Mt. Merbabu - Merapi - Papandayan : Full Itinerary

"I want to climb these mountains in a week, is it possible?" I asked my friend, Bumi who also works as a guide in Jawa.

"Possible. But how about climbing Lawu instead of Papandayan since it is in a different district?" He tried to coax me into changing my third choice of mountains.

"NO PAPANDAYAN, NO TRIP!" I strictly told him.

OK.. this was not the actual conversation between us but I was firm with Papandayan and I didn't want any other mountain than that. Haha.

And so here was the agreed upon itinerary that we planned together via whatsapp calls and messages. I added the shopping spree in Jogjakarta so that the guys could enjoy some Jawa culture before going back to Malaysia.

Day 1 :

The plan was that everyone should be in Jakarta before 1:00PM and then we'd head to St. Pasar Senen train station to meetup with the guides. Train to Solo Jebres would depart at  4:00PM and arrive at 2:00Am the next day.

10 hours of train ride! :P

I sat in the seat behind them and let them sit all together to break ice. 

I guess this was the boys' first experience on board a train in Indonesia. I was astonished to find them in this position, behind my seat during the night (picture on the right). Hehehe. But they'd occasionally wake up whenever the train stops at some station, just to smoke.

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Hong Kong - Shenzhen - Guangzhou - Macau Backpacking Trip at a Glance

Something new.

I was traveling with fresh faces. Some new to the term backpacking but has traveled before and I had relied wholly on my new backpacking buddies to create an itinerary and research for accommodations. My only part in it was to be with them from starting to end, allowing me to observe and improve as a traveler.  :)

The Anak Gajah Gang - From  left, Wan, Dayah, Aiman and then me. :)

There were way too many hiccups on this trip. The one who planned the itinerary ended up not going. Accommodations booked weren't researched with routes on how to get there. Haha. And our timing was pretty bad as traveling in China was full of unexpected surprises.Thus leading us limited time to enjoy Macau and too much time spent in Guang Zhou. We actually missed a lot of attractions on our wishlist.

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South Korea Backpacking Trip Under RM1000

Anyone can travel cheaply if you're accompanied with a like-minded travel-mate who also shares the same opinion that we can sleep literally anywhere without paying. :)

So can a trip to South Korea be cheap? Here was what I did.

1. Have a very cheap-skate traveler as a travel-mate. 

First thing to note, I didn't go here alone. I was with a fellow travel-mate from Indonesia. One of the best budget and itinerary making traveler I've ever met so far. It's an honor to travel with this person because I get to learn a lot from traveling with him.

Eh, HIM?

On a side note, he's also a very respectful person and won't do anything foolish to you. :)

The itinerary was done wholly by him after rejecting my version. Hahaha. Every independent traveler that I've met so far prefers to plan their own itineraries instead of copying others. More freedom and self-satisfaction. The plan was to fly to Busan, get on an overnight bus to Sokcho, do a day hike at Seoraksan Mountain and then head to Seoul via bus during the night.

Our route for South Korea

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Swimming with Sharks in Karimunjawa of Indonesia

Wahh.. kemain tajuk blogpost kali ini. hehe.

The trip to Karimunjawa was planned for almost a year by my dear friend, Helga whom I met during a blogging contest back in 2011. He was a mere teenager back then, now a strapping young lad with a career.

I booked an AirAsia plane ticket to Solo where I'll brave the journey alone up to Semarang which is around 5 hours away by public bus. If I took the executive bus, the ride would've taken me 4 hours at least. It was initially planned that I'd meet up with Helga and his friends of four in Semarang where we'll head to Jepara together.

Below was the itinerary for 4 days and 3 night in Karimunjawa with the costs incurred throughout the trip.
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Friday 1 Nov 2013
06.00 - 07.00 From Terboyo to Jepara via  bis ekonomi (13k)
07.00 - 13.00 Arrived at Jepara by using bentor (10k) to the port to get  lunch (20k)
14.00 - 16.00 From Jepara to KarimunJawa using Kapal Ekspress Cantika 89 (110k)

It was a cushioned seated express boat with a TV in it. Very comfortable for our two hours boat ride.

16.00 - 17.00 Arrived at homestay in Karjau (70k/2 orang)

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