my notes

Overland 2009

2009-10-11T07:01:00.001-07:00

Accompagne 2 francais pour decouvrir le Java..

temple Sukuh, 1`h 30 de Solo, 13 siecle

Bajang Ratu, la gloire de Majapahit, Trowulan Java Est. Sur la route au Bromo

la mairie de Malang, devant l'hotel Tugu, le plus grand hotel dans la ville

Bromo dans le feu

Apres le lever du soleil au Penanjakan

La mer de sable au Bromo

Bromo est tres colore, la ceremonie de Kasada

Porteur de soufre au crater d'Ijen, Banyuwangi Java Est

Sun Rise at Dieng Plateau

2009-10-11T06:33:00.000-07:00

Really curious to see double sun rise at Dieng plateau. Golden & Silver sun rise, cos there are 2 differents colours on the sky. For me, it's not really double sun rise. Anyway, this can be a choice for those who want to do a tour to Borobudur. Visiting this bouddhist temple in the morning then continue to Dieng plateau. Don't expect to get nice & luxury room at the plateau since you can only find basic hotels. they don't even provide a towel. Don't forget to bring your jacket or anything to keep you warm. It's 2000 m above sea level.

Sun rise..view from Sikunir

Kecebong lake, located just behind Sikunir

Hindu temples, at dieng plateau

well...it's me!!

Roadtrip Pesta Blogger 2008

2008-11-19T15:29:00.000-08:00

Mumpung masih hangat di ingatan karena baru saja selesai acaranya, sekitar setengah jam yll aku sempetin untuk nulis di blog ini. Sebenarnya besok harus bangun pagi2 banget karena harus nemenin orang ke airport jam 4 pagi, cuma kalo gak segera ditulis keburu males.

Acara Roadtrip Pesta Blogger 2008 di resto Gajah Wong Yogyakarta adalah ajang ramah tamah para blogger dari Jogja dgn beberapa blogger asing. Sponsornya sih kalo gak salah telkomsel karena pulangnya dikasih kaos telkomsel sebagai media promosi blog mypulau.

Berhubung terbatasnya waktu jadi gak sempet diskusi. Blogger asing ini baru sempet cerita kesan2 mereka selama kunjungannya di Indonesia. Aku hanya sempet bertanya satu kali (satu2nya pertanyan sebenarnya) dan itupun tidak terjawab dengan tuntas. Sebenarnya aku cuma ingin tahu apa yg telah diperbuat blogger di negara mereka (Amerika, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore dan Filipina) untuk memajukan pariwisata di negara mereka. Aku juga tanyakan ini karena mereka selalu membicarakan tentang pariwisata. Aku pingin dengar jawaban yang konkrit, sesuatu yang bisa dikatakan berita besar yg dibuat oleh para blogger untuk memajukan pariwisata. Berita besar semacam cerita blogging Nila Tanzil tapi cerita yg menyenangkan untuk didengar. Dari 5 bloggers asing itu hanya 2 yang sempet menjawab, satu dari malaysia karena kasusnya berhubungan dengan menteri pariwisata mereka dan satu lagi dari amerika. Blogger malaysia, Jeff Ooi banyak membicarakn tentang kasus Nila Tanzil dan blogger Amerika Mark Tafoya sedikit banyak bisa menjawab pertanyaanku biarpun masih terkesan klasik. Untungnya pas bubaran aku sempet bicara sebentar sama mereka dan ada satu hal yang bisa aku ambil sebagai pelajaran.

Mark bilang kalau bisa orang2 Indonesia banyak menulis blog tentang wisata, tetapi bukan hanya melulu tentang tempat wisata saja. Justru hal2 sepele yang ada di sekitar kita bisa dijadikan alternatif yang buat orang asing menarik untuk dibaca. Hal sepele dan khas dari Indonesia, seperti gaya hidup, makanan, upacara tradisional dll. Tetapi harus ditulis dalam bahasa asing/Inggris sehingga bisa menjadi artikel yg mempunyai daya tarik untuk diketahui lebih dalam sehingga memancing rasa penasaran mereka untuk datang ke Indonesia. Sesuatu yang lain dari informasi pariwisata yg dibuat oleh beberapa dinas pariswisata di Indonesia, hotel dan beberapa komponen pariwisata di Indonesia.

