gone fishing...

Photos: UK - spring 2011

shizuoka — Fri, 8 Apr 2011 04:22:00 GMT

March 2011

Photos: Indonesia

shizuoka — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 03:13:00 GMT

Photos: Vietnam 2010

shizuoka — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 17:01:00 GMT

2010 heading for Hanoi and Halong Bay

YES2009, lets make a CHANGE!

shizuoka — Tue, 8 Mar 2011 17:09:00 GMT

Just got back from Malaysia last Wednesday. I attended the Youth Engagement Summit 2009 (YES2009). How did I get there in the first place? Lucky I guess… As simple as answering Air Asia question on if you could change one thing in your lifetime, what would it be, and who will it be for? Yourself, your community, or your country? And how will you contribute to it? I answered: 1thing I'd like to change is to make people to stop litter. So the environment will be a healthier & comfortable place to live in. Submit it on Thursday, then on Friday I got to know that I was one of the 30 lucky winners! Yeay! Thanks Air Asia! Though they don’t provide transportation & accommodation, I still want to go there. So I booked the cheapest flight (It’s Air Asia for sure :D) and stayed at my friend’s house there. So I arrived Sunday (15/11) in LCCT at 11.30 am and not long after that my friend, Natasha and her friend, Hanum, pick me up. Natasha is my childhood friend back when I was living in Sydney. We went to Natasha’s family house in Taman Kencana. There I met Auntie Jo and Uncle Wan. We didn’t stay long there. We then drove to Sungei Wang and Bukit Bintang to have lunch and window shopping. I didn’t bought anything there..quite a surprise :D. I fell in love in a Vincci shoes but they didn’t have the number. Too bad Around 5 we went back to Taman Kencana, have some snacks and drove back to Natasha’s house at Seri Kembangan. The YES2009 took place in Putrajaya International Convention Center (PICC) in Putrajaya. Luckily it’s near Tasha’s house. Hanum drove me to PICC on Monday (16/11) morning; I went to Air Asia booth for registration and waited for the gate to be open. It was supposed to start at 9.00 am, but in fact starts at 10.30 am. Here’s my resume of the speakers in the 2 day summit: * Lorraine Hahn – former CNN and CNBC presenter She was the MC for the 2 day summit. She’s a very clever lady indeed. In the opening speech she said, “Its youth who build the future, not future build the youth. * Biz Stone – co-founder of Twitter So he’s cute. LOL. Who doesn’t know twitter? Anyway my id is @shizuoka. Follow me .. I love the way he made his speech. He made the audience listen to him. Many people think Twitter is an overnight success, but actually it’s a 10 years worth of work. His team actually planning on creating something bigger than Twitter. Then the idea of Twitter came out when there’s some flood in his house, he’s busy cleaning the mess and suddenly his friend texted him saying, ‘Sipping wine in the lake. So relaxed.’ And he’s like WTF? I’m busy here and you’re like relaxing on the lake? So Twitter was born. One tweet can change a lot of people. Open exchange information (not just Twitter) can send positives global impact. Tiny information can be such a useful info. Why Twitter only can write 140 characters? Because a text messages is 160 characters and they leave 20 characters for names. ‘Twitter is about the triumph of humanity, not the triumph of technology’ Being the youth and eager to success we mustn’t be afraid of failing. Biz said happy mistake are the best kind and creativity is a renewable resource. * Dr. Mamphela Ramphelle – former managing director of The World Bank She is surely one of a genius woman. She’s from South Africa, in her youth time there is no many choice for black people. Even in their own country. Both of her parents is a teacher, but she wanted to be a doctor, but don’t know where to go. No one go to college at that time. But with effort and hard work she made it. She talks about ethical engagement, political conflicts, gender stereotypes, inequality. Talks about Nelson Mandela engaged people to fight apartheid, how Mahatma Gandhi paid the change by his own life, Martin Luther King; the assassin’s bullet that kills him never kills his dream, Obama believe youth can change what’s happening. Her advice for the youth is use all the opportunity that you got. * Narain Karthikeyan – F1 driver from India Supposed is Amitabh Bachchan sitting in this summit. But for some reason he cancelled it..too bad. I wanted to meet him. But c’est la vie. Narain is cute though…LOL When Hahn asked Narain why F1? He simply answers when you’re young, brave, stupid just catch your dream. Stupidity helps He learns to drive by driving tractors in the rice field. It’s