Manado Travelogue !

Sorry, this post came in superrrr late. I’ve been busy with work, wedding , and my various other highly demanding activities ^^.
So, why should you visit Manado?

1. A good time to visit Manado is when you’re sick of all the mess, traffic jam, rubbish, dirt, or whatever ugly things that Jakarta could offer you (if you do live in Jakarta), or sick of the generic, industrial, scorching hot, dusty sceneries that you wake up every morning to (read: Cikarang). Two days of Manado will definitely energise you! Manado is a city surrounded by water- clear, crisp, sparkly water! Albeit still hot and rather humid, Manado is always breezy. Allowing you to nap peacefully ^^.

That’s my buddies in the hammock.

We arrived in the afternoon, and not long after the sunset came the quiet peaceful evening. Gorgeous, right?

Another hammock shot:

2. You definitely should visit Manado if you’re into snorkeling and diving. Because Bunaken is just too good to be true. No wonder the World Ocean Conference was held here.

ehh, my arm looked kinda twisted here -_-.

3. Manado redefines public transport!
Try these sampans, it’ll be an experience that you will never get in cities with dirty river like Jakarta -_-. I sound like I really hate Jakarta, but actually I don’t, Jakarta does have its own positive sides.

And of course the angkots(*) !! Ohmygawd those angkots of Manado! They’re all pimped out with flashy colorful lights and super loud sound system! Each angkot- depending on the drive- plays selections of either Manadonese pop songs, western pop songs and some even plays rock. No dangduts were heard of. Maybe in Manado people don’t go to clubs, they just hop on an angkot. Sadly, I didn’t take any pictures of the angkots =( . Oh and the cost for an angkot ride is just Rp. 2000,00. Woohoo !
Nonetheless, I found this photo of flashy Manadonese angkot from this blog.

4. A different culinary experience!
Ever imagine having fried banana with chilli sauce? In manado, they dip their pisang goreng in sambal terasi. The result, mmm… weird. Haha ^^. A must try is : Bubur Tinutuan (Manado style congee), and Nasi Kuning daun Woka (Yellow rice in Woka leaves). And if you’re into exotic food, Manado has lots to offer. While there, we sampled bats cooked in coconut milk, rats, and my friend tried snails too. Seafood is in abundance ! We tried a super yummy cockatoo fish that was grilled to perfection. Mmm….
So ya see, you don’t just get all the fun there, but you also get to eat and eat and eat …

Nasi kuning daun woka

Yummy bubur tinutuan

These array of food is just their daily breakfast meal ! Whooaaa… yummm …

And you need good companion to help you finish all the food !

5. If your best friend is getting married there, then you definitely have to go to Manado.
Yayyy !!

Side note:
Although we were surrounded with all sorts of food, my friends had developed craving of …. INDOMIE + TELOR ! Jauh-jauh ke Manado, mereka pun sibuk nyari warung. Untungnya, ketemu juga warung yang dicari. Haha.. tidak lupa makan rawon dan segala macam makanan khas pulau Jawa -_-.

(*) Cars used as public transport, kinda like bus. Usually vans are used for angkots.

Coming soon … Lost in Manado

Teaser pictures:



and whoooaaa … a wedding !

Stay tuned!

Fanny and Pierre’s Bears Wedding!

Yay !! Congratulations to the bride and groom !
The bride is my former student and they have been together for as long as I could remember. Good luck with the marriage, be nice to each other!
The recap : Reception was held in Mulia hotel ballroom with very interesting door prizes (cool new models of cell phones and some fruit called black berries ! ). I think these prizes made most of the guests salivating and holding to their dear coupon numbers. For me, I just wanted to be there =D.

The bride and groom:

Another awesome pictures of them:

Gideon, Filbert, myself, Niven:

Future Hubby, Gideon, Filbert, Alfred, Niven, Adit and THE BRIDE:


in case you were wondering where the groom was, he was the one taking this picture ! ^_^

Random picture #1 – The Gigantic Ice Vase

Random picture #2 – While the reception was still going on, guests helped themselves plucking out the flowers ! I know that they think the flowers will not be used anyway, but hmm … I find this a little weird. At least they could wait until the very end of the reception.

The bears cake – not edible , of course:

The bride doing the bouquet toss:

That’s all for today ! =D Congrats !!

The Monthly Workshop

Once a month, all PU lecturers halt any of their activities to attend the monthly workshop. As usual, today’s workshop went from 8 am to 5 pm. Today though, we were told to go to Jababeka Golf at 1 pm to watch James Gwee’s talk. I sorta know who he is but I had never attended his seminar or listen to his CDs. I was quite astonished to find that he’s quite a powerful speaker! Of course, he had blasting music and super loud opening video played to help him set the stage. Fast forward by an hour, I fell asleep. Darn it ! How could I sleep when THE James Gwee was speaking in front ? His motivational seminars cost Rp. 1.2 million per session !
But anyway, I get some of his main points:
Leaders see things as they are.
Leaders see things as they could be.
A leader can be uncertain but never unclear.

