travel-book

Indonesia: Tanjung Karang White-Sandy Beach in Central Sulawesi

2009-09-03T09:18:00.040+02:00

Not everyone awares that Indonesia archipelago has more to offer than Bali and Lombok. There's a huge island that lies between Borneo and Maluku, and it's called Sulawesi (old European name: Celebes). Sulawesi is known for the rich wildlife, pristine nature, great coffee, world-class dive sites, religious conflicts and many many more. No I won't talk about Sulawesi much, but you can read your way about Sulawesi in wiki for quick reference or the lonelyplanet thread.

Now we zoom into the mostly-unknown Tanjung Karang beach. Thanks to MisterSteve in this thorntree forum thread, we got ourselves intrigued by the place. To quote his post:

"Fly from Makasar to Palu and visit beautiful Tanjung Karang Beach (located 45 minutes from Palu and 1 1/2 miles from the town of Donggala on the central west coast of Sulawesi). Spend 3 full days there for snorkling and/or diving, and enjoying a real authentic Sulawesi village with very friendly local people. Very nice white sand beach. This is the "real" Indonesia --- NOT like Kadidiri or Taipi Islands in the Togians where all you see are guesthouse accommodations designed for Divers. The town of Donggala has a nice traditional market too."

His description sound promising and we gave it a try, since we already dumped our previous plan that obviously impossible to make within 2 weeks--we wanted to explore the remote Togian Islands.

local childrens on the beach

So there we were, arriving in Palu airport quite late in an evening, thanks to frequent-delay flights that Batavia Air offers--hey, we were still lucky the plane didn't crashed, right? Also, the airport in Palu was small and the most primitive I have been in Indonesia. But we were not to be worried, because our pick-up was patiently waiting for us outside.

click for larger map

full moon on tanjung karang beach

We had pre-arranged the van with the place we're staying, Prince John Dive Resort, 37 km Northwest from Palu. The ride took us almost one hour from the airport and we arrived there at 11pm. The staff was waiting there and lead us to the cottage. We quickly unpacked and took a little walk on the beach. Full moon light our way, it's incredible feeling to see your shadow in the middle of the night, under sky full of stars, and the waves were the only sound you hear. Pro Tips: Do get used to with the sound of the waves! Though the cottages were high above the cliff, you can hear the obvious sound from your room while you're trying to sleep. I had no problem, I love the sound.

Next morning, I woke up and went to the cottage's terrace, and boom, you can see the coral reefs in the beach below, just a few meters away!

caution: coral reefs ahead

While waiting for breakfast time, we lay lazily and make plan to go snorkeling.

(above) and (below) the beach in front of Prince John Dive resort

Prince John Dive Resort
It's probably the most established resort in the area, and from their brochure, their dive center the only dive center in the radius 500km. A friendly German couple, Alex and Gaby run the place. Gaby claimed that she speaks better bahasa Indonesia than English. And as you can guess, the guests were mostly Germans.

I took the cheapest bungalow, cost IDR 440,000 a night, though written €40 in their page. The price includes 3 meals and a tea-break snack. Still thirsty? You can of course order drinks from their small bar. And the airport transport was IDR 200,000 per car one-way. Internet access also available for a price.

However, Prince John Dive Resort was not a star resort. The bathroom was pretty basic and the electricity in the room only run after sunset. Aside of those, the bungalows have nice touch, the foods were delicious, and the staffs were helpful and friendly. Junaidi in the reception was helping us to arranged the trip to Toraja. He was nice to chat with, fluent in English and even refused the tip.

There are other cheaper places around, start from IDR 150,000 a night. But then again, you get what you paid.

Snorkeling in Tanjung Karang
We didn't dive, we're only snorkeling at that time and love it a lot. The corals in front of Prince John were great to begin with. We tested our underwater pocket camera and had a great time.

(above) and (below) corals, literally a few steps away from the beach

grumpy clown fish

Tired after intense snorkeling around? Take a little break, which is no other than sunbathing on Tanjung Karang white sand beach.

Before sunset, we went snorkeling to the Northern tip. It's about 10 minutes easy walk-on-the-beach North from Prince John.

the Northern tip of the small peninsula of Palu gulf, this was the good spot for snorkeling (and diving)

clown fish family picture

BIZZARE! I bet you never see so many lion fishes in a same place, do you?

and in no time the sun set.. we would come back tomorrow

That night, the resort had two unexpected guests. These cuscus like toasts and playing with other guests.

The next morning, we came back to where we left off the other day. This time was a good 200 meter walk from the shore. Luckily it was low tide.

corals, fishes, corals, fishes!

I can't get enough of clown fishes!

Ahhh.. Just like in aquarium.. Oh wait,

starfishes everywhere!

I like this underwater landscape

puffer fish! what a funny guy

anyone wants lobster for dinner?

In the end
We stayed only 3 days in Tanjung Karang, then continued our trip to Tana Toraja. One friend asked me about this place, whether it suits for honeymoon ot not. Well, I must say honestly, it's not. The beach was really nice, but it's "objek wisata" and easily accesible by many people from Palu and around. This mean that the beach can be horribly crowded at weekend (that's why we didn't choose weekend) and of course like many "objek wisata" in Indonesia, it gets dirty. This is indeed very sad.

It's not a secret that many Indonesians don't really care about the environment. They're building bungalows and houses so close that it's literally on the beach. I wonder why this thing failed to be regulated. Maybe "the corrupt government" is typical answer we're looking here. When you're here, you can see in Alex and Gaby helpless eyes, that once pristine dreamland that they built years ago, is falling apart. Not the resort, no the resort is doing fine, but the environment around Tanjung Karang beach.

The other thing that made this place not suitable for romance is because there's no other nice place around. I mean not exactly like touristic site, but there's nothing interesting you can do outside the beach area. So beside the resort, the beach and airport 37 km away, there's a little chance you find something romantic for you two do. Sure there's villages around and you can get close into local life like MisterSteve above mentioned, but personally i would hardly find it interesting.

So unless you want to make an effort to go to Palu and to Tanjung Karang beach or happen to pass this place, you may skip this beach. I bet there are better beaches in Sulawesi, less crowded, more beautiful and more natural. But anyway, while you are in Tanjung Karang, you should indulge yourself with its sun, white sand, colorful fishes, and beautiful corals. Maybe, try diving!

Happy travel!

the deadly and beautiful lion fish

Vote The New 7 Wonders of Nature World Final

2009-07-22T09:32:00.008+02:00

The 28 finalists were chosen, out from previous 77. The final New 7 Wonder will be announced next year after the votes were collected. So you have your time now and cast your vote on your favorites!

But alas! Among 28 places, I have never been to one. So I'm just blind voting for the coolest and the ones I'd really want to be there. The first should be Komodo Island, to support the only Indonesian finalist. Hell, who am I kidding... It's the island of the freaking Komodo dragons! The closest cousins to awesome dinosaurs!!! THE dinosaurs, hello!!! Thanks to the dragons, this particularly one island -between thousands of Indonesian beautiful islands, is definitely worthed to be in the top 7 Wonders of Nature World. Right on! Here for you dinosaurs!!

awwww look at him.... just tell me one reason why not to vote for these guys
(image)

Read a bit about Komodo Island on the official 7 Wonders Site. Or simply wiki it.

