I just want someone to love me back.
Correction, I want you to show me that you love me. I want you to care, to acknowledge, to understand my feelings, to show interest hat's happening to me. To know, what I've done, what I will do, what I want to do. Always want to hug me, kiss me, hold me when I'm down. Eager to spend time with me, date me, have a great time with me. Also, I want to be appreciated, to be heard, to be seen.
Isn't that what a couple should do? To care, to show that they care. To be by your side at all time. Have I done all of that to you? So why don't I deserve the same..?
Selasa, 22 Maret 2011
Rabu, 02 Juni 2010
a piece of my mind
Travelling is always fun. We can explore new things and we can also refresh our body and mind while we’re at it. But, sometimes we don’t have time to travel. Fortunately our mind can imagine the travelling by looking at pictures or reading about the destinations. This time, I’ll take you travel to Bali by reading this article.
Bali is the perfect destination to give you a relaxed time and set aside your daily routines. Weather you travel in luxury or budget travelling. Because now we don’t have any limits for cost, I’ll take you to a luxurious travel. We can reach Bali from Bandung with limited domestic airlines, Merpati Nusantara Airlines (MNA) or Air Asia. Air Asia is a budget airline, so I guess we’ll choose MNA. MNA Bandung-Bali will depart at 6 a.m. and will have a transit at Surabaya for half an hour. The business class will provide us a nice couch, hot breakfast and selected drinks. It will take 2 hours to get to Ngurah Rai International Airport, Denpasar. So, we will arrive at 8.30 a.m. Bandung time, or 9.30 a.m. Bali time (because of the time difference).
At the airport we will be greeted by a strong scent that I called Balinese scent. It’s an incense scent that Balinese people turn on every day. The scent immerge energy of vacation. Inhale deeply, and feel your body lightened. Can you feel it? And it’s only just the first minute.
Next we can find a taxi to take us to the hotel. We can find exclusive hotels either in Nusa Dua area or Seminyak. I like Seminyak better. It feels friendlier there. Most of the hotel in Seminyak have private beach. And when there’s a private beach, the hotel’s rate must be 4 stars and above. So there will be a great room, great swimming pool, great garden, great spa, and great restaurant.
The best way to spend the first day is exploring the hotel area. Have some rest in the room until lunch time (we need the rest, after an early flight), have some lunch at the hotel or some walking-distance restaurant from the hotel and continue to go around the hotel. Don’t forget to put on your bathing suit, because we will also have a dip in the swimming pool and hit the beach afterwards. First, go to the restaurant, look at the menu. I always think that having a meal at the restaurant hotel is the last resort. So let’s go to the restaurant outside. Nasi campur Bali would be very nice. After lunch, we go back to the hotel. Go around the garden and lay down in the pool side. The tropical air will invite us to have a dip on the refreshing water. We’ll wait for the sun goes down, and when it’s time for sunset, we’ll go to the beach, sits on the sands and watch the amazing view of sunset. It’ll make our day perfect.
Searching dinner would be easy out here. Great cuisines are lining across the Legian-Seminyak area. We can choose from the locals to the international ones, because the entire restaurants usually have a special chef for them. Let’s get the Italian ones tonight. After we finish, we can find a coffee parlor to have dessert while enjoying the atmosphere.
That’s a wrap for the first day.
The second day, of course we will start it with breakfast buffet at the hotel. After, we can ask the front desk for a tour of Bali’s tourist destinations such as Tanah Lot, Bali Bird Park, Goa Gajah, Monkey Forest, and Ubud. It will fill our knowledge about Bali more. There will be a lot of scenery to photos.
Let’s found beaches on the third day! The closest ones to Seminyak are Kuta, Legian and Sanur beach. Sanur beach is on the east of the island, so it’s perfect for sunrises. On the other side is Kuta beach which is on the west side, so it is perfect for sunsets. A little bit further we can find Nusa Dua for watersports, and the latest in are Dreamland and Padang-padang beach on the most south of Bali Island. They’re also close by to Uluwatu where we can see the sunset while watching the Kecak dance.
There’s one more interesting beach at the most north of Bali. It called Lovina Beach. Here, at dawn, we can go to the middle of the sea by boat and meet the dolphins! But, because it’s a pretty long drive, about 3-4 hours, we have to go at 3 a.m.!
