Je suis alle a AMSTERDAM: Tante Lianda and her family

Holland  

Well, Schipol was a bit quite that night, due to we arrive at 12pm. The immigration office halted us, and asked for a few questions regarding our stay. Wel, luckily tante lianda was the one who picked us up, so they release us as soon as they met her. I met the cute gentlemen boys, Damien 8, and Galvin 7, who warmly greeted us, and they offer to carry our 22 kg luggage with them.  They were so lovely and sweet. I met Marco, tante Lianda’s husband who were very nice to us and very warm also. They lived at Amstelveen, about 15 minutes to Shipol and 30-45 minutes to Amsterdam. Netherland at night in summer time was no hot at all. Well, it is at 21 degrees celcius, so we were a bit shivering that night, luckily the late shower helped us to sleep better. J.  The first thing to be awed in Holland was they are very fond in bicycling. Watch out for the bicycles there, they are more abundant than any other transportation. 

 Galvin and Damien

 Marco, me and Gerynd

            The next day we went to Vollendam with Marco and Damien and Galvin. It was a village, used to be a fishermen’s village, but now they turn them into tourism place where they are famous for theirs photo session using Holland’s traditional clothes. I learned a lot from Marco, that Vollendam was used to be a beach with salt water, and then this one genius from Holland turn them into fresh water by making borders between the sea and the fresh water. Well, if you look at the distance, you’ll think that it is impossible to be a lake, because it was so far, you can’t see the end of it. Holland has these big houses with a windmill on it. That is used for pumping out the water, because you see in Holland, the water surface is higher than the land surface.  Also it is used to put on the harvest products inside of it, and many other functions for the building itself. 
Vollendam is also the city for tourist who like to take pictures with Holland's traditional outfit. So there I go posing. :)

            Next day in Holland, we were taken to the Amsterdam “Dam” square, and Marco would pick us up at 11pm at night. We started our day at 12pm, and decided to go to the Madame Tussaud museum. They are open daily from 10:00 am until 5:30 pm. The individual prices are

Adults

€ 21,-

Children (5-15)

€ 16,-

Children (0-4)

Free

Over - 60

€ 21,-

And you may visit their official websites, http://www.madametussauds.com/Amsterdam/en/Default.aspx . 

If you booked your ticket from the website, you’ll get reduction about 2 euros.

 Very unique museum, beautiful waxes, and you’ll be awed by the decoration also the equipment of the museum itself. Let say that you take a picture of David Beckham during his sit up poses, then the museum gave you one spot of the sit-up chairs, so you can actually do the same as he does. Many cute things are there in the museum. It was expensive, yet it was worth to see. Best wax for me was the charming Johnny Depp and also the gorgeous Robert Pattinson. :P. 

Okay, now we are looking for food. Many people bring an upside down cone paper filled with French fries with some delicious topping. We were curious, and found it interesting to try. It called Frites, you can buy I in the Vlaamse Frites, and also the Mannekin Piss store. Make sure you’re not full when you eat these, because it is quite a huge portion, especially for Indonesian. :P. Amsterdam at night was beautiful, but the stores were closed early at about 6-7pm. Make sure you buy what you need before that time. At night *night here means dark, at about 9-10pm, you may see and walk at the Red district. It is so called the red district due to they sell “services” at night.  They were kept in this room with glass doors so everyone can see them, and if they’re interested, they’ll go inside, they close the curtains, and only them and god knows what they’re doing there.  Well, if you know what I mean.

And another thing, you can also visit this website for free walking tour in Amsterdam. http://www.newamsterdamtours.com/daily-tours/new-amsterdam.html.  

 They also offer many other tours in Amsterdam, such as Bike tours, red light district, and other tours. The free one was only the walking tour. It is good for screening places that you want to go.

Je suis alle a PARIS: city of love

PARIS

-Best metro that you can travel. It has many subways also RER that connected each other under the ground.  But if you bring heavy luggage, make sure you have someone to help you because not all station has elevator or escalator.

- Make sure you taste the maccaronne, the famous cake from Paris. It is quite expensive, 1,95 euro each, but it is worth to try.

-Ask for free road, metro RER and bus maps. It is easy to travel all around Paris with that. You may buy the 24 hour ticket for 9 euro. 

