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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

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The Good Samaritan

Marina gave me the info about free walking tour in Copenhagen and I joined all 3 of them. Please note that I did give them tips 😉 haha thank you for the link Marina!

After joined the first day of the free walking tour in Copenhagen, one of the tour guide Daniel recommended a restaurant called 1001 Hygge and they have the open face sandwiches. The reason why I want to go there is simply because CPH is very expensive! But! If you went to one of the free walking tour you can get a 15% discount on the food so I took picture of the flyer and get ready for the next day breakfast.

I looked on the address and its located not so far from my hostel so there I was, super ready to have the sandwiches, I followed the GPS and stuck into a building like an office building that doesnt look like a restaurant at all…

I had to ask somebody and one person walked by, I just called her and asked. She was patiently put up with me and showed where is this 1001 Hygge located on her map which is different from mine. We always take “Stereo Bar” as our benchmark.

She said… this is the Stereo Bar, so the place is on the other side but somehow you just need to “fly” haha or ask somebody and she said but this place is open at 11AM while at that time we were not even 10AM and I stopped her while she was on her way to do an English test #facepalm

After few minutes figuring the way on the street, she said to me that she wanted to grab a coffee and obviously I wanted to join her and she treated me with a yoghurt! Wohooo Grazie Bella!


  • # Good Samaritan Numero Uno

Name: Michela
Country of origin: Italy

But after she finished her coffee and cookies she need to leave because she got to arrived to her test place earlier, I wish you nailed the test and I wanted to see your creation on your jewelry! #Thumbs UP 😉

Moving on to the day where I suppose to take my flight to Germany, since my flight was at 2PM and I gotta check out at 11AM so I was just wandering around Nyhavn area.

When you’re a solo traveler, having an appropriate picture is you need to rely to other people and since Im such a picture person I always find somebody to take mine 🙂
And I needed to have a pic on this Nyhavn sign

so I looked around and stopped another guy and there he was.
I was making a conversation with him and turns out he was on a transfer flight to Portugal from Okinawa and his flight got 6 hours delay. So he was very unprepared for Copenhagen, no gloves, no scarf which is a big no no haha

Since Ive been here for 2 days and our flight is kind of at the same time so I took him around to show the things that is closeby, but since I wont be back to hotel after showing him some place so he helped me to carry my luggage haha Obrigado Eduardo, somehow it rhymes! And we we went to of course Nyhavn picture spot, Round Tower, Stroget shopping mile, Bishop Absalon Statue

We said good bye after we visited Rosenberg Castle, he still have one more hour to be in town while I need to go to Airport.


  • #Good Samaritan Número Dois

Name: Eduardo
Country of origin: Portugal

Then, after Germany I went to Copenhagen again due to my round ticket is SH-CPH. On the last day, my iphone charger was broken! Great! Since I stayed in a hostel so there was other people and I asked if she has Iphone charger but turns out is a no because shes using Xiaomi, but she was very helpful to find out where was the issue was it the cable or the socket and we find out it was my cable issue so I need to find someone that has iphone…

From this issue we started to talk and I found out that shes currently studying in Spain and just went to CPH on the weekend and because our hostel has a 20% off for a magic ice bar then I asked her if she wants to come with me and she said yes! Wohooo

We went to the first floor but it was already after 9PM so we missed the happy hour but she was so smart to decide to come the next day so we can get the happy hour price which is 62.5 dkk and including one drink, great! We got each other IG and went together the next day!

The magic ice bar provided a poncho but we dont want to wear that and we found that we were freezing inside haha

Then we both went to Tivoli at first she didnt want to go in but since we saw how beautiful it is from the entrance and she decided to go in with me 🙂

#Good Samaritan Número Três

Name: Mariana
Country of origin: Brazil

Thankyou for all 3 good samaritans that were able to cope out with me 🙂 good luck for all of your study and your work! And since I got contact of the three of you, do let me know if you having a plan to go either to Indonesia or Shanghai and I believe you’ll always be a good Samaritan everywhere!

