Our second day trip started with breakfast ‘Nasi Campur’ – ‘Mixed Rice’ near Edward’s house, he said this meal is one of the must – eaten – meal in Surabaya.

We finally went to Citraland, CitraLand Surabaya is also known as “The Singapore of Surabaya”, there is also a Merlion, which symbolizes it as a Singapore, inside the 2,000 beautifully landscaped hectares located in West Surabaya, Surabaya currently is the second largest city in Indonesia and West Surabaya currently is the most developed state comparing to the south, north and east of Surabaya.

As I read on http://www.ciputra.com, ‘Citraland Surabaya is designed to be a self-contained city, offering a perfect combination of style and excellence. This first-class living environment is equipped with business, entertainment, sports and shopping facilities, including a commercial district, shopping area, water park, and 27-hole golf course that meets international standards’.

‘A self-contained city with a “clean, green and modern” theme, it is more than just physical development that transformed Citraland into a Singapore-like city. Solid city management played a substantial role in supporting Citraland’s development. In acknowledgement of its ongoing improvement and stellar city management, Citraland received the Certificate ISO 9001:2000 City Management.’

I was mesmerized by CitraLand, and I believe Rissa and Sangjin felt the same way too. So we stopped by at some  beautiful view spots to take some memorable pictures. Actually the beauty comes from the green view, as I wrote above that CitraLand was developed with green theme which makes CitraLand becomes a good environtment for living, but I am sure the houses and the land are expensive guys.

Did I tell you that inside Citraland there is Waterpark? yes, there is Waterpark, and right in front of that, Universitas Ciputra (UC) was built, University where Septian Edbert and Edward are studying, right beside UC there are UCWalk and apartment.

Edbert (call him as Ebet) finally joined us on second day, our Food Culinary was starting from this point . We had lunch at ‘Mang Engking’, a sundanese-like restaurant with green park and lake view, because it is surrounded by trees the wind that blows make a cool atmosphere in a very hot day.

Satisfied with our lunch, we directly went to Grand City, one of big malls in Surabaya located in the center of the city. There, we met with other SolBridge Exchange Students batch spring after us, they also had their own reunion in Bali, but they visited Surabaya first because most of them originally are from Surabaya. Anyway, back to our story, Ebet and Edu (a.k.a Edward) wanted to play thus we headed to Kids Station, they bought some coins and started to dance on the DDR floor, the game’s name was ‘Pump it Up’. hhhmm, they are eventually great in dancing haha, I mean better than us as women (me, Feli and Rissa) who can not dance at all.

After that, we went to Nore Bang for one hour, surprisingly, our Korean friend, Sangjin was really good at singing  Indonesian-dangdut and Indian songs.

Actually Ebet kept saying about Lontong Kupang and asking whether we wanted to try it or not,  but we were really full at that time felt like we would not eating anymore.  After singing finally I felt hungry and curious about Lontong Kupang, we went up to food court and ordered Lontong Kupang and Sate Kerang at ‘Dapur Mbok’. Originally those food are culinary surabaya foods which must be tried by local even international tourists.

As I know, Lontong Kupang is only provided in Surabaya (East Java), I’ve never heard about it before while in Jakarta. Kupang is kind of clam or shell, at first I tried Lontong Kupang was half sugarly half salty that’s why I did not really like it, but Ebet and Edu like it alot (Edu even ordered two plates). I prefer Sate Kerang (Kerang  = shell ), this was also my first time tried Sate Kerang, and I think it is much much much more delicious than any other kinds of Sate. :p.

Not enough until that, Ebet brought Gei Dan Jai (read : kai tan cai) to us. Gei Dan Jai is local street snacks from Hongkong check this snacks on http://www.geidanjai.com/flashversion.html, so unfortunate that Gei Dan Ji has no store in Jakarta yet. GDJ shape is like bumpy eggs-like balls, the taste is according to the flavors, there are cheese, chocolate, green tea, strawberry and many others, it’s so yummy and chewy. Oh no ! I am missing it now already, wanna try it again !

