Here we go, the second day we stayed in Bali. Day 2 was started with.... nothing. We woke up late so we had to cancel our plan to go to Sanur Beach that morning. Sanur is well-known for sunrise spot, so it must be very amusing if we can see the sun rises there. Well we just moved on and did other plan that we've made. First we had lunch at "Nasi Pedas Bu Andika". This place is pretty popular among tourists. On my previous trip to Bali I have never heard it before, so this was our first visit to that food tenant.

Done with lunch, we went to Motel Mexicola. I browsed about this place on internet and I think this cafe has unique theme. When I heard it for the first time I thought it was a motel, but apparently I was wrong. I wasn't familiar with Mexican food but this first try should be interesting.

The cafe is located at Seminyak. From Kuta to Seminyak actually it wasn't too close, also wasn't too far. I just felt that riding motorcycle in Bali wasn't too tiring like when I was in Bandung or Jakarta. We spent about 15 minutes ride to reach Seminyak, and thankfully it hadn't been too crowded since we arrived still in the afternoon. At first I was confused to find where Motel Mexicola was. I had to find small alley, then finally we made it.

When we were going to enter Motel Mexicola, a waitress welcomed us. She also informed that the minimum order for each person was IDR 100K. Well I didn't know about this when I searched any reviews about this place, but it didn't matter. So both of us chose the bar stalls area to sit. The sofa spots weren't in use because they're available in evening.





After spending 2 to 3 hours at Motel Mexicola, we decided to visit the closest beach from there. The security officer kindly told us there's Petitenget Beach, only 5 minutes by walking. Thanks to him, we could leave our motorcycle for a while to take a look to that beach. When we arrived, it was so crowded. Finally we went back to Motel Mexicola to take our rented motorcycle, then we tried to visit other beach.

Well, we were totally relying on Google. We searched the nearest beach in Seminyak, then we saw Berawa Beach. It wasn't too far from where we were. This beach was not too crowded and of course, we were spending time watching sun set there. Some were strolling around with their pets, some were surfing at the beach.


We stayed at Berawa Beach until the sky was dark enough. The location was easy to reach, FYI. After that, we tried to go to Sindhu Market at Sanur to have dinner. You know, Seminyak to Sanur was far. It was like you rode from west to east; from edge to another edge. It took 45 minutes, but thankfully we didn't meet any traffic jam here.

After the long ride to Sanur and having dinner there, we wanted to go back to hotel. I didn't realize that we were going to run out of gasoline. I forgot to buy it. So, in the middle of Ngurah Rai Bypass (it was pretty close from our hotel!), the motorcycle was suddenly stopped working! Of course we were panic. There's irony here; across the road, there was a gas station!

We were confused at first, how to push our motorcycle to the gas station since the middle road was blocked. We thought we just emptied our mineral water bottle then walked across the road to buy gasoline, but we're too afraid to cross the road because a lot of vehicles passed in a hurry. The road was also quite dark.

Maybe I could say this was a miracle. There was a man with his motorcycle who also ran out of gasoline. That man talked to us, then Petek replied him. They talked in Javanese (too bad I didn't understand), saying that his friends were on the gas stasion to buy him gasoline. Then he kindly called his friend to buy additional gasoline. Too bad, when his friends came, they just bought around 1,5 Liter of gasoline; which meant only for 1 motorcycle.

You know what? He offered his gasoline to us, he said his friend could go back to gas station once more. We were so thrilled, he was very kind to us. Then we paid to that man for the gasoline & added extra money, but he refused it at first! Wow. We forced him since we had to pay it, and finally he accepted it.

We went back to hotel with full of joy, even though we just had an incident. We couldn't imagine if we hadn't met him on our way back to hotel. His kindness really helped us through our difficult situation. For whoever you are sir, respect!

Our trip in Bali was getting more exciting. Tomorrow would be a very very long trip. Where were we going?
Check out the next part of my post!

Last September, I had a trip to Bali with my friend, Petek. It was actually an unexpected trip.
It all started when few months ago I really wanted to go to Bali, then Petek also did. We began to arrange things like booking the most affordable hotel, searching the cheapest price for our ride, and looking for places we would visit from internet. Yeah, we were trying to be backpack travelers.

This trip was such a great getaway for me after doing internship and before I start to work on my thesis. This sudden plan was completely an amazing thing I ever done since last May. This trip really made me getting out from my comfort zone. I also learnt much things about other people... and myself.


We chose to take the train instead of choosing plane. As students we didn't have much money (and try to minimize our outcome) so we decided to pick the cheapest transportation. At that time train was pretty affordable. An economic class train from Bandung to Surabaya cost IDR 200K per person, then from Surabaya to Banyuwangi we took business class train for IDR 100K per person.


After arriving at Banyuwangi, we should find bus which included trip across the sea (by ship, of course) from Ketapang Harbor and went directly to Denpasar. It cost us IDR 90K, well it was quite expensive but we chose Damri since we already familiar about it and we just took the safest choice.

