaness was not maintained well, so many dust and cobweb on the wall and decoration. From the restaurant you could see the scenery of Bogor city including the river, because it's higher than the city. A blue swimming pool made the environment more comfortable. The restaurant was decorated with painting, ceramics and also some traditional statues from Bali, Sunda and Java. They provided Indonesian and Western food, we ordered Indonesian food, such as nasi timbel (rice with vegetables, meat, and fish), fried chicken, and green chili chicken, for beverage we ordered coconut lemon ice.


After lunch we went to Jl. Surya Kencana to buy bread, asinan and ngohiang. Although it's very crowded, lucky we could find the parking lot right in front of the store. The bread store was not too big, the package was also not too good, but the taste for its chocolate bread and cheese bread were delicious. My sister bought "combro" outside the store, it's a fried snack made of cassava filled with chili fermented soybean. It's spicy, but nice if you like spicy food. We went toward the alley to buy "asinan" (salted fresh fruits) to bring back to Jakarta for my colleague. It's very yummy and juicy to eat together with cracker noodle.

We stopped by a store which sold many Bogor traditional food, such as candied nutmeg, Bogor peanut, "bajigur"(hot drink made of coconut milk and spices), etc. Right beside the store there was a small restaurant popular for its' "Ngohiang Gang Aut", such as a sausage roll consisting of minced pork or chicken seasoned with five-spice powder, rolled inside a beancurd skin and deep-fried egg. I bought 1 chicken and 1 pork for bringing back to Jakarta. I attempted to try "Rujak Pengantin", it's very delicious.


Finally we would stop by Roti Unyil Venus, Komp. V Point No.1 Jalan Raya Pajajaran
Bogor, Jawa Barat 16142, Phone(0251) 8364008. It's a cake shop which sold petit bakery with various flavor, they called it "roti unyil" because it's very small, just one bite. They're filled with a big amount of chocolate, cheese, banana, sausage, vla, corn, etc. Some of them could keep for 3 days if you plan to bring back to your hometown. It's very crowded in the store, we had to queue to wait for the waitress serve us. Meanwhile I bought 10 pcs of Kue Ape (such as pancake made of wheat flour, rice flour and coconut milk) on foodstall in front of the store. It's my favourite snack, it cost Rp. 6.000,- for 10 pcs.


Shopping was our next destination, there were many factory outlets in Bogor, such as Bandung, but it's less crowded. We parked on one shop, just walking distance to the other stores. The clothes were nice in model and material, you could buy any clothes based on your budget, so many options to choose. We didn't feel it become dark, so we decided to stop the shopping.


For dinner, my sister brought us to Novotel, it's almost dark there. The hotel is quite far from the city, it's very quiet but the scenery is awesome. So many pool with water lily (lotus) on it, the yellow lights also made the scenery very interesting. A large green garden made the weather very fresh and cool. We were eating in the gazebo, ordered soups, calamari and hot tea. A live music with male and female beautiful voice singers accompanied us to wait for the order and also enjoy the scenery. When the live music ended, we're also ready to go home. We were very satisfied with the activities for eating and shopping.

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