Next is Cincau, Ebet recommended us to try Cincau Hijau at ‘Cincau Station’ on the same floor with ‘Dapur Mbok’. Once again, this Cincau Station is only in Surabaya, T_T. There are several flavors, Cincau Syrup (Sangjin’s favourite), Cincau Santan, Cincau Soya, and others. Those what I tried were worth, so if you come to Surabaya make sure that you try those !

Our biggest plan for today was actually cooking, Sangjin’s Curry and Birani rice. After having lunch at Mang Engking we went shopping at Hokky Supermarket to buy the ingredient for curry and birani, that time was before we went to Grand city. We arrived at Edu’s house at 7.30 pm and soon Sangjin started to cook, Ebet and I helped him. This was our second time ate Sangjin’s curry, the first time was when we were in Korea at Mr.Ony’s place. Miss it !.

After more than an hour, finally we had our dinner, the curry was alright and the taste was really wonderful, but the birani rice was opposite because the rice was uncooked (there was problem with the rice cooker). Well, the important was we were eating together, together is better than being alone, also we had jokes and laugh so whatever we had for eating would not disturb our togetherness yet it would be very memorable moment. Thank You Sangjin for Dinner you have made !

What would our third day be?

Holiday was only 10 days that’s why I needed to finish my own things before going anywhere,  on Dec 27 at 07.40 with Citilink Airline we flew to Surabaya. Question, why did it delay about 30 minutes when we were sitting already in cabin? Answer : there was a document left inside the waiting room so the passenger asked the permission to take it before taking off.

One and half hours later, finally we arrived at Juanda International Airport, Surabaya. Got surprise because our baggages went out from Business class line, and got bad news from Edward, the one who should be picking us up, yesterday he expected that the time would be perfect , leaving Jember around 3 and arrive Surabaya 4 hours later, the plan was perfect but there re always unexpected things happened ! After a half journey he was trapped of traffic jam, which made him looked for another alternative way, decided to take longer trip through south beach “Pantai Selatan”. Same situation with Edbert, planned to go to Surabaya on the same day at 5 am, but because of the news from radio saying that unexpected heavy traffic jam was happening which he was listening to that morning, had no choice other than cancelled the trip and leaving for Surabaya the day after.

‘Lost in Airtport’ ? no, we didn’t get lost, we followed Edward’s guide to go to his house by taxi. Taxi driver was funny, he was talk-active joking, well at least our nervousness went down. Finally arrived at Edward’s house, we waited 30 minutes outside because no one responsed from inside when we were pressing the bell. the garage was open and there was Sunny, Edward’s dog, watching us. The fact, we were pressing the wrong bell, the real bell was actually inside.

Hunger, hunger, while Edward was still on the way, we decided to eat wherever the nearest place, we ate at Bu Rudy, one of a famous resto in Surabaya with its menu ‘Nasi Udang’ – ‘Shrimp Rice’. That day was really hot, hotter and sunnier than Jakarta, even I could not stand standing outside while waiting for taxi to go Ciputra World, one of Department Stores in Surabaya. Department stores are actually just same with Jakarta, but as we observed, there were some stores that re only in Surabaya, not available in Jakarta (How can it be possible?). Still, we didn’t have anything to do so we were wasting our time shopping inside Ciputra World. As we walked, entered from one store to another one, Rissa almost spent one million rupiah on clothes and body shop while me spent 1/3 of Rissa’s. Anyway, Rissa yelled at herself making promise that she will not shop for the next 6 months on clothes. Let see then !

Hours by hours finally our legs got tired but Edward had not arrived yet, fiuh. We bought a hot chocolate at The Coffee Bean, and sitting at relax while waiting for Edward coming to pick us up, yeay ! After about 11 hours driving like crazy, Edward finnaly showed up, met us. Thus, we needed to go to airport again ,we picked Sangjin up, a Korean friend who is currently doing student exchange in UGM – Jogjakarta, was also coming to our reunion in Surabaya. Soon we had dinner  Soto, Bakso and Kebab near Edward’s house, finished our eating we talked about what were we going to do the next day.

