AOE: Family time in Surabaya, Indonesia.

Hi guys, how's everything going? Do you all know about Surabaya, Indonesia? Surabaya (Indonesian pronunciation: [surəˈbaja]) (formerly Soerabaja, Soerabaia or Surabaja) is Indonesia's second-largest city with a population of over 3.1 million (5.6 million in the metropolitan area), and the capital of the province of East Java. It is located on the northern shore of eastern Java at the mouth of the Mas River and along the edge of the Madura Strait. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surabaya)

I spent my annual holiday there with my family in December 2013 (we always plan about annual holiday together). We went around Surabaya city and Madura on the first day like visiting Kyai Haji Mohammad Kholil mosque, looking for Madura Batik, passing through the famous Suramadu bridge, touring to Monkasel, and so on.

Suramadu bridge connects Surabaya and Madura

Mosque of Kyai Haji Mohammad Kholil in Madura

Seeing the Batik of Madura

Madura Batik

Inside Sunan Ampel mosque in Surabaya

Inside Sunan Ampel mosque, Surabaya.

Cheng Hoo mosque, Surabaya. Cheng Hoo is inspiration name of 'Admiral Cheng Hoo', which become a Moslem when admission to Majapahit empire. The Chinese Moslem community had built this mosque wish to remind again that Chinese also propagates Islam taught. (http://www.eastjava.com/tourism/surabaya/chenghoo-mosque.html)

Wanna take that boat? Haha

Monkasel, Submarine museum. (weekday 08.00-20.00/weekend 08.00-21.00. IDR 5000/person)

Torpedo launcher inside Monkasel.

On the second day, we planned to go to Batu city as my mother wish. During our trip to Batu city, we spent a while to visit Sidoarjo mud flow or best-known as 'Lumpur Lapindo' and Tanggulangin leather industry.

Some creations from Tanggulangin leather industry.

Destruction caused by the Sidoarjo mud flow or Lumpur Lapindo

Cheng Hoo mosque, Pasuruan.

Fresh air of Batu city. It has apple farms and 3 water-parks.

Malang apples.

Surabaya statue. The symbol of "sura" or "suro" (shark) and "baya" or "boyo" (crocodile), two creatures which, in a local myth, fought each other in order to gain the title of "the strongest and most powerful animal" in the area according to a Jayabaya prophecy. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surabaya)

A street band at Gubeng rail station

Eating some foods with sister

Got this view during our way home

Spending annual holiday with family is always gonna be fun. Even though we have lived together for several years, it doesn't mean it is boring. Traveling to different place also gives us a different experience and atmosphere too as we all are not local people. Be grateful to you all who still have a complete family. You can spend a great moment together. Don't waste your time for something negative and could harm your own family.  Matur nuwun.

AOE: Floating moment at Floating Market, Lembang.

Hello everyone! How's your Ramadhan break? Did you have a good time with your family? Did you go to amazing places to enjoy your holiday? This time, I have a good recommendation for you to visit. Similar to Jayagiri, this place is not far from my hometown, Subang nor Bandung, the town currently i'm living in. This place is a man-made creation, that successfully attracts hundreds of people each days, perhaps thousands on weekend. Although it is not a worldwide-famous attractions like Burj Khalifa, Eiffel tower, Pisa tower, and so on, but here is a  place where people, especially those who are living in and around Bandung enjoy spending their time with their loved ones. . Yup, it's "The Floating Market". Been there before?

Floating Market is located exactly in the middle of the town of Lembang. The venue is on the water. Why market? because it does look like traditional market where the sellers use boats as their stalls and almost all of them cook their food on the boat. That's why it's called "Floating Market". Talking specifically about the food, It sells various type of Indonesian traditional foods, such as chicken satay, rujak, tahu gejrot, mie Jowo, and many more (you have to try by your own). Street snacks and desserts  are also available with very affordable price. Before you buy the food, you have to go to the cashier first to exchange your money with coins because they won't receive your money there. They have kinda unique system with the payment method which makes it more traditionally attractive and distinctive. So, if you want to go there, they are open for you on 09.00-16.00 (weekday) and 09.00-17.00 (weekend). I went there in 2013 with my one-and-only-girlfriend, Natya Shina Nandana to experience its unique atmosphere. We had  a really great moment to spend and definitely we couldn't resist to take some pictures due to its beautiful view.

Man-made lake.

View at Floating Market.

The best couple in the world. LOL

Born to be a model.

Photoshoot with traditional-house-background.

Had a great moment after all.

Actually, this post is dedicated to celebrate our 18 months of relationship on the 3rd of August 2014, but we both forgot it completely and just realised it today. pretty funny huh?!  I hope this relationship will not JUST long lasting, but also we will have deeper and better understanding towards each other. Aameen. See you on another trip !

Ps: Thanks to Shinanandana for making this post much better

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.