Loksado Bamboo Rafting

Loksado is off-the-beaten-path village located in the South Kalimantan province, upper side of beautiful archipelago cum my home country Indonesia.  In the province, there are other spot which gets more touristy spotlight which is Banjarmasin (the big city) and Martapura ( famous for its diamonds) . Not many souls know that in Loksado, you can get the awesome experience of bamboo rafting or as the locals said “Balanting Paring”. Cruising down to the river stream through the thick of Dayak’s forest is something that not to be missed.

Banjarmasin inter-city roads

Obviously and sadfuly there are no public transport going to this remote place. The most feasible transportation options is to rent a car. Going Loksado from Banjarmasin it will take you approx 5 hours by car (approx 150 km) or if you are adrenaline-induced happy go lucky individuals, take motorbike. Its not going to be an easy ride mind you, from Banjarmasin to Loksado you’ll be going up and down the hill, through the forest and narrow roads. It gets worst at night because there are no streetlights for the most part of the area. If you mentally choose to go here by motorbike, this is the part where you contemplate your decision.

Good thing about it are the asphalt condition is good and there are houses, stores and auto garage for lite repair along the roads. As for gas stations, since oftenly there are lack of supplies i suggest you to get the tanks full at Banjarmasin.

Journey through the green hill

Last paragraph may seem to be bleak but no worries, its just a dragging set up to spice the punchline. Once you arrive inside Loksado Forest tourist area, the journey’s hardness will be paid. The river flows with clear water stream making relaxing noise will calm the nerves. Better yet you’re gonna ride through it.

As the name implied, Bamboo Rafting is a rafting through (in this case) Loksado river over packs of bamboo. Maybe because staying true to traditions or just to add thrill to it, you wont get any sort of protecting gears such as body-buoy. The river is shallow and the rift in my opinion is not very challenging, still it will be abit scary if you cant swim. There will be a skipper slash bamboo- driver that will be a compadre during the raft experience. No worries, it couldnt be safer than that.

look how relax my friend was

For 2,5 hours of bamboo rafting experience, it will cost you around 250k. One bamboo raft can cope maximum three people. If youre happened to be near Banjarmasin, definitely its a must try albeit quite far and questionable safety level of the raft. Hey, what life is without occasional edgy adventurous experience right ?

Have a wet day everyone.

Thanks for my bro Rifky Handika Haqi for being a good host in my Banjarmasin backpacking trip, hell of a motorcycle ride that was. Also id like to give a big thanks for Banjarmasin PLN young guns who let this truly stranger crash them place. 

me doing the speech

It all started with my chat with mas Soni, my senior compatriot in campus and also a lecturer now in the almamater. I volunteered to do share some technical insights on telco industry. Good for me, mas Soni took it excitedly and upped the challenge by offering to teach two class in two days. That sounded like a sweet deal.

My plan at first was to share how mobile networks works in a very technical way to the IS ITS students . Try to explain the bits and pieces of the data network and other network stuff, basically my plan was to share what i do as an telco engineer. Well they are engineering students and that was the network design and management class, i thought that deep technical presentation suits it best.

I changed my plan when i knew that each class consist of 50 something students, three class divided by two sessions means each session there would be like 70-ish people there. I was afraid that going too technical in a large audience will bore them and make me a standing zombie infront of the class. Hence i create a very general slide on mobile networks and rely heavily (or gamble) on my abilities to spark questions from the audience.

A great response i received in the class thankfully. The audience which was class of 2010 asked a lot of questions. How many was that questions ? i gave them a bengbeng bar for every questions, i brought a bag full of it and it was sold out. Most of the questions were forcing me to think very hard  such as how was roaming works, how BTS works and even MBA-like questions : can we have multi sim features in Indonesia. Goodness! those were smart crowd i was attending.

you can read my slides here in slideshare.

In a wrap, it was a pleasureable yet challenging experience for me. Really looking forward to get into another guest-lecturing /presentation gig or even a tour like that . But as like many other great artist do before, i have to make great album a.k.a create great works first.

Rock on then, viva la telecomunicacion \m/.

