Greenish Pine Tree Forest at The Lodge Maribaya, Lembang, Bandung

Bandung has many leisure places, one of them is The Lodge Maribaya (Jalan Maribaya No.149/252, RT03/RW15 Kp Babakan Gentong - Cibodas Lembang 40391, phone: 022-2323432) which has many natural photo spots, restaurant and place to stay overnight either room or glamping (in a tent). I've been there once with my mom and sister, only one day trip from Bandung to visit it and other places. I like the scenery, so during our team quarterly meeting, I proposed to stay there and it's approved by management.

We decided to have the meeting there, and stayed one night to enable doing activity in the morning with its fresh air and nice scenery. Some of us from Jakarta and Karawang, we thought they would reach the place later than us from Surabaya using flight. In fact they were faster than us as our flight was slightly delayed for landing, we flew round and round many times above Bandung. The traffic in Bandung was also very bad at that time as they build street infrastructure, so we arrived quite late in Maribaya, it's around 16:00 o'clock.

A restaurant without windows surrounding by the trees was the place to have the meeting. It's nice with different ambience, when getting late, the weather became very cold until we had to wear jacket or sweater. We slept in the tent at that night, it contained 1-2 persons for each tent. It's clean, but you had to close the tent if you would like to avoid any insect. There was electricity power inside the tent, so we could charge our mobile phone, sleeping bag and blanket were provided on the bed. Toiletry and towel were provided, you could use bathroom outside sharing with others, hot water was available too as the weather was very cold at night. It's quite clean, and you could put your wet towel on the hanger outside your tent.

At night when we slept in the tent, I felt very cold although I had worn blanket and jacket, it made me difficult to sleep tightly, maybe I should use the sleeping bag pack provided. Morning view was very nice, we had breakfast first before starting activities. There were 3 activities (best group photo, archery, trekking)planned to have a more solid team and engagement, the team divided into 3 groups. First activities going to the photo spots, there were 6 different photo spots with beautiful scenery on the height. At that time sky tree, zip bike, mountain swing and hot air balloon cost IDR 20.000/person, while gantole and hammock cost IDR 35.000/person, no matter you took individual or group picture. Some of our friends were afraid of height, we're quite impressed with their willingness to fight their fear to try some of the spots.

As we stayed overnight, we had a privilege to start earlier, getting picture an hour before the locket would be open for other visitors, unfortunately the crews were not ready at the time, so we had to wait for around 20 minutes. All groups went to the same spot, e.g. skytree, it took quite some time to take picture one by one, as we had to wear the safety belt first. Based on this experience, we decided to split the group to different spot to save time. You could ask your friend to take your picture by your own camera or mobile phone, the crews were using SLR to take a good quality one. If you're interested in it, you could buy IDR 10.000,- per picture when you would go home next to the exit gate.

My group took a group picture at the hot air balloon, I thought it's hanging in the air. In fact we were just standing on the board surrounding by walls as if we were in the basket while the balloon hanging above us. I also rode zip bike and mountain swing, some of my friends skipped it. To go from one spot to another spot you had to climb or go down the hill to reach the place, it's quite heavy for us who seldom having sport activity. When going to the zip bike, the queue was getting longer as the locket had been opened for outside visitors, although it's not as long as during the weekend.

Gantole spot was the last spot we visited, most of my friends skipped it as the queue was quite long and they were tired. Most of us could not sleep well because it's very cold at night, so our physic was not in a good condition. We decided to skip trekking activity although the boots had been prepared based on our size by the host. Walking up and down from one photospot to others already very tiring, we could not imagine to walk through the pine forest to go to the river for around an hour.

We continued the activity with archery, the winner was the highest score total from each member's score in the group. We could practice first, the archer was quite heavy and big, I never experienced it before. As the archer was limited, I didn't get a chance to try for a long time, just around two shoots. I was failed to reach the target. When the competition had started we had Maribaya's staff as the jury, my group got the second turn. I could get quite a good score although one of the arrow was landing on the roof of the house :-) my group total score was higher than the first group. Finally after the 3rd group finished, we were the winner.

