Thursday, September 25, 2014

trike!

Bandung
14 May 2014

Another business trip to Bandung.
Another ‘’different’’ activity to do afterwards.
Another moment to end my business trip with an adventure


Having done several tandem paragliding at different parts of Indonesia, the time has come to taking it up a notch and try something new.

TRIKE
Definition from Wikipedia:
An ultralight trike, also known as a flex-wing trike, weight-shift-control aircraft, microlight trike, deltatrike or motorizeddeltaplane, is a type of powered hang glider using a high performance Rogallo wing coupled to a propeller-powered three-wheeled undercarriage.

From the moment I found out that one of my friends has tried trike flight in Bandung,  I knew that I have to try it as well. Just had to wait for the right time.

And the right time is today. Haha.. after a several days of meeting at Luxton Bandung, Mr Ivan picked me up at the hotel and we went to Lanud Sulaiman.

Yay! Sooo happy and excited.

Felt a little bit anxious during the take off.. but soon the anxiousness turns into sheer happiness. Had a big grin on my face during the whole flight.

:D

For my paragliding experiences, please click here

For my once-in-a-lifetime bungy jumping experience, please see traveling.. food for my soul: Bungy Jumping @ BALI (ritaaza.blogspot.com)
 


this is it! trike!



introductory flight

with mr ivan

flying!

me!


Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Palangka Raya.. part 2

Palangka Raya Trip
18-20 April 2014
Rita. Yana. Tiwi. Erni. Ambi

This is day 2 and 3.. please click here for day 1.

Today we’re going on two river cruises: one cruise is to see the orangutans at Kaja Island and another is to experience the famous kahayan river cruise.

Well, the one for Kaja Island is not exactly a cruise, it’s a boat ride.. a very-small-wooden-boat ride. It’s fun though. Especially because we could take a glimpse of orangutan.

orangutan at Pulau Kaja

Lunch at Samba, a famous local food restaurant. They serve fishes, vegetables made from young bamboo, and many more. And then we went to Jl Arut to take some pictures while waiting for the kahayan river cruise which starts at 2 pm.    



2pm. We went on board to the KM Lasang Teras Garu, which has been operating since 2009. This boat can carry up to 60 persons. We joined the 3-hour river cruise.

Hmm.. I must say that I am not recommending this cruise, just because unfortunately we went on the cruise on the same day as a group of middle-aged women whose main purpose is to sing as loud as they can... and non stop.. on a karaoke set provided in the lower deck of the boat. It was a nightmare for me. A total nightmare! Of course I went to the upper deck, but still I cannot fully enjoy the cruise with that female voice constantly haunting me. Silence! I just want silence!

I suggest you ask the operator beforehand whether there will be a bunch of people singing on the karaoke or not. You can join the cruise if u really love karaoke and very keen to sing along. Or u can opt for another cruise if u love silence (if there are other cruises).


karaoke

waiting to sing?

KM Lasang Teras Garu


The Last Day

One more river cruise.. small-wooden-boat-river-cruise to the river of sebangau. The start point is the Kereng Bangkirai pier, the one that we visited on our first day. Turns out, this river cruise is the one that I love the most. Combination of beautiful sunny day, red water (looks black but it’s actually red like tea), and the peat swamp forest creates a very unique experience.







And just before we went to the airport to catch our flight back to jakarta, we stopped by at Bukit Raya Guesthouse. A very nice place. We weren’t able to stay there during this trip. But one day, if we get the chance to come back to Palangka Raya, we’ll definitely try to stay at this place.

For Palangka Raya travel info, please click here



Friday, September 5, 2014

Palangka Raya.. part 1

Palangka Raya Trip
18-20 April 2014
Rita. Yana. Tiwi. Erni. Ambi

After multiple visits to different parts of Borneo (Banjarmasin, Loksado, Pontianak, Ketapang, Derawan, Balikpapan, Samarinda and Tanjung Puting), the time has come to visit Palangka Raya. Palangka Raya, a city which was once proposed as the future capital of Indonesia.

This is day one

We arrived at Tjilik Riwut airport on a Friday morning. Our first destination is Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Rescue Center. Visitors can only visit the Information Center on Sundays or public holidays. But we can only see the orangutans from a big window that separates us from the orangutans as we are not allowed to come into contact with the orangutans.   


orangutan at Nyaru Menteng


Next we went to the nearby Tahai Lake which they say has a red water. Well, they say red, I say brownish.
It was holiday, yet not many people were there, just less then 10 people. A little bit strange for me.


danau tahai


And then we went to Fantacy Beach, another supposedly famous place to go for locals. Yet, there were also not many people in sight. We didn’t enter the place, instead we went to the nearest ‘’warung’’ to eat some indomie (a ‘’must eat’’ when u’re traveling, haha). So with our full stomach, we went to Mission Aviation Fellowship to see if we can charter a waterplane to go anywhere. The destination doesn’t matter to us, we just wanted to experience the flight. Too bad, it was a day off for the pilots. Plus, they use the planes mainly for humanitarian aids, so they offer charter only when there’re no humanitarian activities.


me with the plane : )


Next stop, we went to visit the replica of Rumah Betang (a Dayak traditional long house) at Jl DI Panjaitan. After that, tried ‘’buah paken’’, similar to durian only smaller and the color is orange.



buah paken


We still have so much time, so we decided to go to Kereng Bangkirai pier, to see if there are any boats that can take us to experience the river of sebangau. But again, there were nobody around, so we decided to postpone the boat ride.


Kereng Bangkirai


After a late lunch at Tjilik Riwut Gallery and Resto, we went back to Fantacy beach. Yup, we went back. Because earlier we didn’t went inside, and now suddenly we want to see the inside :D


Fantacy Beach


We spent the rest of the afternoon at the Taman Monumen Soekarno and went down near the pier to see the famous kahayan bridge and to watch the afternoon fades away.


part of the Kahayan Bridge :P

For day 2 and day 3, please click here