not an instant success. He encourages youth to never give up, when there’s a will there’s a way. If you start something finish it. Plan your strategies. * Bob Geldof – founder of Live Aid and Live8 Lookin’ good Sir! I'm in love with him. I always have something with rebel and mature (not to say old ) looking man. He comes out on stage wearing a sleek grey suit. Didn’t expect that from him..LOL Anw he starts his speech by talking about his childhood. His father sells towel from house to house, his mother died when he was 6, his first sister didn’t wanted to take care of the family so she married and get out of the house, and his other sister was the type of women who don’t stop studying. So no one actually took care of little Geldof. There was only radio. He listens to the radio every single day, and gets to know rock music. Why is rock music so universal? Rock band is an accurate example of the real life. From rock bands he knows about Africa, that was when he was 13 years old. He didn’t get to college, he didn’t want to and he cannot go, because of his marks. So he travels the world, gets some money, and got back to Ireland and formed a band, The Boomtown Rats. It became a hit! ‘Nobody is less than another. Everybody is equal if they got the equal opportunity.’ He also set an anti-Apartheid move in Ireland. He recognized there’s only 8 mile difference from the richest (Europe) and the poorest (Africa). We must get something to do with this and he did it through music. The common language of the world is not English, it’s Pop Music. Politic and economic is the structure of poverty. He said, ‘It’s not my generation who feels the impact, it’s yours.’ One’s country can’t solve the problem alone. We as an ASEAN country should get together and solve this problem. As Gandhi once said, ‘If you want to change, be the change!’ * Garry Kasparov – Russian living legend of chess My favorite speaker in the summit! Didn’t expect he would give such a great speech. I thought chess player? He must be a serious type. What will he talk about? But amazingly his speech was great! He talks about strategic thinking. As the youth of today we need a constant change, and always create something new (innovate). Strategic planning is important --> plan and analyze. Knowledge and experience is not enough. There’s changes from the past until now. Wright bros -> Boeing, Wang lab -> Toshiba, Altavista -> Google, Rio MP3 -> Ipod. To survive we must evolve. Changes are taking risk. 0% risk is impossible. What is happening today is a catastrophe of debt, status quo. The changes have slown dramatically. Most of the innovations are made before 1970. Vertical innovation means growth, while horizontal innovation means dead. Vertical -> Creation, New, Experimental, Risky, Growth, Jobs Horizontal -> Incremental, Existing, Imitation, Safe, Debt, Revenue Vertical innovation is what drives the world. Mark Twain said, ‘The average man is proud to be “consistent”, unchanging, immovable, and fossilize, where it should be his humiliation’. Mr. Kasparov also talks about tactics and strategies. They are two different things. Tactics is an adjustment and reaction of something, no goals. Meanwhile in strategies there is a goal. It is knowing what to do when there is nothing. Without intuition we’re only spectators. The man who knows ‘Why’, will always be one’s boss. We have to ask why all the time. Everybody can be great. You just need to prepare something before they needed it. Things moves too quickly nowadays. Our goal now is to innovate. ‘Recognize your strength and improve your weakness.’ * Donald Trump – do I really need to explain this man? He didn’t attend the summit physically, but we’re interacting live with him via satellite. I love technology! Mr. Trump talks about success. The meaning of success never change, was it 100 years ago or the next 100 years. It’s a simple word with complex meaning. The tip is never quit. A quitter will never be successful Also don’t trust everybody. Pick the best people to trust. If somebody screw you, screw them back. His tips to be success are: * Stay focus at all time * Believe in yourself * Able to handle pressure * Master your subject Not everybody got good instinct. If you don’t have that instinct, it’s alright. Just work for somebody and you’ll be great. Talking about second chances, if they're good and smart it's OK. But if they cheated on you, most likely they will do the same thing again. People don’t change that much Work ethic is very important for entrepreneurs. To be leader we must do our job properly. People will respect you if you do something properly. * Randi Zuckerberg – Director of market development at Facebook Randi is a very humble