Nepal, The Unexpected Crush (Pt. 2)

Read my first lovestruck on Nepal here.

Today marked ONE YEAR from my trip to Nepal. And yes, I’m admitting guilty that I’ve postponed this post for too long! I recently found that more and more people are interested to go to this country. As I have written before, Nepal was so good to my friends and I, despite the huge contrasts with Indonesia. And if I had an unexpected huge crush on Nepal, I don’t see why you won’t!

I left the story riding down from the nature-filled hilly Nagarkot to the utmost crowded part of the city, Thamel.

Please continue to read here: Nepal, The Unexpected Crush (Pt. 2)

ALSO, if you like what you are reading from my perspective, I have actually moved to a more updated blog, where I write about my travels and thoughts more often. Please follow my newest blog: fidawrites.com

Thank you!

A Steep Rocky Paradise in Alor, NTT

The view from a kitchen window

East Nusa Tenggara province, or in Indonesian we call Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) is surprisingly huge! I’ve just probably noticed that since my recent travel to Pulau Alor (Alor Island) on the 10-12 December 2016. Alor, along with other big islands and regencies in the East Nusa Tenggara (Sumba, Flores, Lembata, Ende, Maumere, Kupang — Yes, I finally know that they are still part of NTT) are home to many dive sites and beautiful marine wildlife with locals who may look and talk like nothing you’d find in large cities of Indonesia. They are the people of East Indonesia who many are descendants of the neighboring Papua, that inherits dark skin, curly hair in many ways. Different, I thought, and much to my surprise, I fell in love with this paradise.

After all the traveling I’ve done, this was my first time going on a trip to do a mission. Social traveling you may say. It was a mission to help expose the less-explored beautiful island in East Nusa Tenggara, Alor Island. Not many of you know, but Alor Island have actually been rewarded recently for having the most popular dive spots from Anugerah Pesona Indonesia Award 2016. So my curiosity was challenged when a friend posted about this social trip organized by Thank You Indonesia movement with a tagline,  “Jelajah Alor. Mewarnai Pulau,” which basically means to explore Alor Island and paint them in colors!  If that does not sound promisingly fun, I don’t know what else is.

Bright colorful houses of Pura Island now can be seen from across the ocean. Photo: Ina Ocktarina

The mission was done in a small island off the coast of Alor, called Pura Island. There are about over 140 houses in a steep rocky hills with village locals who has deep intimacies with their culture and are very open for innovation. This social project is done to fully raise the awareness of this island to many Indonesians and obviously to the world. We helped paint bright colors to the houses in this island, starting in Harilolong Village, since they are the most visible from the ocean. The goal was one: to help many diver boats and sailing ships to notice this multicolored houses in order to pay a visit to Pura Island. So tourists won’t only visit to explore the underwater heaven Alor has to offer, but also to meet many promising new friends and exposure to culture that are so rich, it will leave you in so much awe.

Lego Lego Dance to welcome guests

The friendly and hospitable Pura Island locals who cherishes their culture will welcome guests in the coolest tradition. Dancing! Lego Lego dance, is a traditional dance where locals will gather hand in hand (pinky in pinky, actually) in circle, moving in specified steps, while singing and chanting followed by the traditional gongs and drums. Lego Lego dance is part of their way to enunciate gratitude for the guests that comes by. I was lucky to experience this awesome dance, being one with the locals who chants loudly and move with steps that are hard to process by the brain. (Even I who dances on a regular basis still got lost in their steps).

Joined in the circle to dance Lego Lego

I was in so much envy from where these people live. I mean, climbing those steep rocks everyday, only to find endless panoramic beauty by the window of your house is definitely an eye pleaser. The view of neighboring island in full lush, the ocean in the middle with the knowledge of fresh resources underneath the surface of the ocean only made this island so precious.

