#891 - 2010 Year-End Trip : Italy (Part IV)

Previously on 2010 Year-End Trip : Italy : Zilko and his friends went to Italy for a Christmas break. After spending more than one week in Italy, now they were ready to leave Firenze for Venezia.

After a not so nice experience in Firenze (mainly related to the hostel), we could not wait to leave Firenze. Plus, our next destination was Venezia, where we would stay in the most expensive hostel in our trip to Italy (because it would be during New Year's Eve). This made us more eager to leave the city. So that was it, this day (Thursday, December 30), after breakfast, we directly went to Firenze Railway Station.

Then, a nightmare occurred. We arrived at Firenze Station at around 10.30 AM. We went to the ticket machine and looked for train tickets to Venezia. The thing was, ALL tickets to Venezia departing prior to 7.30 PM had been SOLD OUT (even first class tickets). Finding no other option, we bought tickets for that departure time. It meant that we had like 9 (NINE) hours to kill in Firenze! We felt like this city loved us so much that it would not let us go! At first we planned to kill our time in a local McDonald's restaurant just accross the station. However, during lunch-time, we were shooed away because the restaurant was busy. So, we decided to wait in the waiting lounge. What we did during that time was: "studying"! Even, in a way I am a bit glad we had to wait that long since I made a significant progress on my assignment at that time! During this time, our hostel in Venezia called me and the guy on the other side of the phone was angry at me for not informing him that we would be late that day! I was shocked! I mean, sure, we were in a way "wrong" for forgetting to inform them. But still, we were customers! I mean, he could speak to us in a nicer way so that we would not feel like being under-attack! Beside, it was not our plan that we would be late arriving in Venezia! I was kinda mad!

Anyway, so eventually nine hours passed and we finally left Firenze. We took another Eurostar ride which cost a lot (Eurostar was the only train with available tickets that day). We arrived at Venezia at almost 9.30 PM. Once we got out the station, we were really WOW-ed!! It was VENEZIA!! I could not believe I WAS IN VENEZIA that day!! Well, Venezia had always been in my "must-visit-place" list so imagine how I felt at that time! Instead of the usual parking ramp and road, just outside the station there was a pathway and the grand canal! There was no road, thus no cars, buses, etc! What were there were: boats! Cool, eh?? Long story short, we finally arrived at our hostel after getting a little bit lost. And the good thing was, the hostel was REALLY good!!

::: One small canal in Venezia

The next day, December 31, was the last day of 2010. In the morning until afternoon we walked around Venezia, enjoying the beautiful city. We went back to our hostel to take a break for a while. At almost 4 PM, we left our hostel and explored the city even more. Well, since one friend was travelling on a wheelchair, it was quite a challenge to walk around the city. In every bridge, we had to do the following procedure: my friend stood up, one friend would then help her to jump crossing the bridge, and I would bring the wheelchair to the other side of the bridge. The thing was, none of the bridge was a flat bridge. They somewhat lied between arch bridge and moon bridge: It was arch bridge with steps on it. That was why we had to do those exhausting procedures everytime. Well, it was okay if there were just two or three bridges, but it was Venezia, a city also known as "City of Bridge"! There were TONS of bridges there! After this evening we knew next time we would take the waterbus instead :-)

::: St. Mark's Square

::: Somehow I managed to be part of this crowd during New Year's Eve.

::: New Year Countdown in Venezia.

New Year's Eve in Venezia was crazy! We were in St. Mark's Piazza and there were tons of people there. Up until the Countdown, it was okay, everything was pretty much under control. However, some two minutes after the countdown, everything went crazy!! Firecrackers were everywhere (many of them were ON the piazza), many people were drunk, etc. I remember thinking: "Just get me out of here" as it felt like I was literally in the middle of a war with hidden active grenades surrounding me and one wrong step: it exploded! In a way, I was kinda surprised and shocked with the craziness. I mean, yeah, I expected something to be "out of normal" during the New Year's eve, but not that crazy where situation could be very wild and kinda dangerous in a way. Anyway, at almost 2 AM, we left St. Mark's piazza, taking a ferry ride back to our hostel.

On New Year's Day, of course we got up kinda late. That day we only went around the city. Because it was winter, the day was really short and as a result we only had three or four hours daylight. Learning from our previous experience, we decided to buy our train tickets to Milan, our final destination city, in advance. Because it was still two days before departure, there were tons of options available. Now, to save budget, we chose to travel with regular train. Then, we saw that the price between second class and first class was not that much different. Considering it would be a 3+ hours trip, we decided to spoil ourselves a little bit by buying first class tickets :-) (beside, the first class price was still cheaper than Eurostar's second class price).

::: A gondola in Grand Canal

::: Venezia

::: Waterbus Ride in Venezia

Anyway, we visited several places that day, including one museum whose ticket price was incredibly expensive. Our experience that day taught me that in Venezia, the beauty is not a particular place in the city, but it is the city itself. Going around Venezia is the best way to enjoy the unique floating city, and we don't have to pay for that :-) Later that evening, we watched a classical music concert! Yeah, a classical music concert!! Somehow I did that!! Well, surprisingly enough, it was not boring at all. In fact, it was kinda interesting! They played Vivaldi's masterpiece.

::: My first ever Classical Music Concert.

On Sunday, we went on a trip to two neighboring islands of Venezia: Murano and Burano. I like their names though, making people thinking that they are twin islands, lol. Murano was an island famous for its glass. Burano was another island which somehow resembles Venezia (with canals). Well, there was one unique thing about Burano: the buildings in the island were painted with colorful colors, makin them kinda nice to see :-)

::: Murano Glass. Note: these were the cheap ones.

::: In Burano.

The next day, we left Venezia for Milan. The trip was awesome. We were glad we decided to buy that first class tickets as the second class carriages were super full and looked a bit uncomfortable (compared to first class :D). On the way, the scenery was SO amazing though! There were mountains with snow (the Alps), passing some enchanting rivers, etc! Awesome scenery! This day, we also realized that this was our first (and only) train trip during the day. Our other train trips were evening trips.

::: An amazing view from the train, wasn't it?? :-) The mountain was the Alps.

Anyway, so we finally arrived in Milan. The city of Milan was, I felt, a little different. It was more metropolist than other cities we visited. We then went to our hostel catching a cab, and the cab was surprisingly not expensive! Once in the hotel, we got bad news. Our room was on the third floor and there was no elevator! The thing was, my friend was travelling on a wheelchair which meant that an elevator was a must! My friend did call the hostel before our trip and the hostel guy said they HAD an elevator! But well, there was nothing we could do at that point, right? We did complain, but what would it change? We saw no other option but to take that room anyway. Beside, it would only be just a one night stay in Milan. To make things worse, the hostel did not have a free wi-fi connection. If we wanted to use wi-fi, we had to pay! Crazy!! We were so upset that we ended up doing not so much things that day.

The next day was the last day of our trip to Italy. Our flight would depart at 6.10 PM so we had pretty much the whole day in Milan. That day, we were kinda not really in the mood to really explore the city. I don't know why but it seemed that things were not going our way in Milan. It was kinda difficult to find a place for breakfast, and the metro system was practically unreachable for us as there was no elevator or stuff for handicapped people to get down there. We just visited Duomo (the Cathedral) and that's it. After that, we just sat in a cafe and at 2 PM we left the city for the airport.

::: Milan's Duomo (Cathedral)

::: easyJet's Airbus A319-111 which brought us back to the Netherlands as EZY2729.

Our flight departed on time. It was easyJet's EZY2729 on an Airbus A319-111 reg code G-EZIZ. We landed at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport at around 8 PM, and that marked the end of our year-end trip to Italy.

THE END

#886 - 2010 Year-End Trip : Italy (Part III)

Previously on 2010 Year-End Trip : Italy : Zilko and his friends went to Italy for Christmas and New Year Break and now he had used most of his time in Rome getting around the city during Christmas.

Before I start, well, I think I have to speed up my pace now otherwise this entry will be a never-ending one, hahaha.

So, we only had less than one day left in Rome since that day we planned to leave for Florence by evening. We still had one destination in mind: the Vatican Museum in Vatican City as the museum was closed when we first visited Vatican City three days before because of Christmas (see Part I).

So, that was it, our plan for that day was obvious. We also had a date with our Italian friend for lunch that day. So, after lunch, we all (including our Italian friend) went to Vatican Museum. Lucky the queue was not that long that day and we got a pretty good discount for the entrance fee because we were students! My own agendas for the Vatican Museum were two things: visiting Sistine Chapel and taking a picture of the famous purple spiral stairs in the museum.

Well, in fact, the WHOLE Vatican Museum was SO beautiful! It was definitely the best museum I had ever been into in my life (well, I have not visited Louvre in Paris yet so I cannot make a comparison at this point :-) ). With that entrance fee (15 euro, but we only paid 8 because we were students), I think it definitely worthed it. I loved the Roman architecture of the museum, and the art masterpieces in it. There was this long hallway which was divided in rooms, and they somehow designed the rooms to be so symmetric so that you were like seeing a mirror!!

::: One Roman Palace inside the Vatican Museum.

::: A magnificent hallway in Vatican Museum.