Till next time 🙂

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The Real Deal Trip

Soa Bajawa airport is tiny! They only have one belt for the luggage and not in circle so if sb didnt take his/her luggage it will just pile up. The airplane also small one, the one that is still using wing and it really match with the airplane that we flew with, wings 😉

Santos and Maggie picked us up and we checked in in our “hotel” and I guess we went for lunch first but because we were in such a weird time like around 2:30ish so not all restaurants opened we need to hop on to the 3rd restaurant that let us had our lunch there!

After that we went to Bena village (not getting in, only the front of Bena village) and we started trekking to Tololela village, it took us around 1.5 hours. Santos explained this is cinnamon tree, cocoa etc etc. Tololela is quiet unique, the village has front side and back side. In the front there are 4 clans and on the back is 3 clans of family.

Theres a altar for sacrifice usually they will sacrifice buffalo, pig or chicken. On the roof theres also a symbol of a guy, a house (which means its a women’s house) and no symbol. I found this village is beautiful, the donation or Id rather say entrance fee is IDR 10k.

Then we went to Gurusina village there was a cultural event to mark the day that they will start to rebuilt the village. They used to have 33 houses but due to fire they only have 6 houses left and for the cultural event they sacrifice 27 buffalos, 27pigs and many many chicken, they started the event from morning. By the time we arrived it was already like 6ish so we didnt see the dance or the way they killed the animal (not that I want to see it) but we have to eat sth as a respect to them. They put a lot of rice for us and the first meal was the pig with coconut sauce and sth else and I couldnt see because on the village 6ish is very dark! But Im happy in some way that its dark because me and Marina cannot eat the pork, Ive told Thorben and he said “you can slowly moved the pork to my plate” and there I moved mine and he also said “you can take Marina’s pork too and give it to me” so I did that too 🙂 good job Thorben!

We need to go back to hotel immediately as we will climb Inerie at 1AM! So off for some snooze!

For the second day, after we climbed Inerie, I asked Santos to go to hotspring first because first I was soooo dirty with all the dust from the mountain and second my leg couldnt handle it anymore! I need to chill on the hotspring before we continue to Bena.

We went to Manulage hotspring and I think we stayed there for one hour ish, it was soooo good! To have a rest in a mix of hot and cold water, from the same place if we go more to the left the water is cold and more to the right the water is hot hahaha we also met another travelers Lusi, Arnau and Mark 🙂 Santos was fall asleep on the stones and on the part of the water that is hot!

Then we are ready for Bena! This village is the biggest, they have 9 clans but even after the hotspring I still very tired and that time it was midday so the sun was at it strongest, my leg couldnt handle it anymore so we just take a quick look of Bena and went for lunch.

The entrance for bena is IDR 25K and they gave us the scarf for us to enter the village. The view is better than Tololela imo because the position is higher but for some reason I like Tololela more. I think seeing 2 villages in Bajawa is enough unless you wanna become village expert 😉

We had lunch in heaven’s door where we can see Inerie mountain, Lusi and Arnau was there too! This is such a place for tourist 😉

After lunch we went back to hotel for a short rest maybe like 1 hour before we go to see sunset at Wolobobo. I think the sunset at wolobobo is very nice, the line of the pink cloud is so beautiful! However it was very very windy! I had to borrow Santos’ orange “Laskar Jaramasi” jacket but it stills soooo cold!

  • With Santos and Maggie

Well well thats our trip we fly back to Labuan Bajo to have few days to chill as I cant walk properly anyway now haha.

We didnt expect that the real deal was the trip in Bajawa, I thought Bajawa is more cultural village and not much to see but nope I was wrong! I was more tired here other than in Labuan Bajo even if I didnt fall down on the swimming pool and do the snorkeling I still think that Bajawa trip is more tiring than LB’s and most important is whenever you’ll go preparation and planning is very important, maybe German way is still better after all 😉

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The Celebrity Effect Continues

Allright allright, fell down on the pool got under control, how to take a picture to make my bandage less obvious is also under control this mark that we are ready to start our boat trip!

