Lake Toba, North Sumatra

View from Simarjarunjung Hill

I started my new year in a place where I had never been before: North Sumatra. Or to be honest, the whole island, Sumatra. Even more so, I got to see the largest, most beautiful lake I’ve ever seen, Toba. How I got so lucky? The answer will come in time.

Lake Toba is the largest natural lake in Indonesia, 100 km long and 30 km wide. Can you imagine? Seems like an ocean. Unique feature of this lake is that it occupies a caldera of a supervolcano. Toba volcano is still active! And nobody can tell when it will erupt again. How cool is that?!

Reminds me of my photo from The Great Wall

Not your everyday coffee

The volcanic island in Lake Toba is called Samosir. It can be reached using boat or through a bridge on West side of the lake. Almost 100,000 people lives in Samosir. Now, in Samosir itself there are two lakes namely, Lake Sidihoni and Lake Aek Natonang. Lake within a lake. That’s mind blowing.

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Miracle Garden, Dubai

Selamat hari Natal!

Giant clock

Natal tahun ini lebih menyenangkan karena bisa nikmatin waktu liburan di rumah beberapa minggu. Puas-puasin makan makanan rumah yang seger-seger, metikin rambutan sama cempedak di kebun belakang, belajar nyetir (akhirnya Lan, setelah sekian lama, dapat SIM A juga), baca Potter dari nomor 1 sampe 7 (again!), nonton bareng marathon Marvel Cinematic Universe sama kakak semata wayang. Hahaha.. All of them under the best rainy season of Jogjakarta ever.

Pesawat maskapai Emirates penuh bunga

Sam Poo Kong dan Toko “Oen” Semarang

Lanjut hari berikutnya dari petualangan (hais) di Semarang. On the last day, I went to the most famous temple in town, Sam Poo Kong, also known as Gedung Batu.

Kalo kalian udah pernah lulus SMP, hahaha, waktu pelajaran sejarah, ada laksamana super keren namanya Cheng Ho (Bahasa Inggisnya Zheng He, Arabnya Haji Mahmud Shams). Nah, laksamana inilah pendiri kelenteng Sam Poo Kong. Yak, oleh masyarakat keturunan Tionghoa, area ini disebut kelenteng, mengingat di tempat ini berdiri kuil untuk pemujaan dan tempat berdoa kepada Dewa Bumi dan Sam Poo Kong. Laksamana Cheng Ho sendiri seorang muslim yang lahir di Yunnan, Cina.

Patung Laksamana Zheng He

Lawang Sewu Semarang

Lawang Sewu

Ada apa dengan Semarang? Iyes. Ada Lawang Sewu.

Seserem-seremnya bangunan bersejarah, kalo desain arsitekturnya sekeren Lawang Sewu, pasti menarik perhatian pelancong. Karena kebetulan lagi di kota Semarang, aku sempatin mampir ke bangunan kuno terkenal ini. Tiketnya bisa langsung dibeli on the spot, Rp 10.000,- tanpa personal guide, dibuka mulai dari jam 07.00 pagi sampai jam 09.00 malam.

Berdiri tepat di persimpangan Jalan Pemuda dari tahun 1907, awalnya Lawang Sewu adalah kantor Nederlandsch-Indische Spoorweg Maatschappij a.k.a perusahaan kereta api Hindia-Belanda. Didesain oleh Cosman Citroen.

Tips Liburan ke Dubai dan Abu Dhabi – United Arab Emirates

Setelah sibuk tiada tara di kantor selama beberapa minggu ini, bawaan pengen liburan. Hayati lelah. Hahaha. Ntah kenapa ya kepikiran Jepang terus. Pengen ke sana lagi tapi pas autumn, pas daun-daun memerah semua. Jadi kebiasaan liatin tiket Jakarta-Narita di Traveloka tiap malem hihi. Semestinya bisa November ini sih, waktu load kerjaan udah berkurang. Yah apa mau dikata, ngga dapat ijin lagi ke luar-luar negri sendirian, musti nabung juga buat masa depan (huakakaka, masa depan apa sik, inflasi mulu, menurun tu nilai tabungan di bank, hlah jadi curhat).

Yak, baiklah kalo gitu aku cerita tentang liburan terakhir ke Dubai aja. Kan belum sempat cerita detail dari post ini.

Jadi dalam waktu sebulan di UAE, setiap weekend, hari Jumat-Sabtu selalu aku sempatin jalan-jalan. Atau kadang Kamis malam pulang kantor ke restoran terdekat, sekedar ngerasain kuliner Timur Tengah.