Anyway, so we finally got in the Sistine Chapel. Entering the chapel was so magical for me. As you might recall, about two years prior, I worked on a project about Michaelangelo for my Aesthetics Class. And the movie I watched in that class mainly focused on this Sistine Chapel. So just imagine how incredible it was for me that that time I WAS IN the Sistine Chapel itself, seeing Michaelangelo's masterpieces with my own eyes!!

::: The purple spiral stairs.

We also visited Raphael's Room just nearby Sistine Chapel (of course), and it was another magnificent place to visit!! Anyway, after going around the museum (and taking picture of that purple spiral stairs), we decided to leave Vatican Museum as it was already about 5 PM. We visited St. Peter's Square for a while. After that we left for Roma Termini Station. After taking our luggages (earlier that day we deposited our luggages in Termini Station), we bought our tickets to Florence. Somehow, we did not buy the regular train's tickets but we bought the Eurostar Train ticket instead. Well, the ticket was of course more expensive but Eurostar was a faster train and in a way I also wanted to experience how it felt like to ride a Eurostar! :-)

::: St. Peter's Square in the dusk.

Eurostar was awesome. Even the second class was incredible and nice! And it was fast (of course)! Once we arrived at Florence there was a funny incident as we (somehow) arrived about 15 minutes earlier in Florence, causing us to be like "F*ck, we are in Florence!" because it took a bit of time for us to get ready to get off the train (because one of my friend was in a wheelchair, so it took more time to prepare) and we planned to prepare for it 10 minutes before our scheduled time arrival, which meant at that point, we were not ready yet, lol.

::: Eurostar Italia, an Italian bullet train.

Anyway, that night in Florence we had dinner at a bar (it was more like an American bar though, as I ordered Ribs steak). The hostel was also not really good. They messed up with the reservation and they prepared smaller room for us. We of course complained and for the first night we got an extra room and for the rest, well, they sort of packed all of us in that smaller rooms but gave some discounts. But still, not a really nice experience.

The next day, we asked a recommendation for good places to eat in Florence and we got some. The problem was, one of them was closed because it was holiday! hahaha. Anyway, this day we went around the city. Florence was a nice city. One of the most landmarky place was Ponte Vecchio. We also wanted to enter the Palazzo Pitti, a museum at around 5 PM. But we realized a paper on the ticket booth saying something "gratis" ("gratis" is a very common word in many European languages as it means exactly the same as in Indonesian :D) after 7 PM that day and we suspected it was the entrance fee. Of course we opted to wait for two more hours (it would be a free entrance for God's sake! :D) and we could explore the city a little bit more. Well, after Vatican Museum, this museum was just fine for me, a little bit verging on boring even in a way. Anyway, that evening, we had dinner at one of the recommended restaurant to eat the famous Florenzian Beef Steak! It was kinda unique as we ordered not based on how many portions we wanted, but how many grams of steak we wanted, lol. And the steak was nice! It had a bit of raw taste, and that is why if you love medium-cooked steak, you will also like this Florenzian steak! :-)

::: Ponte Vecchio in Firenze.


::: Firenze as seen from Ponte Vecchio.

::: Florenzian Beef Steak!

The next day, we visited the Accademia Gallery as my friend really wanted to see David. We could skip the lines (because my friend was in a wheelchair, lol). There was a funny incident happening when we got in. Before getting in, we had to get through the security check first. Just like at the airport, we had to walk through a metal detector. I forgot to take my keys off my pocket and the detector beeped. I took my keys off and walked through the detector again. And the security guy was like: "Signore, this is a metal detector and these [pointing at my keys] are metals". I was like "Okay" since technically what he said was something too trivial, wasn't it? And I had no idea how to react to that. Feeling the awkwardness, that security guard even restated what he just said, making it even more awkward. I said "Okay" again and then he was like "Well, these are metals that is why it beeps!". And I was like "Yeah, of course, so?". Tired, he let me go in, lol. Probably he was trying to be a bit funny but he put a damn serious face, making me unsure whether he was joking, playing around with me, or was in fact serious! hahaha.

The statue of David was so magnificent! It was HUGE (all this time I thought it was small. Well, not small "small", probably 2 or 3 meter in height, but in fact it was 5+ meter!). Michaelangelo also sculpted it in a unique way in depicting David's victory over Goliath (in Indonesian, David is "Daud" and Goliath is "Goliat" :-D). But that was pretty much it in the museum. The other arts were just okay, but not as outstanding as David.

::: Firenze's Cathedral.

After the museum, we went to the cathedral. Well, again, after St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, this cathedral was just "okay", even though I am a bit sure that HAD we entered this cathedral BEFORE St. Peter's Basilica, we would have been "wow"-ed by it :-) We then went around the city and went to the open market.

::: Delicioius Gelato in Firenze.

I was looking for a water proof shoes as our next destination was Venezia (Venice) and there was a rumor that it was flooding there. I was thinking buying a pair of new shoes didn't hurt as I could use those shoes also as my winter shoes back in the Netherlands. I found a good pair of shoes with reasonable price. However, I had a problem with the color (yellow) as I did not see myself wearing yellow shoes, lol. The seller tried to provoke me to buy them (of course) by saying I could color the shoes MYSELF using a polish or something and I also had to buy that polish. Well Sir, if I would not buy new shoes whose color I did not like in which I had to "recolor" it myself with some polish that I also had to buy! If he would recolored it for me with no charge, well, I would be considering the offer and it would depend on how the shoes looked like after the process. I ended up not buying those shoes :-)

TO BE CONTINUED

#883 - 2010 Year-End Trip: Italy (Part II)

Previously on 2010 Year-End Trip: Italy : Zilko and his friends went to Italy over the Christmas break. They spent their Christmas Eve eating Japanese food for dinner with a good (free) red wine and cake.

The thing was, we had been a bit worried about our agendas on the Christmas Day itself. Well, it is true that Rome (Vatican City to be precise) is the center of Catholicism and that is why Christmas is supposedly nothing to worry about. Well, the truth was quite the contrary. Because people there did celebrate Christmas, ALL places were closed on Christmas Day! By ALL, yes, I mean ALL: including Vatican City, ALL museums in Rome, Colosseum, etc. To make things worse, that day ALL public transports were inactive for some period of hours (three hours if I am not mistaken, from around 12 or 1 PM until 3 or 4 PM) because the government decided that public service people should spend those time with their families on Christmas Day. To make the already worse things even "worser" (from visitors' point of view), December 26th is also a national holiday in Italy! So people, do really think about your trip to Rome if you plan to go on these dates!

Luckily, we were not stupid people. We still planned to get what we could get that day: the city of Rome itself. It was true that many museums in the city were closed, but it did not mean the city was "closed", right? Even though we did not get in into something, we still could enjoy the city by going around it. Another luck was on our side, we had a friend who came from Rome and that day he was back home for the Christmas break. And he was really nice to offer to walk us around the city in the afternoon.

Anyway, you might wonder why we did not attend the famous and glorious Christmas Mass Liturgy in Vatican City on Christmas. Well, we had several reasons for that: (1) We did not have the "tickets" (yeah, to attend the mass, apparently we had to have the so-called tickets. Well, the tickets were free though but to get them, there were several procedures we had to follow. Plus, the procedures should have been started like months before); (2) I am not proud of this, but I was not really a morning-type person. To attend the mass liturgy, we had to get up like really early and somehow found a transportation to get there. FYI, we stayed in a different side of the city where it took us around 30 - 40 minutes to get to Vatican City; (3) The weather in Rome the past few days had not been nice. Drizzle constantly fell from the sky; Well, not that I do not want to attend the mass liturgy, but it seemed that in this trip it was too troublesome for us. But still, I might plan another trip to Rome someday in the future with the main agenda to attend the liturgy.

::: Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II in Rome, Italy. It did look like the White House :-)

So, while waiting for our friend, we spent the morning pretty much around the Ancient Rome, a spot in Rome where the ruin of the old Rome were preserved. We did not (yet) enter the Colosseum and the Roman Forum (simply because they were closed) but we managed to get a glimpse of the old Rome (even though it was nothing compared to what we would see the day after when we entered the Roman Forum). Anyway, then we met our friend and we walked around the city. We had a nice coffee break in a cafe in front of the Pantheon (and yes, we did not enter the Pantheon this day because it was Christmas).

Having a friend who really knows the city around is always great, for many reasons: (1) There is no need to worry about getting lost. Sure; (2) He/She knows which places should be in our priority list to visit, as if you browse the information yourself, you might get confused and sometimes the information in the internet is just exaggerated (to attract people to come, of course); (3) He/She knows which restaurants we should go to, to have a nice, local, and decent meals; (4) He/She (supposedly) speaks the local language so just in case there is something involving locals, we do not have to really worry about the language barrier; and the most interesting one: (5) He/She can tell us many (interesting) stories about the city and some spots that we visit. Just like when our friend told us the following story when we passed this structure:

So once upon a time, there were two famous Roman architects: Bernini and Borromini. They were rivals and they hated each other. One day, they got jobs which employed them in Piazza Navona. Borromini's job was to build (and design) a church while Bernini's job was to build (and design) a fountain in front of it. Bernini decided to build a fountain sculptured with four gods circling it. The funny thing was that one of the god was in a position as the church would fall towards him! (you can see in the picture). It could be interpreted that Bernini did it on purpose to mock Borromini as he basically said: "I think your building is really badly-designed and it will fall apart", LOL.

We ended the day having a nice dinner in an Italian restaurant in Rome. I had a nice pasta and one of my friend had a really nice meal (I forgot the name).