Special thanks to Nisfu Asrul Sani for giving me timeslots in his network management and design class and Olivia Renanda for helping me in impromptu things before my gig. 

Mouth watering book discounts

I come as a man with a mission in this fair, to check out the imported books. Read from twitter that not only local publisher but also foreign ones which took part in this year’s biggest book fair. Thats my catch right there, no way im gonna miss this event.

Pop economics books is my soft spot. Books like Freakonomics series, Gladwell’s paperback, Chris Andersons , Keith Ferrazzi’s and philosophical marketing from Seth Godin. I enjoy reading them untranslated to Bahasa Indonesia because of the obvious reasons, most of the translated one usually lack of context hence weird to read. Not all though, Keith Ferazzi’s Never Eat Alone published by Gagas Media is one good translated books example. Still, i prefer to read in English.

All for 50k!

That great power of prefering to read in english comes with great responsibility, imported books is so damn expensive here in Kinokuniya, Times or even Gramedia. Not to be disgrateful, its actually quite the same compared to KL. Kinokuniya KLCC is like a willy wonka chocolate factory to me cause it apply the same rule :  Every single thing is appealing but you can only take one. The different : what stopping me to take lot of books is not oompa loompas but a maybank visa debit card which low on balance.

In the bookfair, Periplus and Aksara was my Santa Clauses. They throwing the discounts specifically on imported books like nobody business, dropped the price like its hot baby!. I bought What Mine is Yours by Rachel Botsman for, wait for it, 60 k IDR. Man, thats so cheap i started to feel like im ripping them off.  Aksara did the same, Linchpin by Seth Godin is 75 K only. Thats a no brainer for me. Those two publisher giving such a good deals i didnt even mind to swarm around look for another place.

All in all, i came back home with 5 books (3 hardcopy) for less than 300k IDR. Mission over-accomplished!.

300k for 5, great deal yes ?

If you guys looking forward to get cheap deals on imported books and spend the money for the greater good, dont miss another run of Drive Books Jakarta this December. What is drive books ? check links on previous sentence.

To read or not to read, Lads.

Aku tidak akan membahas tentang kompleks angkor wat untuk alasan yang cukup jelas, terlalu masif untuk dicover dalam satu artikel. Akan aku ceritakan di artikel terpisah, sementara itu mari kita nikmati uniknya kota Siem Reap yang tertutupi oleh megahnya Angkor Wat.

Naik motodop mengelilingi Siem Reap

Sama halnya dengan Bandung, Phuket dan beberapa kota di Asia Tenggara lainnya, kota kecil juga mengalami “AirAsia effect“. Thanks to them, Siem Reap dapat dicapai setiap hari dari Jakarta dengan penerbangan low cost yang mendarat di Siem Reap International Airport.

Atmosfir liburan sudah terasa ketika mendarat dan berjalan di tarmac Siem Reap International Airport. Suasana sepi dan udara yang masih segar,  terlebih lagi arsitektur interior di airport ini dibuat seperti resort dan hotel berbintang. Suasana seakan dibuat untuk mengkondisikan kita mulai membuang masalah di kantor dan membayangkan hal menyenangkan yang akan dialami di kota ini.

Bandara Internasional Siem Reap

Motodop dan Tuk Tuk

Tidak ada transportasi publik seperti bis atau angkot di Siem Reap. Tidak terlalu masalah sebenarnya karena kota ini kecil dan terpusat. Pilihan transportasi pertama untuk berkeliling Siem Reap adalah bersepeda. Di hotel dan guesthouse biasanya terdapat rental sepeda dengan harga 1-2 USD.

Jika ingin berkeliling lebih jauh didalam kota, motodop dan tuk tuk adalah dua moda transportasi yang bisa dipertimbangkan. Motodop adalah versi Kamboja dari ojek alias abang abang bermotor yang menawarkan jasa berboncengan. Sedikit surprised juga bahwa moda transportasi ini ternyata tidak ekslusif hanya ada di Indonesia saja. Nah yang khas dari kamboja sendiri adalah Tuk Tuk.