In the fourth day, we can go around the Kuta-Legian-Seminyak to enjoy the tourism atmosphere and go shopping! There will be a lot of cafes and restaurants and of course abundance of shops. We can find everything we need to buy gifts of travel, clothes, accessories, and arts and crafts.
Fifth day we can fill with art galleries and crafts galleries also dances and dramas. Bali is famous for its artist, whether it’s paintings or sculpturing. There are a lot of crafts also, such as silver, textile, etc. So we can find a lot of galleries and museum here. Kecak dance, which we saw in Uluwatu on the third day, is one of them. There are also Legong dance, Sanghyang Trance, and Shadow puppet for the drama.
Sixth and seventh day is about indulging yourself. There will be a spa at the hotel, but there are also unique spas at Bali. We can choose which one is the most fit for us. And of course, there’s no harm done in exploring the hotels again
Aah, we just had a 7 days vacation in minutes. But for now, at least we had a nice thought to think about, so on the next leave; you can experience it for real.
Bali is the perfect destination to give you a relaxed time and set aside your daily routines. Weather you travel in luxury or budget travelling. Because now we don’t have any limits for cost, I’ll take you to a luxurious travel. We can reach Bali from Bandung with limited domestic airlines, Merpati Nusantara Airlines (MNA) or Air Asia. Air Asia is a budget airline, so I guess we’ll choose MNA. MNA Bandung-Bali will depart at 6 a.m. and will have a transit at Surabaya for half an hour. The business class will provide us a nice couch, hot breakfast and selected drinks. It will take 2 hours to get to Ngurah Rai International Airport, Denpasar. So, we will arrive at 8.30 a.m. Bandung time, or 9.30 a.m. Bali time (because of the time difference).
At the airport we will be greeted by a strong scent that I called Balinese scent. It’s an incense scent that Balinese people turn on every day. The scent immerge energy of vacation. Inhale deeply, and feel your body lightened. Can you feel it? And it’s only just the first minute.
Next we can find a taxi to take us to the hotel. We can find exclusive hotels either in Nusa Dua area or Seminyak. I like Seminyak better. It feels friendlier there. Most of the hotel in Seminyak have private beach. And when there’s a private beach, the hotel’s rate must be 4 stars and above. So there will be a great room, great swimming pool, great garden, great spa, and great restaurant.
The best way to spend the first day is exploring the hotel area. Have some rest in the room until lunch time (we need the rest, after an early flight), have some lunch at the hotel or some walking-distance restaurant from the hotel and continue to go around the hotel. Don’t forget to put on your bathing suit, because we will also have a dip in the swimming pool and hit the beach afterwards. First, go to the restaurant, look at the menu. I always think that having a meal at the restaurant hotel is the last resort. So let’s go to the restaurant outside. Nasi campur Bali would be very nice. After lunch, we go back to the hotel. Go around the garden and lay down in the pool side. The tropical air will invite us to have a dip on the refreshing water. We’ll wait for the sun goes down, and when it’s time for sunset, we’ll go to the beach, sits on the sands and watch the amazing view of sunset. It’ll make our day perfect.
Searching dinner would be easy out here. Great cuisines are lining across the Legian-Seminyak area. We can choose from the locals to the international ones, because the entire restaurants usually have a special chef for them. Let’s get the Italian ones tonight. After we finish, we can find a coffee parlor to have dessert while enjoying the atmosphere.
That’s a wrap for the first day.
The second day, of course we will start it with breakfast buffet at the hotel. After, we can ask the front desk for a tour of Bali’s tourist destinations such as Tanah Lot, Bali Bird Park, Goa Gajah, Monkey Forest, and Ubud. It will fill our knowledge about Bali more. There will be a lot of scenery to photos.
Let’s found beaches on the third day! The closest ones to Seminyak are Kuta, Legian and Sanur beach. Sanur beach is on the east of the island, so it’s perfect for sunrises. On the other side is Kuta beach which is on the west side, so it is perfect for sunsets. A little bit further we can find Nusa Dua for watersports, and the latest in are Dreamland and Padang-padang beach on the most south of Bali Island. They’re also close by to Uluwatu where we can see the sunset while watching the Kecak dance.