Tadi sempet juga ketemu sama anak2 dari komunitas CahAndong yg baru saja ngasih pelatihan blogging untuk UKM pariwisata di Jogja karena dinas pariwisata baru saja launching situs blog untuk insan pelaku bisnis pariwisata di seluruh Indonesia. Bagi yg kebetulan maen ke Jogja dan kalo pas malam2 gak ada acara bisa ngobrol ma mereka di depan Monumen SO 1 Maret setiap Jumat mulai jam 10 malam.

Terakhir aku mau ngucapin makasih ma mas Nico yg dah kirim undangan, tapi kayaknya ini atas informasi dari mbak Virzha deh. Btw Tks and Good Luck buat para blogger

Double Booking

2008-04-01T06:59:00.000-07:00

Double Booking Double Booking Double Booking all the time..
Last month, this month...uhhh..
Anyway here she is .... a lovely girl....Chris..where are our lovely photos??? :) Can you send them all to me?? Please...
They're my last group... and I've no one right now...
Unfortunately next week double booking again it's event triple bookings so.. no chance ...

Getting Lazy

2008-03-12T10:04:00.000-07:00

Wow..wow..wow..I'm just getting lazy man...
It's been 2 months i don't write anything at this blog. In fact I've been working many times with some different tourists but.. no picture at all. No photo from them since I just did some transit tours. Well there are also longer trips but as mentioned earlier no picture.

January

2008-01-31T04:25:00.000-08:00

This January I don't really work that much..and unfortunately I don't make good money while I really need it since I've spent too much money.
Luckily I've been booked for some different tours next week.

Last Works Good Results

2008-01-15T01:30:00.000-08:00

Thanks God for sending me nice tourists for my lasts works in 2007.
Started from a Malaysian family, an Amnercan family living in Jakarta and an American couple. They were really great. The last couple was Marcus and Dea really nice person. Hope can see them again in the future.
And this year, 2008 well started already with a couple??? I don't want to write it here. I hope that I can get more clients this month since I need much more money for my project

Cecil

2008-01-13T18:20:00.000-08:00

Cecil is from Hongkong. She's been to Indonesia so many times actually. In fact she used to live in some cities in Indonesia. She's a friend of Poon, a malaysian had came earlier to Indonesia. He was with 5 other friends in Indonesia for couples days. Then he recomended me to Cecil, so thanks Poon hope can see you again some day.
Cecil and I visited some places such as: Kaliadhem as shown on the picture and there is another picture of Buddhist temple which is located in Prambanan complex.
Hope can see you again someday Cecil.. Good Luck

Merci Pierre et Eve

2008-01-13T17:36:00.000-08:00

Voila deux francais attaque par des gamins au Dieng plateau. on avait de la chance d'avoir un tres beau climat. Il fait pas toujours beau au plateau car il est situe tres haut a peu pres 2000 m.

Salut Pierre et Eve..
Ils sont 2 gentil francais aussi. Leur enfant travaille en Indonesie a Total a Borneo. Ils m'ont envoye un CD plein de chansons francaises. Merci Pierre, vous m'avez appris beaucoup de choses quand vous etiez ici (il faut penser la terre devant toi avant de prendre une photo) je sais pas si vous vous rappelez encore mais je l'oublirai jamais.
Le CD est aussi excellente.. j'apprend beaucoup de choses aussi avec les chansons. Ce que je me rappele toujours est la chanson que vous m'avez appris, celle de Brassen Fernande.
Aujourd'hui je sais deja quelques chansons de different chanteurs.

Enfin

2008-01-13T17:22:00.000-08:00

Le voila enfin.. les noveaux photos de tres gentil francophone qui ont visite Indonesie l'ete dernier.
Lionel et Delphine sont Suisse. Quand j'etais avec Delphine tout le monde m'ont dit "Agus ta cliente est tres jolie" soit les mecs ou bien les femmes, ils ont dit la meme chose et c'etait partout depuis Yogyakarta jusqu'a Bali.

J'ai seulement le droit de mettre une de dizaine jolie photos de Lionel et Delphine. Ils sont a Yogyakarta avec l'arriere plan de Borobudur.

2008

2008-01-03T08:02:00.000-08:00

Je vous souhaite une excellente année 2008.

