Trip to Jeonju

posting kali ini masi berkisar seputar perjalanan vacation gw ke Korea, salah satu jadwal adalah mengunjungi kota Jeonju, yang kalo ga salah terletak di salah satu propinsi Jeollabuk-do. this Jeonju city has a tourist attraction of Jeonju Hanok Village, which is basically a set of housing complex full of Korean Tradisional houses. More importantly, me and these dua orang gadis manis, went to Jeonju because this is the birthplace of Bibimbap, a traditional Korean cuisine. so dua attraction ini yang menjadi jadwal kami disana

thank God, thanks to the Korea Visit year initiatives, they provides a free shuttle bus from Seoul – Jeonju and then vice versa near the end of the day. hence we did not need to pay some money for the transport..!! The Shuttle Bus was nice and comfy, and the trip from Seoul took about 2 hours and 45 minutes.

comfy free shuttle bus..!!

we arrived at Jeonju and took some pict at the doorstep of Hanok Village Complex

landmark in front of the Hanok Village

overall the view was nice, houses were well maintained and clean, although some of them were not 100% originated from hundreds years ago, I bet some were reconstructed (even built from scratch). the complex itself was considerably quiet, and since the most of the visitor came from countries like Japan or China, I am sure that we were the only three non-East-Asian creatures exists in Jeonju that day.

there was a little hill nearby, and from the top of that hill we were informed we can have the view of overall Hanok Village, OK lah we hiked there, and took some pictures at the top

Hanok Village from the Hill

on our way to the hilltop, demonstrated how young we are

after a tiring sightseeing (well, not that tiring though) it was came the time to have a lunch, and as what I emphasized already at the beginning of the post, we were looking for Jeonju Style Bibimbap, some says it a ‘must try’ cuisine in Korea. I have tried some Bibimbap in home country, Jakarta, but how I am surprised to find out how good Jeounju Bibimbap was.

this is the restaurant, they actually marked it with "Native Restaurant"

Jeonju Bibimbap made me merem melek eating it, DANG GOOD

man, I came from Indonesia that has a very high standard of saying “yes, this is a good food”. We in Indonesia produce a very delicious cuisine like Rendang that is proclaimed to be the most f-ing delicious food in the whole world or Nasi Goreng (fried rice).

my standard definition of ‘delicious’ is also strongly based on my tongue’s response to Rendang or Nasi Goreng, but this Jeounju Bibimbap is definitely worthed to be recognized on the list. Oh man, I was enjoying every tiny bite of it! I do not really understands the ingredients of a Bibimbap, all I know is that lots of various vegetables mixed together with small chunks of marinated beef, and some sauces, and…. WHATEVER LAH…. all I know that it was good, very very good

some pictures from our trip!

have we appeared to be "tourist" enough?

tips turis Indonesia kalo ke korea

so there we go, gw dan 2 orang kawan karib berkesempatan untuk vacation di Republic of South Korea, not bad, tiketnya murah (promo Air Asia) ditengah-tengah melandanya demam Korea-pop dan Korea-drama akhir-akhir ini, rasanya ga ada waktu yang lebih tepat untuk pergi ke negara asal pemain sepakbola MU, Park Ji Sung ini..

dan tanggal 8-15 Nov kemarin, ane, Ayu, dan Devi pergi ke sana, berangkat dari Jakarta, ke KL, trus mendarat di Seoul, dari pengamatan gw, berikut mungkin sedikit dari tips tentang jalan-jalan di Korea, hope it helps:

• November itu DINGIN, Jendral!

yeah, Indonesia memang negara tropis yang terletak di khatulistiwa, dengan suhu yang hangat (diatas 20 derajat C almost all year) jika dibanding dengan Korea Selatan. terlebih lagi yang bikin kita agak kecele Bulan November ternyata uda DINGIN..!! kalo menilik ke pembagian season disono, sebenernya November tergolong musim autumn (gugur) dan menuju ke Winter, tapi entah kenapa kita (terutama gw, makhluk tropis dari pulau Bali) cukup menggigil kedinginan sepanjang waktu, Dang..!! ditambah angin semilir menambah teruk suasana.

cuaca dingin memaksa terus makan-makan, hidup gorengan Korea..!!

so buat yang mau ke Korea, some says the best time is springs or early autumn buat makhluk tropis lainnya, kalo emang pengen bulan Nov-Februari (musim dingin) silahkan siapkan gear winter seperti jaket bulu angsa kutub utara, syal hangat, kupluk thermal, long john dan laen laen.