Finally it's lunch time, as the "Omah Bambu Restaurant" was down the hill, I preferred to eat first before taking a bath. The restaurant decorated beautifully with bamboo, from wall, ceiling, chairs and tables. There were 2 parts of the restaurant, outdoor and indoor, I love the scenery. While waiting they served the food, we took some beautiful pictures in the restaurant surrounding by pine trees view. The food served privately for us, as I had selected the menu when ordered the package. It seemed that other visitors were interested in our menu instead of buffet provided for them :-) The ice dessert was very fresh and yummy.

I rushed to take a bath, then going directly to the lobby as most of my friends already gathered there. We took the complete group picture in front of the lobby with beautiful background of the forest. On the way out, some of us stopped by at the office to select their pictures. They would give you tablet PC contains of your pictures, then you must delete unwanted pictures. The remaining pictures were the ones you selected to buy. They would transfer it to your mobile phone, and you have to pay the total fee. I had difficulty to select as most of them were good, I spent almost IDR 200.000,- for the pictures (around 20 photos).

If you like scenery and photos, you must visit The Lodge Maribaya. It could be reached around 1.5 hour from Bandung, one day trip is possible as I did previously with my family. I still had a chance to visit other place too at that time.

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Fascinating Arosbaya limestone at Bangkalan, Madura

During long weekend holiday in Feb 2018, some of my elementary school friend met in Surabaya, they were from different city, Jakarta, Semarang and Kediri. On their last day in Surabaya, I asked them to go to Madura, visiting one of the tourism place there. I really would like to visit the place, unfortunately I didn't dare to drive alone as I heard some people would force us to give them money illegally.

Lucky my friends agreed to the plan, there were 13 of us including 1 driver with 2 cars departed to Madura through the popular new bridge, Suramadu, which was connected to Madura island from Surabaya with 5.438 m length and 30 width. It's divided for car and motor cycle at the edge of the bridge. It cost IDR 30.000 for car to pass by the bridge, the good scenery is the middle of the bridge with its 140 m twin tower strengthen with orange cabling as the foundation. Unfortunately we were not allowed to stop in the middle of the bridge to take picture. Some policemen always patrol around the area to ensure nobody stopped there. One of our friend who sat at the front could take a good picture & video, while I sat at the back could get from the rear windows.

Actually we would like to visit two places, Bukit Jeddih and Arosbaya. As we departed too late, we didn't have enough time to visit both places, so we decided to go directly to Arosbaya and dropped Bukit Jeddih. We heard that late afternoon at Bukit Jeddih, would be more people asking for money, it's not safe. The direction to Arosbaya quite easy to follow, but nearer to the location we had to pass by small road among the people's home. Only one car could go through, so the resident and some people there would ask for money to arrange the traffic. They use walkie talkie to communicate, so the car could go smoothly while they stopped another car from the other direction.

Arriving at the area, one of my friend and I rushed to find the toilet first before exploring the place. It cost IDR 2000/person for pee, the toilets were quite clean, anyway there was no tissue. From the parking lot we already could see the beautiful limestone, the parking fee was IDR 20.000/car, while entering the place cost IDR 5.000/person. The location is near to the religious tourism place of Bangkalan's Kings cemetery called "Air Mata Ibu". If you go by bus, you have to stop there, then continuing walking to the limestone.

The scenery was amazing, although it's very hot. The blue sky and colorful limestone which formed beautiful sculptures made us amazed and kept taking many pictures. It's a former limestone mine, the worker didn't realize that they created beautiful sculptures. Some green trees was available protected us from the shining sun in the middle of the day. I left my bag in the car, as our driver said it's safer to keep it in the car. I only brought some small amount of money in my pocket, cap and umbrella.

As we went to toilet first, we left behind our group, they already took some pictures together. The limestone as our background picture was quite high, carving with beautiful color under the sunshine. A circle hole made it like a frame created a beautiful combination. We missed it, so I took some pictures alone, the group had moved to another side. Some of our friends also took picture one by one.