The next day, many of the main interesting sites were open for public again. We dedicated this day for an Ancient Rome Tour, starting with THE Colosseum. People had been reminding us that we should get there really really early to avoid the long queing line as Colosseum was a really popular destination (no question why). But here was the thing: Travelling with someone in a wheelchair apparently had its own perks: (1) sometimes we could get an extra discount; (2) we could SKIP the queing line! The second one is my personal favorite, honestly :-) So we did not really bother about getting up that early to beat the line.

::: Just outside the Colosseum.

Anyway, when we arrived at the Colosseum, the warning was true. There was a ridiculously long queing line to the ticket booths. Then, some salesguys approached us trying to sell their guided tours to us. Of course the total price was a bit higher than if we bought tickets from the booth, BUT with this tour we got a guide who would tell us all interesting stories and history of the Colosseum (and the Roman Forum). Even, one of them said that because we were travelling with someone on a wheelchair, we could get some price reduction. Thinking that the price still made sense (we had to pay 16 euro each), we decided to join the local tour.

::: Inside the Colosseum

The tour was really fun. The guide was an Italian guy with heavy Italian accent with a really good sense of humor. And yeah, Colosseum was awesome! I do not know how to put it in words, but I felt SO happy that finally I stepped my feet in the Colosseum, a place that I had wanted to go for so so long time. Yes, finally I could check one site in my "must visited places before I die" list. The guide told us many interesting stuffs of the building, making the visit even more enjoyable as I soaked myself in the history of the structure.

The package of the tour we bought was including a visit to the Roman Forum. For this site, we had another guide, a Canadian lady who had lived in Rome for 9 years. Roman Forum is a site with the ruins of ancient Roman buildings. We even got access to get into the Palatino Hill, a hill which in the Roman Mythology was the place where Romulus and Remus were found by the wolf. The best place of this hill was the small garden on top of the hill overlooking the Roman Forum (and the city of Rome in the background).

::: A view from the Palatino Hill towards the Roman Forum.

This part of Rome really offered a different side of the city which was not related to the religiosity of the city. Even, in a way, some of the structures there (including the Colosseum) represented the non-religious acts the old Roman people did centuries ago. Seeing this side of the city was really interesting.

Later that day, we had some time to kill and we went around the city. We managed to get in the Pantheon, in where I think I met Margaret Mountford, one of Sir Alan's advisor in the tv-show: The Apprentice UK. I am so regretful now that I did not ask her to take a picture with me, hahaha. We also visited several spots in Rome, and the nicest one was the Trevi Fountain. This fountain is also a must-visited place in Rome, IMO.

::: The Pantheon.

::: Trevi Fountain. I did the ritual of throwing a coin to the fountain :-)

Anyway, that night we had dinner at another Italian restaurant in Rome. And I had one of the best pasta I have ever had in my life: bucatini carbonara! It was for 8 or 9 euro and I think it was meant for a share between two or three people, but I managed to finish it myself because I was soo hungry and it was soo delicious! I definitely want to eat this meal again when I come back to Rome!!

::: A very delicious Bucatini Carbonara in Rome.

TO BE CONTINUED...

#879 - 2010 Year-End Trip: Italy (Part I)

note: due to its length, this entry will only be written in English.

Well, it has been a month now, and I have not written anything yet about my last year-end trip to Italy (well, except for this one) because of my hectic January. Anyway, let me get started.

As you should have found out through that link above, our first destination was actually Pisa, but because we already booked return-ticket to and from Milan, it meant that on the first day we had to travel a lot. Well, I did not mind traveling around a lot actually. However, it turned out that the first day of traveling to be a very unforgettable day with everything went wrong (details in that link).

Pisa

Fast forward, we arrived at Pisa at around 2 AM and of course we were so exhausted. We finally got to the hostel and because we picked a hostel which was literally just like 100 meter away from the tower, of course we SAW the tower getting there. The thing was, I had always wanted to visit the Pisa Tower. And that night, finally seeing it for the first time with my own eyes, I felt overwhelmed!! I remember feeling fired-up and excited, like all the exhaustion just disappeared (well, of course this was only because of some hormones or other things my body secreted due to this excitement that tricked my body to "forget" the exhaustion while it was actually still there). Anyway, I was so excited that after putting my stuffs down in the room, I just fleed to the Pisa Tower to enjoy it, at THREE AM in the morning!! Btw, I walked there with one friend and there was noone else there. Well, the last sentence was not really true, let me rephrase it: there was no "other tourist" there. We took some photos and decided to get a bit closer to the tower where a policeman somehow popped out from nowhere in the dark shooing us away. The exhaustion started to take the control of my body over from the adrenaline, and I decided to get back to the hostel.

::: The Leaning Tower of Pisa. The grand building in front of it was the Baptistry.

The next day, we got up a bit later in the day. Our agenda that day was to get around the Pisa Tower (and its complex) and then left the city, heading to Rome. Well, because we had a really late start in Italy, our schedule for this day was also a bit affected. We started getting around the tower at around 1 PM (our original schedule was at about 9 or 10 AM). Btw, I still remember that that day started awesomely for us: it was HOT!! Well, do not interpret the "hot" as in Indonesian standard for "hot" day. It was probably somewhere in the 10 degree. I even did not feel the urge to wear my winter jacket and I eventually just wore my short sleeved polo shirt. But then, the weather played around with us. At about 3 PM, it started raining! Dammit! hahaha...

Anyway, that day, tourists flocked the complex (of course). Well, nothing much I could write here as it was what it was: awesome!! Finally seeing THE Leaning Tower of Pisa with my own eyes: WOW!! (btw, looking at it with your own eyes: you will really feel its awesomeness, that the structure is really leaning and it looks like it is going to crumble!)

Rome

At about 4 PM, we arrived at Pisa Station to continue our journey to Roma. We bought tickets for train departing at around 6.15 PM and it was scheduled to arrive at 9.30 PM or so in Roma Termini Station. Our main goal that day was to finally get to our hostel.

Then, one small incident happened. We got in a "cab", which was not really a cab. For a 10 minutes ride, he charged us like 40 euro (he did not run the meter as there was NO meter in the cab). Well, I know that it was our mistake that we got in that "cab" in the first place, but it was the driver who played a good "trick" by standing in front of the real cabs just outside the station's exit door and approached us and acted like a real cab driver! After two long days and trips we had, of course we were kinda tired and it was easy to assume that he was a real cab driver.

Anyway, so of course we did not want to pay frickin' 40 euro. We were okay with just 15 euro max. He got mad. We were practically already in the doorstep of our hostel where he asked us to get back into his cab and he would drive us back to the station, and we would not have to pay anything. But come on. Please, who wanted to do that?? We knew that he was doing this thing to us because he knew we were tourists. So, we got an idea. We called the hostel guy and asked him to go down to the door to talk to this "cab" driver in Italian. The guy then came and the problem was solved and we paid only 15 euro, hahaha. Btw, the hostel guy was apparently Dutch :-)

The next day, we explored the city of Roma. Our main destination that day was the Vatican City. There was also a small funny incident that happened that morning. We asked an old guy on the street where the bus stop was. He explained to us, with heavy Italian accent. We then followed the direction he showed us but on the way, to make sure, we asked another guy. Apparently, the old guy was watching us and he got kinda mad that we asked another guy the same thing! Lol, it was kinda funny.

Anyway, so we finally arrived at THE Vatican City. It was drizzling that day, definitely not the best day to get around. We were a bit disappointed that the Vatican Museum was closed earlier that day (as it was the 24th of December) and of course we could not make it. We then made a plan to get back to Vatican City one more time before we left Roma. So, we took what we could get that day: St. Peter's Square and St. Peter's Basilica.

::: One of many works of art in St. Peter's Basilica.

::: St. Peter's Basilica

Well, St. Peter's Basilica REALLY resembled and represented the center of Catholicism. It was SO AMAZINGLY GRANDEUR!! I was really amazed with this building and all the art-works in it. I had never seen a church that beautiful and magnificent. In fact, maybe St. Peter's Basicila is the most majestic church in the world. I also (finally) saw the original Pieta with my own eyes. Visiting this place is also even more magical for those who have read or watched "Angels and Demons". In fact, I got the opportunity to visit the underground chamber where the graves of late popes were buried. Well, reading the novel, I imagined the chamber to be dark, cold, and kinda spooky. In reality, it was not. It was so bright, warm, but yet, solemn. The grave of Pope John Paul II was also there, and I prayed there. We were apparently the last few visitors allowed to get in to that underground chamber as the Vatican was getting ready for the Christmas. One of the guard even asked us to hurry up, saying: "Hurry up! The pope is coming here!". LOL.

::: St. Peter's Square

::: The underground chamber at St. Peter's Basilica. It was far from the spooky and cold atmosphere.

It was still drizzling when we got out, and it turned out that this bad weather would continue for the whole day. After having a quick lunch at 3 PM, we decided to walk to Castel Sant'Angelo which was pretty close to Vatican City. We got lucky that somehow, we walked at the Via della Conciliazione as it provided a majestic view of St. Peter's Basicila, as depicted in this picture:

::: A majestic view of St. Peter's Basilica from Via della Conciliazione (it is the wide street connecting St. Peter's Square and Castel Sant'Angelo).

