ANCOL DRREAMLAND - WEEKEND GETAWAY [North Jakarta]

Hello there guys! I am finally back after a month, I deeply apologize for the absence, I have been doing my exams, assessments and a bit of travelling for the past 4 weeks. I am back with a post that is quite similar yet different in a way, just a simple Weekend Getaway in the very busy and often hectic city of Jakarta (Indonesia). Let's go with it shall we!

Living in Jakarta can be very tiring, cars everywhere, not much parks and very limited public entertainment that is quite decent. Aside from that living the city live can be tiring and a simple change in atmosphere can be really fun. This where Ancol Dreamland comes in! Located in North Jakarta and I am so so sure that you guys here are aware of Ancol Dreamland. Established in 1966 makes Ancol Dreamland one of the oldest entertainment area to be visited in Jakarta.

What is Ancol Dreamland? In my opinion it is a form of the government's gratitude to the citizen of Jakarta by making an area for recreational activity and a simple getaway from everyday lives. Located in the northern part of Jakarta makes this place quite famous for its beaches and resorts for the locals. Some even come to swim in the beach, even though it is not the best (as in for cleanliness and location wise) place to actually swim. Over the time, Ancol Dreamland is slowly improving in many different aspects and I do hope for the best in the future.

Why did I visit Ancol Dreamland? I went to stay in Ancol over the weekends because I had to do a charity work from the HOPE Foundation, the activity is called Walk for HOPE and it was held on a Sunday morning in Ancol. I live quite far from Ancol, so me and my parents decided to stay in Ancol Dreamland for convenience. Aside from that we felt like sleeping in a hotel and we needed some sort of relaxation, so why not?

Where did we stay? We stayed in one of their newest hotels, Discovery Hotel and Convention Ancol, a four-star hotel and located near Dunia Fantasi (Dufan) Theme Park and the main gate of Ancol Dreamland. Surprisingly the hotel room is really nice and it's actually one of the best part of the hotel itself (especially the bed).

Discovery Hotel & Convention Ancol

Exterior wise, the hotel is very common, but it does stick to a resort theme, making it only limited to 9 floors. Interior wise is where the fun starts, the public area are very common but the rooms, they are so much more than we would have expected from a four-star hotel. We booked the Grand Premier Suite, which features a spacious 113.4 meter-square room alongside a breathtaking view of the pier and Dufan Theme Park.

Of course the room accommodates all of the basic necessities, a favorite of mine is the spacious luggage area (picture above), spacious television area (refer to video) and outstanding bathroom (refer to video). One big downside is the quality of the water in the hotel, was not really clean and the water flow was quite weak, which was not very enjoyable I must say. The bad quality of water actually limits us to bathe in the spacious bathtub, which is a shame.

Dinner there wasn't a big issue, since the hotel itself is equipped with 24-hour room service and two mega restaurants. One of them is called Kembang Goyang, this is where we had breakfast and dinner that weekend. On Friday and Saturday nights Kembang Goyang holds a special barbecue themed buffet dinner. They mostly serve seafood, but upon special request (without any additional charges) we may request beef steak of our choice (sirloin or tenderloin). The food there was relatively very average I must say, nothing special in particular but it wasn't bad.

Desserts were fascinating and fulfilling! Displayed in the hotel's lobby, the patisseries there are indeed not only for viewing pleasure. It tasted as good as it looks, a personal favorite of mine is the rainbow cake here, also tried the Strawberry Cheesecake which was splendid.

Did I mention that they have a sky lounge? It is called Discovery Sky Lounge, located in the 9th floor. Getting there is quite a challenge since the elevator stops at the 8th floor, from there we asked the hotel staff regarding the location of the sky lounge and we were led to a 'secret door' that leads to the 9th floor. The place is really beautiful in my opinion but I must say that it is highly underrated and the Sky Lounge becomes a nightclub (with DJ and lights) at night.

