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 

 

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 ❤️

Menjangan, Ijen Craters, Baluran

24 – 26 October 2014 marks the latest, quickest yet the most stretched backpacking trip I’ve done. Stretched and quick because in only 2 nights, I can be in several places enjoying the view and the physical challenges faced. We didn’t even have a proper place to sleep. We relied on the transportations to comfort us sleeping.

Here was the route:

Jakarta (Stasiun Kota) – Surabaya Gubeng [Train]

Surabaya Gubeng – Watudodol beach [Elf travel mini bus]

Watudodol Beach – Menjangan Island, Bali – Watudodol Beach [Boat]

Watudodol Beach – Ijen Crater Mountain [Elf travel mini bus]

Ijen Crater Mountain – Baluran National Park [Elf travel mini bus]

And finally back to Jakarta by plane from Surabaya ❤

See how though it was super tiring and bone-breaking short trip ever, it was still the most fun! I had my brother and his friend coming along with me as well in this trip organized by Wuki Travel