Did I mentioned that the island is also beautiful?
(image)

My other votes go to the following:
- Maldives, for the breath-taking beaches and underwater world. Representing the islands that are really threaten by global warming and climate changes.
- Amazons, this is obvious. No other place has the diversity, the size and the beauty of it.
- The Great Barrier Reef, for the grandest underwater world.
- The Angel Falls, for its majestic.
- Matterhorn/Cervino, from the Alps world. (I wonder why Himalayan Mt. Everest didn't managed to finals, anyone?)
- The Dead Sea, another obvious choice.

Vote can be made here. Happy voting!

Summer 2009 Updates

2009-07-01T10:42:00.010+02:00

Gili Meno, Lombok

Here we are in the summer, which hasn't been so sunny afterall. Yet, your ticket is booked, and you're waiting last minutes to pack your clothes. Haven't got any ticket yet? Tight on budget? Worry not, there are still things to grab. Like the Air Asia's latest promotion, which is pretty mind-blowing.

Yup, you read it alright! They erased fuel surcharge before (read here) and now there is also no admin fee, so you only pay the fare and airport tax. And since sometime the fare is 0 (zero), the total price would be absolutely a bargain!

Another freebies to win from Lonelyplanet. Email them here with the answers. The first question is very easy for me :)

This is our last poll result. I asked about your favorite mode of transportation to explore the world.

Twenty one people took the poll. Thanks! The most preferable is airplane (28%), the runner ups go to both car (19%) and motorbike (19%). Train (9%) and bicycle (9%) both go third. There people opt to trek (4%), hitchhike (4%) and make it on hot-air baloon (4%). Yet bus, chopper and animals are the least preferred.

To wrap up this update, I link you to this funny and creative in-flight security video from New Zealand Airlines. It's a part of their new marketing campaign "nothing to hide". See the commercial here. They said it's featured by their real flight captains and stewards, all of them wear nothing but shoes and go all out with their painted naked bodies. Well, I'm pretty sure that from now on, the passengers wouldn't simply ignore the 'safety' of the flight anymore. Happy travel!

Italy: Beautiful and Picturesque Cinque Terre

2009-06-22T13:25:00.005+02:00

Cinque Terre literally means five lands, which represents five Italian coastal villages on dramatic steep cliff setting, facing Mediterranian Sea. It's located just outside of Toscana (Tuscany), on the coast of Liguria.

Cinque Terre

We came there last month (May 2009), when the sun was shining a bit too much on the spring days. I have nothing to complain about that. The only problem that it was 1st May holiday which also marked the beginning of tourist season. Yes, it was packed with visitors, especially on the afternoon when half of the Italy had woke up and came to Cinque Terre. The towns were so crowded and you couldn't hardly get somewhere to sit during lunch time. Fortunately, the trail wasn't as crowded as I expected. I don't recommend to go here on Summer, for sure.

View Larger Map

Hotel Europa, Levanto
We stayed in Hotel Europa in Levanto, a town just North from Cinque Terre. Levanto is one of favorable place to stay as it's not as expensive as in the five villages and plenty of carparks are available. Please note that to get to villages by car are not only hard, but also almost impossible to find a parking place. Also, consider to book your hotel ahead! We're lucky to get rooms for us in Hotel Europa one week prior our stay, the other hotels and B&Bs were either full or had unreasonable price tag.

La Spezia --a bigger town on the South from the five villages, is another option as it's also connected comfortly with train.

Our stay in Hotel Europa was pretty straightforward. We arrived very late --almost at midnight, parked the car, slept, woke up in the morning, went to find a carpark on the other side of the town, had breakfast and then checked out. To save cost, we booked 1 big room for 4 people, instead they gave us 2 double rooms for the same price. Awesome! The staff were friendly eventough not so fluent in English. The hotel was small, a bit rustic, but neat and clean. I must warn that the street outside was loud, even pass midnight. We didn't care because we're so tired and slept easily.

(this is a big image, click to enlarge)

Train to Vernazza
Though Vernazza is not the first village between the five, we decided to skip Monterosso because we didn't have a lot of time. So we were only walking the trail through the towns Vernazza - Corgnilia - Manarola - Riomaggiore.

We took a (supposed to be 9 o'clock) train from Levanto to Vernazza, but the train was late more than half an hour. The good thing was it was only 10 minutes ride until Vernayzza and the ticket was cheap --€1.40 one way. There was an option to purchase a Cinque Terre Train Card for €8.50, which included unlimited train for a day and compulsary Cinque Terre Card (€5).

Vernazza viewed from above

Walking from Vernazza to Corniglia
Vernazza is located on the sea level, while Corniglia is located about 100 meter above from the sea, so you can guess that there's quite a lot of climbing. To add insult to the injury, between them there are higher cliffs, which means there are more climbing to do.

The best thing from gaining height was the view. One could see how beautiful the area from above. Approximately 90 minutes of walking were needed to complete this part of the trail.

Oh my.. look at the view... wait.. let me catch my breath first.

and there we go, Corniglia, high above the sea.. also, time for 2nd breakfast

Walking from Corniglia to Manarola
From 100 meter above the sea, you need to go down again. No problem! Well, say it to the hordes of people from the opposite side! There are these stairs with a total of 370+ steps for them to climb. A plank of compliment is available for them who survived and wanted to take a picture of their victory against the evil stairs.

After passing the ugly train station and some abandoned cottages, you can carry on the trail for about 45 minutes until you reach Manarola or go downstair to the rocky beach to have a nice sunbathing.

good luck, you only have 370 steps to climb!

the way to Manarola

Manarola.. colorful facades, and lots of tourists

Walking from Manarola to Riomaggiore
This part is the easiest walk, which is only 20 minutes long. Known as the Via del'Amore or the "Path of Love", this path is flat and favored by the couples in love for the view and romantic symbol. One part was fully written and carved with couples' names and love padlocks. There was even a man proposing a young lady when we went passing by. Yeah, how romantic! I think it was a common event there.

Via del'Amore.. easy and romatic.. what can you ask for more?

don't forget to leave your symbol of love

Boat back to Vernazza
This was my most favorite part on the journey. We took a boat trip from Riomaggiore to Vernazza --the beginning of our trail. One way boat ticket to Vernazza was only €6.50. And like many other scheduled things in Italy, you can never know when is the boat coming. The boat was so frequent but the tourists were just overwhelming. Fortunately, we didn't wait for so long.

The main reason we took the boat was to enjoy the five villages in a different prespective, but soon we realized that this way was the most pleasant and have the best view of Cinque Terre. I greatly recommend the boat ride.

and that's Corniglia, the only village who doesn't have access to the sea

That Video on Indonesia Tourism

2009-05-28T16:05:00.003+02:00

Simply beautiful. But hardly shows even half of Indonesia has to offer. If you can afford the time, there are literally thousands of remote and pristine natures all over Indonesia for you to find and admire.