Sadly saying, Septian, Tarry and Adi were not coming along with us in this reunion. They had something uncancellable business to work on.

This was the first day in Surabaya. I am unable to write everything on same post right now because of having another work to do. But believe me, the days after will be so much fun and memorable, wait for that !

Love, Elly.

Gladly saying that last year, 2011, is one of my sophisticated year in my life. Having another way of thinking or I can say I nearly realize that I became more mature because of age 20. Having another thought about friendship,  family and also love. That year is about to give me a big touch,

Friendship is not about you like the one and become friends, and you don’t like the one and you don’t wanna be friends. Friendship is about helping, understand, and respect each other. That came to mind and finally I got many friends, enemies turned to friends and friends turned to closer friends.

Family, this brother-sister relationship is more like friendship, my brothers are my soulmate. This is also because of my turning age into 20 that I feel brothers are the best men I have beside my Father in the world.

Love, sometimes I feel this kinda thing would never come to my mind seriously. But, the edge of my brain finally succeeded to bring up some matters about love. At least I know this heart will be pointing at someone. Ah, sweet !

WELCOME 2012. This year will be another year to chase our dreams !

After eating at Jagalchi Fish Market, we moved to Seomyeon area, we entered Seomyeon First Street then Seomyeon Daehyeon Underground Shopping Center and I met my friend .

Meeting friend at the underground shopping market !

With map I brought, we found a way to Busan Tower from here, It was perfect because we arrived at night so we can see the whole Busan city with colorful light from the top of the tower. We paid 7000 won (around Rp 56.000) each person and went up using elevator. Right, and guess what I found? I found Monas picture hanged on the wall inside the tower, there were lots of tower pictures from other countries also.

Busan Tower at night, awesome right?

Busan City from top of the tower

Monas in Busan Tower

After a full day trip today, we were not satisfied if we did not go to the beach, we felt exhausted but really refreshing. Going to the beach at night? we walked to the nearer beach, Gwangalli beach, on the way there we bought 2 packs of chicken for our dinner at one of the chicken shop, then we entered Family Store for buying instant rice and chopsticks. Fortunately, we had a plastic carpet which my friend got as a prize from random quiz in Seomyeon shopping center before, so we used it for having dinner on the beach, seemed like family picnic huh? the scenery was awesome exactly ! What makes Gwangalli beach beautiful at night is, a Gangan Bridge in front of this beach which links Nam-gu and Haeundae-gu with full of light, so imagine how shining this city would be at night !

the Gangan Bridge means Diamond

Yey after having dinner, time to take pictures

It’s late already, about 11 pm and we need to rest before another walk for tomorrow. This day was completely fun despite our body were really tired. Relieved, our stay was not far from this beach which was 20 minutes walking .

The day after we went to Haeundae Beach to meet Mr.Ony’s friend, I did not take many pictures here because it was really hot morning till noon but I found something interesting, there was a quite big screen beside Busan Aquarium, when I came nearer to that thing and looked it enthusiastically, a Korean couple talked to me in English and told me about that thing, so it is kind of touchscreen which shows map around that area and allows us to take picture and also edit it and then it can send the picture through our email, interesting isn’t it? I tried and the result :

picture with Korean students. I guess the name of this thing is U TOURPIA GUESSBOOK. There was also a picture in front of Busan Tower :

Yey Dynamic Busan !

finally time for going back to Daejeon, our KTX schedule was at 13.00, so we had lunch first and soon went to Busan train station.

Good Bye Busan ! Will come again later on, InsyaAllah.

