ukirsari

* blue colour indicates already been there *

about my personal map

the feeling “being on the road again” is something encourage me. for me personally, travel is not about the destination [s] only. but the journey [s] itself [themselves]. and leave nothing but memories and the footprints. and i am so grateful to have all these good karma to captured my steps in these countries.

“eto karta. moja karta,” that’s what i always say to my dad when i was a kid. a huge – wide world map in front of us. and he put the colourful nails in every single places he ever been and tied the strings amongst them to make the lines. he’s bloody good about this idea of ‘captured the journeys’.

and inspired by him, the great navy officer who spent half of his life in the oceans and half with us in the mainlands, i made my personal map by the net.

the idea will always be the same. “eto moja karta.”

thanks for the people i love and adore much: mum and dad, nicholas, dimas seto, robin and cacilia. thanks to everything you all had done to me in supporting my everlasting journey through this life.

~ invitation card in cover magazine look-alike is created by paul mulia, brugge, belgium, (c) 2002 ~

my best 10 in particular order:

1 best companion and the only travel-mate: beloved nicholas

2 best cycling trip:

luxor-west bank-el nil-east bank-thebes-colossi of memnon-valley of the kings

-deir el bahri-al asasif-medinat habu-saint tawdros coptic bishopric and

el mohareb monastery-thebes-east bank-el nil-west bank-luxor

3 best england holiday by car:

essex – jubilee bridge – london – sandhurst

- green mile- robertson’s bridge – silver hill – bodiam – battle

- robertson’s bridge – kent – london – tunnel – lakeside mall -

bas vegas [not las vegas ] – home.

especially  for visiting bodiam castle that i dream about from long time ago, as appears on enya’s video clip [the celts: hoireann is o, saol na saol, tus ga deireadh] and battle abbey 1066 [to commemorate the ending of anglo-saxon and the beginning era of the normans, king harold vs king william].  arranged very special by nicholas and his beloved baby ford fiesta

4 best west europe loop by train and couchette:

amsterdam-leiden-delft-rotterdam-dordrecht-breda-roosendaal-anvers-bruxelles-leuven

-verviers-liege-malmedy-stavelot-spa-francorchamps-stuerstelberg-bruxelles

-lille-amiens-beauvais-paris-troyes-dijon-besancon-belfort-basel-mulhouse-lyon

-chambery-turino-milan-bari-parma-padova-treviso-venice

5 best old town in south east asia:

louang phabang [luang prabang]

6 best desert and limestone formations:

the pinnacles, nambung national park, state of western australia

7 best spanish and or portuguese buildings preservative areas:

vigan [north luzon, the philippines] and macau [ilha de macao, special administrative region/sar china]

8 best book to be read during my flight:

enemy of the gates by william craig

9 best comfortable-assistant equipments:

support neck pillow, mp3 player, travel blanket, one of the teddy bears i had at home for companion

10 best bites to be brought along the trip:

muesli bars with wild berries and chocolate bars

faq [frequently asked questions] about my activity as a traveler:

1 where you’ll be heading next?

* i love to leave them in their curiosities since i have to bargain with my pretty limited time –as indonesian who can not have more than 12 days per year *sigh* and neither accumulate my days-off to be spend as a long-super holiday like other foreign travelers– and the expenses, itinerary and my original plan –since i always do my plan, preparing and arranging accurately with reading travel books, maps and several useful sources on the net.

2 would i be your travel-mate, please?

* the answer is no. not about i am that selfish nor one-man show. don’t get me wrong. i am awkward and always feel comfy to do anything by my own. as my dad ever told, “be a general for your own trip.” that’s true. no need to blame others whenever i do mistake on the road, nor feel regret with the decision had been made since there’s no biased with others’ opinions.

* but going with my nicholas is something different. he’s not my only travel-mate. but my only truely companion and my other half. so, even the argumentations rise up, there’s always be a solution. and chill-out all the way. ty kakoy dobry, moj nikita!

3 do you have any friends on your destinations?

* fortunately, yes. ever since i join an international traveler community, i found many good friends all over the world. starting by the net but in the end becomes good friends in the real world. i love to meet them up in the destinations to have nice chit-chat, teatime or lunch or dinner and do city-seeing too. but my most important rule: keep my personal expenses as my self-subsidized. never going into other party [parties], since it will screw-up my true image as an independent traveler, who carry my own responsibility.

4 are you a travel writer? [mostly asked whenever i travel abroad and asked by westerners]

* thank you for this smart question. it must come from their definition in listening my questions and finding my curiosity about a thing actually i can explain within pretty long statement, such as “i am a journalist, even not specialized in travels, dadeedadeeda.” but no. i just smile and answer it politely, “i write travel journal sometimes for magazines in my country.”

5 what do you want to find in this life, refer to your passion of traveling? [sad but true, asked by indonesians!]

* thank you in the opposite way for this un-necessary question. it will be pretty damn rude, if i say, “none of your business” or “how about your own life, then? may i know yours too?” i know this question come into the situation, since my people keep on thinking earn money is a hard work. so must be kept and do saving money as much as you can. and even worse, with addition of narrow-mindedness.