Paris city tour for free: you may get this by checking this website : http://www.newparistours.com/. It is a professional organization that handles free tours and also paid tours that worth to see. In paris, they offer free walking tours, paris eiffel district tours, montmarte district, versailles tours and pub crawl. 
On the first day,  we joined the tour and went to several places: 

• Notre Dame de Paris
• View of the Eiffel Tower
• Napoléon’s Tomb
• Académie Française
• Tuileries Gardens
• Assemblée National
• View of the Grand & Petit Palais
• Haussmann’s Paris
• View of the Pont Alexandre III
• Latin Quarter
• Pont Neuf
• Place de la Concorde
• View of the Champs-Elysées
• View of the Opéra Garnier
• View of the Arc de Triomphe
• The Louvre
• Palais Royal
• Musée d’Orsay
• Ile-de-la-Cité
• View of Les Invalides 

They are all just pass by, *well because it's free! but it was used as a screening so you know where to go for your next destination in Paris.

-Eiffel tower

  

it is better to book first if you want to go to the top of eiffel tower. you'll skip the line, and the poce is quite the same. you already know exactly what time you will go up. the lines are huge. trust me! you can go to this we :

www.tour-eiffel.fr/

A.Lift entrance ticket 

(valid to 2nd floor) €8,50

€7,00

€4,00

Lift entrance ticket to top €14,00

€12,50

€9,50

Stairs entrance ticket 

(valid to 2nd floor) €5,00

€3,50

€3,00

Tips to go up to the Eiffel tower, you may need a sweater, or just a jacket because in the second floor of the tower, the wind blew quite big and during summer, it may rain, so better prepare yourself. 

-Musee de Louvre, 

you may see LOUVRE.FR/ENGLISH/EN 

The tips to go to Louvre without booking is you enter the Louvre via the Metro. There, you’ll find Museum exit, and the line is not as crowded as the other line. And funny thing about Louvre is that if you spent 30 second of your time to see all the paintings and exhibition, you need 4 months to complete that all. Wew, now many reason to go back to Paris right?  

Monalisa picture. :D


-Mont Marte : Moulin Rouge  and Sacre Cour

Moulin Rouge: The famous red windmill in Paris, one of the main attraction in Paris. you can get here via metro Blanche metro line 2.
Moulin Rouge, a high class night club in Paris. If you want to feel the excitement of moulin lady, you have to spent for about 95-200 euros. Even my tour guide never went there. hahhaa. *he said it was too expensive. In mont marte, we went to Amelie Poulain's restaurant (FYI, Amelie was a popular movie in France), and also these places: 

• The Artists’ Square
• Paris’ last surviving windmill
• Montmartre Vineyard: Paris’ last authentic vineyard --> well, it is pretty small for a wineyard, but it is the last yard in Mont marte, other were already replaced by buildings or night clubs.
• Picasso’s studio
• Van Gogh’s House
• The incredible legend of Paris’ first bishop, headless Saint Denis
• Café des Deux Moulins (from the movie Amélie) --> you'll get free wine here, and you may also see many amelie posters here.
• Renoir’s world-famous painting, Bal au Moulin de la Galette
• 
  
• Toulouse Lautrec and French can-can dancers
• The Moulin Rouge
• Lapin Agile – the cabaret bar where Picasso often exchanged paintings for food
• Paris’ Red Light District
• La Place Dalida, dedicated to one of Paris’ most famous gay icons

 Basilica Sacré Coeur : (a beautiful church with the highest view of Paris)
 It was a beautiful church, with great scenery of paris :

-Versailles
Beautiful garden with beautiful chateu (france for castle). The interesting part is that you need to walk for about 3-4 hours to finish all the gardens (800 hectares !). The gardens have 4 fountains based on seasons :spring, summer, fall, and winter. They all have different stories behind each fountains and chambers. During my trip, there was musical fountain show, where all the fountain, at the same time will be on, and classical music was played. It was as if the fountain dance along the music played. C'est tres bon! 

Above is the Hall of mirrors.The most interesting part of this room is that it can mirroring the sun whenever the sunset goes down. it is exactly heading the horizon of sunset. This room also used for ball room where the kings and queens held parties.

And during the trip, these are the places that we visited:

• The Château & Gardens of Versailles
• Latona & the Peasants of Lycia
• The Hall of Mirrors
• The Grand Canal
• The Treaty of Versailles
• Enceladus & the War of the Giants
• The Affair of the Diamond Necklace
• French Absolutism
• The Women’s March to Versailles
• The Abduction of Persephone
• The Sun King
• Court etiquette
• Marie-Antoinette
• The Orangery
• The Fountains of Versailles
• The world’s first balloon flight
• Little Venice
• The road to revolution & Marie Antoinette’s downfall

Je suis alle a ROME !

Welcome to Roman Empire !

