2x22 Hours in Beijing

I took Air China to go back home and to Korea. The absolute reason that I took this airlines was because it was cheap! Many says that it is not good, but hey, it is cheap, what can you expect? But I think it was not bad at all, not that good either. Maybe for most people who had taken this airlines to go back to Indonesia thought that the most disturbing thing among all is to transit in Beijing for hours. Not for me, I enjoyed it every second.

Also, many told me that I would not be able to go outside the airport. Even a native Chinese told me that with a really ensuring face. Before leaving Korea, I even did some research about this and some even said that we even need visa just for transit. Dang! are you freaking kidding me. I was getting panic. I finally contacted the airport immigration through Q&A page and the reply was satisfying. It said that I would not be needing any visa and I could go out from the airport, too. But still, I was not that 100% sure.

Que sera sera, whatever happens happens. I arrived at Beijing International Airport at around 8 PM local time. There was no people in immigration line, just us. Then when it was my turn to go to talk to the officer, he told me to wait on another line, the special one. I was kind of freaking out. I thought I would be sent back because I have no visa or because of any other issues. But, somebody else was lining at that counter but there was no officer. Not long time, one officer came and asked us to follow her. And guess what, a stay visa permit stamp on my passport!

Sour fruit with frozen caramel

I met with another friend from CouchSurfing. His name is Lee and he, even though not a local, is a Chinese. It was not difficult at all to locate public phone at the airport, it is like everywhere. By using this public phone, we can call to local cellphone and land line. I called him and we decided to meet at Guloudajie station. To go there, first I had to get out from the airport heading to the airport express train. Airport express train has 4 stops: Airport terminal 3, Airport terminal 1&2, Sanyuanqiao where we can transfer to line 10, and Dongzhimen where we can transfer to line 2 and 13. And do not worry, all the station name has alphabet name under it. By taking the airport express train that costed me RMB 25 = USD 4, I went to Dongzimen station to transfer to line 2 and then took subway (RMB 2 = USD 0.32/trip) to go to Guloudajie. I got out from the exit number 1 and he was not there!! I was so scared since I could not find any public phone. I kept waiting until I looked at some teenager gathered around and I accumulated my bravery to ask one of them for a phone to call Lee. Just when I was about to call him, he showed up, oh, you have no idea of that feeling. He came with another 2 people, one from Russia and one from Pakistan. Four of us went to some famous streets in Beijing. I do not quite recall the name of the street but it was pretty empty, maybe because it was at night. It was not that memorable, to say it bluntly.

Free-of-pork dumplings

 The next day was the hit. I and Lee woke up early in the morning to have breakfast before we go to our main destination today. I do not know if this is a regular breakfast for Chinese but it taste yummy. It was dumplings and some sort of bread with sauce, also a bowl of egg soup. The main destination for today is the famous one and only, Forbidden City. It was freaking cold, but really worth it. I forgot to mention that Beijing is really (I mean really really) huge, and so is The Forbidden City. To get inside we need to pay RMB 40 = USD 6.4 or if you are a (Chinese) student you can get in by paying half price. One thing I should mention is that the counter lady was really rude. She just threw the ticket to a small hole at the counter. I mean, she should have been more polite and it would not have hurt anyone. I do not know if it is related with their culture, but for me it was rude. I do not really know much about this place, though. All I know is that this place is really huge, just like a mini city.

Me in front of the entrance

I did not take a guide since Lee went to somewhere because he had something to do. Thus, I was alone. Even though I had no idea whatsoever about the place, somewhat I enjoyed looking and taking picture of the buildings and patterns on the wall. Actually I was a bit tired exploring this place since it is really huge. It was like no end for this place. Until I found the exit sign. I went out and, duh. I ended up at the back part of the Forbidden City. I was planning to go to Tiananmen Square which is really near from Forbidden City. But then, I had to walk around to reach to that place. It was super far and I was super tired. One thing I noticed is that I saw so many public toilet along the road. I wonder why is there so many toilet here in Beijing. Tiananmen Square is just a huge square with I think a pretty horrible history. At the gate of Tiananmen there is a picture of Mao Zedong, the first Chairman of China. Well, that concludes my first short trip in Beijing. Before heading back to the airport, I went to a souvenir store neat Tiananmen Square and everything was really cheap!

The second time I transit to Beijing I had no where to go. I stayed at the airport until I decided to contact Lee again, and guess what? He was also on the way to Beijing and we were meeting at the airport! What a lucky me. I met him in the evening, and with a really short time, we went to Olympic Park to see two pretty buildings. One is a bird-nest like building and another one looks like bubbles.