person. She’s such a great person and always smiles to us. The talk of Facebook is basically about the Facebook itself. Who doesn’t have Facebook? The Chinese maybe. But her team never stops trying to bring Facebook to China. In social networking action it very crucial. She has led the company’s US election and international politics strategy, as well as pioneered several large media partnerships. Many social movements from the youth start in Facebook. Social networking impact is so big. About Twitter, she said it’s not a competition. She even got a Twitter account. As long as it’s spreading positive news and making the world more positive, it’s a terrific action. There’s one story about a burglar in the US who log in to Facebook in the victims house and forget to log out. Bummer! The house owner just looked into his profile and the burglar easily got caught. Or about a young girl who is trapped in a collapse house and people can find her just because she updated her Facebook status from her mobile. * David Magliano – Director of Marketing for London 2012 Olympics Many might not know him, but he is the one who brought London to become the Olympic host in 2012. He talks on how he engages young people to get ‘London 2012’. London submits the entry last minute. The final 5 city is Paris, Moscow, New York, London, and Rio. Paris and London was the last two. We get to see all of the city’s 30 second video. Lucky us! All four cities brought its cityscape while London’s video is about the youth in the entire world who wants to take part on the Olympics. It has nothing to do with London. * Long Yangtu (China’s former Vice Minister of Trade) and Yashwant Sinha (Former Finance Minister of India) This session is a round table discussion which was moderated by Lorraine Hahn. Talking about China and India economics. How China became that big in economics. * Tony Fernandes – founder of Air Asia This is Malaysia’s own. The Malaysians are very proud of him. Standing ovation for him as he entered the stage. Two people got tickets to London just by running to the stage wearing anything red. Envy you!!!! I really enjoy his speech. He is such a humble and down to earth person. How Tony get into this business? Actually he was in the music business for so long, and he starting to have thoughts about quitting his job. He was working in NY and and couple of countries in Europe. Flying to Europe countries back and forth get him to know there are so many budget airlines in Europe. And he thought he can bring this business back home. It wasn’t easy. But he is not afraid to fail. Don't be afraid to fail. The failure is not to try. Why Air Asia fly to Bandung? There is no airline fly there. But Air Asia dares to fly there. Aceh? After the tsunami he thinks we have to do something there. So Air Asia opens new route to Aceh. Bali? After bombing many people are afraid to go there, but Air Asia still opens their route to promote Bali even more. Do you know there is Miss Thailand flying for Air Asia Thailand? Yes. Tony met this girl and she said she wanted to be a pilot. She took the test and now flying for Air Asia Thailand. There are a total of 35 female pilots in Air Asia. Tony said, ‘You can’t be a great leader, if you don’t go to the ground.’ Tony likes to be in his employees shoes for every each other time. Don’t look for protection In the end of his speech he said: ‘One day I’ll buy Singapore Airlines!’ We’ll be waiting Tony! :D * Nando Parrado – Andes plane crash survivor It’s the last speaker for the summit. And he did a great closing. He shares his very touching story about his plane crash in the Andes Mountain, that took his mother, sister, and friend’s life. He showed us slides of pictures about the plane crash. 72 days in the mountain with no food, no drink, no clothes. How did he survive? It was 37 years ago, when he was just 19. He came home from being rescued, his father is only family left. His father said to him; go on do anything that you want with your life. You have had experienced the worst. When something goes wrong with you life, the universe just doesn’t care Not everybody have access to success, but go forward. The mistake is saying later. You never know when is too late. In the end he showed a clip about his family and it really droves me into tears. He is now living happily with his wife and two kids. Continuing his father business and giving speech to all over the world about his experience. Well, that’s what I get from YES2009. I learn new things. All the speakers were great on sharing their story. Now is time for us, youth, to give something to make the world a better place. Oh, and btw YES2010 is plan to be held in Indonesia. Hope I can go there again.

