Malaysia Travel Day 2

 Day 2, we went to a UNESCO World Heritage Site: Melaka. .

The Melaka River which flows through the middle of the city, was a vital trade route during the heyday of Melaka Sultanatein the 15th century.

I had no expectation (or set my expectation low) when taking the cruise. It turned out the cruise trip was a nice one.

There's a narration sound from a machine accompanying us during the trip, explaining whatsoabout of the city and buildings by the river.

The river was clean! well, not that blue or turqoise clean, but I think the color of a river really depends on the soil structure surrounding it.

The Stadthuys aka city hall. WHY I just learned it today that the name is Stadthuys, a dutch spelling.

It is a historical structure situated in the heart of Melaka, in a place known as the Red Square.

The Stadthuys is known for its red exterior and nearby red clocktower. It was built by the Dutch in 1650 as the office of the Dutch Governor and Deputy Governor.

Christ Church Malacca is an 18th-century Anglican church, aaand it is oldest functioning Protestant church in Malaysia.

Originally painted white, the church and the neighbouring Stadthuys building (see previous post) was painted red in 1911.

Jonker Walk.

The night market is recommended by many people. But we came at noon, so we couldnt see it. However, it's still very lively and you could see many things in this china town.

History from Wiki:
During the Dutch Malacca, servants and subordinates of Dutch colonialists used to live at the nearby Heeren Street. However, as the Dutch left, it became noblemen's street.

Rich Peranakans started to live and did business within the street area, giving the street a deep-rooted ethnic and cultural flavour.

*Bersih-bersih debu*. Hey, I'm back! It's been more than 2 months since the last time I updated my Instagram feed.

And here I am, still struggling to finish this Melaka travelog. Lol. Don't worry, the chapter is going to end soon. The next ones are inpatiently waiting.

So, this photo was taken in a shop in Melaka, very artsy one. Somehow the #keepgoing writing is very appropriate with #mentalhealthawareness week.

One of the reasons why this spot was selected for photo taking: since the color of my attires matched the color of wall and floor. lol.

Also me: trying so hard to make my shoes not touching the wall.

Ferris Wheel

Our hotel was located quite near from a mosque. It was the largest mosque in KL before the Masjid Negara was built. It's also one of the oldest in KL. Actually, the size of the mosque, with 1000 people capacity, is not that large, .

Malaysia Travel Day 1

Welcome to Malaysia Travel

Apparently, this Merdeka Square is pretty historical for Malaysia.

On the midnight of 30 August 1957, the British flag was lowered and the Malayan flag was raised for the first time at the Padang, an event watched by a large number of people there.

Wait, what is the Padang? This Merdeka Square was formerly known as the "Padang" and was used as the cricket field of the Selangor Club.

So yes, perhaps this square is like our version of Pegangsaan Timur 56, but they could do it in open space since, well, it's non-secretive perhaps.

I'd been to KL for few times, but never been here actually.

The landmark of Merdeka Square is the Sultan Abdul Samad Building, in this pic as the background.

So, who is basically Sultan Abdul Samad? Is he the first PM of Malaysia? Is he the owner of the field? Is he the child of his mother?

Sultan Abdul Samad is the reigning sultan of Selangor at the time when construction began. Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya were part of Selangor territory.

Do you see a resemblance of the Big Ben?

Yes, the central clock tower is designed to echo the Big Ben but in an Indo-Saracenic style. It is 41 meter in height.

The facade of the building faces the Padang and stretches over 137.2 meter along Jalan Raja, at that time the largest building in Malaya.

باڠونن سلطان عبدالصمد
I like the staircase design on the tower. It somehow whispers elegance. It is said that the design of the tower may have been influenced by Muir Central College of Allahabad in India.

The building originally housed the offices of the British colonial administration, and was known simply as Government Offices in its early years. Currently, it's for Kemenkominfo and Kemenpar of Malaysia.

The "blood and bandages" style—red bricks with white plastered arches and banding. It is what they said about the style of the building. Interesting. I'm wondering what's the term in bahasa Melayu. .

Apparently, the flagpole on the field, that I had difficulty in capturing its photo, is one of the tallest in the world.

It's the 10th or 11th highest flagpole in the world. The 1st is none other than flagpole in Jeddah

After walking under sizzling sun at Merdeka Square, we went to مسجد نݢارا مليسيا to perform prayer..
It is a beautiful masjid, especially on the inside. Plus, ademmm..

Tiangnya banyak juga ya 🤔

Pillar @ Masjid Negara

After performing prayer at Masjid Negara, we went to Istana Negara. Feels like Tamu Negara.

Tapi, di sini kita hanya dari luarnya saja, dari pintu depannya. Saya juga tidak berhasil mengambil foto yang apik.

Ngomong2, bahkan saya belum pernah foto di depan pintu Istana Negara di Indonesia. Boleh gak sih foto2 gitu kalo di kita?

From a short a visit to Istana Negara, we had another short visit to Batu Caves.

Batu Caves is a limestone hill that has a series of caves and cave temples. Do you know what limestone is? Batu kapur. Yes, bahasa Inggrisnya keren ya.