See?? WOW!!! Anyway, Castel Sant'Angelo was also beautiful. There was a room which was wholly painted with Rennaissance-taste pictures. Well, at this point, I had not visited Sistine Chapel yet (don't worry, I will get there later), so I found this room was SO beautiful! And there was a narrow stairs which led us to a balcony on top of the castle, which would offer a spectacular view of the city, given that it was NOT raining.

::: A majestic view of Roma with its Tiber River and St. Peter's Basilica, as seen from the balcony of Castel Sant'Angelo.

::: The statue of Archangel Michael on top of Castel Sant'Angelo.

After Castel Sant'Angelo, we decided to get back to our hostel. We got a surprise from the hostel: we got a bottle of wine and a cake for free because it was Christmas Eve!! God bless our hostel!! It was awesome!! For dinner, we decided to look for an Italian restaurant nearby. The thing was, it was Christmas Eve!! And to make things worse, our hostel was located in a residential area of the city. What did these things mean? Well, these two factors combined together resulted in: "all restaurants were closed during Christmas Eve" but one restaurant: Sushi Tei. Yeah, Sushi Tei for God's Sake!! Finding no other option, we decided to take some meals away from this restaurant. For myself, I picked a gyoudon. And there we were, eating Japanese food for dinner in Italy during Christmas Eve. Interesting... .

TO BE CONTINUED...

#840 - Side Stories

ENGLISH

So apparently under the influence of heavy sleepiness, somehow I made a promise to you that I would write an entry about the side-stories of my last trip to China. Well, as a gentleman (LOL), I have to write what I wrote I would write, rite? (now try to read the last sentence aloud). Anyway, to make things as concise as possible, here we go.

1. Several times the locals asked me : "Where are you from?". If I were in the fooling-around mode, I would answer this kind of question with some jokes. I didn't blatantly told them where I was actually from as I preferred to answer that I was from somewhere else first and saw their reaction. Generally they then went on disbelieving if my answer didn't "fit" in their minds. Otherwise, it was pretty much the end of the story. Whichever the case was, it was always funny, you know. If the former was the case, it was really amusing to see their reaction. If the latter was the case, then I knew that in some people's minds I looked like someone from a specific country other than Indonesia.
   
   For instance, one time in Guang Zhou, one store owner asked me this question and I said to her that I was from India. You know what her (and her employee's) reaction was? A complete shock and disbelief!! They were like: "C'Mon, no way you are from India!"and made some really funny faces. And this is what was going on in my mind: "Okay, so I don't look like Indian." But apparently, they were not giving up. Not that they constantly asked me the question, but they brought it up on a later talk. Anyway, yeah, I spent some time in that store since it was a nice store. And since they were nice people, I decided to told them that I was actually from Indonesia. And this led this entry to point number 2.


2. After telling them that I was from Indonesia, again, they made those funny and weird faces. Now -- even though I was still amused to see those funny faces -- I also got confused a bit. Those were not you-can't-be-from-Indonesia funny faces, but rather something different which at that moment I did not understand. Seconds later, I knew what this was all about. They did NOT know where on earth Indonesia was!! And this small chat happened:
   Me : "So do you know where Indonesia is?"
   Them : "Well, I have heard about it but I don't know where that is."
   Me : "But do you know Bali?"
   Them : "Of course I KNOW Bali."
   Me : "Well, Bali is IN Indonesia."
   Them : "Okay." *they did not really seem to care*
   
   So I conclude that Bali is ten of millionth times more famous than Indonesia, hahaha.
   


3. Well, point number 2 also reminds me about my conversation with an Indian taxi driver while I was in Kuala Lumpur during my mid year vacation this year in my taxi ride from KL to KLIA (yea, it was on "Day 6"). This conversation occurred :
   Him : "Where are you going to?"
   Me : "Singapore"
   *Apparently he assumed we were going back home.*
   Him : "Really? Are you from Singapore?"
   Me : "Nope, I am not Singaporean. Why?"
   Him : "Well, you don't have that Singaporean accent."
   *I was glad to hear that, no offense to Singaporean ;-)*
   Him : "So, where are you from?"
   Me : "Indonesia"
   Him : "Really?"
   *I remember at this point I was thinking : "What the hell does this driver want? Singapore, 'wrong', Indonesia, another 'wrong'"*
   Him : "You speak too good English for an Indonesian. Most Indonesians I have met don't speak good English, even who have graduated from colleges."
   *I took that as a compliment, hahaha.*
   Me : "Oh, okay, thanks"
   Then he talked about many other things like politics, education, and languages, hahaha. A funny and friendly guy I must say.


4. I think I am quite an "accountant". In all my three trips this year, to Bali with my college friends, to three countries this June, and to China just two weeks ago, I were the accountant.
   
   In Bali, my job was to write every collective purchase and expense then subtracted the value to the collective account each night. Even though prior to departing we already made a calculation that the money in the account was enough to cover all the collective expenses, this was still important to control the expenses. From the beginning we already agreed that someone must take this role, and the all voted for me. I also had a side job to write all the debt made (to me mainly) during a day then I became the debt-collector each night. Kinda fun though, good times! In fact, I still keep the book in which I used to write all of these things.
   
   During my trip to three countries this June, I became the accountant for myself. This was much a simpler thing to do, supposedly. I basically wrote every single purchases and expenses I made, including if I decided to give one penny to a beggar (but I did not though since I met no beggar there, LOL). Though a bit troublesome at times, it proved to be effective in expenses control. Again, I still keep the book, hahaha.
   
   In China, my job was three levels higher and more complicated. For some reasons I cannot explain it in detail but I can say that I did not work on my personal expenses and I still had to record every single transaction in much details. Well, this required me to bring a book and a pen every time and some people interpreted it wrong which led us to point no. 5.


5. Because I wrote every transaction down, some people thought that I was working for a company who helped foreigners (as the company's clients) in writing down every purchase they made and also being a mediator between the foreigners and the locals. For instance, a woman from the Middle East asked for my business card one time. I did not quite get it at that time and because I was in a store, I thought she was asking for the store's business card and so I asked the store to give her a business card. She then said no and she specified that she wanted MY business card! Well, this is quite funny! :-)


6. As part of my "job" in point 5, I also had to collect business cards from all the stores. On one store during a transaction, I was kinda behind because there were so many items and purchases to write down beside I also had to make sure that the store gave us the right items. After writing it all down, the store gave me her business card and said: "Call me when you are in Guang Zhou next time." LOL. It is such a "weird" question if she meant it professionally for the following reasons : 1) We did not spend that much money in her store (waaay below 1,000 yuan if I am not mistaken) and 2) usually they would say things like "Come back here when you are in town" to a potential customer, and not "Call me", rite? hahahahahaha....


7. Speaking about beggars, I met several beggars when I was in Guang Zhou. The "strange" thing was that they did NOT look like beggars!! They were like ordinary people, with ordinarily good clothes, good make-ups (I only met female beggars), and okay look. In short, they were far from beggars "stereotype" and I would never know they were beggars if they did not come to me and ask for money.
   
   Anyway, when I was in Guang Zhou, these beggars approached me and spoke Chinese. I did not understand what they said but I assumed they were asking for money as they spoke with some like "pity" voice and put their hands in a "receiving" position. I was ignoring them basically by saying "I don't understand what you just said" and just turned around. Then, when some policemen walked passing us, they just took off, hahaha... .


8. Well, I knew several very basic phrases in Chinese and of course it is good to practice them there. The problem is that sometimes when we chose to say those words, they would talk back to us in Chinese, and of course because of my very limited knowledge of the language, I ended up having no idea about what they were talking about, hahaha. Plus, sometimes speaking English worked better than Chinese as reflected from this experience of mine :
   
   When I just arrived at Guang Zhou from Jakarta, I was looking for a public bus whose destination was the "Garden Hotel" in the city. The Chinese name for this hotel was "Hua Yuen Jiu Tian" (spelling?? :-D). I then found out that it was bus line 2A and I stood in line for that bus. When the bus came, I asked an employee (of the bus): "Hua Yuen Jiu Tian?" to make sure. She then responded by talking (long) in Chinese while I actually only expected a "yes" or a "no". So, I said I did not speak Chinese and asked in English whether the bus went to the Garden Hotel or not. Apparently she understood and said "Yes, this bus is to Garden Hotel". Haha, I should have asked in English in the first place, but that way I would not have this experience. :-D

Okay, now it is already quite not a concise entry already, and I must stop right now. My original plan was only to write side-stories about my last trip to China but look at me, I ended up writing stories from all three major trips I have already had this year!! Waaay so out of the original plan, LOL. Anyway, if some time in the future I remember somethings about this trip again, maybe, just maybe, I will write them down :-)

BAHASA INDONESIA

Nah ternyata di bawah pengaruh kengantukan yang berat, entah bagaimana aku berjanji akan menulis sebuah posting tentang cerita samping dari perjalanan terakhirku ke China. Sebagai seorang pria gentleman (LOL), aku harus menulis hal yang aku tulis akan aku tulis, kan? Yah, supaya posting-nya jadi sesingkat mungkin, mari kita mulai saja.

