I’ve been recommending Belitung as one of the best places to visit in Indonesia, a heaven for photographers. It has some of the best beach, scenery, pretty sunsets and it’s the home of Laskar Pelangi. Most Indonesian know Laskar Pelangi. It’s a mega best selling book by Andrea Hirata, telling stories about his childhood in Belitung. It was so inspiring because a little kid from small island in Indonesia could ended up studying in France, with the power of love from teacher and power of dreams.

Laskar Pelangi then brought into movie theater and create a huge success too. Since the movie, the local government paid more attention and brand the city as “Negeri Laskar Pelangi” or “Laskar Pelangi city”. They also mark places of Laskar Pelangi movie sites.

I am amazed, now Belitung has more tourists, more new hotels  like Bahamas, Grand Hatika & Billiton to complement the existing Lor In Tanjung Tinggi. A local book indeed can stimulate the economy. Now why don’t you start using your own city in your writing? Local government, please support your local writers too!

How to Get There

Ever since I post beautiful pics of Belitung, many friends asking how to get there. Here’s how:

• Best time to visit Belitung is in June or July; due to the wind, the wave will be friendlier and the water will have more beautiful colors
• From Jakarta find flight to Tanjung Pandan using Sriwijaya Air (cost around $100 return, Jakarta – Tanjung Pandan)
• Transportation you can get a car + driver. I don’t have any recommendation for this though. It will cost you around $60 per day.
• Hotel you can choose to stay near the Tanjung Tinggi beach, around 1 hour from Tanjung Pandan (Lor In from $100 per night) or in Tanjung Pandan (there’s various options like Bahamas Belitung, Grand Hatika, Billiton, etc from $70)
• The boat for islands hopping, a regular boat will cost around $40 – the main destination is Lengkuas island, famous with its lighthouse. Make sure you climb all the way to the 22 floor. It’s beautiful up there! From there you can request to go islands hopping to small islands nearby. If you’re lucky you can go to a sand islands where there’s only little space of white sand in the ocean. I don’t dive nor snorkel but you can also ask the best spots for that too.
  
  
  
• Unique features of the Belitung Beaches are the granite rocks. Make sure you took pics of them while on islands hopping
• Belitung is not only about beach but also has beautiful mountain side in Manggar, 2 hours from Tanjung Pandan. On your way there, you can stop and have a look at SD Muhammadiyah Gantong, the school of Laskar Pelangi.
• For food, you can ask to have Belitung’s Noodle (Mie Rebus Belitung), they have the best seafood too, and try their local coffee ($0.3 per glass)
• Belitung has their own traditional house that you can visit. You can wear the traditional costume of Belitung people too and take picture for your FB profile, like tante Kanti (our host in Belitung, she’s a ‘Harbor Master’ :D)

Thank you tante Kanti for your hospitality and VIP treatment we get while we’re there

As we walk to the plane that will fly us back to reality, I look back to the mountains near the airport and I feel the sun instantly greet me on the tip of my sun glasses. I’ll be back.

Because it’s not so good to enjoy spa alone, I drag 2 of my best girls, Em & B to go with me :)) We decided to stay one night in Jogja and then go to MesaStila, previously known as Losari Coffee Plantation, wellness facilities located in Magelang, 2 hours from Yogyakarta (Jogja), Central Java, Indonesia.

Jogja is only 1 hour flight from Jakarta, so before I can really enjoy my AirAsia seat, it already need to land. We stayed at AllSeasons hotel, a new hotel in Dangen area near Malioboro, and we love it so much. With rented car, like a spoiled tourist, we go to places from Keraton Jogjakarta (Palace), shopping batik at Malioboro, taking pictures in Borobudur temple to watch Ramayana dance performance.

Jogja has been known as a cultural city and popular to the youth as the place to continue study, because there are a lot of universities in Jogja. Thus the ambience is different with Jakarta. It’s more artsy, laid back, and creative.

We enjoyed our time in Jogja, but of course, we’re excited for MesaStila.

Our first experience with MesaStila was when they come picked us up at our hotel in Jogja. There are complete snacks, fruits, face mists, mineral water on every corner of the car and iPad2 for our entertainment during 2 hours journey. We spent the whole hours sleeping and when we woke up, we already reached MesaStila.

The front office was a historical Colonial-era railway station from the 1860. Ticket to  ’MesaStila Express’ is given to welcome us.

When the first time I see the scenery in the part of 22 hectares area, it lifts my mood instantly watching all the intense green, misty sky and faint image of the mountains.

The Club house, not far from the front office was the 1828 house of a Dutch who own the coffee plantation. It’s fully restored and furnished with a collection of Javanese antique furniture and paintings. They even have library so we can read books, grand piano to play with in the afternoon, and a lot of exotic chill out place to enjoy our snacks while watching the mountain in the afternoon.

We must walk thru wet stones path to reach our Villa. It’s like a little house in the forest. It’s very spacious, have a deep traditional Javanese style (Each villa has been reconstructed from an original Javanese antique wooden house and decorated with original antiques collected from across the island) but also very conviniently modern, and I literally scream when I see our bathroom that made B jump & running to my direction. Our bathroom is very big, it has a spacious bathtub overlooking the forest outside. We can imagine ourselves reading books while sipping our orange juice inside the bathtub

For me the most important aspect for a spa is the massage. The phone ring to remind us for our 3pm massage appointment. We run with our umbrella, beating the drizzle to reach spa house near the pool. We picked rose-infused massage, a massage with no oil (dry body massage) with the Tuina technique plus scalp treatment using traditional Chinese techniques. It feels so good, one of the best, and I. Want. More!!

After massage, we drag our relaxing self to Turkish Hammam, intense style of sauna :)) We tried to be inside the Hammam as long as we could and soak our body in a cold water pool. We feel so fresh and hungry afterwards!

The selection of menu, as expected was all healthy food. But all without losing its amazing taste. We enjoy our eating experience so much. Maybe because we’re always hungry :))

That night, we were sleeping like a baby. I woke up at my usual early hour, and B would mumble something like, “Ollie, get back to sleep!” from inside her blanket. But I prefer to go outside and sit in our spacious veranda, looking at the magnificent nature’s painting of the coffee plantation and nearby mountains, that looks as if it’s put to fit my eyesight.

Our morning Yoga is unexpectedly heavier than we thought. But it feels good to be able to stretch our stiff body. But soon after yoga, we feel like we need another session of massage :))

Our butler Suharman guide us to get to know more about the coffee plantation area. Inga & Yohan from Belgium also joining us (I saw Singaporean & Japanese group too during my stay). He introduces us the differences of 4 varieties of coffee planted in MesaStila: Robusta, Arabica, Excelsa & Javanese coffee. They also plant their own vegetables & mushroom. We’re stop to see how the coffee is processed and also enjoying the original coffee made from their own field.

When he explained about how the coffee trees have been grafted and grown from the original Robusta-Arabica plants nearly two hundred years ago, I spontaneously said the him, “Is that possible?” And the answer stunned me, “Of course it’s possible, it’s the same kind, Robusta & Arabica is coffee, they can mix together. Same like human, you can marry a foreigner, it’s no problem. We’re from the same kind.” *jaw dropped*

Em & B let out giggles as I still not yet recovered from his ‘tweetable quote’ remarks. My friends know what’s on my mind, and I can’t understand, why a person I just met in 11 hectares of coffee plantation thousands miles from Jakarta, can talk to me like a messenger, about mix marriage.

It’s sad leaving MesaStila, I still haven’t explored more activities and facilities. But it’s time to go. Like our butler said on his another ‘tweetable quote’ remarks,

“Life is like the path on coffee plantation, it has ups & downs & turns. That’s just the way it is.”

Checkout amazing pics of MesaStila from these websites

http://sassymamahk.com/losari-spa-retreat-coffee-plantation-yogyakarta-indonesia/

http://www.collektionhotels.com/2011/12/mesastila-true-exhilarating-back-to.html

Dalam sekitar 6 jam perjalanan dengan Korean Air, saya menikmati istirahat saya setelah selesai menggelar event ON|OFF 2011 2 hari sebelumnya, sambil sesekali bergosip dengan Miss Jinjing (iya! Saya pergi sama si tukang belanja, Miss Jinjing :D). Kami membicarakan pramugari-pramugari Korean Air yang cantiknya luar biasa dengan kulit wajah yang sempurna, selicin porselen. Kata Miss Jinjing, “Minder deh kita di Korea ntar.” Emang bener banget :))

City View

Bis rombongan kami bergerak ke Seoul yang berjarak sekitar 1 jam dari Incheon. Incheon adalah kota industri (yang banyak pabrik) tempat airport-nya berada. Mungkin seperti Sidoarjo dan Surabaya

Begitu sampai di Seoul, kesan pertama saya adalah kotanya mix antara modern dan tradisional, tidak terlalu ramai, tidak juga terlalu sepi. Konturnya berbukit, gang-gang dengan jalan menanjak dan rumah berundak juga banyak terlihat. Mengingatkan saya akan sudut kota Semarang atas.

