The magnificent of Rajashtan

I’m not a huge fan of Jodha Akbar, Bollywood movie starring Hritik Roshan and Aiswaryha Rai that booming in both Hindustan and Indonesia. Even so, it’s turned into mini-series on one of national television in Indonesia. And frankly speaking I’m getting to know this movie after I came back from my India’s trip on May 2013, my travel mate told me that setting of this movie was taken in Rajashtan, or maybe we can specify using Jaipur.

After witnessing the symbol of love, Taj Mahal – Agra; I ‘m not expecting that Hindustan will offer me another masterpiece but it does. Rajashtan successfully open my eyes, agaaaaain..about how wonderful Hindustan. The first moslem city occupied with a very very beautiful architecture and nature. How I end up here? Of course, having mate and travel book looks effectively made up my day.

I took Hwh Ju Express (12307) from Agra Fort to Jaipur. The train scheduled to be departed at 20:05 PM and arrived on 00:05 AM early in the morning, but due to a bad weather we have to accept that the departure scheduled postponed for two hours and made us arrived in Jaipur at 2 AM. I just feel so sorry to our host who stay awake and awaiting for us at Jaipur train station.

So his name is Hussey Khan. A moslem, lawyer student at Rajashtan University, a couchsurfer and also a tourism ambassador wannabe. He host us during our stay in Rajashtan. He leave his room and stay outside almost of the day and slept at the rooftop at night. I wonder why he did it, but i realized the reason on my first night stay at his house. Hindustan was extremely hot during summer.

He lives with his parents, a sister, brother and a cute niece for sure. Most of them doesn’t speak English but somehow we try to understand each other. Most of them were amazed when I told them that I’m moslem. Not a good moslem indeed. They even asked me to read some phrases of the Quran. I just felt home.

On the next day, he brought me to visit his elephant. Yes, his family has one and day by day were used as part of elephant trail experience to enjoy the Amber castle for foreigners. Another thing that surprised me is the fact that this elephant has the same name as mine, Shanti. Ok Girls, at least we are at the same size.

We used public transportation during our day by day sightseeing in Jaipur. With cost around INR 2 per ride, we can reach most of the tourism spot with an almost convenient way. Be aware with your exchange, I found they didn’t give mine if I’m not asking since they knew that we’re foreigners.

Amber Fort was about a huge castle with a long bridge that most alike Greatwall of China. It can be seen from the rooftop of Hussey’s home. On the top, a beautiful palace and garden standing together with the view of mountains/hills and of course the lake.

We also headed to one of the gift shop down at the exit of the castle and sent some postcard at the post office. Next, we headed to Hawa Mahal at pink city area while tasting the best lassi I ever had. Lassi is a kind of both Indian and coconut milk; we have tried once known as the best in Varanassi but I can have it all at the moment and just finished a cup of it in Jaipur.

I also asked him to assist me to buy an indian scarf that can be used as a hijab. He got me me a cheaper price but somehow the trader was angry at him knowing that he took it for me, foreigners. Knowing that he want to put a higher price.

I can understand why foreigners charged higher price in terms of gaining additional fund to maintain the tourism site, but I cant for charging more on the same items sold in the market. Do they think that traveler always has a lot of money? Don’t they think that it can avoid them to revisit and bought the same thing again? Whatever the reason, it seems unfair to me.

But among of this fact, I’ll never regret my visit and never have any objection to come back. Hopefully, one day I will..

Menapaki hutan mati dan eidelweis di Papandayan

Menapaki hutan mati dan eidelweis di Papandayan

Mungkin ini postingan hutang yang memang sudah sepantasnya dilunasi sekarang. Sengaja saya backdate agar tidak rancu dengan tanggal yang sebenarnya. Tanggal keberangkatan salah satu jalan-jalan saya dengan tema yang agak beda dari biasanya.

