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The Thousand and One Nights- Part 2

The Clash has London Calling and Berlin has Marlyn calling 😉 This second part of my Berlin story I named it “Marlyn invited herself” as she starts to call her friends that might be available by the time she’s in Berlin. Lucky me, I got to see them all!

First, contact Nico! He has a brother that lives in Germany, I can’t remember where exactly in Germany but Nico made it so clear last year he said “Whenever you go to Berlin you need to tell me and I will tell my brother” Booyah!! Supporting reason to visit Berlin 🙂

Sebastian is really really cool guy, I like him and he looks exactly 99,9% like Nico! People definitely can see they are brothers, had Nico didn’t spend so much time in the sun, people will think they are twins haha. Sebastian chose a restaurant called “The Big Dog Berlin” what the hell is that? what a name for a restaurant 😀 I told him I wanted to have a Berliner wurst so this is the place.

Surprise surprise the place was closed! with no announcement what so ever, Sebastian was so upset, he complained to JW Mariott (because it owns by them) and JW Mariott just say “yeah, not so many people today so we just close” pffffff but kein Stress, we will figure somewhere else. We walked through Potsdamer Platz and Sebastian said the traffic light here was the first traffic light in Germany, oh cool! a bit of a history haha he wasn’t sure if it’s the first in EU but bestimmt in Germany. We went to Sony Center and in the end we had Obatza and Schnitzel in Paulaner 🙂

Then, I asked Radite-my highschool friend who studies in Landshut, he has many Indonesian friends like Christo for example. But more importantly (not that Christo unimportant heyyy), he connected me with one of my high school friend that I haven’t met for 14 years, Gita! Little that I knew she is heavily preggo now! what an amazing surprise!

Radites sister gave him a “wide angle” thingy for taking a selfie, because both of our iPhone is not the latest one so we don’t have this function but thanks to this thingy we can have something similar to that. We were so dedicated to test it at first but since the difference wasn’t so big and it’s annoying so we ditch it right away haha

When I’m with him, we had mainly Asian as a big meal but we also have Western breakfast, snack or brunch whatev. However, best of the best is Indonesian food! whoaaaa the taste really close to home! Thank you Nusantara for bringing our food to Berlin! We went to Gita and Budi’s house and ordered a Vietnamese food. We met with Christo and had Japanese food.

Of course I am a member of Girl Gone International Facebook group where I got to meet empowering ladies that lifting and supporting women. I joined a couple of GGI Zoom movie film meeting. The organizer named Trish from Ireland just moved to Berlin in July. Heyyyyy, Carlos also has a friend, why don’t I met her too? I actually already met Fabi one time on Carlos bday so just ask him for her number, easy peasy 🙂 We had a brunch at The Father Carpenter, this place is really good! Waited for one hour due to it was so crowded on Sunday but it’s ok, we have time 🙂

Last but not least, I contacted my online German teacher, Michael. I wanted to meet him because when you see someone all the time through a monitor, you feel like he is a movie star so you got to meet him haha. At the beginning, I can’t meet him due to the time doesn’t fit in his schedule, but one thing lead to another, good that DB Train has a streik and didn’t operate so I had to prolong my stay in Berlin, in the end I can meet him 🙂

I met him for a early coffee before I came back to Dortmund…..and….. being a German he said “He won’t smile on the picture” and he did it 🙂

Berlin is very very very international, we can meet all people from everywhere here. Reminds me of Shanghai, I miss my Shanghai people so much though XO but life goes on and I’m doing well in Germany 🙂

I like Berlin already and now I like Berliner, double thumbs up! Until next time, peps!

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The Thousand and One Nights-Part 1

I got the inspiration for the title from what we know of 1001 Nights because it represents of 1001 things one can do in Berlin! Julius also support this when I asked him what can I do there, he replied “1.000 Sachen!”

And this is only the first part of it, I named it the “Marlyns first try to conquer Berlin” 😉

When I get off from my ICE, read the sign “Berlin Hauptbahnhof”, breathed the air, I instantly feel “I’m in Shanghai”. For Germany, this Hbf is really big! It has 4 floors, many shops and places to eat but among all of that, there is one that really caught and got my attentionnnnnn, it was the Ampelmann shop! I have been wanting to visit this shop ever since I saw my Hermano Binbin wore an Ampelmann shirt while we were on Moganshan back then in 2018. He said he will get me one when he go to Berlin, no need Hermano, I’m getting myself one and few other stuff from the shop 🙂

Visiting scheduled already planned, no deviation allowed, first and foremost what else other than Brandenburger Tor! As expected, there were so so sooo many people there, regardless of cloudy, rainy or anything it will always packed! Thanks to my sister, she’s able to photoshopped all other people behind me so it looks like I have the Tor all by myself ha! thanks sissy!