When the ship was ready to sail, Petek and I went outside bus and strolled around the ship. Then we saw the top deck, and we really enjoyed the view around. It was pretty challenging to stand onto ship since it constantly moved, but thankfully I had no seasick during that 1,5 hours-sail.

The view was amazing. The wind blew pretty strong, it ruined my hair but it didn't matter, LOL.



Sailing was over, all the passengers came back to bus and ready to go to Denpasar. Before we even started, all the ship passengers should walk to the welcome gate then show their ID cards to local officers. This method could prevent illegal citizen or worse, terrorist. Finish with that, all Damri passengers were going to Denpasar. It took 4 hours from Gilimanuk Harbor to Denpasar City. I chose to sleep during the road trip since I haven't fully slept on train.

We finally arrived at Damri Bus Station, Denpasar. We were lucky because if we took other bus, we would stop at other bus station that quite far from Denpasar. Based on what I saw, there was no public transportation like 'angkot' here. There was one but only at Denpasar, not others.

From this station, we chose to take Gojek to our hotel at Jimbaran. Well I wasn't so lucky when ordering the Gojek because the first ojek didn't come for 30 minutes but he took the credit money. Damn. Petek ordered another Gojek (since hers was already coming), so after little struggle with Gojek, we finally reached our hotel.

We stayed at Coco De Haven Hotel. It located at Ngurah Rai Bypass, so it was exactly on the main road. The place was okay, I only hoped we could have dresser in our room. Moreover, the room was pretty great for the price we got, IDR 720K for 4 nights. It was a great deal that I found on booking.com.

We just had 31-hours-road-and-sea-trip from Bandung to Denpasar. It was insane. Both of us were extremely exhausted since we couldn't rest well on train and bus. We decided to take a rest for a while. We arrived in afternoon, and we wanted to go around Kuta in evening. First thing I should do was waiting for my rented motorcycle. I rented a motorcycle for 4 days so Petek and I could go around Bali easily. The price was cheap enough, IDR 50K per day. We could split the bill only IDR 100K for one person.

Around 3.30 p.m, we finally did our first ride in Bali. We were starving but apparently we're also confused where to eat, so we just thought the safest choice: going to Kuta. There was McDonalds, then after had our very late lunch we strolled around Kuta Beach. We just sat on the beach, watching the sun set.

Pastinya di depan rumah-rumah itu cocok banget buat berfoto. Sepengamatan saya, di sana rumah-rumahnya berisi restoran dan cafe. Ada juga rumah yang jadi tempat sewa baju ala Eropa, lebih tepatnya di lantai 2. Jadi bagi yang mau sewa baju, coba naik ke lantai atas cafe yang tembok bangunannya dari bebatuan.


Setelah itu, di area belakang saya menjumpai sebuah lapangan hijau yang cukup besar. Di sana dipajang beberapa sepeda sebagai properti yang bisa dipakai kalau mau berfoto ria. Nah di spot ini juga oke untuk foto, khususnya dengan latar rumah Eropa dari kejauhan. Asli, kesannya memang nggak seperti di Bandung lho. Nuansa Eropanya juga terasa banget di sini. Selain lapangan, kalau mau duduk-duduk lucu bisa juga menempati bangku taman yang tersedia di sekeliling lapangan.



Lalu yang jadi spot favorit para pengunjung adalah miniatur rumah Hobbit. Kelihatannya memang mirip kok, apalagi pintu bulat khasnya. Untuk foto di depan rumah ini, orang-orang sampe ngantri lho.




Setelah puas keliling, saya dan Petek berjalan keluar melewati rumah yang pertama dilewati. Kami baru sadar kalau sebelum rumah itu, ada rumah kecil di sisi kiri yang ternyata jadi jalur menuju taman lainnya. Rumah kecil itu menjual aneka pernak-pernik, khususnya gembok kecil. Nah gembok ini kebanyakan dibeli untuk dipasang di sebuah jembatan nggak jauh dari tempat itu. Bagi para pasangan pastinya gatel pengen beli dan pasang gembok yang sudah diberi nama masing-masing.

Di sana juga cocok untuk foto-foto, namun areanya lebih kecil dan jalannya lebih sempit. Untuk bisa foto-foto di atas jembatan, seenggaknya 2 sampai 3 pengunjung bisa berdiri di sana dan harus bergantian.



So far jalan-jalan di Farmhouse cukup menyenangkan. Berhubung padat dan kecil tempatnya, jadi memang ruang gerak sedikit terbatas kalau lagi ramai. Tapi untuk konsep bisa dibilang oke, karena suasana Eropanya berasa banget. Kalau mau main ke sini, pastinya akan lebih santai kalau datang saat weekday. Farmhouse juga lumayan dekat dari Setiabudi jadi kalau ingin tempat wisata yang nggak begitu jauh, ini bisa jadi solusinya.

So, selamat liburan dan selamat jalan-jalan!

12 Oktober 2014

Pagi kembali tiba, kami harus dihadapi kenyataan bahwa kami akan meninggalkan rumah okā-san dan otō-san. Sebelumnya saya sempat jalan-jalan bersama Cynthia dan Rie ke rumah kayu satu lagi yang berada di depan rumah okā-san dan otō-san (dari posisi saya memotret foto di atas, masih harus naik bukit lagi).

