AOE: "Fool or Clever" at Mount Tampomas, Indonesia.

Hola again ! How's everything going? Haha.. Here I am (again), an amateur blogger who likes to share whatever I feel I want to share. The previous AOE posting was about my travel experience to Singapore, different from the first two AOEs which described about India. I tried to distinguish every story sequentially even though I still have many stories about India that I haven't posted yet. It's kinda boring if you post same things (in this case is the same country) sequentially, isn't it? Currently, it's mount Tampomas turn.

Mount Tampomas is located in North Sumedang, Indonesia. It has about 1684 meters height. This Stravolcano has hot springs that came out in the area around the foot of the mountain. Its forest has some floras (jamuju, rasamala, and saninten) and faunas (mouse deer, lutung, wild boar, and some kind of birds). Tampomas summit is called "Sangiang Taraje". You can see the whole of Sumedang city from there. 200 meters to the north of "Sangiang Taraje", can be found a shrine named "Pasarean". Legend says that it was  a place of Prabu Siliwangi and Dalam Samaji in old Padjajaran kingdom era. (http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunung_Tampomas). I went to mount Tampomas with my friends (Deden, Wilan, Dhery, and Jodi) on December 2010.

Map of Mount Tampomas in West Java, Indonesia.

Went there by bikes from Subang to Sumedang city, we stayed one night at our friend's flat (D-1). In the morning, we used angkot (public transportation) and rode a truck to mountain's feet. Here is the video that we made when we were riding a truck (My first exeperience haha).

"Truck"-ing

On our way to Tampomas summit

Tampomas trip with COTAS (our community)

Releasing a leech from Jodi's feet

Hikers !!

Tampomas summit with fog

Had a rest and got some foods

 Trying to be photogenic LOL

Tampomas summit

We got through some hilarious experience that could have never been forgotten. Here they are:

• Jodi got a leech on his feet. Leech is known as a bloodsucker which means that if we pull it, it's going to suck your blood much more stronger. So, we decided to release it with a knife by dragging it out.
• We thought that we could get some fresh water to drink from its headwaters. So, we just brought 2 1,5L-bottles of water for 5 persons. But the fact is we didn't find the headwaters, if we did, it's difficult to be reached. Fortunately, Dhery brought his own 600mL-bottle of water without told us. It saved us LOL.
• Once we reached the summit, we couldn't enjoy the view over there because of the fog.
•  It's an unfortunate we got all wet on our way down to the city because it rained torrential. We tried to protect our important stuffs from getting wet and we did it.

So, that's all of my Tampomas experience. Maybe Tampomas was just like my media to get those experience. It could happen in every mountains. I hope you'all enjoy it. And hopefully it gives you who are planning to hike a mountain some lessons.

• Prepare a multi-tool and find some information about the area.(flora, fauna, weather, track, and so on)
• Bring a 1,5L-bottle of water each person. (Don't bring to many because it'll be a heavy load)
• Check the weather first before you hike.
• Bring a raincoat and prepare to face the rain like put your important stuffs to plastic and find something to help you get through a slippery field.

Let yourself free by seeing the world !!

Terima kasih. (Thank you)

AOE: 3 unstoppable-days in Singapore.

Different from previous AOEs, this time I want to share about my journey in Singapore with my Indonesian friends (Nuna Sani, Waiji, and Arzie). The only reason I went to Singapore was just because I wondered why most people (specifically for Indonesian) spent their holiday there. (Even I have a friend who went there more than twice). So, I asked my friends to have 3 short-days trip to Singapore at 26th to 28th of August 2013.

That was my first time to travel abroad with my own budget. We got a promo ticket like Rp.525.000 for round trip. (I know there is a ticket which is cheaper than ours). We lived at Mercury Backpacker Hostel, Lavender. (we got a promo price too, about SGD 80 for 2 days). Private jacuzzi on its rooftop, Wi-Fi, 4 beds in one room, hot and cold water shower, and a TV in its living room are all included.
 