Untuk menikmati pemandangan kota Seoul, kami diajak naik cable car menuju Seoul Tower. Pemandangan dari cable car saja sudah spektakuler, apalagi saat kami berjalan menuju Seoul Tower. Di kanan dan kiri, banyak pohon-pohon kering meranggas karena dimakan musim,  menambah kesan romantis tempat itu. Tanpa sengaja mergokin pasangan Korea yang lagi pacaran. Oh so sweet. Bener-bener kayak di film Korea! <3

Seoul Tower menawarkan pemandangan 360 derajat kota Seoul (eh bener nggak tuh). Jadi bisa komplit ngeliat indahnya Kota Seoul. Kebayang deh kalo malam pasti lebih bagus lagi. Jadi miris kalo inget ‘tower’ kita nan imut -> Monas <- yang sama sekali nggak ada update-nya sejak jaman dulu kala -_- Padahal Korea Selatan baru kelar ribet berperang dengan Korea Utara sekitar tahun 1953, tapi kemajuannya sudah pesat banget kalau dibandingin sama kita *uhuk*

Culture & Religious Belief

Kami diajak ke Changdeokgung (palace) atau Istana Changdeok. Arsitektur-nya mirip istana di Cina, dengan beberapa detail bangunan yang membawa filosofi-nya masing-masing. Kemudian yang khas, halamannya nggak berumput sama sekali tapi menggunakan pasir.

Ciri bangunan Korea makin banyak terlihat pas kita main ke set-nya Yonginsi MBC Dramia, open set seluas hampir 30 ribu m2 untuk drama Korea yang ceritanya diangkat dari sejarah. Lokasi set ini di daerah pegunungan yang indah banget. Tentu saja kesempatan baik ini kita gunakan untuk foto-foto :P

Di dalam bis, Suki, tour guide kami menceritakan tentang Golden Miss. Istilah Golden Miss ini muncul di generasi muda Korea sebagai istilah untuk wanita-wanita sukses yang memilih untuk tetap single. Jumlah Golden Miss ini semakin banyak di kota besar di Korea. Di generasi sebelumnya, peran wanita masih tradisional dan mirip-mirip kita di Indonesia. Sesukses apapun wanita, tetep dianggap nggak lengkap kalo belum bisa ngasih  anak laki-laki. Sounds too familiar :p

Penduduk Korea kebanyakan menganut agama Buddha terutama aliran Zen. Maka tempat ibadah mereka kebanyakan berada di dalam hutan terpencil, agar bisa lebih khusyu’ dalam beribadah. Jalan menuju Woljeongsa Temple pemandangannya luar biasa menakjubkan. Kita harus melewati jembatan dengan sungai yang airnya sudah beku, dan pohon-pohon dengan salju yang menyelimuti rantingnya. Mirip sama pemandangan di serial Winter Sonata. Romantis manis :’)

Ski & Salju

I think this is the highlight of the Winter trip. Saya tidak pernah terbayang sebelumnya akan melihat salju, apalagi main ski! Sumpah! Karena kebayangnya, Salju itu adanya cuma di negara-negara barat, yang kesananya mahal, dan mungkin kalau pun saya ke sana nggak pas lagi musim salju. Alhamdulillah banget, ternyata di Asia juga ada salju hehe :p Baru tau and ngerasain sendiri kalo salju itu ternyata kayak es serut *norak*

Anyway… Alpensia Resorts di PyeongChang yang berjarak 3 jam dari Seoul ini adalah sebuah kawasan peristirahatan dan wisata terutama untuk ski. Kabarnya, PyeongChang bakal jadi tuan rumah Olimpiade musim dingin 2018. Hotel-hotel dan bangunan di PyeongChang ini tampilannya bergaya Eropa, jadi berasa di Alpen-nya Asia

We stayed at Holiday-Inn dan pemandangan kamar saya langsung mengarah ke arena bermain Ski. Indah banget dan rasanya nggak sabar untuk ikutan bermain!

Tapi, ternyata main ski nggak semudah itu haha. Bahkan setelah setelah pake baju khusus dan sepatu ski serta diajarin main ski sambil menggigil kedinginan selama 1 jam, tetep aja begitu meluncur, sama sekali nggak bisa ngerem padahal udah diajarin teknik ngerem yang bener :p Akhirnya, tentu saja yang ada malah jatuh terguling-guling ke bawah dengan sukses. Masalahnya, begitu jatuh, maka untuk bisa bangun itu PR berat. Suki yang senantiasa membantu saya bangun sampe bertanya dengan khawatir, “You fell a lot of times… are you okay??” Haha sakitnya nggak seberapa sih -_-

Spa

Satu lagi daerah tujuan wisata ski yang kita kunjungi namanya Konjiam Resort. Di situ ada fasilitas untuk spa juga. Sayangnya karena spa-nya berbentuk kolam pemandian yang nyampur antara laki-laki dan perempuan, akhirnya saya nggak bisa ikutan. Katanya Miss Jinjing, pemandangan dari atas (kolam serupa onsen dengan view pegunungan) luar biasa keren dan spa-nya juga asyik. Maybe next time deh!

Konjiam Resort ini hotel punya-nya LG. Besar dan bagus. Saya perhatikan masyarakat Korea sangat fanatik dengan teknologi buatan dalam negeri. Mereka pengguna setia produk-produk LG, Samsung, Hyundai dan produk dalam negeri lainnya. Patut dicontoh nih!

Korean Food

Makanan Korea rata-rata eksotis, karena percampuran beberapa elemen warna dari sayuran (ada filosofinya), dan merupakan pengalaman baru bagi saya. Saya akrab dengan makanan Jepang, tapi tidak begitu paham makanan Korea.

Kami diperkenalkan pada Kimchi, makanan side-dish yang selalu ada di setiap menu orang Korea. Mungkin kalo kita, Kimchi itu seperti sambal. Kimchi itu dari daun sawi yang diolesi dengan bumbu Kimchi kemudian disimpan atau difermentasi selama minimal seminggu. Semakin lama disimpan, semakin baik dan semakin mahal. Kami juga diajari cara membuat Kimchi, melumuri sawi dengan saus Kimchi… seru sekali! Apalagi instruktur Kimchi-nya lucuk… namanya mas Jae Min ^_^

Perpaduan sayuran dari berbagai jenis dengan nasi dan saus itu namanya Bibimbap. Pantesan ya orang Korea kulitnya bagus-bagus banget, ternyata makanannya semua sehat bebas gorengan

Satu lagi yang sifatnya daging adalah Bulgogi. Kita makan beef yang dimasak sendiri dengan campuran berbagai sayur dan jamur di sebuah restoran yang namanya Bulgogi Brothers. Enak!

Makanan di Korea juga disajikan a la Padang dan dimakan selalu sharing karena konsepnya mereka kalau makan itu harus barengan. Nice!

Shopping

Jalan-jalan ke luar negeri nggak bakal lengkap kalo nggak shopping :p

Insadong Market. Isinya banyak barang antik, seni, oleh-oleh, aksesoris, dan fashion. Di sini saya membeli boot baru yang cakep dan sukses disirikin sama Miss Jinjing sampe akhir perjalanan :))

Doota Mall. Tempat-nya barang-barang fashion. Seperti Mangga dua kali ya kalo di sini. Kalo sempet, main aja ke Mall kecil di sebelah Doota. Banyak barang-barang oleh-oleh lucu juga dan I get my new Korean glasses too di sini

MyungDong Market. Di sini yang paling wajib dicari adalah makeup! Cewek-cewek Korea itu sangat merawat diri sekali dan yang namanya merk makeup Korea banyak banget, lucu-lucu dan murah! Yang nyari BB cream bisa langsung melipir ke Missha. Ada juga Etude House yang lucu banget, FaceShop, Skin Food hingga merk-merk yang nggak masuk Indonesia, lengkap berjejer di Myung Dong. Lucunya, brand ambassador merk kosmetik ini rata-rata cowok

Korea Grand Sale jadwalnya 9 January – 29 February 2012 tuh. Ayo dijadwalin ke Korea ^_^

Skin & Beauty

Penasaran juga kan sama perawatan kulit orang Korea? Selain karena genetic, tentu karena mereka sangat sadar kulit. Kita sempat singgah ke Skin Anniversary dan facial di situ. Enak banget! They have a different method in facial dan itu beneran enak banget. You should try!