There’s one more interesting beach at the most north of Bali. It called Lovina Beach. Here, at dawn, we can go to the middle of the sea by boat and meet the dolphins! But, because it’s a pretty long drive, about 3-4 hours, we have to go at 3 a.m.!
In the fourth day, we can go around the Kuta-Legian-Seminyak to enjoy the tourism atmosphere and go shopping! There will be a lot of cafes and restaurants and of course abundance of shops. We can find everything we need to buy gifts of travel, clothes, accessories, and arts and crafts.
Fifth day we can fill with art galleries and crafts galleries also dances and dramas. Bali is famous for its artist, whether it’s paintings or sculpturing. There are a lot of crafts also, such as silver, textile, etc. So we can find a lot of galleries and museum here. Kecak dance, which we saw in Uluwatu on the third day, is one of them. There are also Legong dance, Sanghyang Trance, and Shadow puppet for the drama.
Sixth and seventh day is about indulging yourself. There will be a spa at the hotel, but there are also unique spas at Bali. We can choose which one is the most fit for us. And of course, there’s no harm done in exploring the hotels again
Aah, we just had a 7 days vacation in minutes. But for now, at least we had a nice thought to think about, so on the next leave; you can experience it for real.
Selasa, 01 Juni 2010
the road trip to garut-santolo end
On the next morning we waked up tired. But, I still have the excitement of holiday, and intend to make the best of the last day. I waked up pretty early, had another relaxation hot bath and ready to go around the hotel area. I thought I saw a big fishpond just outside our bungalow. It had a nice lights around it the other night. In the daylight, I can see mountains on the background. Very beautiful and breath taking. I walk around for about half an hour and went back to the bungalow. Everybody already wakes up by then. We had breakfast and decided that we will take some time at the hotel first then go buy some snacks a la Garut to bring back home and then go to Candi Cangkuang.
We were packed and ready at around 12. At the store we went crazy buying snacks! We bought dodol (it's like caramel candy), potato chips, sweet potato chips, and a lot more. We got our lunch there too, a bowl of noodles. Just so you know Garut is filled with restaurant which sells Noodles with meatballs. I think it's like their thing. Anyway, we continue our trip to Candi Cangkuang. It is on our way home and we just had to find the green signs. It's quite easy to find.
As we arrived there, we immediately buy the tickets (by the way, my dog paid for a child's ticket, haha). Because I've been there before, I know that there's nothing interesting around the lake area, so we go straight to take the raft to go to the small island in the center of the lake. Candi Cangkuang is build in this island. There's also an old village and an graveyard area there. It was a graveyard of someone famous there long ago. If I'm not mistaken, it's someone who bring Islam there. And the village - called Kampung Pulo - is his descendant. There are only 6 (or is it 7?? haha, sorry for the miss-info) house there which each have a householder. There cannot be more than 6 householder live there. When there is more, they have to move out. The trip there was fun. We can socialize with the locals easily. They're open and interesting.
After we take lots of photos in Candi Cangkuang area, we headed home to Bandung. Unfortunately, it's not an easy road back. There was a nasty accident the night before, adding the commotion of long weekend, makes the traffic real bad. we had to stop for almost an hour on the Garut-Nagrek intersection.
The trip back home took almost 3 hour.
Well, at least we had a great relaxing and adventurous time to wash out our weariness.
Vacations are aaallllways great! So, make time to have vacation, weather it's short or, even better, long ones.
Have a great vacation everyone! ^.^
We were packed and ready at around 12. At the store we went crazy buying snacks! We bought dodol (it's like caramel candy), potato chips, sweet potato chips, and a lot more. We got our lunch there too, a bowl of noodles. Just so you know Garut is filled with restaurant which sells Noodles with meatballs. I think it's like their thing. Anyway, we continue our trip to Candi Cangkuang. It is on our way home and we just had to find the green signs. It's quite easy to find.
As we arrived there, we immediately buy the tickets (by the way, my dog paid for a child's ticket, haha). Because I've been there before, I know that there's nothing interesting around the lake area, so we go straight to take the raft to go to the small island in the center of the lake. Candi Cangkuang is build in this island. There's also an old village and an graveyard area there. It was a graveyard of someone famous there long ago. If I'm not mistaken, it's someone who bring Islam there. And the village - called Kampung Pulo - is his descendant. There are only 6 (or is it 7?? haha, sorry for the miss-info) house there which each have a householder. There cannot be more than 6 householder live there. When there is more, they have to move out. The trip there was fun. We can socialize with the locals easily. They're open and interesting.
