Travel Update Year 2013

I love to travel everywhere. 

However, I know many of my friends or colleagues are traveling more for holiday or business purposes than me, but don't have time to share their stories in detail. I like both, travel and tell the experiences. Why don't you consider to be a travel writer? My answer is: I'd love to be TW one day.

Anyway, my busy year 2012 was ended up with Bangka-Belitung trip. I thought in 2013 there will be less travel to catch up with my grand plan, but then I must accept the fact that packing my luggage and rushing into some places are my new habit in life.

Then I made several resolutions such as: I must enjoy the travel, keep focus on my work, stay healthy, able to finish my responsibility before travel, and learn something meaningful for myself.

Perth (Feb-March 2013)

It was a secret journey for a secret mission to my fourth hometown (1st is Pekanbaru, 2nd is Yogyakarta, and 3rd is Manchester). It was a quick-stay in Perth. But, I made some efforts to visit many familiar places in Perth, like King's Park, my faculty, lab, and city center. We also had a chance to get around Swan River by our mini starlet, started from Matilda Bay and ended up at Applecross. I would say, it was a kind of awesome mini road trip. Will put it in my blog, definitely, because we spent more than 8 hours to see things we've been never seen before.

Yogyakarta (August 2013)
This was an interesting trip to attend ADS Conference in Yogyakarta. We had a great time, fresh ideas, some new friends and different perspectives about Candi Borobudur and Museum Ullen Sentallu. I met ex-manager of IALF Bali in 1999 and it was amazing that he still remembers our EEDP group. To be honest, this trip reminds me of how special it is  as an ADS award/alumni.

Japan (September 2013)

This was a trip to Hokkaido island to attend a conference at Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan. This was a memorable travel for me, because Hokkaido feels like some cities in Europe/US, with an extraordinary nature. I like the fact that Sapporo is very well-planned city and totally approachable than Tokyo. Talking about Tokyo, the public transportation is very efficient. We tried them until we're too exhausted and felt half-dead. But I took a chance to sit and observe quietly in many spots in Tokyo, like at Central Station, Ueno Park,  Tokyo National Museum, and Tokyo Skytree. I just have one sentence to describe Japan: "a place to indulge your senses for high-end technologies, instead of its beautiful nature". Will write about Japan Series very soon, before it was outdated.

Johor Bahru-Singapore (October 2013)
This time was hubby's conference at UTM Johor Bahru. It was a strange journey, because I didn't get a chance to visit special places at JB. Perhaps because JB is well-known as shopping paradise, but not for touristy experiences. Alhamdulillah, our friends took us to Singapore for a bit of modern exposure there. We took time to enjoy Singapore skyline at night from Garden by the Bay Skywalk. I think, Singapore is still an extraordinary modern city in South East Asia.


Jakarta-Jakarta (November 2013)
I would say, two departures to Jakarta were work-related trips. They were for a national seminar held by PKLN, Dikti and IELTS test. I'd like to highlight the IELTS test in a different post next time. It was only to update my English competency score.

Surabaya-Yogyakarta (December 2013)
Again, we're on work-related trips. I would like to acknowledge my network from Facebook, to enable us to arrange this trip promptly. Imagine if you had only three days to get everything from letters, tickets, hotels and appointment for meetings. Instead of Allah bless, you need to rely on those good connection to make it happen. I never thank Facebook before, but now I'm glad Zuckerberg developed this social networking application.

As usual, I love to share what I learn from those trips. This is actually what I've been looking for in this blog, because every trip should have a great meaning for us.

Pekanbaru,