Mr Sori : Yes u could speak to me.

Lee Sum Wan : No! I want to speak to Annie Wan!

Mr Sori : You are now talking to someone! Who is this?

Lee Sum Wan : I’m Sum Wan. And I need to talk to Annie Wan! It’s urgent!

Mr Sori : I know u are someone and u want to talk to anyone! But what’s this urgent matter about?

Lee Sum Wan : Well just tell my sister Annie Wan that our brother was involved in an accident. Noe Wan got injured and now Noe wan is being sent to the hospital. Right now Avery Wan is going to the hospital.

Mr Sori : Look if no one was injured and no one was sent to the hospital from the accident that isn’t an urgent matter! You may find this hilarious but i dont have time for this!!!

Lee Sum Wan : You are rude. Who are you?

Mr Sori : I’m Sori.

Lee Sum Wan : You should be sorry. Now give me your name!

Mr Sori : I’m Sori!!

Lee Sum Wan : I don’t like your tone of voice Mr and I don’t care, give me your name!

Mr Sori : Look lady, I told you already I’m Sori! I’m Sori!! I’m SORI!!! You didn’t even give me your name!

Lee Sum Wan : I told u before I’m Sum Wan! Sum Wan!!! You better be careful my father is Sum Buddy. And my uncle holds a very big position in the company. He is Noe Buddy!

(Hangs up. Condi enters.)

Condoleeza : – Good morning, Mr. President.
George B. : – Oh Condoleeza, nice to see you. What’s happening?
Condoleeza : – Well, Mr. President, I have the report here about the new leader in China.
George B. : – Great, Condi. Lay it on me.
Condoleeza : – Mr. President, Hu is the new leader of China.
George B. : – Well, that’s what I want to know.
Condoleeza : – But that’s what I’m telling you, Mr. President.
George B. : – Well, that’s what I’m asking you, Condie. Who is the new leader of China?
Condoleeza : – Yes.
George B. : – I mean the fellow’s name.
Condoleeza : – Hu.
George B. : – The guy in China.
Condoleeza : – Hu.
George B. : – The new leader of China.
Condoleeza : – Hu.
George B. : – The Chinaman!
Condoleeza : – Hu is leading China, Mr. President.
George B. : – Whaddya’ asking me for?
Condoleeza : – I’m telling you Hu is leading China.
George B. : – Well, I’m asking you, Condie. Who is leading China?
Condoleeza : – That’s the man’s name.
George B. : – That’s who’s name?
Condoleeza : – Yes.

(Pause.)

George B. : – Will you or will you not tell me the name of the new leader of China?
Condoleeza : – Yes, sir.
George B. : – Yassir? Yassir Arafat is in China? I thought he was in the Middle East.
Condoleeza : – That’s correct.
George B. : – Then who is in China?
Condoleeza : – Yes, sir.
George B. : – Yassir is in China?
Condoleeza : – No, sir.
George B. : – Then who is?
Condoleeza : – Yes, sir.
George B. : – Yassir?
Condoleeza : – No, sir.

(Pause. Crumples paper)

George B. : – Condi, you’re starting to piss me off now, and it’s not ’cause you’re black neither. I need to know the name of the new leader of China. So why don’t you get me the Secretary General of the United Nations on the phone.
Condoleeza : – Kofi Annan?
George B. : – No, thanks. And Condi, call me George. Stop with that ebonics crap.
Condoleeza : – You want Kofi?
George B. : – No.
Condoleeza : – You don’t want Kofi.
George B. : – No. But now that you mention it, I could use a glass of milk. And then get me the U.N.
Condoleeza : – Yes, sir.
George B. : – Not Yassir! The guy at the United Nations.
Condoleeza : – Kofi?
George B. : – Milk! Will you please make that call?
Condoleeza : – And call who?
George B. : – Well, who is the guy at the U.N?
Condoleeza : – No, Hu is the guy in China.
George B. : – Will you stay out of China?!
Condoleeza : – Yes, sir.
George B. : – And stay out of the Middle East! Just get me the guy at the U.N.
Condoleeza : – Kofi.
George B. : – All right! With cream and two sugars. Now get on the phone.

