Tips Berburu Tiket Murah di Travel Fair

Di Jakarta, biasanya bulan Februari – April adalah masanya Travel Fair. Travel Fair adalah tempat dimana kamu bisa mendapatkan berbagai penawaran dan promo menarik terkait kegiatan travel. Yang paling umum sih, diskon tiket pesawat yang gede – gedean!

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Pilih – Pilih Tas Untuk Traveling

Persiapan traveling itu seringkali jadi kegiatan yang tidak kalah seru dengan traveling itu sendiri, ya ngga sih? Nah, dari beberapa kali pergi sama teman – teman yang berbeda, saya melihat ada beberapa tipe orang dalam mempersiapkan traveling nya. Ada yang santai, tidak mempersiapkan apa – apa sampai mendekati hari H, ada juga yang benar – benar penuh persiapan. Saya sendiri tergantung mood, kadang – kadang saya merasa perlu banget penuh persiapan, kadang – kadang saya bahkan baru packing beberapa jam sebelum berangkat!

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Pengalaman Mengurus Tourist Visa on Arrival Untuk Liburan ke India

Tahukah kamu, kalau India punya fasilitas Tourist Visa on Arrival (TVoA) yang berlaku untuk warga negara Indonesia? Dengan fasilitas ini, WNI yang masuk ke India lewat 9 bandara, yaitu: Bengaluru, Chennai,Cochin,Delhi ,Goa, Hyderabad,Kolkata,Mumbai & Trivandrum. Biayanya US$ 60 dan visanya berlaku 30 hari sejak hari kedatangan di India. Oh iya, visa – nya single entry ya, dan kita hanya bisa daftar untuk TVoA ini dua kali dalam setahun kalendar.  Continue reading “Pengalaman Mengurus Tourist Visa on Arrival Untuk Liburan ke India”

This time next week…

This time next week I’ll be doing something out of the ordinary.
I will wake up very early in the morning and put on my comfy clothes.
I will probably skip breakfast at home and will have it later, on my way to the destination.

This time next week, I hope the traffic will be in my favor.
To think of it again, I would have to leave my house before the sun sets so I guess there won’t be any traffic. *fingers crossed*

This time next week, I will be traveling….. to India!!!!

Woohoow! The trip is actually rather unplanned for this year. You probably have known that I will be going to the US in April – so what’s up with this India trip, all of a sudden? Hint: a wedding.

Sometime around December last year, my former classmate back in Bournemouth sent me and a couple of other friends an invitation to attend his wedding in his hometown, Mumbai – Maharashtra. The wedding will be held early March (a.k.a next week!).

Mumbai_TajMahalHotel
Image from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Mumbai/Selected_picture/Archives

You see, after graduation, I received similar invitations from my former classmates, but I haven’t been able to attend any because they were all held in Europe – it was hard for me to come. Since this one will be held in India, and India is still in Asia, and the groom-to-be was my first ever friend in class… I felt like I really really really need to go.

Of course, I had thought about it carefully. I calculated my leave days at the office – I still have some left. I checked the ticket price – Hmmm, so – so, but still within my budget. I checked the visa requirements – turns out that Indonesians are qualified for tourist visa on arrival scheme and Mumbai is one of the ports of entry that has the facility. Yay! Then I read Zilko’s posts about his India trip. He did not go to Mumbai though, but his experience was interesting! Of course I also thought how wonderful it will be to meet again with my old friends, and the thought about attending an Indian wedding really excites me.

So I bought the ticket last month, and kind of forgot about it until two weeks ago my friend set up a Whatsapp group for the guests from overseas. Fast forward to today when I realised that the trip is happening next week!!!! Waaaahh!!! 😀

I will fly from Jakarta to Singapore and then Singapore to Mumbai directly. To be honest I haven’t prepared any itinerary except going to the wedding functions – in fact I think I will only have 1 spare day during my 7 days trip there, in which I think I will spend in Mumbai only. It will be great to be able to visit Taj Mahal.. but let’s just focus on the wedding this time and who knows maybe I’ll come back to see the rest of India.

More posts about this trip, soon! have a nice day! 🙂

Where should we go?

Me and a group of friends are planning to go on a vacation early next year. There are four of us – we’ve known each other since we all started working in the same company back in 2011. They are more than just colleagues though.. I’m glad I can call them best friends.

We actually started to become close after we went on a tour to Karimun Jawa islands back in 2012. Afterwards, we have been to Mt. Bromo, and Derawan islands.. and we also hang out very often. One of us has gotten married and one of us might be leaving the company soon.. so we think it’s a good idea to go on a “quality time” kind of trip.

The thing is, our past travels have always been adventurous, backpacking style. The place was all special and beautiful, but the itinerary was always packed, leaving us with very little time to chill. Thus, this time we want to go somewhere relaxing.. or at least not that adventurous.

Now here comes the “drama”. It’s soooo hard for us to agree on a destination. We’ve agreed on a budget and timeline. We want to spend maximum IDR 7.000.000 for a 4 days trip around February – March next year… ideally abroad because we’ve never been abroad together and we think it will be nice to have a different kind of experience. With that budget and time limitation, South East Asia seems the only feasible region to go to. The four of us each proposed a “to-go” and also “no-go” destination.

For me, the choice is Singapore for “to-go” and Vietnam for “no-go”. Singapore is basically an obvious choice. It’s so close to Indonesia and I think we would enjoy the city getaway plus chillin’ at the hip cafes… a different kind of vacation from the ones that we’ve always been. That 7 million budget would suits us nicely, I think we can even splurge a little while we’re there. Why no Vietnam? I’ve been on a solo trip to Ho Chi Minh City and I have to say that it’s not for me. My friends might enjoy it though, but I think it will be another backpacking/adventurous kind of holiday… so I’d prefer not to go there.

The problem is.. Singapore is on one of my friend’s “no-go” list! Hahaha. Though I love her dearly, I still don’t get why she doesn’t like to go to Singapore. I mean… it’s Singapore! (Okay just like her, I’m prolly being totally subjective hahaha). We discussed about Hongkong.. which quickly sent to no-go destination because we think it would not suit our budget. We also discussed Manila but my Filipino colleague told me it’s just like Jakarta. She recommended the beaches though.. Boracay, Palawan.. which we are very much interested to go but kind of unsure about the weather. Kuala Lumpur was quickly sent to no-go as well because two of us spent college years there and would very much prefer to go somewhere else. But, I recently read Noni’s post on Penang and it looks like a very nice town to visit.. Hmmm.

Seems like first world problem? hahaha kind of! :p

Of course there are tons of wonderful destinations in Indonesia that we can visit. An easy one, Bali. I’m pretty sure we can do a lot with that budget and time allocation. Exploring East Indonesia? for sure! We are always talking about going to Ora Beach. Reading Fe’s post on Maluku makes me want to pack my bags and leave ASAP! Of course we can’t forget about Komodo Islands and Nusa Tenggara. West Indonesia is a charm as well.. none of us has been to Medan and its surroundings (Again, Noni’s post kind of inspires me to go!).

So many destinations, so many inspirations, minimal budget and time allocation…. Hahahaha.

Can you help us? where do you think we should go? 😀