They are really pretty. I feel so grateful to have met Lee. He likes travelling and helping traveler. I learned a lot from him. But dang, I did not have a chance to go to the Great Wall, maybe later? anyone?

Me with Lee's parent =]

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Indonesia - Malang

Malang, they say it is the second biggest city in East Java. I met a new friend over there, his name is Reza. We met in this traveler website called couchsurfing.com and He guided me to Batu city. As soon as I meet him, I asked for the famous local cuisine, bakso malang (Malang meatball). We had a quite long ride (he was riding motorcycle) just to find a good place to eat this special meatball, until we finally set our final destination to eat meatball in a place which location is quiet hard to reach. And I don't want to disappoint anyone here, but I think the meatball has nothing special (besides its size), the taste is just the same with any other regular meatball.

He then took me to his place. His place is quite nice, he lives with 3 other people in one shared house. He actually is not from Malang, but he came all the way from Medan to study there in Malang. The nice thing of his house is that we can see the view of a mountain.

Stomach is filled full, power is up, we went for another ride to Batu city, 30 minutes from Malang. And our first destination is a waterfall called Coban Rondo. I really enjoy waterfall, but to be honest, coban rondo did not really amaze me, but the journey did!! The road to coban rondo was bloody amazing. We went up to the mountain we can see the whole city and going inside, trees, vegetables, fields, all green and mist!! I can't believe I would say this, but the mist was beautiful, it was so perfect with the surroundings. I felt like I did not want to stop, I wanted to be on this ride with a breathtaking scenes all around me.

Coban Rondo waterfall

To those who wonders how to get there, it is really difficult to explain ... the easy way to say is "follow the direction" and public transportation? forget it. Bring your own vehicle, or rent one!

The weather was not really good for traveling actually. It was rainy and the road was really slippery and muddy. Our motorcycle got slipped and we almost fell twice. I should say that the road in Batu is somewhat poor. Batu city has awesome spot with spectacular view but yet it is a pain in ass just to get there. The road is hardly accessible and it is dangerous, I would say. I think this is a big problem in Indonesia's tourism. This happened to us on the way to Paralayang spot. We had to go through villages and to climb up the mountain. The bad road was really horrifying, plus it was so much misty. We even got lost in a resort which we thought it was the place we were going to but it was not. And after a long ride in a horrible road, we finally made it to Paralayang, even though it was ... sadly, misty which made us could not really see clear the below. And oh, that made me want to try paralayang someday.

Going through a village, but the view was so nice

Paralayang, very misty

But after a while, tadaaa ... made me want to jump

The end of the show. I was so grateful to have met Reza. He is very nice guy who has a big dream to go to Russia to see the architecture of the buildings. I, myself, believe that one day I will see him again, maybe here in Korea, or somewhere in Indonesia, or who knows maybe I will see him in Russia.

Me (left) and Reza (right)

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Uncertain

Dear Readers,

Have you ever once thought about what you really want to do? Have you already been satisfied or happy about what you do for living? Do you know you passion? Do you enjoy your job?
Life, it is only once, people say. Yet, do you agree with me that many people among us wasting it doing something that they actually do not enjoy. Example, someone who enjoys fishing works as a bank teller with salary USD 15K/year. Well, he might be happy with his salary, but does he enjoy his life?
After graduating from school, you will work for the rest of your life. Wake up in the morning and get back in the evening doing the same thing that actually you don't have passion in. I think this is serious ... and this is exactly what I uncertain of.
This is not the first time this big question pop up in my mind. What will I do after I graduate? Of course get a job. But, what job? I read one of the article from a quite interesting and famous travel blog about someone who likes traveling. She used to work in an office and later she realized that she does not really enjoy it. Then, she wrote on her blog that some professor from her university said to her about this "passion". And of course I do believe if you work with passion, you will enjoy it. The blogger finally became a full time traveler and travel writer. She is paid to travel but she has to write about it which is the two things she says she enjoys the most. What a lucky woman.
It would be so amazing if I could be like her. But that's not as easy as picking your nose, my friend. I should say, she is bloody talented. Her words is like digital moving image on my brain when I read her blog. It feels real like we actually on the place she is writing about. Second, she has travel hour way more than me. She has been anywhere way before blog even exists, I assume. Experience, that what she has got. Of course, I would trust and pay her to go travel and write because she has so much talent and experience. I do enjoy traveling but that's the problem my man. I am just a free writer, lack of experience and no talent at all. I am not being modest, but I know my self. Who would pay me to go travel?
Now I go to my other option which pretty much real. I mean it has chances to be realized. I am a student in Computer and Information Engineering and I am pretty much good at it. But 'good' does not mean I enjoy it. I do like challenges, like solving a problem, googling, reading the whole forum just to make a diamond shape by using asterisk sign using C++ codes. Being a programmer is the most likely i will be after graduating. But remembering that I am going to sit down in a 4x4 cubicle with a desktop, a pile of papers, coffee, and a sticker says "My life is good" for 8 hours everyday really turns me down. I have internship experience in one of foreign company in my hometown when I was in high school. I was in IT department and I can see a pack of programmer there. And believe me, they are fat and boring (and damn bored-looking).
I remember one day, when I was at my hometown having vacation. I was with a good friend sitting and drinking chocolate milk at a cafe. We were talking about many things, and of course we also talking about this. He is a senior in one of university in Indonesia, but he also works in a newspaper, I think as a journalist. He also has internship experience in the same company that I did my internship, only he is in different department and different time of course. He asked me whether I want to work at that company again, and I said, no ... why? because my whole life will be doing the same thing until I die. Wake up, work(office), lunch, work (office), go back home. If you don't understand what I mean, you really have to know the company. It is a huge company and the office is just a room and you are obligated to stay there. The only time to go out is to eat or to pray and that's it for the whole day. He agreed with me. Then he told me that he really enjoy his job at the newspaper, but yet again, he whispered to me "But the salary ...". Urgh!!