1. Beberapa kali orang lokal bertanya kepadaku: "Dari mana kamu berasal?"Kalau aku sedang dalam mode main-main, aku akan menjawab pertanyaan seperti ini dengan beberapa bercandaan dulu. Aku nggak langsung begitu saja memberi tahu mereka darimana aku berasal, tetapi aku memilih untuk memberikan jawaban bahwa aku dari sebuah tempat lain dulu dan melihat reaksi mereka. Biasanya sih mereka akan bereaksi tidak percaya kalau jawabanku nggak "pas" dengan gambaran dalam pikiran mereka. Kalau enggak, ya sudah itulah akhir dari cerita. Kasus yang mana pun yang terjadi, selalu lucu loh melihatnya, ngerti kan maksudku. Kalau kemungkinan yang pertama yang terjadi, lucu tuh melihat reaksi mereka. Kalau kemungkinan kedua yang terjadi, ya berarti aku tahu kalau dalam benak beberapa orang aku kelihatan kaya orang dari negara mana gitu selain Indonesia.
   
   Misalnya, satu waktu di Guang Zhou, seorang pemilik toko menanyaiku pertanyaan ini dan aku menjawab bahwa aku berasal dari India. Tahu apa reaksinya (dan karyawannya)? Benar-benar shock dan penuh ketidak-percayaan!! Reaksi mereka seperti: "Ayo lah, gak mungkin kan kamu dari India!"dan membuat muka-muka yang lucu. Dan ini pikiran yang ada dalam benakku:"Oke, jadi aku tidak terlihat seperti orang India." Tapi ternyata mereka nggak menyerah loh, mereka mengungkitnya lagi di pembicaraan selanjutnya. Ngomong2, bener banget, aku menghabiskan waktu cukup lama di toko itu soalnya tokonya bagus dan harga barangnya juga kompetitif. Dan karena sepertinya mereka orang baik, ya sudah aku bilang saja ke mereka kalau aku sebenarnya dari Indonesia. Dan hal ini membawa kita semua ke poin nomor 2.


2. Setelah memberi tahu mereka bahwa aku dari Indonesia, lagi-lagi, mereka membuat muka-muka yang lucu dan aneh itu. Sekarang -- walaupun aku masih merasa lucu juga waktu melihat muka-muka lucu itu -- aku juga agak heran sedikit. Muka-mukanya itu bukan muka kamu-nggak-mungkin-berasal-dari-Indonesia, tetapi lebih ke sesuatu yang agak berbeda yang waktu itu sih aku masih belum mengerti apa maksudnya. Beberapa detik kemudian, barulah aku mengerti apa maksud semua ini. Mereka TIDAK tahu dimana Indonesia berada di dunia ini!! Dan percakapan kecil ini terjadi : (percakapan terjadi dalam bahasa Inggris nih) :
   Aku : "Nah, tahu nggak Indonesia itu ada dimana?"
   Mereka : "Ya, pernah dengar sih tapi aku nggak tahu itu ada dimana."
   Aku : "Tapi pasti tahu Bali dong?"
   Mereka : "Ya pastilah aku TAHU Bali."
   Aku : "Nah, Bali itu ADA DI Indonesia."
   Mereka : "Oke." *mereka seperti nggak terlalu memedulikan fakta ini*
   
   Jadi, kesimpulannya adalah Bali itu puluhan juta kali lebih terkenal daripada Indonesia, hahaha.
   


3. Trus, poin 2 tiba-tiba mengingatkanku akan percakapanku dengan seorang supir taksi orang India ketika aku sedang di Kuala Lumpur dalam rangka liburan tengah tahun tahun ini dalam perjalanan dengan taksi dari KL ke KLIA (benar sekali, ada di "Hari 6") . Percakapan berikut ini terjadi (lagi, percakapan terjadi dalam bahasa Inggris ya) :
   Supir : "Kalian akan pergi kemana?"
   Aku : "Singapura"
   *Ternyata dia mengasumsikan kami sedang dalam perjalanan pulang ke rumah.*
   Supir : "Benarkah? Apa kamu dari Singapura?"
   Aku : "Enggak koq, aku bukan orang Singapura. Kenapa memangnya?"
   Supir : "Yah, kamu nggak berbicara dengan logat Singapura."
   *Aku sih senang mendengarnya, nggak bermaksud buruk lho bagi para orang Singapura ;-)*
   Supir : "Jadi, kamu darimana?"
   Aku : "Indonesia"
   Supir : "Yang benar?"
   *Aku ingat pada saat ini aku berpikir : "Ini supir maunya apa seh? Singapura, 'salah', Indonesia, 'salah' juga"*
   Supir : "Kamu berbicara bahasa Inggris dengan terlalu baik untuk ukuran Indonesia. Soalnya beberapa orang Indonesia yang pernah saya temui tidak terlalu lancar bahasa Inggrisnya, bahkan yang sudah lulus kuliah loh. "
   *Ya uda aku anggap saja itu sebagai pujian, hahaha.*
   Me : "Oh, oke deh, trims"
   Trus dia berbicara banyak hal seperti politik, pendidikan, dan bahasa, hahaha. Benar-benar orang yang lucu dan ramah tuh.


4. Aku rasa aku agak seperti seorang "akuntan". Di semua tiga perjalananku tahun ini, ke Bali dengan teman2 kampus, ke tiga negara bulan Juni lalu, dan ke Cina dua minggu lalu, aku menjadi akuntannya nih.
   
   Di Bali, tugasku adalah menulis setiap pembelian dan pengeluaran bersama dan kemudian mengurangkan nilainya ke rekening bersama setiap malam. Walau sebelum berangkat kami sudah berhitung bahwa uang di dalam rekening itu cukup untuk mendanai semua pengeluaran bersama, ini masih penting kan untuk mengontrol pengeluaran itu. Dari awal sih kami sudah memutuskan harus ada yang berperan sebagai akuntan ini dan mereka semua menunjuk aku, ya sudah deh. Aku juga punya kerjaan sampingan untuk mencatat semua hutang yang dibuat (hutang ke aku aja sih) di siang hari dan malamnya menjadi penagih hutang. Agak asyik juga loh, menyenangkan tuh! Bahkan, aku masih menyimpan bukunya dimana aku dulu menulis semua hal ini.
   
   Di perjalananku ke tiga negara Juni lalu, aku menjadi akuntan untuk diriku sendiri. Ini jauh lebih sederhana sih, seharusnya. Pada dasarnya aku menulis setiap pembelian dan pengeluaran yang aku buat, termasuk sekali pun misalnya aku memutuskan untuk memberi satu sen kepada seorang pengemis (tetapi kasus ini nggak terjadi sih soalnya di perjalanan kemarin nggak bertemu dengan pengemis, LOL). Walau kadang agak merepotkan, tapi terbukti hal ini sangat efisien loh dalam pengontrolan pengeluaran. Lagi, aku masih menyimpan bukunya, hahaha.
   
   Di Cina, tugasku kira-kira tiga tingkat lebih tinggi dan lebih rumit. Untuk beberapa alasan aku tidak bisa menjelaskannya dengan detail disini tetapi aku bisa bilang bahwa aku tidak bekerja sebatas pada pengeluaran pribadi saja dan aku harus mencatat setiap transaksi dengan sangat mendetail. Ini mengakibatkan aku harus membawa buku dan pulpen setiap kali dan beberapa orang menginterpretasikannya salah loh, makanya kita masuk yuk ke poin 5.


5. Karena aku menulis setiap transaksi, beberapa orang mengira aku bekerja untuk sebuah perusahaan yang membantu orang asing (sebagai klien perusahaan itu) dalam mencatat setiap transaksi yang mereka buat dan juga berperan sebagai mediator di antara orang asingnya dan orang lokalnya. Misalnya, di suatu waktu ada seorang wanita dari Timur Tengah yang meminta kartu namaku loh. Waktu itu aku nggak terlalu mengerti apa maksudnya dan karena aku sedang berada di dalam toko, aku kira wanita ini meminta kartu nama tokonya, makanya aku bilang ke tokonya untuk memberikan kartu nama untuk wanita itu. Eh, dia terus bilang tidak dan menjelaskan kalau ia ingin kartu-namaKU! Hahaha, lucu juga ya! :-)


6. Sebagai bagian dari "pekerjaan"-ku di poin 5, aku juga harus mengumpulkan kartu nama dari semua toko. Nah, di satu transaksi, aku agak ketinggalan karena ada banyak macam barang dan pembelian yang perlu dicatat di samping aku juga harus memastikan kalau tokonya memberikan barang yang benar. Setelah menulis itu semua, si penjaga tokonya ngasi kartu namanya dan berkata: "Telepon aku kalau kamu ke Guang Zhou lain waktu ya." LOL. Ini adalah hal yang "aneh" kalau maksudnya dia adalah hal profesional karena alasan berikut : 1) Kami nggak sebanyak itu deh belanja di toko itu (jauuuh di bawah 1.000 yuan kalo nggak salah) dan 2) biasanya kan mereka berkata hal seperti "Nanti mampir lagi ya kalau pergi ke Guang Zhou" ke calon pelanggan kan, dan bukan "Telepon aku", kan? hahahahahaha....


7. Ngomong-ngomong tentang pengemis, aku bertemu beberapa pengemis ketika di Guang Zhou. Hal yang "aneh" adalah mereka TIDAK terlihat seperti pengemis loh!! Mereka ya terlihat seperti orang biasa, dengan baju yang biasa saja bagusnya, make-up yang cukup (aku cuma bertemu pengemis perempuan), dan penampilan yang standar lah. Singkatnya, mereka jauh dari "stereotip" pengemis dan aku nggak akan pernah tahu mereka pengemis jika mereka tidak datang ke aku dan meminta uang.
   