Right next to it is a Holocaust Memorial, a place of remembrance to more than 5 millions murdered Jews during World War. It is stand on an uneven ground with many columns of different heights that was designed to make us disoriented, confused, dizzy and just hopeless. When I walked through in between those columns, it makes me feel so small and nothing. Not much to say about this memorial but it is a must to visit and to experience. Please pay some respect by not stepping it.

Still on the same area we have the Reichstag, unfortunately I didn’t get the appointment to enter. Then I visited Charlotten Burg, it’s already close by that time so I just stay in the Garden area.

Next sightseeing are Siegesäule (the Victory Column) and Charlie Check Point, but I only walked passed and visit the shop. I already buy the ticket but I’m saving it for the rainy day and I meant it! I only enter museum when it’s rain, can’t waste a sunny day in Germany, as it is a solar eclipse phenomena 😉

Ooopsss how can I forget Museuminsel and Berliner Dom! I got a WOW effect on this area, the Dom is so magnificent, the Museums are all awesome! Wait for a mega geil 360 degree view of Berlin from top of Berliner Dom!

Then, a very different area where East Side Gallery and Oberbaum Bridge located, as you read from it, they are on the East part of Berlin. I have a mix feeling about this particular area, a bit of a punk but at the same time I found it really cool too! I need to found the famous “Mein Gott, hilf mir, diese tödliche Liebe zu überleben” wall, I’m glad it’s not on the far end of the wall 🙂

This is my first time in Berlin and my first impression about it is really cool! I like it! Definitely there is much to see in Berlin, need to figure out about the people, food and history much more… but so far… Berlin got my thumbs up!

Follow my lead, we’ve only just begun 🙂

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Runs In The Family

I’ve been a tourist for my time in Munich and let’s have a feeling of a German family life to wrap up my holiday. And how to get a feeling of a German family life? By visiting Thorben’s family! His sister- Katharina has two kids, a daughter (Baby A) and a son (Baby J). What Baby J does is only smiling and drooling haha he’s having a blast! Baby A is shy and took her time to understand everything but she is vveeerryyyy sweet! These two emojis really presents their current situation that Baby A is a very lovely kid and Baby J is… doing his best at his age 😉

  • thanks flat icon!
  • for the funny icons 🙂

Rina picked me up in train station, we went straight to her home to prepare a picnic after we pick Baby A from kindergarten. Baby J was so calm the whole time, he didn’t cry just sitting on his car seat and perhaps wonder who is this Asian lady??? you can see his head is tilt to my direction instead of to camera haha

Rina said that it is a park fits for family that we can feed animals there, in my opinion it is more than a park! There are many animals that you can see named a few deer, pig, rooster, rabbit, they also have a playground in the middle with all things like swings, slides etc.

This place is amazing to spend some family time, not only for kids, I like it too! Well… I’m Thorben’s (adopted) kid….maybe that’s how I like it but Rina also likes it so it is confirmed that the park fits for everyone haha 😉

Baby A was tired after some time and she cried huhuhu but Rina calmed her down by opening our picnic so she fed herself and she was ready again! Haha love her!

It is very hard to take picture with her- maybe too many people want to take her picture because she’s just so cute! we had to tricked her by getting ready first and called her name then click! With baby J we didn’t have difficulties at all, he is the center of attention because he kept drooling and putting everything into his mouth oh boy, I hope he has a strong immune to any bacteria 😀

But after some time she’s more willing to be in the picture, yais!