Painting Papa Max Namaboling’s house

Okay, so the mission started as for us to paint the villagers’ houses in bright colors. My friends and I was set out in groups to do one local’s house. We were assigned to do a house of Mr. Max Namaboling, a name very unfamiliar for many of us who lives in the capital. It was a tough yet cool name to remember. Papa Max (as many people here would call in familiarity) lives uphill almost in the steepest top of the island. We were climbing those rocks and steep trails drenched in sweat to get to his house. But alas, the scenery we saw after we got there, left us…speechless.

The view from Papa Max’s house

I was already picturing myself on the set of a movie based in Greece, Mammamia when I got there! Bougainvillea flowers bright atop his roof, overlooking the sea and the neighboring island. Gorgeous! Lucky man. But it was not only him, almost all of the houses in this island have the same exact view. Aren’t you envious? After spending time painting bright blue color on the side of his house, we were offered delicious bunch of mangoes, fresh from the trees! Villagers of Pura Island are all-rounded farmers, fishermen, agriculturist of many. So no wonder they’d have supplies of fresh fish, veggies, fruits, even their own traditional gin made fresh from the Lontar tree. Late afternoon talks with the locals only made us fall in love over and over with their tranquility of innocence and willingness to exchange life stories. Their heavy Eastern Indonesia accents and language is very unusual, but that doesn’t stop the fact that we’d still be able to communicate. Still, with those heavy accents, the beauty of Bahasa Indonesia that unites our conversation as one is what made me proud of being an Indonesian.

Papa Max Namaboling with his niece

There are so many places to explore in Alor, not only in Pura Island itself, but the beaches and other wonderful adventure-filled sites in Alor that is waiting for you to notice. I myself would also love going back here, not only to see how the locals’ been treating their island, but also to dive all the way underneath their beautiful ocean! I want to write so much more about this beautiful place, because what I experience through out doesn’t seem enough to put in writings. Go and explore it yourself, I dare you. Again, thanks to Thank You Indonesia movement for organizing such wonderful social trip and leaving us all mesmerized by the beautiful Alor.

Sunrise from the house window

Local Mamas of Pura Island

Photo: Ina Ocktarina

Under the sea

Sebanjar Beach, Alor

Nepal, The Unexpected Crush (Pt. 1)

Nepal, 3 – 6 September 2016

At Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu, Nepal

Earlier this year, I made a super random trip plan to the most unexpected place anyone (well, Indonesians, really) would ever go. NEPAL. It started out as a trip planned with my adventurous travel partner aka cousin, Michelle to India. It has been our long life goal (since 2009 actually) to ever set foot in the land of the Bollywood! Then after recruiting other travel companions, we decided to place a journey further to explore Nepal. Crazy, I thought, given the fact that we know NOTHING about this foreign place, except for the fact that it lays the world’s famous highest peak, the Mount Everest and one of the many countries that Himalayas were stretched upon.

Mountain-view runway

We let our tickets settled and buried amongst other important emails in our inbox, with nothing planned, until two weeks before our departure. I know, CRAY. So here was the flight itinerary: Jakarta – Kuala Lumpur (transit) Kathmandu – Delhi – Kuala Lumpur (transit) Jakarta. The last few weeks before departure we found ourselves enfold in tabs after tabs of travel blogs, catatan perjalanan, tour websites, airbnb, hotel booking sites, immigration websites, currency converters and all that other shiz. Honestly, with this kind of long haul plan, we should at least have them covered and finalized at least one month before! Visa processing and documents handling can be tough, but thankfully we’ve all got it sorted out just in time, within our crazy busy schedule.

Fast forward to when the trip starts. Note that we were traveling on a budget, and as crazy as it sounds, we were traveling without a baggage! So we tried really hard to keep our backpacks filled empty and loose – which trust me, is hard. You may have a clue on how many items were left out in the journey and how difficult it is not to shop in places that produces the world’s finest handy crafts! TOUGH, I tell you. Anyways, the trip started with our transit in Kuala Lumpur, and within reaching the next transit gate to Kathmandu, we found ourselves in the middle of MEN. Many men, Nepali men in exact, who are apparently workers in Malaysia. They come in many variety of faces, skin color and aroma :). Nekat, we thought. Four Indonesian girls traveling to a developing country without any expectation. But it was awesome, I thought, something totally different than the kind of traveling I’m used to.