Slovenia: More Soča Valley

2009-05-17T22:44:00.016+02:00

I'm posting more pictures from Soča Valley as I promised.

fishing season
location: where river Soča meet smaller river Tolminka

Gorizia Italy and Nova (New) Gorica Slovenia -->they just don't want to let it go :p
location: from Saint Sabotin hill

river Soča from above
location: from Saint Sabotin hill

the spring of river Tolminka
location: near town of Tolmin

near the spring of river Tolminka
location: near town of Tolmin

the spring of river Tolminka
location: near town of Tolmin

canoes on Soča
location: near town of Kobarid

river Soča
location: between town of Kobarid and Tolmin

a small town of Most na Soči (bridge at Soča)
location: viewing point above Most na Soči

smaller village surrounding Most na Soči (bridge at Soča)
location: viewing point above Most na Soči

panorama of Most na Soči (left) and Tolmin (right)
location: viewing point above Most na Soči

click picture to enlarge

For more information about the beautiful region of Soča Valley Slovenia, visit my previous post.

Poll Results and A Book

2009-04-21T19:29:00.008+02:00

spring!

So here's the last poll result, with 14 participants and 45 days. Nine people (64%) are not feeling content with current situation and decided to travel anyway, 4 people (28%) are considering to travel only if they can break their piggy bank later, and only one (7%) who isn't going anywhere.

BTW, a little celebration: Since 2009 started, this blog has been visited more than 1000 times. From 70 different countries, more than quarter came from US, then followed by Indonesia and Singapore. There are many countries that I'm not related to, I guess most of them stumbled here while googling some other things. This may prove that blogging in blogger is better than doing it in other blog providers, dunno.

from flagcounter.com

Now that the spring is here and summer is near: It's vacation season! I hope you'd enjoy your vacation where ever you go! [Tip: Do always to check last minute offers!]

And one more thing. For my Indonesian friends, you'd might want to grab this book written by a friend of mine. It's titled "Panduan Asik Ngobrol dan Jalan-Jalan di Italia". Well.. Last time I checked he had the coolness and desire of a Jamie Oliver for traveling --and foods (perfect combination right?), so I believe his book is a worthy and might be interesting for you to buy if you want to know more about traveling around Italy.

I have an idea that this is somehow supposed to be him

Well I can't write any review since I haven't got the book. All I know now that he dug non-touristy places, blend-with-locals approach, so you'd probably find a lot of quick-Italian courses inside. Available soon in Indonesian bookstores, please visit his site for more details (all in Bahasa Indonesia).

OK I shall go back to my itinerary planning now ;) Happy travel!

sneak peek?

How to Prevent Malaria

2009-04-15T08:54:00.014+02:00

In my last post, I did tell you how unfortunate if you got malaria, but nothing can stop us from enjoying the beautiful natures and experiencing cultures of the places with malaria risk. There are many good information relating to this disease, though most of them are really technical (seems written for medical students). Well in this post, I just want to recap and to keep it simple.

not pictured: malaria

Ooppps.. Disclaimer first! The following information I will give you are as I interpreted. I didn't have any medical education whatsoever, please contact your physician, saman, or anyone you can trust for your health. It is important to know that each person body is unique, so this guide --or whatever-- can be misleading because your body is different than mine --or other 99.9% of human being on the planet. So, keep that "visiting a doctor" idea on top of your list before you travel, OK? The bottom line is: You cannot sue me for giving any wrong information; Keep this in mind!

How This Horrible Thing Can Reach Us
Since I was a small kid, I have been always wondering why in the world that God --or evolution, or whatever-- created this tiny super-annoying creature. Now I'm somewhat sure that mosquitoes existed to destroy humans and make our lives miserable.

OK, time to meet our bad guy, Anopheles!

damn, he does look badass! (image)

This anopheles (but no other mosquitoes) is the carrier of the parasite, known as Plasmodium, that causes malaria. Yeah OK it's not entirely its fault when this anopheles is just enjoying its day biting and sucking blood from innocent human beings. The bad thing is if that innocent human is happened to be infected by malaria. The parasites from his/her blood were also taken and stayed on anopheles' saliva for a couple of days. And since it's really unlikely that they fast for couple of days, they will bite another innocent, yet healthy, human being. When it bites, the parasites from its saliva are then transfered to this unfortunate human's blood. And infection begin a couple of days later when the parasites reach liver and begin multiplying.

if you prefer visual (image)

Then The Worst Thing Happened
When the parasites multiply and break out from red blood cells, we got fever. This repeat every 48 to 72 hours. Like I explained on my malaria story, the fever stayed for 3-4 hours and you'd feel that the room was really cold that made your body shiver (eventough you had 39 degree Celcius temperature!). But when the fever is gone, you'd feel normal and healthy until the next cycle of the paracites multiply.

You should be (really) worried if this kind of fever happen, because if you failed to get treated, the risk of death is extremely high. Ask the medical staffs to test your blood when you're having fever and chill for any malaria. If they did otherwise, they cannot detected the malaria, and might misdiagnosed you for dengue fever because of the low thrombocytes level on blood.

Anyway if you even got some funny feeling and flu-like fever when you come back home after visiting malaria endemic area, it is really wise to be worried and go to seek medical consultation and tell them about the malaria thing. It might get ugly if you ignore this flu, I tell you. And BTW, please remember that the parasites can stayed months, even years on your body and then struck when you are least expected. The longest record was this 74-year old Greek woman, who got malaria 70 years after exposed. You read it right, 70 fucking years.

So Where Is This Malaria Again?
While Dengue fever is a risk in urban area, malaria is a huge problem in the rural. Anopheles dislike cold weather, so it's most likely endemic in tropical, warm and rainy area. To get a bit more detailed than that, you can check this site. That site is really handy to get to know more about the risk places you'd like to travel to.

not pictured again: malaria

OK Now What?
There are some effective ways to prevent malaria. First is to stop the damned mosquito biting you. One of many ways you can achieve this is by wearing clothes that covers your body, not on a space suit way, but more into long-sleeve tees and long trousers. "It's too hot!" you'd say? Well, think also other small insects that destined to kill you beside Anopheles. These clothes protection are only half effective if you don't also spray insect/mosquito repellants on them or put anti-mosquito lotion on your body. Sleeping on a bed covered with nets are also another great idea to protect you from the bites.

Note: DEET is probably bad for environment and health, but it's really effective ingredient for insect/mosquito repellants, so make sure that yours have it.

your protection (image)

Anti-Malaria Pills
After you got protected from the outside, you should protect yourself from within. Antimalarial preventive tablets are available. It's important to consult with your doctor before you take any. There are several popular types, like Lariam, Malarone, and Chloroquine. Each has different effectiveness on your body, and different side effects.

I did tried to use Lariam on one of my trips, and I kinda regret it. The side effects such as nausea, mild hallucination and nightmare were persisted for the whole trip. This made my trip less enjoyable. But then again, some people who took Lariam claimed that they don't feel any different and these terrible side effects weren't present. On the other side, my girlfriend took Malarone and she was happy as normal. I should have knew and took Malarone too if it wasn't three times the price of Lariam.

So it's actually your call, which suit you the most. These are a perfect comparision from CDC site, the table help you consider or avoid certain type of anti-malaria pills.