   Ngomong-ngomong, ketika di Guang Zhou, pengemis ini datang kepadaku dan berbicara dengan bahasa Mandarin. Aku sih nggak ngerti mereka ngomong apa tetapi aku asumsikan mereka minta uang soalnya mereka berbicara dengan suara "minta dikasihani" dan meletakkan tangan mereka di depan dengan posisi "menerima" gitu. Aku sih mencuekkan mereka saja dan berkata dalam bahasa Inggris "Aku nggak mengerti apa yang kamu katakan" dan hanya berbalik saja. Lalu, ketika beberapa polisi lewat, mereka langsung cabut loh, hahaha... .


8. Aku tahu sih beberapa ungkapan sangat dasar dalam bahasa Cina dan tentu saja baik dong mempraktekannya disana. Masalahnya, kadang ketika kita memutuskan untuk menggunakan ungkapan dalam bahasa Cina itu, mereka akan berbicara balik dalam bahasa Cina, dan karena pengetahuanku yang sangat terbatas akan bahasa itu, aku nggak ngerti deh mereka ngomong apa, hahaha. Ditambah lagi, kadang berbicara bahasa Inggris lebih efektif koq daripada bahasa Cina tanggung seperti nampak melalui pengalamanku berikut ini :
   
   Ketika baru tiba di Guang Zhou dari Jakarta, aku mencari sebuah bus umum yang tujuannya adalah "Garden Hotel" di kota. Nah, nama Cina dari hotel ini adalah "Hua Yuen Jiu Tian" (penulisannya gimana tuh?? :-D). Aku kemudian mendapat informasi bahwa bus itu adalah bus jalur 2A dan kemudian mengantri untuk bus itu. Ketika busnya datang, aku bertanya ke petugas busnya: "Hua Yuen Jiu Tian?" untuk memastikan. Eh, dia kemudian menjawab (panjang) dalam bahasa Cina padahal kan aku cuma mengharapkan jawaban "yes" atau "no" saja. Jadi, aku bilang ke dia kalau aku nggak berbicara bahasa Cina dan kemudian bertanya dalam bahasa Inggris apakah busnya pergi ke Garden Hotel atau tidak. Ternyata dia mengerti dan berkata dalam bahasa Inggris "Ya, bus ini pergi ke Garden Hotel". Haha, memang seharusnya dari awal aku pakai bahasa Inggris saja yah, tapi kalau begitu kan nggak akan dapat pengalaman ini. :-D

Oke, sekarang sudah nggak terlalu pendek nih posting-nya, dan aku harus berhenti. Rencaha awalku adalah aku akan menulis cerita sampingan mengenai perjalananku ke Cina tapi lihat deh, koq akhirnya malah menceritakan cerita-cerita dari tiga perjalanan utamaku sejauh ini tahun ini sih!! Jauh melenceng dari rencana awal deh, LOL. Ngomong2, kalau nanti di masa depan aku ingat beberapa hal tentang perjalanan ini, mungkin, mungkin lho ya, aku akan menulisnya lagi :-)

#837 - Mid Year 2010 Trip : Guang Zhou and Yiwu, China

ENGLISH

For some reasons, I won't write about this trip to China in details. Well, I had so many new and interesting experiences while I was there and I think I know a new way to share about it in a much more compact post without reducing the content (a detail story can take four or five posts to complete anyway :-D)

1. First of all, my recent trip to China wasn't really a "vacation" trip. That's why I didn't visit any touristy places. But hey, it doesn't mean a non-vacation trip is boring or stressful. Quite the contrary, it was so enjoyable and exciting in a unique way.


2. I took my very first non-Indonesian domestic flight. It was exciting, you know, taking a domestic flight in another country :-) The flight was CZ 3795, a China Southern Airlines' flight from Guang Zhou to Yiwu.


3. Speaking about flights, to get to (and from) Guang Zhou I took Garuda Indonesia flights which centered in Jakarta. Thus, I went Yogyakarta - Jakarta (GA 201) - Guang Zhou (GA 898) - Jakarta (GA 899) - Yogyakarta (GA 218) with Garuda. I was lucky as all my four flights with Garuda were all using brand new Boeing 737-800NG with entertainment facility on board! :-) Some detail informations about my flights:
   
   
   • My GA 201 flight was on a Boeing 737-8U3 registration code PK-GMM. We took off from runway 09 of Adisucipto Airport, Yogyakarta and landed at runway 25R at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Jakarta. In this flight, I (my mom actually) sat next to Didi Nini Thowok, haha... :-)
   • My GA 898 flight, scheduled to fly about 1 hour 15 minutes after the scheduled arrival time of GA 201, was on a Boeing 737-8U3 reg code PK-GMK. We took off from runway 25R of Soekarno Hatta International Airport and landed at runway 20L at Guang Zhou Baiyun International Airport, about 4 hours 30 minutes later. Apparently, a transit time of 1 hour plus is more than enough :-)
   • My CZ 3795 flight was on a Boeing 737-31B registration code B-2941. We took off from runway 20R of Guang Zhou Baiyun International Airport and landed at runway 02 at Yiwu Airport. It was a pretty short flight, taking only about 1 hour and 20 minutes.
   • My CZ 3796 flight was on a Boeing 737-3Y0 registration code B-2909. We took off from runway 02 of Yiwu Airport and landed at runway 20R of Guang Zhou Baiyun Airport.
   • My GA 899 flight was on a Boeing 737-8U3 registration code PK-GME. We took off from runway 20L of Guang Zhou Baiyun International Airport and landed at runway 25R of Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. This flight was delayed for about 2 hours as the GA 898 flight that day was also delayed (thus, creating a chain reaction of delay).
   • My GA 218 flight was on a Boeing 737-8U3 registration code PK-GMN. We took off from runway 07L of Soekarno-Hatta International Airport and landed at runway 09 of Adisucipto Airport. The flight was not really convenient as we had to climbed up and down stairs to board the airplane at Soetta (our gate was at Gate F5 while the aircraft was parked at Gate D) and we had to wait the ground crew to disembark four unaccompanied baggages.
   
   Anyway, China Southern Airlines apparently applied different style of seat-numbering. On CZ 3796, I was seated on seat number 42J while the aircraft was a Boeing 737-300!! It is impossible (based on the assumption that they used conventional seat-numbering) for a Boeing 737-300 to have up to 42 rows and a "J" seat (there are only 6 economy seats per row in a Boeing 737 series). Apparently, the economy class numbering starts with number 31 and it is in an A-B-C (aisle) H-J-K configuration :-)


4. If you think the traffic in Indonesia sucks (due to many people not obeying the rules), then go to China! You will find Indonesian traffic is much more orderly and friendly. I find people there driving crazily, even crazier than angkot driver in Bandung! In Yiwu, seeing cars "colliding" is a daily menu as I literally saw the "scratching" everyday! And surprisingly, it didn't only involve "cheaper" cars, but also the expensive and fancy branded cars!!
   
   The other crazy thing is that crossing a road is one damn dangerous and life-threatening activity to do in China (than in Indonesia). I assume that when we cross a road, we "predict" about the speed of the upcoming vehicles and analyze whether crossing at that time is safe or not. Plus, this works under the assumption that a driver should slow down when a pedestrian is about the cross a road (especially when the pedestrian crosses in a "legal" space, i.e on a zebra cross). Well, in China, the assumption FAILS as drivers tend to drive really fast and not willing to slow down when somebody wants to cross!! That's why it is super hard (and heart-beating) when we have to cross a road when the traffic is high.
   
   People there were also "selfish" in term of driving. For example, one day we tried to stop a taxi. When a taxi passed, I waived and the taxi stopped for us. The "crazy" thing is that it didn't stop in the curb side of the road, but in the middle of the bustling road! So, we had to cross half of the road to get in the cab! Another example, people didn't bother to park their cars in a "neat" order, thus, raising the chance of another car-scratching.
   
   I don't know whether I can generalize this or not but at least this is based on my experience.


5. Quite the contrary from what I read and hear, I found many Chinese people I met friendly and very kind. I didn't speak nor read Chinese, but they were still really kind. One time, I had to contact a local number in Guang Zhou. Since a SIM Card was unbelievably expensive (in the hotel :-D), I walked out my hotel and found a public telephone. I tried to dial the number but something went wrong as the sound I heard on the line was really "strange". At that time, there was this local girl next to me and I knew she spoke English (she spoke with her friend in English). I asked her about what was wrong, and she helped me. Plus, she offered me to use her phone instead!! Well, I insisted not to (since I didn't want to bother her that much) but she insisted. She then called the number through her phone (wew) and told me what was wrong! How nice she was! There were also several other occasions where I experienced similar kindness. Well, this might because I was in a business area, where people already knew being nice and polite is important :-)


6. Still, I found several Chinese people were "rude" and "not hygienic". Well, this might be because of culture difference though.
   
   One day, after meal at a restaurant, I washed my hand at the sink. While I was taking the washing soap (so I practically was still in front of the sink), an old guy suddenly washed his hands at my sink (without saying anything first)!! How rude that was!?!? He didn't wash that long and just went away after that, not even looking at me or what.
   