After getting our Visa on Arrival with the cost of 25 USD, we were welcomed nicely by the immigration staffs.”First time in Nepal?” “Yes” “Hope you enjoy Nepal” all smiling and stuff. Arriving in Kathmandu, I was literally holding my bags close to my body, afraid of people snatching them off me. I mean, all those mass media exposure about how India is famous for crime activities and rapes had really gotten into my head and thinking that Nepal would be the same since they’re only borderline apart. I was wrong, obviously after days passed, I could only find people who are humble and helpful and definitely tourist friendly!

Driving away from the airport, the sight of the city was seriously captivating. The old cracked buildings (remember Nepal earthquake?), vintage cars that produce clouds of grey smoke, puddles of mud and rain water makes blurred reflections of stray dogs and cows on the road. Meanwhile, the mountains timidly poked out from every directions, as if showing off that no matter how deficient they seemed, this country has something grand to offer. It was different, I thought. A sight so heartbreaking yet beautiful and exciting at the same time. My eyes saw and cultivate the heart to love it. And that was just it. I straight away had an unexpected crush on Nepal.

Nagarkot

After talking to several sources and finding recommendations on where to go in Nepal, we finally book a hotel in Nagarkot. Nagarkot is a hilly area in Nepal famous for its beautiful sunrise and sunset views and it is only 1 hour from Kathmandu. It is a fairly best alternative if you don’t want to travel too far to Pokhara – which is a city close by to the hills and foot of the mountains, if you want the thrive for that sceneries and adventure hikes. After reading reviews of hotels that are within our budget, we got ourselves staying in Hotel Mount Paradise.

All four of us in the room, with a balcony view of the mountain and city. I set up an airport pick up from Tribhuvan International Airport to the hotel, which was planned accordingly well by Mr. Mohan, the hotel owner. The better English speaker, humble and thoughtful hotel owner I’ve ever met. He set up the room perfectly and arranged our pick ups and drop off really well. He was also the one that assured us that Nepal is “safe”. He understood our panicky faces, I assume, when we wanted to find a nice dinner near the hotel. “Anytime day and night, here in Nepal is safe. 100 percent!” Very convincing. We believed him.

Nepali traditional dishes: (Top left, clockwise) Chicken fried rice, Thukpa, Biryani Rice, Mo:Mo, Chicken Curry rice

We trekked down a little away from the hotel that late afternoon to find some dinner. We managed to find many shops, hotels and food stalls and settled in a small cheap wifi-accommodated restaurant to stop by and try their traditional dishes. Mo:Mo (traditional meat and potato curry-filled dumplings), Thukpa (noodle soup), Biryani rice and Chicken Curry are few of the fancy foods we tried that night. Too cozy with the wifi, we didn’t realize it was dark already and we had to walk our way back to the hotel! With only one handphone flashlight, arm in arm, four stupidly brave girls walked back pitch black, in an open wet roadway with the breeze from the mountain. Scared af, but we made it back to the hotel safe and sound! Mr. Mohan was right. Nepal was safe.

With Mr. Mohan, the humble hotel owner

We weren’t very lucky as we arrived in Nepal when it was all wet and rainy. Same goes that night in Nagarkot. I was really excited to hike up to see a beautiful sunrise that morning, but the weather will not let us. All awake at 4:30 am, hard rain kept pouring that early morning, and it was just impossible to get out from the room. Disappointed, I went back to sleep. When the daylight hits the window of our room, we decided to open the balcony door and felt the chills. It was nice. We could only see the fogs right up there moving in and out of our room. The weather was that bad. I was sad.

Then back to our beds and gossiping for hours later, Michelle saw the window and startled, “Wait, LOOK! Was that there before??” mentioning about those gorgeous mountains so grand that peeked out from the fogs! It was around 7:30 or 8:00 am and the fogs settled down, revealing one of the most remarkable view I ever witness in my life. All just from a balcony of a budget hotel room. Subhannallah. We couldn’t stop taking pictures, it was green, foggy, sharp, dark blue, any beautiful sceneries in the distance that captured my heart so blissfully. Though pictures alone don’t really do justice, I sank in love with the sight. Feeling well-acquainted with the wonderful scenery, we prepare ourselves to go back to the city, staying in the most crowded touristy spot of Kathmandu, Thamel.