• Belajarlah kalimat-kalimat dasar dalam bahasa Korea

seriously, in order to save your own life, man.. learn basic commands/phrases in Korean, minimal level survival lah, ga usah canggih-canggih, yang penting cukup untuk nanya harga berapa, cukup untuk ngasitau ke sopir taksi arah tujuan kita, dan cukup untuk bertanya dimana ada Toilet, contoh disini is one of terrific example.

why? I thought that Korea is a well modernized and established country, especially the fact that they are currently running the 2010-2012 Visit Korea Year, tourism is its focus these 3 years, there must be a lot of people who speaks English to help us out, rite? tourist like us?

WRONG..!!

english is (barely) useless my friend, tampaknya mereka menjaga nilai-nilai tradisionil dengan sangat kuat, termasuk Bahasanya, so very few people speaks English, termasuk (percaya ga percaya) even mbak2 ato mas2 di Tourist Information Center ga bisa bahasa Inggris – this is not a Joke, Tourist Info Center ga bisa Bahasa Inggris, it was true.

solusi lain dan alternatif lain tentunya kita bisa back to basic, speaks Bahasa Tarsan ato Body Language, buat yang merasa piawai dan handal dalam membuat orang lain mengerti maksud kita dari gerakan, akan sangat menguntungkan.. ambil contoh aja kalo lagi kebelet, dan perlu bertanya dimana TOILET, kita bisa aja pake gerakan yang melambangkan kita lagi pipis 😀 if you have enough wits, ya?

for example, bahasa Korea untuk Toilet adalah "Hwajangsil" , it will help you out, as this picture did, I show this pict to the lady that did not have any idea what TOILET suppose to mean

• Belanja Oleh-oleh, disini..!!

have I told you that English is almost useless here, ya? well waktu itu kita bertiga menjelang kepulangan ke tanah air, tentunya sedang berdiskusi gimana caranya beli oleh-oleh yang murah dan mudah? fortunately dengan bantuan teman kuliah kita, Iwa Kartiwa yang ngasi info bahwa ada satu toko oleh-oleh di daerah Dongdaemun yang murah dan sangat Indonesia…. hmm what do you mean, sangat Indonesia..?

we’re about to find out ketika kita diajak belanja kesana, lokasinya terletak di shopping center namanya Doota, tokonya ada di lantai 5, dan ketika kita masuk kesana, baru sebentar liat liat barang, lalu datanglah waitress yang I swear itu orang Korea, dan menyapa kita dengan “selamat datang” literally said: “selamat datang”

WHAT…!!??

do you, errr, speak Bahasa, you understand, Bahasa..??

selama seminggu lebih di Korea kita mostly struggle dengan bahasa inggris yang terbatas, dan di hari ini, Dear God, ada toko oleh-oleh dengan waitress berbahasa Indonesia..!

later on I was pretty sure that this gift shop has special relationship with Indonesia, not only because the waitress speaks Bahasa (ketika ditanya, they said belajar otodidak, baca buku) but also di toko ini ada 2 bendera yang terpasang, bendera Korea dan bendera Indonesia!

See the flags? yes itu Bendera Korea dan Sang Saka Merah Putih

and speaking of which, kita tentunya bukan orang Indonesia pertama yang belanja disitu, udah ada beberapa TESTIMONI dari rekan-rekan sebangsa dan setanah air yang berbelanja disana:

Dari H. Didi di Bogor, dari ow, Fauzi Badilla dan... Primus Yustisio, plus fotonya coy

and yeah, ketika kita belanja pun, no need to ask in English, they will respond you in Bahasa, like “tiga ribu” or “sepuluh ribu, tiga” dan mereka juga bilang kalo beli banyak, dapet DISKON, mereka bilang “kurang nanti” yang kurang lebih artinya diskon dibelakang pas bayar. its like a dream comes true.