   Another day, inside a trade center, I found many people spitting. Well, it might still be fine if they spat in the toilet or to a tissue or something, but nope, they spat just to the FLOOR IN the mall!! I was so shocked seeing that and I had to watch my steps closely, LOL. Then, I was told that the condition now has been much better than in the past! Well, I don't want to imagine how it was in the past!! haha...


7. Being in China for just 11 days, I already learned new words or phrases. I think this is one beauty of going abroad by ourselves, we learn MORE about the destination. And I also found that the word "lihai" and "ca kue" (both are common words in Bahasa Indonesia) are apparently Chinese words, hahaha...


8. There is no trip (to a country with English not being a national or native language) without having a "lost in translation" experience. In China, it was worse. I think the accent of some locals are really thick, plus they don't use Latin alphabet which makes things worse for some cases. One day, I wanted to borrow a nail clipper from my hotel's housekeeping. I called housekeeping to bring me a nail clipper. I pronounce "nail clipper" slowly hoping they would understand. He then responded: "Okay, so you want to bollow a clip boald" [read: "Okay, so you want to borrow a clip board"] (yeah, lisp). Bllaaaaarrrrrr.... . He didn't understand at all but when he said he would send someone up to my room, I agreed, since I think speaking face to face can be a lot more understandable as we can "mime" what we want. Then, a waiter came to my room bringing an : "ironing board" and the iron!! LOL. After I mimed about cutting my nails, he understood (finally).
   
   The other day when I was in Guang Zhou, I needed some pieces of paper, a marker, and a cutter. I desperately tried to tell the waitress what I needed but she just didn't understand. Instead, she brought me a pen and a roll of toilet paper, wkwkwkw. I tried to mime what I wanted but it didn't work out this time. The waitress seemed not to understand at all (she just understood that I wanted paper).


9. Food is always one interesting thing to explore while we are traveling. In China, of course I mostly had Chinese food, LOL. I found some "strange" menus as usually I only find this kind of menu in a daring TV show like Fear Factor or The Amazing Race. For example: alive scorpions! I also had a chance to eat Chinese style Shabu-Shabu. It is pretty much like Japanese-Style Shabu-Shabu but the unique thing is that it involves ca kue, and the ca kue is also soaked in the boiling pan. Anyway, normal Chinese portion for a menu is really huge (compared to Indonesian portion), you can see one comparison below.

Well, that's all for now. If there are another experiences that I forget to write about now, I will write it down in the future :-)

::: My Travel Path, taken from Google Earth.


L : Garuda Indonesia's Boeing 737-8U3 reg code PK-GMM was ready to fly to Jakarta as GA 201 from Yogyakarta.
R : Garuda Indonesia's Boeing 737-8U3 reg code PK-GMK was ready to fly to Guang Zhou as GA 898 from Jakarta.


L : Complimentary Breakfast On Board Garuda Indonesia's flight from Jakarta to Guang Zhou.
R : On board Garuda Indonesia's brand new Boeing 737-8U3 reg code PK-GMK flight no. GA 898 from Jakarta to Guang Zhou.


L : The City of Guang Zhou
R : at Beijing Lu, Guang Zhou


L : Beijing Lu at Night
R : Complimentary Snack (digestible biscuit) on board my very first non-Indonesian domestic flight, China Southern Airlines flight no. CZ 3795.


L : China Southern Airlines' Boeing 737-31B reg code B-2941 which brought me on my first non-Indonesian domestic flight.
R : The city of Yiwu.


L : "Alive scorpions". I dunno whether they ate them alive or not, but this bowl of scorpions was put on a "display" table where they put cooked meals as the samples of their menus.
R : First meal at Yiwu, scorpions-free :-D


L : Crossing the road on a motorbike with no helmet!
R : A satayman cooking mutton satay. Tasty, very different from Indonesian satay!


L : The city of Yiwu
R : The city of Yiwu at night with a BMW Series 7


L : A unique designed building at Yiwu.
R : One spot at Yiwu during the night.


L : In Yiwu, I found this drink in every restaurant!!
R : Korean-style yakiniku I had.


L : China Southern Airlines' Boeing 737-3Y0 reg code B-2909 which would bring me back to Guang Zhou as CZ 3796.
R : Another view of Guang Zhou.


L : A bus with electricity power at Guang Zhou.
R : McD in China.


L : A standard-sized portion. Well, I deliberately put the chopsticks next to it as a comparison!!
R : Some historical remains from the Ming and Yang dynasty as exhibited in Beijing Lu, Guang Zhou.


L : Another view of the city of Guang Zhou. The new Guang Zhou TV Tower makes a small appearance in this picture :-D
R : A menu list written in Chinese. I only understand the price, hehe


L : Chinese Food dinner at Guang Zhou
R : A Garuda Indonesia's passenger should wear this sticker there.


L : A View of Guang Zhou Baiyun International Airport
R : A Delayed Flight


L : Garuda Indonesia's Boeing 737-8U3 reg code PK-GME which would fly back to Jakarta as GA 899 from Guang Zhou.
R : Complimentary Dinner Menu Choice on board Garuda Indonesia's flight GA 899.


L : And I picked this complimentary Dinner on board Garuda Indonesia's flight GA 899.
R : A view from my window on board Garuda Indonesia's flight GA 899 on a Boeing 737-8U3 reg code PK-GME.


L : The city of Yogyakarta at night, as we were approaching runway 09 to land.
R : Garuda Indonesia's Boeing 737-8U3 reg code PK-GMN which brought me back to Yogyakarta as GA 218.

BAHASA INDONESIA

Karena beberapa alasan, aku tidak akan menulis perjalananku ke China ini dengan terlalu mendetail. Yah, aku mendapatkan banyak pengalaman baru dan menarik ketika disana dan aku rasa aku tahu deh cara baru untuk membagikan pengalamanku melalui posting yang padat (soalnya kalo pake penceritaan detail kaya biasanya bisa jadi lama nih sekitar empat ato lima posting :D)

1. Pertama2, perjalananku kemarin ke Cina ini bukan perjalanan "jalan-jalan" loh. Makanya aku nggak mengunjungi tempat2 untuk turis gitu. Tapi ya bukan berarti perjalanan bukan "jalan-jalan" itu membosankan atu bikin stress koq. Agak berlawanan, menyenangkan dan menarik dengan caranya sendiri loh.


2. Aku juga menaiki penerbangan domestik non-Indonesia pertamaku loh. Asik aja, iya kan, naik penerbangan domestik di negara lain :-) Penerbangannya adalah CZ 3795, penerbangan China Southern Airlines dari kota Guang Zhou ke Yiwu.


3. Ngomong2 tentang penerbangan, untuk pergi ke (dan dari) Guang Zhou aku naik penerbangannya Garuda Indonesia yang berpusat di Jakarta. Makanya, aku pergi dengan rute Yogyakarta - Jakarta (GA 201) - Guang Zhou (GA 898) - Jakarta (GA 899) - Yogyakarta (GA 218). Beruntung juga semua empat penerbangan dengan Garuda adalah penerbangan dengan pesawat baru Boeing 737-800NG dengan fasilitas hiburan di pesawat loh! :-) Sebagian detail mengenai penerbanganku:
   
   
   • Penerbangan GA 201ku dengan pesawat Boeing 737-8U3 kode registrasi PK-GMM. Kami lepas landas dari landasan pacu 09 Bandara Adisucipto, Yogyakarta dan mendarat di landasan pacu 25R Bandara Internasional Soekarno-Hatta. Di pesawat ini, aku (mamaku seh sebenernya) duduk di sebelahnya Didi Nini Thowok, haha... :-)
   • Penerbangan 898ku, dijadwalkan terbang sekitar 1 jam 15 menit setelah waktu tiba GA 201, terbang dengan pesawat Boeing 737-8U3 kode registrasi PK-GMK. Kami lepas landas dari landasan pacu 25R Bandara Internasional Soekarno Hatta dan mendarat di landasan pacu 20L Bandara Internasional Baiyun di Guang Zhou, sekitar 4 setengah jam kemudian. Ternyata, waktu transit sejam lebih dikit itu cukup juga loh :-)
   • Penerbangan CZ 3795ku menggunakan pesawat Boeing 737-31B kode registrasi B-2941. Kami lepas landas di landasan pacu 20R Bandara Baiyun dan mendarat di landasan pacu 02 di Bandara Yiwu. Penerbangannya singkat juga, hanya sekitar 1 jam 20 menit.
   • Penerbangan CZ 3796ku menggunakan pesawat Boeing 737-3Y0 kode registrasi B-2909. Kami lepas landas dari landasan pacu 02 Bandara Yiwu dan mendarat di landasan pacu 20R of Bandara Baiyun di Guang Zhou.
   • Penerbangan GA 899ku menggunakan pesawat Boeing 737-8U3 kode registrasi PK-GME. Kami lepas landas dari landasan pacu 20L Bandara Internasional Baiyun di Guang Zhou dan mendarat di landasan pacu 25R Bandara Internasional Soekarno-Hatta. Penerbangan ini terlambat selama dua jam loh karena GA 898 hari itu terlambat (makanya mengakibatkan reaksi berantai keterlambatan).
   • Penerbangan GA 218ku menggunakan pesawat Boeing 737-8U3 kode registrasi PK-GMN. Kami lepas landas dari landasan 07L Bandara Internasional Soekarno-Hatta dan mendarat di landasan pacu 09 Bandara Adisucipto. Penerbangan ini agak sedikit menyebalkan soalnya kami harus naik-turun tangga loh untuk naik pesawatnya di Soetta (gerbang keberangkatan adalah Gerbang F5 sementara pesawatnya parkir di Gerbang D) dan kami juga harus menunggu kru darat untuk menurunkan beberapa bagasi tak bertuan.
   