Let it snow…

Saat mulai hujan salju, kami semua yang sedang sarapan langsung loncat-loncat girang dan berhamburan keluar. Salju yang perlahan turun, ranting-ranting kering yang dramatis, semua sempurna! Tinggal ditambah sosok Hyun Bin berdiri dengan sweater biru muda menanti dengan mawar di tangan kanan pasti akan lebih oke lagi! *dijitak massal*

I’m grateful for my friends on the journey, especially Miss Jinjing, Chandra, Intan, Munti & Isti, hope to keep in touch. I had some of the best laughs with you guys involving chopsticks & tos :))

Thank you KTO for the amazing winter trip. I hope to come back soon, I’ve left a piece of my heart in Korea. Kamsahamnida!

Gara-gara buku itu saya jadi mau cerita light side story dari religious trip saya ke Madinah, Mekkah dan Jeddah.

Ini kunjungan pertama saya ke Arab. Yang pertama mencuri perhatian saya saat sampai di King Abdul Aziz (9 jam perjalanan Jakarta – Jeddah) adalah simbol negaranya yang bergambar 2 pedang beradu. Welehh… intimidating >.<

Kemudian yang saya perhatikan tentu jalanannya. Jalanan di sana lebar, sepi dari mobil dan kanan kirinya tandus dengan gunung-gunung berbatu tanpa tanaman hijau sedikitpun. Mungkin karena itu juga, gedung-gedung di Madinah semuanya seragam bentuknya, kotak, dengan jendela kecil dan berwarna cokelat. Makanya masuk ke Mesjid Nabawi dengan arsitektur yang luar biasa dan colorful benar-benar pemandangan menyejukkan. Melihat kegersangan itu, gambaran surga yang digambarkan al-Quran, taman hijau, dengan berbagai buah, sungai yang mengalir, itu semua Indonesia banget. Saya selama ini udah hidup di surga tapi take it for granted, tak menyadari dan lupa bersyukur.

Saya merasakan anomali (keanehan) saat berada di negara Islam, yang harusnya jauh lebih mengamalkan nilai-nilai Islam, tapi sebagai cewek saya malah takut dan canggung jalan sendirian. Mungkin karena wanita lokal nggak banyak (bahkan nggak ada) yang jalan sembarangan tanpa pendamping.

Soal cowok sendiri saya suka perhatikan diam-diam karena Mekkah dan Madinah adalah tempat ngumpulnya pria Muslim dari seluruh dunia, maka saya sempatkan untuk melirik (dikit). *sambil istighfar dan berseru pada diri sendiri: “Luruskan niat!” :)) Saya nggak tau persis orang mana aja yang wajahnya cakep-cakep, tapi yg jelas, pria berkulit putih, berhidung mancung, bibir merah, sedikit brewok halus, berbaju putih panjang dan baca Quran dengan khusyu’ itu gemesin! #ngikik :))

Ceweknya sendiri di sini nggak kalah cuantik. Ada anak kecil Arab umur 5 tahun. Dia duduk diem aja, ga pose macem-macem. Tapi luar biasa cantik. Alis melengkung sempurna dengan alami, nggak terlalu tipis nggak terlalu tebal. Matanya nggak usah ditanya, dengan tingkat ‘ke-belok-an’ yang tepat, warna mata yang sophisticated, serta bulu mata lentik yang bikin saya pengen cepat-cepat jepit bulu mata. Hidungnya mancung tipis dan bibirnya merah. Kulit putih dan rambut cokelat. And kebanyakan cewek-cewek sini modelnya kayak gini yang umurnya mudaan. Jadi biar pake cadar juga keliatan cakep.

Tapi kalo usia mereka udah beranjak ibu-ibu, ukuran tubuh langsung membesar signifikan. Saya nggak pernah lihat wanita oversize begitu banyak dalam satu ruangan sebelumnya. Oh ya, mengenai ukuran tubuh ini, saya sempat shock waktu pertama sholat Subuh di musholla kecil di jalan menuju Madinah.  Begitu selesai sholat, saya kaget karena tiba-tiba udah ‘dikepung’ sama belasan perempuan tinggi besar berjubah hitam-hitam. Langsung feel intimidated banget. Mana mukanya serem-serem tanpa senyum >.< Tapi lama-lama biasa juga.

Mayoritas cewek di sini adalah cewek-cewek yang matanya lebar, jadi saya yang bermata sipit saat eyeliner luntur ini, cukup menarik perhatian. Salah satunya saat di Masjidil Haram, ada cewek Iraq yang niat banget lari ngejar saya, hanya untuk nanya dengan bahasa Inggris terpatah-patah: “Are you Japanese?” gubrak. Pengennya sih bilang iya haha… Tapi saya harus mengecewakannya dan bilang kalau saya adalah satu dari ratusan ribu jamaah dari Indonesia: “No. I’m Javanese. From Indonesia!” :))

Cara wanita menggunakan jilbabnya di seluruh dunia itu berbeda-beda dan saya menjadi pemerhatinya. Muslimah Arab sudah pasti dengan jubah hitam dan niqabnya. Untuk menambah style pada jubahnya, biasanya aksen bordir atau payetnya bermain di daerah lengan dan ujung jilbab. Muslimah Iran biasa menggunakan kain besar seperti seprei dengan berbagai corak seperti bunga-bungaan, untuk sholat. Yang dari India dan Pakistan, paling festive dengan corak baju yang warna warni. Yang dari Turki, terlihat dari jilbabnya yang sutra full corak tapi bajunya berbentuk coat panjang berwarna gelap. Orang Indonesia paling gampang di-identify karena mereka rata-rata pake mukena putih dengan bordiran nama travel di bagian belakangnya

I’m blessed with travel buddies yang menyenangkan, Siti & Dani. We had fun the whole time, termasuk saat berbelanja. Saat kami di Madinah, Siti, asal Tulungagung yang selalu berbahasa Jawa timuran, saat itu akan membeli kunci koper di sebuah toko. Pemilik toko berdiri di samping kami. Siti yang tidak bisa bahasa Inggris menyikut lengan saya, “Tanyain li, berapa!”. Dengan tenang saya tanya pada penjualnya dalam bahasa Indonesia, “Berapa?” dijawab, “Tiga Riyal.” dan Siti pun bengong, “Oalah… Iso boso Indonesia yo… Lek ngono aku yo iso….” :))

Soal dagangan pula, orang sini suka bilang Halal untuk boleh dan Haram untuk tidak boleh. Waktu di Madinah, saya nawar gelang sama cincin jadi 15 Riyal dan pedagangnya bilang: “Oke, kamu cantik, halal!” -_-; Akhirnya pengetahuan itu saya terapkan untuk beli jubah hitam di Mekkah. Setelah nawar nggak berhasil juga, akhirnya saya bilang, “Ok 60 Riyal halal!” Mas nya sampe ngikik sendiri. Memang selama di sini saya ga pernah berhasil nawar. Mungkin karna mereka ngambil untungnya ga kayak di Cina yang gila2an.

Saya juga penasaran mau coba pake niqab atau cadar. Pemilik toko semangat banget kasi tau saya cadar yang paling ideal menurut dia. Sampe dicontohin cara makenya segala. Akhirnya saya pun beli dan pake. Tapi kurang matching karna baju warna-warni, tapi cuek aja. Rasanya gimana? Secara umum rasanya kayak pake kacamata hitam. Rasanya terlindung aja. Bebas dari judgement soal wajah kita harus gimana. Tapi, mungkin karna ga biasa pake, saya merasa susah nafas dan jengah ada yang nempel-nempel di muka. Di toko yang lain, saya disambut gembira sama pelayan toko: “Wahhh ada haji baru!” semua orang jadi noleh. Malu-maluin aja -_-;

Selama sekamar bertiga dalam 9 hari, kami sudah paham karakter masing-masing. Begitu sampai kamar, Dani biasanya akan berkutat di kamar mandi untuk mencuci apa saja yang bisa dicuci, Siti selalu menemukan alasan untuk membereskan barang-barang atau repacking sedangkan saya? Tidur! Ya, saya dijuluki Ms. Sleepy sama mereka karena saya tidur di setiap kesempatan. Maklum, kegiatan ibadah banyak menguras fisik dan saya selalu berusaha menjaga kondisi dengan recharge energi *alesan*

Oh ya, ada tower jam baru di sana. Jadi bisa dijadiin patokan biar nggak nyasar atau salah masuk gate yang serupa tapi tak sama di Masjidil Haram

Kalau ditanya apa yang “aneh-aneh” selama di Mekah dan Madinah, selain sembuhnya sakit gigi saya, saat di Mekah, thawaf malam itu sangat ramai karena esok hari Jumat (hari libur di Arab, sehingga banyak yang ibadah ke Masjidil Haram). Amazingly kami bertiga bisa tawaf dengan tenang dan tiba-tiba bisa menyentuh Makam Ibrahim serta berdoa dan mencium Ka’bah. Di antara keramaian yang super itu, tiba-tiba jalan seperti dilapangkan untuk kami, Alhamdulillah!