(To be continued…)

 

Finding Peace at Warwick IBAH, Ubud

During my #workcation back in December 2015, I was very pleased to have the chance to stay at one of the most luxurious and beautiful villas. Warwick IBAH in Ubud, Bali have captured my heart like no other, really. Beside it being a duty to be staying there to review the place for work, it has given me a personal memory as well.

Located in the most exotic and peaceful place on earth, Ubud, near the beautiful hill and river of Campuhan, to be precise, Warwick IBAH is one of a kind resort! It was a place I can exactly identify myself staying in for a long time. Picture this: huge room with wooden floors, bed linens so fuzzy accessorized in white curtains, infinity pool so big and fresh, and nature. Yes, NATURE. Surrounded with over hundreds of different plants and trees, flowers also grow naturally in this beautiful hotel.

The very generous and humble General Manager, Mr. Yanni Claassen

Architectural background of the place itself dated back to over 25 years ago, since it was built inside the royal ground and territory.  The General Manager, Mr. Yanni Claassen, a South African who have traveled the world to basically managed hotels everywhere, from the busiest of cities to one in a secluded island. Oh, how lucky! He was a very humble man with so much interest of traveling and luxurious experiences, he said that Warwick IBAH is the only perfect place to “switch off and relax,” and I couldn’t agree more!

Another most memorable moment I had here was trekking the Campuhan hills. Crossing over a river in a rock-made bridge and basically just breathe fresh air on top of the hills. Pictures does not do justice. It was such a prestige feeling, and I couldn’t be more thankful!

Read my writing about this beautiful experience more on STYLE.COM Indonesia

STYLE.COM Indonesia duty 

 

Songkran Festival 2015: Bangkok

“Life is a party, a grand festival. Because life, is the moment you’re living right now.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

This is probably one of my most favorite quote of all time, representing how life should be lived. How we are to appreciate the time and place we are in and basically just party it out!

I have had Songkran festival in my bucket list since two years ago and finally fulfilled it this year on 11-15 April. The festival itself was held for three days every year on 13-15 April. Songkran is an annual festival held all across Thailand to celebrate the Thai new year. People splash water and apply powder to each other’s faces as a respect and prayers to the Buddha. It is a sign of “refreshed” and “cleansed” as a start of the new year. As of today, the festival gets better and modern because we, SQUIRT WATER GUNS! (And party with foams and EDM music, apparently 😝).

There are a few places we could enjoy the festivities in Bangkok. Among them are Silom road, Central World Mall and Khao San road. On the first day my friends and I came to Silom road to find such an awesome crowd with water squirter and few fire trucks that provided water for us to refill our “weapon”. It was such an awesome experience!

Silom road

Second day, after looking at the news paper at our hotel about the foam bath at Centralworld mall we headed there and I experienced one of the coolest foam party! I met 3 Malaysian guys from Johor who basically took care of me inside the foam concert with famous Thai band 😆. On the same night, we went to Khao San road where basically all of the foreigners go to in Bangkok. There were loads of bar and cafes and Thai massage parlors along the skirts and alleys of Khao San which is a delight. Along the main road of Khao San though, the Thai locals were set with huge buckets of water ready to splash passer bys. It was such a hilarious sight to see and definitely something worth experiencing.

Foam bath party @ Centralworld

Another thing I was excited about coming to Bangkok was… THAI FOOD!!! Seriously, what is my trip there without devouring on the world’s best local dishes? (my opinion, anyway). Green curry, basil chicken, tom yum, pad thai, mango sticky rice, coconut ice cream… My tongue and stomach literally almost malfunction of happiness due to the great culinary we munched there.

THAI FOOD GALORE!

I definitely would love to go back to Bangkok to Eat, Shop and PLAY!