we were so excited, before leaving the shop I told the waitress that I promise them to write a post in my Blog about the shop, and I am writing about them, here.

till know, I dont even know why this shop has so much relation with Indonesia... see the flag in background

old quotes

yakinlah jika anda dapat melakukan hal-hal kecil yang baik maka anda akan dapat pula melakukan hal hal besar dengan baik

oleh karenanya tapakilah waktu waktu anda dengan penuh kesungguhan dan keikhlasan

sesungguhnya hakekat keberhasilan berada pada proses menuju keberhasilan itu sendiri

dikutip dari piagam penghargaan mahasiswa berprestasi 2007 tingkat Program Studi Teknik Elektro STEI ITB

Perahu Naga

mungkin ngga salah kalau disebut nenek moyang Indonesia adalah pelaut, sudah didukung fakta bahwa negara kita adalah negara kepulauan, prestasi bidang olahraga yang berhubungan dengan dayung2an juga membanggakan.

yang pasti masih fresh di ingatan tentu saja aksi “clean sweep” alias sapu bersih semua medali emas untuk perahu naga tim putra di Asian Games 2010 Guangzhou. keseluruhan tiga medali emas berhasil dipersembahkan tim putra Indonesia, sementara tim putri Indonesia sukses menyabet tiga medali perak, spektakular..!! 🙂

bukan hanya memenangkan ketiga medali emas, tim putra Indonesia juga selalu tampil dominan di tiap nomornya (250 m, 500 m, dan 1000 m). jarak antara tim Indonesia dan peringkat kedua ga pernah mepet, selalu menang comfortably.

tiga medali emas dari perahu naga

untuk Asian Games sendiri, tahun 2010 ini perahu naga baru pertama kalinya dipertandingkan, dan sumber rejeki buat Indonesia, bener-bener jadi lumbung medali 😀

bayangin aja kalo seandainya cabang perahu naga (dragon boat) ikut dipertandingkan di Olimpiade, pastinya jadi salah satu cabor yang berpotensi mendapatkan medali 🙂

total di Asian Games 2010 sendiri Indonesia mendapat 4 medali emas, tiga dari perahu naga dan satu medali emas dari bulutangkis, lewat ganda putra andalan Indonesia Markis Kido/Hendra Setiawan.

 

test using moblog

hai all,
I am testing to post in my blog from my Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 that runs on Windows Mobile 6. I am using a super cool and lite apps called moBlog, its very simple!

anyway, does anybody know a client for using wordpress in WinMo device?

Logo SEA Games 2011

SEA Games will again take place in 2011, to be specific will be held during November 2011, in two cities of Indonesia: Palembang (South Sumatra) and Jakarta.

logo

the logo for this 26th southeast Asian biggest sports tournaments will be GARUDA, the symbol of the Republic of Indonesia. this one is cool though, Garuda represent the visualization of strenght, while its wings draw glory and splendor. the main host will be Palembang, the capital city of South Sumatra, along with Jakarta as co-host.

last time SEA Games was held in Indonesia at 1997, as well it was the last time Indonesia triumph the tournament. This time, Indonesian government seems very serious and ambitious to bring the championship throne back to Indonesia. Some sport disciplines of course will get a lot of attention such as Badminton and Men Football, especially because the euforia from AFF Suzuki Cup has just passed and surely left some marks to Indonesian spectators, Timnas Indonesia at SEA Games will surely bear a high expectation. And Indonesia will be hosting the tournament… ini kandang kita..!!

one thing to be noted here that for football in SEA Games, the representing team is not the senior team, but rather will be under 23 years old team (U-23). some players from AFF Cup squad will still be able to play such as new superstars Okto Maniani, Yongki Ari Wibowo, and Irfan Bachdim, since they are under 23 years old.

Irfan and Okto, we will se their actions again in November SEA Games

INDONESIA..!!! garuda di dadaku

this post is to show how proud I am of my football national team of Indonesia (Timnas Indonesia), that even though was only being the runner up of recently held AFF Suzuki Cup 2010, but nevertheless the result, their playing was awesome

years and years watching Indonesia national team, I say this is the most tireless and relentless ever, they will not stop chasing the ball before the final whistle being blown, and one thing that important, THEY NEVER LOSING FAITH..!!