When I arrived on the boat from east cruise komodo the boat crew was very concern because of my big bandage, he asked “what happened?” And I said “I fall down on the swimming pool” to my surprise he didnt even asked am I ok or how or what not, he replied “are you staying in La Cecile?” Oh yeah news spreads quick in this island! I feel like I am the headline of the news story! Do you need my signature? Want a pic with me and my wound? Haha anyway I still like the crew they are all very nice and when I want to get off they reminded me “watch out your head” as they dont want me to hit my head again and they make sure that I don’t snorkling because they want my wound to dry quickly. Nice people!

First stop is Padar Island, Thorben got up in like 15mins, me and Marina was like hmmm 40mins and I have to sit down like 5 times haha its the sun! We were there like 9ish so the sun is quiet strong and I need to find the shade, drink water etc.
Our Padar view is different from Marina’s sister because they went in April so they are more green while we went on Sept so…. its quiet dry…. but I still like it!

There is no stopping sign so actually its a never ending hike but since we only have 1 hr so we stopped at the good view spot and return 🙂 on the way to our boat we saw a bunch of deers!

Second stop is Komodo Island, I was asking Marina and Thorben if Im bleeding, they kept saying no, dont be so dramatic hahaha as the common knowledge is Komodo smells blood! Look at this beautiful Dinosaurs’ ancestor!

Third stop is Pink beach which from far away its just a white sand but when you got off the boat and come closer, it is pink! Yeayy, Marina and Thorben did snorkle there, me…. Im just watching them from the shore 🙁 and swimming but kept my head above the water.

Fourth stop is Taka Makasar and the sand is even pinker than the pink beach, the boat crew said you cant really snorkel because there is nothing on the bottom, only sand, but I like it because it is ocean-sand-ocean so they dont really have a shore as the sand is in the middle.

Fifth stop is Manta Point which I didnt go because you can only snorkel there, Thorben and Marina went and they saw 4 mantas very big one but Marina said the current is very big, without a life jacket it will be hard to go back to the boat.

Last stop is Kanawa island, I did swim again on the beach because I dont feel like I swam enough but even I always careful to put my head above water at some point I need to stop because the water already on soaked by my giant bandage.

And thats the full day trip! They picked us up at 5:30am and we came back at 5:30pm, we took shower and had dinner on the hotel and went to bed! Zzzzz
I had dinner with my PJ’s and Marina said “I didnt know PJ was an option” see dinner with PJ is awesome!

Bandage on my forehead, medicine on my hand and jammies!#I’m getting better!


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Daddy-Daughter’s Moment Gone Wrong

We arrived at Labuan Bajo! On a sunny 29th Sept 2019, checked in to a cute hotel called La Cecile, the hotel was only 5 mins away from the airport.

The hotel rooms are downstairs so our room were 205 and 206 and it means 2 floor below the ground and obviously no elevator.

We were just chilled by the pool and I decided to jump on the pool, Marina was reading her kindle and soon after Thorben joined on the pool. He was doing the dive and I dont know how to do that, I know how to swim but not doing that or salto in the water so he was teaching me how to do that.

I got up and do the dive many times but somehow the way I dive still wrong and the water either hitting my face, my chest or my belly and those hurts besides I dont have energy to keep climbing and do the dive again.

This is after some times trying to dive in…and still cannot do that…

For some reason we decided to take a baby steps learn by doing the dive in the shallow end #yeap the gone wrong moments started!

We practiced by keep my leg straight while I did the dive, the first and second dive I think it was better than before, Thorben hold my legs and I just dived in…but on the third try, I think this is the moment where I suddenly able to do that still with the help of Thorben but sth special happened this time and that’s…. I hit the ground! #panic!