We used Singapore Tourist Past (STP) to travel around Singapore. It covered MRT, LRT, Bus, and so on, so we could get cheaper prices overall. It's about SGD 30 for 3 days using and if you return it, you can get SGD 10 cashback. I recommend it if you're planning to have a holiday in Singapore for 3 days. Places we visited were Bugis, Chinatown, Clarke Quay, Marina Bay, Esplanade Theater on the Bay, Merlion, Sentosa Island, Singapore Botanic Garden, Holland Village, Mustafa at Farrer Park, HarbourFront, Orchard Road.

We had some unique experience while we were exploring Singapore, such as we had about 15 hours trip in one day until we took a bus due to the train schedule (the last train was about at midnight), Arzie was lost in Orchard visit, we tried to find a hidden Indian restaurant named "Kebabs n Curries" at Mustafa badly, and the last thing is we (exclude Arzie) had to buy a new flight back ticket to Indonesia due to our 15 minutes late check-in and it cost about SGD 90 and something. I thought that was a good enough experience to explore Singapore.

This was just a BEGINNING of my Adventures !!

On our road to the famous Merlion Park

 Arrived at Merlion Park after took couple minutes from Esplanade

 We went to Esplanade, Theater on the Bay rooftop

Marina Bay Sands view from Esplanade rooftop

Chinatown MRT station

Bugis, a place where people used to buy gifts

We arrived at Botanic garden at the night

Arzie was at House of ...... Orchard road (?)

We ate some bread ice creams while pigeons were accompanying us

 Place: Orchard Road

My big bites (?)

Clarke Quay nightlife, it's pretty expensive for me, haha..

iFly, the world’s largest themed wind tunnel for indoor skydiving

(http://www.sentosa.com.sg/en/attractions/beaches/ifly-singapore/)

Universal freeze!

Siloso beach, Sentosa island

We wish we went in haha..

Almost sunset at Siloso beach, Sentosa island

And here the video I made about our trip to Singapore

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10201652231725275&set=vb.1163641683&type=3&theater

If you're planning to visit Singapore (backpacker way) and have something to ask about, feel free to ask me as usual. I'm gonna help you as much as possible. Thanks.

AOE: A Desert in Pushkar, India.

Before I start this AOE, I was extremely happy because my "AOE: Himalayas in Manali, India." was shared on The India Daily (http://paper.li/GoodBlogPosts46/1318294603#!leisure). Maybe it's because of I am still an amateur blogger, so when people shared about my blog, I was extremely happy. So, Thank you for sharing this.

This time, I wanna talk about my past experience of travelling of Pushkar, a colourful place with desert and a famous beautiful sunset-view spot. Pushkar (Hindi: पुष्कर) is a town in the Ajmer district in the Indian state of Rajasthan. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pushkar).

Map of Pushkar

 A desert, colourful sarees, camels, gooses, a lake, and other Indian traditional objects are parts of Pushkar. Those objects decorate Pushkar perfectly. I was personally amazed  by it. That was my first experience of travelling to desert.

A view when we just arrived in Pushkar

A camel in Pushkar

Pushkar has the world's largest livestock and camel fairs every year called Pushkar fair. Unfortunately, we didn't have a chance to experience it as we couldn't stay too long there.

Colourful sarees

Chapati, a flatbread from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Pakistan

 Indian bracelets for a gift

Pushkar lake

 Gooses at Pushkar lake

Sunset is one of many attractions in Pushkar

Many attractions in Pushkar that are really worthy to be considered if you are looking for a great place in India, such as riding a camel (even though I didn't try it due to my budget limit), shopping Indian traditional things (I bought 7 Indian harem pants for about 500 rupees; you should use your bargain skill, hahah), many restaurants that provide great spots to enjoy a sunset view, many temples around Pushkar, and so on. One more thing, I forgot to share about the public transportation that Pushkar had. The bus was the only public transportation there as Pushkar is a small district. I arrived in Pushkar on 3rd of August 2011 by public bus with my friends (4 Taiwanese: Austin Chen, Hsuanchin Wu Helen, Victor, and Mandy; and 1 Bulgarian: Ekaterina Mandova) and left on 5th of August 2011. It took about 2-3 hours from Jaipur. We had to wait couple minutes before we took off because of the buses were still rare. I forgot about the cost of the bus but it was cheap for me, a fresh graduate Indonesian who just brought 500 USD to India for traveling in 1 month and 2 weeks. That was incredible. I'm proud I've been there.

