Saturday, May 29, 2010

Quite City, Busy Activity

As the main city in Western Australian, Perth become the heart of every activity. Far from the expectation of a big city supposed to be, Perth is a nice and quite city to visit, even to live in. A beautiful city to getaway from bustling world and heaven for people who love architectural photography. The city, every suburb, and every beaches near this city gives different feeling to experience for.

CBD
You will feel different experience when you step out your feet in this area. It is a mizture of modern and old-fashioned architecture. You can believe they stand side by side without having an odd feeling when you saw it. If you want to enjoy the rest of the city, go to King's park and adore the city from height.

 Perth CBD from King's park

Northbridge
Asia suburb of Perth. Anything coming from Asia you can easily find in this place or just called it Chinatown. It is a nice place to have lunch with many restaurants to choose from and a great place to enjoy the nightlife. Again, with the modern and old-fashioned mixtured.

 Modern art piece on Perth's Chinatown

Fremantle
City by the sea, the best sentence to describe Fremantle. You must go here because of the heritage trail you can join to shopping in the famous Fremantle market (but it's only open on the weekend) or enjoy the street art performance along the way. Don't forget to taste Australian authentic fish and chips along the Fremantle harbour.

Fremantle market on the weekend

Friday, May 28, 2010

Back To Nature

Pangandaran is another famous beach in Indonesia. Located on the south shore of West Java, Pangandaran gives you variety of place to visit. After being hitted by tsunami in 2007, Pangandaran now are completely rebuild and reconstruct to be able attract more visitors. Travel attraction that you can find are mostly beaches but there are another natural resources must to visit around this area. Conservation park, caves, authentic river, and any other interesting place you can't find anywhere. You can look for a local tour guide in the tourist information and them guide you. Eventhough it cost some money but it is worth it with the experience you can get.

Citumang
From Pangandaran, you need to drive up to 10 km to this site and walk for 30 minutes from the parking lot across the forest. Although it's a little bit far, but you sacrifices is worth when you arrive at this sit. Even on the way to this place, you can find a breathtaking scenery of a dam and emerald colored river. Arrived on the site, you can find a beautiful waterfalls, a small Niagara hidden in Java forest. You can also swim in this river and explore the cave.

 Swim through the unexplored cave

Cukang Taneuh 
When America has Grand Canyon as their popular place to visit, Indonesia has Cukang Taneuh or well-known as Green Canyon, a row of green cliff along the river. 20 km to the west of Pangandaran, you can go o this site by rent a boat and enjoy the river cruise. In this site you can find a beautiful stalagmite and just enjoy the breathtaking scenery. You need to experience this place and try to describe its beauty.

Breathtaking scenery of Cukang Taneuh (Green Canyon)
Retrieved from : http://farm1.static.flickr.com/74/223320047_db42c2191b.jpg

Batu Karas
Batu Karas beach located at the end of Pangandaran road. Smaller beach compare to Pangandaran beach, local people say this place attract more foreign tourist compare to local Indonesian. Maybe because this beach offers a good wave to enjoy surfing and different environment you can get. Moreover, Mount Slamet as the background adds the beauty of this beach.

Nearly sunset on Batu Karas beach

Friday, May 21, 2010

What can you find here other than shopping centre

Singapore is famous Asia's destination to shopping. You can find anything you want in this country, originally Asian or premium international brand. But is not traveling, right?

Actually, you can find many interesting place to visit and enrich your knowledge. Singapore landmark and any places other than Orchard Road (famous street for shopping). Go to every suburb you can find here and experience different activity in every place. Culture, culinary, shopping, architecture, and anything you can choose! And you can do it in 3 days! You can go by bus or take the convenient MRT (Train) that bring you around the country. 


Singapore CBD
You can find Merlion statue (symbol of Singapore), Esplanade (famous architecture landmark), or just see the heart of Singapore. In walking distance, you will find all these famous places without wasting your time. 




CBD as background
Arab Street
This is the central of Muslim society. You can find the biggest mosque in Singapore, Masjid Sultan, with typical Islam architecture. You can also find ethnic store along this street sell traditional Malay clothes and taste delicious halal Malay food.