Note that I’m not exactly a big fan of motivational talks, and I probably won’t pay the amount of money to attend his seminars. But I guess it takes a lot of guts to be a motivational speaker, and as much as unenthusiastic I was, I admitted that I did benefit from the sudden reminders from James Gwee. Good job !

The Countdown

I’ll be tying the knot in less than 3 months time ! At the moment, I’m overwhelmed with all the stuffs that need to be done in preparation of the wedding day and the life after the wedding. And on top of that, of course there are exams to grade! Next term will be a difficult one for me: grading and assessing theses, 5 classes, preparing the new nest, moving out of dorm to the new nest, and a wedding. Gasp! Anyway, for curious readers, follow my wedding day preparations in the other blog, the wedblog: http://erwinandsandy.wordpress.com .

Happy Kartini Day !!

Every year Indonesians celebrate Kartini day in the name of women’s movement. But do we really mean it? Has Kartini day became a mere costume party day festival? I always see R.A Kartini as a woman from the late 19th century with thoughts centuries ahead of her own time. Lately though, I see her as a woman with thoughts way ahead of our time.

Let’s do a quick check on how Indonesian women are doing. Ok, so we see them in a more empowering positions, girls can go to universities, they can choose the career they love … but wait, those are only for girls from privileged families. They’re the minorities. The majorities snatched very low-income jobs, sent overseas as maids, trafficked for prostitution and of course, sold to Taiwan as brides!

And recently, we’re shocked with news like this 40-something year old rich man known as Syekh Puji, who insisted on marrying a 12-years old girl.

Those men in army-like uniforms are his bodyguards or whatever.

One of his hobbies, besides collecting wives, is collecting BMWs.
What I found even more irritating is that he got plenty of sympathy for his action, and that the girl’s parents actually agreed on the marriage.

Syekh Puji aside, there is another practice that in my opinion is no difference from prostitution called kawin kontrak (short-term marriages, can be as short as a week or several days). It’s a practice that is becoming popular recently among the Arab businessmen or mere tourists who needed some sexual release in Indonesia. I hate how some people actually think that this practice is okay. It is not okay, it is a slap in the face for our country. And yet, more parents and women are agreeing to the kawin kontrak deals, mostly for money. Ironically, they made a comedy movie out of it. Kawin Kontrak became a big-screen hit.

My point is, Indonesian women still need a lot of catching up to do, not just the women actually, the whole society needs to catch up. We’re not even close to that ‘light’ that Kartini dreamt of.

Final Exam once more!

Good luck !!

3rd MULTIMEDIA EXHIBITION !

Be there !!!

And for the first time, students from the extension program will join the parade:

Attend, cheer, eat and be happy!

Pemilu, logo parpol, and all those stuff

So tomorrow is election day ! I couldn’t help being annoyed at the number of political parties joining this year’s election. 44 political parties !! 44 !! How are we suppose to choose ? I don’t really want to analyse about each party’s eligibility and how they’d fare in the political world cos I think the newspaper and blogs have repeatedly talk about those. But I’d like to analyse the logos haha ^_^. Lumayan menarik gitu pilihan design logo-logonya.

These are some of the results of my analysis:

1. Some parties chose a very retro looking logo.

and the retro-est of them all:

2. Minimalist designs

And the award for the most zen-like, minimalist logo goes toooo …

I love its simplicity.

3. The most popular design on political parties are: buffaloes (banteng), stars, and birds !

The buffaloes:

The stars:



and there’s more actually…

the birds:

4. And tree design made famous by Golkar is also gaining popularity.

There’s even a christmas tree like design:

And of course, as important as my observation is, there’s more important task for all of us to do. Vote the right party ! Happy election day ! Be nice !

Brilliant entrepreneurial idea for Cikarang area!

Name two things that you see everyday here ! No, I don’t mean dust and factories. It’s goats and sheep! Now a couple of months ago, I found this site: http://www.creativepaperwales.co.uk/ . Browse through the site and you’ll find out what their business line is.
Basically they’re producing the Sheep Poo paper, logo:
. Of course it means paper made of sheep’s poo (bahasa Indonesia: kertas dari eek domba). From the paper, they made birthday cards, I Love You cards, Christmas cards, envelopes and even air freshener( they call it poo-pourri, go figure!)!
Click on the “How it’s made” link and you’ll find the brief overview of the paper making process. The main ingredient is the freshest sheep poo possible! ha ! We have plenty here too! The reason why sheep poo can be made into paper is because their diet composed of mostly grass, hence plenty of fiber that is useful for paper making. Genius! We can save the environment by reducing tree chopping, and at the same time, help to clean up Cikarang, create new jobs, make profit out of ingredient that costs almost nothing!
Anyone interested in further sheep poo research with me? ^^