Bicara soal yang aneh, ada juga yang berbentuk peringatan. Di Mekkah, semua dibayar kontan. Maka saat kami akan berangkat ke mesjid dalam waktu yang cukup sekitar 45 menit sebelum adzan, namun kita spend time ketawa ketiwi dan ngomongin mas-mas Arab yang ketemu di jalan, akhirnya kami melongo saat harus sholat di pelataran masjid lantaran Masjidil Haram yang luasnya 125.000 m2 sudah penuh. Kami ‘nggak boleh’ masuk ke Masjidil Haram! Astaghfirullahaladzim!

Lantaran tiap pulang sholat dari Masjidil Haram, saya selalu melewati KFC, maka jadilah wangi-wangian ayam membuat saya ngiler berat berhari-hari. Tapi beli KFC di sana cukup repot karena ngantrinya luar biasa. Akhirnya begitu sampe di Jakarta, saya langsung pesan KFC sama papa saya :))

Selain beribadah, kami juga berziarah ke berbagai tempat, termasuk Jabal Rahmah tempat bertemunya Nabi Adam dan Hawa setelah berpisah selama 200 tahun. Nyokap pesen banget kalo ini tempat yang oke buat minta jodoh. I said, “Ok mom, I’ll stay there longer.” :))

Di sana banyak banget orang Indonesia… banyak tukang bakso… sampe nggak berasa jauh di luar negeri, tapi berasa di Bandung atau Jawa Tengah aja hehehe

Semoga saya bisa berhaji dan kembali ke tanah suci kembali bersama keluarga. Amin…

Then come one moment in my life, when I just felt that I’m ready to go to the Holy Land of Makkah, visiting Ka’bah, performing Umrah (Lesser Pilgrimage). People said it’s the personal ‘calling’ from God.

This is the same kind of feeling when I put hijab for the first time in year 2000. It was my first year of college, where I’m so ready to ‘have fun go mad’ with my buddies, yet the unexplainable feeling told me to wear hijab and behave. And that’s it.

And proclaim to mankind the Hajj (pilgrimage). They will come to you on foot and on every lean camel, they will come from every deep and distant (wide) mountain highway (to perform Hajj). Quran Surat Al-Ĥaj 22:27

This is my first time to Arab. I went there with a group of people in a tour. I don’t have any idea of what will happen, I decide to just go with it.

Our first stop was in Medina. The Prophet’s mosque: Nabawi, looks very beautiful, grand and elegant. Some girls stopping at the gate, rubbing the golden carving, crying, say salaam to the Prophet Muhamad (PBUH) and mumble some prayers.

To enter the mosque, I must get my bag checked for any camera or mobile phones with camera in it. Of course, I still bring all of it in my bag, and the officer lady in blacks won’t let me enter the mosque. I walked back to my hotel to put my camera and back to the mosque, realizing that I just lost my roomates, Siti & Dani. Now, I’m alone in a huge mosque, on my first day in Medina. I started to kind of worried. And like an answer, a smiley Indonesian lady sit right beside me. She stayed in the same hotel with me. And she share her valuable experiences while she was in Makkah. Alhamdulillah, indeed I’ve meant to meet her.

And of His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth and the diversity of your languages and your colors. Indeed in that are signs for those of knowledge. QS Surat Ar-Rūm 30:22

My mom told me that I would see Muslims all over the world. All with their different skin colors and cultures that might amazed me. A lot of new things also would surprised me. But I must not think bad about them, because it is believed something could happen to me as a warning. My mom really scared me off that when I saw a dark skin lady with moustache, I said in my heart, “Oh my God, she looks like a man!” And then I immediately said, “Astaghfirullahaladzim, please forget that I ever said that ya Allah!” Hehe. I become more aware of what I’m thinking of. I think I already a positive thinker, but turned out I still make some unneccessary comments inside. This is really good exercise of self-reminder.

Talking about Nabawi mosque won’t complete without mentioning Ar-Raudah. This is an  area in the heart of the mosque which extends from The Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) tomb to his pulpit. It’s like a little piece of heaven, and if you pray there and ask for anything, Insha Allah your wish is granted. Women have special schedules to enter Raudah. My group went there at night around 11 pm. We’re among the last groups. People said it’s difficult to pray there because it’s packed, yes it was packed, but Alhamdulillah I manage to pray longer. I pray for myself first, hope God have mercy and forgive me, then on to the more ‘world kind of wishes’. Then I pray for my family and friends. I can’t help my tears in this place. I felt so close with my Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). This is the place where he used to walk, pray, and I missed him so much.

I said to my mom, that I won’t shop a single thing on my Umrah journey. Indonesian are well known to be overshopper and I don’t want to be in the same list. Until I heard the sellers said, “Khamsa Riyal. 5 Riyal!” And I was like, “What?! That cute scarfs only 5 Riyal??” And the rest is history :))

The flow of performing Umrah is more and less like this: you wear Ihram clothes (wear two garments of unsown white cloth for men) from the Miqat (stated places where you say your intention to perform Umrah), Perform tawaf (circling the Ka’bah, inside Masjidil Haram, 7 times), perform Sa‘y (walking from Safa – Marwah 7 times) and then shaving or shortening your hair.

When I walk from Hotel to perform Umrah to Masjidil Haram, I’m drowned in a lot of thoughts. I just can’t wait to see Ka’bah. I see a lot of Ka’bah still pictures back home, and now I finally would see it myself. I walk slowly, and I can see Ka’bah appear. Formed as a simple but attractive black cube, it’s the center of moslem’s prayer around the world. I stop for a moment. My tears just fall down. Mixed of unexplainable feelings. I’ve been seeing this moment in my dreams. The moment when I see Ka’bah for the first time. It’s a dream come true.

I’ve been trying to understand the philosophy of Tawaf (Circumambulation). Circumambulation means to go round something, orbiting. When I love someone, I’d orbiting around him as an expression of love, and a prove that I’m ready to sacrifice everything for my beloved. I’d be ready if he needs me. And that’s how I understand Tawaf. Symbolic way to Show that I love and detached everything just to be around Allah.

Walking for Sa’y from Safa – Marwah 7 times really hurts my (lazy) feet (3.15 km total). I can’t imagine how Siti Hajar running in the exact place, without air conditioning and all the facilities I have right now, to look for water for her boy Ishmael. This is where ZamZam water show up on the spot where Ishmael kick his feet and it never dried ever since.

I felt a sense of relieved after I get my hair cut. That means I’m already finished performing umrah and I can ‘release’ my Ihram state. Alhamdulillah.

For 9 days, I’ve been focusing and dedicating myself to God. Praying in the mosque & reciting Quran, are the only activities. And a lot of people have the same thoughts. Masjidil Haram always packed with people. If we’re late coming to the mosque, we must struggle to find a place to sit. It’s happening a lot of times that I even dream of wade through each other in the mosque. What a weird dream :))

People asked if I get some sort of miracles that often happened there. Well, one of the best thing that happened was, when my newly born wisdom tooth kicking thru my gum, I felt  excruciating pain that it’s hard to even open my mouth, let alone eating. All my body felt sick and feverish. Since I can’t eat tablets, I refused to go to the pharmacy :)) Then I pray to Allah to cure me, and drink ZamZam water with the intention to cure it. The pain is magically disappear the next morning!

Alhamdulillah, I finished reading tafseer of the whole Quran when I was there. I could also see places mentioned in Al-Quran, such as Jabal Uhud and many more. I felt like I found myself once again and I finally can relate more to what I’ve read on Quran, and found soul in my prayers. This get me a whole new idea to learn Arabic especially for Quran study.

