Menado - 29 June 2010 -- 03 July 2010

In March 2010, I screamed secretly as I was so excited I was going to Menado June this year. Actually, you should not call the city Menado as it should be called Manado. There was a mathematical conference there and this trip was going to be my first academic trip since I went back to Indonesia back from Melbourne.

The conference was from 30th of June until the 3rd of July, so we decided to buy a return ticket that was departed from Jakarta on the 29th and returned on the 4th of July.

Here was the picture taken when we were just arrived at Manado. The name of the airport in Manado is Sam Ratulangi Airport who was the first Governor in North Sulawesi. Sam Ratulangi is one of the national heroes that has a slogan "Si tou timou tumou tou" meaning that a human could be called a human if he is useful to others.

Thus, I found a few interesting things when I was there.

1. Cewek
In Indonesia, especially in Java, we usually called "Mbak" to a waitress. But in Manado, if you call a waitress "Mbak" she would not respond. You should call her "Cewek" and she would respond. This fact amazes me as in the city where I live, if you call a girl, a waitress "Cewek," this means you mock her.

2. Adipura
Manado is the cleanest city that I have ever been. Of course I must exclude cities that are outside Indonesia. It is very rare that there is a city in Indonesia that is as clean as Manado. And the government awarded an Adipura for the city of Manado.

3. Bunaken
If you go to Manado, it won't be incomplete if you don't go to Bunaken. Bunaken is an island that is one hour from Manado. It has a very beautiful marine park where we can do a scuba diving.
The water temperatures ranging between 27 to 29 °C. The park has a high diversity of corals, fish, echinoderms or sponges. Notably, 7 of the 8 species of giant clams that occur in the world, occur in Bunaken.

4. Angkot
Angkot is the most common public transportation in Indonesia. It is a van, usually, and it could contain 12/13 passengers. But the best thing about Manado, angkot (they called it Oto there) has only 7/8 passengers which makes we sit far more comfortable than angkot in Java.
5. Bukit Doa
Other than Bunaken, we could go to Bukit Doa. This is a small mountain and is a site of Catholic Pilgrimage. The hill is so beautiful and peaceful make you do not want to go home. On the top of the hill, they made a chapel. From there you can see a good view of Manado and places around.

Istana Plaza - Bandung 2009

One day in 2009, I remembered how and where we first met. It was in Department of Mathematics of Institute Technology Bandung. We were students of this university. Some of us enrolled in 1999 and some of us enrolled in 2000.

Four years had been passed and we took our steps separately. We were still contacting each other though, via the most useful communication at that time, email.

Let us skip the history and go back to the present time. In March 2009 we met again after so many years. It was unfortunate that there were other friends that were not there. However, that other friends were not satisfied to the fact that they could not meet and share each other's stories so we made a second get together in May.

Apparently, the third, is going to be tonight.
I ll see you there folks.

Melbourne City - 2008

Perhaps you do not believe it but it was really my bike. I still have the bike even though I do not have it right now as it is now in Melbourne while I am somewhere else.

The bike helps me to adjust my first few months in Melbourne. When I did not have my bike, I was always afraid if I missed my bus, as a consequence I'd have to walk to my house which is quite far. So, instead of planning to catch a bus to get home from work I choose to ride my own bike.

This photo was taken by Sonnya. She is quite good as she was able to take the above photo which became one of photos that I really like. After having some gathering with all of my mudikan friends, we went to city of Melbourne to have a coffee.

La Trobe Wildlife Sanctuary

In the picture at the left, you are looking at the La Trobe wildlife sanctuary. I was in one of the natural places in La Trobe University, where I studied for my degree.

There are me, Lennaert, Dave, Ya Juan and Will. They are my collagues. There is also one more of my collagues, who was the one taking this photo. She is Priscilla.

La Trobe University is very nice. It is located quite far away from the city, therefore it still has natural attractions. The sanctuary has many animals that people not from Australia would like to see. There are kangaroos, kakatua birds, and many native Australian animals.

We were there to take Ya Juan that was about to leave the country. She has never seen Australian native animals so we took her to the sanctuary.

More pics please visit : http://www.flickr.com/photos/ivanky/sets/