After we take lots of photos in Candi Cangkuang area, we headed home to Bandung. Unfortunately, it's not an easy road back. There was a nasty accident the night before, adding the commotion of long weekend, makes the traffic real bad. we had to stop for almost an hour on the Garut-Nagrek intersection.
The trip back home took almost 3 hour.
Well, at least we had a great relaxing and adventurous time to wash out our weariness.
Vacations are aaallllways great! So, make time to have vacation, weather it's short or, even better, long ones.
Have a great vacation everyone! ^.^
Minggu, 30 Mei 2010
the road trip to garut-santolo part 3
We filled our morning with another relaxing time in the hot spring tub, had a breakfast in the room and we were packed and ready to go at 10.30 am. We had one stop at another Alfamart to buy some drinks and tissues (I can’t live without tissues!), and ask the direction to Santolo Beach. By the way, I can understand why international tourist always said that Indonesian people are very nice and friendly, because they really are (actually, we are. Hey, I’m one of those people too, hehe).
Knowing our direction (as a turn out it’s actually only straight ahead and follow the road from the Alfamart), we saw the green sign on the Garut city border and it says 83 km to Santolo. It was closer than Bandung – Jakarta, so we're guessing it will take us about 2 to 2,5 hour t get there, considering the road condition.
The road was covered with pretty good asphalt, but because we were driving through mountains the road was full of curves. The scenery was awwwsome! At the first tens of kilometers we saw rice fields as far as our eyes can see. And next we were served by forest atmosphere. One thing caught my eyes were the signs of "Buying Gold" on several's of the villagers house. I think some of the villagers are gold mining. Maybe on a really small scale that we never heard of.
As a turns out, I don't think the distance of Garut to Santolo is really only 83 km, because it was feel like forever to get there! Finally, after 2,5 hour, we found the turn Shayang Heaulang Beach. But, because we palanned to find ourselves a hotel first, so we went straight to Santolo Beach. Shayang Heulang to Santolo only took 10 minutes. After we turn left to the direction of Santolo, we saw another rice fields and suddenly found ourselves in the middle of LAPAN (Lembaga Penerbangan dan Antariksa Nasional, it's like NASA in USA) rocket launcher field. It was a weirdest field I ever see. It's extremely large, and then we can see a small building with a lot of antennas around it. It's remind me, when I browse for places to stay in Santolo, one of them is called Wisma LAPAN. It's very cheap, below 10.000 rupiahs per person per night. Too cheap that makes me wonder how would the place looks like. Maybe it will be nice for large groups, because from what I'd read, they don't provide rooms, only barracks fill with beds. Okay, that's convenience,haha.. Anyway, we didn't have to wait too long to see the beautiful beach. It was on our right, we can see the white sands slope slightly to the blue sea. It was a little cloudy but it makes the view looks more beautiful. Blue sky, white clouds, and tints of yellow light coming through the clouds.
But before we step our foot on the beach, we wanted to found out for sure where will we stay that night. So we headed straight to the houses. We could see a lot signs of hotels in front of the houses, but we couldn't see anything decent. I saw one brick house (others were made of bamboo skins) and decided to asked for vacant rooms. Apparently, most of the rooms are already been booked. The owner said that there are only 2 rooms left. Both the first and second room are pretty bad. They're small, with a small fan, small bathroom, smell like fish, dark and the worst thing is the owner asked for 150.000 per room! It's silly. Anyway, we were becoming less anthusiastic of staying in Santolo. My brother said that hotel in Shayang Heulang would be better, but we can't swim there because the beach is filled with rocks. So we decided to go to Shayang Heulang immeadetly. On Shayang Helang road we found A ticket gate. There's an officer there, he's pretty nice and informative. He said that there's no real hotel in Shayang Heulang and Santolo area even in Pamengpeuk. There's only one place which can be categorized as hotel. It's called AMB (or something, I forgot) in Cilautereun street. So we decided we will hit the Shayang Heulang beach first, find the hotel, and then search for lunch in Santolo.