Hope I can come back again soon to Makkah, as I haven’t been able to say good bye to Ka’bah, and that time I wish I could go with my life partner. Amin

Taken from our last trip to Bukittinggi, Padang, West Sumatra. Invited by a travel magazine on  2010. Never manage to write the travelogue.

The famous Indonesian Donald Trump, Ciputra, said right now Indonesia only has 400,000 entrepreneurs out of 250 million population. That’s less than 1% of the population. Compare that with 7% for nearby Singapore. Ciputra plan to encourage, create and mentor 4 million entrepreneurs or 2% of the country’s population by changing the country’s mindset.

One of ways to change a mindset is by thinking outside the box, and in our case is: thinking outside the country. Then, off we go to Dublin, Ireland.

My partners Natali Ardianto, Nuniek Tirta, Sanny Gaddafi and I, have been creating routine monthly event called #StartupLokal Meetup, to gather startup business owners, investors, media and enthusiasts. The enthusiasm of #StartupLokal community has been amazing, more new audiences attending the event, more new startups launched and more investors coming. Now we’re ready to design concept to help build the best environment for Indonesian startups.

As our government still focusing on something else, Irish government through Enterprise Ireland showed their interest in showing #StartupLokal how they build system to help their local startups grow, by creating one special division for startup called High Potential Start Ups (HPSU) division in Enterprise Ireland and creating business incubation on campus.

Taking picture in front of Enterprise Ireland office, we’re using Lazuli Sarae batik denim

Ireland obviously have a better approach to encouraging small business. Taxes are lower. Ireland’s corporate rate is less than one-third the combined state and federal rate in the US. Companies like Facebook, Google, LinkedIn and rumoured has it, Twitter, are opening their office in Ireland, creating a reputation for Ireland as The Silicon Valley of Europe. They also have lower regulatory barriers for entrepreneur, greater access to capital & mentorship, and more positive beliefs in the value of small business.

That’s why we’re so excited when Enterprise Ireland, via Patrick O’ Riordan, invite us to visit Dublin to learn more about how they’ve been nurturing the startups & build condusive environment for 20 years.

I’ve been curious with the guidelines of managing startups, because our vision for #StartupLokal community is not only for making meetups, but eventually create better ecosystem for startups, just like what Enterprise Ireland did. And we’re so ready to absorbs the knowledge.

The meeting with Kevin Sherry, Manager International Sales & Partnering of Enterprise Ireland, also with John Convery from HPSU division really open my eyes and inspired me. A lot of useful knowledge that we can use & implement to grow the community. We’re cooking something now!

This is John Convery’s presentation that you might check to inspire you to adapt and doing your own piece of social responsibility.

Here we also meet Philip Watson @ei_pwatson , The Marketing Executive of Enterprise Ireland and David Scanlon @ei_dscanlon the online marketing guy at Enterprise Ireland and we’ve been exchanging insights about Indonesian market. Really nice to meet you guys and it was a great discussion, hope we could do it again in Jakarta

Irish Local Startups

After meeting Enterprise Ireland officials, we’re also scheduled to meet some Irish Local Startups. We met Dublin Web Summit founders, the equivalent of #StartupLokal in Ireland, where we found so many similarity in their story with our own. We also met Miriam Magner CEO & founder of Career Decisions, Darren Bowler Product Marketing Manager of Movidius, Brian Kiefel Managing Director of Retail Media System, and Arthur Cagney Director Market Development of Newbay Software.

We’re sharing insights about Indonesian market behavior with them. And this is the point where I realized that we’re doing it differently:

• In Indonesia, mobile market is BIG. Irish don’t use mobile phone to connect with the internet or social media as intense as we do. They don’t have traffic jam (even though they claimed to have one, oh boy, believe me guys, it’s barely a traffic jam). They can just connect at home or at the office and that usually not for socializing, but for working.
• We Indonesian naturally love to chat and connect socially, that’s why social media is also big in Indonesia, we’re #2 in Facebook globally and #1 in Twitter in users in Asia! Connect social media & mobile in Indonesia, and you’re good to go
• We’re early adaptors, we’d love to try everything’s new from gadgets to new social media websites.
• We took a lot of pictures and share it with our friends. We took pictures of food, and it’s normal, while Patrick puzzled and asked, “Why you took food pictures, again?” Music and photos are valuable for us and combined it with mobile, you’ll get the idea how to sell us stuff hehe
• They’re amazed that I bring 5 mobile gadgets in my cute bag, while it might completely normal in Indonesia for one person to have 2 mobile phones (okay, maybe I’m not that normal even in Indonesian standard LOL)

One thing I note is about B2B. All of the startups that been introduced to us are mainly doing B2B. I realized now that they way we do B2B is slightly different, or in my case, it’s different. We have 250 million of population. In 2008 our internet users was 7,9% of the population. If we estimated that internet user in Indonesia are around 25 million people, that’s already 6x Irish population. And what I’ve been doing (with my startups Kutukutubuku.com & NulisBuku.com) was aiming for B2B but thru B2C. While we gain reputation on consumer market, individual references will go up to the corporate level. And that’s, in my opinion, effective in Indonesia.

Every now and then in the meeting, I will nudge Sanny and exchange glances with Natali, because I’m amazed on how Irish Government through Enterprise Ireland been really really helpful to help the growth of their startups. Patrick has been in the meeting the whole time, guiding our discussion and taking note on how he could help connecting their startups with Indonesian partners and help creating access to market. That, I can only dream, happening in Indonesia.

Business Incubation

Day two of our business trip in Ireland was filled with tour to several business incubation on campus.

Indonesia universities mindset are still the same old mission to train students to be employees. And that’s too bad because we now want to create more jobs, thus students should be introduced of ways and supported to be entrepreneur from the very early stage of their study. Enterprise Ireland support campus to build business incubation of their own, where not only students, but also other people, encouraged to use the campus facilities to do research and development and build their own startup.

We were only visiting Synergy Center at Institute of Technology Tallaght (ITT) Dublin, NovaUCD (Innovation & Technology Transfer Center) at University College Dublin and The Digital Hub, but from what I’ve heard, all campus in Dublin already have incubation facilities (!) This is the point where I nudge Sanny one more time.

My first mindset about an incubation is always about a place where new startups could work and build their empire from scratch. That’s all. After visiting all the incubation, I finally learned that an incubation needs a lot more than that.

The incubation should assist innovators and entrepreneurs to take their ideas from proof of principle to full commercial success, one of the way is by giving access to mentorship. I found out that Enterprise Ireland has its own National Mentor Panel where there are group of experts are ready to mentor when needed. We should have that kind of mentor panel too!

Research and Development (R & D) is one of the most important part in doing business that, unlike us, they all handle very seriously. A solid idea  could be funded with serious amount of fund to do R & D in the incubation facility. And you could get more fund once you manage to build the business plan out of your idea. Awesome.

One of IT Tallaght lecturers, Stephen Howell @saorog created an interface between the Microsoft Kinect and and open source programme (Scratch) for teaching programming ideas to kids. You can see his work here

One small but important detail that all the incubations have is a place where people could sit and hang out, could form as a cafe, or bench all over the facility. Because they believe that great ideas, often come from human interaction & connection on  a casual conversation over a coffee, or just a minute or two idle time sitting in the hallway. Amazing way of thinking!

All 3 incubation that we visit offer slightly different method for startups to use their facilities. Synergy Center doing routine workshop and seminar for networking, NovaUCD create special program every year for startups to pitch and get a chance to use their facility for 9 months to incubate their ideas, and Digital Hub, located in the heart of Dublin just in front of Guinness Storehouse,  focused on digital content & technology enterprises.

We have learned all complete details on how they manage their incubation and that will be very useful to apply it in Indonesia. I’m so excited!

Books & Publishing Industry

Ireland have many great poet and authors inspired by the beautiful country, such as the legendary Oscar Wilde (I went to his house in Dublin!), William Butler Yeats (where the National Library of Ireland making a special tribute to Yeats),  and of course the popular young writer Cecilia Ahern of PS: I Love You.

Pat has been kindly arranged a meeting over dinner for me and Claire Kilroy, beautiful Irish writer that has published 3 novels. I bought one of her novels, TenderWire, and I love love how she write description and details in simple but yet sophisticated words that makes readers feel related and connected to the story.

