Pelan-pelan, Jangan Cepat-cepat

Mungkin karena terbiasa diundang familiarization trip (fam trip) sama organisasi-organisasi pariwisata, jadi pas liburan pun cenderung lebih suka menjelajahi satu negara ketimbang ikut tur dari Jakarta sama agen perjalanan besar, yang 15 hari (termasuk perjalanan) bisa ke 10 kota di 8 negara. Baca itinerary-nya aja langsung migren!

Fam trip keliling Peru selama dua minggu

Tapi yang suka ya gak papa juga. Bebas! Your money, your rules!

If it's up to yours truly, idealnya ada di satu kota itu empat hari tiga malam: di hari kedatangan adalah leyeh-leyeh sekaligus  orientasi (nyari tahu ada apa aja di sekitar tempat menginap), hari kedua nyari tahu cara ke tempat-tempat yang kita pengen pergi dari tempat menginap, plus liat-liat ada apa aja di radius yang lebih luas dari tempat menginap, hari ketiga nerusin pergi ke tempat-tempat incaran di kota itu dan mengulang pergi ke tempat yang disuka (kalo ada!) dari hasil penjelajahan di hari kedua, hari keempat, kalo masih ada waktu sebelum pindah ke kota berikutnya, leyeh-leyeh lagi di tempat yang diincer di deket akomodasi tapi belum sempat didatengin. Tapi ya gak terus begitu juga ritmenya. Kadang cuma pengen ke landmark tertentu, tapi gak untuk masuk dan cukup dari luar dengan nongkrong di kafe yang menghadap si landmark. 

Santai sambil mimik wine di beranda AirBnb di Amalfi

Kayak ntar di Amsterdam pengen ke rumah Anne Frank, tapi ternyata tiketnya harus dibeli online dan ada kuota per hari, yang dari kemarin nyoba beli online gak bisa-bisa. Jadi paling ntar tetep ke rumah itu tapi cukup foto dari luar dan jalan-jalan di sekitar rumah tersebut. Syukur-syukur nemu kafe yang jual kroket enak dan menghadap rumah si Anne.

Liburan juga idealnya leyeh-leyeh, nggak mau ngapa2in. Gak mesti ikutin jadwal ini-itu. Tapi masak kalo belum pernah ke kota X gak mau liat di situ ada apa aja? But then again, your money, your rules!

Berikut contoh-contoh itinerary yang pernah dan akan dijalanin. Silakan dicontek kalo butuh. 

Germany Itinerary

(Akhir November - Pertengahan Desember 2016, lupa tanggalnya!)

                                                                             

Ini agenda utamanya jelajah Jerman karena mau liat Christmas market yang katanya di Jerman paling megang Christmas market-nya. Etapi liat peta kok dia dekat Praha dan Salzburg, jadi ya udahlah sekalian aja!

Hari 1: Jakarta - Frankfurt via Singapore

Hari 2: Frankfurt - day trip ke Heidelberg naik kereta

Hari 3: Frankfurt - naik kereta ke Nuremberg

Hari 4: Nuremberg - day trip ke Rothenburg op der Tauber

Hari 5: Nuremberg - ke Berlin (naik kereta)

Hari 6: Berlin (keliling kota)

Hari 7: Berlin - naik kereta ke Dresden

Hari 8: Dresden - Praha naik kereta

Hari 9: Praha (keliling kota)

Hari 10: Praha - day trip ke Cesky Krumlov

Hari 11: Praha - Munich naik kereta

Hari 12: Munich (keliling kota + walking tour ke camp concentration Dachau)

Hari 13: Munich - Salzburg naik kereta

Hari 14: Salzburg - day trip tur Sound of Music + Halstatt 

Hari 15: Salzburg - Munich

Hari 16: Munich - shopping day (Rimowa, Zoeva, Dr Hauschka & 19 percent tax refund, come to mama!)

Hari 17: Munich - Singapore

Hari 18: Singapore - Jakarta, nasi padang day!

Heidelberg, yang bisa diakses naik kereta dari Frankfurt

New Zealand’s South Island Itinerary

10 – 23 August 2017

Hari 1: Leaving for Queenstown via Sydney
Hari 2: Arrive in Queenstown on Qantas (QF 121)

Hari 3: Sightseeing in Queenstown

Hari 4: Sightseeing in Queenstown

Hari 5: Leave Queenstown, drive to Mount Cook (my birthday, so it's a lazy day!)