Shayang Heulang beach is beautiful! It's a little bit different from Santolo, because here, you cannot swim at all. The beach have bushes which looks like fence and it's steep reaching to the sea with corals. But the corals make a giant land floating above the sea, which is a heavenly sight. It's my dog first trip to the beach, so I was so excited! The weather was nice for playing in the beach. We had a great time enjoying the white sands and sea water. We also enjoyed our time with another local dog which looks like my dog, haha..
About an hour later we headed back to the main road to find the AMB hotel. We found it alright. But, it was disappointing! The rooms are varied from the very simple ones until the standard ones. We were already going to check in, until the front office said that we cannot stay in room because the hotel have a policy for adultery, what??!? There were three of us with a dog! What if I was with my brother. We're definitely not married, but we will have to stay in different rooms?? Come on!
We marched out of there and decided to go back to Garut after we find lunch. We search lunch in Santolo area, it turns out to be yucky. The seafood isn't fresh, and they didn't cooked it well either. So, the sum up, Santolo and Shayang Heulang beach is only fit for large groups who wants to hang out on the beach.
So, after our late lunch we headed back to Garut. It's almost dark, and there was fog every few kilometers. But, as exhausted as we were, we just focus on the hot spring tub in Garut. Although, when we reached Garut, we have the problem of finding hotels again. Fortunately, guided by insting, we found a very nice hotel (nicer than the first one) with a great price. The room was bigger, cleaner, have a better view, and a traditional complimentary breakfast (fried rice).
Time to get some rest!
Jumat, 28 Mei 2010
the road trip to garut-santolo part 2
The napping time turns out to be long! But that's okay, one of our purpose of this trip was resting. We start cruising Garut city at 6 pm. It was already dark and we didn't recognize the area, so we circling around Garut city. Before I was browsing for something to do in Garut at night, but I only found a pool-table places, online games and fishing spots. Not really our type of to do things. I guess we had to be satisfy with driving around Garut then.
It was fun to see every angles of Garut. We drive pass the alun-alun (we wanted to stop and sight-seeing there, but we couldn't find any spot to park), the leather craft area, and several more places. There was an unimportant destination we wanted to find, Yogya Supermarket. Why did we wanted to find Yogya Supermarket? It was because we'd seen so many signs of it around Garut, so we were really curious where it was and how spectacular it was, haha.. Anyway, we found it (we just passed it by because it was soo crowded and again, we couldn't find any palce to park) and then it's time to search for food! We weren't too sure about which restaurant was good, so we just start searching for nasi uduk and fried chicken (that's the safest - meaning there's no nasi uduk and fried chicken taste too bad - besides rumah makan padang) on our way back to Cipanas Raya Street. Before we found one, we stop in an Alfamart minimarket to find snack to accompany us tonight. Although we did found a lot of Alfamart and Yomart on our way to Garut city, we stopped on the first Alfamart we found because we wanted to be one of the "sees the day" person. Not more than 1 kilometer from there, we found our dinner. And you know, there's an Alfamart in front of that restaurant too (so can you imagine the amount of minimarkets in Garut?!). So, for a reminder, don't use any minimarkets to be the signs of places in Garut..
Dinner was great! I don't know weather we were hungry or it was great. But the service was satisfying, so I will conclude that dinner was great. After dinner we go right away to our hotel. Thinking about how will the hot water tub will calm the nerves. And it was. I always like to bath in a tub. I had a tub in my bathroom when I was a child and I always regret it when my parent took the tub away.
Anyway, I did have a relaxing time. And it's time for bed. With the hot water still steaming out of my body I started to make myself comfortable on the bed. Hmm, what a way to start the journey to a wonderful dream.
Good night, don't let the bed bug bites!