I’ve been admiring the fact that there are a lot of poetry books in Irish bookstores. I saw this rack full of poetry books that I never, I repeat, NEVER, seen anything like that in Indonesia. A lot of people love to write poetry, but publishers have been reluctant to publish it on commercial consideration. When I told Claire about it, she told me that Irish government have funded poetry books to get published as an effort to preserved culture & art in Ireland. *Jaw dropped*

I went to 2 different libraries in Ireland, the classic and oldest one in Trinity College Dublin where they keep Book of Kells for 300 years now. The Long Room has amazed me with the amazing amount of collection and how it stored systematically (mind you, it’s a library aged hundreds of years). And the National Library of Ireland. What more should I say. They’re not offering just books, but   enjoying the beauty of writing, to be totally and fully experience the book. I remember our own national library and cringed.

If you’ve been my followers on twitter, readers on my blog, friends on my facebook, you’ll know my HUGE passion about books & writing. My dream is as simple as seeing more Indonesian kids reading books, just like the kid I saw on a plane to Paris

Finally

I have a lot of plans in my mind about how to adopt what I’ve seen in Ireland to Indonesia. And I’m burning right now!

Thank you very much Enterprise Ireland for inviting us, hope to have a long term partnership and we could continue support each other.

I love Dublin so much, it’s a beautiful city, hope I can visit Ireland again in near future and this time I should chase the rainbow end and find that hidden pot of gold kept by The Leprechauns ;)

Last but not least:

Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country – John F. Kennedy

Read more articles about our visit in:

Jakarta Globe (Shirley @Shirleydaily , the Globe Asia journalist, doing the interview at 2 am and come out with this several hours later, Sláinte!)

InfoKomputer

StartupLokal.org

Sanny Gaddafi Blog

Nuniek Blog for our leisure part (this is our first time to Europe, all new experience, the beauty, the freezing weather :D)

Also check photos of our Dublin Trip on my Flickr

All statistic sources are from Businessweek.com & Techcrunch.com

Maka ketika Indo Citra Tamasya (ICT) @IndoTamasya  mengajak saya jalan-jalan ke Beijing selama 4 hari 3 malam, saya langsung bersemangat! Kendala bahasa sudah pasti bisa ditanggulangi karena tour guide ICT di Beijing berbahasa Indonesia, kami di-guide menuju tempat-tempat yang menarik di China termasuk peninggalan Islam di China dan masalah makanan juga beres karena kami selalu makan Halal food di Muslim restaurant. Benar-benar nyaman dan worry free. Kita bisa konsentrasi menikmati Beijing!

Perjalanan Jakarta – Beijing memakan waktu sekitar 8 jam dengan transit di XiaMen sekitar 30 menit, untuk melewati imigrasi. Imigrasi nggak ada di bandara Beijing, hanya di XiaMen. Aneh juga.

Mulai di pesawat, Air China, makanan yang di-serve sudah Halal & Muslim food. Biasanya kita dapat makanan duluan dan membuat sirik orang di sekitar hihi.

Begitu mendarat di Beijing kesan pertama saya selalu tentang bandara dan saya selalu jadi bete kalo inget bandara kita di Jakarta yang ‘berkarakter’ itu. Karena lain dari yang lain LOL. Bandara Beijing is HUGE dan modern abis. Waktu di Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam juga bandaranya udah oke punya. Bahkan bandara kecil di XiaMen pun udah bagus. Why oh why, bandara kita masi gitu-gitu aja hiks hiks. Btw, begitu turun dari pesawat, langsung kedinginan karena meskipun dikabarkan sudah keluar dari winter tapi suhu masih rendah untuk ukuran kita orang Indonesia. Saya cepat-cepat lari ke dalam gedung airport dengan harapan bisa dapat pemanas, tapi ternyata tetap dingin T_T Ini karena atap-nya di desain nggak nutup 100% hingga bisa nyerap udara dari luar dan hopefully hemat energi. Bener juga sih.

Kami dijemput tour guide kami, Ahua, yang selalu menggiring kami dengan bendera biru-nya dan ucapan, “Ayo sini yaaa….” dan petualangan kami di Beijing pun resmi dimulai.

The Food

Selama 4 hari di Beijing, kami mencoba makanan dari berbagai propinsi di China seperti Xibei, Xin Jiang, Beijing sendiri dan Mongolian food. Dan tentunya, yang bikin tenang, semua makanannya Halal! Bahkan sarapan di hotel juga nggak was-was karena hotel kami, Long Ding Hua Hotel, tidak serve pork sama sekali.

Chinese food sebenarnya nggak asing lagi karena di sini juga banyak Chinese restaurant. Bedanya tentu rasa yang original sesuai dengan taste orang di China. Bagi kita some of the food mungkin berasa plain, dan if you can’t handle it you can bring your own kecap or something. Kalau saya sih nggak ada masalah, because I like it plain, and all the food was delicious!

Cara serve makanan di Chinese restaurant adalah serentak dalam 10-12 ragam makanan. If you like to eat, just like me, you’ll love China

My favorite food selama di China adalah Peking Roasted Duck & Steamboat, where Ahua order 12 plates of beef because there are 12 people in our dining table! Satu orang satu piring, katanya. Hiyaaa…

Places of Interests

Denger dari Ahua, Beijing adalah pusat pemerintahan dan ibukota China. Penduduknya 18 juta orang (dari total 1,3 Miliar penduduk China) dan luasnya 4x kota Jakarta. Di Beijing nggak ada motor sama sekali, hanya ada sepeda. Katanya sih nggak boleh sama pemerintah. That’s why meskipun macet, tapi lalu lintas di Beijing menurut saya cukup terkendali. Alias semacet-macetnya masih bisa merayap dengan pasti. Nggak kayak di Jakarta yang luar binasa semrawut.

Di Beijing ada banyak banget peninggalan sejarahnya. Salah satu yang wajib dikunjungi, letaknya 2 jam perjalanan dari Beijing, it’s the Great Wall of China! Panjangnya 6.400 kilometer dan tinggi 8 meter yang dulu dibangun untuk menahan serangan bangsa Mongol dari utara. Ini adalah bangunan terpanjang yang pernah dibangun oleh manusia! OMG, saya manjat sekilo aja ngos-ngosan, nggak kebayang gimana dulu bikinnya -_- It’s a beautiful place, Alhamdulillah I got a chance to experience it (I’m wearing “I climbed the great wall” t-shirt now)

Kami juga mengunjungi Tiananmen Square, yang dulu cuma bisa saya lihat di buku sejarah. Lapangan luas ini berbatasan dengan the Great Hall of the People dan Chairman Mao’s Mausoleum.

Tak jauh dari situ kami masuk untuk tour ke Forbidden City, komplek istana raja China yang udah berumur 500 tahun. Tempatnya luas banget, dari satu gerbang ke gerbang lain, satu istana ke istana lain, kayaknya bangunannya nggak abis-abis. Konon ada 9999 kamar di situ, dan kalau semua kamar itu tiap hari ditinggali bergantian, kita baru selesai di kamar terakhir pada umur 27 tahun. Cool!

Jika rumahnya raja aja kayak gitu, maka kebayang lah tamannya kayak apa. Summer Palace, dibangun tahun 1750, digunakan untuk tinggal raja selama musim panas. Selain bangunan istana, di sini ada danau buatan yang besar banget, dan kuil serta jembatan. Tipe garden kayak gini biasa kita tiru untuk halaman belakang rumah kita tapi tentu saja dalam versi mini *hiks* Tempatnya indah dan memang cocok untuk hang out raja di musim panas.

Di bagian urban area-nya, kami mengunjungi Beijing Old town yang bernama Hutong area. Beberapa kali saya dan Elly (my room mate, journalist from Aulia magazine), bertanya-tanya dalam hati karena nggak melihat rumah satu pun di Beijing, hanya apartment. Nah, di Hutong ini lah kami, sambil naik rickshaw,  melihat dari dekat kehidupan masyarakat Beijing.

Seperti ingin membuktikan eksistensi & keperluan Olympic Beijing 2008, Beijing membangun Olympic Stadium super modern, Bird Nest & Water Cube. Memang keren euy. Kapan ya GBK bisa gini *merenung*

Islam in China

Selain mengunjungi tempat-tempat wisata populer, kami juga mengunjungi masjid-masjid di Beijing. Meski katanya minoritas, jumlah muslim di China itu hampir 100 juta orang! Berarti secara jumlah penduduk muslim, China bisa bersanding dengan Indonesia & India. Pantes kalau saya melihat cukup banyak restoran Muslim di seputaran Beijing.