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Atovaquone/Proguanil (Malarone)
+ Good for last minute travelers because the drug is started 1-2 days before traveling to an area where malaria transmission occurs
+ Some people prefer to take a daily medicine
+ Good choice for shorter trips because you only have to take the medicine for 7 days after traveling rather than 4 weeks.
+ Very well tolerated medicine – side effects uncommon
+ Pediatric tablets are available and may be more convenient

- Cannot be used by women who are pregnant or breastfeeding a child less than 5 kg
- Cannot be taken by people with severe renal impairment
- Tends to be more expensive than some of the other options (especially for trips of long duration)
- Some people (including children) would rather not take a medicine every day

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chloroquine
+ Some people would rather take medicine weekly
+ Good choice for long trips because it is taken only weekly
+ Some people are already taking hydroxychloroquine chronically for rheumatologic conditions. In those instances, they may not have to take an additional medicine.

- Cannot be used in areas with chloroquine or mefloquine resistance
- May exacerbate psoriasis
- Some people would not prefer a weekly medication
- For trips of short duration, some people would rather not take medication for 4 weeks after travel
- Not a good choice for last minute travelers because drug needs to be started 1-2 weeks prior to travel

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Doxycycline
+ Some people prefer to take a daily medicine
+ Good for last minute travelers because the drug is started 1-2 days before traveling to an area where malaria transmission occurs
+ Tends to be the least expensive antimalarial
+ Some people are already taking doxycycline chronically for prevention of acne. In those instances, they do not have to take an additional medicine.
+ Doxycycline also can prevent some additional infections (e.g., Rickettsiae and leptospirosis) and so it may be preferred by people planning to do lots of hiking, camping, wading and swimming in fresh water.

- Cannot be used by pregnant women and children <8 years old
- Some people would rather not take a medicine every day
- For trips of short duration, some people would rather not take medication for 4 weeks after travel
- Women prone to getting vaginal yeast infections when taking antibiotics may prefer taking a different medicine
- Persons planning on considerable sun exposure may want to avoid the increased risk of sun sensitivity
- Some people are concerned about the potential of getting an upset stomach from doxycycline

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mefloquine (Lariam)
+ Some people would rather take medicine weekly
+ Good choice for long trips because it is taken only weekly

- Cannot be used in areas with mefloquine resistance
- Cannot be used in patients with certain psychiatric conditions
- Cannot be used in patients with a seizure disorder
- Not recommended for persons with cardiac conduction abnormalities
- Not a good choice for last minute travelers because drug needs to be started at least 2 weeks prior to travel
- Some people would not prefer a weekly medication
- For trips of short duration, some people would rather not take medication for 4 weeks after travel

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Primaquine
+ It is the most effective medicine for preventing P. vivax and so it is a good choice for travel to places with > 90% P. vivax
+ Good choice for shorter trips because you only have to take the medicine for 7 days after traveling rather than 4 weeks.
+ Good for last minute travelers because the drug is started 1-2 days before traveling to an area where malaria transmission occurs
+ Some people prefer to take a daily medicine

- Cannot be used in patients with glucose-6-phosphatase dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficience
- Cannot be used in patients who have not been tested for G6PD deficiency
- There are costs and delays associated with getting a G6PD test done, however it only has to be done once. Once a normal G6PD level is verified and documented, the test does not have to be repeated the next time primaquine is considered.
- Cannot be used by pregnant women
- Cannot be used by women who are breastfeeding unless the infant has also been tested for G6PD deficiency
- Some people (including children) would rather not take a medicine every day
- Some people are concerned about the potential of getting an upset stomach from primaquine

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Malaria Issue

2009-04-03T13:19:00.009+02:00

Beside accidents and missing your flight, nothing is probably worse than ruining your vacation with a droping health.

pictured: your vacation bed

Common cold is enough bad and would forced you do nothing else than laying a couple of days helplessly on bed, not on the beach sands like you supposed to. Many unfortunate travelers could come up with diarrhea and more fatal diseases like malaria.

Like I did 3 years ago. I was naively thought that the malaria was no longer exist around the area where I and girlfriend visited. It was a small plantation island out shore of Southern Sumatra, called Pulau Sebesi. From there, we can enjoy a scenery toward world-famous Krakatao volcanic island. We did enjoyed a short stay on this non-touristic island; camping on its beaches, meeting with the friendly inhabitants and snorkeling around its coral farms. Not until 2 weeks later, when we were coming back to Bali from Lombok and we started feeling sick. Yes, both of us at the same time.

We unsuspiciously thought that it was an exhaustion from hiking toward Mount Rinjani crater rim. So we took a rest and consumed amoxillin, because our temperature hit 39 degree Celcius. It seemed worked because the next day we felt 90% fit! That day, we hung around and enjoyed what Kuta have to offer to its tourists. On the evening our temperature came back. We couldn't hardly got up from bed. I also got chills eventough the room temperature was warm and humid.

Started to realized that this meant serious, we managed to go to doctor the next morning. I had a blood test. In the afternoon, the doctor worried about how low my trombocyte level was. She cannot be sure if we got dengue fever or something, but we likely would be dead pretty soon if we were not be taken care of. She demanded that I go straight to hospital. After much considerations -- like taking blood test in that Bali clinic was 10 times more fucking expensive than in a common hospital and the fact that we have a flight home the next evening, we decided to gamble our lives and wait another day.

Desperately hoping to get an earlier flight, we were already in Bali Ngurah Rai Airport since morning. We were pretty much like zombies. Of course we had no luck because it was a long-weekend Sunday and half of Jakarta went to Bali for holiday. After hours waiting and began to believe that being half-dead meant no privillege whatsoever, Air Asia staffs suprisingly allowed us to board the plane first. The flight arrived earlier than schedule too! Yes, it was those times when Air Asia seldom late.

We arrived in Jakarta after midnight. My family was already waiting and drove us directly to the hospital. We checked-in at 2 am and stayed 10 nights in RS Melia Cibubur. The doctors first suspected dengue fever, but 2 days later when we later told them that I got occasional chills during my fever, they ran a malaria test and it was positive. The test required that they take my blood when I got the high fever and shivering, it wasn't easy and comfortable at all.

The fever always came in cycle. When the fever comes, my head felt like it would exploded at any time. So painful, that sometime I felt that my soul flew out from my poor body. And if it just wasn't enough, the drug Chloroquine --that I needed to take daily, made me want to vomit every 10 minutes. Believe me, it wasn't a beautiful feeling.

Anyway, the other half time I spent on hospital when I didn't have fever, it was just me laying pale, bored, flicking throughout the tv and strugling against hospital food. This might disappointed people who come to visit and expecting I was still looked like a living zombie.

sorry to disappointed you

After 10 nights, we were allowed to go home. My girlfriend went back to Slovenia and we came back to our peaceful long-distance relationship. Oh wait, did I tell you that she had malaria again one year later?

The fact are that malaria doesn't exist in western and central Europe and she didn't travel anywhere near malaria endemic area that year. Yes, it was the very malaria she got when she was in Indonesia one year earlier. Do you know that the malaria paracites can live stealhly in your body that long and stike when you are the least supiscious. Fortunately, She managed to get through.

Another story involved her and family looking for Primaquine to some European countries, only to find out that they don't have the drug no more. She found it 10,000 km away in Singapore when she traveled there and the pills cost quite fortune.

So that's our story. Do you still think that malaria is not that bad? Yes, there are way to avoid this horrible disease. On my next post I will discuss about antimalarial preventive drugs.

Flying while you have malaria? Been there done that! Believe me, you don't want to try..

