NYC: Thanksgiving 2011

Day 1

Happy Thanksgiving November 24, 2011 and New York New York song stopped by into my ears as Pat, Stefi, X and I spend our Thanksgiving holiday in NYC. Why NYC? Well, it’s the most accessible, cheapest and nearest destination from Boston. We depart from South Station on the afternoon and arrived in NYC at night. It seems that Thanksgiving holiday for American looks like Eid al-Fitr holiday for Indonesian when most people go back to his/her hometown. The bus station is crowded. We stay at our acquaintance in Queens.

My first impression of NYC: feels like as if I were in Jakarta…in a better version of course.




Day 2

On the next day, we go to Macy’s Parade. I don’t really like the idea of spending my holiday in a crowded place in a big city like this. But, hey I’m in US. I can’t expect to hang out in crowded place which has an atmosphere like when I sat in the middle of the crowdedness in Kathmandu. Hence, I am more excited on seeing the audience than the parade itself.




The street is packed of people for sure. I wonder seeing the people. I bet they’re not Americans. I mean the normal American would be at home preparing Thanksgiving dinner right? I just assume that they are tourists or Americans who want to show the parade to their children and have someone else prepare the Thanksgiving dinner. Well, my roommate said that her parents took her to Macy’s Parade when she was a little kid. But, as she had grown up, she avoids the parade. Here some information from Wikipedia: “The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, often shortened to Macy’s Day Parade, is an annual parade presented by Macy’s started in 1924”.

Besides the audience itself, we can see the parade!!! Yay!! These are some characteristics that mean a lot to me (yeah right): Elmo, Kung Fu Panda, Spiderman, and Smurf.











Since the police clear up some part of the streets from the cars for the parade, we could take a walk in the middle of NYC street. When else can we do that? There’s a family who are not only walking in the middle of the street, but also singing. It’s great! One of them said: This is my holiday. I can do this :) Happy Thanksgiving mam!




I have to continue this writing tomorrow. It's 2.24 am. Haven't sleepy yet, but must wake up in the morning...

12 hour in NY: Aug'11

An email to Erica....

"I arrived in New York on Sunday noon. The immigration officer there was very nice. He knew that I had to continue my flight to Boston on the afternoon, so he reminded me to pick up my luggage first and explained how to get to domestic terminal. This is my first time to US and I always thought (and most of my friends as well) that US immigration is quite 'mean' to Indonesian passport holders hehhehehehe. But that thought had changed since I found so far that all the officers at the airport are helpful as long as you're cooperative of course :)

After I checked in my luggage for a flight to Boston with AA, I had a lunch. Later, I found out that AA canceled all flights to Boston that afternoon. The AA customer service suggested me to reschedule the flight to tomorrow. I gave her my blank look and said: "This is my first time in US and I had no plan to stay in NY. I only have my friend in Boston who is going to pick me up in Boston". And she's surprise..then she rescheduled my flight to another flight but from LaGuardia airport.

I took a bus to LaGuardia ..and voila..it's LaGuardia. It turned out that all flights to Boston by AA were canceled due to the weather (I already called my friend who lives in Manhattan in case I need a place to stay the night in NY). The AA customer service was very panicked to see the Boston flight schedule. I said to her: inhale...exhale...take a deep breadth..relax mam :) huahahhaha I'm the one who's supposed to be panic that time.

I was kinda upset at first. But who can blame the weather? After all, I was too tired to get upset in a long time :) She became more relax then (a lot of people still in the line wanted to ask about their canceled flights). She changed my flight to US Airways and told me the direction to go to US Airways departure lounge. It's on the other side of the airport. She spoke veryyy fast and I just said: what??? She repeated it. The point is: downstairs, take a bus, terminal B. And I asked again: which way is the downstairs? huahahhaha she's out from her counter and pointed me the way. Don't worry, she's still smiling. Maybe she thought: crazy Asian!

I ran..it's 17.00 and the flight was 18.00. Well..finally I was in US Airways to Boston at 22.10 :) the weatherrrrrr!!!! When the pilot said: passengers...be prepare for the turbulence ahead....I successfully fell asleep :)

I met a lot of interesting people along the way.

- There's a British thought me coming from Tunisia..when I said I am from Indonesia. Jeezzz...Indonesia not Tunisia (I already mentioned Bali and near Singapore).

- While I was waiting for the flight, there were two women entrusted me with their bags when they're going to toilet or buying food. I was surprised Erica...there's no way in Indonesia someone will entrust their bags to a stranger (or I looked like someone who opens a daycare bag? hehehhe)

Along the way from JFK to LaGuardia...I see it just like Jakarta...severe traffic jam. I haven't visited other parts of NY. Here, there's a lot you have to do by yourself: self check in at the domestic terminal, put your food trash by yourself, swipe your debit/credit card by yourself, etc.