We finished all the food for the animals, then Rina dropped me off to Thorben’s parents house but by the time we arrived, baby A was sleeping in the car and Rina left the door open and brought baby J and me to her parents home, I was so worried because in Asia you don’t left kid at the car sleeping with door open, it’s an invitation for kidnapping! But yeah realistically, the car wasn’t park that far haha and I always forget that this is Germany! Still need to get used to that 😉

I had nice Swebian dinner made by Thorben’s mother-Edeltraut. The way they prepared dinner is the same way as Thorben and Marina does in Shanghai, they put the napkins, I think this is very typical German. Thorben’s father-Heino is very funny he said “this is just to protect the table” haha

And what did we do after dinner? Again, just like Thorben and Marina would do, we played game!!! No wonder why Thorben always have many game boards in his apartment, it runs in the family! I was leading at first, Heino called it beginners luck but in the end Edeltraut caught me up 🙁

And again, Edeltraut and Heino come up with the idea of doing free walking tour in Stuttgart, they are very active and always plan for sth to do on the weekend, like their son. We went there on time but we didn’t see any sign of the guy that could be a tourguide, the area that we supposed to gather together is quiet nice, here are few snaps.

After we waited for 10 mins, finally we decided to quit, it is so weird but it didn’t stop us! so what did we do? We went to tourist information center to see what can we do about it and there is a hop on-hop off bus coming up soon, unfortunately the moment we sat on the bus, the rain started to pour in and it was a crazy rain….do you want to see what can we see from the bus? Hahaha!

I think it took us 100 minutes to be on the bus so it was more like a knowledge about Stuttgart, definitely I want to go to a pig museum! Haha followed by Mercedez museum but the pig is the most important one 😉

I heard about Swebian dish from the audio tour on the bus and good thing is Edeltraut found a Swebian restaurant for us to eat there and I ordered complete mix of Swebian food.

Then the weather was perfect again! Right after we finished our lunch, the sun came out, oh no! where were you before?? It was a bright blue sky and Heino said “we should do the bus tour again” haha Heino wanted to show me Schloss Solitude but the road to go there was closed so he just stopped by a nice church for us to see and this was such a good idea! I don’t see a Schloss but I see something that also nice 🙂

They also had some practice, pretty nice hey!

Then we drove back to Rina’s home and had dinner there and play again with both babies! and when did we go back home? When baby A starts to cry again huaaaa or maybe she cried because I joined her game like who is this Asian lady that suddenly interrupted my game with my father and my grandpa? Haha! Maybe she’s scared of me, oh noooo!

And what did I do at Edeltraut and Heino’s home? We played the same game again! And who won this time?

Unbelievable, the record always hold by Edeltraut!

The next day is the day that I should go back to Dortmund, they prepared breakfast and send me to Stuttgart main station.

This is such a relaxing way to close my holiday thank you Familie Hoepke for hosting me! But since there are many things to do in Stuttgart…. I have to come back 😉 so Familie Hoepke, be ready 😀

  • Wir sehen uns wieder!
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When Life Gives You Lemon

You make a resemblance lemonade, but be careful, not too much!

Remember my story about walking tour in Munich? – if don’t, just read it, it’s right below this one 😉 haha what I didn’t tell you is how did I decided to do that. It was 2nd October, on that day, the whole public drivers such as bus driver or metro driver from Bayern province was having a strike so none of public transportation operates on that day. Since Giovanni and Claudia lives not too far from city center only like 3 stops away, he told me that I can do a “free walking tour for 2.5 hours” so I can know a little bit of Munich’s history and I agreed with him so I registered myself.

The day has come, Munich was full of cars

But it doesn’t affect me as I wasn’t taking taxi anyway, I was walking to meet them in Marienplatz, it took me 30-45 minutes walk. After the tour, I remembered Claudia said going to Munich Residenz is a good idea especially when the weather wasn’t really supporting and I agreed with her. I also remembered very clearly, she said that this Residenz is so big it will take about 2-3 hours to walk around but I didn’t thoroughly think about it, I just bought the entrance ticket.

At the beginning I was very fascinated by the carving, colours of the wall etc so the exhaustion after about 3 hours full walking I couldn’t really felt that. I was eagerly listening to audio guide about what is that and what is this.

The hall with full of painting or fresco? don’t care about what are those pictures made of, it’s just amazing! very classic and elegant and I’m glad there wasn’t many people although it’s also a bit scary to be alone in this whole big palace!

Then I arrived into another room that also kind of 3D painting on the ceiling, unfortunately I can’t really take the pic from the middle because of the chandelier. This 3D effect makes the ceiling looks super high, especially when I stood in the middle it created an eye-optic illusion while in reality it’s not even high.