ROME

The thing about Rome is very historical. You may want to know more about Julius Caesar, Rome empire, Artist like Michelangelo, Picasso, and many others. 

Rome has the free tor, called new rome free tour, you may browse in: http://www.newromefreetour.com/nrft/FreeTour.html. When in Rome, our first destination was Fountain of Trevi, where it is famous for the wishing fountain. It is very beautiful and they have the free water. Yeay! Rome is very generous of it’s water, so make sure you don’t forget to bring your drinking bottle. 

 Make sure you bring coins here to make a wish. Beside, you will have a great look for your picture throwing the coins. :)

            If you travel by yourself with tight budget, you can use the hop on hop off buses for entire 12 hours to city attraction, and enter only the one that you attracted to. Or, ask for city map, and you’ll have the attraction on your maps. You can go to each attraction by metro. They offer you 100 minutes with 1,50 euro or a whole day metro with 7 euro. The must see places are *according to me are the Vatican city, and also the Colloseum. 

            As you arrive in Vatican city, there are many agents that offer you “skip the line” to Vatican city, and if you are youth, below 26, you can get reduction. Well, for me personally I was okay to get the service, because they tell us many things instead of just wandering around the museum itself. It cost me 35 euros to get to the Vatican city and also the Cistine chapel. It was a nice tour, and you get to see many things and you’ll understand more about the art history. Apparently, only the European students and also those who taking the art classes that will understand more, because they told us many things about Michelangelo. Well, at least I learned something new there, and the guide was such a storyteller, that you may use your imagination to picture her stories. The chapel is a sacred places, where you need to cover your shoulder, and also your legs above the knee. It is also forbidden to take pictures with flashes, because it may vanish the paintings. The guard there didn’t seem to care because there were many people taking pictures there using flash. It is for the heritance sake, so please, if you are going there, be respectful. Not only in Rome, in any other places as well.

            

 Vatican city is guarded by the Swiss Guard, young one if I may say. It is said that they are the future pope that voluntary guard the city. FYI, vatican and rome is a seperate country. 

The papal Swiss Guard in Vatican city is now the only extant swiss guard. They were previously Swiss soldiers who have served as bodyguards, ceremonial guards, and palace guards at foreign European courts since the late 15th century.

And here we go inside the cistine chapel. there's this one picture that you can see from any angle that keeps on point at you.

            Colloseum was another story. It was a 3^rd floor building where it was used for an arena for human battle against beast animals. It is also used as an exhibition for exotic animals. The barbaric environment was still there, and I still can imagine the horrible battle. *Probably I watched too much movies. hahhahaa.

 Peek inside the Colloseum. It was a stadium for battle and exhibition of exotic animals. Here I attached the story behind the 'games'.

shisha= more dangerous than smoking tobacco

-->

" ...Conservative estimates of the relative carcinogenic properties of shisha smoking and cigarette smoking show that a typical hour long shisha session produces four times the carcinogenic polyaromatic hydrocarbons, four times the volatile aldehydes, and 20 times the carbon monoxide of a single cigarette. Tar levels in shisha smoke also exceed those of cigarette smoke by a factor of more than 20. Charcoal contributes additional toxins to the inhaled smoke, particularly heavy metals such as cobalt, lead, and zinc.
Shisha smoking sessions often exceed an hour, so exposure to toxins is markedly greater than from a single cigarette. However, a typical shisha user does not smoke as often as a cigarette smoker..." (Isted, 2013)

 It is one of the quote from BMJ (British Medical Journal) publication regarding the harmful effect on shisha. People particularly students doesn't aware of the danger since lack of public knowledge about this.

You can read the full article in
http://student.bmj.com/student/view-article.html?id=sbmj.f2327

Please be informed, stay healthy.

Health access and Service Delivery in France Hospital

-->  Having been experienced as one of the exchangee in Clermont-Ferrand, France, made me realize that France has a good health care system. Good policy,  facilities, access and equal quality of the human resources in most all part of France are the main thing that I saw in France health system.

            Nowadays, life expectancy of people is longer. Old people live longer and less baby borns.  France life expectancy is approximately 78 years both in female and male. Cardiovascular illnesses and tumours are the two main causes of death, but the death rate due to cardiovascular illnesses is one of the lowest in the European Union. But then, what I like to highlight is more toward the health system in France.

In 2000, WHO declared the French system to be one of the best healthcare systems in the world. France’s health policy, under the responsibility of central government, covers a range of healthcare and prevention plans to protect and improve the community’s health.