The heat Erica....it's hot here. Ok without the humidity..but it's hot. It's kinda ridiculous when someone from tropical country complained about the heat huehhehehehe I realized that most of my time in Jakarta is spent in air-conditioned room. But the parks in Boston are beautiful. It'll be very cold here in winter.

I thought that's the story for now. I have to go the laundry...(another thing you have to do by yourself) :) It's great."

Hence, no Indonesia's travel stories until next year...

Tanjung Ringgit in Lombok: Jul'11

Day 4

Story later on :)

Mount Rinjani in Lombok: Jul'11

Day 2

It's time to go for hiking. Ang registered us at the national park office before we went to hike Mount Rinjani by paying some paltry of Rupiahs as the registration fee. There were 9 of us, 5 porters, and Ang & Fifi as our guides. Some of us should unpacked and left our belongings in Sembalun. For example, Yadhi must left his snorkeling gears in the village. It must be hilarious to see the porters' looks when they found out someone packed snorkeling gears to hike a mountain. Yadhi was going to use it at Segara Anak Lake on Mount Rinjani, while the other visitors usually go fishing there. He's actually going to snorkel in Sumbawa, his next destination after Lombok.

There are four base camps on the way to the summit. The last base camp, known as Plawangan Sembalun located at 2600-something meter above the sea level, is the place where most hikers build the tent. The track to the first base is still mild. It's a hilly savanna where you can see the shadow of the clouds on the ground. We called it Teletubbies hills. It is based on a TV-show for babies that has three or four characters who like to play on a hill hugging, dancing, and singing. We could still do singing on the hill. But unlike the characters in Teletubbies, it's quite difficult for us to do hugging and dancing along the way. It's a hill with increasing slopes. There are series of hills in front of us, meanwhile cities of Lombok are on our back.

After the hills, we went through a small not too-dense forest. On the way to the forest, we met some locals carrying some chunck of woods for cooking.

Then, we're heading to the first base camp. It is still located around the hilly savanna. Nevertheless, it doesn't look like a base camp. I imagined a base camp is a place where you can find some food stalls :) I arrived there with Lucky, Herry, Ferry and Fifi. While waiting for the other, we watched a bird do a hunt. The bird was flying in one point on the air while closely looked its prey on the ground. I didn't see its next step when the bird took the prey as I was busy looking for my prey as well inside my backpack: some chocolate bars. When Berti, Ahau, Rudy, Yadhi and Ang arrived, we continued our journey to the second base camp where we'll have our lunch.

The porters had arrived at second base camp before us to prepare the lunch. There were around four other groups having lunch on the base camp which actually is a bridge. Rudy, Yadhi, Ahau, Berti and Lucky took a nap on the bridge while waiting for the lunch prepared.

Meanwhile, I watched our surrounding. Some groups were consist of foreigners eating Indonesian food as their lunch. I also watched Ang making some spoons from a mineral water bottle and chopsticks from a tree branches with his knife. Huahahhaaha they forgot to bring spoons and forks. It was a unique experince eating a bowl of noodle and rice with chopsticks made of tree branches. It's so environmentally friendly (we didn't cut the tree). Most people here ate quitely. I didn't know whether it was because they became too focus on the food (hungry effect) or they wanted to save their energy.

I still could keep my pace with my friends from the second base to the third base. The third base seems as a river with its huge rocks abandoned by its water. However, I had difficulties to hike at the same rhyme with my friends on the way to Plawangan Sembalun from the third base. I didn't feel in a good condition. Still, the journey along this track was enjoyable due to its soothing view. There are a lot of pine trees and edelweiss flower blanket with the white fog. There's a time when I could see a tree standing gracefully on my right side down there apart from itspeers. But as I took a look again, the of the tree had dissapeared as the fog hide it. I felt some drops of water on my head. Is it raining? Nopee...it was due to the fog among the trees. Whether the white substance flying above me is the fog or the cloud? Whatever its is, the overall environment had appeased me in the middle of my fainting breadth, singing stomach, and drumming heart. My stomach was singing due to the instant noodles I had at lunch. I forgot to tell our guides about my sensitive stomach over instant noodle. Thankfully, my mind was still able to sing rejoicing the great scenery around me.

I felt relieve when I can approach Berti, Ahau, Yadhi, and Rudy. However then I turned to be anxious when they continued their walk as I approached them !@#!$ That's the advantage of being in front of the others. You could take a quite long break without any guilty feeling while waiting for your friend with slower pace.

I could see my friends already taking pictures on Plawangan Sembalun. It was only a few steps away from the place I stood. Nevertheless, I had difficulties catching up with them in a flash since I stopped approximately every 5 steps. Finally, I joined my friends at Plawangan Sembalun. It was a magnificent view when you were above the white cloud covering the abyss and Segara Anak Lake. Ok, you could see this can of view from an airplane. But, it's totally a different case when you had to walk to be able to see the view. The undercover summit of Mount Rinjani is on the other side. Undercover?? I'll explain it later on.