Berawal dengan meeting point di terminal bus kampong rambutan, saya dan rekan-rekan dari Jakarta berangkat menuju terminal Guntur-Garut. Beberapa rekan lain menyusul dari kota asal masing-masing dan tetap berkumpul di Garut. Bus membawa kami menempuh perjalanan panjang dan menurunkan kami sekitar pukul 2.30 pagi di terminal Guntur. Berhubung masih pagi, kami memutuskan beristirahat di musholla yang ternyata sudah dipenuhi para calon pendaki lain dan akan terus bertambah hingga pagi menjelang. Tak jauh dari musholla terdapat toilet umum lengkap dengan kamar mandi. Yang tahan dengan hawa dingin pasti langsung mandi mengingat mandi menjadi hal yang mewah dalam dua hari kedepan.

Usai shubuh dan berbersih seadanya, rombongan mulai bernegosiasi dengan sopir angkot untuk mengantarkan kami ke camp davis yang merupakan starting point pendakian ke papandayan. Di tengah perjalanan, kami sempatkan untuk mampir ke pasar membeli bahan makanan sembari sarapan.

Sepanjang perjalanan kami hanya mampu menatap riang ke pemukiman penduduk dan pepohonan rindang. Jalanan yang jauh dari kata mulus spontan membuat tangan-tangan kami tertanam erat pada pinggiran pick-up untuk pegangan. Tak urung, tawa berderai bersamaan dengan desir angin yang menerpa pepohonan. Tak lantas tiba di tujuan, angkot yang membawa ransel kami meraung ditengah jalan lantaran aspal yang menganga lebar.

Perjalanan yang penuh cerita dan perjuangan, bahkan sebelum perjalanan yang sesungguhnya dimulai. Camp davis cukup ramai kala itu. Dataran luas di balik perbukitan ini menjadi langkah awal hampir semua pendaki yang akan berkunjung ke Papandayan. Beberapa terlihat antri di toilet, sisanya ada yang sekedar makan dan ngopi cantik meski bukan di kafe, duduk-duduk atau jeprat jepret kamera karena memang viewnya yang luar biasa.

Tak lama, rombongan kami mulai menapaki tanjakan berbatu kapur bersama. Konon tanjakan ini akan membawa kami menemui kawah papandayan sebelum benar-benar menghabiskan malam di Pondok Salada, kawasan berkemah di Papandayan. Dan benar saja, bau belerang mulai menyerang tiba-tiba.

Selang beberapa waktu, kami memutuskan untuk membagi rombongan menjadi dua. Beberapa anggota yang bukan prohiker (termasuk saya) memutuskan untuk menapaki rute yang lebih bersahabat ketimbang mengejar waktu dengan melewati tanjakan yang makin curam. Meski agak memutar, beberapa pemandangan spektakuler sempat menjadi bonus yang tidak boleh dilewatkan.

Entah selang beberapa lama, beberapa rombongan berkumpul kembali di Pondok Salada, mendirikan tenda dan mulai memasak makan malam untuk menghangatkan badan. Kumpul-kumpul, kenalan hingga goyang Caesar di tengah lapangan di bawah langit dengan “5 billion stars”. Banyak peserta trip kali ini yang baru berkenalan di Papandayan, bahkan gossipnya ada yang jadian haha

Esoknya, rombongan kembali terbagi menjadi dua kelompok. Kelompok pertama, cukup memasak, jaga tenda sedangkan sisanya harus kembali berjuang menghadang tanjakan demi tanjakan menuju hutan mati, tegal alun dan tanjakan mamang. Tapi semuanya terbayar lunas seketika dengan pemandangan yang lebih dari sekedar indah.

Puas mengitari kawasan, kami beringsut kembali ke tenda untuk makan dan berkemas pulang. Kali ini, semua menempuh jalan memutar dan tiba di camp davis sekitar pukul 2 siang. Usai melepas lelah sejenak, satu per satu kami naik ke atas pick up yang mengantarkan kami kembali ke terminal Guntur. Disinilah kami berpisah. Masing-masing pamit pulang dan menaiki bus sesuai tujuannya. Sedangkan saya memilih mandi dan makan dahulu sebelum akhirnya balik ke Jakarta.

Closing 2013 - The stunning view of Selamet Mountain, Indonesia

Selamet Mountain, December 2013 

I want to stand with you on a mountain....