Menikmati Siem Reap dengan santai diatas tuk tuk

Tuk Tuk di Kamboja secara simpel bisa dideskripiskan sebagai ojek on steroids atau hasil perkawinan ajaib antara ojek dengan dokar. Bayangkan sebuah dokar di Indonesia, nah sekarang ganti kuda didepan dengan motor bebek jadilah sebuah tuk tuk. Moda transportasi ini bisa dinaiki sampai 4 orang dan cocok untuk disewa sehari penuh untuk berkeliling Angkor Wat (sekitar 6 US dolar per tuk tuk).

Night Market dan Pub Street

Tidak banyak jejak kapitalisme di kota siem reap. Mobil jarang terlihat, tidak ada mall dan obviously tidak ada McDonalds. Setelah seharian disuguhi dengan suasana bersejarah, jika ingin sedikit kembali ke urban dan menikmati kenikmatan duniawi ada dua tempat disini yang aku rekomendasikan yaitu Night Market dan Pub Street. Eits, definisi dari kenikmatan duniawi ini nongkrong dan belanja ya! selebihnya tidak dicover disini, google yourself man! *evilgrin.

Suasana di Night Market

Night Market adalah pasar yang buka di malam hari ekuivalen dengan pasar malam. Okay, pernyataan itu kurang menjelaskan sesuatu. Berada tidak jauh dari Taphul Road yang penuh dengan backpacker hotel, pasar ini menjual berbagai macam souvenir khas Kamboja. Tenang, ini bukan pasar basah sehingga kebersihan dan suasananya terjaga. Didalamnya terdapat bar dan tempat nongkrong lain yang cukup cozy. Karena ini adalah pasar, persiapkan skill tawar menawar kamu.

Fakta menarik : Cambodians kurang fight tawar menawar dan terkesan pasrah. Aku yang termasuk individual yang minim pengalaman bargaining dan gampang kasihan, bisa menurunkan harga dari 6 USD sampai ke 2 USD untuk 2 item. Saran untuk kamu yang level nawar teganya sama dengan ibu rumah tangga di Tanah Abang, please be considerate ya.

Nongkrong santai di salah satu kafe Pub Street

Berjalan sedikit dari night market terdapat Pub Street, jalan dimana kanan kirinya berdempetan pub, cafe dan bar. Jalan sempit dengan hingar bingar live music dan gemerlap lampu warna warni, sejenak aku berpikir ini adalah somewhere di Eropa. Mulai dari cafe santai dengan alunan saxophone jazzy sampai diskotik dengan lighting dangdut yang memutar house musik 90an ada disini.

Saran personal ku adalah mencoba makanan khas Siem Reap yaitu Amok. Makanan ini tidak bisa dijelaskan kecuali dengan tiga kata : Enak Aja Pokoknya.

Amok, makanan khas Siem Reap

Demikian review saya untuk Siem Reap. Sebagai penutup dari posting ini, berikut tips dan trik ala Kiki Ahmadi jika ingin travelling kesini :

• Kebanyakan penjual dan penduduk bisa Bahasa inggris walau minim.
• Visa on arrival di Siem Reap International Airport sebesar 20 USD. Jangan lupa membawa pasfoto ukuran pasport. Kalau tidak membawa akan didenda 1 USD.
• Walaupun mata uang resmi adalah Riel tetapi USD diterima luas disini. Nilai tukar 1 USD adalah stabil 4000 riel.
• Negosiasikan harga motodop dan tuk tuk didepan, harga wajar adalah setengah USD untuk motodop dan 1 USD perorang untuk tuk tuk kecuali di Bandara. Bandara Siem Reap menyediakan official tuk tuk dan motodop, jauh lebih murah daripada naik taksi.
• Smile!, orang khmer mostly ramah dan murah senyum.

Thank you Cambodia, photo by Agung Hikmat

Reference :

• My public FB photo album
• Wikitravel
• Lonely Planet

Read my review of previous TEDx Events, TEDxJakarta.