It was fun to see every angles of Garut. We drive pass the alun-alun (we wanted to stop and sight-seeing there, but we couldn't find any spot to park), the leather craft area, and several more places. There was an unimportant destination we wanted to find, Yogya Supermarket. Why did we wanted to find Yogya Supermarket? It was because we'd seen so many signs of it around Garut, so we were really curious where it was and how spectacular it was, haha.. Anyway, we found it (we just passed it by because it was soo crowded and again, we couldn't find any palce to park) and then it's time to search for food! We weren't too sure about which restaurant was good, so we just start searching for nasi uduk and fried chicken (that's the safest - meaning there's no nasi uduk and fried chicken taste too bad - besides rumah makan padang) on our way back to Cipanas Raya Street. Before we found one, we stop in an Alfamart minimarket to find snack to accompany us tonight. Although we did found a lot of Alfamart and Yomart on our way to Garut city, we stopped on the first Alfamart we found because we wanted to be one of the "sees the day" person. Not more than 1 kilometer from there, we found our dinner. And you know, there's an Alfamart in front of that restaurant too (so can you imagine the amount of minimarkets in Garut?!). So, for a reminder, don't use any minimarkets to be the signs of places in Garut..
Dinner was great! I don't know weather we were hungry or it was great. But the service was satisfying, so I will conclude that dinner was great. After dinner we go right away to our hotel. Thinking about how will the hot water tub will calm the nerves. And it was. I always like to bath in a tub. I had a tub in my bathroom when I was a child and I always regret it when my parent took the tub away.
Anyway, I did have a relaxing time. And it's time for bed. With the hot water still steaming out of my body I started to make myself comfortable on the bed. Hmm, what a way to start the journey to a wonderful dream.
Good night, don't let the bed bug bites!
the roadtrip to Garut-Santolo begin
Our road trip starts late!! Frankly, I hate to start any trip after 10 am. It's just too late to start. It's like wasting precious times of the holiday. But, I guess it's inevitable this time, because we all slept at 3 am last night! (It another way too waste times). We haven't discuss our alternative destinations besides Jogjakarta before. Santolo was the destination on op of my head, but as always, because I don't plan to go alone, there are more than one head who have different opinions.
So, after some while, Garut-Santolo, Pangandaran, and Ciwidey was our top 3. We browse hotels and motels in those three destinations, we listed the pro's and con's, we even thought about flipping coins to decide where to go. Until, everybody just agreed to Garut-Santolo. I forget why, maybe because that's the most well-planned destination and we're just too tired to argue any more.
Anyway, we was preparing slowly in the morning (in addition of waking up NOT early at all), and because we're still sleepy we forgot things and have to go back to the house to take them. The highway was pretty crowded but there's no traffic. Not so for the way back. We laughed about it, how people still want to go to Bandung although it will be so crowded. We thanked God that we wont be there to see it. And, karma it was, when we hit the Cileunyi highway gate, we met the worst traffic.
Fortunately, it wasn't because the Rancaekek road didn't support the crowded cars, but because there were several shadow market on almost every factory on Rancaekek road. There was also road block of road maintanance. Besides that, the road was clear.
I wasn't going to look at the time on this journey (I planned not to because I don't want to know how many hours left until this vacation is over, heheu..). But, because I want to let you know how much time we need to reached Garut from Bandung, I force myself to see it. We were at Pasteur highway gate at 12.30 pm and reached Nagrek-Garut intersection at approx. 14.10 pm. (I didn't have the guts to see the time when we're on the traffic) and reached Garut city on 14.45 pm. We have several stops when there's bus in front of us just stop in the middle of the road to take or drop passengers.
When we get to the Cipanas Raya street (where there are a lot of hotels which have hot water springs) we started to look for a place to stay. Because we wanted to stay in a nice hotel to laid back and enjoy the place, we went to the 3 stars hotels. The first one is Tirtagangga. We were sent right away by the security guard because it's full booked. Then we tried Sumber Alam. We called them earlier, they said they're fully booked but we just wanted to know for sure. This time we can speak to the receptionist. But as a turn out, they're really are full.
So, we tried the melati hotels. Tirta Alam 1 and 2, Cipaganti, and finally there's Bayu Artha! There's 1 cancelation, but it was for the big bungalow. It's quite pricey and when we saw the room, it was spooky! So, we said that we'd think about it and get out of there. At last we found Tirta Merta 2. Before we weren't going to see it, because we'd seen the Tirta Merta 1 the last time we went here and it was horrible. But, as a turn out it was okay. The price fits just fine with the service. So we paid it right away (because when we were looking at the rooms for options, we lost 1 of the options!).
We had our late lunch at the hotel and now it's time to get a nap. My fellow road trip friend choose to laid back on the hotel first. Maybe we'll start to get around tonight. Tomorrow, hopefully we can go to Candi Cangkuang on our way to Santolo!
