Travelling on islamic prespective

“Katakanlah: “Berjalanlah di (muka) bumi, maka perhatikanlah bagaimana Allah menciptakan (manusia) dari permulaannya, kemudian Allah menjadikannya sekali lagi. Sesungguhnya Allah Maha Kuasa atas segala sesuatu” (Al Ankabut : 20).

"...maka bertebaranlah kamu di muka bumi (untuk menjalankan urusan masing-masing), dan carilah apa yang kamu hajati dari limpah kurnia Allah, serta ingatlah akan Allah banyak-banyak (dalam segala keadaan), supaya kamu berjaya (di dunia dan di Akhirat)." [Surah al-Jumu'ah : 10]

"Dan barang siapa berhijrah di jalan Allah niscaya mereka akan mendapatkan di bumi ini tempat hijrah yang luas dan rezeki yang banyak. -An-Nisa 100

"Berjalanlah di (muka) bumi, maka perhatikanlah bagaimana Allah menciptakan (manusia) dari permulaannya, kemudian Allah menjadikannya sekali lagi. Sesungguhnya Allah Maha Kuasa atas segala sesuatu. (QS. Al-Ankabut: 20)

“ Dialah Yang menjadikan bumi itu mudah bagi kamu, maka berjalanlah di segala penjurunya
dan makanlah sebahagian dari rezeki-Nya “ (QS Al-Mulk 15)

“ Maka apakah mereka tidak berjalan di muka bumi, lalu mereka mempunyai hati yang dengan
itu mereka dapat memahami atau mempunyai telinga yang dengan itu mereka dapat
mendengar? Karena sesungguhnya bukanlah mata itu yang buta, tetapi yang buta, ialah hati
yang di dalam dada “ (QS Al Hajj 44)

Subhanallah, how I love the SUN.

 Tidung Island, pulau Seribu

 Tidung Island, pulau Seribu

 Padang

 Karimun Jawa

 

Jogjakarta

 

top of Mount Lawu, East Java

top of Mount Lawu, East Java

 Derawan, East Borneo, Kalimantan

 Derawan, East Borneo, Kalimantan

Mount Bromo, Malang

 Jomlang Cave, Semanu, Jogjakarta

My Indonesia

Mencintai pariwisata Indonesia berkontribusi besar dalam membantu perekonomian negara ini.
We have a lot of destination to go. Subhanallah keindahan yang terkandung dlm ibu pertiwi ini. Start your travel, open your eyes to see our beauty in diversity. :)

Je suis alle a PRAGUE

PRAGUE ou PRAHA

Beautiful city and friendly people! They mostly are able to speak English, so no worries. But you must change the currency to Czech Krown.  100 Kc was 4 Euro, so 1 euro is equal to 25 Kc. And a little surprise from our guide, that Prague was the first one who invented the contact lenses.

Well, because mostly my trips include the free walking tour, I recommended you to go to this web, http://www.newpraguetours.com/daily-tours/new-prague-free-tour.html.

I joined the free tour, and it included:

• Old Town Square,

The old town square was the meeting point of our tour. There you may see the astronomical clock, and St. Nicolas’ Church. Funny thing about this church and the astronomical clock, in Prague, there can be several wedding in that church for a day. But Czech has the highest rate of divorce, and mostly in their 3^rd year marriage. Okay, about the clock, it is already 602 years old, and the unique thing is that the clock was work by mechanical, no electricity involved. There was the sad story behind this clock though, the inventor was blinded by the mayor. The mayor did that as a present so that he did not need more work for that gorgeous clock. However, the inventor was not happy about that, and he took his revenge by damaging the clock, and the clock have ceased for 100 years. Well, luckily, after 100 years, there was another genius that can fix the clock, so now we are able to see the clock. However, the clock was not all time working properly, it is said that the inventor’s curse were still there. *well, a myth is a myth.

            You can climb the astronomical clock tower with 55 Kc. It is worth to visit, due to it has beautiful Prague panorama on top of it. And they have this photo both where you can use a costume and take pictures with it. It cost us 14 euro for 3 people. It is quite expensive, but if you have extra money, it can be a good souvenir for you back home. 