TEDxBandung 091011 : Counting Forward

When announcement and trailer tweets over at @tedxbandung, the event has already buzzed around my timeline for quite some time. Different from TEDxJakarta, this time TEDxBandung limit the audience to only 100 selected person. Since on previous TEDx ticket was sold (actually its free, only need to fill some online form) like hotcakes on a fire sale, awareness on TEDxBandung tweets was very crucial to get the invitation. Got the ticket after literally waited in second level of precision for the registration to open, well it was worth it after all.

Morning in Saung Anklung Udjo

Need some struggle just to be able attend this event. After the registration open, participant have to write short essays on why commitee should choose them. Its not stopping just there, the event was held 8 am in the Sunday morning. Man, imagine the sweet calling of bed laziness at those situation, add the cool weather of Bandung some more.

But it paid well when arrived at the venue. Saung Angklung Udjo is really beautiful place. Feels like going to remote sunda village and hangout beside the paddy fields. The best part of it : the sound of Angklung that accidentaly blew by the wind. Relaxing as spa, you definitely have to go here.

Aria Widyanto on Bogor Angkot Energy Conversion

The show opened by Aria Widyanto which shares his energy conversion project in Bogor. He and his friends from Tina Mitra Mandiri campaigning to angkot driver to change their vehicle fuel from petrol to LNG. They setup cooperation to give fundings and educate benefits of their cause. Not only increasing the driver’s income since LNG is cheaper, but also reduce carbon footprint.

Anton Abdul Fatah, comes next. Government servant on weekday and agro farmer by weekend. He shares his vision on action regarding environmental impact of brick industry in his hometown, Sindangsari Garut. Donie Darko, the illusionist gives us show and tell example of how easy our minds can be deceived. It involved hypnotizin a girl to bend a crowbar, silly as it sounds amazing when you see it.

Eya Grimonia, the music prodigy

Next session opened by internet-notorious Enda Nasution. You all know him as the father of Indonesian bloggers and founder of salingsilang.com. He talks about the evolution of social media and the attitude of Indonesian internet users. Tendi Naim, restauranteur of Bumbu Desa and Harvard graduates comes next with his view of Indonesian education paradigm. He reminded us how Ki Hajar Dewantara already set the foundation of today’s modern education 40 years ago.

Second session closed by performance from Eya Grimonia, 16th years old musical prodigy. Awed the audience by his Smooth Criminal rendition at the opening slides and continuosly do so with other classical violin performance through out her speech on the universality of music.

Sudjiwo Tedjo on Mathematics : finding harmony in chaos

Pandji opened the last session of the day with his provocative thoughts on freedom to joke. Brought stand up comedy to Indonesian scene, the radio DJ of Hardrock FM is also in a cause to promote political awareness for youth with his TV show : ProvocativeProactive. Followed up by Ridwan Kamil which passionately promote his view on urban farming. ID-Berkebun, his campaign to promote farming in urban cities made him chosen as a hero. Google Chrome Web Heroes, to be precise. Last and in my opinion, the best speaker of the day, takes the stage after that.

Sudiwo Tedjo, shadow pupeteer, actor and musician, surprisingly talked about Mathemathics. I cant even described the speech in simple words. It was mind provoking, hilarious and harsh at the same times. He talked about the strong connection of math in music, poetry and even emotion. Super fantastic.

Kudos for all the speakers and organizers, you rock

Well thats a wrap, magnificent work should be credited to all the speakers, organizer and all the good people who make this happened. Definitely going to look forward for the next TEDxBandung. While its only half day compared to TEDxJakarta, but the inspiration i was getting its not the half of it. More diverse topic, more beautiful the place and much more fun.

Be sure to check tedxbandung.org and follow @tedxbandung on twitter to check when is the video will be uploaded.

Stop whining, starts inspire. Good day folks.

PS: Anybody know the full name of beautiful girl i was sitting beside on the Sudjiwo Tedjo session? shoot i forgot to ask her number! thats how good the show was!