A boy was around us, he suggested me to take a panorama picture to capture bigger view. Even he didn't mind taking my picture with one of my friend using my iPhone. I trusted him, I gave him my iPhone, and he helped to take some pictures. The results were excellent, he could capture the scenery well with us inside. Our group was already at different side, I told him that we had to go together with them, but on the way, he kept showing us the good angle. We climbed on some limestone to get better picture while he shoot.

Join with our group, our friend's husband was kind enough to take our picture one by one. His Samsung 8 could take better picture than my iPhone 6, so he preferred to use his smartphone. The color and picture is sharper comparing to mine. After taking some pictures under the shades, we continued walking toward some sculptures. There were 2 boys accompanying us. Our group also divided into 2 groups as the 1st group preferred to take picture fast avoiding the hot. I was joining the second group, who likes to take more pictures to record the nature beauty.

Some people were waiting for visitors at certain location, if anyone went there to take picture, they would ask them to pay. We didn't went there, just taking picture in front of the area, which had like a tall gate with beautiful carving. The boy took our picture using vertical panorama feature. Although the people kept teasing the boy, he ignored it, he focused to take our picture. The younger boy accompanied our 1st group, while Abdul the oldest was accompanying us. We were glad having Abdul, he's very helpful and talented. After around half an hour in the location, I felt thirsty, lucky there was a small hut selling water and snack, I bought 3 mineral waters (600 ml) cost IDR 3000/bottle.

In the middle of the area, we met our friend from 1st group going back to the parking lot, they said that we had to rush unless the Jakarta team would miss the plane. They have visited the cave, while we were still on the way to go there. We rushed, walking fast to the cave, we didn't want to miss it as we had taken quite a long journey from Surabaya. In the cave was colder than outside, some carving created holes which enabled sun shone through it illuminated the cave.

Abdul helped us to take some pictures and showed some good angle and position for getting the best picture. We also took some silhouette photo at the cave entrance. Outside the entrance we met with a group making pre-wed photos, the location was nice. Asking for their permission for us to take group picture there, lucky they had finished their photo session. I could not imagine how hot the couple felt with their complete wedding costumes and make up, as I had got wet although I wore casual clothes. At the end of the journey, Abdul took a beautiful panorama of us. He's very kind, he didn't ask for money, we were very satisfied with his service, so my friend didn't mind at all giving him tips.

Reaching the entrance we saw our friend from 1st group drinking ice fresh coconut in the small hut, the seller also sold fruit called "Kedondong", some of them already peeled. It tasted sweet, so my friends bought some of them to bring home. I still would like to take some pictures, my friend's husband was kind enough to help taking my picture at the entrance from his seat in the hut. I also saw beautiful scenery behind the parking lot, so I walked alone there to take some pictures while waiting for my friends taking break.

I felt starving as it's already 15:00 o'clock and we hadn't got any lunch, so we stopped by at a restaurant to have lunch. After full our driver brought us to a Madura batik shop to buy souvenirs. Although I didn't plan to buy any batik, I could not resist the temptation with many options and prices, so I bought 3 of them, while my friends bought much more than me. It's an original handmade batik, and it cost cheaper than in the shop in Surabaya.

I'm very satisfied with the trip, although I was not in good condition, got a very bad flu, but I insisted to go. I didn't regret it, I could get many good pictures, and also some batik. You should visit Arosbaya if you like scenery, prepare for hat or umbrella to protect from the sunshine, please wear a thin clothes as it's quite hot. It takes around 1.5 hours from Surabaya.

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Enjoy The Beauty of Warsaw in 2 days, Poland

In Jun 2015 I visited Warsaw, the capital and largest city of Poland, with 2 of my friends joined ATS tour.

It's 12 degrees Celcius temperature when we'd arrived, the bus dropped us to Golden Terrace shopping mall where we could find supermarket to buy fruits, beverages and snacks. I love cherry, and I could find the good quality here. It's sweet, big and yummy, it's difficult to find in Indonesia with reasonable price :-) Different kind of cheese was also available, which could be eaten directly as snack.

On the way to our hotel DOUBLETREE By Hilton Hotel, Skalnicowa street 21, Warsaw 04797, Poland, Phone +48-2227 80000, we passed by National Stadium Warsaw with its retractable roof, mostly used for football matches also as the home stadium of Poland national football team.