The health care for French are mostly covered by public universal insurance (Securite Sociale) paid for by government, and covers most services including hospital, outpatient, prescription drugs, nursing home care. It is said that population have 100% coverage of health care costs for many health conditions, including cancers, diabetes, and chronic illness including the pharmaceutical treatment. Still, 92% of people purchase additional private insurance, supplemental insurance, for anything that is not covered by the public insurance. Approximately half of the supplemental insurance is funded by employers, while the other half is paid individually. The federal government funds supplementary insurance for those who cannot afford it. The Sécurité Sociale, covers most services from hospital care, outpatient services, prescription drugs, nursing home benefits and other. The complementary insurance generally refunds any co-payments associated with the basic insurance, and enables the basic insurance to fully cover some services that otherwise would be only partially covered, such as dental and optical care.which helps cover co-payments and services not covered by Securite Sociale.

The system are substitution mechanism, where the rich will pay more taxes than the poor. The population who is not covered by Sécurité Sociale, such as the unemployed will get universal health coverage (couverture maladie universelle, or CMU. The interesting part is that a person’s Securite Sociale card contains the patient’s electronic medical record. It is efficient, where doctors in every region are able to access the information of the patient. When it is scanned at a health care facility, electronic funds are quickly deposited into the patient’s bank account as reimbursement for the appropriate portion of any fees associated with the visit. This will ensure the health access to all people in France.

In term of health delivery, France has three types of medical institutions: public hospitals, private not-for-profit hospitals, and private for-profit hospitals and clinics. Private for-profit hospitals and clinics focus mainly on minor surgical procedures, while public and private not-for-profit hospitals offer a wide-range of services.

The supply of hospitals and medical technologies is sufficient to avoid the common issue of waiting times in other nation. Waiting times in the hospital is managed well, where the patient will be allocated for certain time, and they will come based on the time allocated. The waiting room is comfortable. And one survey showed that most French are satisfied with the proximity of available health services, although slightly more than a third of those living in rural areas stated that specialist services were not located close enough. In rural areas, however, there are fewer providers and hospitals. But still, the quality service is not that different between each region, and health is accessible. Back in Indonesia, it is a different policy due to our decentralization mechanism, but basically it has the same idea for universal coverage in 2014. Hopefully it will also take part in reaching the global health.

Jomblang cave

It is situated in Semanu, Gunungkidul, Jogjakarta.
GPS Coordinate: S8°1'43.2" E110°38'18.1" 
 contact person : Mr. Cahyo 0811117010

It takes about 2 hours from Jogjakarta to Semanu using car. Make sure you use a big car due to the rocky road to enter the location.

I was breathless. Subhanallah. It is a beautiful vertical cave, 60 meters height, and we used vertical rope to go deep inside the cave.

and here we go inside a cave that connects Jomblang with Grubug cave. The cave was dark and full of mist. It is better to use a headlamp or bring flash lights and also gloves to hold the rope.

We had to walk approximately 250 meter to see the beautiful ray of light, or what we called 'cahaya surga'(heaven's light).

Inside the Grubug cave, there is a river below, and the famous white rock that is existed due to the water dripped above the cave.

HARGAILAH HIDUPMU

*looking back at July, 7th 2011 notes..and these are what I found


Kembali ke hiruk pikuknya suasana jakarta is one of the joyful moment yang selalu ditunggu2. entah aku merindukan kemacetannya, atau serba cepatnya waktu berjalan disini. Tapi apalah arti itu semua bila dibayar dengan gelak canda ayah dan tawa riang mama, yang selalu saja menanyakan hal2 terkecil dari perjalananku sebagai mahasiswa di kota yang cukup jauh dari rumah. Adanya dunda dinda dan dita yang selalu mewarnai keceriaan di rumah, rasanya lelah dan kepenatan yang selama ini diasakan langsung menguap begitu menginjakkan kaki di rumah berumur 19 tahunku ini.