]]> http://zulfanahrielly.wordpress.com/2011/11/19/visiting-busan-part-2/feed/ 2 zulfanahrielly Meeting friend at the underground shopping market ! Busan Tower Busan City from top of the tower Monas in Busan Tower the gangam Bridge means Diamond Yey after having dinner, time to take pictures ;) Busan ! Fun in Busan Fun Busan http://zulfanahrielly.wordpress.com/2011/11/19/visiting-busan-part-1/ http://zulfanahrielly.wordpress.com/2011/11/19/visiting-busan-part-1/#comments Sat, 19 Nov 2011 15:43:19 +0000 zulfanahrielly http://zulfanahrielly.wordpress.com/?p=498 ]]> Hello Autumn !,

So, next schedule is going to Busan in two days and one night. We found a guest house named ‘Indy House’ – you can search on Mr.Google. Well, we booked the room via internet, the guest house was surprisingly friendly and comfortable, it actually a small apartment with some rooms and they offer 3 kinds of room which are single, double and dorm-room. They provide computer and internet, serve meals by ourselves in the kitchen, the most important was we could meet another group of foreign people who were currently traveling in Busan also staying in this house for few days. Ah ya, Indy House was located near Kyungsung University & Pukyong university in Busan, and fortunately I could meet my friends who is studying in this university. NICE !

Inside the Indy House

November 13, 2010 with KTX – 07.20 am tickets on our hands, we tried to wake up early in the morning and soon went to Daejeon Yeok. We arrived in Busan Yeok after two hours trip, we went to Indy House put our things and started our journey in Busan by having breakfast in McDonalds near that house.

First, we went to Taejongdae area, took Taejongdae Excursion Ship Marina through Pebble Beach which has big rocks around then through Taejongdae Observatory and finally stopped by at Sinseon Rocks then we walked up till Yeongdo Marine Cultural Space, by seeing the blue sea with strong wave I missed Indonesia at that time and started thinking that Indonesia has more than this . Anyway, as long as we walked we took pictures as well.

this was on our way through Pebble Beach, on the ship !

birds flying over the big rocks !!

stopped by at Sinseon Rocks near Yeongdo Marine Cultural Space

walking through the rocks to the marine cultural space area

Still taking picture, how long should we walk again to reach Marine Cultural Space? looking from the map that I brought, it seemed quite near to reach but it was not a big problem because as long as we walked we found many good places for taking pictures and the scenery was really awesome guys. I brought my autumn jacket because it was in autumn but it was not cold at all in Busan and I regretted to bring it.

family recreation on the Sinseon Rocks. WOW !!!

Finally arrived ! Behind us is Yeongdo Marine Cultural Space. Fiuh.

where to go ? 전시갤러리 가자…!!

So, these are some of the statues at the exhibition gallery, we did not stay long in here because we were so hungry and planned to eat seafood at Jagalchi market. We took super mini bus (not really bus actually, it was mini train like in the amusement park) to the entrance of Taejongdae Reservoir until we found public parking lot ( Taejongdae Reservoir is surrounded by Taejongdae Pebble Beach, Taejongdae Observatory, and Yeongdo marine Cultural Space ) and then we took bus to Nampo-dong, Gwang-bok area, which Jagalchi Market is located.

we ate many kinds of seafood, and once again I missed Indonesia at that time when I could eat those everyday in Indonesia with cheap price, but in here those re expensive and we re not full at all.

Jagalchi Market

Lotte World is the world’s largest indoor theme park, and one of Seoul’s main theme park and its attracts about 8 million visitors annually. The park is divided into an indoor and outdoor linked by a monorail. The indoor includes the ‘Adventure Land’ with acres of streets representing different countries and are filled with hundreds of activities, entertainments, shops, restaurants and ongoing parades. There is also an ice-rink and a fascinating Folk Museum complete with miniature villages.

Lotte World is like a small city with an amusement park, folk museum, sports center, skating rink, water slide park, shopping center and the hotel. Lotte Department Store is one of Korea’s leading department store. The shopping center with dozens of small specialty shops surrounds a large, open central area that has a large food court. Lotte World is one of favourite Theme park Tourist destination besides Everland and Waterpia.