On the next day we visited the beautiful Łazienki Park (Palace on the Water) is the largest park in Warsaw, Poland, occupying 76 hectares of the city center. It's the lavish summer residence of the last King of Poland, Stanislaw August Poniatowski (1764 - 1895).

Took quite some time for photo group, it's difficult to gather the participants who were busy taking their own pictures as many interesting spots to take photos.

As the name meaning, we could find many pools around the park. Some buildings looked as if it's built on the water with white color. Unfortunately we didn't enter any building, just saw from outside. We had to walk to enjoy the park, as our bus would pick us on the other side, not the same as the entrance.

Peacocks were walking freely in the park. We also found squirrels jumped from the tree, and busy chewing something, maybe peanuts. In the middle of the park we smelled something good, it's from waffle stall, my friend bought a portion to be shared, it tasted good, crunchy and yummy.

Continued the trip by bus, we had passed by some beautiful landmarks of Warsaw.

Our next destination was Warsaw's Castle Square (Polish: plac Zamkowy w Warszawie). It's a historic square in front of the Royal Castle – the former official residence of Polish monarchs – located in Warsaw, Poland.

It is a popular meeting place for tourists and locals. The Square (in a more or less triangular shape) features the landmark Sigismund's Column to the south-west, and is surrounded by historic townhouses.

It marks the beginning of the bustling Royal Route extending to the South. We had some free time hours to walk around. The guide left after showed us where the toilets and the meeting point, we were free to explore by ourselves.

Walking through the area, watching some churches such as Cathedral Basilica of the Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist, a Catholic church with Masovian Gothic style, it’s been listed by UNESCO as of cultural significant. St. Anne's Church, one of Poland's most notable churches with a Neoclassical façade, ranks among Warsaw's oldest buildings. Over time, it has seen many reconstructions, resulting in its present-day appearance, unchanged since 1788.

Shrine of Our Lady of Grace Patron of Warsaw, Built in the late-Renaissance style, between 1609-1629, the temple was constructed at the order of King Zygmunt III Waza with unique Angel’s door by famous sculptor Igor Mitoraj

The must see is Monument of the Warsaw Mermaid (Pomnik Warszawskiej Syrenki), the symbol of Warsaw. Many souvenirs and snacks seller around the monument. Lucky there was a man with traditional costume, to take a cool picture together with the local.

During the exploration on the medieval street we stopped by to buy ice cream cone. While eating we continued walking on the paving street to enjoy the beautiful buildings and its exterior.

Finally we ended the day by having dinner in Chinese Restaurant.

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Spectacular Rainbow Mountains at Zhangye

One of the most interesting place which attracted me to join inner Mongol tour was the picture of Rainbow Mountains with its beautiful layering color. From our hotel we had to travel around 4 hours by bus to reach the place, we stopped by for lunch first in a restaurant near to the place, it's a set menu of Chinese food, served for 10 persons/table. The restaurant was quite crowded with tourists, so we had to wait for few minutes to get the meal. Lucky we still get tables at the ground, no need to go to the second floor. Our tour leader informed that the toilet was not good in the restaurant, if we could wait, the toilet at rainbow mountains would be cleaner and not smelly. I decided to follow his suggestion, although the weather was getting cold there.

I started worrying when coming out from the bus, I didn't expect the weather that cold. I didn't bring scarf, just wearing a thin sweater. It's windy and cold, definitely I need scarf to protect my neck. Lucky there was a seller right at the front of the restaurant, I asked my friend's opinion to select the best while waiting for the food was ready. After lunch, we rushed to the bus, I couldn't wait seeing the Zhangye National Geopark soon.

Arriving at the place, our bus was not allowed to go inside the area, the bus had to park at the parking lot, while we had to walk further passing through some stalls selling snack, souvenirs and others towards a building where the proper many toilet rooms available for the tourists, it's clean, not smelly, water flowing well. So many tourists were coming, we found a little bit difficulty to find our group member, then our tour guide asked us to make 2 rows hand in hand to avoid losing members to go to the bus terminal. A bad habit of most Chinese mainland, they could not queue properly, they would like to overtake any queue, so we had to hold tight to avoid separation.