So, if you are planning to have a travel to Pushkar, feel free to ask me. I'll help you as much as possible. Dhan'yavāda (Thank you).

AOE: Himalayas in Manali, India.

Namaste, everyone ! This time I wouldn't like to give a book reference, but my travel experience. This section is called AOE (Above Ordinary Experience). Why did I decide to share my experience to blog even though I wasn't a blogger (maybe I am now, amateur)? Because sometimes when I was traveling to anywhere, I wondered if just me and my travel friends who could feel the atmosphere. I wanna share to others too! 3 attemps that I've tried; 1. Shared it to my Facebook, just photos, no stories, 2. I tried to share it to my Tumblr, tried to make a story but failed. At the end, it's like the first one, 3. Shared it to my Instagram. Regardless it has a photo map and some words to say, I don't feel like it's shared enough. So, this time maybe my last attempt to share about my experience due to I don't plan to be failed (again).

AOE this time, is going to share about my travel to one of the most admired places in India, Manali. Manali is located in Himachal Pradesh State. It has a cold weather, different from other places in India.

Map of Manali

I went there from 12th until 15th August 2011. Took off from Dharamshala (will share it later) by bus (the only public transportation it had) with my friends (2 Filipinos, 1 Bulgarian, and 1 Taiwanese. Backpackers group haha..), my mind was gonna blow up. Why? because Manali is placed at the feet of Himalayas which I wanted to see badly. Even though we couldn't hike it due to our limited time of traveling, we're just very happy to see one of the most famous mountains in the world (I didn't see mount Everest because it's so far from there.). A real snow was the first thing I admired to (Indonesia doesn't have snow, exclude mount Carstensz).

Himalayas from Manali

 Another view of Himalayas from Manali

 Himalayan Extreme Center for who wants to get amazing experience there

A temple inside a pine forest

My favorite animal in Manali, Yak

I have lots of great experience of traveling to Manali, but there were also bad experience too, such as, my ATM card was swallowed accidentally when I really needed money. Fortunately, my Taiwanese friend borrowed me some and I gave it back (of course) after we arrived in Hyderabad which was our hometown in India. (note: I always spread my money whenever I traveled; in wallet, in trousers, in luggage, in my bag, wherever I could hide my money well.). We spent our time to refresh our minds and enjoy the view in Manali. (of course we weren't in rush). That was one of my best experience I have until now. You all (readers) are welcome to ask about traveling to Manali. I'll help you as much as possible. Dhan'yavāda (Thank you).

MBR: What The Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell

Hola everyone, it's been a while. This time I want to review about the book I just read, Malcolm Gladwell's What The Dog Saw.

Malcolm Gladwell tried to share about stories he got as a writer at New York Times. He called it as great adventures. The stories are about brilliant persons who have some hidden amazing things. Below is a list of some those persons. (note: not in order/random)

- Was John Kennedy Jr. panicked or choked when driving a plane that crashed and killed him at the end?
- What American football players taught about how to choose a good teacher?
- What was a hair-dyer role in 20th century history?
- What the dog saw on Cesar Millan and his body language?
- Who is to blame when an accident like Challenger explosion happens? No one, and we have to used to it.
- Why we always associate genius with speed of work?
- Should plagiarism charge ruins your life?
- Do we overestimate smart person?
- What we can learn about crime from pit bull?

And many more...

We can learn about something that maybe we didn't know it yet even though it happens around us. We have to be an open-minded person because of that and see this world differently. This book is great for person who wants to explore more about life. Don't be arrogant because of you have gotten something you wanted, there are many things that we don't know yet.

Keep learning!

Bandung, Indonesia, Monday, 9 June 2014

-RP