Then I visited another room, I suppose it should be either a debate / discussion area as they have many chairs for spectators. I really like the bricks design.

At this point, I started to feel that my legs seem tired and was looking for a chance to sit in the next room and the following room. But every time I entered a new room, I was presented by a nice portrait that kept me going on, besides there was no seats anyway 😉 so the only option was to keep walking.

The audio guide saying something fascinating about the portrait of the man in the ceiling, however I only remember one man in particular (the fourth one) he was holding a mirror and on the mirror you can see 3 faces, it represents the past, present and future. He was wearing a heart shaped necklace too, it represents either he was a lovable person or the people loves him, so nice 🙂

In order to take this ceiling pictures, I need to bend my back, so not only my legs that already tired, now my back also kind of hurt but it has nothing to do with me getting old, it’s simply because of too much walking 😉

The next room is even more fascinating, we have King Leonidas there on the wall!

The ceiling from the next room is empty in the middle and why is that? read the caption please 😉 Because as Beyonce’s song, who runs the world?

Next is my oh my! very pretty carving hey…

But I know that after this church, I just want to get out and sit because my legs are completely dysfunctional so here is the quick pictures about it but I literally have no energy to listened to the guide or take more pictures, mostly I only took the one that has green touch because I like green haha!

And just about to finish this Residenz you are facing with… the stairs!! like really? after this long whole walk and I need to face the stairs??

On the way to be officially out of this Residenz we still can see the beautiful room where King and Queen used to stay and hold some ceremonies.

I’m not supposed (and I didn’t) because it’s not allowed to sit on that chair so my level of tiredness was already reached the max!

I texted Claudia that supposedly I arrived an hour later as I walked really slow then I remembered the walking tour guy-Jake told me about Augustiner beer and I looked on the map it was located on the same direction as Claudia’s home okay great so I could stop by to properly sit and have another Munich beer then go again. However, if one body is dysfunctional it gave the signal to other parts of the body (read: brain) to become dysfunctional too, I went to a complete opposite direction! arrrgh!! omg life is hard!! I needed 20 minutes to go back to the right direction and I finally able to find Augustiner and had a beer there.

After sit down for a while and had a beer, I kind of ready for the walk home, in the middle of me walking, Claudia texted me and asked where am I, did I got lost? Should Giovanni come with scooter and pick me up? haha I’ve told her I’m super tired, my legs walking not even straight idk what directions it was but it’s okay I’m almost there! I sent the picture that I’m passing the bridge and additional text “Don’t worry, I’m not going to jump and suicide” haha

Then when I saw Theresienwiesse it seems like a fatamorgana!

When she opened the door, I just sit and lay down on the entrance, Giovanni said “you are laying down on the floor? you can walk 5 steps and you arrived at the sofa, that is so not comfortable at all” and I replied him “the floor is comfortable enough, I’m totally tired couldn’t even feel anything” poor thing-said Claudia.

In general, I did made a lemonade out of lemon situation but it should be enough with the walking tour because I gained knowledge about the history but I made too much lemonade by added Munich Residenz so it became sour again 😉 not again, lesson learned!

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The Good, The Better and The Best

Originally I wanted to make this post as “the bad, the good and the ugly” but since it will be dedicated for churches that I visited while Im in Munich… so I better pay some respect!!

There are many churches in Munich and here are the gradation of which one I like best, which one that are better than the other and the one that I think really ugly..but but.. but due to some reasons such as first I believe in God, second I also believe in ghost and I dont want to offend any ghost therefore I will use more polite word such as “good” understand?

My favorite is Theatinerkirche in Odeonsplatz, I know… I know the building outside was not so attractive because its weirdly yellow color but like always, the inner is more important than the outer, see the magnificent white marbles, that is a total respect!

My second goes to St. Michael Church. It is under construction while I was there but you simply can ignore and focus on the beauty of it, on the basement they have tombs from King Ludwig and his families but you cant take pictures and need to pay 2 Euro. I strongly suggest you to visit their tombs, the size and engraved on their coffin just amazing.

My third goes to this Gothic St. Peter church, if we dont have Corona we can go up from this church and see Munich city from the top but yeah atm we cant do it but just see the construction, it looks really robust and they have a really cool kind of game of throne’s throne or altar or whatever 😉 you’ll see the picture and understood…well, hopefully haha

My fourth go to Spirituo Sancto or St. Michael Church, it’s located just next to Viktualienmarkt, the designs rather simple but still have some artistic touch on it.