Masjid-masjid yang kami kunjungi antara lain Niujie Mosque, which is the oldest Mosque with over one thousand year’s history, dan Nan Dou Ya Mosque. Bentuk masjid-nya sudah mengalami akulturasi budaya dengan budaya China. Jadi bentuknya nggak berkubah tapi sarat ukiran dan ornamen China. Sayangnya selama mengunjungi mesjid, saya nggak melihat anak muda Muslim di China ngumpul di situ. Mungkin ada perkumpulan khususnya kali ya.

Attraction

Selain teh dan obat-obatan tradisional, Ahua claim kalau crobatic show di China adalah yang terbaik. Waktu saya nonton, saya harus setuju. Gila… itu atraksinya benar-benar nggak masuk akal. Kok bisa badan dilipet kayak gitu and juggling sampe 7 bola? Dan yang paling keren adalah waktu atraksi motor yang sampe 6 atau 7 motor masuk ke dalam lingkaran. Hiy serem…

Shopping in China

Belanja adalah salah satu bagian yang paling saya tunggu-tunggu. Maklum lah cewek *alesan*

Jika ingin belanja keperluan rumah tangga, di deket mesjid NiuJie ada Muslim Super Market which is the only one in Beijing.

Kalau mau cuci mata atau belanja barang branded bisa ke shopping ke the famous Wang Fu Jing Shopping Street (kayak Orchard Road di Singapore kali ya). Deket situ juga ada food market-nya yang rame banget in the night.

Last but not least: the real China shopping experience in Xiu Shui Market! For me, belanja di Xiu Shui market adalah tantangan! It’s a battlefield. Saya sempat bertemu my twitter & fellow writer @noniwibisono  & suami di Beijing. Noni kasih tips saat belanja di Xiu Shui market. Katanya, minimal kita harus tawar 1/4 dari harga awal. Bushet.

Maka dengan semangat untuk menang dan berbekal mata uang Yuan, saya dan Elly pun terjun ke medan pertempuran. Target pertama saya adalah beli coat. Keep in mind that I’m not a good bargainer. In Indonesia, I keep losing. But here, I intend to win!

Jadi, setelah saya berkali-kali belanja bermacam hal di Xiu Shiu market, saya menemukan pattern-nya. Begini lah kira-kira pattern saat saya belanja Coat yang bisa diaplikasikan untuk belanja lainnya:

• Jika kamu menemukan barang yang kamu suka, pastikan it’s fit (kalo coat atau baju ya coba dulu) dan pastikan kamu benar-benar ingin membelinya. Pedagang di Xiu Shiu nggak nggak akan melepaskan kamu begitu kamu sudah memegang barang dagangan mereka. Literally!
• Begitu coat yang saya suka ternyata fit, mereka membuka harga: 2198 Yuan atau 200 US$ atau Rp 2.000.000 . Gila kali -_- Saya tawar: 20 US$ atau Rp 200.000 atau tawar 10% dari harga awal yang ditawarkan. Semua proses tawar menawar dilakukan dengan kalkulator.
• And the battle begin. Mbak-mbak seller akan merepet in English. “Lady… you want to kill me?” jawab aja sambil senyum, “Yes!” hehe.
• Dia akan push kita untuk naikin penawaran, but STICK to your price. Dan dia akan mengomel panjang pendek. Biarkan saja. Ini permainan mental.
• Jika sudah terlalu lama, berjalanlah menjauh. Most likely dia akan menahan anda dengan tubuhnya atau menarik tangan Anda. Dalam kasus saya, tangan saya ditarik sampe harus minta tolong Elly untuk tarik saya keluar dari toko haha. But, STICK to your price still.
• Dia akan terus mengomel dan bilang kalau barangnya bagus begini dan begitu. STICK to your price still sambil berjalan menjauh.
• Jalan 4 langkah, dia memanggil dan bilang kalau final price dari dia itu Rp  300.000 alias tetap lebih tinggi dari penawaran kita. STICK to your price and ignore.
• Dia akan bilang, “OKAY!” dan kembali lah ke tokonya. Dia akan change her mind, “Rp 250.000 deh!” and if she said that, walked away aja lagi.
• Begitu seterusnya sampe kalau udah nggak sabar, bilang yang tegas, yang intinya mau gue bayar nggak nih??
• Most likely you’ll get the price that you want. I got that coat with my asking price: 200 yuan

I win 95% of the time. I only lost 1 time when I bought gantungan kunci. Saya ngalah dan ngasi pedagangnya 5 Yuan more than I bargain :p

Semua barang di sini murah-murah sekali. Selain coat ada tas, dompet, jewelry, elektronik stuff, and many more.

Pengalaman belanja yang penuh adrenalin ini ternyata sangat addictive, sampai-sampai saya dan Elly adalah orang terakhir yang kembali ke bis setelah 45 minutes late dari jadwal. Kami bahkan harus dipanggil pake pengeras suara LOL *malu2in*

Padahal belum sepet beli iPhone China yang harganya Rp 200.000 hihi

Oh ya, I make a video about the art of bargaining in Xiu Shiu market Check it out!

About the toilet, it’s completely fine! Selama di Beijing nggak ada yang aneh-aneh. Hanya ada sekali waktu di airport di Xiamen waktu mau pulang, itu juga udah ada social alert-nya kok dari orang-orang yang memperingatkan agar kita nggak masuk ke bilik yang ‘bermasalah’ Don’t worry ;)

So… it was unforgettable trip, and I’m glad that my first visit in China ditemani sama ICT (with the beautiful owners @mdevhi  and @NengTria and lots of new happy friends). Benar-benar tenang, worry free, makanan halal, waktu sholat terjaga, dan melihat betapa luasnya kota Beijing dan betapa susahnya orang sini ngomong Inggris, saya nggak kebayang deh kalo kesini sendirian >.<;

The budget for traveling to China is relatively affordable, compared with the rich experience, and you could contact Indo Citra Tamasya directly or follow their twitter @IndoTamasya or find Indo Citra Tamasya on Facebook for more info ;)

Click here for more photos of my Beijing Trip

If you have more tips about traveling in China, please share ya!

Jadi perjalanan ke Pulau Komodo kemarin adalah salah satu upaya BudPar untuk menggalakkan campaign vote Komodo National Park as the New 7 Wonder of Nature pada website New7Wonders.com campaign ini juga ada di mana-mana termasuk di kursi pesawat yang membawa kami ke Labuan Bajo

My travel buddy, Mita, from IDBlogNetwork membawa 2 tas. Satu tas kecil warna cokelat kehijauan dan satu tas ransel besar warna hitam. Tebak yang mana tas untuk baju-baju-nya selama 4 hari? YAK… salah…! Bajunya ditaruh di tas kecil dan yang ada di tas ransel besar-nya itu adalah 2 kamera DSLR serta beberapa lensa dan kit lainnya -_-; I think I’m the only one who’s always overpacked my clothes

Dilihat dari pesawat, buanyak banget Lagoon di sekitar Labuan Bajo *terharu*

Ada Britney Spears & Princess di Melo Village, desa kecil di Labuan Bajo

Having great time taking pictures of Melo Village kids

Saya sangat suka fotografi, tapi most of the time, kedodolan menggerogoti :p

Setelah menggunakan kamera 1,5 hari, saya baru menyadari ada setting-an yang salah sehingga warna foto-nya nggak keluar Untunglah dengan bantuan Mita, saya bisa menyadari dan memperbaiki kesalahan ini *utak-atik-white-balance* And then… foto pertama yang saya ambil, foto stick pawang Komodo. Kemudian pertanyaan dodol kembali saya lontarkan kepada salah satu teman, “Bikin stick kayak gitu gimana caranya ya?” Dijawab dengan bete, “Di-lem pake selotip!” -_-; Padahal #seriusnanya

Pak Agung adalah salah satu my travel buddy yang socially smart. Saya menganalisa cara-nya mendekati, mengajak ngobrol, hingga akrab  dengan seseorang dalam tempo yang sesingkat-singkatnya (termasuk dengan saya). Pintar sekali! Musti berguru lebih lanjut nih

Pas Komodo-nya muncul, kita langsung melakukan segala cara untuk mendapatkan foto dengan angle terbaik. Ya termasuk rebahan, guling-gulingan di pasir :P

By the way… Yoris keren banget ya, kayak di Baywatch

Meet @ardiyako  Diko. He’s a very passionate young man with vision! Everytime we talk, he always make sure that it’s a useful conversation. Very kind, very positive and very narcisstic as well hehehe. I must learn on how he managed to speak and growing a subject very well, on a topic with a very little information.

