….by the beach.

My favorite

Villa Ombak. Checked.

It was my first visit to one of my beautiful country exotic islands, Gili Trawangan. I took a tour, semi backpacking. We travelled from Java to Lombok by bus. It was my first visit to an island on the eastern part of Indonesia. FYI, Indonesia has 17, 508 islands with 5 large islands of Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Celebes and West Papua. Gili Trawangan is among the lesser Sunda islands in West Nusa Tenggara islands range. When we had lunch on the beach, munching to some local food, one of the guides said the most obnoxious sentence I ever heard on an island. He said; “Villa Ombak is the best hotel in here. It is where the bule stays.” Well, bule is just a nickname locals gave to foreign tourists who have golden hair and white-colored skin. Usually, when we played under the sun for a long period of time, our black-colored hair would turn to a bit reddish. That was when our parents start saying that our hair turned to bule in color. So, when our ancestors (or whoever invented that term) saw blonde tourists, they must have been lack of vocabularies that they named those people, bule. Anyway, as I said earlier, it was so obnoxious. I refused to admit that there was a place in which only bule people can stay. And I made a pact to myself to visit this place, Villa Ombak.

So, last January, I went to Lombok with my friend. On our itinerary, I wrote with bold, Villa Ombak. It was my first time visiting this island by myself. I knew already that Villa Ombak was located on the left side of the harbor … or … that site where the boats stopped. With our hugh backpack on our back, it was a pain staking effort to walk there. Well, I knew it was on the left side, but I had no idea how far it was from the dock to the villa. We just tried our best, then in the middle of the road, we stopped a Cidomo. Cidomo is the local transportation. It is almost like a carriage in a very modest way. You will know what I mean, when you ride it. Surprisingly, we cannot bargain with the driver or rider or … mas-mas, in local dialect. We were so upset because he put 40, 000 IDR for just one trip to the villa. Man! That’s a robbery! That was a price for a nite stay in a shanty room in this island.

a zest of life.

They said there are three stages in life; when you are about to enter trial, when you just get out of trial or when you are in trial. Boy, that really made life easy. *smirk*

I don’t know in what stage of life I’m now. What I know, in whichever stage I’m in, I should just snip everything and  take a zap to live. And in one of those occasions, you can always find me nesting in my favorite hideouts.

This January, or most precisely this year, I intend to start it right. Years back have shown that life can be ugly sometimes–most of the time. And realizing that I have no single clue about what lies ahead I start this year by having a feast of soul quenching holiday.

Trekking at Mt. Rinjani

 How would you spend your        Summer holiday?

1. Visit ancient tribe to learn more about humans.
2. Dip and enjoy underwater coral scenery by snorkeling.
3. Get home made gelato and relax on a beach viewing some hunk guys.
4. Stay up late and sip blue margarita on an open air cafe.
5. Trek up to a mountain and submerge under a waterfall.

or, all of the above

for me, all of the above. I mean, ALL OF THE ABOVE!! 😉

Another summer day…

Another summer day.
In one of South East Asia islands.
It is where people live up their dreams.

Sade Village

Sade Village, or Desa Sade in Bahasa, is a small village inhabited by local tribe, Sasak ethnic group. It can be found in West Nusa Tenggara, in the island of Lombok, Indonesia. This particular village, The Sade, up to today, preserves its original traditions and cultures.

Holiday therapy

Did you know that holiday is already holiday even if it’s not started yet? uh-hu, right when you are busy booking tickets, preparing itinerary, shopping for clothes to pack, imagining hundreds of pictures you will take…yup, it’s started already!!! Yippiiee!! 😀

And oh-oh! People are now filling their blogs with TO-DO and MUST-DO lists for the coming holiday. And me want to join the conversation too!!

#1. Go to a beach

This is a must! I can already feel the hot sea breeze, the splash of salty sea water and the view of blue blue blue waves…. It is just a must! And I had book a trip to Lombok, yay!!

Lombok last year!

Lombok Vacation

I wish I took more photos. I will be able to make a nice writing about it. sigh.

…

An unplanned plan is a plan.

“I plan not to plan”

It’s December. Holiday seasons were approaching. People were excited too much about one month holiday that we earned. They had even booked tickets from October or November, quite a preparation, won’t you say? Well, I didn’t prepare anything. I guess, the spirit vanquish because of my unsuccessful birthday gateway last November. Yap… I knew back then when I heard my friends arranged their wedding exactly one day prior to my birthday, I could not go out of town or out of this country. So then, I just planned no to plan. As you know and experience, perhaps, this kinda attitude will somehow bring you to a crazy adventure and so did I.

It all started with twitter. And next time I know, I am at travel bus to Bandung going to the meeting place. I just joined Lombok Vacation #3. Lombok is an island further to the east side from Bali. It’s famous for its beautiful Gili (small island), coral reefs and other tropical havens.

Lombok Vacation #3 “Family Picture”

We were 13 and came from several different places of Indonesia.