My Journey, My Stories

It's been a while since the last time I updated this blog, a lot of things has happened ever since. Just a few days ago, I took a DISC  assessment as a part of "Finding your ideal career" workshop at my school. One of the assessment that caught my attention is "You tend to be more of a doer than a dreamer" which made me think back over the past few years. As some of you must have known that I used to be an AuPair in the Netherlands, ever since I return to Indonesia, I cannot move on from Netherlands, I always try to find my way back here. It's not an easy path to take and I refuse to just stuck in the "if" phase. There are thousands of way to do that, but the only "possible" way for me is to go back to school, and get my master degree. Some might think I'm crazy to do that as I'm kinda too old to go back to school, but I need to take matters into my own hand. In 2014, I started my search for university, scholarship (read m...

So, any of you ever being held in Police/immigration station when entering a country? I want to share my very recent experience being held in Rome immgiration office. I am going to have a month spring "break" in Europe, I got 1 year Schengen Visa from Netherlands embassy. I flew in with Qatar Airways and had layover in Doha. When we're about to embark, all passengers were requested to have their passport ready, and there were number of police standing in front of the airplane stairs checking our passport. Long story short, I arrived at the immigration gate, and the immigration officer started questioning me

Mount Batur  (1,717mdpl) is an active volcano located in Kintamani area. Ever since my trip to Rinjani, I became addicted to hiking, true the journey to the top is always painful but the view is so amazing and it makes the journey worth the effort. Okay okay, according to my friends it's not considered as mountain because of the low altitude, but hey, if google said it's mountain, then it is a mountain, right?

Day 5 - When it's all started I, the spoiled brat who loves comfortable bed and airco so much, decided to take an offer to climb Mount Rinjani , one of the highest active volcano in Indonesia, standing tall and proud 3,726 meters above sea level. October 14, 2016 was the day I started my journey , m y 5th day in Lombok.  We started our day waiting for the next group to arrive. They were held by traffic jam in Mataram. They arrived around 3pm, a little bit too late to climb, so we cheated by driving the car to base 1, and continue our hike to base 2. The hike was pretty flat with a few uphill every now and then, a n ice warm up . We were planning to reach base 3, where you can camp on the valley, free from the mean and cold wind of the mountain. However, since we started late, it was too dark to continue the journey to base 3, so after 3 hours of hiking we camped at bas e 2, which is quite exposed t o the cold o f the mountain. Nevertheless, we were lucky that the sky was c...

Lombok , is an island east of Bali and west of Sumbawa, very well known for its beautiful beaches and the mighty volcano Rinjani. Last October, I had the chance to visit a little bit of both, 10 days trip, including 5 days hiking the Rinjani. Yes, I know, I mentioned the Gili's but I will not discuss about the 3 famous Gili's (Gili Air, Gili Trawangan, and Gili Meno). Gili actually meant little island in Sasak.  There are 2 ways to reach Lombok, you can either take airplane to Lombok Airport Praya (LOP) or take a boat from Bali to Pelabuhan Lembar (Lembar Port). I chose airplane myself, as I was departing from Jakarta. There are plenty of airlines offering direct flights to Lombok, from the cheap to the expensive one. Day 1 - Between Delays and Rushing to Sekotong I have a habit of get everything planned and detailed, all the transportation and accommodation, timing, everything. But sometimes, things doesn't go according to plan and you have to adjust your timing and ...

Menu Breakfast: Banana Lunch: Meatball with Tzatziki Sauce Dinner: Hutspot with Grilled Chicken Recipe Meatball with Tzatziki Sauce Ingredients (Make 2 portions): 250gr Groundbeef 3tbsp yogurt garlic Japanese cucumber Lettuce Paprika powder Blackpepper Dried rosemary How to: Mix groundbeef, garlic, paprika powder, blackpepper, and dried rosemary together. Grill it on the pan without oil Cut cucumber in half, remove the seed, shred, and squeeze it until you drain all the water. Mix cucumber, garlic, blackpepper, and yogurt to make the tzatziki sauce There you go as easy as a pie (and making pie is hard)

It's been a while since the last time I updated this blog. This time I want to share about my trip to Banyuwangi , East Java. The Regency of Banyuwangi is located at the easternmost end of the Indonesian island of Java. It serves as a port between Java and the island of Bali. Banyuwangi is separated by Strait of Bali from Bali. Why Banyuwangi? I know it's not one of the main tourist destination, but apparently it has a lot to offer, i t is surrounded by mountains and forests to the west; by sea to the east and south, and not to mention cheaper accommodation compared to Bali. You can go to Banyuwangi using airplanes, or just like me go to Surabaya first and then drive around 5-6 hours to Banyuwangi. I used tour operator Amazing Banyuwangi for this trip, but apparently they are very unprofessional, they tricked us so we ended up had to pay more for the "All Inclusive Private" trip they offered on the website. Anyway long story short let me tell you about how gorgeous...