(Condi picks up the phone.)

Condoleeza : – Hello. Rice, here.
George B. : – Rice? Good idea. And get a couple of egg rolls, too, Condi. Maybe we should send some to the guy in China. And the Middle East. Can you get chinese food in the Middle East? I don’t know.

Holy Darkness

Holy darkness, blessed night,
Heaven’s answer hidden from our sight.
As we await you, O God of silence,
We embrace your holy night.

I have tried you in fires of affliction;
I have taught your soul to grieve.
In the barren soil of your loneliness,
there I will plant my seed.

Holy darkness, blessed night,
Heaven’s answer hidden from our sight.
As we await you, O God of silence,
We embrace your holy night.

I have taught you the price of compassion;
you have stood before the grave.
Though my love can seem
like a raging storm,
this is the love that saves.

Holy darkness, blessed night,
Heaven’s answer hidden from our sight.
As we await you, O God of silence,
We embrace your holy night.

Were you there
when I raised up the mountains?
Can you guide the morning star?
Does the hawk take flight
when you give command?
Why do you doubt my pow’r?

Holy darkness, blessed night,
Heaven’s answer hidden from our sight.
As we await you, O God of silence,
We embrace your holy night.

In your deepest hour of darkness
I will give you wealth untold.
When the silence stills your spirit,
will my riches fill your soul.

Holy darkness, blessed night,
Heaven’s answer hidden from our sight.
As we await you, O God of silence,
We embrace your holy night.

As the watchman waits for morning,
and the bride awaits her groom,
so we wait to hear your footsteps
as we rest beneath your moon.

Holy darkness, blessed night,
Heaven’s answer hidden from our sight.
As we await you, O God of silence,
We embrace your holy night.

Regards,
Christopher Heru

You might have known that I’ve started my tour & travel, Mutiara Paradiso (formerly Mutiara Lombok Travel). Please visit our website www.mutiara-travel.com, though still under constructions, and give me input as to what to put inside the website, or whether there’s any mistake in the website.

There are several things we would like to do, but to concentrate on one matter, I chose to concentrate on photography package. It actually started by a request to accommodate a group of photographers from Singapore. From there I try to expand the line a bit, which is to make a special package for photographers. Please visit our page www.mutiara-travel.com/photography.php.

Working on it proves to be quite fun, as I enjoy putting on the part of puzzles together to form a tour package. It is also quite fun to imagine the photographers being in some places I bring them.

Anyway, we would like to welcome as many photographers as possible to Lombok, so that they can witness the great wonderful Lombok (a bit exaggerating, but it’s fine).

Cheers….

Funny thing about breakfast, we were provided 5 free buffet breakfast downstair, but none was willing to go down. Some preferred coco crunch cereal, some preferred instant cup noodles, while others were waiting for the infamous Bandung Batagor.

Needless to say, as soon as we checked-out the hotel, we had Batagor (meat filled tofu). I remember it was Kingsley in Jl. Veteran. Aside from Batagor, the place also sold Durian ice cream (ice cream with a piece of durian on it actually), pisang sale (very thin fried banana), and bakso…..

We continued our journey to find Primarasa bakery, a famour one in Bandung for its brownies and banana cake. Funny, we went all the way to eastern Bandung to find one, while actually on the way to Rembang we found another one…..

We picked Shania up in her mom’s house, and headed straight to Lembang. We had lunch along the way there, can’t remember the name of the place. It was supposed to be famous one, with countryside scenery and ambience. The food was served in one big tray: chicken, fish, tofu,….

After a nice, not-so-fulfilling, but fine lunch, we stopped by Mt. Tangkuban Perahu. Some people in our group said he had lived for 43 years and never been to Tangkuban Perahu once, someone said he had lived for 32 years and never been to Tangkuban Perahu once…. there you are.