Reruntuhan Katedral Saint Paul

Pintu Masuk Macau

Macau merupakan salah satu dari dua daerah administratif khusus Republik Rakyat China. Sebelumnya Macau merupakan daerah jajahan Portugal. Tidak heran, rambu lalu lintas dan banyak tanda lainnya disini tertulis dua bahasa, Mandarin dan Portugis. Pintu masuk utama ke Macau adalah Aeroporto atau Macau International Airport yang notabene merupakan lowcost airport. Thanks to maskapai rendah biaya seperti AirAsia, Macau menjadi gateway masuk  ke Hongkong yang lebih murah.

Shopping di Macau

Informasi untuk rekan sesama backpacker, Aeroporto Macau minim fasilitas. Jauh berbeda dengan HKIA  yang megah. Jika ingin bermalam disini, bersiap untuk tidur di kursi yang keras dengan AC cukup dingin.

Selain Aeroporto, terdapat juga Marito Terminal untuk entry dan exit point menggunakan jalur laut. Dari sini, traveler bisa lanjut ke Hongkong atau Kowloon menggunakan hi speed ferry hanya dalam waktu satu jam. Dari AP tinggal naik minivan bertuliskan AP1 dan turun di pemberhentian pertama.

Papan informasi rute bus di Aeroporto

Senado Square dan Pusat Kota

Macau terbagi menjadi 4 distrik, Semenanjung (peninsula), Taipa, Cotai dan Coloane. Airport berada di  Taipa sementara most tourist attraction berada di semenanjung, keduanya dipisahkan oleh jembatan panjang lintas lautan. Berjalan kaki adalah cara terbaik untuk explorasi keindahan kota Macau. Gang kecil dengan trotoar lebar, plang billboard dengan  bahasa mandarin berjubel di selingi dengan kemegahan gedung mewah kasino yang glamor dan menjulang.

Satu hal yang biasanya dilakukan ketika mengunjungi Macau adalah berjalan menyusuri tempat bersejarah peninggalan masa penjajahan portugis. List objek dan route tour ini bisa didapatkan dari booklet tourist guide yang ada di Aeroporto maupun terminal maritimo. Beberapa objek yang terkenal adalah reruntuhan katedral Saint Paul, Holy House of Mercy dan tentu saja Senado Square.

Senado Square

Senado Square merupakan bagian dari Macau World Heritage Sites  dan bisa dibilang pusat keramaian di Macau. Disini terdapat banyak gedung berarsitektur eropa, perpaduan yang unik antara kebudayaan timur dan kemegahan barat. Surprisingly gedung gedung tersebut bukan tempat kosong ataupun museum, tetapi outlet toko modern seperti Zara, Bodyshop, Adidas.

Berjalan lebih kedalam, di tengah gang gang sempit yang ramai turis berbelanja, terdapat pasar tradisional yang kontras dengan merek kapitalis modern di seputaran Senado Square. Para penjual berdiri di pinggir jalan menawarkan sample dari jajanan tradisional Macau yaitu almond cookies, daging asap dan yang paling terkenal : Pasteis de Nata atau egg tart.

Penjual disini sedikit yang bisa berbahasa inggris jadi jika ingin membeli sesuatu bersiap untuk menggunakan aksi tunjuk dan senyum.

Holy House of Mercy

Didalam Gedung Kasino

Pastikan untuk memasuki setidaknya salah satu dari banyak kasino, this is Macau anyway. Kasino sangat mudah ditemui disepanjang jalan, mulai dari yang hanya berbentuk ruko sampai kasino super elite yang selevelnya dengan apa yang dirampok komplotan Danny Ocean. Beberapa kasino besar yang ada disini antara lain Wynns, MGM Grand, Grand Lisboa. Grand Lisboa adalah kasino terbesar di Macau dan sebelum beranjak ke airport , aku menyempatkan untuk masuk kesana.

Tidak ada security check yang ketat ketika masuk kasino, tidak seperti di Singapura dan Malaysia dimana pengunjung harus menunjukkan paspor. Dengan hanya mengenakan kaos, jins dan tas backpack, aku bisa keluar masuk dengan mudah (dan gratis). Seperti di banyak film yang menggambarkan Las Vegas, didalam ramai dan meriah dengan berbagai mesin judi dan pemainnya. Mulai dari yang berbasis mesin seperti slot, meja panjang untuk blackjack atau poker dan tentu saja suara berputarnya mesin roulette.

