tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-200406622026-02-13T23:03:25.435+07:00Mostly Indonesia from expat's perspective, but also some information security and trail running related posts.Marek Bialoglowyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11129945339175295153noreply@blogger.comBlogger74125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20040662.post-12825243921475847592019-03-23T21:59:00.004+07:002019-04-23T00:19:38.342+07:00

Recently my five-year-old Haier HRF-336SS refrigerator suddenly broke down. It stopped cooling, there was a clicking noise coming from the back and the light inside the fridge was flickering. I disconnected the fridge from power, plugged it back and now it was also making a beeping sound every 5 seconds, and a red "alarm" notification appeared on the LCD panel. The clicking noise was coming

Marek Bialoglowyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11129945339175295153noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20040662.post-13634370221597197122013-05-19T19:49:00.002+07:002013-05-19T20:03:31.992+07:00

Banana spiders just love to spin their webs above dirt paths just to catch tall trail runners and land on their heads. This one caught me today in it's web. Just one of the perks of trail running in Indonesia. I couldn't resist teasing it a bit:

Marek Bialoglowyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11129945339175295153noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20040662.post-50692482361102998172013-05-04T20:43:00.002+07:002013-05-04T22:31:12.121+07:00

The Gunung Pancar (Taman Wisata Alam Gunung Pancar) is my favorite trail running location. It is close to Jakarta, with lots of great trails covered with trees - running in the shade of pine trees in tropical Indonesia feels great. This afternoon I ran on my old trail around Gunung Pancar and discovered significant deforestation at the area. Also, when I got there, two trees surrounded by

Marek Bialoglowyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11129945339175295153noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20040662.post-83671349095079458902013-04-13T21:26:00.002+07:002013-04-13T21:36:51.298+07:00

One of the reasons I don't fly with Lion Air:

Marek Bialoglowyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11129945339175295153noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20040662.post-5758068352026117592013-02-13T22:45:00.001+07:002013-02-13T22:45:33.134+07:00

The 2012 Wonderful Indonesia promotion video "Feeling is Believing " is indeed really wonderful: I also like this video: I also found this little gem on YouTube: Overall, great job Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy! Looking forward to 2013 videos, keep up the good work.

Marek Bialoglowyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11129945339175295153noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20040662.post-8015199133509376372012-12-30T16:53:00.000+07:002013-01-20T19:31:37.820+07:00

Photos of Cyathea tree ferns I took on a trail run around Gunung Pancar (West Java, Indonesia): Tree ferns do not form new woody tissue in their trunk as they grow. Rather, the trunk is supported by a fibrous mass of roots that expands as the tree fern grows. More info about Cyathea on this site.

Marek Bialoglowyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11129945339175295153noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20040662.post-34296017448885241342012-12-21T20:07:00.003+07:002012-12-21T20:07:40.051+07:00

Anyone living in Indonesia will soon realise that the concept of privacy is not very well understood within the Indonesian society. Here's one interesting example, of a prepaid SIM-card registration process: The registration process includes question "Are you a smoker? [Apakah Anda Perokok?]" It is not possible to skip this question. I think most of westerners would be really

Marek Bialoglowyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11129945339175295153noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20040662.post-24694689234063906712012-12-16T23:33:00.001+07:002012-12-20T18:20:27.560+07:00

I took a few photos from one of my favorite spots around Gunung Pancar, featuring Gunung Pancar (left) and Gunung Salak (center): This is how the same view looks in Google Earth - it's pretty close actually: It's possible to see Jakarta from here, but unfortunately due to high humidity and pollution, I can never see it clearly - I'm still waiting for the right conditions to take a

Marek Bialoglowyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11129945339175295153noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20040662.post-27462081470979575242012-12-16T15:06:00.002+07:002013-01-20T19:42:03.186+07:00

I found this cute little crab on a trail run around Gunung Pancar: I didn't know crabs can live in a forest at 450m elevation. This little bug was not moving much, so I had enough time to  set-up proper light:

Marek Bialoglowyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11129945339175295153noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20040662.post-87288398324973361432012-04-02T01:00:00.003+07:002012-04-04T13:48:15.014+07:00

Last weekend I went back to Cibadak for more trail run challenges (video): Finally I managed to find an off-road trail from Cibadak to Gunung Pancar (parking at the  pine tree forest). Turns out, it was another night trail run in this area because of invalid maps both on Google Earth & Garmin GPS (same source?). I had to run extra 4km to find the correct trail. Backup

Marek Bialoglowyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11129945339175295153noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20040662.post-11237036436015665502012-03-26T23:55:00.008+07:002012-04-25T22:00:35.987+07:00

Last weekend I got back to hills of Cibadak, trying to find new shorter trail from Cibadak to Gunung Pancar. The landscape was really amazing, with lots of rocky streams and rice fields: The tall grass in the above photo was some fun. I wasn't too confident walking through it because of snakes I saw in the area (actually on the other side of the hill around Gunung Pancar) and also

Marek Bialoglowyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11129945339175295153noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20040662.post-58629583448087120722012-03-12T00:50:00.007+07:002012-03-12T12:14:09.526+07:00

After years of running trails mostly in Nike and Reebok shoes I wanted to try a different brand. I've read quite a few positive reviews advertising The North Face Single-Track Trail Running Shoe. e.g.: The North Face Single-Track Awarded “Best Debut” by Runner’s World 2010 Gear of the Year award recipient from Outside Magazine While on a trip to Bangkok I purchased a pair, which pretty

Marek Bialoglowyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11129945339175295153noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20040662.post-10388533598107235642012-03-11T20:41:00.002+07:002012-04-02T13:02:13.904+07:00

Two photos of Siau Island tarsier (Tarsius tumpara) in captivity I took during my last trip to Siau: This animal is on the top 25 most endangered primates list. It is critically endangered (A1 acd) and faces an imminent threat of extinction. I was shocked to find one in a cage behind a house of some guy on Siau island. This animal is one of only about 1000 still alive!