Tangkuban Perahu is a crater on top of a mountain. When we got there, it was foggy, so we couldn’t see much there, though after a few minutes we could see some shadow of the crater. We took a few photographs there. It was cold and smelly, yeah smell of sulfur (like the smell of fart).

We only arrived at Sari Ater (Ciater) hot spring, our main destination, at around 4-5 pm. Btw, even in Tangkuban Perahu, or Sari Ater, we only purchased entrance tickets of 8 people, even though we were a group of 10 (including the children). The gatekeepers seemed confused as to how to count our group, because we scattered (purposely), and entered the gate very quickly.

We purchased antoher ticket in Sari Ater to enter a “hot swimming pool”. In Sari Ater, we could also had “free” hot spring bath (cannot say free in the first place, as we needed to pay the entrance fee) on the river or shower. Inside the swimming pool, we hardly found a place to put our bags, sandals, shoes, and clothes. We managed to found 2 chairs, and put them on the chairs.

I noticed people were only soaking their body, sitting on the side of the pool enjoying the hot spring water. But as soon as we entered the swimming pool, we swam, play with the water, chased each other. I wonder if the poeple were thinking “crazy….”. We found out later that if we moved around a lot in the hot spring, we would be dizzy.

From Sari Ater we check on the Treetop Outbound, and decided to stay overnight in Lembang so that the next day early in the morning, we would go there and play. The evening was spent on dinner and hotel hunting. One thing about us is that we didn’t book a hotel room beforehand, and only looked for a hotel room in the evening. We decided to stay at Takashimaya Hotel in Lembang city (can’t say it was city as it was very small, but well…..).

Till the next day…..

The flight from Mataram to Jakarta by Lion Air was at 6 am in the morning. Phew, even the great new plane Boeing 737-900ER didn’t really open my eyes wide that morning. I brought my Canon 550D on the plane, but I didn’t really use it during the flight, simply because I was too sleepy and the view wasn’t that great anyway.

We booked a car in Jakarta via Ikcang Soen2′s friend: “Aching”, from Universal Car Rental. It was Toyota Innova. By the time we arrived in Cengkareng (Soekarno-Hatta International Airport), we waited for another half hour in the airport for the car. It didn’t sound like professional car rental company, but mind you they have more than a thousand car across Indonesia.

One thing we forgot to mention when we booked the car was to ask for an automatic-gear one. So by the time we saw the car, we asked for replacement. It would be hell for the driver (me) to drive with manual-gear in a jam packed Bandung-Jakarta. A little bit more than one hour of our precious time was gone just to change the car (in Kebun Jeruk). We (I) took another wrong turn from the car rental office, and we accidentally “found” another way to Kelapa Gading (Wan2′s house). We (I) took another wrong turn in the highway, and went out of the highway, just to pay another toll to get into the same highway. Anyway, it was less than 45 minutes to reach Wan2′s house to pick Dhenny and family up.

We dropped our big trunks and my golf bag in Wan2′s house, and headed straight to Bandung. But first thing first, we had our late breakfast at 11+: Bakso campur.

The trip to Bandung was a smooth one, interrupted only by Kent’s requests for toilet. In the end, an empty mineral water bottle was the solution (were the solutions more exactly). We reached Bandung at around 2, and headed to Kampung Gajah, said to be a fun and expensive place for kids. On the way up (we found that Kampung Gajah is on a hill), it was another “request” by Kent to stop for a toilet, and for the second time in a day we ate Bakso campur.

Kampung Gajah turned out to be not so fun at all….. but yeah, it was expensive. While the children kind of enjoyed the entertainment, the adults were busy hunting for finger foods and snacks. Roast corn, batagor, rujak, and so on.