Kasino besar tersebut menyediakan shuttle dua arah gratis dari Aeroporto / Maritimo ke lokasi. Shuttle berupa bis ber AC mewah yang menurutku wajib dimanfaatkan untuk menghemat 3 MOP, tarif minibus AP1 menuju bandara.

Grand Lisboa Casino

Macau, Di Akhir Perjalanan

Karena daerahnya yang tidak terlalu besar dan objek wisata yang banyak terkonsentrasi didaerah peninsula, untuk menjelajah dan menikmati Macau hanya butuh 1 hari penuh. Saranku, rencanakan juga untuk menyebrang ke Hong Kong. Tarif jet ferry dari Maritimo ke Hongkong Mainland atau Kowloon sekitar 170 HKD untuk weekend atau sekitar 190 ribuan sekali jalan.

Dengan banyaknya tiket promo dari low cost carrier seperti AirAsia, FireFly atau Tiger Airways, Macau adalah tujuan yang worth to consider dengan budget yang tidak beda jauh dengan belanja ke Singapura.

Terakhir, berikut beberapa tips singkat dariku untuk travelling kesini :

• HK Dollar, Renminbi China diterima luas di Macau, mulai dari Mall besar sampai pedagang kaki lima. HKD diterima dengan rate 1 : 1
• Penduduknya sedikit yang bisa bahasa Inggris.
• Public transport hanya ada bis tetapi reliable dan banyak.
• Mengambil foto di dalam kasino adalah dilarang. Dont mess with the big and gangsterish security inside.
• Aku tidak menemukan susu sapi dalam tetrapak dijual dimana mana. Oke ini kurang penting, but thats my fave drink for backpacking.

Makan Malam Sebelum Tidur di Bandara

Books ive bought on today's DriveBooks Sale, on the right row

DriveBooks is a social movement started by two foreginers Zack Petersen, Scott Hanna and one Indonesian woman Rahimah Abdulrahim. Their mission is to gather used english books by putting dropboxes in several public places in Jakarta such as BlitzMegaplex and Starbucks, and then later sell the books for donation. Funds collected from the book sale will be donated to SahabatAnak and Taman Bacaan Pelangi for educational projects and obviously, for buying children books for them.

I met Zack and Scott in TEDx Jakarta a while back, thats where i found out this movement. They reach out to the crowd with enthusiasm, the kind of attitude you need to promote a good cause.  That and their catchy taglines (drive books not cars), responsible for my instant decision to follow their twitter timeline in an instant.

DriveBooks Posters

As for the book sale in Ex, the books was bloody damn cheap. 10k IDR for paperback and 25 to 50k for the hard cover ones. Yes it were a secondhanded books, but if you have sharp eyes and a bit of persistence, you can get a mint condition books. With over 3000 titles gathered, i went there hoping i could bring home one or two good reads.

Exceeding own expectation, i spent 50k IDR exchanged by 5 books and a big wide smile of good feeling. StarCraft novel, New York Time best seller novel about Abe Lincoln and vampires, book about a woman who goes undercover as man, chicklit and a thought-exercisin book about Islam and The West. A weird reading list i could say.

Based on their latest tweet, the movement turned out to be quite a sucess.  Kudos for all the volunteers and book donators. If you wanna know more about them, go check the FB page and make sure you give it a thumb.

Im excited to hear more about the book sale, but before that i need to finish my reading list first. To buy, is after all the easiest while to make a commitment for reading is the trickiest.

Happy weekend people!

Nayla and Rais

Happy Eid Mubarak everyone, lets enjoy this festive moments in peace and compassion.

For some people, the ideas of going alone (for fun) to a new place is quite ridiculous.   I often got strange looks when i told my friend  how awesome some movie i watched and i went solo for that. Its just a cinema, let alone to the foreign land miles away from home. For some people (or should i say most) travelling alone is too risky, lonesome or my personal favorite : proof that youre a freak who dont have a friend to go to.

