Pindul Cave the Green Gateway

Indonesia, my beloved country, is never tired to amaze me with its natural amazement. This time I will share my experience when I went to Pindul Cave or Goa Pindul. This cave is located in Southern Yogyakarta, at Gunung Kidul area, Desa Bejiharjo to be exact. I have been to Jogja a lot of time, like seriously I would go to this city whenever I have the chance. Jogja is so amazing! I would tell the story of my visits to Jogja in other post because this post is dedicated for Pindul Cave only :) 

This trip I took on last semester break, a day after my birthday so this was a birthday gift from me to myself :') Originally, it was only me, Mayang and Andra who wanted to go to Jogja to take Dana, my American friend who teaches English in SMA 2 Madiun for the whole year, to explore the city. Then, three people came along and joined our group; Kea, Ira and Hafid. We (me, Dana, Andra and Hafid) went to Jogja by train from Madiun. The ride took approximately 4 hours to get there. Arrived in the city, the rest of the group picked us up with the car we rented from my friend's Reza's colleague and we went straight to Pindul Cave. By car, the journey takes for about 2 hours from central Jogja. Since Pindul Cave is a new tourism destination, there was not much sign we could see a long the way. We then asked people how to get there. If you're not feeling confident and afraid to get lost, there are lots of people offer themselves to be your tour guide to get to Pindul Cave. They will lead you with their motorbike. We took our chance and did not take any tour guide. We were confused at first but finally we figured out how to get there by asking random person we met on the way, I personally gave them my sweetest smile in return. Hahaha.

10 Basic Backpacking Tips :)

Backpacking is a total fun. Yes, if you already has everything planned and arranged but it would be a total disaster if you don't have plan and enough preparation for your trip. This kind of travelling style has been chosen by people all around the world since a long time ago. The main reason is that it's simple and cheap. For a tight budget traveller like me, backpacking is the only way I could afford yet I still can do tons of fun things with a good budgeting plan. Some of you might think that backpacking is simply putting your stuff in your backpack and go where the wind blows. Disagree! well, not if you intend to purposely get lost and stranded with nothing. So for those of you who want to start your backpacking experience, I have some tips based on my own experience that might help you, someday and somehow :) 

1. Victory loves preparation and so does a great backpacking experience! 

You have to decide first, what kind of trip you wanna do, how to get there, how much money you have, how long you will be going, with whom you'll go, where you will stay and most definitely what places you wanna visit. It is always better to book tickets in advance because you might get a great deal compared to purchasing them in last minutes. Thus, you have to make sure first the exact time and places you will be going. Set the date and the destinations! Afterwards,you have to try to look up for places to stay, spend your time and compare the services of the hotel or hostel you put on top of your list. It is always a win to stay in a hostel with breakfast included, help you saving up some pennies :) Doing a lot of research on your trip destination will help you a lot when you actually doing it because you will know from the local people or other tourists that have been there on what's hot and what's not 

The End of Every Journey

"The most important thing is the journey not the destination.." some say

Then it occurs to me, how if we enjoy the journey too much and our real destination is actually the point where we begin the journey itself?

taken from alexinwanderland.com

I like travelling and visiting new places as well as meeting new faces. It become a habit or indeed I might be addicted to it. Some people may wonder why I would risking myself going to completely strange place, skipping schools for several days just to go somewhere cannot be reached by what so call technology.

Chicago - The Windy City

One of the cities that leave a nice memory to me is Chicago. I went there with my host family during the winter break 2008. I got enchanted with the charm of this windy city. Chicago is the most populous city in American Midwest and the third in the US after New York City and Los Angeles with 2.7 million residents.

Chicago street in the winter

During the winter time, Chicago’s temperature can drop really low and the wind makes it ever colder but I can assure that it won’t kill any temptation it has to make us take a walk and enjoy its beauty. The city lands by the shore of Michigan Lake, a big lake that almost looks like a small sea in the middle of a landlocked America.

As the capital of Ohio state, Chicago is like any big cities in the world, it has skyscrapers and also good public transportation. At that time though, I didn't really take public transportation because I mostly walked against the cold winter breeze.