... Une année de rire et de sourire.
... Une année de petits et grands bonheurs.
... Une année de santé.
... Une année de surprises.
... Une belle année quoi... avec beaucoup d'amour et de joie.

Je vous envoie de l'énergie pour bien commencer le premier jour de l'anne et vous souhaite une tres bonne journée.

Volcan Legendaire

2007-08-08T20:37:00.000-07:00

Trekking Merapi
Le voila mon seul group cette ete.. Mais ils sont tres sympa quand meme. Et peut etre c'est mon dernier ascension avec les tourists..Le Merapi est trop inquietant, trop risque a monter..
Je n'ecris pas trop.. mais j'ai mis bcp de photos.. on dit que les images racontent plus que les paroles.. Voici les photos

Tourist of The Year

2007-06-18T01:42:00.000-07:00

Aku memang nggak sering bawa turis domestik apalagi bawa cewek2 riweuh... kaya mereka ini nih....(AKU TUNGGU GAMBARNYA TEH tar aku upload juga di blogku)
Nih dia beberapa foto dari cewek Bandung..

Tapi seru juga jalan ama mereka, apalagi si Kabayan cewek yang ini nih...
Dari jerawatnya (foto yang ada jerawatnya jangan di edit ya)aja dah keliatan gokilnya...NGGAK BISA DIMAAFKAN itu istilah dia sendiri. Dah lama sih istilah ini tapi masih aja dia pake.

Mereka di Jogja kursus batik dan perak terus sempet juga jalan ke bebeapa tempat wisata.

Summer Clossing

2006-08-29T00:32:00.000-07:00

This summer I accompanied 10 groups of French tourists to spend their summer in Java. Some of my reservations have been cancelled due to the earthquake in Java. It’s alright… hope next summer there will be more tourists come to Indonesia. In the mean time I’ll be busy with my study in the university. I’m going to study art… metal smithing next month. However I still continue teaching silversmithing course in my studio. You can maybe visit my web at www.artstudio76.com

Should you need info regarding to Indonesian tourism especially Java please feel free to write me & I’ll do my best to provide the requested info.

Kuoni Of This Summer

2006-08-28T23:32:00.001-07:00

This summer finished by accompanying a French couple Jeremy & Maud from Kuoni. We did an overland tour from Yogyakarta to Surabaya. As last summer, we went to Surabaya by train then continued to Bromo. The sun rise was very beautiful. Don’t forget to send me the photo with the jeep!!

After sunrise we went down to Surabaya for the last night in Java, Novotel Surabaya. Unfortunately there was a traffic due to a problem fixing of a gaz company (PT. Lapindo Brantas). It took us 1,5 hour to escape from the traffic. Then we continued to traditional Javanese port Pasuruan to see traditional sailing boat.

Our last night in Surabaya wasn’t good for me.. to many mosquito in this big city. Next morning dropping Jeremy & Maud to Surabaya international airport for catching flight to Bali. Have a nice trip!! Bonne Continuation!!

3rd Group

2006-08-28T23:32:00.000-07:00

Laurent et Solenne, Armelle et Isabelle, Francois, Jacques, Fabrice et Celine… are the members of my 3rd group. Maybe they’re also my last group of this summer.. I don’t have any reservation yet The tour was really good… and the members were really nice too. Before starting the trek we stopped at a huge tea plantation. Isabelle & Laurent bought a special knife for cutting the tea leaves. (n’oubliez pas de m’envoyer les photos avec les femmes du thé)

After visiting the waterfall in Tawangmangu we went to a swimming pool. Jacques, Laurent & Armelle (petite papillon avec son maillot de bain) enjoyed the cool water 15 degree C. Solenne, Isabelle, Francois, Fabrice & Celine had chicken & rabbit satay. The satay seller (Mbok Gito, 60 years old) used to served the 1st Indonesian president Mr. Sukarno. Celine & Isabelle, please send me the photos you made with her. I promised to bring it to her someday when I visit Tawangmangu again.