I want to  bath with you in the sea

I want to lay like this forever

Until the sky falls down on me

- Truly, Madly Deeply, Savage Garden -

2nd highest mountain in Java. I never imagine nor dreaming to be at the top of it. Yups, Selamet Mountain 3,428 Mdpl.  I'm not a hiker nor pro traveller. I just love to visit places i never been and met new people, seing new places and share about everything. But, here i am.... up and down crawling to the summit. Just like life itself, there's no guarantee that it will be easy.

 

Its not a good way to welcome new year for most of the people, despite of that some old friends always told me that the way i entertain myself sometimes a bit tiring instead of relaxing. And yeah, thats so damn true since hiking absolutely will be tiring. Even, i have rejected my friend's invitation to Bromo mountain and reserve my energy for this. The other reason is, i never been here.

 

So on friday traffic madness, i join with some BCI's friend (BCI =  Backpacker Ceria Indonesia) at Kampung Rambutan Terminal and get ready towards Selamet Mountain. There are 6 person gathered from Jakarta including me, Joko, Fardhil, Aziz, Fitri and Okha. Other companion coming from Purwokerto and Subang. All of us will meet upin Purwokerto.

 

How to get there?

 

What "there" on that question mean? of course top of the mountain.

 

First step, move on from the Kampung Rambutan Terminal to Purwokerto. We have to take an overnight bus from Jakarta to Purwokerto. Some bus provider may dragging you to have their service. But believes me, choose the right provider does matters. We plan to have Sinar Harapan from the beginning, but ended up to be seated in the Dewi Sri for a long ride and a short of misfortune that wasted our time.

 

It was a long ride, we have to spend minimum 10 hours in the bus to reach Purwokerto and become longer and longer since the bus condition is poor. The tire is broken around 2 AM. All passengers have to get down and wait with the sleepy head. Then, we ended up to arrive at Purwokerto on lunch time. Almost 14 hours!!!!

 

We're not stopped by at terminal since one of our companion, Mamet, is a local and offering us to have a visit at his house in Karang Kemiri, Purwokerto. He is a local who study in Yogyakarta and suddenly comeback last night to join trip with us. One of our friend from Subang, Itha, has joined him last night. And the other one is Melky, "Mamet's friend from Purwokerto. And here we are, the 9 fellowship of the Selamet Mountain ^^

 

Mamet's house is very comfy. Located a bit far from the mainroad, he and his brother randomly pick us to the house by motorbike. A small village down from the mountain. A beautiful landscape of a mountain and farming field brought back our spirit. And yeah, having a shower and free lunch make up our day. Mamet's family also really nice and helpful, i thought i got a CS house here hahahah

There are 2 options to enter Selamet Mountain:

a) Via Batu Raden

b) Via Bambangan

From Karang kemiri, we heading to Selamet Mountain via Bambangan. take a minibus to the place known as the gate to Selamet Mountain.

 

Its an evening already, when we reach the gate. After having our dinner (prepared by Memet's mom) and Shalat, we decided to take the night tracking. We didnt take the whole route at that time, stop by at the 2nd stage, spent the night there and continue our journey in the morning.

 

On the next day, we have a morning tracking and have a camp at stage 7, whereas some of the sky landscape already lie down in our feet and water available freely for the hikers. We only spent one night there, catch the summit early morning on the next day and get back to the city.



Morning breakfast ^^





Sunrise at Selamet Mountain

Lets not call it as a vacation, the road are extremely tiring but wonderful. The team itself was superb, caring and helpful. They encourage me to reach the top whenever i felt "OK this time and this point i have to give up. "

 

And here i am, like a story teller, mumbling about this place and never have any regret for ever being there.

 

 

 

Alhamdulillah.

Its November Recap!!!!

This is my December ....

Halah bahasaku, macam Chester nya Linkin Park aja ngomongnya. But yups, this is my December. Setelah sekian lama ga ketak ketik di blog, gateeeel and kangen banget rasanya buat sharing apapun (peristiwa, trip, kerjaan and personal life) selama beberapa bulan terakhir. So, let this note become my November recap :p

This is the way i entertain myself ;p

Mulanya nulis cuman iseng, trus mencoba memprovokasi diri sendiri untuk nulis pake Bahasa Inggris yang pas-pasan. Bukan berlagak songong, aku cuman pengen share pengalaman ke semua orang secara universal. Apalagi kalo jalan-jalannya di Indonesia, ga ada salahnya dong berharap tulisan sendiri menjadi moda untuk mempromosikan pariwisata Indonesia di mata dunia. So, maaf aja kalo tulisannya agak berantakan.