An indoor theme park connected with Lotte Hotel and Lotte Department Store, Lotte World is the Korean recreation center most frequently visited by foreigners. Lotte World consists of the indoor amusement park “Adventure” and an outdoor one as well, dubbed “Magic Island.” The outdoor Magic Island has numerous, thrill-packed attractions. Even the castle itself is an awesome background for photographs. At the indoor facility, “Adventure,” actually there are World Carnival Parade and Cosmos Circus Laser which are particularly eye-catching said my Korean friends, But I did not have a chance to see both of the Parades.

The outdoor Magic Island with its fairy-tale looking castle, offers visitors thrilling high-altitude rides, laser shows and pleasant walking trails around a lake.

Remember Korean Drama ‘Stairway to Heaven’, Lotter World is the setting place for that drama.

]]> http://zulfanahrielly.wordpress.com/2011/11/19/lotte-world-the-worlds-largest-indoor-theme-park-by-gwr/feed/ 0 zulfanahrielly Lotte World Ice Rink inside Lotte World Over Excited playing in Lotte World and took this photo with crazy pose :D Indoor Theme Park outdoor of Lotte World Outdoor, in from of the castle ;) See the monorail in the air? setting place for Stairway to Heaven Korean series http://zulfanahrielly.wordpress.com/2011/09/25/book-heals-stress/ http://zulfanahrielly.wordpress.com/2011/09/25/book-heals-stress/#comments Sun, 25 Sep 2011 15:40:45 +0000 zulfanahrielly http://zulfanahrielly.wordpress.com/?p=529 ]]>

Book accompanies me when I feel stress out.

“Hot Chocolate”

You know, as almost everybody says the best season in Korea is Autumn, I started to think that I was lucky going exchange in that season. Imagine, the leaves changes color, but some remain green. This is the beauty, today maybe we can see the leaves are green, next few days it changes to red or orange, and few days later it changes to yellow, and the next week after when the heavy-cold wind comes, the leaves finally fall down and become brown. Then people are busy cleaning the road from the dead leaves which scattered around.

Well, although it’s not winter you will feel the coldness entering your bones. It’s true since this season has really heavy wind and low degree. Sometimes it’s 10 degree, or even until 0 degrees. Fortunately in the room we have heater, so we will not feel cold in the room. You know, we don’t need fridge for putting our milk, juice, yogurt, and vegetables because we have nature-fridge which is outside our window so they remain fresh . but of course there is an exception, we can’t put fast-food  and ready-food like soup, rice, cooked-meals because they will be frozen and not delicious to eat anymore.

The coat I have there should be thick enough to prevent wind touches my skin and coldness enters my body. It’s torturing when I walked alone on the way to dorm at night and suddenly the wind comes from no where, makes my step to stop then I tried to jump to make some heat for my body. Actually movement makes heat in our body, is it ?.

Now that I’m in Indonesia I really really miss this coldness and Korea <3.

first, I love to say CONGRATULATION after 4 years studying in UI, after all the experience you got, after all the dilemma you had, after all the problems came to you, and for our Allah who opens all the gates for your success. Alhamdulillah.

the story about you that makes me wants to cry. One day when I was at home with dad and were talking about your graduation and thesis, he was suddenly dropping his tears with full of satisfying and gratefulness. He mentioned to me :

“Elly, I remember how he smiled when he saw the announcement that he got accepted to UI, and how he confused and sad when he told me that amount we needed to pay. At that time, you were in Jakarta already, and because we didn’t have that amount so I angrily said to Adi about leaving UI and choose another university in Smd, I could see how hard it was for him, and I for the first time dropped my tears for how I couldn’t provide the best for my oldest son. BUT ALLAH is always beside us, the next day one of bank loaned us money with *with unexpected feeling because it is not easy to loan money from bank, need some time, but that time in one day everything got faster*. Finally with the spirit I told Adi to step forward to UI”

“This time also, when Adi phoned me the day he passed the final exam, I cried and felt guilty at that time I bravely said to set back. He is finally success with his ambition and dreams, Alhamdulillah. Let the story tells us about life”

I know how it feels about dad, i have never seen him crying wherever, whenever and in any condition, never !!! my dad is ambitious one, lovely, and has incredible spirit ever. Well, with his spirit also dad can reach his dream become a Professor, so grateful about this. Love you forever dad.

last but not the least. Good Luck for you bro !