Tapi itu bukanlah yang ingin dibahas di notes ini (karena bisa habis satu novel rasanya. :D)

Hari ini mama, dita dan aku pergi untuk melakukan tugas umum wanita (baca :belanja ! hahaha). Seperti biasa kita naik kereta jurusan Ciujung Serpong AC dari stasiun Rawa Buntu menuju tanah abang. Lama menunggu, aku melakukan hal yang paling sering kulakukan disaat menunggu, mengamati orang2. seulas senyum merekah melihat anak kecil dengan sepatu berbunyinya mondar mandir digandeng sang ayah sambil mengemut eskrim, kutaksir kyknya sepatu baru karena semangatnya anak itu menginjak2 sepatu kuning mengkilat dengan bunyi 'ceplak ceploknya' (ga tau gimana deh itu bunyinya. ahaha). Apakah dibalik sepatu kuning itu terdapat peluh keringat sang ayah yang harus bekerja keras demi menyenangkan putrinya? dan yang kulihat hanyalah senyum bahagia yang terpancar dari matanya melihat sang anak yang begitu bahagia memakainya. Mungkin terpikir olehnya 'terbayarlah semua' hanya dengan gerak gerik nonverbal dari putri kesayangannya. Langsung aku tersadar, apa selama ini aku terus melakukan yang anak kecil itu lakukan pada ayahnya? yang secara implisit menyatakan bahwa aku menyukai dan menghargai apa yang diberikan oleh orang tuaku? tidak perlu aku menginjak injak sepatu mahal pemberian ayah dan mama, dengan belajar rajin dan tekun rasanya cukup bagi mereka. (yang terkadang sulit apalagi utk mahasiswa ababil seperti saya. :P ). Aku langsung memandang mama, dan bertanya tanpa mumming the word, 'have i done enough for you? malu rasanya membawa nilai yang hanya 'cukup' untuk mereka.*ma, yah, dira akan berusaha lebih keras lagi.

sampai di tempat ********** (di sensor aja ye), aku tahu yang kucari adalah kebutuhanku, tp mama dengan semangat mencarikan berbagai macam pilihan, aku ragu dengan pilihanku, dan nilai yang tidak sedikit itu ditampis dengan berbagai kata2 yang justru membuatku harus membeli itu. sementara aku tau beliau tidak pernah memanjakan dirinya dengan barang2, beliau selalu senang membeli dan memberi sesuatu yang bukan untuknya. Sampai teringat baju kesukaan mama yang dipuji dan secara becanda diminta oleh adik2 mama,teman2nya, bahkan orang lain yang dekat dengannya, mama ga segan2 meberikan bajunya itu keesokan harinya atau hari itu juga kalau beliau membawa baju ganti lain. rasanya hampir semua barang yang dirasa lebih dibutuhkan orang lain, mama akan tidak ragu memberikannya. well, tag line mungkin buat mama 'berilah, maka Allah akan memberimu lebih'.  :). Diskusi dengan mama membuka pikiranku luas tentang bayak hal, terutama agama, yang seakan aku haus pengetahuan tentangnya, dan serasa disejukkan kembali dengan diskusi hari2 dengan mama,*mom, you always be my role model.

Aku selalu demand things, seldom gives. melihatnya, membuatku berfikir lebih, berapa banyak orang yang tidak sanggup membeli barang, bahkan makan pun mereka harus mengemis. jangankan orang lain, banyak org terkasih kita yang butuh juluran tangan. Bantuan  yang sebenarnya dibutuhkan lebih pada semangat menggapai semangat mereka dan mengoptimalkan potensi2 mereka untuk menjadi org yang lebih kaya materiil, kaya rohani dan kaya imu. Terbesit juga pesan mama dengan tidak melumurkan kegelimangan fasilitas, tapi bagaimana melumuri mereka semangat untuk dapat mencapai fasilitas yang diinginkan. Melihat kembali ke jalanan dan pelataran stasiun, banyak pengemis yang membuatku terkadang sedih, sedih akan kemampuan yang disia siakan mereka.  Walau di benak banyak orang,mengemis adalah hal yang paling mudah dilakukan dan orang terkesan malas tak mau bekerja,namun coba lihatlah di prespektif lain dimana mereka harus menurunkan derajat mereka, yang dengan putus asa melakukan segala cara demi sesuap nasi. well, terkadang hilangnya urat malu itu yang rasanya udah menjamur dan mengubah pandangan mereka betapa mudahnya hidup ini dengan menengadahkan tangan dan voila ! money comes. aku sendiri jarang memberi (dan tolong garis bawahi, memberi yang selektif diperlukan, apalagi ketika kau tahu yang mana yang baik dan mana yang tidak) dan berusaha dapat terus selectively memberi lebih banyak bagi mereka yang membutuhkan.
*oke, tampaknya saya ngomong agak melindur sana sini tanpa ujung jelas, krn memang tulisan ini hanyalah curahan harti dan klebih ke renungan untukku dan hopefully buat semuanya. Ini hanya menigisi kekosongan waktu saja, dan rindu akan menulis yang sudah dipendam dari bertahun2 yang lalu. :)


Anindira R.