Traveling

Traveling is my other passion. I’d love to see and explore new places, meet new people, and experience different culture…

Everytime I have a chance to take vacation, I always think of new places that I can visit. My dream is to visit as many as possible places in Indonesia, and share pictures and my side of the story about the place, about how beautiful Indonesia is. In my Multiply website, I share the story and pictures of places I got the chance to visit…

Belitung
Located on the east coast of Sumatra, Indonesia in the Java Sea, Belitung is an island with beautiful beaches, the unique landscape with its purely white sand, crystal clear seawater, and sunshine. This island is easily reached by an hour flight from Jakarta to Tanjung Pandan, the largest city in the island.

Belitung is also popular with its granite boulder white stones beach in Tanjung Tinggi, Tanjung Kelayang, Tanjung Binga dan Lengkuas Island, make this island as one of the best place with unique beaches in Indonesia. This beautiful nature is also accompanied by hundreds of small islands, which add the beautiful tourism area in Belitung Island…

Bromo
Bromo isn’t the highest mountain in Java but probably the most famous one. Bromo is in fact only one of many peaks inside the massive Tengger Caldera, but easily recognized as the entire top has been blown off and the crater inside constantly belches sulphurous smoke. The caldera is coated with fine volcanic sand and the overall effect is unsettlingly unearthly, local people named it Laut Pasir (Sand Sea).

Undoubtedly the most popular and well known tourist attractions in East Java province, Bromo can be reached by 2-hours land trip from Surabaya or Malang. Bromo offers you sunrise scenery from Penanjakan or Cemoro Lawang or even from the crater’s rim, trek or off-road trip across the mountain’s famous sand sea, the traditional local people events, and much more…

Ciwidey
Located at 45km south of Bandung, 2400m above sea level, Ciwidey offers crater and lake visits, tea plantation, hotspring, and strawberry farms as tourist objects.

The most popular spot is of course Kawah Putih, the crater of mount Patuha. The crater is all white, but the lake water is continuously changing its color from light green, blue, light brown and white, because of its sulphur concentration in the water. The crater is usually open in the morning until around 14.00 because the area is often thickly covered by fog in the afternoon…

Dieng
Most of people know Dieng plateau for its temples. It is the oldest Hindu temples in Java, built in around 7th and 8th centuries. These temples are where the name of the plateau itself comes from. The name “Dieng” itself comes from “Di Hyang” which means “Abode of the Gods” People believe that this is the site of first Hindu community in Java island, and they also believe that originally there were more temples in the area than what we can find today. Have no idea where the current temple’s name came from and since when, but people named them before the characters from the tale of “Ramayana”, which tale itself is also originated from India.

But Dieng, around 30km North of Wonosobo, is not only about temples. There are numbers of lakes and craters as well that you can visit. The beautiful scenery of the plateau is also worth to explore. Feel like trekking? You can also climb to the peak of mount Sindoro, or take the shorter trip like climbing mount Skunir and enjoy the sunrise with the view of mount Sumbing-Sindoro-Merbabu-Merapi…

Ijen
Mount Ijen, 2380 meter above the sea level, can be reached from two cities in East Java. The first route is from Bondowoso via Sempol village, and the second is from Banyuwangi via Licin village. Most of people said that the second route is the easiest one, and also the shortest one if we consider the distance of the basecamp from the nearest city. From Banyuwangi, we can also drive until around 3km from the peak before hiking to the peak of the mountain.

From Banyuwangi, the last two villages before Ijen are Licin and Taman Sari, 14km west of Banyuwangi. At this village, there is also ‘Ijen Resort and Villas’ that can accommodate tourists who want to explore Ijen and its surrounding areas. Unfortunately, not like at Wonokitri village nearby Bromo where we can easily find villagers houses for rent, it seems like it is not a common practice here at both Licin and Taman Sari village. So you will not easily find such places here…

Trekking, beautiful sceneries, stunning crater lake, the experience of interaction with local sulphur miners. All you can have by visiting this beautiful mount Ijen…

Jayapura 
Built on the slope of a hill overlooking the Yos Sudarso bay, Jayapura is the capital of Papua province. The contour of the hill makes Jayapura is very beautiful during the evening when the buildings start to turn on their lights. You would want to go up the hill and enjoy the view from there. The beaches are also beautiful. The sea shores facing the Pacific ocean, give you stunning scenery… 

Kenjeran
A beach located in eastern Surabaya, the capital of East Java province. In the morning, it is always interesting to observe the activities of the local fishermen when they prepare to start their day.

The sunrise view at the beach is also beautiful, inviting people and also photo-hobbyist to come early in the morning to enjoy and take the sunrise pictures…

Kintamani
Located in the heart of Bali, Kintamani is best reached from Ubud, which is about 1 1/2 hour climbing journey through the mountain range. You can also depart from Denpasar, but it will take you approx. 3 hours before you arrive at Penelokan, where a spectacular view of mount and lake Batur is waiting for you. Sunrise view from Penelokan is stunning. But there are people that also prefer to trek and climb mount Batur and enjoy the view from Batur peak…

Prambanan
Prambanan, located 20km east of Yogyakarta, was built in 9^th century. It is one of the largest Hindu temples in south-east Asia. It is characterized by its tall and pointed architecture, typical of Hindu temple architecture, and easily recognized from distance because of the towering central buildings inside the large temple complex.

The popular legend of Loro Jonggrang connects Prambanan with Ratu Boko site. The legend tells the story about Prince Bandung Bondowoso who fell in love with Princess Loro Jonggrang, the daughter of King Boko. But the princess tried to reject his proposal of marriage by posing one impossible condition: Bandung must build her a thousand temples in only one night. Helped by supernatural beings, he succeeded in building 999 temples. But when the prince was about to complete the task, the princess asked the villagers to begin pounding rice and set a fire in the east of the temple, tried to make it look like dawn was coming, that made the supernatural helpers fled. Bandung Bondowoso was furious with the trick and he cursed Loro Jonggrang to become the last of the thousand statues…

Ratu Boko
This archaeological site lies on a small plateau about 196 meter above the sea level. The remains cover the areas of two villages, Dawung and Sambirejo, belong to Yogyakarta Special Territory Province, about 3 km to the south of Prambanan Temples.

There are so many versions of Ratu Boko tale story out there. But unlike Borobudur and Prambanan, the story of Boko remains a mystery as there were not much ancient documents that explain about this beautiful site…

Sanur
No need to explain much about Sanur, Bali. I guess this place has been infamous for decades, or even more, so I don’t think I can explain enough about this place…

For people choosing Sanur over Kuta or Nusa Dua, nowadays most of them would be the elders and the families, the advantage is a less intense atmosphere than Kuta or Nusa Dua. It is quieter than Kuta, but of course there are still bars and restaurants opened in the evening for those who want to enjoy night life here…

In Sanur, the beach is divided into sections. Partly because of the shoreline is part of the area of the hotels built along the shoreline of Sanur. But there are also sections that are still open for public, such as at Sindhu, Semawang, Batujimbar and North Sanur…

 

To be continued…