At first I wanna tell ya, what was I thinking when I was hiking this mountain? well, yeah I realized Indonesia has more mountains and better mountains. But, they have more interesting mountain, the people are smart using it for hiking to see the invisible scenery inside the mountains or behind the mountains, even on the really top of mountains. Of course the mountains are high, but their government facilitate them place and road to walk and hike the mountains. And what can we see? the mountain stays as it should be with their real nature, but they design to make people enjoy the mountains without feeling any danger, well imagine what comes first when we talk about mountain : dangerous and animals .

Above all those, we can conclude it’s about culture. Their people love to hike the mountain as sport or just for family gathering, or for taking pictures, or maybe just for see the temples. It’s the problem, their government see their people’s habit, so they do facilitate this kind of mountains for hiking. Sometimes, I am being so jealous I don’t have this in my country while we have many mountains, but mountains are dangerous here.

Well, back to topic. As this was my first time hiking in Korea I was little bit nervous what could I see there, and how high the mountain would be. That was on Saturday September 25th, 2011, 15 days after my 19-birthday and Eid Mubarak. “Don’t forget to bring the camera with you because we will see really beautiful nature”, I remember this words that made me so curious about what would I see while hiking. We took public bus to get there because it’s so convenient and cheap. On the way there, there were also ahjumma (aunt in korean) and ahjoshi (uncle in Korean) in the same bus and ready to hike with hiking costumes and equipment, I was so surprise it’s something that I don’t usually see in Indonesia. Why many people were going for hiking today? well because this season, autumn, especially in the beginning of the season is the right time for hiking because it’s not too cold and not having heavy wind.

Of course what we could find in the middle of mountain, trees and waterfall. I enjoyed walking through the stones and found people were washing their feet and hands with the water falling from the top of mountains through the stones. But you gotta be careful to step, on our way down my friend fell down because the stones that we step on were so slippery. And his camera also fell down unfortunately the LCD was broken. So be Careful

Well, actually Gyeryongsan National Park stretches across Daejeon, Gwangju, and Nonsan. This spectacular mountain is 845.1m above sea level. The topographical features are what make this mountain stand out and its mysterious folklore is what makes it so interesting. Geographically there are 15 summits on this mountain, of which Cheonhwangbong (845.1m) is the main and others include the peaks of Sambulbong, Sinseongbong, and Gwanembong ( I don’t know which one). As I found the information this mountain is famous for its many interesting sites, with its fantastic rock structures, on the west side the Yongmun Waterfall, to the east Euseon Waterfall, and to the south Amyongchu and Sutyongchu Waterfalls. But you gotta spend more than one day to explore every sites on this mountain. Because we were so tired we didn’t go to the top of mountain, maybe just half way to the top. But we found one of those waterfalls.

In the spring, cherry blossoms bloom on Donghaksa Mountain trail, and during the summer the lush green of the Donghaksa Valley is very beautiful. During the fall, the maple trees reveal their crimson colored leaves around Gapsa and Yongmun Waterfalls. And the snowcapped peaks of Sambulbong in the winter are simply breathtaking. And I regret why didn’t I go again in winter to see the snowcapped peak.

Gyeryongsan is full of rich history with mysterious legends and cultural treasures. To the east is Donghaksa; northwest, Gapsa; southwest, Sinwonsa; and southeast, Yonghwasa. Its valleys are full of ponds and falls that blend together perfectly with the surroundings.

Before went back, we were so hungry so we stopped by at restaurant which served  Korean ‘Martabak’ and ate Korean food Tak To Ri tang.