Finishing the tour around 5 pm and back to Yogyakarta for a dinner before arriving to hotel.On a goûté cigarette de clou de giroffe, même Celine qui n’est pas fumeuse l’a aussi fumée. C’est pas la faute de guide qui les a propose (don’t blame the guide). Je ne sais pas si Isabelle a ramené une cartouche de cigarette avant de partir.. et Armelle..tu as déjà acheté une balayette à Lombok avant de partir?
Next morning I dropped them in Tugu train station for next depart to Surabaya as previous groups. Et voila!! Les 3 groups de Volcan Légendaires / Nouvelle Frontieres..hope next summer there will be more tourists come to Indonesia.

2nd Group Volcan Légendaires

2006-08-28T23:12:00.001-07:00

Here they are.. my second group of Volcan Légendaires..Michelle & Eric, Willy & Marlene, Celine, Bertrand & Thony, William, Philippe, Christophe, Francois & Anne. We did the same tour as the first group of Volcan Légendaires..and we could reach Tawangmangu / waterfall this time. We left earlier & moved faster to get there. It was really beautiful…a waterfall of 81 metres & monkeys around..

Unfortunately, I only have one email address.. Willy, please let me know if you have email the addresses of our group.

Yogyakarta Bromo

2006-08-01T23:55:00.005-07:00

Last summer I accompanied a Belgium couple to discover Java for their honeymoon. Nico and Esther came to Indonesia through a French tour operator KUONI. I picked them up in Yogyakarta airport than dropped them in Novotel hotel Yogyakarta. Next morning we went to Borobudur the biggest Buddhist monument in the world then continued to do a city tour in Yogyakarta (visiting Sultan palace, bird market, water castle, batik and silver factory).

We also visited Prambanan (hindus temple). After staying in Yogyakarta 2 days, we continued our journey to Surabaya the capital of East Java province also the 2nd city in Indonesia. 5 hours in the train from Yogyakarta to Surabaya was a great opportunity to witness a real Javanese life. People selling in every train station, huge rice fields along the road and then switched to teak forest and also city life in Surabaya. We escaped immediately from Surabaya to go to our hotel in Tosari. It took 3 hours drive before arriving to our hotel. Finally we arrived in our hotel at 4 pm so we had enough time for rest cos we had to wake up early tomorrow. Next early morning, at 4 am we took a jeep to go to Penanjakan (2700 m) to see the sunrise. After that we continued to Bromo (2400 m) to see the active smoking crater.

Going back to our hotel for breakfast and shower then we went down to Surabaya. We visited a zoo actually to see orang utan, komodo and also white tiger before we go to our hotel in Surabaya for the last night in Java. Next morning I accompanied them to Surabaya airport cos they’ll continue their trip to Bali.

Well, what a short time with Nico and Esther cos they’re very nice couple. We still have good contact till now and they even support me for the earthquake in my city, Yogyakarta. Last month they wrote me that they already have a baby. Theo is very cute and he looks like his mom Esther. Congratulation Nico and Esther…

Silver Course

2006-08-01T23:55:00.004-07:00

Steven and Saars, a Dutch couple was traveling in Yogyakarta last July for couple days. It’s nice to see them when they came to my studio for short course to make silver jewelry. We had early dinner in a warung (small resto) close to my village.

After having dinner then we started to make our jewelry. Saars made a silver ring and Steven made a key chain. They both worked very hard, Steven was having hard times in soldering his piece. But congratulation Steven, you did a great job.

Finally they both did it very well. Saars got a very nice ring and Steven got his unique key chain. Unfortunately I don’t have a photo of what they made. I’ll ask them to send it to me. Most important is that they are satisfied joining with my course making very beautiful stuff with their own hands…

Climbing Merapi

2006-08-01T23:55:00.003-07:00

Last summer I accompanied some French groups to climb Merapi volcano (3000 m). They participated a tour package called Volcan Legendaire. In the beginning, I was bit afraid cos Merapi was also more active than usual. Thanks God nothing happened during my 5 times climbing Merapi.
We left from our hotel at 11 pm to go to Selo, last village on the foot of Merapi. It took us one and half hour to get there. I had contacted my friends (4 local guides) to accompany us to reach the peak. 3 tourists accompanied by 1 local guide cos we were walking in the middle of the night, very dark and very narrow and dangerous paths also the deep ravines.

After walking for about 4-5 hours finally we reached the peak of Garuda (name of the peak). Even though we didn’t reach the peak at the same time cos some of partipants didn’t walk as fast as the others but most of them did it. It an extraordinary view from the peak, sun rise was very beautiful. Considering to the Merapi’s activity we decided not to stay too long cos it was scary in fact.