UPDATE: the post following this story is ready to read, titled "How to prevent malaria"

Traveling Dilemma Continues

2009-03-11T02:43:00.004+01:00

Look like there's no good news in world economy. Stocks, currencies and investments continue to plummet and unemployment rose to record level. There are a lot of reasons to be worried, even enough to make people paranoid. Major cuttings on all expenses are futile, especially for those things we can live without, like entertainments, toys, fancy things, eating outs and travels.

BUT HELL WITH IT! There is more bargains now then ever! In case you haven't notice that tourism industry is more than eager to keep you traveling, they also suffering from the economy slowdown. You can read my previous post about it.

So what do you think? Are you traveling this year? Please vote for my poll on above column.

Where to go? This might help. It's an interactive New York Times compilation of 44 places to go in 2009. And then there's another one from Times Online magazine.

Anyway, isn't traveling meant to escape from all worrying life problems?

Slovenia: Soča Valley

2009-03-03T16:35:00.005+01:00

Soča Valley is a region on western Slovenia, where river Soča is flowing. It stretches from Triglav National Park until Nova Gorica on the South. The beautiful landscape is a 96km-long valley squeezed between rolling hills and surrounded by mountainous Julian Alps. It's a popular place for adventure tourism and for people who desire nature. Many battles between Italian and German/Astro-Hungarian occurred there during the First World War, thus many monuments were built on the region to remember the battles and soldiers that died fighting them.

View Larger Map

Soča What?
The river is pronounced socha (like in Chuck Norris) in Slovene and recognized as Isonzo in Italy, where it ends and meets the sea. The total awesomeness of the river is the color, which is turquoise. Yes, it can be seemed unreal and radioactive-like for the first time, but one soon be amazed and attracted by its allure. The Slovenians have always glorified it with poems as the river is their national pride.

"emerald beauty" they say

map of Soča on Wikipedia

How to Get There
From West (Northern Italy), one can drive toward Gorizia (Italy) then crossed the border on the city Nova Gorica (Slovenia), where river Soča is also crossing the Italian-Slovenian border. This way, it would take 3.5 hours from Milan or about 2 hours from Venice. And driving North from Nova Gorica along the river Soča, you'll soon be greeted with the charming Solkan bridge, the longest stone arch train bridge in the world.

If you're not coming via Gorizia, another way is driving through a small country road connecting Udine (Italy) and Kobarid (Slovenia), approximately take 1 hour.

click to open an enlarged map
(map from Google Earth)

However, Soča Valley is not easily accessible from the North (Austria, Southern Germany, etc.). From Villach (Austria), one must go through Kranjska Gora (Slovenia) and then proceed toward Vršič, the highest mountain pass in Slovenia (1611 m). The scenery is spectacular and the road is winding. Descending down from Vršič, you will enter Soča Valley region, toward nearby town of Trenta. But due to heavy snow, the pass is usually closed during winter.

near Trenta, where Soča is only a few meters wide

If you happen to come from Ljubljana, you need to drive South West toward town of Idrija, then take a long and winding road along river Idrica until you reach Most na Soči. This can take more than 1.5 hours of driving.

Fortunately, there's a much more fun way if you're coming from North East (Bled, Jesenice, etc.); you can take the train! The train is old, infrequent and somewhat slow, but the scenery is awesome. And what's better, you can hitch your car into the train, then enjoy a different and beautiful perspective. Going through tunnels and enjoying scenery of the valley where river Bača flows while relaxing behind your dashboard and listening to the music, makes this way a really recommended one! The train starts on Jesenice and ends on Nova Gorica, but the auto trains (where you can put your car) only runs between Bohinska Bitrica to Most na Soči. Visit their official site to check the schedule.

click to open an enlarged map
(map from Google Map)

[please come again later for some pictures of the train ride]

There's also bus from Nova Gorica and Ljubljana servicing the area, but they're not that frequent. Another way is to hitchhike, which was a common thing Slovenian youth do in the past time. Some are still doing it today as it's relatively safe and easy.

The Towns
Along the river, charming small towns are scattered with green hills and snow-caped mountains backdrop. Bovec is the main tourist center, where wide range of tourist facilities are available.

Bovec, Kobarid, Tolmin and Kanal: Four main towns along Soča Valley
(map from Google Maps)

Bovec and Kanin
Bovec is a small town but flourished with tourism. There are some hotels and many inns, guesthouses and camping area in the town and the surrounding. It is much easier to station yourself here than other towns if you're planning to stay and explore Soča Valley. Visit their website for maps and more information.

town of Bovec with Kanin ski slopes above it, the yellow line is border to Italy and furthermore Austria
(view from Google Earth)

Bovec is the gateway to Kanin, the highest ski slopes in Slovenia. It is one of few slopes in the world that located higher than 2000 meters from sea, thus providing perfect snow to ski up to May every year. There's a long and comfortable gondola ride starting from Bovec to Kanin. And the view from the top is staggering, one can see Alpine mountain range on every side and Adriatic Sea on a distance! Yes.. Totally awesome! Visit their website for more information.

looking down to Bovec from Kanin (2245 m)

up up and away toward Kanin

For those who like to maintain their adrenaline level high, rafting is really popular sport in Soča. And beside this Bovec's world-class adventure sport, hiking is also widely popular. There are numerous trails around Soča, ranging from easy-walk-on-the-park to mountain climbing. These trails around Trenta is one example.

Fishing is another fantastic thing you can do along river Soča.

Kobarid and Tolmin
Kobarid and Tolmin are two towns you can reach less than an hour driving South from Bovec. They are about 20 minutes away from each other.

Tolmin is the administrative capital of the area. The town itself is somewhat appealing, but the surrounding nature is something to die for. Tolminka Gorge is only 2 km away, it's an entrance to Triglav National Park. The trails on the area are around Tolminka river, a small river flowing through Tolmin that has the same character of Soča. With its picturesque shallow chute and brilliant color, the river is simply wonderful. Don't forget to cross the Devil's bridge and check the hot spring! Visit this site for more information about attractions around Tolmin.

Hotel Krn, the only hotel in town of Tolmin

a small bridge crossing Tolminka river

Almost every time when the weather is mild, people come from far places to enjoy paragliding above Tolmin. Visit their website for more information.

Tolmin and surrounding: viewed from Kobala, a favorite spot to start paragliding

paragliding above Soča Valley

where Tolminka river ends and meets Soča

village of Volce by river Soča

Kobarid is a smaller town and has road connection to the West (Udine, Italy). And personally, I think this is where the river Soča at its best shape. Suplemented with some cultural sites and natural feature like Kozjak waterfall, Kobarid does has a lot to offer. Some monuments and even a remain of what once a bridge, which was used by Napoleon to crossed his troops. Visit this site for more information about attractions around Kobarid.

small yet charming town of Kobarid

waterfall at Kozjak, near Kobarid

a small stream near Kozjak

Napoleon bridge near Kobarid

The Walk of Peace
Did I mentioned that this region was once belong of Venitian Empire, then Habsburg, then Italian, then Astro-Hungarian Empire, then German Third Reich, then Yugoslavia and finally liberated as part of independent Slovenia? Yes, you bet there was a lot of blood spilled. The last one was when Italian battled against Astro-Hungarian and German on First World War (the twelve battles on Isonzo front). Now people don't want it to happen again (nevermind World War II) and they promote peace on the region by building monuments, museums and made a program called The Walks of Peace.

imagine a line to the other hill: it is now official border between Italy (left) and Slovenia (right). Since implementation of Schengen treary, nothing separates them now, but on old days people died trying to cross this border.

an Italian monument above Kobarid, with spectacular view

one from many German cemeteries and monuments in the area

For further reading, visit a blog dedicated about Soča Valley that has compiled the stories and pictures about the topic.