Nelly is a very very cheerful person. She could light up a room, even burn it, make it on fire! Missed ya!

And the sunset in Komodo National Park is no joke! On the left side of the yacht, there are mix colors of twilight…

…and on the right side, it’s all PINK!

And as you know… selama perjalanan di Pulau Komodo, we use a fancy yacht: Merry Makin’

And free flow of delicious food & orange juice are coming from the kitchen inside the yact…

And I thought it was okay to always eat and eat everything inside the yacht… just because it’s THERE and we had a hard journey hiking up and down the hills #alesan

And nothing could prepare me from the fact that I gain 4 kgs within my Komodo Trip… and the worst was… that fact was available for everybody in the airport to see -_-; Yak… di bandara Komodo, badan kita ditimbang satu per satu sodara-sodara…

So right now… a week from #KomodoTrip… I’m still struggling to lose weight with my LangsingMulus breakfast plan… and plan to hit the gym soon… or maybe just login to my SixReps account, hoping it’ll help :p

I wrote about Komodo National Park once, in a complete article for entering Bubu Awards 2009. And I won! I never been to Komodo National Park before. I wrote the blog post through research on the internet (you can learn more how I do that in my ebook Inspirasi.net :p). I never imagine that a year later, I get to experience Komodo National Park myself! Of course I had a plan to go there, but not this fast Thanks to ID Blog Network & Ministry of Culture and Tourism that has invited me

First of all, you must know where Komodo National Park is located in Indonesia Map That’s basic. So, here’s Indonesia Map, and Komodo is located in eastern part of Indonesia, around Timor & Flores.

Map from tourism-and-travel-at.blogspot.com

To go there from Jakarta, we must first go to Denpasar, Bali, and then jumping to next plane to Labuan Bajo. At first I was afraid because they say the plane is small. Aviastar is not that big, but I think it’s one of the best plane to go to Labuan Bajo. It’s also steady. The journey is smooth. I just got a little nervous when the stewardess ask us to pray to God before take off. Not that it’s wrong, it’s just… no stewardess has been suggesting it in other flight before -_-;

Anyway… after 1 hour 45 minutes journey from Jakarta to Bali and approximately 1 hour journey from Bali to Labuan Bajo, we finally arrived at the exotic city. The airport is small, only four walls, with a lot of Komodo pictures hanging in each of the wall. Our group gathered and walking towards our bus that has been waiting. Welcome to Labuan Bajo!

The first impression of Labuan Bajo was its green landscape. It’s very similar to Java island. When I think about eastern part of Indonesia, I always have this dry and yellowish image of dry grass of savannah. But what I saw is nothing like it. Great news! Rain really helps Labuan Bajo farmers.

Culture

We stop by at Melo village to watch traditional dance performance by the locals. The first dance was Caci Dance. The dance is basically about friendship and war. The performers would whipping each other and then doing some funny talk & walk. So it’s basically combination of strength and sense of humor :p I really enjoy it. Very entertaining.

The other dance was Angkuk Alu. They said it’s a dance to find soulmate! When I twit about it, one of my friend asked me to dance on behalf of him -_-; I guess that’s not how it works. Angkuk Alu was usually performed at night, as a gathering connector for men & women. And that’s where they usually meet their soulmate. Watch Angkuk Alu dance in this video.

We sealed the day by checking-in at Bintang Flores hotel. It’s a 4 stars hotel in Labuan Bajo. Very nice one. Helps me get a high quality sleep before the journey to the dragon’s island.

Komodo

Of course. All of us are curious of how Komodo looked like. We heard stories about them. How prehistoric they are. How unique and one of a kind (you can only find their habitat in Indonesia). How they can also be deadly. And now we can’t wait to meet them.

At 4 in the morning, we gathered at Labuan Bajo harbor to get on a fancy yacht, Merry Makin’.

We planned to go to 2 islands where Komodo live. They’re Komodo island & Rinca island. The journey from the harbor to Komodo island took around 2 hours. I take a nap after breakfast (and many more napping, I don’t know, I get sleepy so fast :p), but after refreshed, managed to look outside to enjoy the breathtaking view. We cruise through the beautiful hills around the islands. So… beautiful…! I imagine myself sitting on the yacht and writing my next romance novel, and stay that way for couple of weeks. *daydream*

Entering Loh Liang, Komodo island is like entering a mystery castle :P Mysterious yet intriguing. I prepared my camera. This going to be an awesome photo hunting.

We walk along the beach line ’til we saw the ‘Komodo National Park’ sign and start happily took pictures of each other :P Mita, my travel buddy, ask me to pose like a Komodo. And this is the best that I can do *un-creative* -_-; By the way, the way I dress is recommended for Komodo trip. Everything must be covered (to prevent mosquito’s bite)! And don’t forget to use sunblock.

Komodo rangers welcome and guide us to track inside the forest. They use branched stick as weapon to control Komodo dragon. Before entering the pond, where Komodo usually wait for their prey, our ranger ask us to keep silent, because Komodo attracted to noise and easily distracted with fast moving thing (aside from his natural attraction: smell of blood & bad smell). So, if you want them to go after you, just talk loudly and swing your bag back and forth (not recommended though :p)

And finally, the moment of truth! We met our first Komodo! He looked calm while we took pictures of him.

The scariest Komodo was our second Komodo that we saw near the beach. He basically ran, and everybody start tumbling because they’re not expecting how fast Komodo can ran after them (Rangers said Komodo could run up until 18 km per hour). While Komodo chasing my friends, I’m watching from afar in Ora Cafe chatting with Mr. Nobel from Ministry of Culture & Tourism haha :P (By the way, Ora is the local name for Komodo. They’re actually getting along well with the locals).

We saw more Komodos at Loh Buaya, Rinca island. Maybe because the island is smaller, so the Komodo tend to gathers in one place. Here, Komodo blend real well with the nature. We can’t see them coming! Everybody keep alert on the whole journey, but we trust our rangers and feel safe.

I came with many hardcore photographers (this is indeed a heaven for photographers). And they bring a loooot of lenses & tools. Don’t worry, if you’re like them, you can hire a porter. I even hire one of them to carry my urban fashionable bag *purely-out-of-my-uncured-laziness* :p

The Hills

Both in Komodo & Rinca island, we took the medium track. Yet, I still feel very exhausted. Maybe because it’s almost 90 degree uphill and the sun was burning hot -_-; But all of it was paid off after we reach the hill top. It’s amazingly beautiful. Jurrassic Park is how I’m going to describe ‘em. Here are some of the best photos I took from the hills.

Diko, my travel buddy, help to report how it looks from Sulphurea hill, Komodo island.

Pink Beach

From the plane, I saw so many beautiful lagoons around Labuan Bajo. And one of the most beautiful beach I’ve been wanting to visit is in Komodo Island. It called: Pink Beach or Pantai Merah. I’m so ready to jump off the boat when I see the amazing layers of blue sea. And the extraordinary pink sand completes the perfect beach

I ask Yoris, Merry Makin’ crew, what makes the sand red. He said it’s the dead particles of red corals that create the red color.

My friends happily spend time snorkeling, watching the best & largest ‘aquarium’ they’ve ever seen in their whole life. Yoris said the biodiversity can be compared to Raja Ampat’s. Wow!

Diko tried to drag me to snorkle several times. But too bad I didn’ t bring extra clothes -_-; *lame-excuse-I-know*

Sunset

After a tired but fun journey, we’re chilling outside the yacht.

Watching the magical sunset and the bats that coming out to ‘work’ from Kalong island…

Not far from us, there are 6 dolphins happily jump in and out the blue ocean…

…I really think, this is HEAVEN!

Vote Komodo National Park

So, I’ve heard from Mr. Nobel, Mrs. Esti, Ratna & Butet from Ministry of Culture & Tourism, the visitor to Komodo National Park has significantly increased since the start of New 7 Wonders voting. It helps build good reputation for Indonesia in global world, grow the local economy and motivate the local government to improve infrastructures to support tourism.

Now, Komodo National Park is one of the 28 finalists (out of 440 destinations) to compete for the final 7. If, after reading my story and seeing the pictures, you’re agree that Komodo National Park got what it takes to be the New 7 Wonders, make sure to VOTE Komodo National Park as the New 7 Wonders of nature!

Check here to see how to vote

Click here to see more beautiful photos of Komodo National Park