Kalo Batu limestone? Berarti Batu batu kapur dong? Terserah. Jadi, Batu ini memang nama sungai di dekat situ yang namanya Sungai Batu.

Nah, yang di depan itu yang gede patung apa? Namanya patung Dewa Murugan, dewa perang dalam agama Hindu. Kalo sama GWK tinggian mana? masih tinggian GWK.

Usia batu kapur yang membentuk bukit ini katanya sekitar 400 juta tahun.

Kami tidak naik ke atas karena keterbatasan waktu. 15 menit untuk foto, dan kembali ke bus.

Belum ke Kuala Lumpur kalau belum ke Petronas Twin Towers. Katanya.

It was once the tallest building on earth, for 6 years from 1998. It's 452 meter tall. The tallest building in Jakarta right now, Gama Tower (TIL), is only 289 meter.

Belitung Travel

 A chair, a cup of coffee, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Colorful House depicts our colorful life and journey

Kok kayaknya kaki gw kurang oke ya kalo dijadiin objek 😂🙈

Since it's a pretty hot day, I went to a shop (actually it's a house which the front part was changed to become a store) located right beside the Museum Kata to buy a bottle of water.
While waiting for the waiter to serve, suddenly a person -whose face I felt very familiar with- came from inside the house.

Yes, that person is no other than Andrea Hirata himself. Awesome!

Stairways to Kuan Im Statue.
Kuan Im is commonly known in English as the Goddess of Mercy.

View from the pool, it's so bright today after a day full of rain yesterday.
So, just remember that a shiny and beautiful day will come after cloudy time.

Nasi Dulang Lunch @ Rumah Adat Belitung

Just knew that the name origin of this island, "lengkuas", came from the word "light house". Since the locals could not pronounce it properly, so they call it lengkuas

The hotel where we stayed for the past 3 days - angle from the sea side.

I think this hotel is much better than Grand Hatika -the only other 4-star hotel in Belitung - where I stayed several years ago.

Previously, this hotel was managed by Aston, but then was acquired by local Belitung businessman named Budiyono Widodo (now you know where BW name comes from) few years ago.

Few years ago, this airport was very modest. But now you can find this very chic chair at its arrival lounge. Nice touch of improvement

Pantai Burung Mandi (bahasa Inggrisnya apa ya? Bathing Bird Beach? whatever). Some said the alias of this beach is Widow Beach for a reason that would be TMI to explain here.

Since the schedule was so packed, we only passed by this beach without having a chance to fully enjoy it.

This pic was taken from a moving bus. Oh this cellphone's camera is just awesome

Another shot taken from a moving bus: and nope, it's not a beach.

It's a lake formed by tin mining. The guide said that we could know tin mine's lake by its green color, while kaolin mine's lake by bluish color.

Wait, I'm not sure whether I should call it lake or what. Pond?

Until the time when I post this photo, I still have no idea the meaning of this traffic sign.

The last time I went here, this building - replica of SD Muhammadiyah - did not exist in the museum backyard. But now it does. That made me worried, since what I knew, the replica of the school was much better than this. It would be such a bummer if this building replaced the other replica.

Door to the backyard of the museum. And someone photobombed this pic, can you spot him?

was never a fan of #lookatthetiles posts, but sometime it's just irresistible 🙃

Can you guess 'what' they are?

What's the best recipe to make every food tastes delicious? MSG? Free food? Sophisticated ingredients? Could be. But for me, the answer is no other than 'hunger'. When you're hungry (or maybe even starving), every food you have would taste awesome. The travel agent really mastered this art. So after snorkeling session, they had us walking few kilos, passing thru thick forest to get to the restaurant. Plus, long queue just for taking the food.

I always try (although oftentimes forget) to observe the texture of the sand of every beach I visit. Since actually it's pretty interesting to see how they might very different with each other.

In this pic, I'm not sure if I can call this sand. It's more to shattered coral or so. Although if we look from afar, it's resembling sand.

This pic is taken at a beach on Forest Resto (let's call it that, I don't know the real name), Kepayang Island.

There are thousands of small crabs running on the beach. Afraid that I might accidentally step on them when walking

I don't know what to say... 

I don't know why, but I love seeing pics with reflection on the water.

The tide is low and the sea becomes so afar. Initially I planned to walk to it, but it's just so far, and hot! I annulled my mind. Looking at the pic only, it might very well a desert instead of beach :p.

Then again, what's better than greeted by #rainbow in the land of rainbow troops?

So glad that when we went to Danau Kaolin, the sky was blue. Okay, partially blue. But it's still much better than full cloud.

Stone meets Paper

It's like a private beach, or desert?

Even the rainbow saying good bye to us right when we wanted to leave the island. So long, Belitung!

There's something dramatic about the cloud in the non-java islands :p. I don't know, but it's very rare for me to see this kind of cloud formation in Jakarta. And for me, it's such a beautiful scenery.

Could you see those little things moving?

Multi-Tiles Upload

Coba

Lagi

Sometimes, for me it's so difficult to choose suitable filter. In the end, #nofilter might be the best choice.

We don't always meet our friends, but they're always in our hearts. Although in this modern era we're just one whatsapp away with each other, but old method like postcard always gives personal touch. So, we send a postcard to our special friend as birthday greeting.