That's about it. It's been so long since I want to post about Soča Valley, finally I can manage to make it. Needed a lot of preparations for the map illustrations, I hope they're clear enough.

[Please leave a comment if I mistakenly wrote some facts above, thank you]

Soča is worthy to be always have a place in my heart

Free Goodies

2009-01-25T19:40:00.009+01:00

Pardon me cause it's been a while since my last post. Lately I've been very busy with work, some paperwork and personal stuff..

The weather is terrible, if it's not raining all day, it chills to the bone. Some violent storm are reported in France and Spain, and avalanche that killed people in Scotland and Turkey have been buzzing on TV. Please stay safe and do whatever precaution to avoid any accidents and disasters.

For all those who choose and enjoy their time home like me, if you're feeling lucky and maybe a bit creative, there are some give-away out there to take.

Travelchannel is giving away tickets and stays in Stockholm, all you need is fill up the form here. They also giving away travel insurance for family here.

Lonelyplanet compass program also giving away 5 copies of the new book Best in Travel 2009, all you need is to mail the answers. Go to this page for more information.

Do you like to give review of those eating places around your area or those which you visited during your travel? Do you also like free goodies such as Canon Ixus, Travel books or iPod Touch? Go to this lonelyplanet page, and voila! Let your creativity win you something!

Happy travel and good luck!

bird with adriatic sunset

UPDATE: I forgot to put this up too.. Anyway if you have a funny or weird travel-related photo, you might want to send them to this contest. Quick! It ends 31 January

Road Trip Made Easy

2009-01-05T10:55:00.010+01:00

With all modern comfort of using GPS navigation gadgets, knowing the way to go while driving your car can be fun and getting lost can be avoided. But making a road trip is not always about driving the car to your destination. People wants to have the most of their trip by enjoying the scenery, stopping at their interest spots, and even making a big detour to explore the regions.

Sure, those Tomtom or Garmin are very handy on-road, but good trips usually involved good planning, especially when you want to be on a safe budget as well as safe driving. Google Map is definetely one of the best and free solution for planning the way. Just google the locations, and that's about it. The best thing is that it would give a street view, when it's available. With it, you can roughly know how do those important intersections look like and figured that you should turn right before it's too late!

google if you want to go to Barcelona for example

street view on Google map

Google Map is great, but my favorite is Via Michellin, because it shows you the rough cost of your trip. With it, you can know how much petrol you would spend, how much toll and road tax you need to pay. And the most favorable feature is its 'scenic roads' map. How nice that you know you're gonna see scenery 98 km long along your trip for example. The ability to choose between "Recommended, Quickest, Shortest, Sightseeing, and Economical" makes it my absolute winner!

Via Michellin with options "Recommended, Quickest, Shortest, Sightseeing, and Economical"

Now your route is printed, the fuel tank is full, the picnic box is prepared, you are ready to go! But do check the weather and the local road information updates, especially on winter if you want to go through mountain pass, because probably the road is closed and you'd need to take a detour.

Happy road tripping! Drive safe and make your plan flexible! Cause sometime it's still good to get lost and find unexpected gems out of nowhere!

New Year and Euro

2008-12-31T22:40:00.004+01:00

Just wishing you all a happy new year 2009! May all the best yet to come in this year!

As per 1 January, Slovakia, will implement Euro as their currency. The second country of the new EU countries (after Slovenia) to adopt this European single currency. Also, don't forget to check my previous posts such as 2009: best travel year, Switzerland now on Schengen.

emerald colored river Soča

Slovenia: The Most Scenic Highways

2008-12-24T10:10:00.021+01:00

.. Ever! If you happen to know anyone who went to Slovenia or at least passing its highway, ask them and they can confirm this.

OK I haven't been to Switzerland or anywhere else that I can compare to, but it's definetely one of the world's most beautiful. Driving on its highways on a clear blue sky or on time of sunrise would make you feel that you're being served by montage of landscapes, from small towns with churches on the hills, farms, vine yards, green hills, forests, to mountains with Julian Alps on the background.

Shall we let the pictures speak for themselves...

When driving East, for example from Ljubljana to Maribor, we always.. I repeat.. ALWAYS make a stop in Trojane for some Trojane Krofi. This huge doughnout-like bread is pure heaven. Yes they do sell krofi anywhere, but they have nothing to compete the original renown Trojane Krofi! I do suggest to have a breakfast in Trojane. It's on top of one of the hill where a tunnel goes through. Just a few hundred meters out from Autobahn.

People came all the way for a piece (or dozens) of these Trojane Krofi

Of course, the scenery doesn't stop on the highways. If you got out from it and go to its country roads, you'd probably find more beautiful landscapes. I suggest to do a detour to smaller and less travelled roads to explore more of Slovenian landscapes. Wild animals such as foxs, deers, and other forest creatures are not an uncommon sight, so keep your eyes open!

Bambi!

Happy traveling and have a nice holiday!

Easy Updates

2008-12-19T16:12:00.004+01:00

I'm not posting any stories now, instead just posting some links about travel that you might find interesting..

Sick of bad news with recent events in Bangkok, especially stranded tourists in airport? Here's one remedy, Air Asia to give away 100,000 free seats on flight to Thailand

Sick of news about how bad world economy is? Here's some bright sides from tourism. If you have time and saving to spare, there's never be better time to travel then now. Happy New Year 2009: The Year of Travel Deal!

Still not sure? Here's a quick update from lonelyplanet on how to make your travel affordable.

Have a nice weekend and happy travel!

landscape of hills in western Slovenia

Germany: The Biggest Xmas Market Nuremberg

2008-12-16T10:02:00.013+01:00

Christmas market (German: Weihnachtsmarkt) is always synonymous with Germany, and the biggest is in Nuremberg (German: Nürnberg), making it also the biggest in the world. It's held on the month December every year and maybe millions of tourists flocked the city. That's easy to remember, if it's October you go to Munich, if December, you go to Nuremberg.

I was there back in 2004. I was kinda planning to go there again this year, but alas! We're too busy with finding and moving to the new apartment and all visa bureaucracies.

I found this awesome panorama pictures. You should check that out!

The Food and Drink
If you eat pork, you should try the Nürnberger Bratwurst, one type of Bratwurst, which is consideraly much smaller than others. It's maybe just slightly bigger than regular hot dog, which means really small for a German standard :P I didn't try it though, so I can't tell you how's the taste. Being an Erfurter, I must had embraced our beloved Thüringer Bratwurst instead hehehe.

When it's winter, there's no better time to drink Glühwein, the cooked wine. Which is abundant in such Weichnachtsmarkt. This was the picture from a party when we burn a block of sugar with wine, and then put some spices while warming the wine.