Makassar menjadi trip yang terakhir kali aku share disini, dan jangan salah, aku masih ngutang satu episode Makassar trip, beberapa episode Hindustan Trip dan pastinya trip dari Oktober ke November. Hmmmph... lumayan banget yak ngutangnya, semoga itikad untuk nyicil sebelum pergantian tahun keturutan!!! amiiiiin!!!!

As starting point, ini recap nya:

1. Menjangan Island, Bali - Ijen Crater and Baluran National Park

Trip kali ini kombinasi penyaluran hasrat jalan-jalan plus balas dendam karena ditinggal teman-teman muncak ke Cikurai..huuhuu tapi yasudlah, everything happened for a reason.. and reason nya adalah mereka pergi manakala saya harus menimba ilmu di Salemba (gaya :p)

2. Mudik gratis berkedok kerja di akhir Oktober

Yuhuuuu, ini berkah namanya... dapat tugas sehari ke Surabaya and it means bisa mampir kerumah cuma2.. Memang bentar banget sey, tapi lumayan lah menyambung kangen sama keluarga and Surabaya.

3. One day trip ke Gunung Padang - situs megalithikum
Yang ini racun forum di Backpacker Indonesia. One day trip murah meriah ke Gunung padang di Cianjur. Dan entah kenapa, moment nya paaaasssssss banget setelah beres ujian akhir PPAK. Bener-bener butuh liburan!!!!

4. Jogja Trip dalam balutan Mini audit goes to campus

Bukan Suntea namanya kalo menolak ajakan maen di waktu luang. Even, untuk 16 November ini tawarannya ga cuman satu, tapi tiga!!! nah lo??? Gratisan pertama, weekend gateaway ke Bandung yang cuman modal biaya makan. Yups, ada spare kamar gratis di Holiday Inn dari temen yang ada acara kantor di Bandung plus tebengan PP. Gratisan kedua, free return flights Jakarta Jogja bermodal jadi instruktur mini audit di UGM. The last one, ke Ujung Genteng bareng anak-anak Backpacker Ceria Indonesia.

Dan setelah mempertimbangkan beberapa hal, pilihan jatuh pada Ngayogyakarta. Cerita selengkapanya? ditunggu saja heheh

5. Meet and Greet with old friend in Palembang

Nah, trip yang ini korban promo tiket dari Garuda Indonesia. Selain korban promo, saya juga belum pernah menginjakkan kaki di bumi Palembang, lebih-lebih kanjeng ratu Marisa sekarang menetap disana, mantap sudahlah niatan kami (me, Prew and Emy) makan pempek di kota asalnya.

6. Final Exam is over

Yeah, final exam is over. No more studying and study leave. No more escape from work on friday. Huhu..sediiiih plus lega juga.

7. Resignation Letter submitted

I wish. Yups. It seems to be the right time. Everything has been planned as well as my travel plan. Lets meet up in another office next year!!!

Yeah its only a recap..

 

 

See yaa

Last day in Makassar



Stunning view at Rammang Rammang

 Last day in Makassar


An exit door just an entrance to another…

Yups, leavin Toraja put me back at Daya, Bus Terminal at the center of Makassar city. After having subuh, it’s a farewell with Sandy. Yeah, our togetherness should be ended today since he plan to visit Tanah Beru and Bira beach. And it means that, again… I’m a solo traveler. Before leavin the mosque, i catch the opportunity to have a shower. As expected, its feel amazing haha.

And ith a guidance from Sandy and some research, i’m heading to my first destination. Ramang-Ramang.

What is Ramang Ramang? Some people may never hear about this place. Even local people sometimes unfamiliar with this place. Ramang-Ramang is a small village located in Maros area. It’s a close area hidden within the karsts and known as one of the best karst in the world. Not only that karsts, this place also wrapped by the river with a very nice ambience that surprisingly calming, refreshing and surely its become my one of favorite destination.