I did solo travelling 3 times so far. Start gradually from  Jogjakarta, do some confidence test in Singapore and the last one i brace myself to explore Macau & Hongkong. Not that i dont like to be accompanied with, but i take solo travelling as one of my life challenge. I gain a lot from that, not just the good memories but also learning and improvement , mostly self confidence.

What i will write below is some benefits i got from my lone adventure, hope that this can convince you and everybody to experience it as well . For a start, read this good post on why you should go solo.

Changi Airport super economic hostel a.k.a waiting room

A Lots and Lots of Me Time

Predictable and no surprise, when youre going solo youll be conversing alot with your self. Lets think about it, with all the gadgets and peripherals that save us from boredom we hardly ever got time with ourselves alone. In Solo travelling, unless you carry your own power generator, youll have a lot of  time for this. Its a good time to reflect and think , usually about philosphical stuff such : what do you wanna do in life. Early morning in deserted airports, sitting on a park bench or waiting in a subway station, a little bit of do-nothing can really help a lot for you to contemplate whether you want to go for masters or apply for a job. In a midnight bus from Jogjakarta to Surabaya going home from a careerfair, i spent quite some time to think what kind of company i want to work at. The results, set of choices and some strategies for job interviews. Helps me more than i can think of.

Its a good time to farm ideas as well. Have you heard that boredom is actually source of creativity ?. So everytime you go lone travellin, dont forget to bring pen and paper. When ipod battery is out and cellphone got no reception, you do not want that brilliant internet startup concept that just come up slips away do you ?

Hands on Bruce Lee - Avenue of Stars,Hong Kong

Self Reliance and Self Confidence

Repeat after me, theres no one else responsible for your journey except yourself. Its a great real life self leadership lesson right there i tell you. What makes solo travelling a great course for that is, the consequences of your choice is directly affecting you. If you dont plan the destination route carefully then its you whose going to get lost. Too lazy to book flights early ? it will be your money to be paid anyway. Planning is essential, especially if its gonna be your life at stake. And no one will do that for you.

Even if everything is already set up well, you still have to deal with your inner beast which is fear.  In travelling solo, the easiest part for me is buying the tickets (impulsively during AirAsia promo). The hardest part actually is convincing myself to actually go there. Credits to WikiTravel, i was excited to see the exoticness of Phnom Penh until i read about bricks attack to foreigner.

Holy Sheet!.

In situation like this, take a deep breath ,  give your self pat in the heart and say “Al Iz Well”. Your biggest enemy is always yourself. Have a faith in you and every quote from  kung fu movies.

So wheres the self confidence comes from ? Your success of going  through the journey and live to share the stories. And have i told you that travelling is actually makes you smarter, sexier and more productive ?. So gonna use that for a pickup line.

Strolling inside Macau alley

Appreciate Little Things More

It was past midnight in Macau international airport and i sat in one of the waiting room bench, munching chocolate bar as dinner. Things get lonelier when my blackberry passed out i couldnt chat no more with my friends in the group. Cold, quiet and i cannot sleep cos i wasnt too tired.  After an hour of torturing boredom and insomnia, suddenly at bench beside mine two girls sitting there and start to chat. They start to chat and laugh. Eventhough they spoke in Korean, warmth and joy is after all, universal. For a second there, i had a thought that i can trade everything i have for a friend to sit next to me and talk about anything. Just like both of them.

Whether it is your mom shouting wake up calls, your dog, your favorite bedsheet, you will really appreciate how comfortable everyday thing is while youre not at home. Evenmore on solo travelling , you will definitely miss your best friend. All the awesome stuff you saw, definitely gonna be a virtue if you can high five and shout AWESOME! together. But you cant, and that makes you appreciate them more. Its the absence  that makes the heart fonder.

To wrap things up so far, solo travelling is awesome. Thats it ? yes, as simple as that. I strongly suggest you to plan ahead before the journey, to minimize the risk, cost and anxiousness. On a second thought, maybe going spontaneously gung ho could be more exciting. Ill try that someday. Let me close this with a quote

“If you have something you really wanna do, dont let loneliness stops you ” - Kiki Ahmadi

Super cool eh ?

hell yeah im cool, agree Amitabh-ji ?