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PS: The woman that I put on this post is Trinity. She has this really interesting blog and she also has some published book. Go to naked-traveler.com and you will enjoy her story, so much! just like me.

Indonesia - Jogjakarta 2

Now, this gets really interesting. I don't know the location exactly, because my friend was riding a motorcycle so I don't know how to get there by public transportation. But this place, worth visiting. The house of Raminten, it is a restaurant owned by Raminten and he is a guy and I think he is a crossdresser. For those who do not know what crossdresser is, it is a term for someone who likes to wear opposite-sex clothes. So, this Raminten guy wears girls/woman clothes and put it everywhere. I got some of postcard-size picture of him wearing some woman clothes. The food are nice and I can say they are pretty cheap for a hot restaurant. The serving guys are hot, so are the serving girls (maybe they are guys, too ... just kidding). And lucky me and my friend, we got the rare opportunity to take picture with the owner, Raminten.

At night, we decided to try Korean dish served in one of Korean restaurant in Jogjakarta called the Silla. I won't say much about this place. The style is quite different and the taste of the food is pretty much different than the real Korean food.

Now this is HOT part. Borobudur Temple. I think it is 1 hour and a half distance from the city of Jogjakarta and I should say we were pretty damn lucky. Why? It was not hot at all, it was cloudy yet it was not raining. And guess what the best part was, there was not many people at that time. I was told by my friend that usually borobudur is packed with people and it can be really boiling hot. So I would say, we were two lucky guys.

Entrance fee is IDR 30000 but I believe they have different (and might be more expensive) fee for foreigner. and we have to wear batik sarong as one of the symbol of awareness for our love to batik. And I love that sarong, so much.

Borobudur is huge, I think you need 2 hours to go all over the place. And it's pretty high with really stiff stairs so you need to be really careful. Beside the temple, there are also some other attraction or pretty interesting place to go. We went to this small museum that shows some pictures of people who have got their names written in Guinness World Record and it was pretty interesting.

Yup, that's all for Jogjakarta. I know there are still so much things to see, but I guess I visited the representative places. Next is Malang, the last place before I hit Surabaya and go back home :)

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Indonesia - Jogjakarta 1

From Jakarta, I took a night train to go to my next destination which is Jogjakarta. It took 9 hours from Jakarta to Jogjakarta by trains. There are 3 kinds of train. The most expensive one is executive train, and then below executive there is business train, and the last one is economy train. I took business class train to go to Jogjakarta, but trust me, it was so different from my expectation about this business class. There is no air conditioner, but fortunately I took night train so it is not hot at all. The people, the slept on the floor and the snack seller, they just throw trash on the floor. I wonder what economy class would look like.

Anyway, I arrived at Stasiun Tugu (Tugu Station) Jogja and picked up by my sister. Shortly, we went to Malioboro to find souvenirs. I expected Malioboro to have "something" but I think it is only a regular marketplace. Nothing really spectacular.

Next, I went to a fort called Vredeburg, but trust me you don't want to go there. There is nothing there. Now this is the interesting part, Prambanan Temple. Located moreless 1 hour from the heart of Jogjakarta city, I rode motorcycle with my sister to go to Prambanan Temple.