4 Tips to Staying Alive

Tips to staying alive:

1. Wake up early

2. Have a destination in mind

3. Grab your wildest most random partner

4. Explore!

On Friday, June 5th 2015 my friend and I decided to have a random day trip to Padalarang, West Bandung, West Java 3 hours away from Jakarta to one of the most interesting secluded place I’ve ever been to called Stone Garden & Goa Pawon Padalarang

To make a long story short, our adventure started in the morning where we met at Citos and took the public bus to the nearest Bus Terminal, Kampung Rambutan. At the terminal, we took an intercity bus to Bandung that pass through Cipularang highway and exited Padalarang toll exit. We were dropped off at the edge of the toll exit and found that we could go to Stone Garden and Goa Pawon by Ojek (motorbike taxi). After haggling and agreed on paying 60 thousand Rupiah for a return tour from Padalarang toll exit, Stone Garden, Goa Pawon and back to the nearest city bus terminal, we were off for our adventure.

Stone Garden was such an eye pleasing sight! It was as if I was somewhere in Europe in a whole different era. People called it like we were in The Flinstones movie set. Same goes to Goa Pawon or Pawon Cave. It was known that the fossils of early human beings was found here. The cave has such an exceptional sights and amazing topography.  We are so glad to still have found adventure just nearby our home ❤️

11 Reasons You Should Date a Dancer-Traveler

1. Challenge is her middle name.

She lives selfishly and full on ego. She strives for different challenges whenever shes out of the comfort zone of her home or rather take on learning tough dance steps.

2. She knows good food.
She may not be an expert at cooking, but she travels to explore, take photos and munch on local dishes..and as a dancer, she burns calories well, therefore she eats rather well too! Never judge. She’s known to have the best choices in cuisines.

3. Inspiration soothes her

Show her your passion, tell her your stories, as she finds that you can inspire her, she might create a dance or something artistic out of it.

4. She’s spontaneous.

You might learn a thing or two when you know you’re with an adventurer and an artist. Typical standard dinner movie date might be accepted, but try going beyond things she doesn’t expect. Unexpected well sorted performance or roadtrip please her more.

5. She loves the water.

She dances, for godsake, she can dive too. Imagine those things combine! Better be prepare to not be afraid of the water. You don’t need to be a pro photog, but know that she’ll need a partner to take pictures dance posing underwater.

6. Support her.

You know she works well with her body, you know she might partner up with a guy, you know she will meet a bunch of new people surrounding her during her travels. Support her passion, she wants you to be able to understand what shes doing and what makes her happy. But know that you’ll always be in her mind everytime she does her things

7. She makes you learn names. 

She meets a lot of people during dance workshops and travel buddies that will suddenly become her bestfriends. Its hard to keep track because she will mention them once or twice, she also will forget who she have told you about. This challenges you to learn names! Have her surprise when you know a thing or two about her new friends

8. Her time is planned accordingly.

She could be held up with dance practices and performances, while her travel plans have been marked in her calendar as well. But she is sure to give you a good quality time together, duly noted this requires booking her ahead of time.

9. She’s independent.

Bare with her as she is used to plan her travels alone or with her friends. She is used to getting to dance practices by herself. Embrace her independence but do show her that you will be there for her when she needs you

10. She’s loving and loyal.

With artist blood running inside her, she’s exposed to heart full of emotions, which means that she’s loving and she adores people, culture and environment she’s thrown into during her travels as well as the way she expresses through her dancing.

11. She has drive and focus.

She pushes the limit of being a traveler, which means she knows what she wants to pursue. Also, imagine if she has to do the Thousand Hands traditional dance if she doesnt have focus and concentration. These are a complete package for her.

Personal Branding

This weekend I somehow learn a little bit more about myself through people. People close to me. 