I could feel that my head near my left eye hurts but wasnt exactly sure where… I turn around and said “Thorben I think I hit the ground” he looked at me and agreed “yes you did” he pulled me directly from the pool and we got out.

Marina was taking all of our stuff from the pool and cover us with the hotel’s towel, I was of course bleeding but Thorben said its not that much but stitches needed. The hotel staff was so nervous and they said we can call the doctor to come here but Thorben said “no, we need to go to the hospital, she need stitches”

I was either cool or scared because every time I heard stitches its bring back the memory of me hit the wall when I was 4yo and the blood was crazy so I kept asking him if theres a lot of blood or not. I dont know if its a concussion or panic or anything else apart from my childhood memories I was worried if I will have a brain damage, if I will lose my memories, if I will have a scar, if my forehead skin will got distorted etc but Thorben answered no to all of them and he recommended stitches so that I wont have scar. Hopefully there will be no scar!

Marina said it was really above my eyebrow so even if I have the scar it would be barely visible and then I was worried if my left and right eyebrows will be different but she said no my eyebrows will still be the same. The next day we will see Komodo and if I’m bleeding the Komodo will eat me so Marina said the stitches will close my wound and I’m not bleeding anymore so the Komodo won’t eat me. Okay then, more reason of why I should go on stitches.

The hotel driver directly took us to Siloam hospital, all 3 of us were on swim suits only Marina is dry, I forgot when Thorben wear his shirt because he kept covering my eyes and I can only see with my right eyes so I dont really have a clear view what I know is we arrived at Siloam hospital and I asked Marina to put pants and flip flops on me so I can arrive hospital with dignity.

It was Sunday afternoon, we were not even 4hours arrived Labuan Bajo and this small accident happened #facepalm!
Lucky me that the doctor was there and I directly went to emergency room and Dr. Koko stitched me 🙂

Thorben checked in to the hospital as my father, he said that “we need to let the doctor know that her heart rate is very normal” I asked Marina how much is it? And she said “yeah 130 pretty normal for you” When the doctor was doing their preparation he asked Thorben to leave the room. I was with Marina when Dr. Koko gave me the anesthesia and when he stitched me.

I was still on my bikini and hotel’s towel, by the time I was done with the stitches, Marina helped me to wear my clothes and she said “it’s good that my shirt is a button-up shirt” as if that I prepared for the “surgery” 😉

What worst is at the beginning I don’t want to tell my parents but I swiped my credit card which will send SMS to my mom, they said at the end of the day I need to let them know so Thorben asked me to smile on the selfie and send it to my mom.

He said “ok, now smile”

Then we were back to the hotel with my big bandage and I feel like a celebrity where everyone starred at me 🙂 Im fine, I survived! I took shower and Marina stayed in my room just in case sth happen and we figured it out of how can I take picture without being so obvious about my bandage? and we found it out, the photo has to be silhouette, from behind and from some specific angle and she instructed Thorben of how to do that haha, of course my big hat be a very important property 😉

I went to hospital again to check before we flew to Bajawa and the wound was not closed but there is no blood.

  • Day 1
  • Day 2

Hopefully I can take the stitches out before I fly back to Shanghai! Lesson learned! and now I am banned from the swimming pool #phew!

Byeeeeee pool!
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One Big Warum?

Thorben and Marina arrived Jakarta! Yeay! They had 2 days to do culinary here. I asked my parents on where to take them and what to eat and they said “easy, we got all the places, we will only bring them to the place that we like, even maybe its not famous but at least its good” so I was relax as everything will be taken care off.

They arrived 26th like late in the evening almost midnight, me and my parents picked them up and I’d to spent my birthday on the parking lot haha! But at least I got all parents complete on my bday, my biological and non biological 😉

The first day of culinary was only with my mom, we went to the traditional market, the place that my mom goes everyday to buy veggies, fruits and everything. We ate local food there, nasi uduk, lontong sayur and some drinks. They never or dont see white foreigner that much so every times they saw Thorben and Marina they said “hello mister” or “hello bule” haha people! Pleaseeee We also bought fruits like salak, passion fruits, the other type of passion fruits and mangoes.