Unfortunately my fifth goes to the famous Fraunkirche, because… apart from the devil stomps and hogwarts looks like symbol, the design is pretty plain. Fun fact about this church: this is the tallest building in Munich as once they finished building it, they issue a law that no building can be taller than this so its still pretty cool. From the outside this twin tower church is really really amazing!

And the rest, they are just better churches, better against…. wait for it! 😉 they are St. Paul Church and Buergersaalkirche.

And the cute thing about Buergersaalkirche is they don’t look like a normal European church that is tall and big, this is a cute and small one.

And my last vote goes to Asam Church! Omg! This church is the spookiest church ever! I got chills, not chilling like on the beach but chills like goosebumps! Look at the door and the decoration inside! The engraving are too much, too colorful, too many statue, on top of that the church is dark it’s a completely weird and spooky mix together like dark magic or some shit like that happen in this place. When I still in Dortmund I saw Asam church on google and for some reason the pic already makes me scared so I put it at the very end when I have time and the reality supported it, I do have time so I visited Asam church just to reconfirm that I don’t like it.

If there is a devil stomp on the entrance of asam church I will believe that its really a devil that helped to build that church, Im sorry devil if you got offended fight with my God please. I believe satan will happily stay in this spooky church hiyyyy Im walk out from this church really fast.

That’s all the review of my church hunting in Munich 🙂 However don’t be too worry about Asam church, maybe its only me, because Claudia and Giovanni thinks Asam is the most beautiful church…….We can agree to disagree on that.

God bless!

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Ninja (Non) Warrior

You can visualize a ninja right? how they all looks like? here I am! mask and hat on, ready to conquer Munich! haha #evil laugh

wearing mask in some public places are mandatory in Munich, wearing hat? it’s helps because the weather went cold again, do you want to know where did the Ninja’s go? Let’s trace her!

First and foremost, the Ninja cannot perform alone so she will reveal who are the helpers later on 🙂

What is the famous place in Munich? It’s Marienplatz! it is like the one in Belgium but much bigger! Who cares about the weather when you have a bigger elephant in front of you which is a very beautiful building! Def the ninja needs to mark this place!

This magnificent building is called Neues Rathaus which is new town hall, and how about the old town hall? just next to it, the white building! haha

Obviously I need to try the pork knuckle but only half! I won’t be able to finish one pork knuckle, even for half is a bit hard because they are fatty but yeah at least I tried it 😉

After I refill, I’m ready to appears at different places again from Stachus, National Theatre, Odeonplatz and a hotel where Michael Jackson at that time often stayed yeehaawwww

Don’t forget that the ninja also needed to come to church and she’s looking for the Fraunkirche, it’s really hard to miss because the twin tower of the church is very obvious from everyway 🙂

She finished it in Viktualienmarket but she camouflage in market of food so no trace of her here 😉

Overall she likes Munich and was fascinated by the beauty of this city, thumbs up!

As promised earlier, the ninja will reveal who was her helper and there were 2 people! First is my high school friend that I haven’t met for 10 years named Radite and second is my sister that helped me to edit the picture to a right ratio, brightness and remove some bystander out haha! you know my sister already so here is Radite 🙂

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Human Rights

I didn’t realize that the human rights in Germany is so high because after leaving 7 years in China it is very normal to not get a holiday within your first year of work, you will get your holiday on your second year and usually it was between 5-20 days per year, 20 is if you are super lucky and 5 is the common days if you are working for a Chinese company. Now I got 30 days of holiday and it is really standard in Germany, the things that come to a realization that human rights does exist is when my team leader told me that I need to put my holidays plan into the system. I asked her “what holiday?” She said my 30 days of holiday but because you came in to the office on 1st of September then you only have 10 days of holiday until 31 Dec 2020. What?!?! Mind blowing enough for me!

I texted my sister if she can come to Germany since she’s holding an Australian passport anyway so no visa needed unfortunately she can’t, not because she cannot get in here rather she cannot go back there. Then I texted Thorben if he knew when will he come back but it is also unsure with Covid if he allows to come back to China again after that. Me, I prefer to travel within Germany, at first my plan was to take every Friday holiday for 1.5 months but Julia said it’s such a bad idea just take the whole week and visit Berlin or Munich. I remember Claudia and Giovanni already went back to Germany since 2019 and I texted where they are? and they are in Munich, perfect! sooooo Munich it is!