Friday

Friday was my old office’s monthly seasonal meet up (arisan). It’s always nice to meet my old colleague after months and months of lost touch. When I talked to my old work partner, where she’s now working as a teacher, she realized that she has been achieving her dreams one by one. She had once dream of being a teacher, and now she’s pursuing it. She knows that it is not a high salary paying job, but she love what she’s doing. As she is a talented designer with a background of graphic design and illustrator, she also had a dream of creating children’s story book using her talent. This year, she had a chance to make her dream come true again when she won a storybook cover design contest online and she was told to continue doing more of the illustrations of the whole book. She was content of all of her achievements this year that she’s now confused of what else she should pursue next. I told her that she should create more goals to achieve. I told her of the many   rejections that I faced this year, as if my fate is telling me that I should pursue something else that is personal to me, of something that I really want, not because of others telling me to do. Then she told me that because I have all the time now, I should keep continuing what it is I have in mind and really pursue it until I succeed. From her stories, I realized that I also had goals that I have achieved and that I should have other goals to pursue and really focus on. 

Saturday

On Saturday, I went to try out for a news presenter audition with a friend who have dreamed of becoming a news presenter/anchor since she was a little kid. Of course, with a lot of other rejections I received over the course of 2015, I didn’t move on to the next on-cam test. However, my talented and passionate friend did. I was so proud of her and I was so excited that she continued to the next on-camera test and next week she will have a psychotest. I have always been inspired by her passion and wants of being a news anchor or a TV personnel ever since I met her. I told her that I guess when you want something so badly, in the end you will achieve it. Even if it takes time, struggle and few wrong choices along the way. 

Then she told me that I also have a passion and personal branding. Of course I had to ask her what she meant by “Personal Branding”. Then she mentioned about her knowing me as a dancer and traveller. That’s my personal branding. I still didn’t get it. Then she said, “when people ask me of you, I would strictly remember and know that you are a dancer and a traveller! Because that’s what you do. That’s what you show to people.  That’s how people recognize Fida.” I was speechless. I’ve only known Evin for a good 10 months when we started as a colleague working as a consultant, and yet she’d known me better than what I’ve realized of myself. I wouldn’t even realized that those two characteristics are mine. I mean I knew I love travelling and dancing, but I never knew those could have been or become my own “Personal Branding”. She said I should embrace it :). Since she pointed that out, I realize I should focus on it. 

Sunday

This Sunday I spent my day with two of my amazing traditional dancing friends. We went to watch our friends from Gema Cita Nusantara dance community performed on the anniversary event of Taman Mini Indonesia Indah dancing “Ratoh” from Aceh, a dance of a thousand hands, performed by literally 1700 dancers! We were so proud of them and wished we were in the group performing as well. We were wondering of all the dancers who stayed there since early in the morning and only performed in late afternoon of how they must have felt. And how the blazing sun was shining right on top of their heads the whole afternoon before they finally performed. Yusti, trying to be realistic questioned “I wonder if they are going to perform well, since they’ve been grounded below the sun for soo long!” Then, not realizing I was being optimistic I replied, “I’m pretty sure they will perform well. They must be so proud being one of the 1000s, they must want to perform well!” Then Yusti motions to Chika saying, “Oh, Fida you’re so optimistic. Very supportive.” I just laughed not realizing the character Yusti was placing on me. On the way back, among the chaosness of traffic and rain, Chika was complaining about something then Yusti said, “be careful of what you say, if you want to be friends with Fida you have to be a positive person! You have to be optimistic, because she hates negative people.” I laughed and laughed and suddenly it just hit me. Yusti knows exactly of who I am and what my characters are like. I do despise negativity from people, I like to embrace positivity positive people portray. I always feel good surrounded by people who can inspire me through their positivity. It feels like having a fresh splash of water through you on a hot summer day, makes you feel cool and happier. I then rethink about what Yusti had said, and I actually thanked her for exposing my characters. 

Again, I remembered about “Personal  Branding”, and I am thankful and blessed being surrounded by people who understands me and who knows me more than I know myself. Sometimes the only way to see the beauties in yourself is by a reflection from other people. Kind of like the Dove Beauty Campaign few years ago. *not trying to promote or guerilla-ing* 😆

So, if you maybe are lost of trying to know who and what you are, try to talk to  your friends. You may not realize a lot of things they know about you that you don’t. Give it a try! 😉 ❤️

dancer, traveler, optimistic me 😄

Pahawang Island & Kiluan Bay of Lampung, Indonesia

In the beginning of April, over the Easter weekend I had a chance to experience my first ever being a Trip Leader! After all of my traveling experience, this was by far one of the greatest achievement I had!