For light lunch we want to eat otak2 and pempek (made out of fish) but we didnt walk there we took a bajaj to drive us. The bajaj driver was so happy because he got 2 bules on his ride 🙂

The original place of otak2 and pempek for some reason closed but the neighborhood told us that there is another similar shop around so we gave it a try.

Thorben tried nasi goreng pete on this shop, I dont like pete but for them its OK. Then we go home for a while because we cannot contain anymore foods, me and Marina figure out the additional luggage, east cruise komodo and who will pick us up from the airport.

Then it was somewhat afternoon and we ate more food, this one is meatball soups 🙂

We went to harvest to take my cake, we didnt have dessert here hahaha the dessert postponed for another few hours 🙂 And then my father arrived home after work and we go to Jetski cafe to have dinner with my other friends 🙂

The next day, the eating and sightseeing continues, this time my father also joined. We started to have noodles as breakfast at Mie Alip.

The same thing happened, they looked at Thorben and Marina haha like they are the only bules that came there. After we killed the noodles, my mom brought some breads for us to eat otw and Marina asked “warum??” And Ive told her to eat it later not necessarily now and she asked “when? When do we eat it? Later? When we have more foods” hahaha

This noodles enough to fill us up until kind of late afternoon. We went to “old city hall” to visit “Museum Bank Indonesia” and then went to train station. But otw to train station there was a bunch of teenagers that learn english and want to have interview with our bules and record it as their homework haha

They just asked simple question like your name, country where you come from, what is your fav food? And Thorben replied with “brain brain” which means otak2 which is definitely not the english word for it but Idk what to call it hahaha

Our two bules

Then we had lunch at Padang restaurant called Garuda. Thorben and Marina thought all of the drinks that they had is too sweet while I dont think so but I always order no sugar for them while for me? Yais please sugar bomb! Haha

We had another sugar bomb desert called Martabak, they were amazed with the amount of butter, condensed milk, chocolate and peanuts that they used to make it hahaha! And they surprised that we dont have diabetes hihihi but they like this sugar bomb desert 😉

We didnt have dinner after this, we just stayed at home but my mom cut all the mangoes and give it to them and Marina kept saying “warum??” my father said that “maybe you need to walk around and eat again” But the mango is so good so we all eat it anyway haha

When the nights come, I took shower, when I finished it my mom’s gone, I asked my father where is she and he said that she went to fruit shop thats only in front of our apartment. I was like “really? I dont think Thorben and Marina can eat anymore!” I went to tell Thorben what did my mom doing and he said “is she cutting more fruits for us?” I replied “no, she went out to buy more fruits” and Marina was “warum??” Suddenly, my mom with her barely spoken english arrived and saying “Marina, come come” #facepalm! They tried another fruit called dukuh this time haha but I’ve told them that they dont need to finished the whole dukuh.

The next morning, we all went to Labuan Bajo, its good that my father didnt dropped us to the terminal because our terminal changed! From the internet it was terminal no 1c and the reality was they closed down terminal 1c and moved Citilink airplane to terminal 2e but yeah! We made it! And here our holiday starts! And… we have another stories for that 😉

Off to Labuan Bajo! Yes Thorben I seriously took pic 🙂

I hope you have a good time in my home as I always have a good time in yours XOXO

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Addition or Subtraction

Last country on our trip! France and where it will be? To the city of light and love, Paris <3 We finally stayed in a hotel with elevator! Our hotel is near Champs Elysees, the weather wasn’t so nice when we were there, rainy, cloudy but it still didn’t reduce the fact that Paris is a beautiful city- the scenery, the arc, the bridge etc. We got some hours with sun but this sun followed by a crazy wind hahaha

I was so lucky that I can meet up with my 2 friends, Vinh and Lansana. I met Vinh first and he became our “tour guide” he showed us the tunnel where Lady Diana involved into an accident and when we heard it we were “oh! we didn’t notice it’s here” and he said “it’s just a tunnel ya” hahaha but it’s historic tunnel-worldwide famous so we went there then we went to his fav bridge in Paris which is Pont Alexandre III and Arc de Triomphe.

