TOBA LAKE

Alhamdulillah.... all that I could say to myself refer to Allah SWT giving me an opportunity going to Toba Lake.

Toba Lake is absolutely very beautiful and its beauty will always is my mind and can never be forget.
Once I was here, then I want to go visiting this lake again and again, stay in Samosir island, which also has the amazing view and landscape.

Friends in Medan are very nice and cooperative. They took me to Samosir island into 2 different ways. From Medan, we went through Pematang Siantar, and we took ferry to cross the lake going to Samosir. Then when we go back to Medan, we went through Brastagi.

Both ways have amazing view of its landscape.

Here I give you all the pictures I had.

View From Samosir Island

At The Bank of Toba Lake

View From Penatapan ( Brastagi Way)

View From Penatapan ( Brastagi Way)

At Pangururan Village

View From Tuktuk Hotel

On the way to Pangururan village (our project),we saw many traditional homes for the villagers, very unique and had very different style with those in Java. I won't pass it on, so I kept my camera on and captured many pictures.

Traditional House in Pangururan

Old King Tomb

In the middle of Samosir island, there were few old tomb for the King and his descendant. We had to wear a kind of scarf while we looked around inside the tomb.

Si Gale Gale

If the dead spirit came into Si Gale Gale, then it could move and dance like a mad human. Scary for sure....

The Village

Still, Toba Lake and its surrounding will be my favorite destination in my own country. Its beauty, its culture, its view........ I miss it a lot.....
I will come visiting Toba Lake again soon.....

KUCHING

Taraaaaaa.... finally weekend was coming after duty was done. We were planned to have our weekend in Borneo, and this time, we should visit Kuching.

Why do they call Kuching? Yesssssss.... because there are so many cat statues all over the city. The city is very clean. The people are very discipline. Love the situation laaaah... 

You can read clearly about Kuching form this link; and you may read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuching .

We went to Kuching by Damri International Bus, to Kuching bus terminal. The bus start going on 21.00 PM and would be depart in Entikong (Indonesian border side) at dawn. Here we should get off the bus and did some immigration check leaving Indonesia. Then we should walk on foot again to another side of immigration building, this time at Tebedu (Sarawak border side), did some immigration check entering Sarawak.

Entikong

After the immigration check, we were going on the bus again, and start seeing another different view of Sarawak, and finally we came to Kuching bus terminal at 7.30 am. The bus terminal was little bit dirty, many trash were on the floor, and the terminal was just really a humble terminal, almost like the one we had in Indonesia.

Kuching Bus Terminal

As the information from the internet, we finally knew that Kuching didn't have an integrated bus system like those in Kuala Lumpur. Many people suggested to rent a taxi to the city center of Kuching. We rented a taxi and asked to the driver to go the address we had in our hand ( we already printed the map and address of the hotel we wanted to stay). And finally, we chose a hotel and rented a room for one night only. 

After put our bag inside our room, we went out to find a halal restaurant for some breakfast ( the hotel only gave a hot tea). Luckily, there was a moslem restaurant, and we came in, and ordered our meal; not a special one, just "Mie Brunei" which was not delicious. But I had to eat, because I was very hungry.

After having breakfast, we start our journey for some walking street trip along Sarawak River. They had beautiful design of water front architecture; where everything was designed neatly and the people there were very discipline.

Sarawak Water Front

Sarawak Water Front

Sarawak River

 

There were not many things to see inside the city, except old heritage buildings and many cat statues, like this one :

Cat Statue

At The Corner of One of The Colonial Building at Kuching City Center

You know, folks... we went through the city using our legs : on foot

Heheheheheheeeee..... It was because we didn't know the public transportation and we liked to do sight seeing, while searching for some Sarawak's souvenirs ^^

Another traditional Sarawak's souvenir that could be bought was pepper. They made pepper into snacks, candy, and perfume. What ???? Perfume? You may wonder but I was even wonder. But to my surprise, I did not buy that perfume, the price was quite high, hahahahahahahaaaaaaa.... ^^

Actually, there were many other traveling spots in Sarawak country, but most of them were outside Kuching. Since we didn't have much time, so we skip that kind of travel. And we went home the day after we checked in.

By Kuching....

Cheers...

PONTIANAK - SINGKAWANG

Again, I had a chance to go outer Java island on early 2012, and this time was to Pontianak and Singkawang, West Borneo. The main purpose going here was on duty but I could use the spare time visiting interesting places there.

I visited only one interesting place in Pontianak. It was Equator Crossing Monument 0 degree ^^
Inside, we could see the monument built by the Dutch many years ago (around 1800......)
By crossing the black line inside the monument, it is said that we were already move from South to North equator :D :D :D

See that black line underneath the woman? That was the 0 degree equator line

The Original Monument Made By The Dutch

The Peak of The Monument : The Symbol

The Museum from The Outside

Each person who had visited the museum, would be given a certificate proving that we were already cross the equator line, like this one :

The Certificate Signed By The Mayor

Next, let's move to another city; Singkawang. 

Here I give you the link about Singkawang even better:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singkawang 

We were going to Singkawang for the sake of duty too. We had around 3 hours drives from Pontianak, through the road with just an ordinary view. Approaching Singkawang, we were through the beach of South Chinese Sea. There was a small restaurant above the sea line, serving coffee and another snacks, just giving the travelers a place to take a rest. As the wave was quite big and hard, the restaurant was covered by hard plastic to blocked the wave; so the restaurant was stay save form wave.