Marek Bialoglowyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11129945339175295153noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20040662.post-19049494262405204092012-02-11T16:25:00.002+07:002012-04-25T22:05:39.674+07:00

Yesterday I took this photo of Jakarta at sunset. This was probably the most vibrant orange sunset I've ever seen. PS: This photo was not Photoshopped.

Marek Bialoglowyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11129945339175295153noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20040662.post-16411268441377858132012-02-05T17:47:00.005+07:002012-04-02T21:54:03.765+07:00

Bought new running shoes, Nike Lunareclipse 2: I must say the ultra-soft Lunarlon cushioning feels great! Update: 2 months later, I must say those are the best road running shoes I've ever owned. These shoes are near perfect, the only thing I could complain about are short shoelaces. Nike will have very tough challenge to come up with something even better.

Marek Bialoglowyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11129945339175295153noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20040662.post-41606395277834231912011-11-30T23:43:00.000+07:002011-11-30T23:43:50.504+07:00

Los Angeles Galaxy won today 1-0 over an Indonesian all-star team. At least unlike Manchester United, they have not cancelled and actually played in Jakarta! Anyway, we all should remember what life is about. We will fall. We can rise!

Marek Bialoglowyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11129945339175295153noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20040662.post-14559275963110462142011-10-08T22:28:00.003+07:002011-10-08T23:58:03.096+07:00

I'm against promotion of tobacco products, but I must admit cigarette companies in Indonesia release some of the best TV commercials in the world: The above TV commercial released by Djarum (Indonesian producer of clove cigarettes) really shows amazing beauty of Indonesia. Below another two cigarette commercials I really like: You can also compare it to TV commercials promoting

Marek Bialoglowyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11129945339175295153noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20040662.post-2583689432657469362011-07-24T00:57:00.002+07:002011-07-24T01:06:58.320+07:00

Not the kind of view I like to have on a trail run: Strangely, the name of this street is "Jalan Orang Utan", which means "Orangutan Road". Sad.

Marek Bialoglowyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11129945339175295153noreply@blogger.com1Jalan Orang Utan, Jakarta Capital Region 13720, Indonesia-6.3570557999999986 106.90380189999996-6.3571352999999986 106.90248589999996 -6.3569762999999986 106.90511789999996tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20040662.post-26267557086881792322011-03-12T01:06:00.001+07:002011-03-12T01:09:50.004+07:00

How do you encourage users to enter stronger passwords? How about showing girl removing her clothing as the password entered by user grows stronger? That's exactly the interesting idea proposed by NakedPasswords. Yet, I'm not quite sure this would be legal to use in Indonesia (my ISP is yet to block it in their filters) and I think most female users would probably prefer to

Marek Bialoglowyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11129945339175295153noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20040662.post-32925082153553972902011-02-19T01:03:00.008+07:002012-03-27T19:38:09.273+07:00

In previous posts I wrote about beautiful views trail runners can enjoy outside Jakarta. A picture is worth a thousand words, so I'll just share a few photos from my trail runs:

Marek Bialoglowyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11129945339175295153noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20040662.post-72371723637757743972011-02-18T23:33:00.010+07:002011-02-19T09:17:42.828+07:00

My 6 months old Nike Zoom Structure Triax 13+ trail running shoes were already too worn out to continue running in it, so I started to look for a new pair of trail running shoes. I'm really happy with Nike, but just out of curiosity I wanted to check what other brands have to offer. I visited several Adidas stores in Jakarta, but they didn't have a single pair of trail running shoes,

Marek Bialoglowyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11129945339175295153noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20040662.post-7739814616939841942011-02-16T15:51:00.009+07:002013-01-20T19:42:40.017+07:00

In the previous post I mentioned a Giant wood spider (nephila maculata) I saw on a trail run outside Jakarta. Well, I managed to record a short video (HD) of a female Giant Wood Spider having lunch: The body is around 10cm in length. If you look closely, you'll also see a tiny red spider. This is a male Nephila maculata and it is so small that female N. maculata would

Marek Bialoglowyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11129945339175295153noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20040662.post-37748137387874053342011-02-13T00:33:00.017+07:002013-01-20T19:43:07.185+07:00

Mountain areas near Jakarta offer trail runners some beautiful views. Best trails often feature something exceptional such as unique landscape (e.g. rice terraces, tea plantations), unique forest (e.g. pine tree forests of Gunung Pancar), waterfalls, beautiful rivers and alike. However, what makes some of my favorite trails interesting are not the views, but the fascinating and unique fauna

Marek Bialoglowyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11129945339175295153noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20040662.post-19362586216385698352011-02-06T22:33:00.019+07:002011-02-19T01:20:44.476+07:00

What lots of people living in Jakarta don't realise is that beautiful green scenery, fresh air, unique wildlife of Java is what you can get just 45 minutes drive South of Jakarta. If you wish to escape crowded Jakarta and smell smog free air, there are many great places out there to visit, exercise out in a fresh air (no fitness membership required!) or even do some trail running,

Marek Bialoglowyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11129945339175295153noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20040662.post-63459961371638800442011-01-31T05:04:00.005+07:002011-11-26T00:58:25.107+07:00

No they don't. Pineapples grow in the middle of a plant which grows up to 1.5 metres tall. The plant produces only one fruit and then dies. I took the above photos of pineapple plants in Indonesia around Bojong Nangka, near Gunung Putri (location details in Panoramio).

Marek Bialoglowyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11129945339175295153noreply@blogger.com0