   Ngomong2, maskapai China Southern Airlines ternyata menerapkan sistem penomoran kursi yang agak berbeda. Di penerbangan CZ 3796, aku duduk di nomor 42J padahal pesawatnya adalah Boeing 737-300!! Mustahil (dengan asumsi penomoran kursi konvensional) untuk sebuah Boeing 737-300 memiliki kursi sampai 42 baris dan memiliki kursi nomor "J" (kan cuma ada 6 kursi ekonomi sebaris di seri Boeing 737). Eh ternyata, penomoran kelas ekonominya dimulai dengan nomer 31 dan konfigurasi kursinya A-B-C (lorong) H-J-K :-)


4. Kalau pada merasa kondisi lalu lintas di Indonesia itu parah (soalnya banyak orang yang nggak menuruti aturan), pergi deh ke China! Akan didapatkan kalau lalu lintas di Indonesia itu lebih teratur dan bersahabat. Menurutku, disana orang menyetir dengan gila, bahkan lebih gila daripada sopir angkot di Bandung! Di Yiwu, melihat mobil "serempetan" itu pemandangan setiap hari deh. Ini beneran soalnya aku memang setiap hari melihat dua mobil serempetan di jalan! Dan gilanya lagi, kejadian itu nggak hanya terjadi pada mobil2 "murah" lho, bahkan terjadi juga antar mobil bermerk mahal nan keren!!
   
   Hal gila lain adalah menyeberang jalan itu merupakan hal yang sangat membahayakan nyawa di Cina. Aku asumsikan ketika akan menyeberang jalan, kita "memperkirakan" kecepatan kendaraan yang akan datang dan menganalisa apakah aman untuk menyeberang atau enggak. Plus, ini berdasarkan asumsi kalau seorang sopir akan memelankan kendaraannya kalau seseorang mau menyeberang jalan (apalagi kalau mau menyeberang di tempat "resmi" kaya di zebra cross gitu). Nah, di Cina, asumsi ini TIDAK BERLAKU karena sopir itu cenderung nyetir dengan ngebut dan seperti nggak mau ngerem loh ketika ada yang mau menyeberang!! Makanya sangat susah (dan bikin deg2an banget) ketika harus menyeberang jalan disana apalagi waktu jam-jam ramai.
   
   Pengemudi juga biasanya agak2 "egois" gitu. Misalnya nih, di suatu hari kan kami akan naik taksi nih. Nah, waktu ada yang lewat, melambailah kami untuk memanggil itu taksi dan taksinya akhirnya berhenti untuk kami. Hal "gila"-nya adalah tu taksi berhenti bukan di pinggir jalan, tapi di tengah jalan yang lagi rame! Jadi, kami mesti menyeberang setengah jalan untuk naik taksinya! Contoh lainnya, orang sepertinya ga peduli deh parkirnya itu serampangan, akhirnya kan kemungkinan serempetan jadi makin besar tuh.
   
   Nggak tahu sih ya ini bisa digeneralisir atau engga tapi paling nggak kaya gini deh pengalamanku.


5. Agak bertentangan dengan apa yang kubaca atau kudengar, aku malah merasa banyak orang Cina yang kutemui ramah2 dan baik loh. Aku sekarang sih nggak bisa ngomong bahasa Mandarin atau baca tulisan sana, tapi masih aja koq mereka baik. Suatu kali aku harus menelepon sebuah nomor lokal di Guang Zhou. Karena harga SIM Card ajubile gila mahalnya (di hotel :-D), aku jalan keluar hotel dan nemu sebuah telepon umum. Aku mencoba menghubungi nomor itu tapi ada yang salah karena suara yang aku dengan malah "aneh". Nah, waktu itu, ada seorang cewe orang sana yang berdiri di sebelahku dan dia bisa ngomong bahasa Inggris (soalnya dia ngomong pake bahasa Inggris sama temennya sih). Nah, aku tanya dia tentang apa yang salah, dan ia menolongku. Plus, dia malah menawarkan untuk memakai hp-nya loh!! Yah, aku sih ngomong nggak usah (soalnya nggak enak banget kan merepotkan gitu) eh dia tetep bersikeras. Dia terus menelepon nomor itu pakai hp-nya dan memberitahuku apa yang salah! Baik hati kan! Ada beberapa kejadian lain dimana aku mengalami pengalaman yang serupa. Yah, ini mungkin karena aku berada di area bisnis sih, dimana orang sudah sadar akan pentingnya bersikap baik dan sopan :-)


6. Walaupun begitu, aku masih merasa beberapa orang sana itu agak "gak sopan" dan "jorok" deh. Ini mungkin karena perbedaan budaya aja kali yah.
   
   Suatu hari, waktu lagi makan di restoran, aku kan lagi cuci tangan di wastafel. Ketika aku sedang sabunan (jadi ya praktis aku masih di depan wastafelnya), seorang om2 gitu tiba2 cuci tangan di wastafelku (tanpa tedeng aling2 loh)!! Ga sopan banget kan!?!? Dia nyuci tangan ga lama sih dan langsung pergi begitu aja setelah selesai, ga ngeliat aku dulu ato apa gitu.
   
   Di hari lain, waktu di dalam tempat perbelanjaan gitu, aku melihat banyak orang sembarangan meludah loh. Yah, mending kali yah kalo mereka meludah di toilet ato pake tisu ato apa lah, tapi enggak lho, mereka meludah begitu aja di LANTAI DI DALAM mall-nya!! Aku kaget banget melihat itu dan akhirnya harus berhati-hati dalam melangkah deh, LOL. Kemudian, aku dikasi tau kalau kondisi sekarang ini sudah jauh mendingan dibanding kondisi dulu! Yah, gamau deh membayangkan gimana kondisi dulu!! haha...


7. Di Cina selama hanya 11 hari, aku sudah belajar beberapa kata dan frasa baru loh. Inilah yang aku rasa sebuah keindahan pergi ke luar negeri dengan ngurus sendiri semuanya, kita belajar BANYAK tentang tempat tujuan. Aku juga baru tahu kalau ternyata kata"lihai" dan "ca kue" itu kata bahasa Mandarin loh, hahaha...


8. Tidak ada perjalanan (ke negara dengan bahasa utama atau bahasa lokal bukan bahasa Inggris) tanpa mengalami pengalaman "lost in translation". Di Cina, malah lebih parah lagi deh. Aku rasa aksen beberapa orang sana itu agak "kental", plus mereka tidak menggunakan aksara Latin jadi ya agak susah juga. Di suatu hari nih, aku ingin pinjam gunting kuku (nail clipper) ke hotelku. Nah, aku telepon tuh bagian housekeeping-nya dan memintanya untuk membawakan gunting kuku. Aku mengucapkan "nail clipper" pelan2 supaya mereka bisa ngerti. Ternyata responnya seperti ini: "Okay, so you want to bollow a clip boald" [read: "Okay, so you want to borrow a clip board" 'Oke, jadi Anda ingin meminjam clipboard'] (ya, agak2 cadel gitu). Duaaaaaaarrrrrr.... . Dia nggak ngerti sama sekali deh tapi ketika ia bilang akan mengirim seseorang ke kamar, aku setuju aja, soalnya aku rasa kalau bertemu muka kan mungkin lebih bisa dimengerti dan lagi bisa "memeragakan" yang kita mau kan. Trus, pelayannya tiba di kamar sambil membawa: papan setrikaan beserta setrikanya!! LOL. Habis memeragakan menggunting kuku, baru deh dia (akhirnya) ngerti.
   
   Di hari lain ketika sedang di Guang Zhou, aku membutuhkan beberapa lembar kertas, spidol, dan cutter. Aku berusaha keras memberi tahu pelayannya tentang yang kubutuhkan tapi dia kaya nggak ngerti2 juga. Malah, dia membawa sebuah pulpen dan satu rol tisu toilet itu, wkwkwkw. Aku mencoba memeragakan hal2 itu tapi kali ini hal itu gagal. Pelayannya nggak ngerti sama sekali (dia cuma ngerti aku butuh kertas).


9. Makanan selalu menjadi hal menarik untuk dijelajahi ketika sedang jalan-jalan. Di Cina, tentu saja seringnya aku makan masakan Cina, LOL. Aku menemukan beberapa menu "aneh" yang biasanya cuma ditemui di acara2 tantangan seperti Fear Factor atau The Amazing Race. Misalnya: kalajengking hidup! Aku juga berkesempatan makan shabu-shabu ala Cina. Mirip2 aja sih sama shabu-shabu Jepang cuma hal yang unik adalah yang versi Cina ini melibatkan ca kue, dan ca kue-nya ikut dimasak di pancinya itu. Ngomong2, porsi normal menu Cina itu besar sekali loh (dibandingin porsi Indonesia), bisa lihat tuh perbandingannya di atas.

Yah, itu dulu deh untuk kali ini. Kalau ada pengalaman lain yang kelupaan ditulis sekarang, aku tulis ntar aja yah :-)