It took as about 3 hours to get back to Selo village to get our car. Walking down from the peak, the view was also beautiful. Narrow and steep paths we had passed were very beautiful and dangerous in fact.

We got back to our cars at 10 am then continued to Yogyakarta. We were all just sleeping in the cars after walking the whole night. But it was just unforgotten memory in Yogyakarta..
I just hope that next year there’ll be next groups cos this is a very good program actually and I can see the tourists are satisfied for what the got here in Yogyakarta.

Indonesie

2006-08-01T23:55:00.001-07:00

L’indonésie est un tel puzzle géant jeté entre le continent asiatique et l’ Australie, l’archipel équatorial d’Indonésie, vaste comme quatre fois la France (1 904 345 km2) comprend plus de 13 000 îles don’t les plus grandes sont Java, Sumatera, Borneo, Celebes et Papua (la partie occidentale de Nouvelle Guinée). Les 13 000 iles qui constituent le territoire d’Indonésie, à peine 6000 sont déjà nommé et seulement 1000 habitée de façon permanente.

Si l’on superposait l’ Indonésie en Europe ou bien aux États Unis, elle s’etendrait de Madrid à Moscou ou de San Fransisco à new York, et en France, de Paris à Abidjan. Imaginez la prodigieuse diversité du paysage, de la culture, de la faune et de la flaure et vous commencerez à apprehender la complexité du pays. Unifier ses 350 group d’ethniques et ses 150 langues differents???

La devise “ l’unité dans la diversité ” est la phylosohie national et heuressement on a l’Indonésien comme la langue national pour se communiquer de tous les group d’ethnique differents.

L’ Indonésie est un pays d’une beauté etonnante dans sa diversité: On trouve des cimes enneigées de 5600 metres d’altitude à Papua, des marecages etouffants dans les terres basses de l’est de Sumatera, des forêts vierges verdoyant dans l’ouest de Java et sans parler des volcans en activité qui pontuent pratiquement tout l’archipel. Le plus tristement celebre est le Krakatau. Son eruption en 1883 a provoqué un enorme-raz-de marée et fait perir 36.000 personnes. La plus triste catastrophe est le tremblement de terre qui a provoqué le tsunami l’annee passé à Aceh l’extremité de l’ouest de Sumatera qui a fait perir plus de 200.000 personnes (Indonésiens). Et récemment en Mai, un autre tremblement de terre à Yogyakarta qui a fait perir plus de 10.000 personnes.

Par sa population, l’Indonesie se place au 5e rang mondial. Celle-ci est estimé à 220 millions d’habitans qui sont inégalement repartie. L’île de Java comme le 5e des grand îles en Indonésie en abrite les 2/3. Une politique gouvernementale de transmigration vise à distribuer et implanter les habitants dans les îles moins peuplées.

En raison de sa situation en latitude, l’Indonésie est caracterisée, dans son ensemble, par un climat chaude et humide. Le climat est aussi remarquable par l’uniformité de ses temperatures qui sont génera lement superieures à 24o C et ne s’abaissent pas au dessous de 20o C except dans la montagne.

Plusieurs centaines d’années avant l’ère chrétienne, des vagues successives de peuple “ austro-asiatique “, ancêntres des Indonésiens actuels, refoulèrent les autochtones mélanesiens et négritos vers les régions montagneuses peu hospitalières. Puis l’Indonésie s’integra progressivement a l’aire de civilization indienne par l’intermédiare de commerçants et de chefs religieux qui diffusèrent le bouddhisme et l’hindouisme. Les prestigieux royaumes hindouistes de Sumatera ou de Java, dontil reste les temples de kalasan, de Prambanan et surtout de Borobudur ne purent résister aux progress de l’Islam, introduit par les commerçant Arabes a partir du XIVe siècle.. Ces Etats s’effacèrent pour laisser la place a des sultanats. Au XVIe siècle, la colonialisation Européenne débuta avec les Portugais, relayés ensuite par les Espagnols, les Hollandais et les Anglais. Les Hollandais réussierent à évincer leurs concurrents et à assesoir leur dominationsur l’Indonésie tout entière. Comme ce fut le cas pour d’autres pays colonisés en Asie, l’occupation Japonaise de 1942 à 1945 ouvrit la voie de l’accession à independence. Celle-ci fut proclamée le 17 Aoùt 1945, au lendemain de la capitulation Japonaise.

