Perjalanan ke negri Samudra Hindia - Maldives

Well,

First of all, saya minta maaf kepada all budget traveller, postingan saya kali ini tampaknya kurang cocok dan kurang memenuhi apa yang kalian cari, tapi pastinya ada tips - tips menarik jika kalian berencana untuk berpelesir ke sana. Kedua, postingan ini memang sudah expired karena sudah jauh beberapa bulan lalu terjadinya (sorry for my neglected blog), tapi yang namanya pengalaman ya nggak ada kata terlambat untuk diceritakan.

5 May 2016 yang lalu, saya diberkati untuk bisa pergi ke Maldives atau Maladewa, suatu negri kepulauan yang terletak di Samudra Hindia. Rada mumet sih memang untuk memilih penginapan di sini, pertama semuanya mehong sejagat alias mahal banget, kedua masalah di mana letaknya pulau - pulau itu. Saya sempat pusing dan mumet karena semua tampak sama bagus, harganya sama mahal, dan jarak tempuhnya sulit diukur. Untuk diketahui ibukota Negara ini namanya Male, bandaranya bernama Ibrahim Nasir International Airport, ibukota dan bandara terletak dipulau yang berbeda. Jika ingin berlibur hemat, banyak hostel backpacker di pulau ibukota Male, tetapi jujur laut dan pantainya kurang bagus. Jika ingin menikmati laut berwarna turqouis dan pasir super duper putih ga ada pilihan ya harus menginap di resort alias pulau pribadi, atau dipulau lokal. Satu resort berarti satu pulau private, pulau lokal seperti di pulau Maafushi ya non-private bersama penduduk lokal. Ada uang ada barang gitu istilahnya bro and sist.

Di Maldives, jika bukan menginap di Male, ya tidak begitu banyak yang bisa dilihat. Bagi para traveller yang sukanya jalan - jalan, lihat - lihat sana sini, well pasti mati kutu disini. Wisata disini adalah wisata leyeh - leyeh. Jika menginap di resort, cukup bawa kartu kredit, jika tidak ya harus menukarkan uang dengan Rufiyaa ( i wonder how the name of the curency so similiar ... hmmm). Saya pribadi suka semua jenis wisata, wisata alam seneng, wisata perkotaan juga seneng, wisata leyeh-leyeh juga seneng, pokoknya yang namanya jalan- jalan ya sueneng puoll titik. Kalau merasa bosen, bisa mencoba aktivitas air, seperti naik kano di atas laut turqois yang transparan sampai bisa ngeliat ikan - ikan sambil foto - foto pakai tongsis, atau snorkling dan berselfie ria pakai underwater camera, atau bisa scuba dive. Bisa banana boat ga kaka ? Well rasanya ga ada banana boat di sini. Tapi tentunya harus keluar duit lebih untuk bisa menikmati aktivitas air.

Yang namanya wisata khas Maldives itu terkenal akan resort - resort, pantai putih, laut turqois yang ditata sedemikan rupa sehingga orang termehek - mehek hanya karena membayangkannya saja, jadi saran saya kalau mau ke sini ya kumpulin uang dan nikmati wisata khas Maldives.

Setelah berburu tiket, akhirnya memutuskan untuk naik Singapore air, lama penerbangan dari Singapura ke Maladewa memakan waktu kurang lebih 4 jam. Setelah meneliti sana - sini, akhirnya saya memutuskan untuk menikmati Maldives di Baros. Yang jadi pertimbangan saya adalah karena Baros terletak di dalam atol, dan tidak terlalu jauh dari bandara. Untuk transportasi ke resort biasanya dari tiap resort sudah disediakan dan ada konternya di bandara, permasalahannya adalah biayanya. Semakin jauh resort tersebut dari bandara, semakin mahal biayanya apalagi kalau harus naik pesawat lagi. Untuk ke Baros, hanya butuh naik speedboat 30 menit (untuk yang suka mabuk laut, harus siap - siap!)

This is no adv for Baros, tapi i was sooo impressed, tidak pernah saya berasa jadi ratu selain di sini. They treated you so special, saat saya sakit kepala dibawain dokter dan dikasih obat satu kotak, saat saya minta dibakarin ikan satu, mereka bakarin semua yang enak tanpa diminta. Snorkling gratis disini. Bahkan ketika pulang masih dikasih suvenir. Baros punya housereef sendiri, artinya kalau mau snorkling atau menyelam ga perlu jauh-jauh. Di sini akhirnya saya dapat sertifikat PADI pertama saya, menyelam di kedalaman Samudra Hindia ... harus bilang apa sama Tuhan ?? Terimakasih Tuhan ... rasanya tidak cukup.

Eniwei, here are my photos ...

Baros map, 30 min speed boat

Baros at the first sight

The Jetty

Water villas, liat airnya!

Baros overall

Breakfast view

my villa, ada tangga langsung kalo mau nyebur. Warna lautnya kayak warna makeup remover dari Mayb..line. Laut yang biru tua artinya dalam, sedangkan yang turois artinya lebih cetek.

Airnya jernih banget sampai ikan-ikan keliatan

My first dive experience at Baros Housereef. Akhirnya ya menyelam di Samudra gitu, kedalaman 12 meteran.