Singapore, From Sup Tulang Merah to Zouk Out

shizuoka — Tue, 8 Mar 2011 16:31:00 GMT

I went to Singapore with my friends for 3 days (11th-13th December 2009) by AirAsia. We already bought the tickets since July. I was quite disappointed with the ticket price I got, because somebody got lower price. And they just bought it a few weeks before the trip…zzz… AirAsia is so unpredictable. You just have to try your luck.

All my friends believed all stuffs like the plane tix, hotels, and itinerary to me. So I was the only one busy browsing all these things. I didn’t mind at all. I love making itinerary.

So we took the earliest flight from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport and arrived at Changi Airport around 10 AM. We took MRT to Bugis. Checked in and grabbed lunch at Raffles Hospital food court.

I stayed at ABC Backpackers Hostel. I felt sooo happy I found it. Cheap, clean, and cheap. Did I mention cheap? The hostel is only 5 mins walk from Bugis MRT Station. There were other cheaper one in Little India, but I prefer Bugis to Little India. And ABC is the cheapest amongst all in Bugis. So we rent to 6 bed room dorm for 18 SGD/night/person. First I wanted the 8 bed room for 15 SGD/nights, but they suggest us this 6 bed room so we can have the whole room for ourselves. Well that’s a good idea, so I took it.

We stayed for 3D/2N. Our total expense for the hostel was 36 SGD and 10 SGD for deposit. Not bad huh? Since it’s a dorm, the toilet & bathroom is not attached in the room. There are soaps and shampoos from former backpackers who don’t want to bring their stuff to their next journey. We got lockers inside the room, blanket, and towel. Breakfast is provided until 10.30. We ate breakfast in the back alley of the hostel. Breakfast time is the time you met other backpackers. I met backpackers from Argentina, Germany, India, and couples from Indonesia too.

After having lunch we went to Bugis Junction and Bugis Village. I took pictures of the famous colorful houses with the spiral stairs in Bugis. It was lovely. After that I & my bf went to Chinatown, to buy some aero modeling RC spare parts for my dad, while the others went to Orchard. Like many other Chinatown, every kind of herbs with this weird smell is sold there. I ate Mango Sago for 2.8 SGD, it’s a dessert and great for the sunny weather.

Next destination is Orchard. We were quite tired already. So we only walk from ION – Takashimaya then ended up at Food Republic. We continue walking until Somerset then took MRT back to Bugis.

What’s a holiday without a tired foot, right?

Arrive at the hostel, we took some rest for a while and then I have to pick up my cousin in Changi again. She took the last flight because the still got exams. I was late picking her up because I hadn’t set my watch to Singapore time. But thank God her flight was delayed, so we arrived on time to pick her up. It was around 11 PM and we hadn’t had dinner.

I was craving for Sup Tulang Merah. Had read and watched people’s review on this delicacy and was eager to try it. I was told to eat the one at Beach Rd., near Bugis. So from Changi we took MRT to Lavender (because from the map it seems closer if we walk from Lavender than Bugis). Its actually still quite far, I felt sorry for my bf and my cousins,,…. But I like walking, so no problem for me. Esp. the reason you walk this far is for sup tulang. :D

So we arrive at Beach Rd., the food court is across the Golden Mile Complex. It was 12 AM, only a couple of stall is still open. Of course the Sup Tulang is open! They are open until 2 AM. My other friends join to have dinner here. When the tulang came, no one eat it. They were all staring at this red bloody thing at the table. One’s asked,”Are you sure wanna eat that?” Me, “Sure! This is what I came to Singapore for!” LOL.

Having clueless about the taste, I was pretty confident it tastes good. And after I ate it, it was not good, it’s great! We have some good talk and good laughs over the dinner, and walked back to the hostel. The streets were already empty; one street is full of cars parked. I think it’s a night club. We arrive at the hostel around 2 AM. Everyone got into their bed, talking until everyone fell asleep.

I bet no one woke up if my friend didn’t turn on the lights. We took breakfast, toast bread with sarikaya jam, earl grey tea, and good chat. Met a couple of Argentineans backpackers, they just went to Bali, spend a couple of days in Singapore, then off to Thailand. After breakfast we clean our own dishes then took a bath.

Our plan for day 2 is around Raffles, Merlion, Esplanade, and City Hall. I took photos again. Then have lunch in Lau Pa Sat. Lau Pa Sat was Singapore's first wet market and turned into a food court. The building is very beautiful with great details. I was looking for kebab, but didn’t found it there. So I ordered fish ball soup 3.5 SGD. After lunching we headed to Orchard again.

The girls went shopping and the boys went…I don’t know. I just know the girls went shopping. I went to The Heeren, eat es potong at the street, Far East Plaza (my fave mall), ION, and then back to the hostel. We had very limited time. Haven’t comb Far East Plaza But we have to get ready for Zouk Out.