The shuttle bus provided by the government to bring tourists among places in the park, it's good to avoid traffic and pollution. Unfortunately the officer could not speak English, so we couldn't communicate well with them, and most of them were quite fierce, maybe because of many tourists could not queue well. Our tour leader argued and complained him, as she would like to have all of us in the same bus, while the officer forced us to get on the bus based on the queue. Finally we could go in the same bus, giving a chance for the tourist after us to take the bus first.

There were 4 stops in the park, where we could explore the scenery. The first one was the lowest part while the fourth was the highest. On the way we already could see beautiful scenery with colorful layering rock as if layer cake. I tried to take picture, but it's rather bumpy and must take from the window's bus, so it's not too good, sometimes it's blurred and had shadow. It's still drizzle, people said that after raining, the red color would be more obvious. It's still cloudy when we arrived on the 1st stop.

After short briefing about gathering time, I ran to the edge of the area, where we could take picture with the layering mountains as the background, we had to queue as many tourists prefer to take picture from the same location. Based on the signage it's called "Returning Sail in The Sunset". We walked around and found a helicopter parked in the area. You could rent the helicopter to enjoy the aerial panoramic of the rainbow mountains. I also asked my friend to take my pictures on a bench. Finally our friends joined and we took picture at the end of the bridge, as we could not go across the bridge, it's closed. We also tried to jump while our friends' husbands captured the action, it's difficult to jump together at the same time.

As the time was not enough to explore each stop, Sunny, our local tour guide suggested us to move to the fourth stop, the last one, skipped the 2nd and 3rd one. It's a good decision, it's much better than spending short time in every stop, wasting time by queuing for shuttle bus to go to the next stop. The 4th stop was more amazing, the color was more obvious. This time our friend who stayed in Auckland encouraged us to climb to the top. The path was quite good, it's already built well with wood stairs and fence, so it's not too difficult to climb. I stopped many times to take a breath and take picture, till my roommate friend got a little upset waiting for me.

It's very windy, but to make the picture looked good, I took off my sweater & glasses while taking picture, it's quite troublesome, to take off and on again and again .... I really felt amazed and enjoyed Zhangye Danxia, the unusual colours of the rocks, as result of deposits of sandstone and other minerals that occurred over 24 million years. Wind, rain, and time then sculpted extraordinary shapes, including towers, pillars, and ravines, with varying colours, patterns, and sizes. Our friend from NZ already returned from the end of the path. They said that it's more beautiful there, my roommate insisted to go back as time to gather getting closer.

I said I would like to continue, she could go back first if she would like to. Then continuing to the end of the path alone, I met our tour leader from Indonesia, it's safe, as he just arrived, so I won't be left by the group. It's true, it's very beautiful, so I took some more pictures, I really would like to stay longer, unfortunately we didn't have time anymore. Then I returned to the bus stop, on the way I met some of our friends who just went up. I informed them that it's beautiful to continue to the end of the path, so they ran to reach there.

There were some wishing bells hanging on the ceiling of the rest area next to the bus stop. It's good to become our shelter from the strong wind. We sat and chatted while waiting for the remaining of the group. We took photo group picture before leaving the The Amazing Rainbow Zhangye Danxia Landforms which became a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2010. The area has become a top tourist attraction for Zhangye. A series of boardwalks and access roads have been built to help visitors to explore the rock formations.

On the way to the parking lot, some of our friends still managed to buy snacks at the stalls decorating with animal statues like cow, camel, etc. The snack was quite unique too such as crispy mushroom and other type of mushrooms. I thought it's rare, so I didn't buy. I only tried sunflower seed from the real big sunflower, when my friend and I tasted it, we canceled to buy as it's still wet & tasteless, the cooked one is better with its savory and salty taste. Anyway if you like mushrooms, the price was cheap here and the quality was quite good, some friends bought many of them. If you'll go to Inner Mongolia, ensure to stop at Zhangye Colorful Danxia Scenic Spot, it's very amazing and unbelievable natural scenery.

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