A little trivia from the tour, the clock was designed to be located in Prague, because if you put it in other places, it won’t work perfectly. The clock consists of day, months, zodiac, sun and moon rotation. The clock will be ringed every hours, but then after 10pm, it will stop ringing because it was the agreement that after 10 was the time to take a rest, so yes, it make sense to cease all noises.

• Church of Our Lady before Tyn

This church represent the gothic style, where you can see by the tall pointed towers, and also the curve and pointed window. It is told that it is tall so it became nearer to the god.

• Kinsky Palace

• Statue of Jan Hus

• House of the Black Madonna &

• Museum of Cubisim

• Powder Tower

• Art Nouveau Municipal House

• Czech National Bank

• Wenceslas Square

• Estates Theatre (First Mozart Performance)

Here was the famous Don Giovanni world premiere performance.

• Kafka Statue, the statue of a Jewish writer.

• Maiselova Street & Old Jewish Quarter

This street was used to be a Jewish ghetto slum area, but then now it became one of the expensive streets in Prague. History in world war 2 about Jewish being conquered and tortured by the Nazi is very heart breaking. After all the assassination, Nazi only gave quite a small area where all the Jewish buried. It is the Jewish cemetery, where it consist of 50.000 bodies being buried, with 12.000stone tombs, put in a very small spaces, and 12 layers of human bodies inside ever tomb.

• Rudolfinum – Czech Philharmonic

• Prague Castle & St. Vitus

Prague castle was called the Prasna Bresna

• Karlov Most – Charles Bridge

This is the most interesting part from the tour, because in this very bridge which joining the separated Prague by the Vltava river, they have the statue of St John Meponog. In his statue, which is the 8^th statue if you go from town square direction, you’ll see the shiny spot in the right place of the statue. If you rub this spot, then it is said that you’ll be back to Prague. And beside his statue, you will see the small symbols, a gold covered with picture of man lying down, and it is said that if you rub this, your wish will be come true. Yeaay I rubbed both of it. Hahhaa.

Next day, we went to see the Castle tour, you may also joined the Sauderman neweurope tour. It is worth to see where you may see the beautiful Prague castle,
• Malá Strana – the Lesser Quarter
• Hradčany – the Castle District
• St Vitus’ Cathedral
• Strahov Monastery and Brewery
• St Nicholas’ Church
• Domeček Gestapo / StB Prison
• Wallenstein Palace
• Amazing panoramic views

Here you may see the Prague panoramic views, see the small cities and great places to take pictures.
• The Loreto
• St George’s Basilica
• The Garden of Eden

In this garden, they have this amphitheater, and if a person who stands in the middle of the amphitheater and speaks, you may hear a weird echo in that place, but only you can hear it. You should try that place.

 

‘Mozart’s House’
• The Deer Moat
• Novy Svět – New World Street
• The Black Tower

Tips from Prague and other cities that I’ve been:

-       Make sure you get the mineral water with no gas. Because they have many kind of mineral water, and if you don’t adapt to the taste, you’ll find it horrible.

-       Make sure you bring chilly or other sauce, because if you don’t adapt the European taste, you’ll find it plain and less watery

-       Fruits are mostly expensive; make sure you find the right market that sells the right price.

-       The walking tour was only for screening purposes because it didn’t take you right to the tourism places where you can enter. But you can leave the tour if you interest to a particular place.

-       Not all city maps are free. Check the information center in every city you’ll go.

-       Have a good physical fitness. Backpackers or walking tours can be very exhausting.

-       Water in Europe is mostly drinkable, especially in Italy except Venice. Always bring a bottle with you.

-       Ask for the good restaurant, souvenir places, even other things with good prices there to your guide or your hostel people. They’ll give you a good recommendation, so you don’t spend your money for anything unnecessary. :P

-       Do not eat fast food unless you ran out of money, because well, you’re in Europe! You have to taste European taste, spend more to have more experience.

-       Check for any luggage store in the train station, you may need it if you want to transfer

Always take care of your belongings. If necessary, bring a lock for your bag or backpack, or bring your belongings in front of you. Beware of the pickpockets, since they are everywhere, not only particular races, but aslo tourist, they may steal something from you.

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'.