I happened to be watching the football match live from the stadium twice throughout AFF cup, once at semifinal against the Philippines and the final match against Malaysia. Gelora Bung Karno (GBK) was always packed with fanatic (but polite and fair) Indonesian spectators, at least about 80.000 of them, roaring inside the stadium for Indonesia.

the shout: INDONESIA….INDONESIA..!!! all the time, when the anthem was played, everybody sang, it was a tremendous ambience. it was hot inside the stadium due to so many people inside, but for watching timnas live, they –including me– did not pay a lot of attention to the weather, we were completely blended in the euforia.

the view of GBK from where I watched

 

one moments that I can not forget is at the 2nd semifinal match againts the Philippines, when Christian Gonzales struck a wonderful goal with a classy kick, I literally could not control myself, it was hot, I was thirsty, but I jumped and shouted and screamed as loud as I could and put my hands in the air, GOOOOOOLLL …… I barely lost my voice 😀

the stadium was vibrating, and it happened for quiet a while. at the very moment after the goal, all I could hear was the scream, and nothing else. all I could see was people jumped and hands in the air (even I could not see the football field since people ahead of me jumped high)

what an experience, I am sure that this timnas Indonesia is having a great future, of course if they can maintain discipline, focus, and of course keep their heads down.

simple review : Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

Compliments wont be enough to describe this book, this is a book about some possible ‘backgrounds’ behind story of success people.

i adore Malcolm Gladwell on how he links several facts and data he brought to form an argument about success reasoning. Those facts he elaborated in Outliers are facts that, other people wont ever think before. For example, he describes how the date of birth affects the success of athletes, and as well as his theory about ethnic factor that affects airplanes accidents. This book is overwhelmingly enlighten, researches and studies mentioned herein this book are truly mind opener, invites the reader to see and explore new perspective of rationale behind success stories. So SMART..!!

one part of Outliers that attracts me the most is about ‘10.000 hours rule’ which stated that if we want to be expert or specialized in one subject matter, we will have to spend 10.000 hours to do so 🙂 . I kinda regret though, because I bought the translated version of Outliers (in Bahasa Indonesia), I think it would be better for me to have the book on its original transcript in English LOL..

anyway, I would recommend this one. Although up until now I don’t know how to categorize this book as: is it ‘science non-fiction’? or ‘research result non-fiction’? or ‘biography of success people’? or whatever… difficult to describe, but delicate to be read 😀

Sistem TI Garuda Kacau Karena Kesalahan Manajemen

INILAH.COM, Jakarta –Kacaunya penerbangan Garuda dinilai bukan karena 100% sistem TI yang buruk. Tapi juga berhubungan dengan kesalahan manajemen yang membahayakan bisnis Garuda selanjutnya.

“Hal ini memprihatinkan sekali dan menunjukkan kelemahan posisi konsumen di mata airline-arline di Indonesia,” kata pengamat teknologi Alfons Tanujaya saat dihubungi INILAH.COM, Selasa (23/11)..

Alfons menilai Garuda terjerumus seperti sekarang lebih karena persiapan yang kurang matang. Padahal sistem TI yang dipakai seharusnya bisa meningkatkan efektivitas dan efisiensi. Dan jika akan menerapkan sistem baru maka harus melihat kultur dan komunikasi dalam implementasinya.

“Misalnya sinkronisasi, idealnya sih bagus, pilot, pramugari, teknisi dan semua sumber daya benar-benar disinkronkan dalam 1 sistem. Kalau itu bisa berjalan maka akan sangat bagus karena akan meningkatkan kualitas layanan dari airline itu sendiri,” kata Alfons.

Namun menurut dia yang jadi pertanyaan adalah budaya yang beda, dan itu satu hal penting harus diperhatikan. “Kalau di sini disuruh menggunakan sistem baru, mereka yang sudah berada di comfort zone (yang sudah nyaman) akan melawan,” katanya.

Menyangkut waktu yang lama bagi Garuda untuk memperbaiki sistem hingga dua hari, Alfons menyatakan sangat susah dijawab. Karena hal itu harus melihat kompleksitas masalah, berapa besar size perusahaan, perubahan sistem yang dilakukan, dan apakah kulturnya menentang atau tidak.