 Masjid Sultan, Arab Street
Singapore River
At night, this is center of Singapore entertainment district, Clarke Quay. But in the afternoon you can enjoy the river cruise along this river. And stop at the Raffles statue, founder of Singapore. Don't forget to take picture and next, taste the delicious Singapore Chili Crab!


 British architecture along Singapore River

Thursday, May 20, 2010

TravelPod

http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/karina.mitya/1/1261743597/tpod.html

Too Many Beaches To Visit

This is one of the strength of Indonesia as an island country. They have a lot of beautiful beaches started from the famous one to the untouchable by human. Like in this specific place, Ujung Genteng, West Java. Located near Pelabuhan Ratu, one of the famous tourist destinations, Ujung Genteng gives you a lot beautiful beaches to choose from. You can also visit penangkaran penyu and help them preserve turtle.
One day is not enough to enjoy these beautiful places. Eventhought you need transportation to go to those beaches, but it’s so worth it to experience this place. It’s summer all year around in Indonesia. You can enjoy it anytime you want, but I prefer to go there out of school holiday month. It will be too crowded. 

Amanda Ratu Resort
This is the view from my hotel. What a lovely place, right?

They called it "Ujung Genteng Tanah Lot"

Fish Market
Ruin Dutch fort. You can also go to fish market and buy some to have barbeque at night! Seafood time!

 The ruin fort just make this beach more beautiful

Pangumbahan Beach
Go in the evening to see the sunset here. You can also do some activity like releasing baby turtle to the see (the keeper say only some of them will stay alive). Fight turtle!

Pangumbahan Sunset - You shouldn't miss the sunset here!

Ujung Genteng Conservation Park
There are not many people here during my visit. And it was so nice! Like this is your own private beach in your backyard. People can do camping and barbequing here. With white sand, it was a perfect getaway from the city. Just enjoying the sun and the sand.

 My own private beach - Conservation Park

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Korea in Winter

Do you enjoy cultural traveling? This is country you must go to. As monarchy country, you can experience the beautiful palaca located in the city (near President’s house–Blue House, which is prohibited to take picture around it or you want to get caught by the police). You can also enjoy different feeling of an Asian city that well develop and can compete with all major city in the world (eventhought Korean culture are not open to other culture).

Changdeokgung Palace (:chang-dek-gung, hard to pronounce)

Changdeokgung Palace in winter time

Well known as East Palace, Changdeokgung palace (Palace of Prospering virtue) is the one of five grand palace in South Korea. It was built by the king of Joseon Dynasty. In this palace you can enjoy the traditional architecture of Korea that full of detail and well crafted.
Luckily, it’s not snowing on the day I was there. It was fun to go around the palace with the sun still shining above you. But be careful to get lost, it is too big!


Seoraksan Mountain

Me on the top of Soraksan Mountain

Seoraksan Mountain located in Seoraksan National Park in Gangwan province in eastern South Korea. It is the highest mountain in the The Taebaek mountain range. To reach the peak of Mount Gwonggeumseong, the highest peak of Soraksan Mountain , you can take a cable car (it takes you 15 minutes to reach the top!) and enjoy the beautiful scenery of Seoraksan National Park. You can also visit a Buddist temple in this site with 17.5 m Buddha statue called Tongil-Daebul.
It is a best place to enjoy the sun during winter, when you go to the peak of Mount Gwonggeumseong, you can take off your winter jacket and enjoy the warm sun that you can’t find in Seoul in winter. So nice!


Naminara Island

Famous spot to take picture

Naminara (famous called as Nami Island) is located in Chunceon, South Korea. It is an artificial island in Han River. To get to this island you need to hop on a ferry that operates every 30 minutes. This island become famous because of the most famous korean tv drama, Winter Sonata, use it as a set location. Many people come here only to see the actual movie set, which is a very nice location with line up trees. Summer is the best time to enjoy this island. You can go on a picnic or rent a bike to go around this island.