Iklim gurun di UAE sih yang jadi tantangan terbesar.

Masalahnya awak ngga suka kepanasan. Di Jakarta aja bisa mencak-mencak kalo keringatan dikit, ekekeke, maaf ya rada manja. Trus-trus gimana, Lan di Dubai? Kalo ke kantor, sering nebeng bos atau berangkat pagian sebelum matahari terik. Untung jarak antara apartemen sama kantor sepelemparan batu, banyak pohon dan dapat trotoar lebar-lebar.

Shibuya Crossing, Tsukiji Market dan Harajuku Dorayaki

I bet the heaven is full of these beautiful canines.

Patung Hachiko di Shibuya

Judulnya apa, yang diliatin foto pertamanya apa. Haha.. Lanjutin cerita habis dari Gunung Fuji. Besoknya udah siap belanja-belanja jalan kaki di area Shibuya. Sebagai pecinta anjing dan penakut kucing, nyamperin patung Hachiko di depan Stasiun Shibuya kan ngga salah.

Kalo udah pernah dengar ceritanya Hachiko ini, maaan.. we really don’t deserve dog. Hiks. Ntah kenapa masih ada aja manusia yang jahat sama anjing. I bet the heaven is full of these beautiful canines.

Jumat, 13 Oktober 2017

Shibuya Crossing

Yak yak, balik ke Stasiun Shibuya. Begitu keluar dari stasiunnya, you’re in for a treat, baby.

Tokyo, Shinkansen – Lake Kawaguchi

Na vedui!

Hiyah, udah lama ngga nulis agak kagok juga mau posting. Daaan.. kembali pake bahasa Indonesia, bahasa negeriku. Lagi happy, Lan? Hihihi.. iya. April-Mei-Juni ini membahagiakan. Ngga lepas-lepasnya bersyukur. Walaupun ada berita duka dari Abang di bulan April, tapi tetap harus semangat. Semangat liat Antoine Griezmann maksudnya, Lan? Ekekeke.. That damned smile. *reference: 13 Reasons Why

Yak sebulan kemarin memang penuh dengan kerjaan dan Piala Dunia. Kalo suka bola ya gini ni, can’t fully function during World Cup atau Euro Cup atau UEFA Championship atau kapanpun Arsenal main. Haiah.

So, let’s get to it. Mood hari ini lanjutin nulis tentang Jepang. Dari Osaka-Kyoto atau area Kansai, kita ke Tokyo! Finally.

United Arab Emirates: Oil vs Tourism

I stranded in this wonderful city by work, but captivated by the leisure it offers.

Last post I said that I might not gonna break my sweat for roaming around the town. But of course my mind wouldn’t simply accept that. Even, my boss told me that I should enjoy the city and consider this invitation as leisure travel. So, as adventurous as I could manage, I visited several landmarks in the city and also the country’s capital, Abu Dhabi.

Dubai Mall Fountain from Burj Khalifa’s At The Top

United Arab Emirates (UAE) or Dawlat al-Imārāt al-‘Arabīyah al-Muttaḥidah is a monarchy federation country with seven (7) emirates ruled by seven (7) royal families. Its oil reserves are the seventh-largest in the world. That’s why it is one of the wealthiest country in the world. Just imagine, its GDP is almost USD 70,000 per capita compare to my home country Indonesia with USD 13,000 per capita. And that’s folks, how I got here, through oil and gas.

Mendadak Dubai

Dubai city view

Something great sometimes happens when you least expect it. Just a month ago I thought I ruined my career by going here and there, from one engineering company to another, like a gazelle running around in savanna without purpose or sense of direction (drama queen alert!). This weekend, I arrived in Dubai to visit WorleyParsons’ branch office. What a lucky shot.

Seriously though, going outside the country was not on my 2018 New Year resolution. I was just hoping for new opportunity in my new company. Thus, I (sadly) rejected my friend’s invitation to visit Thailand two months ago because I thought that ‘This year I will concentrate on my job and my boyfriend’. Surprisingly, God prepared me to do both and more.

Gion, The Heart of Kyoto

Tuesday, 10 October 2017

That day was the day I had been waiting for. Finally I got to visit Gion and actually stayed in ryokan, a traditional kinda house in Japan. This preserved area was as I imagined from geisha movies I watched so many times. Refer to Japan Guide, Gion is Kyoto’s most famous geisha district, located around Shijo Avenue between Yasaka-jinja Shrine in the East and the Kamo-gawa River in the West. This place is filled with shops, restaurants and ochaya (teahouses) where geiko and maiko entertain.

Gion narrow street