Hari 6: Sightseeing in Mount Cook

Hari 7: Sightseeing in  Mount Cook

Hari 8: Leave Mount Cook, drive to Wanaka

Hari 9: Sightseeing in Wanaka

Hari 10: Sightseeing in Wanaka

Hari 11: Leave Wanaka, drive to Te Anau

Hari 12: Sightseeing in Te Anau, drive to Glenorchy

Hari 13: Sightseeing in Glenorchy

Hari 14: Leave Glenorchy, drive to Queenstown

Hari 15: Leave Queesntown, fly to Sydney on Qantas (QF 122)
Hari 16: Sightseeing in Sydney, borong Hampers (kornet ini juara, sodara2!)
Hari 17: Leaving Sydney for Jakarta

Naik shotover jet di Queenstown, aktivitas yang aku kurang suka karena bikin mual

Nah, trip ke Spanyol nanti agak ambisius karena waktu terbatas, sementara banyak banget tempat di negara itu yang bagus. Udahlah di negara utamanya aja banyak acara, pas berangkat, karena lewat Amsterdam dan bertepatan sama musim semi, pengen mampir juga ke Keukenhof karena belum pernah. Trus liat Malaga ternyata di ujung selatan yang deket sama pelabuhan feri untuk nyeberang ke Tangier di Maroko, gatel dan akhirnya ya udahlah sekalian ke Chefchaouen!

SPAIN ITINERARY

(18 April - 11 Mei 2018)

Hari 1:     Jakarta -  Amsterdam via Singapore (kok demen banget sik naik SQ, sis? Ya karena dapet voucher belanja SGD40 untuk belanja di duty free dan siapa gak seneng transit di Changi!)

Hari 2:     Amsterdam arrival: Anne Frank's House, Van Gogh Museum

Hari 3:     Keukenhoff

Hari 4:     Amsterdam - Madrid

Hari 5:     Madrid: Toledo day trip

Hari 6:     Madrid: Avila + Segovia (tour)

Hari 7:     Madrid - Seville

Hari 8:     Seville

Hari 9:     Seville - Malaga

Hari 10:   Malaga – Chefchaouen via Tangier

Hari 11:   Chefchaouen

Hari 12:   Chefchaouen – Malaga via Tangier

Hari 13:   Malaga: Gibraltar (tour)

Hari 14:   Malaga: Ronda (tour)

Hari 15:   Malaga - Mijas

Hari 16:   Mijas - Granada

Hari 17:   Granada

Hari 18:   Granada - Cordoba

Hari 19:   Cordoba

Hari 20:   Cordoba - Madrid

Hari 21:   Madrid (Salamanca daytrip)

Hari 22:   Madrid - Amsterdam

Hari 23:   Amsterdam - Singapore

Hari 24:   Singapore - Jakarta, langsung ngantor karena nyampenya pagi (mampus!)

Mother India

“And with those words, audibly, the frozen part of your heart crumbles.”
— Haruki Murakami, "Kafka on the Shore"

Perhaps that's what I feel about India. The country is so diverse and complicated, that it's so easy to experience mood swings when visiting India. You wake up feeling great and hopeful that day would turn out to be a good day. But before even the first sip of chai of the day, you receive bad news after bad news that makes you think you might as well stay in bed, only as the day unfolds, the bad news turns out to be blessings in disguise that you're glad you didn't decide to go back to sleep that morning. That's India. You can't describe it with one sentence.

India takes before it gives. It takes your patience before it reveals its charms. It's chaotic, badly noisy and polluted but the food is great and cheap. The people have bad body odor and rude, but some of them are trying too hard to cater your every need.

Love it or hate it, it takes special characters to appreciate what the country has to offer.

A Great Beginning - One Can Only Hope!

I'm officially blogging again.

As the title suggests, this blog is mainly to record my travels. However, since I also need to vent every now and then and Tweeter's 140 limited characters are mostly not enough to accommodate what I have to say, so this can also be about anything.

I do travel writing for a living, why would I create another blog (mostly) on travels? Because when I get paid, I can't really say what I want to say, which is fine, as long as the money pays my bills! For example, I can't just say a certain airline company should seriously start re-training their cabin crew's English skills because their onboard announcements sound like they speak Urdu and they always say the English part of the announcements way too fast. And yes, cabin crew from most, if not all, national airline companies speak horrible English, while all they need to do is read - I repeat, READ from a piece of instruction paper containing (basically) the same information. They could have practised to say the correct pronunciation, but apparently they don't. Before moving on to the English version of the announcements, they would get nervous, sometimes even stutter - that's what I can conclude from the voice.

Imagine non-Indonesian speaking passengers traveling domestic for the first time. Listening to unclear information in a foreign country when taking a foreign airline service must be very frustrating. It is true that all the safety procedures can be read in the cards in the seat pockets, but when the plane stops for refueling, at least they need to know the amount of time they're allowed to spend for quick shopping in the airport so they wouldn't miss the flight. I don't know if their HR Departments are aware of this, but either way, this shows how low human resource standards are.

But what compelled me to finally create another (travel) blog after abandoning the old one(s) is the upcoming solo trip to India and Nepal. I'm going to spend 2 weeks on the road, mostly on my own, and as always, I would need to vent my thoughts, good or bad, inspiring or not, during what I imagine to be an epic journey.

Well, I hope so! Let's find out in 22 days from today.