Gluhwein preparation

enormous cheese and some sausages to buy, between many foods to try

While You Were There
Nuremberg not only offers a great Weihnachtsmarkt, it's a beautiful city and it has numerous tourist sights. This once medieval town has beautiful churches, castle quarter and old city walls that merge with modern city. Many cultural building are around the old city, the house of Albert Durer is one example. For more, check on this list.

Not only that, Nuremberg was Nazi rally center before WWII. Hitler saw the city as "most German of German cities", so he build lots of sick stuffs there. The Dukumentationszentrale Reichsparteitagsgelände is a modern museum built inside the old Nazi stadium ruin. This museum is my personal favorite, I think it's among the best museum in the world.

i love this museum

me on Luitpold Arena (2004)

Italy: Milan With The Best Gelato

2008-12-11T12:39:00.019+01:00

I randomly pick a place to write about, and Milan was the lucky one. We were there on 2008 spring for a short stop between our train-flight connections to Paris, and I wished that we had stayed longer.

The City
I must say that there was nothing that special about the city. Like other major European cities, it has good plaza and old downtown with a castle. They are nice but don't bid to differ. And with limited time to go around and meeting friends, we didn't even bothered to go to museum and other cultural buildings. We came to enjoy the city, eat the foods and did a bit of shopping. Yeah, it was kind a stupid that I packed the wrong clothes since I thought it's already warm on the end of April. :P

The Duomo, probably Milan's most important landmark, an overly-decorated Gothic Cathedral, with a big and nice plaza in front of it

just beside the Duomo, stands Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, it's a haven for jetset shopping

This mosaic bull laid on the center of the Galleria, spin yourself three times with you heel on the hole, you'd get charmed with luck and come back to Milan soon.. I did, 5 days later I came back to catch a train connection to Slovenia

The downtown of Milan (above and below), proximity with the Castello, another Milan's landmark

The Castle and The Park

The Foods!
This is the part I excited about. Lucky for us, we have a friend that show us where the treasures. One of them was the best gelato (italian word for ice cream, just in case you don't familiar). It was Chocolat, a small gelato and chocolate bar just outside the center. I kinda expect world-class gelato when my friend, Alfa, suggested that it was the probably the best gelato in the world, and I was far from disappointed. It was truly heaven for both chocolate and ice cream lover. The dark chocolate gelato varians were like melting a cool chocolate on your mouth! My favorite was the mix between spicy (with chili peppers) dark chocolate, pistacios, rhum chocolate and honey covered hazelnut! When we came back to Milan 5 days later, it was the first and only place in our head to dash into before catching our train. Alfa told me that on summer, there can be a really long line of people craving for a scoop or two. Hey, even we were there on a cold spring, there was quite a line! Visit their website for more information and make you drool.

For more good foods, my friend took us to another part of Milan, Naviglie. There we had some nice pizza and great warm banana-nutella crepes.

Naviglie, a part of Milan

The People
Like many other modern metropolitan in the world, you hardly see any hospitality in Milan. But I still find interesting people around. Sorry I only took a bit of picture

one of common sight on Milan.. heavily branded

the polices that happy to pose

street entertainers during waiting for the traffic light

The Future
I saw this expo about proposed new Milan city center.. Seems neat.

Cheers and happy traveling!

Fight Jet Lag Tips

2008-12-09T16:47:00.004+01:00

Caught in a jet lag is sometime pain in the ass and can be the worst thing after your vacation, especially when you need to go to work the next day. I compiled some tips from different sources on how combating jet lag naturally. Yes, actually there's some sleeping pills and such, but natural is always betterm isn't it?

From CNN Business Traveller:

Avoid late meals and alcohol

Take cat-naps when you need to

Adjust to your destination as soon as you get on the plane

Eat on local time

Get a good night's sleep before you travel

Go for walks in daytime and get plenty of sunlight

Try to sleep at take-off when gravitational forces and a shortage of fresh oxygen make ideal conditions for dozing off

A break in a long flight can help

Noise-cancellation headphones can block out noise and help you sleep on planes

From Road&Travel Magazine

Shift your sleep times before you travel. In the few days before traveling west, go to bed and wake up 1 hour later each day. In the few days before traveling east, go to bed and wake up 1 hour earlier each day.

Regulate your light exposure before you travel. In the few days before traveling west, seek evening light and avoid morning light. Before traveling east, seek morning light and avoid evening light. People can use a bright light box to get light, although people who experience migraines, mood disorders or have eye diseases should first consult with their physician before using one.

Regulate your light exposure in your new time zone. If you traveled west, on arrival, seek morning light and avoid afternoon light. If you traveled east, on arrival seek evening light and avoid morning light. Weather conditions permitting, people can seek light by going outdoors and wearing only lightly tinted sunglasses. Do not look directly at the sun. Light can be avoided by staying indoors away from windows, wearing very dark sunglasses when outside and by sleeping.

Avoid alcohol and caffeine at least 3-6 hours before bed.

Avoid heavy exercise close to bedtime.

Bring earplugs and blindfolds to reduce noise and light.

And there are some other good ones, like this one.. You might want to google the rest. Happy traveling!

I Wanna Fly Virgin!

2008-12-03T12:40:00.006+01:00

In the time like this, budget airlines must have compete very tough with both major and budget airlines. They have to offer something that can be their niche, because we know, even cheaper flight tickets and competitive service wouldn't be enough. One airline does it well.. Really well maybe. Virgin America is another new budget airline that has flight route between several US major cities, but let's see what they have to offer..

Mood lighting on the cabin? VERY nice!! I wonder if anyone even thought of that..

They also have personal entertainment on each passenger seat. Do remember that this is a budget airline! And what's more that they provide different sockets for your gadgets, so you can charge, connect the USB, ethernet.. and even WiFi!! For the folks left on the land, they can also check the flight status online.

what you can connect on board

online flight status

Oh, I really want to try to fly with Virgin America. Probably the coolest thing you can get when you fly on a budget. To see why they are so different, please visit their site.

Happy traveling!

Switzerland to Implement Schengen

2008-12-02T11:29:00.005+01:00

Great news! On this page, it's proclaimed that Switzerland will fully implement Schengen Visa Agreement starting 12 December 2008. So this mean, with a single valid Schengen Visa, one can also travel through Swiss border, no longer need to apply a separate visa.

More informations on traveling to Switzerland in wikitravel. And my previous post about applying Schengen Visa. Happy traveling!

Slovenia: Piran, A Tiny Venice Without The Canals

2008-11-25T12:48:00.015+01:00

.. And that's probably better, for the very reason why that 'aroma' came into mind everytime you remember your last visit to Venice hahaha..

Tartini Square, view from my hotel room

OK First.. Did I mentioned that the small country has coast? Yes.. It's there, only 42km long and squeezed between Italian and Croation coastline. The four main towns in their coast are Piran, Postorož, Izola and Koper. While Postorož has paid its price for rapid tourism developments, Piran is definetely the most beautiful (maybe by keeping the size small). Meanwhile, I like Izola because it's not flooded with tourists, and Koper is more into a seaport than a tourist destination, yet Koper is a gateway for export-import for Eastern Europe countries as far away as from Poland to Romania.

42 km long Slovenia coastline from Google Earth

Now we're gonna talk more about Piran. Here's the bird-eye view of the town from this site. You might want to check their photos, which I believe much more nicer than my photos I posted here hehehe.