How to get there?

From Daya Terminal, take pete-pete to Semen Bosowa area. Most pete-pete on this are in blue, the difference are on the number, hence make sure you asked first to the driver whether they pass by Semen Bosowa or not. After that, you can have a walk, take Ojek (motor vehicle) or waiting for another pete-pete towards the bridge in Ramang-Ramang area. I don’t think this bridge has a certain name, but its reachable through walking. And the best one when you visit this place early morning or just for one of peaceful evening.

Down from the bridge, there’s a mini port where some wooden boat ready to lead to us to enjoy Rammang-Rammang. It’s a quite place actually, only one person stand by during my visit. And the worst is, none will be there when you arrive, my friend has this experience on her visit and it made her lost her opportunity to treasure this place. Without a long bargaining session, he took me to the one of breathtaking place in Makassar.

There’s only me and the boat driver for almost an hour during crossing the river. Our conversation became the most vocal instrument among the nature. There’s only a green and green scenery accompanied till we stop at the entrance of the village.

The village is hidden behind the karst. A huge farming area that totally dry on summer. The villagers’ house rarely seen in between. Some cows was enjoying their breakfast, try to find something green and tasty among those dried ranch fields when I started to explore. The ground is broke on every single ways, and at the top of that, again… a huge karst standing arrogantly. This village has no water supply and electricity. For living, water taken from the natural water source located in the cave. This cave spotted down at the down side of the karst.

My boat driver took me to see around the village up to the ground where it commonly used for physical training of the student at university. Its not a huge place, an open area accompanied with a wooden building for stay at night. I also got an opportunity to go inside the local house. It’s a stage house with a very simple design inside. No separator between rest room, kitchen and bedroom. But among those simplicity, two thumbs up for them for keep survive in this global area while hold tight on their culture and principle.

Rammang Rammang Village

Wonderful as it is ...

  Its 9 AM already, and I decided to leave this wonderful place and heading to my next destination, Taman Nasional Bantimurung. I took the same Pete-Pete towards Maros and ask the driver to drop me off at the place where I can take direct Pete-Pete towards Bantimurung.

Bantimurung originally was the national conservation to maintain population of the butterfly in Makassar. But now, it transform into tourism spot that offers Butterflies museum, waterfall and the cave. Butterflies museum has many collection of butterflies both local and around the world. In front of the museum, there’s a specific area to enhance butterflies reproduction and living. Specific butterfly has their own food and method to keep alive and regenerate. Next, Bantimurung waterfall; it’s a short and wide waterfall that can be afford by everyone incl children as playground. And last, the cave. Its located at the top area after the waterfall. You have to take a long tracking to get there. It’s a bit spooky for me since the area still empty, mostly stay as it is (original) and not well manage but I love some spot where the color of the river change into the blue river. Despite of the dried leaves in the surface, it reminds me a lot to the swan lake in China. A place where I want to be ^^

Bantimurung Waterfall

Playing hohohohoh

Entrance to the cave

Butterflies at Bantimurung

 I decide to finish my visit at 12 AM and unfortunately, there’s no public transportation after awaiting for almost an hour. Makassar was on the highest temperature at the time, my body covered by my own sweat when I’m walking towards the main entrance of Bantimurung and it feels like heaven when I found Pete Pete to bring me back to Terminal Daya. From Terminal Daya, I’m heading to Taman Kahyangan area, a place where my old friend kindly invite me to stay at her house for a night.

Last night in Makassar, I went to the Sumba Opu area, gift spot located close to Losari beach. I bought some snacks for office mate and my family. Next, i run into the culinary option. We tried Makassar seafood and it was my first time trying Kudu-Kudu fish. Surprisingly the taste was more than good, its delicious. We are full already and it makes our planned dessert, Es Pisang Ijo has to stay at the fridge for a while.

Yeah, a proper resting time and sweet closing for this unplanned journey. Lets packing and sadly lets say… Sayonara Makassar!!! Its nice to know you ^^