Finally, we came to Singkawang..... few days after Lunar Chinese Year.

So, what about the culinary in Pontianak and Singkawang?
Since most of the people there were from Chinese ethnic, there were not much halal food to be chosen, especially in Singkawang. So, we had to had Padang's food again and again. But there were some traditional snacks called Bingke and Tengkang; and Pontianak also well known for its aloe vera product.

Tengkang was tasty because of rebon inside it. Bingke was very sweet. I tried all of them. Oiya,,,,, Aloe vera drink was also very juicy.

Grilled Tengkang

Grilled Tengkang

Rebon inside The Tengkang

Bingke

Well..... That was my experience while I was in West Borneo. I would share another experience after Pontianak, going abroad near Pontianak... Just see my other article after this ^^

Cheers ^^

BALI

Bali.... I was visiting this island 4 years ago. That was real something ^^
I already forgot the continuous story but I can give you some photos, which can tell you more than words....

For your information, I was using one of travel agent on Surabaya, since my travel mate was domicile in Surabaya, so she took care of everything for the trip ^^

Enjoy ^^

Batu Bolong

Dreamland Beach - Rocky Side

Sanur Beach

Sanur Beach

Kuta Beach

Dreamland Beach - Sunset

Bedugul

Kuta Street

Bali Bomb Monument

Tanah Lot

Sukawati

Ooooooooopppssss..... I forgot the name of some places above :((

Garuda Wishnu Kencana (GWK)

GWK

GWK

GWK

Well.... lots of great moment there... but the negative side using travel agent was, we must obey the time they arranged for us. They use timer to count how much and how long we should stay in one place.

I should go back again without using travel agent, someday.

Cheers ^^

BANJARMASIN

Another chance I got was visiting Banjarmasin on August 2012. It's been long long long time ago I didn't see this Banjarmasin city. The main purpose was attending big family re-union. But other purposes forced me to do something else, culinary for sure, since Banjarmasin was well-known for its delicious food, and still exist until now.

The most interesting place to visit was jewelry market in Martapura. But I was very disappointed since I was going there with children and their parents, so the children didn't want to wait longer at the market, they wanna go to the beach: ASAP !

Rrrrrrrgh..... As far as I know, Banjarmasin beach was worst and dirty.... arrrrrgh... but I could do anything to refuse because I was with them, going on their vehicles :((

That was very sad :((

Then we were closed to the beach. We went through a traditional village which had local traditional architecture from its heritage, like this picture below.

A Wooden House Standing on Ulin's Pile

Well.... I admitted that even this wasn't a good one, but quite representative recreation place for family visit. But..... I forgot the name of the beach :D :D :D
You can see the picture of the beach below, many trash spread out along the beach line :((
But it had beautiful blue sky.... pretty !

The Beach

While the children were playing water in the beach, I took many pictures of the scenic, and I captured another traditional wooden house opposite the beach line, but it was place right on top of the soil. The houses located along the beach line were belong to the local inhabitants, and they used the situation to make rented room or rented bathroom for the tourist to wash after swimming on the beach. Clever !

Wooden House Opposite The Beach Line

Okay, on the next day, I had a wish to visit traditional floating market. The floating market was used to be a recreational market then a real market. The price here was quiet high. We were off the river after Shubuh prayer to catch the first boat rented there. God gave me the beautiful view on sunrise in a big and wide river. The river is well known as Barito.

Sunrise at Barito River

We watched the sun up the sky from the boat we rented. As the dark fade away, the boats were coming. They brought many things, vegetables, fruit, and even many floating restaurants. I tried to eat from one of the floating restaurant; I chose Soto Banjar. I had new kind of sensation eating on the boat, hahahahaaaaa..... amazing..! What a valuable experience I got !

Floating Restaurant

Floating Market

Traditional Banjarmasin Culinary:  Soto Banjar

Around 09.00 am, we continued our journey; on the same boat we rented; to the small island full of monkey; Pulau Kembang. You should be careful and suggested not to bring any kind of food, unless you want to gave them some banana or so :))

But I had a bad experience in that island. Those monkey were all around us. Their eyes were looking at us with distrust. So we had to walk among them. But suddenly, a baby monkey climbed up my back and hold my shoulders. I screamed loudly felt its claws :((
Luckily, my uncle was standing behind me, so he took the baby monkey away from my back and ousted it :D
Fiuhhhh.... Alhamdulillah :))

The Monkeys

Oiya, I forgot to tell you that I had s special menu or special culinary that I ate every day, every time. It was red spices yellow rice (nasi kuning bumbu habang). The red spices spread out on the yellow rice made this kind of yellow rice was sooooo special. It had different taste with those red spices in Java. I guessed that it came from special chilli that only exist in Banjarmasin. You can eat the yello rice with boiled eggs, fried chicken, or haruan fish. I preferred eating with haruan or boiled eggs.

Hmmmmmmmmmmm......... yummy !!! :D :D :D

Nasi Kuning Bumbu Habang Iwak Haruan

Okay.... that was my little experience in Banjarmasin. I will come again visit this city and eat another nasi kuning bumbu habang iwak haruan; my very favourite meal ^^

Cheers.... ^^