I have a term break for 4 days ahead starting from today and..... right now I'm kinda bored. Actually, I have a lot things to do but it's the school work. I need today and tomorrow for lazying around. So, I am opening my laptop and starting to write again. So, what am I going to write??

I guess I wanna write about what I desire the most right now. TRAVEL! I didn't have many chances to travel here and there. But, once I did it, I did it with crazy. At least, once a year I went to one place. I did this since few years ago. 

One of my childhood dreams was to be an archaeologist. I love history. Histories always fascinate me in many ways it appears. But I didn't get the chance to study to be an archaeologist so I just can read and try as much as I can to visit places that amazed me. 

From all holidays that I had maybe last year visit was the one that I enjoyed the most because I did it completely different people and took me half of the months and went to 4 provinces, 4 cities and took all possible transportation.

The idea was started when my friend said about Lombok and I agreed to join them if they are going. We decided to go on December holiday. As a teacher, we always get earlier holiday. So, my friends said as long as they can come back before Christmas Eve it's fine. So, after talked about it, the Filipinos friends said they wanna join also but they wanted to go to Yogyakarta to see Borobudur Temple. I also interested because last time I went to Yogya, when I was a ninth grader, I wasn't able to visit Borobudur Temple. Then, I also wanna visit my brother at Surabaya. Then, we divided the trip in to 2 large groups. The first groups, 8 people include me, will go to Yogyakarta. Most of them were the Filipinos. I was the PIC that have to book the tockets, find the hotels and transportation, think what to eat where to go and the time taken. This first group will split into 2 after Yogyakarta. 4 of them will back to Jakarta, the rest will continue to Lombok via Surabaya and Bali by train, bus travel and ship. The 2nd group was consist of 7 people will right away fly to Lombok then we are from the 1st group will join them there and together we will go to Bali together. The PIC at Lombok is different person but in Bali, back to me again....

When I was planning the trip for the 1st group, I thought it'll be fun and I was excited because I thought about using train. I never get on a train (except MRT at Spore before). We were just one day at Yogyakarta, really just for the Borobudur Temple. 

it still greatly shaped!

pose before fly

I really enjoyed walk all around this temple even tough it rained cats and dogs. I really amazed how they could built it hundreds hundreds years ago. Anyway, from Yogyakarta we took a train travel to Surabaya, which my brother had waited. Well, actually, it didn't feel that marvelous. Hufff...because the other 2 Filipinos friends wanna save cost as limit as possible so we bought the cheapest train tickets. NO AC of course and the 5 hours trip was like hell.. So hot!! I barely forget about it. The only thing that made me enjoyed was when I saw my GPS and saw places that I used to hear and read on the news. =P I asked my brother help to arrange the travel bus from Surabaya to Bali. The travel bus took off at 8 p.m. and arrived so late at Bali on the next day. It was also a road to hell one since the driver rarely use the brake! I couldn't sleep at all coz so stressed out. From Bali, we needed to rent a car to go to Padang Bay to catch up the ship to Lombok. The ship was 3 hours long and when we arrived the sun has set. Yogyakarta is the Central Java province, Surabaya is the East Java province, Bali is the Bali province and Lombok is West Nusa Tenggara province. So, by the time we arrived Lombok, I feel like we have crossed half of the map. 

Lombok is the whole new place for me. I've been to the other cities above but not here. It is a small and beautiful city. It wasn't too crowded. The people are friendly. Though, the place we stayed was not so good but overall, I love being here! I wish one day I could be back there. We went to two Hindu's temple, 3 Gilli Islands,  two water falls in 3 days. 

Sindang Gile water fall.

Tiu Kelep waterfall. This one worth the climb!

mesmerized my the clear water and blue sky at Gilli Trawangan

The waterfalls really worth the climb. There are two waterfalls. The nearest one is Sindang Gile. It just needs 10 minutes walk. But the other one we need to climb around 30 minutes (for the local) to climb but we took more than 30 minutes in the rain! However, it worth it. Just so hard to climb back.. hufff.. We met the foreigner who didn't even exhausted back and forth. They walked even in speed. 

From Lombok to Bali. We arrived at Bali also in dark almost 12 a.m. we had a nice 3 days also in Bali. At least, for me. The breakfast was better in Bali since in Lombok we only has pancakes! The same type for 3 days (the 2nd group had it for 5 days ^^). The inn also wasn't so good but a bit better from Lombok. We stayed near Kuta beach but I didn't step on my foot there. I have been there years ago so I preferred other beaches. Honestly, I almost broke by the time we reached Bali.. ^^ spent to much at Lombok and Bali costs a lot more than Lombok. We went to Tanah Lot, Kintamani, Oka, Blue point and Dream Land beaches, Goa Gajah and I forgot.. ^^ Bali was crowded! The highway wasn't open yet so it quite traffic at that time and almost end of year also. 

Tanah Lot

The picture above is the temple in Tanah Lot. It usually drowned when the high tide. I was lucky finally able to see it on the second time I've been there. The unique thing is that the water flow in the temple even not salty. 

@ Goa Gajah. This man came here to meditate. ^^

Come to Oka Agricutural Bali at Kintamani, u'll get this to try on.. warm for the cold weather..yummm!

On 23rd December 2012, we ended the trip, all of my friends flew back to Jakarta, I flew to Surabaya again to stay with my brother and his wife family for 3-4 days. By the time I reached there, my skin has darken a lot that the day they picked me up at the train station. ^^ The hot weather in Lombok really stung! I spent my days just lazying around at Surabaya. My brother just bring me to Tretes and culinary thing. The one I miss the most there is the bebek goreng. My sis in law sister took me around by motorcycle one day and I can tell the sun shines stronger there than in Jakarta. 

Few days before the end of year, I flew back to Jakarta with extra another back. I took 15 days away from home and I missed my pillow so much. The first thing my bf said when he looked at me was that I looked like huana.. >.<  It took me 2 months to get my normal face color but more than that to get my hand skin color back.  However, I miss the moment on the road again. I really wanna have it again. Hopefully soon.... Starting to collect some money again to spend.. =p

"Sharing the holiday with other people, and feeling that you're giving of yourself, gets you past all the commercialism. " _ Caroline Kennedy