I left Dortmund with a very happy feeling because I’ll see my friends again and Dortmund left me with a beautiful double rainbow 🙂

See you next week Dortmund!

I arrived 1 hour early than the boarding time because A. I can’t wait to meet both of them, B. I prefer to come early because I took a bus-train-bus. I sent a picture to Claudia when I already inside the plane and she sent me picture of dinner that she prepared or me! and yes I was hungry!

They picked me up in the airport, Claudia is so pretty as always then we stopped by in the Munich style of “arc de Triomphe” mwahaha just to take a quick pics 😉

We went straight to their home and Claudia continue cooking for our dinner, I had my second portion for dinner because it was so good! and… for the first time in my life I ate cactus! and I like it!

Just like life cannot be all perfect, within the next 24 hours the God’s weather is against us, they gave us 6 degree Celcius and rainy and windy but did it stop us from going to the city center? no way! haha mask on! it’s now mandatory to wear mask on public place especially in the famous tourist spots. Look at Claudia, she is still very fashionable and very WOW in every possible way!

On this kind of weather we did mostly inside the building either churches, shops or cafe.

The weather will never be able to make Munich any less beautiful, I really like this city and thanks God I still have few more days in here so I am not in a hurry 🙂

The exploration of Munich has just begun 😉

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Bingo No Bingo-Part 2

Bingo bingo bingo! this time I also succeed to make bingo! Yeay! However, while I’m looking back on the pictures for this bingo I kept rolling my eyes “why oh why Marlyn you need to wear that clothes?” but you have to consider that it was taken few years back and I’m sure at that time I thought it was the best clothes ever 😉

This bingo came from Susan: travel!

UK! oh no this is the moment where I rolled my eyes the most but again be in mind I went there when I was 16! Not even a legal age to do anything! haha 😉 and I went there for a homestay program from EF for 2 weeks with the hope that I can speak English after that and guess what? I didn’t speak any! haha I still remember at that time the currency between IDR and Pound-sterling was crazy 😮 (year 2007) and the fee was still crystal clear in my mind: 5000 Pounds! I went abroad before to Singapore but it was by boat 1.5 hours away so I didn’t really feel that I was in another country haha that’s why UK will always be my first country and perhaps that also the reason that it hold a special place in my corazon 🙂

That girl yes obviously that UK girl was the most beautiful girl I’ve ever known, very fashionable and very bubbly that unfortunately taken way too soon, she died on the age 19 (at that pic she was only 12) due to getting hit by a car when she was about to go to her part time job in a supermarket 🙁 Rest in Peace Katy Pancott, I will forever remember you!

The very first time I visit France and Netherlands was together with my UK trip. I was very mesmerized by the Eiffel Tower (and still am), I don’t really understand Netherlands at that time I only knew it smells bad but fast forward 10 years later when we went there again in year 2019 (read: when I grown up) I knew what kind of smell that was 😉

Korea was my premier trip with my sister, I think this time when she more or less graduated from Unpar so we were still very young, beginning of 20s haha

New Zealand was the first country where I rode a helicopter and I saw ice! not snow! but ice on the mountain, the snow is already on the road so I didn’t see it fall down from the sky but the snow was thick enough and super super enough to make a South East Asian girl very happy 😉 also the first country that I ever wear the wintery outfits and felt so cool to finally able to wear a leather jacket haha We went there because my sister graduated from ANU and we had a trip to NZ.

USA! I was only tag along actually it was my father that has a program from a bank where he worked to study in US for 2 weeks and I was still a student in Indonesia and on a semester break so yeap I joined the trip 🙂 actually he was supposed to go last year but he went to hospital instead so lucky me he postponed it to the following year haha the jetlag was surreal so while my father went to class, I was still sleeping at the hotel until afternoon 😉

Singapore, many many times! The first ever Universal Studio opened it was soooo hit in Indonesia and the Marina Bay Sands hotel! it’s a must to have a picture there 😉

Cambodia, a beautiful Angkor Wat!