* but for me, it’s different [sorry to have a different point of view, since the topic is about my life and my decision, not theirs]. being on travel, be a traveler, is my way to achieve myself. bring my own to see the entire of the world and learn about the other sides of life itself. and i have to do working hard too in self-subsidizing my life and my travels. but i am happy to do all of these. so don’t bother to find my personal and very private answer! i don’t owe you even a penny, do i?

6 since your background is a journalist, are you going travel abroad with official expenses? and there’s so much to see … is there any official assignment?

* i would like to say proudly: no, never! my travels and official assignments are completely different one to another. i do self-subsidizing for all of my journeys and i am an independent traveler. never take any opportunity from official assignments and i am so proud about this fact. it always be a strict separation between abroad assignment and my private holidays

funniest and horribles moments with airlines services

1 with beloved nicholas on summer 2003, departure london heathrow [lhr] to cengkareng jakarta [cgk]. when we landed, the 2 backpacks has just missing. what a surprise, they’re not going to jakarta [cgk] based on the label and its conveyor belt! they’re landed to chongquing [chq]. and fly from there to india, since unwritten mandatory said “to indonesia [ina]” but alas, sounds like “india [ind]“. procedure takes 5 days, serviced by emirates.

2 solo backpacking to india in 2004, got business class in changi, singapore on departure to colombo, srilanka. is someone upgrading my economy class? there’s no clue. i enjoy apple juice, warm towel and read a bit then suddenly before take-off, “we’re truely sorry, ma’am. it’s a mistake and please proceed to your seat in economy class.” procedure takes 30 minutes, serviced by air srilankan.

3 for some other reason, the 15 minutes fly service from denpasar [dps] to ampenan [ami] in lombok island within indonesia archipelago on summer 2006 can not be done. but the airlines’ ground crews promised us to get additional flight from another air carrier. so we are awaiting patiently at the corner whilst playing yathzee. they say procedures is taken about 30 minutes and they will make announcement. it’s over 30 minutes and we decided to go to the counter. and everybody on queue just staring at us and the ground crew then asking in unsympathy way, “where have you been?” just like we’re kids and we’re asking her back, “and where’s the announcement?” finally we got our seats but there’s no guarantee they can carry our backpacks at the same time. so, we separate them with our daypacks. she mentioned, “the luggages maybe will landed on this evening or tomorrow and should be picked up by yourselves to ampenan airport.” okay then. after landed, we have a seat and awaiting evening fall. asking several ground crew about the morning flight to pick up our luggages but no one have specific schedule. and whenever we see the conveyor belt coincidentally …. our beloved green-purple and red-black backpacks were there! in the same flight with us. procedure takes 1 hour 30 minutes, serviced by trigana air.

4 solo backpacking trip on easter break 2007, fly from chiangmai [cnx] to louang phabang [lpq] with twin propellers type of plane. badly smoked air since all of the farmers in myanmar, northern thailand and laos are doing slash and burn in their fields after harvest. there’s very poor visibility during an hour fly in hazardous condition and i try to relaxing myself with lao beer which offered by the stewardess. serviced by lao airlines.

5 as on-time check-in passengers, nicholas and i always allocated ample time to proceed our tickets. in the year-end’s holiday 2006, we provided all tickets, id, airport taxes and give the backpacks to be put in hold. all done. and landed in denpasar airport safe and sound. lots of smile and laugh. but wait, where are our backpacks? until conveyor belt stop working, there’s no ours! a ground crew try to tell us something, “we’re terribly sorry and please be patient to await the next flight since your luggages are there.” oh! *ready to blow up face as i am showing at that moment, nicholas give a lovely smile on his face* so, check-in on time and preparing the best sometimes means nothing! still … lucky us since we like to do go-show for next fly to ampenan, lombok. imagine if we have a tight schedule in the year-end. whenever any destinations just fully-booked. procedure takes 50 minutes, serviced by garuda indonesia.

the worst experience being a traveler and travel writer and photographer

i am just a humble, simple and easy going backpacker who likes travel in constructive way to explore the destinations.  yes but no but yes but no [refer to vicky pollard in little britain] in giving myself an ‘ammo’ of slr camera. so, do i deserve to address myself as a photographer? only readers, relatives and fellows can judge it and  i never put it as an advantage or minus side to make travel journals for magazines and my own bloggies.

but mind you, a result from a pocket camera of mine can give a very serious impact in my life as a traveler? my picture was being stolen by an advertisement agency to be misused as illustration of an indonesian airline.

lips can be sealed. laws maybe weak against the people without manners in the virtual-internet jungle. but my documentation towards this tragedy will remain forever. i don’t need to write further about this disgusting thief [s]. just put it into karma and forever the person will get bad luck as she or he or they did improper way –and think it legally– to steal materials in the name of  “sorry we don’t know if this is a copyrighted material”.

yeah, thief [s] can do zig-zagging tongue to help themselves look innocent. but i am sure, good luck never fly into the wrong address.

so let the nature judgement’s show how it works. i am here, in my cozy corner to see the days goes by. without any nightmare, since i am not the thief who always use destructive way to grab anything. crossing fingers for those who love to steal copyrighted materials. may you have worse experience than i’d got from you