The sun was about to leave from our sight. There's no way Rudy and Yadhi would miss the view out of their camera lenses. I knew I'll take longer time compared to them. Hence, I started walking earlier leaving the sunset view. The night was very magnetic with all the stars seemed gathering on the scene. The tent should be made from transparent cover so I could still see the stars.

The summit attack started at 2am and it is estimated to be a 4-hour hike. I had decided not to join the summit attack. My other friends did. So, they would go back down to the base camp around 8 am, then we're going down to Segara Anak Lake. I continued my sleep after seeing my friends leaving to the summit. The lights from the headlamps and the flashlights formed some lines moving on the mountain side. It's tempting to join those lights hiking to the summit. Nahhh..back to the sleeping bag.

I awake at 6am...folding three sleeping bags: mine, Berti and Ahau. After having a breakfast, I just sat on the rock watching Segara Anak Lake from above while waiting for my friends descend from the summit.gather at the scene. The wind also excellent...too excellent that compel me to go inside the tent.

Some people at other tents were preparing breakfast for their friends who went to the summit. I did small talks with some porters and watched people preparing the breakfast while sipping my coffee. It was not only me following the cooking process, but also the monkey from the nearby forest came over. The wind at that time was still tolerable and the sun shone warmly. It was a joyable serene moment at Plawangan Sembalum. Well, not until one of the porters played some songs from his mobile phone loudly. Arghhhhh!!! On the second thought, unlike me, he's used to the serene. It's not a precious thing for him. Fortunately, he didn't play the songs in a long time :)

At 8am, some hikers already arrived at the base camp. Most of them arrived on time were foreigners. Having longer legs make them faster? It is also supported by having more guts to descent the mountain by running. They seemed tired but contempt. Heyy...where were my friends as the time had passed by just like that?

At noon, the cloud covered the lake and the abyss that you can't see nothing beneath it. My friends arrived at noon and too tired to continue our journey to Segara Anak Lake. Hence, after having a break for a while, we went down to the foot mountain. The view is still magnificent. On the way down, we met some other hikers going up. They are from Germany, Australia, Denmark, and else. With the 'else'...I didn't have much energy to do small talk :) We arrived at Teletubbies hills at night. I could feel my sore feet especially when we stopped. Ahau's feet even trembling whenever she stopped walking. However, walking through the savanna with the moon hiding behind the hill was a great one.

We arrived back at Sembalun around midnite. It was nice to see a permanent bathroom again :)

Pantai Seger & Tanjung An in Lombok: Jul' 2011

I’ve always wanted to go to Mount Rinjani with its Segara Anak Lake since several years ago. But, it’s a real mountain with the height of 2,736 above the sea level that you can only reach by hiking (some people can go there by helicopter, but it’ll be very expensive). I never hike a mountain with that kind of track. Fortunately, some of my friends were going to hike Mount Rinjani: Berti, Ahau, Yadhi, Lucky, Yana, Ferry and Herry with Mo, Ang, and Fifi from www.rinjanimagazine.com as our guide during the trip.

Day 1

Indi picked us up at Selaparang Airport to have a breakfast in a restaurant and a lunch at her house in Praya before going to the beach. Yes, it’s a hiking trip to Mount Rinjani with the beaches as the side trip. We went to Seger Beach and Tanjung An. I’ve been to this area before, but only visited Kuta Beach. Unlike the beach in Gili Trawangan, the beaches on the south part of Lombok seem deserted. Not many people here as it is quite secluded. Still, there are still some aggressive hawkers in the area. The hawkers in Kuta beach are worst compared to Seger Beach and Tanjung An. Luckily, there were only a child trying to sell a coconut to me at Seger Beach and there was none approaching me at Tanjung An.

Pantai Seger (Seger Beach)

Pantai Seger (Seger Beach)

It’s a perfect beach to do sunbath, as a place to read all of your unread books, to watch the clear blue sky and ocean, and to be photographed. For us, it is a great beach to be photographed especially with the fishermen took advantage of the low tide on the beach. Rudy, Yana and me explored the reef abandoned by the sea water that noon at Seger Beach. We found what it seems as crabs, sea urchins, and some parts of small octopus. It’s all still alive and moving, hence we also busy avoiding them. While we were exploring the reef, the others are on the hill taking funny pictures of them and taking shelter.

Pantai Seger (Seger Beach)

Pantai Seger (Seger Beach)

Tanjung An

Tanjung An

Tanjung An

As the night approached, we went back to Indi’s house in Praya. We used two cars to go to Sembalun village at the foot of Mount Rinjani. It’s almost midnight when we arrived in the village. But before we arrived there, the driver pulled over the car on a hill. At day time, the village can be seen from the hill. At night, we can see the sky filled with stars. It’s beautiful, but the driver forgot telling us to wear our jacket. It’s very cold. I rushed back to get inside the car.

We stayed the night at one of the locals’ house in Sembalun village. Everything is cold here: the water, the floor, the wall…except inside my red sleeping bag. Our host provided us with a glass of hot tea and a bowl of noodle before we went to bed.