Cross gender dance performance by Didik Nini Thowok

Last weekend, i went to TEDx Jakarta 2011 at Jakarta International School (JIS), Pondok Indah. TEDx is a franchise of TED conference which held independently by the local commitee. The event had already generated quite a buzz among Indonesian twitter users since weeks before. The Jakartans enthusiasm for fresh ideas solidly proven when the online registration for TEDx Jakarta opened, only took 30 minutes to fill the participant quota and force TEDx commitee to close the registration form. My decision to register as early as possible turns out to be a good one, a lot of people was as excited as me.

Took transjakarta for about an hour plus to get there from South Jakarta. When i entered the JIS, theres a long queue of people infront of me waiting to enter the Auditorium. 9 am in the morning on weekend, this crowd excitement was a good signs of an awesome day to come. After getting myself a TEDx goodie bag, i entered the venue which nearly full. At 10.30, all lights turned off and full day brainfreshing was about to happened. Did i mention i was sitting near Sherina Munaf ?

Fully occupied auditorium

TEDx event was divided into three main topic. The first one was The Golden Rule. Taken from golden rule proverbs “Dont do others, what you dont want others to do to you “, this session revolves around the power of compassion. First speaker, Musdah Mulia an activist for Religion and peace which talk about her experience with religion extremism. Right after that, Didik Ninik Thowok awed the audience with his Dwi Muka performance, a cross gender dance. Session ended with a video of Ron Gutman on the Power of Smile, you can watch it here as well.

John Hardy on Bali Greenschool

After the lunch break, next session Progress With Purposed started. John Hardy was on the stage sharing about his fully environmental friendly school in Bali. Made entirely from bamboo, the school not only have great architectural looks but also teach the value of respecting mother nature. Next speaker was in my opinion, the most controversial session of the day. Dhira Narayana on legalizing weeds, yes weeds as in ganja. Although im not really agree with his opinion but he really did well on passing the message. He was approached by crowds after cofee break, a proof that Dhira made such an impact that day. Ewa Wojkowska was next in line with her technology product store Kopernik followed by Ridwan Jamaluddin on Disaster Risk Reduction. Derek Sivers from CDbaby conclude the session with his presentation on Uncommon Sense.

Jubing Kristianto playing acoustic guitar

The last session, Forgotten Wisdom kicked off by Mohammad Noer with benefits on reading fast. Followed up by colourful presentation on Indonesia’s underwater beauty by Mulyadi Pinneng, award winning underwater photographer. Zaini Alif comes next with his cause to promote traditional games. One thing stuck in my head after this session was Hom Pim Pah Alaihom Gambreng actually means “anything from God should come back to God”. Jubing Kristianto soon followed, brought his acoustic guitar on stage and performing his version of Lihat Kebunku. He was such a genius when it comes to guitar, you have to see him live.

Last but not least, a secret speaker revealed on stage. Turns out to be a legend whose have place in every Indonesian children growing up from the 90′s, Pak Raden. Shouting off with his distinct loud voice, Pak Raden made me remember how great a childhood was. He performed a storytelling  (Dongeng) while drawing on whiteboard. Seeing Pak Raden enthusiasm in story telling eventhough he clearly looked so much older now was very emotional. Its arguably the best presentation of the day. Everyone gave a standing ovation when Pak Raden finished his story.

Pak Raden, secret speaker of TEDx Jakarta 2011

A whole day brain spa experience indeed. Not only from the line of good speakers, but the crowd itself is part of the show. During break, i met and greeted with bunch of magnificent people such as Aria Rajasa from GantiBaju,com, Natali Ardianto from StartupLokal, Viking Karwur from id-Mozilla and mas Koen. Great venue, goodie bags, awesome crowd and great hype, TEDx commitee and volunteer really did a great job this year. Big applause for them.

For you guys who missed the show, no worries. Check TEDx Jakarta website and wait patiently as the presentation video will be uploaded there. Looking forward for another event like this, alas ill quote the morale of Pak Raden’s dongeng last week.

” A happiness is not a happiness, unless you share it with others “

Have an innovative day, folks.