Zouk Out is an annual outdoor dance music festival located in Siloso Beach, Sentosa. I wasn’t much of a party people. I didn’t even know who the line ups were. Lol…But my friend already bought tickets (59 SGD) for me, so I’m going. Yes I’ve heard of Armin van Buuren, the number one DJ of today I guess. I don’t know his songs. But I enjoy his performance. Miss Kittin and The Hacker (MKTH) was great too! Love their music & their stage performance!

Well actually, I only dance during MKTH and Armin. Other than that I was sleeping next to the stage (literally)..ROTFL. We got there at 9 PM, had dinner (finally kebab!), MKTH was at 11 PM, after that I sit next to the stage, sleeping on and off, and got in front of the stage again at 5 AM. Armin played into the sunrise. Cool! Although Zouk Out wasn’t my main plan, I had fun there. We went home at 7 AM, catching the first MRT to the city.

Back at the hostel, we didn’t waste our time sleeping. Hey we already slept at the beach! Remember? I took a shower then had breakfast. We met other guest from Indonesia and they were at Zouk Out too. 23000 people went to Zouk Out, I guess most of them were Indonesians. After breakfast we have to pack our bags. Check out time is 11 AM, but our flight was still at 10 PM. Luckily we can leave our bags in the hostel and pick it up later on.

We went to Bugis Village again, my friends wanted to buy gifts, then Mustafa in Little India for chocolates!. After Mustafa we took a late lunch at Vivo City in Harbour Front, and then relax at the open space in Vivo.

Time passes so fast, we had to go back to the hostel, pick up our bags, and go straight to the airport. Our holiday was ending soon. At the airport we took a quick bite then off to the boarding room. Minutes later we were entering the plane and (not-so-)ready to fly back home.

My plane tix costs aprox. 1.1 mill rupiah, eating per meal cost about 5 SGD, MRT for 3 days around 10 SGD.

It’s always sad when your holiday ends, but it’s never sad to plan for another one.

My Travel Writing Scholarship 2011 entry - My Big Adventure

shizuoka — Tue, 8 Mar 2011 16:30:26 GMT

Last year I went to Vietnam with my friend. I've been planning for this trip since early 2010. I choose Hanoi over Ho Chi Minh because I wanted to go to Halong Bay.

I didn't made any hostel reservations, but already bookmarked some choices in the Old Quarter. Old Quarter is the heart of Hanoi. Once you arrive here, you can feel the hustle and bustle of Vietnamese. Our journey in Hanoi starts literally, when we got out of the shuttle. Trust me, within a day in Hanoi you will be an expert of crossing the street full of motorcycles! Armed with a map, we are ready to explore Hanoi! The map may say 18 minutes walk to the hostel, but it turned into 40 minutes. Old Quarter is known to make people go astray. So we found our first hostel, but turned out the price are too high for us. We walked out and found a $6/ night dorm just next door, Gecko 3 Backpackers Hostel in Bat Dan St., Hoan Kiem District. They also sell the Halong tour, we bought ours for $29/ 2D1N including meals. Tip before buying a package tour; make sure you already done some research and haggle. Some people in our boat paid $25 while other paid $60.

The next day, we went to Halong Bay. We were picked up at the hostel at 8 AM, picked up some other guests, and it took 3 hours of non-stop honking shuttle to Halong City. The Vietnamese loves to honk! If you’re planning to have a good rest along the way, just forget about it. We arrive at Halong City at 12 PM, the so-called tour guide collected our passport and we waited to get on board. Since I paid for the cheapest boat, I wasn't expecting much of what will the boat look like. We got what we pay. No problem, I was there because of the view and for bonus, I got new friends from all over the world. Kayaking and swimming (minus jumping off the boat, I chose using the ladder) in Halong Bay, checked!

I was lucky to be part of Hanoi's 1000th anniversary. There were lots of celebration and festivals. Along with the festive, there comes the crowd. People were like everywhere and it was somewhat too packed. There’s always people’s head in every picture that I took. Temple of Literature, the first university in Hanoi, is pictured as a comfort and peaceful place, and then when I arrived it was full of people. HCM Mausoleum, HCM museum, One Pillar Pagoda, Lenin Park, packed also. I think it was a great time for the locals, but not too great for the travelers. I enjoyed my time in Hanoi. The food was great! I didn’t found a dish that I didn’t like. Even the motorcycles might scares, but I will go back to Hanoi!