The next day we got additional person who is not strange to us, he is my sister’s boyfriend 😉

we went to the famous Louvre, Opera building, Gallery Lafayette but at some point we need to stop because it started to rain heavily.

Then for dinner we went to Asian restaurant which called Kok Ping sth like that also near Champs Elysees and the food there was sooo good! We first ordered in a small portion but we kept adding it. After dinner I met with Lansana, my sister went with her bf to the top of Arc de Triomphe, my parents went to bed.

The next day, we went with hop on hop off bus and we visited Marina’s fav place in Paris which is Sacre Coeur and it’s indeed way way way more beautiful than Eiffel Tower- I guess hahaha but since its hop on hop off, of course we stopped in Eiffel Tower.

We wanted to go to the Dom in Sacre Coeur but after more than 1 hour waiting on the line, another rain came by and we still waited on the line but the line didn’t even move so we gave up.

Then, the wonders of the world- Eiffel Tower! My father said “Oh, I can’t believe I’m on the feet of Eiffel Tower” and I said “Let me take picture of you” but the Eiffel Tower is so big and so hard to take a proper picture and I need to make sure that I lied down completely to the ground mwahaha 😀

Last day in Paris we went to Petit Palais, Place de la Bastille, Notredame, Madeleine, Place de la Concorde, Les Invalides wogh! tiring day! We also went to the cookies place that my father want to buy. So basically, the purpose of this last day is to buy the cookies but we don’t want to carry the cookies with us the whole day so we put it on the last things to do. I checked from the internet and as far as I know the place close at 7:30 PM so when I checked it again on 6:30 PM it’s written closing soon which make sense in 60 minutes they will close and we arrived there like either 10 or 8 minutes to 7 and we chose the cookies slowly and the girl said “I need to close the shop, we closing at 7” and we asked her for 5 more mins and she locked us in so that no other guest can come. What a day! Thanks God we made it otherwise my father would be so upset hahaha

The trip ended with me going back to Shanghai, my sister and Dom continued to Barcelona and Germany and my parents went back to Jakarta. Thanks for the light and love, Paris! wait… love?

This trip also ended up with addition of a not so new person, what does it means? Hint: Look at the blink 😉

Yes peps! my sister got engaged! The ring was too big for her so she put it on her middle finger first hahaha there will be subtraction from the Praseli but addition to the Berger 😉 She told us after she came back from Arc de Triomphe so actually Lansana played an important role, otherwise I would be with them and if Dom asked me to not join then I already know what will happen! My reaction was pretty random I jumped to her when I saw the ring and yes she hasn’t told me at that time, I think she’s about to but my eyes works faster than her word 😉 so I realized it was for the best that I’m not with them in the Arc otherwise it could be another different story ahahaha They told my parents the next day during breakfast. My mom cried, my father thought that he will be there during the proposal hahaha owh daddy!

I’m so happy for both of you, I mean we all are! Looking forward for the wedding but before that you need to solve the many wedding issues 😉 haha

#Keep Calm There’s One Praseli Left 😉

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Good Things Come In Small Packages

This summer I got a chance to visit the same countries that I visited 10 years ago but of course with additional time and places. Now it’s time for Belgium. For Belgium we went to Antwerpen-Brussels and Brugge. I only visited Brussels before and according to my memory Brussels was nice back then but now it wasn’t impressive at all, not that I disappointed it just showed me what 10 years could do to a city 😉

For Antwerpen, the train station was IMPRESSIVE ! It’s an old station but so so stunning in a way that only the building itself is able to mesmerized me. We stayed in a boutique hotel called Hotel Diamond and Pearls, it was about 30-40 mins by Taxi from the station, no elevator people! because it was such a heritage building and when they built it, the elevator doesn’t even exist-at least that’s what the GM told me.