Black tip shark, hiu kecil jinak nan lucu ...

Ikan apa ini ? Banner fish

ada ship wreck juga di sini

Are you Donatelo or Michael Angelo ?

Glowing fish ... so cute.

Baros from the sky (Source : google)

Baros sandbank, kalo punya budget lebih bolh dinner atau breakfast disini. (Source : google)

Baros directory

Sekian dan terimakasih ... attraversiamo ...

Tour of Duty part 2 : Halong Bay

Hello there,

Sorry for the-long-time-no-post, I've been busy all the time, so much stressful with the job, with the people around ... i'll make a story about it later, but now ... its time for part two, let me finish my debt. Last time i wrote about Hanoi as Tour of Duty part 1. Jeezzz how long it has been since the first one? hahaha pardon me, i am not a full time blogger, lucky to those who write blog entire time, specially if they are endorser, they should have a very happy life.

Anyway, my english is very bad, pardon, but i create this post dedicated to my new friend, Donna Nguyen.

So, when visited Halong Bay, i joined a tour from Hanoi. I booked couple weeks before, the tour online via the Sinh Cafe tourist agency. So, at the time i booked, someone email me the information regarding the procedure, when and where i should register for the upcoming tour, he gave me an address, so i took a look in google maps ... "hmm easy okay" that was my thought at that time, not so far from the Eco hotel. But when i arrived Hanoi, i was confused to death ... there were so many Sinh Cafe spread all over the corner of Hanoi street, and at that time i didn't know the name of the street either. So I asked the tour hotel admin whether she can help me to find the correct tour agent. Anyway, Her name was Ngop (N.G.O.C) ??? she spelled her name like that and i faced another confusion ... eh you know what i mean righ? haha ... you also trapped in confusion ... hahaha, pardon for not-so-funny-me, now is eleven to midnight, lil bit sleepy meh.
So continue, Ngop said to us that, not all the Sinh Cafe that we saw all over the street was the real agents, later she delivered us to the real and genuine tour agent and we did the registration, even at that time i still felt uncertain, but glad when the next morning, at 8 am, the real and genuine Sinh Cafe bus picked us on time. So here is the address of the real one, if you face the problem like i faced

Sinh Cafe 52 Luong Ngoc Quyen St - Ha Noi

In the morning, after the bus strolled around almost 1 hour after i got in, Donna got in, she was solo traveller. She sat at front of Vietnamese old ladies, they were group of six. I thought there were friends, but they were just acquaintance . I sat on the left side, Donna sat on the right side at front of my row near the window. Donna, my friends ... i have to tell you this secret all this long that i had to keep it, only me and Riri who knew this. Its really hard for me to told it when we met, so ... i will tell you now. So here is the secret, i would like to tell you ... that the lady with the curly hair sat behind you, she raised her feet on the window when she nap. Her feet was right behind your head, maybe just separated few centimetres from back of your head ... so if at that time you felt nausea, or smelled something really weird that made you unconscious at that time ( i saw you a lil bit unconscious along the journey) ... now you know the answer hahaha.

Anyway, journey from Hanoi to Halong Bay, it took 3.5 hours with the bus speed that i experienced that time, and with no brake pedal. I mean it, i faced alot serious problem with Kopaja and Metromini in Jakarta, or maybe Bus Antar-Kota-Antar-Propinis in Jalan Raya Lintas Sumatra ... but this bus worse than ever! Not only the bus that i rode, but all bus that i saw there with the same insanity, couple times i felt wanna jump from my chair to avoid i-thought-it-will-collided moment, seriously very nervous journey. Experienced with their guts, no wonder they won the war. I arrived Halong Bay around 12 pm, direct to the boat for lunch, and sailed through Halong river.

Halong Bay is one of Vietnam UNESCO Heritage site, so came here its a must. As i was there, i could imagine all the karst hill was like a dragon hump. Felt so serenity when i sailed through the river. Halong Bay famous of its freshwater pearls, its beautiful item, not expensive, so it suitable for souvenir. The tour program, was only one day tour, include lunch, kayaking, and went to grottoes ... the cave with magnificent stalagmites, but i didn't remember the name.

i got hypnotised just only sit and stare all the karst hill. Lucky the weather was very friendly. 

This is the boat wharf, where tourist can do kayak or paddle boat

Hey Donna, this is a very cool pict, don't forget ok!

Kayaking through caves like this, i felt so magical ... really adventurous. How could not thak to God, for His beautiful and majesty creations.

 The cave, grottoes illuminated by coloured lights ... so beautiful and breathtaking views .

Where the sun rays came in, like a stairway to heaven.

must take a cool picture of us eh!

Halong Bay from exit dor of the cave.

Well, that's a wrap for my Halong Bay tour. Really true adventurous moment, thought it was my first time doing kayak, but that was not bad but just slow, maybe because uneven distribution of weight on the kayak, i sat at front of the kayak, and i got hippopotamus at the back ... hahaha.

And finally, I just wanna say thank you to my God, for granted this moment to me, and hey Donna, if you read this, don't forget my offer, come to my country so many beautiful things here such as Borobudur temple, Bali, komodo island, Cinta Eco Resort Gorontalo, etc ... so many things can be seen, if you have time off course, be my guest. 

c ya, peace for now, attraversiamo!