I thank Wuki Traveller for the opportunity and their trust to have me guiding a pack of awesome and fun gang of travelers.

It was not my first time traveling to Lampung by ferry through Bakaheuni port. I had gone there when I was young traveling with my family, when I went to Krakatau with Michelle on my 21st birthday and to Kiluan Bay last year. However it was my first time to go Pahawang Island. I have heard many great stories about its underwater life and islands from my friends and photos, but I was excited to finally witness it myself with this group.

The trip was a 3 days 2 nights trip, where one night spent in the ferry and another night at Kelapa Island in Kiluan Bay. The journey was to go to Pahawang Island first, then off to Kiluan Bay in the afternoon. The distance between the two areas are only 3-4 hours away. However let me assure you that the road condition heading to Kiluan Bay is one of the worst I had experience. Gladly, our Elf driver Mr. Bambang was so brave and patient through out the journey that we felt safe. I am also glad my group of 14 folks was still enjoying the journey despite of being hungry and couldn’t sleep due to the time-taking road condition.

Pahawang Island

We started our journey to Pahawang Island first, which was on the southwest slightly outskirts of Bandar Lampung, the capital town of Lampung. Getting there took about 3-4 hours drive from Bakaheuni port to Ketapang Jetty where we crossed by boat to island hop. We arrived at Ketapang jetty at around 10 am, had breakfast at Pak Udin’s warung, change into our wet clothes and go island hopping. I was introduced to our boat crew, Mas Holani who took us onto his boat that was marked Doa Jablay (direct translation: Slut’s Prayer – HAHA, contradicting much?) and showed us around to four island hopping destination and snorkling activities to see Pahawang’s underwater paradise.

First stop was Kelagian Kecil (small Kelagian island) which we went down to snorkle from the boat. It was surrounded by huge corals and small colorful fish swarming around it. Then we head out to Pahawang Kecil, where we stopped by the white-sand island and took a bunch of photos

Group photo at Pahawang Kecil

After that, we continued to another 2 destinations which was Kelagian Besar and another nearby island. The third stop was my favorite! Guess where the boatmen anchored at? Just on top of a gangfull of clown fish’ anemones! I was super in shock and excited to see the beautiful gang of fish, I suddenly was able to go down free diving for a good few seconds and took what a surprisingly pretty picture with “Nemo” and his family! I suddenly forgot about my bad ashtmatic cough and allergies that i had a day before once I went down there.

Selfie with Nemo and family

The final island stop was just as beautiful as I remember it has a deep wall of corals with colorful fish, including parrot fish.

Febee with Nemo’s family

Kiluan Bay
After the long and winding road *Beatles lyrics intended* to Kiluan Bay, we finally arrived after close to 4.5 hours. It was super dark when we arrived at the bay, and we had to cross the sea to our homestay which was 10 minutes away at Kelapa Island. We had dinner and finally rested in our platform homestay.

The next morning was when it got fun! Kiluan Bay is famous for its dolphin sightings. And this is where we started our journey at 6:30 am with a Jukung (a small fishermen wooden boat) to the vast sea in search of a group of dolphin sightings. My group of 3 in the Jukung was fortunate to see beautiful dolphins playing around jumping and spinning around on top of the water. They were very cheeky! Its too adorable! (Of course my photography reflect wasn’t able to capture such awesome sight, mainly due to the distance between our Jukung and the dolphins too :'()

But we witness amazing sights along the way though!

Beautiful vast sky and sea

In search of dolphins

Jukung, traditional Lampung fishermen boat

All in all, I was so happy to be able to become a trip leader, being trusted to bring along a group of amazingly fun travelers and the way that I got to experience more parts of Indonesia that I have never been to. Thank you again Mba Wuri and Eki from Wuki Travellers for your trust, I am looking forward to more traveling with them!