Jason is super funny! He’s so cute and helpful, he recommended the place to eat and place to visit with a very clear explanation, he said “everything is so close, to go to Friday market its only take 2 minutes” btw it’s only the name Friday market but they have it every day 😉 and I said “Yeah, 2 minutes according to your pace but my pace could be slower” and he followed “no, it’s only right-left-right and you’re there” and it was literally just there, we came back to Jason to asked if we were on the right Friday market place and he said “yeah you found it, just like I said”

Then there is a place called Big market which is bigger than the Friday market but still close by, there’s also another place that looked like either a fort or Hogwarts school called Steelplein but unfortunately it’s under construction so we cannot go there 🙁

We also visited many churches, at least there are 2 churches in this area. I saw the coolest church every which they have a “fitness” corner haha!

Besides the kind of city center area, there is also a Tunnel for Antwerpen people or so to cross the river to the other side, it’s called Sint Anne tunnel where we went at least 30 meter below and what is so special about this? It’s the escalator! Jason called it a moving stairs hahaha 😉 that made out of wood and he said it’s pretty cool place to visit just to see the escalator and we trusted him so we went just to hop on on this very special wooden escalator, we didn’t even bother to cross the tunnel as Jason said it will take 20-30 mins to go to the other side.

Finished with Antwerpen, we went on to Brussels and to my surprise Brussels are dirty 🙁 but yeah here we are, let’s made the best out of it, waffles! churros! and the peeing boy-manneken pis. As far as I know there is only a boy but there’s also a girl and a dog! We went to the girl but it’s rather creepy and better not see it and the dog, meh! we didn’t even bother to search it.

Here is the famous manneken pis!

Ooops! he’s a boy so he’s not big and tall hahaha and def he’s not peeing while holding a waffle or peeing to the waffle hey kid! behave! here is the real one 😉

So…to whom who think the famous peeing statue is big… no oh! wrong! hahaha it’s really small. At least, the town hall is good!

Another famous attraction in Brussels is the Atomium, still have no idea why this could be it hahahaha there’s Mini Europe there so it’s the miniature of the whole building in Europe. Imo, it’s not necessary, even if you have time, you won’t miss anything if you missed it. If I may, better go to Brugge or even stay there for 3 days and visited Brussels for one day that would be the smart plan! Brugge is like 40-50mins away by train from Brussels but once you step in there…it’s a fairy tale land! I love it instantly, my sister booked a walking tour for 2.5 hours from Legend walking tour, our tour guide a 68 years old named Louis is a very nice guy and he also recommend a very nice restaurant, even until my Europe trip finished, no restaurant can beat the food we had in Brugge! He said he also do night tour where they go to a spooky, urban legend kind of place with torches and stuff and that’s sounds so appealing!

He said there are only 2 homeless guy in Brugge and they were put on a nice old house which many stuff enough for their daily needs and when I heard it it’s so nice that Brugge does it to their people. As someone who loves and believe in fairy tale haha #shy, and fast forward few years after that I could see these building that I only imagine exist in the fairy tale land in real life, I was amazed by it.

He also said that only in Brugge they have a pipe line for beer! So that the truck doesn’t need to do the unloading and pass through the city center as it would damage the streets.

Owh how I can’t get enough of Brugge #eyes drooling 🙂 we also went to churches and the town hall.

Cheers to the very satisfying dinner we had in Brugge 🙂

I think the saying of “Good Things Come In Small Package” does exist as Brugge and Antwerpen is smaller compare to Brussels but they do have better things here! At first I thought the saying was “Big Things Come In Small Package” but someone told me that it’s not true because if it’s big things then how can it fits in the small package? hahaha so we searched it on the internet and turns out indeed he was right, not big things but good things 😉

After that we went back to Brussels as we will leave the next day to the city of light and love, Paris! …stay tuned 😉