Packing, check! Sarapan, check!

Saatnya berhadapan salah satu momen yang cukup membuat kami sedih: berpisah dengan okā-san, karena ia tidak bisa ikut mengantar kami ke tempat berkumpul seluruh peserta JENESYS. Kami akan pergi bersama otō-san. Tentunya kami nggak lupa untuk berfoto bersama sebelum berangkat.




Saya bersama okā-san dan otō-san serta anjing peliharaan mereka, Hana. Hana lucu banget, untungnya anjing ras Shiba ini nggak galak, hahaha. (PS: saya sebenarnya deg-degan banget deket-deket sama Hana, karena takut banget sama anjing!)

Kami kemudian bergegas menuju lokasi titik kumpul seluruh peserta JENESYS, yakni di Grandeaile Garden. Di sini kami akan makan siang sekaligus menyelenggarakan farewell party dengan seluruh keluarga homestay yang terlibat.

Suasananya sangat ramai, karena sepenglihatan saya setiap peserta sudah sangat dekat dengan keluarga angkatnya. Bahkan ada sesi semua peserta dan keluarga homestay nari bersama diiringi lagu khas Indonesia dan itu bener-bener seru lho! Nggak ketinggalan pula, salah satu keluarga dari Jepang juga memberikan persembahan berupa tarian sebelum acara ditutup.



Nah, ini nih, salah satu momen yang tadinya ceria banget langsung berubah drastis. Saatnya seluruh keluarga angkat berpamitan dan kembali ke rumah. Kebanyakan pada terharu, tapi ada juga yang nggak bisa membendung air matanya. Jujur saya sama temen-temen awalnya berusaha untuk tegar *halah*, eeeh tapi kalo otak sama perasaan lagi nggak sinkron, udah deh reaksi tubuh nggak bisa dibohongin. Mata saya berkaca-kaca sampai nggak sanggup liat otō-san, soalnya otō-san udah mau pulang...

"Arigatou gozaimasu!"

Saya bersama teman-teman membungkukkan badan (sambil menyembunyikan mata yang udah berkaca-kaca, hehe), sangat berterima kasih atas kekeluargaan dan keramahan yang kami dapat bersama otō-san dan oka-san di waktu yang sangat singkat tersebut. Walaupun baru kenal dua hari, tapi rasanya berat banget untuk berpisah dengan mereka. But the program must go on, right?



Semua keluarga homestay sudah pulang, kami pun melanjutkan program yang harus diikuti. Lalu kami akan menginap di Highland Hotel Shunjuan Sanso untuk stay selama semalam sebelum kembali ke Tokyo pagi harinya. Tetapi yang paling penting, di sini kami menggodok project akhir kelompok yang akan dipresentasikan esok hari di Tokyo.

Pastinya project ini harus dipersiapkan dengan matang karena akan dipresentasikan di hadapan para pejabat JICE selaku penyelenggara program ini. Kelompok saya waktu itu akhirnya memutuskan membuat video sekaligus speech yang menjelaskan tentang hasil kegiatan, pengetahuan, dan temuan lainnya yang diperoleh selama beberapa hari sebelumnya.

Proses brainstorming ide dari 25 orang di dalam satu kelompok ini memang nggak gampang. Output project bisa ditentukan dengan mudah, tapi menentukan apa kontennya yang butuh proses panjang. Sebenarnya separuh dari konten sudah dibahas saat masih menginap di Akita, tetapi di sini lah saatnya mematangkan konsepnya.

Usai makan malam sekitar pukul 7, ruang meeting yang sebelumnya kami gunakan ternyata tidak bisa dipakai lagi. Akhirnya kami pindah ke lobby hotel untuk mengerjakan video beserta konten speech-nya. Saya inget banget, kami mengerjakan project ini sampai pukul 2 pagi. Itu sampai lampu lobby dimatiin semua sama stafnya. Akhirnya kami ngerjain sambil gelap-gelapan, mana waktu itu saya yang bikin video-nya; mata rasanya jureng banget ngeliat monitor laptop berjam-jam, plus suasana lobby yang gelap.

Intermezzo: Saya bisa makin banyak ngobrol dengan teman-teman sekelompok sambil mengerjakan project akhir. Sambil cerita, sambil beresin project.

Lalu saat saya istirahat sebentar, iseng-iseng ke luar di depan lobby hotel; d-i-n-g-i-n banget! Kalau nggak salah itu suhunya 8 derajat Celcius. Makin malam memang makin dingin, apalagi Akita lokasinya udah di bumi belahan utara.

Mata sudah lelah, badan pun sudah rentek. Kami yang tersisa akhirnya bisa istirahat setelah project selesai. Bisa dibilang kami hanya punya waktu 4 jam untuk tidur karena pagi-pagi sudah harus bangun untuk bersiap kembali ke Tokyo...

Semoga saya mendapat kesempatan lagi untuk menjelajahi Jepang lebih luas dan lebih mendalam.