“Jadi kalau langsung menerapkan satu sistem saja tanpa memperhitungkan apa bisa diterima atau diimplementasikan dengan baik harus dilakukan dengan cermat. Jadi bukan jika di Jerman bisa jalan di Indonesia juga bisa jalan itu artinya manajemen salah bikin keputusan,” tegas Alfons.

Namun Alfons menyatakan meskipun sistem TI Garuda saat ini bermasalah, bukan berarti akan mudah disusupi oleh orang jahat. Menurutnya sistem airline secara umum adalah tertutup, sehingga agak sulit bagi teroris cyber untuk menyusup.

“Tapi saya nggak tahu apakah Garuda sedemikian bodoh hingga membuka sistemnya, Tapi harusnya tidak, sistem yang terbuka hanya reservasi,” katanya.[ito]

[ito]

jalan jalan ke Malang : Java Dancer Coffee

nah kali ini posting bercerita tentang jalan-jalan ke kota Malang dan (tentunya) makan makan *yess*

kedatangan ke malang ini dalam rangka untuk menghadiri kondangan yang sudah jauh2 hari direncanakan, sayangnya walopun uda tau dari lama bakal pergi ke malang, gw ngga segera nyari informasi berharga untuk “tourist” yang bakal jalan-jalan 😦 jadinya agak less enjoyable gitu deee

anyway, tiba di Malang hari sabtu pagi, langsung menuju ke hotel Armi tempat nginep di jalan Kaliurang. langsung saja dimulai dengan memasukkan “Bakso President” ke dalam kerongkongan. Mmmm, sedep bener, dan satu lagi yang unik adalah lokasi si bakso president yang terletak di samping rel kereta api 😀 jadi kalau kereta lagi lewat, lumayan “menggoyang” badan selagi makan bakso hehehe…

dan hari berikutnya, sebagai penggemar kopi, gw direkomendasiin satu tempat ngopi yang katanya asik banget di kota malang, judulnya Java Dancer Coffee, letaknya di deket tugu malang. Okeh, langsunglah gw beranjak menuju TKP.

sekilas arsitektur tempatnya mengingatkan gw seperti kafe-kafe di seminyak ato legian Bali, dengan dominan bahan kayu berwarna coklat tua, dan papan tulis kapur untuk menulis daftar menu di table bar. pada sore hari yang cerah itu gw memesan fusion yang dinamai “Orange Coffee” seperti gambar diatas… rasanya truly not bad at all, baru pertama kali nih gw ngincipin rasa espresso dicampur sama jeruk dan lalu di-blend, so unique, smooth, and tasty. I never found any single beverages like this before, even though some while ago Starbucks was also serving “orange honey latte” which are incredibly off the hook for the taste, this Java Dancer’s Orange Coffee unmatched by other beverages I have ever tasted before.

guess what? gw di malang cuman 4 hari 3 malem, tapi karna saking terkesannya gw sama Java Dancer ini, keesokan harinya gw balik lagi kesana LOL, rasanya ngga puas dan ngerasa ’eman’ kalo cuma sekali (jarang-jarang gitu ke Malang), dan untuk hari berikutnya gw pesen hot beverage nih, pengen coba citarasa biji kopinya kali ini 🙂 . Dan pilihan gw jatuh kepada kopi Mandheling yang disajikan dengan cara Syphon, ato dibakar di tempat.

Java Dancer Coffee, tagged as good coffee

dan bagaiman review terhadap hot beverage-nya? well I would give 7.5 out of 10 lah, which means that its not bad anyhow, but on the other hand its not something special that can make me fantasize amazing taste of Mandheling Coffee till the seventh sky high *lebay* . the fact that Mandheling coffee can be found in supermarket these days, and Java Dancer’s in this case is nothing different than other’s Mandheling.

I would recommend the Orange Coffee or another fusion beverages (blend, for example)  they serve down there rather than the pure coffee served in hot. 🙂 anyway, in overall Java Dancer is nice place to hang out, talking business matters or just to kill some time with your dearest,

hereby I would give 4-star Coffee for Java Dancer…!!! 🙂 🙂 up you go, Baristas..!!!