Dinner was in the Valley (Dago atas), with great view, nice cool weather, reasonable food (taste and price). However, I learned that not all car can go up a hill easily. A 2005 Toyota Innova with 130.000+ km with 9 passengers wasn’t able to climb the hill from the parking lot, so I needed to reverse back a bit (to get some power and speed) and kick the gas pedal all the way until the car had the necessary momentum to climb the hill. Anyway, it was a very steep “ramp”.

We decided to stay in the city of Bandung for the nite, so we booked a room (3 bedrooms apartment actually) in Aston Braga, Bandung. Booked the “room” for 1.380.000 rupiahs: I slept on the couch, Cin Fe took the single bed, and the other 2 families took the double beds. Btw, the air pumped bed we brought came into handy too.

Usually when I went for a tour/trip, I wouldn’t stay still in the hotel in the evening, until late night (or morning). However this time, once I rested my head on the “pillow”, I didn’t feel a thing until the next morning.

Btw, I didn’t manage to arrange the pictures, so pictures will be uploaded later

Till the next day…..

Cheers,

Christopher Heru

As the title suggested, I went to a trip to Bandung and Jakarta during the 2011 new year break.

It wasn’t a planned vacation, in fact the tickets were issued only 2 days prior to the departure, and the plan wasn’t even finalized after our arrival in Soekarno-Hatta airport, Jakarta.

It was a family trip, a very eventful trip with lots of laughters and fun. My youngest brother (Cin Fe) and I, my youngest aunt (from my mom) and her family, and my eldest cousin (from my mom’s family) and his family formed the group. Full List:

1. Heru Adi Kusuma (me)
2. Halim Adi Kusuma (my youngest brother)
3. Erlim Indrawati (my aunt)
4. Jati Susanto (her husband)
5. Kent Wilson – 10 yo (their son)
6. Erlim Dhenny Gunawan (my cousin)
7. Chriseys Wuinarno (his wife)
8.  Darren Clay Liem (their son)
9. Celine Deane Liem (their daughter)

I thought I was missing someone when I wrote this article, because I remembered it was a group of 10. But nope, only 9 people went to Jakarta: the first 5 from Mataram, Lombok, the last 4 from Surabaya.

Along the way, we met another members of the big family, and Shania (my lil cousin) joined our group on the 2nd day onwards. Of course I met my other aunts (from my father side) who were in Jakarta already.

Anyway, enough with the introduction, let’s go on with the beef of the story. Wait for the stories to appear here . As it was in the previous travel story, I’ll divide the story into 7-8 parts (1 day each), and publish them in the next few days. Keep watching, it’ll be there in a short while (if I maintain my spirit).

Best regards,

Christopher Heru

Have been sometime since I updated you. There’re lots of things changing, most obvious is the “new job” I have.

I’m opening a fresh new Travel Agency, named “Mutiara Lombok Tour & Travel”.

It’s been exactly 1 month since the first air ticket I sold (on 6 December 2010) to Henny. A total of 149 tickets have been sold to date. That’s not an extraordinary record of sales, but good enough for a start.

Most of my “customers” are my family and closed friends. It’s a hectic month, since December is holiday period for school.

Sure there are other items/products I sold aside from air tickets, such as hotel vouchers and tour packages.

I’ll try to update you all about this in the near future, including the fun and problems I faced during this period of time. But first, let me go into the last trip I had, which is Bandung-Jakarta trip (29 December 2010 – 5 January 2011).

Wish me luck and blessings for this year Happy New Year 2011!!!!

Best regards,

Christopher Heru

Today I look through my “collection” of accounts in flickr, multiply, blogspot, and wordpress, and find and it is tiring to maintain one of the sites, let alone all of them. Most of them are not maintained properly, mainly because I simply has no time and “spirit” to update them

Anyway, I’ve been trying to drag myself trying to be updated, and viola, here I am:

Latest photos can be found on flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/51437144@N08/

and-or:

http://cinsiong.multiply.com/photos/

I forgot completely about picasa, I think some of the pictures are still there…. unedit, and unsorted

Cheers,
Christopher Heru