Taiwan, the country that distance wise is very close with China but without a USA visa, I can’t go there as I need to go back home and apply it in Indonesia but lucky me I had that USA visa! so I can go there! and I really like Taiwan! although I didn’t read their characters because its written in an old traditional way but Taiwanese people are so nice and helpful!

Vietnam yaiss! I went there with my 2 little brothers from Donghua University. They are my friends for my whole student year! and I love them both! I called them 弟弟们 because at first I don’t speak Chinese that good and their Chinese name is so hard to pronounce let alone their Vietnamese name so I called them 大弟弟 and 小弟弟 which later on changed to just 弟弟. Thank you so much for picking me up at the airport, be my tour guide and let me stay at your place. Psst, one of them the 弟弟 already become a father! and his son is exactly looks like him! haha

Next is Thailand, I went there with my classmates from Donghua-Nan and Pisen, thanks for Nan family that drive me around and treat me like their own child. Also Pisen that kept quiet while we were all sleeping and you get lost when we want to visit Chocolate Village haha and then on some trips to I met a France born Vietnamese family and it was so funny because we all wearing the same kind of shirts! the elephants while riding the real elephants! and the local guide thought that I was one of their children as well haha well at least I got 3 brothers and 1 sister from that trip 😉 and I met with one of the brother again- Vinh at Paris few years later! and a memory that me and Vinh won’t forget was he got his first tattoo in Thailand and I was there to witness it together with his other brother Khang and Khoa they should made one also but they backed out haha!

Japan! Went there with my sister, my mom supposed to go also but she accompanied my father for doing unplanned surgery in Singapore on 10th Nov 2016! I still remember the day perfectly! We went without enough money so we kept withdrawing from ATM but the food etc was and is so expensive! and in the end because we all on a very tight budget we ate Ichiran ramen 5 days in a row not only because that was the cheapest and worth kind of a meal (I think 1100 JPY sth like that) but it was so good! and we like the concept of on a hmmm what is it’s called? small own table? the one that no need to interact with people around haha

  • Adhi

We met with our cousin- Adhi that was studying in Japan and me and my sister bought Kansai pass that is basically a transportation card that valid for 3 days (thank God it’s not consecutively) and we want to use it to the fullest so we kept using it and go to a very far place in the end I was dead tired 😮

Then my motherland, Indonesia!

China, my second home! thank you for hosting me for 7 years there! and thank you for having literally everything! the most impressive one was Harbin! thank you for giving me a feeling what -17 degree Celsius feels like! I have no idea how many body warmer sticker that I used and when I want to go out I need to wear 4 layers and inside the restaurant it was +20 degree and I was sweating hot this feeling is very uncomfortable.

Australia, oy oy oy! the home of koala? kangaroo? no it’s the home of my sister 🙂 I like that there are so many Indonesian in Aussie haha and Indonesian restaurants! wohoo the best!

Malaysia!!! my neighbor country that I got the chance to visit on year 2018 with the best crew ever! The crew that made my life in Shanghai more colorful than a rainbow <3 Big credits to Brendan that asked me to join this trip, he asked me on his bday party in Unico (this place doesn’t exist anymore) after midnight and after so many alcohol- his side, not mine 😉 so not sure if he’s aware what he’s asking but long story short I said yes! and heyyy the gang was awesome! I forever owe you a big thanks! haha

Germany and Italy! I went back to Europe after 10 years! It was for a business trip but I stole some weekend so I can visit my friends and have some sightseeing. I’m glad I can visit Benjamin and Beatrice again (also met in Shanghai after about 4 years apart)

Maldives the best resort ever! it will be so hard to beat this one. It is very expensive like very very! but it’s so worthy! Even though its a resort and mostly you always there but trust me you wont feel bored! They always have sth and buggy! so you don’t need to walk around that much just call the buggy and they will send you everywhere 😉

Well… well… these are all wonderful memories that we won’t be able to taste a glimpse of it in year 2020. Perhaps its the time to give Earth what it needs the most : REST! We need to bid a farewell to our dearest friend, Travel.

I really hope we can meet soon but if you need to take some time off, I understand. Please be assured that I still want to be with you. Big hugs and I miss you a lot!