PS: I'll put hotel rates in here later.
So, after some while, Garut-Santolo, Pangandaran, and Ciwidey was our top 3. We browse hotels and motels in those three destinations, we listed the pro's and con's, we even thought about flipping coins to decide where to go. Until, everybody just agreed to Garut-Santolo. I forget why, maybe because that's the most well-planned destination and we're just too tired to argue any more.
Anyway, we was preparing slowly in the morning (in addition of waking up NOT early at all), and because we're still sleepy we forgot things and have to go back to the house to take them. The highway was pretty crowded but there's no traffic. Not so for the way back. We laughed about it, how people still want to go to Bandung although it will be so crowded. We thanked God that we wont be there to see it. And, karma it was, when we hit the Cileunyi highway gate, we met the worst traffic.
Fortunately, it wasn't because the Rancaekek road didn't support the crowded cars, but because there were several shadow market on almost every factory on Rancaekek road. There was also road block of road maintanance. Besides that, the road was clear.
I wasn't going to look at the time on this journey (I planned not to because I don't want to know how many hours left until this vacation is over, heheu..). But, because I want to let you know how much time we need to reached Garut from Bandung, I force myself to see it. We were at Pasteur highway gate at 12.30 pm and reached Nagrek-Garut intersection at approx. 14.10 pm. (I didn't have the guts to see the time when we're on the traffic) and reached Garut city on 14.45 pm. We have several stops when there's bus in front of us just stop in the middle of the road to take or drop passengers.
When we get to the Cipanas Raya street (where there are a lot of hotels which have hot water springs) we started to look for a place to stay. Because we wanted to stay in a nice hotel to laid back and enjoy the place, we went to the 3 stars hotels. The first one is Tirtagangga. We were sent right away by the security guard because it's full booked. Then we tried Sumber Alam. We called them earlier, they said they're fully booked but we just wanted to know for sure. This time we can speak to the receptionist. But as a turn out, they're really are full.
So, we tried the melati hotels. Tirta Alam 1 and 2, Cipaganti, and finally there's Bayu Artha! There's 1 cancelation, but it was for the big bungalow. It's quite pricey and when we saw the room, it was spooky! So, we said that we'd think about it and get out of there. At last we found Tirta Merta 2. Before we weren't going to see it, because we'd seen the Tirta Merta 1 the last time we went here and it was horrible. But, as a turn out it was okay. The price fits just fine with the service. So we paid it right away (because when we were looking at the rooms for options, we lost 1 of the options!).
We had our late lunch at the hotel and now it's time to get a nap. My fellow road trip friend choose to laid back on the hotel first. Maybe we'll start to get around tonight. Tomorrow, hopefully we can go to Candi Cangkuang on our way to Santolo!
PS: I'll put hotel rates in here later.
Rabu, 26 Mei 2010
a long lost long weekend
This is my first long weekend after some time. Because Saturday is usually work day, so I never felt the excitement of long weekends.
But now it will be different! I will make it different! At first I planned on a road trip to Yogyakarta, with couples of my friends an my dog. It's been so long I haven't been there, and one of the road trip participant never been to Yogyakarta at all! So we decided to show him around, and of course, show him the magnificent Candi Borobudur. But, although I'd already start searching for hotels a week earlier, I still can't find one. I called more than 20 places to stay, from hotels to motels. And only few days back I got information that Yogyakarta is off limit for unplanned tourist like us. Because on this WAISAK day (are you starting to get the picture?), Yogya is full booked since months ago. Waisak is one of Budha's big day. So, there will be a big event in Candi Borobudur. That's why Yogyakarta on Waisak day is FULL BOOKED since weeks ago! Silly me..
Now that Yogyakarta is out of the picture, I have to find a new destination to go to. The first thing comes to mind is Bali (of course!!!), but that's just too expensive, and Bali for 3 days is definitely not enough. Then, I thought of Batu Karas Beach, but I've been there 2 times this past year. Pangandaran Beach sounds like fun, but still, I think I've been to every corner of that place. Anyer Beach, the car trip is so boring and there's nothing there.. Bogor city, that's new, but the traffic will be overwhelming, since the people of Jakarta will make Bogor (the next door city) their short holiday destination.