I went there again last weekend for the 26th annual Piran Days of Architecture and the town still felt nice and warm, thanks to really warm weather on those two days. The old town was part of the Venetian Empire for centuries, so you can see how similar it is with Venice.

Tartini Tartini Tartini..

The main plaza is called Tartinijev Trg, which translates "Tartini Plaza". Tartini was a genius violinist which has a bit of tale. He was born in Piran. You can see how the oval plaza looks on the top of the page. It was taken from the tiny hotel room I stay, the hotel called Hotel Tartini. Aha.. You see what I mean.. I would recommend the hotel, it's small, just all what you'd need, clean, super nice service, good breakfast buffe, with only somewhat expensive price.

Please check what other interesting things and what you can do on wikitravel or some other website. I'm posting some pics I took below.

this is a photo from my first visit on May

cafe on the promenade, it was part of the Theater where the architecture seminar was

the colorful facade

the Tartini Square at night

one of many small galleries that scattered in this cultural town

Dubai: Palm Jumeirah Opens

2008-11-21T12:17:00.007+01:00

I've been trying hard not to be interested to the developments in Dubai, yet I think I tried long enough. I must admit now that now I'm actually interested on it. For me, Dubai (and neighboring Abu-Dhabi) is nothing but a crazy playground of development. What they are doing there are simply utopian in a very shallow way. Very childish if I might say, very fake.

"Hey, let's make the tallest tower in the world, and make the actual height a secret, a lot earlier and taller than expected tallest skycraper in NYC, Freedom Tower. Sure.. Money is not a problem."

"Hey, let's build the tallest hotel(s)! Please don't make it (them) look normal!"

"Hey, let's buy the top athelete names to name our buildings. Pay them as much as they want!"

"Hey, let's build a snow park in the middle of desert! You got it!"

"Hey, let's make the biggest mall in the world, no matter who would occupied it. if Zara wants to build 4 stores inside, we'll let them!"

"Hey, let's make a cluster big island that can be seen from space! Oh wait, make four of them!"

OHHH PUHLEEAASE!!

And the this first cluster of the man-made island is done and just celebrated the grand opening. Let's meet all the celebrities who was coming for the event!

Fireworks in Grand Opening of Palm Jumeriah, I hope it's not fake as Olmpic opening in Beijing

I hate hate hate the fake buildings, islands (Yes I hate Pulau Sentosa, but somehow it works well with Singapore, that is also has lots of fake beaches, lakes, etc.) and everythings that so unnatural. But now I'm realizing that between hate and love sometime has only a very fine line.

I thought that I will have no interest to visit this city. Maybe if I would probably because I did involved in some projects in Abu-Dhabi for my ex-company and some design proposal and competition works in Dubai (especially one in Palm Jebel Ali). But now I'm starting to think to come if I have a chance. Well done Dubai marketing team!

Google Earth image of Palm Jebel Ali, Palm Jumeirah, The World, and Palm Deira (from left bottom to right top)

Global Slowdown, So What?

2008-11-20T07:27:00.010+01:00

A few days ago I was watching TV (Yes, I do this a bit often now since I have to share internet with my girlfriend) but stick to English speaking channels like CNN (Apparently in Slovenia 90% Kabel-TV channels are either in Slovene or German, and CNN is among the least) and there was an interesting topic on Business Travelers program, about global tourism started feeling the impact on global financial crisis. Here's the video of the first and second part.

Part 1 Global Overview

Part 2 Asian Tigers

For other parts please browse on CNN media website, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, and Part 6.

Yes it's true, vacation is not a prime need and you'd only do it if you have spare money and time to spend. Yet, I believe that no matter what it's still a human need. It does not have to be expensive and far, but people need it time after time to escape from daily stress at work and home.

So What Can We Do to Keep Traveling?

Be smarter!
Plan the travel more carefully by finding as many information from everywhere. Internet is the best place to start, there are zillions of travel stories from various travelers on different budgets and interests. Thorn Tree Forum is one place to begin. There are other good sites too, like Virtual Tourists and STA. You can ask some travel genius about anything. List down all the plans, activities, prices and alternatives if things wouldn't go as planned. Be wise but don't be too stiff! Traveling spontaneous is often more fun than just follow the book, isn't it? While traveling, carrying some good travel guide books would save your day, your budget and even your life. I carry at least a Lonelyplanet guide with me whenever I travel.

Be budget! Find local gems!
OK, maybe we don't need to go for that romantic candle-light dinner every night. And perhaps skip the Gucci bag and those expensive day-treatment spas. The vacation can be as much fun without if you wisely spend your fortune somewhere else. Instead of the same indulgence only on different place, try to indulge yourself with local stuffs on where you're visiting.

Maybe the local young designer purse won't bring your status higher, but can look as nice as the next season Coach bag and cost 80% less! Someone would still ask where did you get the bag and you can still answer proudly, "It's from my last vacation to Argentina". Or while you're in a place like Bali, get out from hotel which offers you their spa packages and instead find a massage parlor on the corner of the street, they might be not as convinient but you only pay one third of the price for longer treatment! Please support local economy and talent! :)

Avoid franchises as much as you can! Why buy the same things that you can also find it home? Unless you're telling me that you got a really great discount, much better currency rate and tax return, leave the shopping temptation home. There are some other exceptions for me though. Like no matter how I want to stay away from foods like McDonalds, when traveling abroad I often pay a visit and try the "local variety" they offer only in that specific country. It's a habit.

Explore Your Local Sites!
It's the perfect time to go to that place that is near but you always never have the chance to go. Maybe you visited it long time ago and wonder how is it now. Maybe it would bring old memories with your partner, friend and family. Maybe it's the time to support your community economy. Or maybe it's simply to save cost on flight tickets.

Find Bargains!
Last but not least, keep an eye on travel bargains! Do check offers regularly from various airlines, hotels and tourist sites. They really understand the impact from the crisis, but they still need to keep the wheel turning, so bargains and promotions are sometime still effective to keep the tourists coming. An example from Air Asia answering both oil price drop and global slowdown.

OK these are things I can think for now, if you have any other idea, please post me. Thanks and happy traveling!

a boat on coast of lovina Bali at dawn

Air Asia Omitted Fuel Surcharge

2008-11-15T08:53:00.006+01:00

No kidding! This is a good news for you in South East Asia - Australia region who enjoys budget airlines regularly. The latest oil price drop has many benefits, especially good for times like this financial crisis. One of them is Air Asia decided to kill the fuel surcharge on its ticket (at least for now, they didn't promised to keep it this way on the future). So grab while you still can!

The math for budget flight ticket was usually like this:

ticket (nett) = ticket + fuel surcharge + services (optional) + airport tax

So no fuel surcharge this time. And yet, another good news! They're having a "free-seats" promo on travel between Jun 22th to Oct 24th 2009. Yes, that means literally you only pay for the airport tax! I did a test booking for Singapore - Kuala Lumpur on July 2009 travel and it came up like this:

Note: The 2.50 SGD is optional baggage, if you only have cabin carry you won't need this, but if you have more baggage, you'd pay more. It sucks I know, but this is normal for any budget airlines flights in the whole world.

Grab the free seating or just grab the no-fuel surcharge, happy travel everyone!