The entrance fee is IDR 30000 = USD 3.33 but I think they have different entrance fee for foreigner. It was really amazing since this was the first time for me to see such temple. And not far from this temple, there are also several other temples.

More later :)

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Indonesia - Jakarta 2

The next day, Mr. X took me to Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (TMII) which I thought was the place for miniatures of Indonesia but nope, they build the real thing, dude. It's huge and really tiring to go to one place to another. Ok, those who are confused right now, and trying to wondering what the hell is TMII, it is a place where we can find the houses and other traditional things of all Indonesia's province. So it's like the whole Indonesia fits in one place.

It was freaking tiring to go around these 33 different houses and it was really hot so we drank coconut water and there we saw a TV crew with I guess a celebrity. I don't know him, though.

And oh, I really want to share this. After from TMII, Mr. X took me to Lubang Buaya where we eat a super delicious Mie Ayam (Noodles). It's really really really recommended!

How to find the place? You just need to go to Lubang Buaya and it is right beside the monument. After that, Mr. X took me to Old City (Kota Tua) and I don't really get the reason why we came to this place. It is said that this place is full of old buildings but I just don't get it. Maybe because it was at night plus I was really tired. Anyway, maybe you should go there at noon.

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Indonesia - Jakarta 1

Hello readers,

I decided to take vacation to go back to Indonesia. But not just going back home to my hometown, but I went to several places in Java island. The first one is where the plane that took me landed, Jakarta. Here we go.

I stayed with a friend who clearly stated that he does not want me to expose any single information about him, so let's call him Mr. X, I know it sounds like criminals or raper but it is convenience so we will stick to that. Well, Mr. X showed me (or guided me) to several tourism spots in Jakarta. To be honest, I used to think that Jakarta is not a proper place to live, but maybe good for travelling, but after my visit to Jakarta, I should say (honestly) and I don't mind if you call me betrayer or whatever, Jakarta is not good both for living and travelling, at least for me. No offense to anyone who finds Jakarta is a good place for either or both living or/and travelling, you know we have different taste and way of thinking. The reasons I ensure my self to not live or travel to Jakarta are because:

First, there is nothing much to see actually. Just a bunch of high buildings with expensive stuff that I can easily find in Korea. Or maybe I just need to explore more, where? that's the question.

Second, it is expensive ... we have to pay for traffic jam and additional taxes.

Third, dirty, a mess, complicated, lack of information, afraid of exposing something because of high criminal rate.

It is really a long list if I want to write all of them, but let's focus on what was going on with me and Jakarta :).

The first day I was just looking for a cellphone that I can use only for calling and texting since I can't use my Korea phone here in Indonesia because unlocking my phone is really risky. I got a pretty cheap cellphone for IDR 210,000 = USD 25, good enough for my need. And then, in the evening I met up with my friend who was my teacher when I was in high school. It was so nice to meet her after a while. She looked great because she got a great news which I can't share it here :)

Me and Bu Bet at Mall Semanggi Jakarta

It was a quick meeting but memorable. I was so glad I could meet her knowing that I probably won't meet her for a couple years.

Jumping to the next day. Me and Mr. X decided to go to Bogor city to visit Bogor Botanical Gardens (Kebun Raya Bogor). The easiest way to go here is to take train or commuter, just get to the nearest station and take (I really recommend) commuter to the direction to Bogor (I think it was orange line (Bogor Line)). Ok, there are two types of train in Jakarta. The first one is what locals say Economy train which is really cheap around IDR 2000 = USD 0.22 but really dirty. It is like trash everywhere on the floor and it is without air conditioner. The second one is commuter which is way better with air conditioner but more expensive than economy one, but I think worth it. The fee to take commuter is IDR 7000 = USD 0.77 for bogor line. From bogor station, we took public transportation to go to Bogor Botanical Gardens.

Inside commuter, they have air conditioner + fan lol

The map of Bogor Botanical Gardens

One side of Bogor Botanical Gardens

Well, Bogor Botanical Gardens is good. Really refreshing and I think it is the best place to picnic or just to breath fresh air. There are some things I really like from this place, though. First is the cute animal which I don't know what animal it is. Maybe deers?

Maybe a deer?

There are many of them and they are inside the garden of Bogor President Palace which we can't get in for some reasons. Anyway, I like them. Definitely something new and fun to be discovered in this gardens. The next thing is that they have Orchid House. Orchids are really pretty.

Writing the next post soon ^^

More pictures here

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