And there it was! A shiny light bulb made a "ting!" sound on top of my head! There's this untouchable beach just outside Garut, called Santolo Beach. My brother went there for New Year. He said it was beautiful, and it's not that far. It's only 4 hour car trip from Bandung, and I was thinking we can also explore Garut city on our way there. I always love beaches!
So, right away, I browse for that place. The photos of people who had been there was grrreeeaat! Although I cannot find information of places to stay there. They only said, there are a lot of places to stay but no telephone number or addresses, or even names of the hotels. When I asked my brother, guess what he said, "yeah, I don't think there is any land line telephone there.." Whattt?? Hahaha.. Well, I guess it will be one of those adventurous trip a la teenagers then.
Okay then, the plan is we depart at 9 in the morning. Have our breakfast on our way to the highway, and going straight to Garut. Bandung-Garut is about 1,5 hour car trip. We will go to Garut's tourist spots, such as Candi Cangkuang (hope there will be Waisak event there too - hope Candi Cangkuang is Budha's and not Hindu's, haha), Citiis Waterfall in Mount Guntur, maybe Mount Papandayan, and Cipanas hot spring. I was thinking of staying the first night in Garut. But it's still tentative. We'll see once we get there. So, then we'll go to Santolo beach either in the afternoon of the first day or early in the morning of the second day.
Our time on Santolo Beach will be filled with eating, lying back on the beach, eating, going to the Santolo Island, eating, lying back, taking photos, and eating. Hahaha..
Wait for the journey report!
But now it will be different! I will make it different! At first I planned on a road trip to Yogyakarta, with couples of my friends an my dog. It's been so long I haven't been there, and one of the road trip participant never been to Yogyakarta at all! So we decided to show him around, and of course, show him the magnificent Candi Borobudur. But, although I'd already start searching for hotels a week earlier, I still can't find one. I called more than 20 places to stay, from hotels to motels. And only few days back I got information that Yogyakarta is off limit for unplanned tourist like us. Because on this WAISAK day (are you starting to get the picture?), Yogya is full booked since months ago. Waisak is one of Budha's big day. So, there will be a big event in Candi Borobudur. That's why Yogyakarta on Waisak day is FULL BOOKED since weeks ago! Silly me..
Now that Yogyakarta is out of the picture, I have to find a new destination to go to. The first thing comes to mind is Bali (of course!!!), but that's just too expensive, and Bali for 3 days is definitely not enough. Then, I thought of Batu Karas Beach, but I've been there 2 times this past year. Pangandaran Beach sounds like fun, but still, I think I've been to every corner of that place. Anyer Beach, the car trip is so boring and there's nothing there.. Bogor city, that's new, but the traffic will be overwhelming, since the people of Jakarta will make Bogor (the next door city) their short holiday destination.
And there it was! A shiny light bulb made a "ting!" sound on top of my head! There's this untouchable beach just outside Garut, called Santolo Beach. My brother went there for New Year. He said it was beautiful, and it's not that far. It's only 4 hour car trip from Bandung, and I was thinking we can also explore Garut city on our way there. I always love beaches!
So, right away, I browse for that place. The photos of people who had been there was grrreeeaat! Although I cannot find information of places to stay there. They only said, there are a lot of places to stay but no telephone number or addresses, or even names of the hotels. When I asked my brother, guess what he said, "yeah, I don't think there is any land line telephone there.." Whattt?? Hahaha.. Well, I guess it will be one of those adventurous trip a la teenagers then.
Okay then, the plan is we depart at 9 in the morning. Have our breakfast on our way to the highway, and going straight to Garut. Bandung-Garut is about 1,5 hour car trip. We will go to Garut's tourist spots, such as Candi Cangkuang (hope there will be Waisak event there too - hope Candi Cangkuang is Budha's and not Hindu's, haha), Citiis Waterfall in Mount Guntur, maybe Mount Papandayan, and Cipanas hot spring. I was thinking of staying the first night in Garut. But it's still tentative. We'll see once we get there. So, then we'll go to Santolo beach either in the afternoon of the first day or early in the morning of the second day.
Our time on Santolo Beach will be filled with eating, lying back on the beach, eating, going to the Santolo Island, eating, lying back, taking photos, and eating. Hahaha..
Wait for the journey report!
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