Pahawang Island & Kiluan Bay, 2-4 April 2015

Singapore: Of Cats and Cupcakes

Early in the new year of 2015, in the midst of hecticness of being my sister’s maid of honor, I managed to escape.

Yes, I did a quick and spontaneous escape for 1 night on the weekend of January 10-11. It was actually one of my most shortest yet expensive trip that I’ve done– totally the opposite of my Menjangan and Kawah Ijen trip– only for two, and two things only: Cats and Cupcakes!

As a lover of the arts, you know that famous broadway musical by Andrew Llyod Webber, Cats? Yeah, it had a show in Singapore. The only stop they made in South East Asia (if I’m not mistaken) for 1 month only! Wanting to reliving my 6th grade dance moments performing Cats in ISKL, I reaaally wanted to go. I asked around for companions. Asked my sister obviously, because we performed the dance together; however with much desire of watching the show as I do, she prefered to consider her wedding preps her priority at the moment. I don’t blame her 😒.

So I had to find another partner that has a passion of the arts as much as I do. Well, who else would it be if it’s not one of my dance friends? Luckily, knowing Cindy as the kind of girl who is happy-go-lucky, of course she wants in. Again, as a go-with-the-flow kind of girl, she trusted me to do all of the bookings. She was actually in the middle of her midterm in college so I did all the planning for us hahahaha.

Once we got to Singapore that Saturday morning we checked into our backpacker hostel. It was pretty neat! It’s called Five Stones Hostel at Beach Road. You could totally find the youthful atmosphere here, with lovely staffs and comfortable rooms and living area. We stayed in an all-female room of 8 beds with a cost of S$38 per person. Not bad, considering all the convinient area surrounding it (Bugis street, Haji Lane, etc) and including an all you can eat breakfast with choices of bread, butter and jam. Definitely backpacker-friendly ;).

After placing our luggages, we head out to the other one thing we were in Singapore for: 12 Jalan Pisang aka Fluff Bakery for their cupcakes! I have followed Fluff Bakery on Instagram for a few months, as an inspiration for my friend’s patisserie business, but man, I need to reallly know what the buzz is about on this store! I noticed they were always sold out, considering at the time the bakery was only open about 3 months. There were always LONG LINES in front of the store, and their mouth-watering photos of cupcakes and cakes of unique flavors also made me curious.

When we arrived at 12 pm, there it was. THE LINE! People queued from the front of the bakery door, until the back of the building. No kidding! Cindy and I thought we shouldn’t regret it and should bought 2 dozens of cupcakes hahaha. Of course, we want to take it back home too. Then finally got it, we bought 2 dozens of all the six flavors available that day and ate it like a fat kid! The buzz was right, it literally the kind of cupcakes to die for! My favorite was definitely the nutella redvelvet, salted caramel and butterscotch pretzel. Damn!

Fluff Bakery’s to-die-for cupcakes

After resting our stomach full of cupcakes at the hostel, we got ready for the night of the show, Cats. We head out around with MRTs and finally arrived at Marina Bay Sands. One word about the show: “purrrfect!”. It was magical to see an amazing set, costumes and make up of the whole casts. Their dancing though.. Hmm!! All thumbs up! I was inspired! The whole thing was musical, so expect a lot a lot of singing. One suggestion though: don’t watch it at night when you just arrive in the morning with lack of sleep. You could find yourself sleeping at a S$68-S$300 show. Definitely not the “memory” worth spending (see what I did there? 😉 the song title of the part where Cindy and I rested our eyes. HAHA). Thanked God for intermission, we rested a little more and finally kicked our eyes open til the end of the show 😄.

After watching Cats

The next day, as our flight was a late afternoon flight, we check out of the hostel and found ourselves lingering through the alley of Haji Lane. It was beautiful with such hipster twists. Neat graffiti, colorful shops, and Mexican and Arabic bars (which I think is much crowded at night) clutter along the lane.

Haji Lane

The trip ended there, but the “memory” definitely stayed for Cindy and I 😄