Till we meet again XOXO

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Kudos to Kiddos-Part 2

Kolbano beach is only 27km away from Oetune but there wasn’t really a sign of “Welcome to Kolbano” or whatever so it was a bit of struggle to find where is the entrance, we indeed need to stop few times to ask where is the beach until we found a big giant rock and there it is. Never I’ve been so happy to find some kids there! Me and my mom each got a kid 😉

Mine was Age, while my mom was Alfa-both of them are 14 yo but they are soooooo small, well this is how 14yo Asian looks like 😉 they went to the beach straight after school to earn some money and we gave them however we like.

Age and Alfa

Age asked me to point my finger, to hold this stone and to make a ssssshhhhhh with my finger. I don’t really understand why should I do that but I trust that this kid knows what he’s doing 😉

Then he put some rocks to make a kind of “house” and stack it all together and I asked what the purpose of it? He told me to stand on the other side and when I looked at him he put the camera right infront of the stones so it looks bigger. He even asked me to jump while throwing some small stones and he got it on one shot!

I am so happy with Age because he is soooo smart and he also doesn’t have a phone so thanks to “My Trip, My Adventure” that taught him to do so! I kept asking “Age, where should I go now? where is the good spot again?” and he kept saying go here, go there, stand in here, blablabla. He knows how to use my phone more than I do!

Actually the spots for taking picture is finished there and he asked me if I already been to the top and can see the view of the blue sea? and I said no, do you want to come with us? haha so we asked both of them to go to the car and drive us there #this is not kidnapping 😉 and because they are so small so they sit in the front seat together #facepalm

  • Yes both of them share the seat 😉
  • He changed the filter by himself

They are a bit shy at first and I asked Age what is his fav subjects at school? and he said “theology” he can’t do math so well. I asked if they learn English and good things is they do! wogh! i’m glad, but for sure not so much as what 14 yo learn on Java island but at least they know other language other than Indonesian! haha

The driver asked me where to go? and I said just follow the kids, they know the place. Just keep going up until they said stop haha

I am so happy to meet those kids they are all smart and polite and don’t worry peeps I returned both Age and Alfa to where I found them on the first place. I really hope they got many customers every day so they can get some pocket money! Thanks kiddos 😉 and may God bless you all!

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Kudos to Kiddos

As a result of being “unpredictably” stuck … Marlyn just had her journey to the East! My father was worried that I might get bored if I don’t go anywhere so when he got a business trip schedule, he took me there. I went for sightseeing with Mom while he was on his schedule elsewhere.

HA! Now we got something to do which is making the itinerary! As this journey to the East is far already and not cheap people! so I need to make the most of it 🙂 There are many beaches there but the most most most most visit one are: Kolbano and Oetune Beach (one day because it’s located really far like 3 hours away from the city center) and Tablolong (not too far max 1.5 hours away). Besides the beach, there is a very popular cave called Crystal cave, I’m not a big fan of the cave itself but because we will be there for 3 days so…. why not.

Oetune beach is really cool it’s looks like a desert. The sand was sooooo hot at the end I kind of almost “fainted” due to the heat and there was no tree that could work as a shade.

And don’t think about swimming or snorkeling there because you can’t, even if you can you will not do it, in fact you could get a skin cancer if you stay that long on the beach, the heat was unbearable #sigh

And there was 3 kids that approached us and these are the kids that are looking for money. But how can they do that? They became our photographer and we gave them tips in the end however we like. I was quiet skeptical with them because hmmm how can they take pics? But well we gave our phone… it’s not that they will steal and run away with it anyway.

Turns out the kids really know how to take picture, put a vivid filter, black and white etc and I asked them if they have phone at home and learn it? and they said “No, but there was one TV shows called My Trip, My Adventure while they do the shooting here, they taught us how to do it so we can use this as our way to ask money from people” I was amazed by them because the shooting maybe only last for few days….but they memorize it all!

As this is the “dessert” so we can’t really do much but this kid still find a way to make some picture for example he spray some sands in front of the camera to make it looks like….. i don’t know 😉 just a bit artistic… maybe?? haha

These 2 boys also playing with the tree until they knocked it down….don’t know what the purpose… They also looking for mussels from the sands to give it to their mother or neighbor or whoever they want 🙂

We spent about 1 hour there because my feet are burning! haha

  • Beginning…..
  • … End!

and we asked the kids “can you go to Kolbano with us and take our pictures?” #it’s not kidnapping hey… but they said “there’s also another kids that will take pictures there” wow, cool! the hunting for second kid started!

Thanks kiddos: Octo-Jimmy and Giovanni