Hongkong

It's official I am going to Hongkong this November. Coming with me is a travel mate whom I met from backpacking online community. There will be another person joining in but I haven't had her confirmation so far. I picked them out of other interested participants based on the chemistry "clickness". Hopefully we will be truly click when doing our journey together.

Ticket has been booked. I am nervous and thrilled at same time! I cant wait for November

Travel Plan

I just found Jakarta-Kuala Lumpur-Macau round trip US$130. From Macau I will take ferry to Hongkong. Going to Kuala Lumpur, Macau & Hongkong doesn't need to apply visit visa. If nothing hinders my travel plan, I will start from 5 November-11 November 2009.

I'm calculating my budget for this trip. It needs around US$300 only for flight ticket (JKT-KL-Macau-KL-JKT), ferry ticket (Macau-HK-Macau), plus staying in hostel with dormitory room type. Transportation and meal are excluded. I'm thinking to take US$500 along when travelling.

Making a trip plan myself surely is troublesome! It would be my 1st time backpacking but hey there's a good thing. I learn some weather cast and the route to get to know my destination better. I threw a thread to backpacking mailing list and there are some interested participants. Hopefully i will meet my partner soon. I might end up in kuala lumpur only if i haven't found partner by the end of october.

Going alone is more adventurous don't u think?

Work with Love

Takemoto is a sophomore at an art college in Tokyo. He lives with friends in an apartment. Near the end of his study he begins questioning what he wants to do after graduating. Thus it leads to his journey traveling around Japan for self enlightenment.

Along the way he encounters many experiences and the answer he's looking for. In a town he meets a group of builders restoring an old temple. They move from town to town after finishing a temple. Takemoto enjoys himself while he is among them. Therefore he decides to join them after graduation.

Takemoto, who is college graduate, takes a job as temple restorer. As his fellow worker says, "it's low paying job and it's not easy". If Takemoto was a real life person and living in Indonesia, I believe people would look down on him, since little we are pressured by our parents to study hard and get a good job. A good job here equals a high position, working in big company, and a high salary. We are taught not to work as random, unimportant things because they are not money producing. This dogma causes us to underestimate certain job positions.

My mind goes to a quote I saw couple years back. A pair of woman's hands making handy craft. A hand of an old woman pictured in black and white. Under it there's a saying. More or less it says, "whatever you do if you do it with love and you're a successful person".

Singapore Trip

My trip to Singapore was by plane and ferry. The plane flew for 2 hours from Jakarta to Batam, an island for transiting to Singapore, and then 1 hour crossing the sea by ferry. That 2 hours flying was boring but I enjoyed the ferry much. I went to the top of the ferry enjoying wind breeze, ships traffic, and the sea scenery as well. I stayed 4 days in Singapore which was more than enough for sightseeing around that tiny country. I visitted must visit spots within those 4 days.

Here's the pictures

Money Lost

This incident happened few days before I visitted Singapore. A friend, whom I went to singapore with, lost her money. The amount was truly hell plenty. It's IDR 2 millions. The story started when she withdrew some money from ATM machine but she forgot to pulled back her card. Few minutes after walking away from the booth she realized her forgotten card. Unfortunately some of her savings had been withdrawn by a thief by the time she getting back to the booth. The thief face was taped in cctv camera. She didn't recognise him as one of the employee of the same company as hers. At home she told me she lost her desire for singapore vacation.

I had my card lost last year. It was fortunate for me nobody stole anything from my account. Since then I've become more carefull everytime withdrawing some money from ATM booth.

Eventually she overcame her grief and we went to Singapore together.