Soft Trekking

2006-08-01T23:55:00.000-07:00

Last week I accompanied a French Group to do soft trekking from Ceto temple to Sukuh temple than continued to Tawangmangu waterfall, located about 100 km from Yogyakarta. Luca… un flic qui s’interrese beacoup a la politique (tu m’ as laisse un bon impression d’un flic francais).. Thierry est professeur…(n’oublie pas de m’envoyer les photos avec mon T Shirt de Henry).. Jean ( il etait Italien avec sa belle femme Sylvie) Claire, Veronique, Etienne, Martine, Delphine et Jean Pierre sont les proffesseurs

They came to Indonesia through a French tour operator called Nouvelle Frontiere. The real program was to climb Merapi volcano but due to the Merapi’s activities which is not possible to do the trek therefore we did a soft trekking from Ceto to Tawangmangu instead.
We left from Yogyakarta at 7 am and arrived in Karangpandan bus station at 10 am. We had to switch to smaller vehicule cos our bus from Yogyakarta was to big for narrow road to climb Ceto. We did some shopping actually in Karangpandan traditional market, provision for lunch during the trek. Jean a achete une CD de la musique traditionelle de Java..gamelan

30 minutes driving up through tea plantation to reach Ceto temple which is located on 1400 above sea level. Compared to Borobudur or Prambanan temple in Yogyakarta, Ceto is much smaller and looks like temples in Bali. Main temple is located in the back, is one of the characters of East Java temples. It doesn’t mean that the temples are always in East Java province. These temples are usually built after 10th century.

After visiting Ceto temple we started our soft trekking. A huge tea plantation was our first view for about 1,5 hour. My group was excited to see the tea plantation and and women picking tea leaves. What a wonderful panorama of this plantation. Everywhere just tea…tea mountain and very fresh air ..

Finally we arrived in a village which is also the end of tea plantation. After that we just entered in a pines wood. Wandering in a quite pines for about 1, 5 hour. We just met 2 peoples in the pines, a local people and another hunter with his gun chasing a bird …maybe. Our pique nique was also in the pines. Si tu veut faire sortir, fais sortir et les autres vont le prendre (Jean a di a Delphine). Merci Veronique pour nous as montre comment decortiquer les ananas

Walking, talking and kidding ..(on a bien rigole.. avec Jean a sculptor from Paris? sorry Jean I forgot, just remember that you have an exhibition in a gallery in Paris and Veronique wants to go there) sent us to another 14th century temple. It’s often called as erotic temple for its sculptures and statues.

That’s just a little ornament of the temple and here is the main temple looks like. Some say that it looks like Mexican temple or Pyramid in Egypt.

Well..we just did half trekking which means another 3 houres to go. Our next menu is Javanese village life…. Wandering in a javanese village life let us to explore small, clean streets in the village. People is very friendly and some traditional javanese houses can be found here. As the village is a plateau therefore we don’t find rice field cos rice doesn’t grow well above 1000 metres. We found some carrots and potatos instead. See a lady is cleaning her carrots on the street…
We arrived at the gate of Tawangmangu waterfall but unfortunately it was already close. We’re about 25 minutes late cos it’s closed at 4 pm and we got there around 4.25 pm. Tant pis, but still we could meet our little friends…monkeys..waterfall guards… Luca et Thierry ont goute boisson traditionnelle a base de cacahuettes..c’est bonne mes amis??

We left from Tawangmangu to Solo for a dinner then continued to our hotel in Yogyakarta. Next morning I dropped them in Tugu train station for next depart to Surabaya cos they had to continue their trip to Bromo, Ijen and Bali. And over next morning I picked up another group just for classic tour. Next month, I still have 2 groups from Nouvelle Frontiere and hope they won’t cancel cos the 3rd one already did.

Bonne continuation mes amis!! Je vous sohuite un tres bon voyage en esperant de vous revoir lors d’un prochain sejour.

Jean, n’oublie pas de m’envoyer le DVD de notre balade.
Agus