I saved the best for last! Which was the bed. It is the absolute best that is available in the hotel, the best part of it is actually the type of the bed is the same for all room types (even the cheapest room!) so this facility is indeed the best. And if you guys do check my video out, you can see how addicted I am to the bed.

Unfortunately that is all I have to say for this post. I didn't do a lot of things there, but I did try the swimming pool and it was fun, but it gets really crowded especially on Sunday mornings. Aside from that I enjoyed the activity of Walk for HOPE, which involves a 5km walk around Ancol Dreamland, walking/jogging in Ancol Dreamland is actually really good. A simple drive in the beach area of Ancol Dreamland is also fun and refreshing. Refer to the video below for some more detail of Ancol Dreamland.

That is it guys for today's post! Thank you so much for reading until this point and I do hope you enjoyed it or found it useful and all. Pardon for the misuse of language if available or any of the grammar mistakes. Thanks once again and have a good day!

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TRIP TO SINABUNG - MEDAN

Hey guys! I am back once again with a post that I should have done like weeks ago or a month ago probably. I deeply apologize for this unprofessional delays and I must say that my schedule have been pretty packed for the last few weeks, so updating was difficult. In my absences I did a lot of things basically and one of those thing is actually a trip to Medan in island of Sumatera, Indonesia. This trip was done for a good cause and it was held on the 28th of March until the 30th of March 2015. So anyways without further ado let's just start!

Here are a few background information to help you guys understand the trip more.

Why did we go to Medan?

Medan was chosen due to the recent natural disaster that happened more or less a year ago in the mountains area. The disaster was caused due to a volcanic eruption that exerts hot air and volcanic cloud which results to hot volcanic ash. People who lives in those area had to be evacuated to a safer area and only until now that they are allowed to go back to their respective houses. Even so they will always have a feeling of being threatened by nature.

(Personal Justification: Sunlight still passes through even though there are boundaries)

We chose Medan -specifically Mount. Sinabung- because we planned to help them with adapting to a new environment and encourage children there to keep their heads up even in hard times. Mount. Sinabung was chosen because one of our teacher actually has someone she knows there which made it so much easier.

Who did I go to Medan with?

I went to Medan with my school friends and teachers that acts as the supervisor. This activity is actually student-led and it is a part of a social group called LBLS (Little Brother Little Sister) activity. LBLS is also a student-led and student-made group, so most activities are carefully though together and of course with full support from the school.

MEDAN

Our flight to Medan was quite early, around 6 in the morning. What was a pain was that we had to gather at 4.30 in the morning, for some unknown reasons I guess. We chose Garuda Indonesia as our airline to ensure all of the safety issues and of course the excellent service.

The flight took around an hour and forty minutes, so we arrived at around 9 in the morning. As usual we had to go to baggage claim first and all, so we departed at 10 from the airport to go eat lunch, since the airport is located quite far from downtown Medan. 

Funny story, we were supposed to go to the restaurant first and then the hotel, but I have no idea what happened to me that day (probably I was malfunctioning), and I told the driver in to go to the hotel first. So, people in my car had to experienced my stupidity and odd leadership skills. Luckily the restaurant and the hotel was just a 10 minutes drive apart.

Another thing that happened was I broke one of the glass in the hotel's meeting room when we were discussing the activity we were gonna do in Sinabung. That proved my malfunctioning state. The hotel we stayed in is called Grand Serela Hotel, located on Jalan Gatot Subroto. It is a 4-star hotel and it was really nice I must say. (room details refer to vlog)

Day 1 was basically meetings and adapting to the hotel. Day 2 is where the fun happened. Day 2 is the day of our visit to Mount. Sinabung and it is located about 80 km from the hotel, so we were to depart early in the morning (around 5 in the morning).

On the way to Mount. Sinabung we passed villages, paddy fields, cliffs and so much more. I must say the scenery was very beautiful, it was like hidden Europe in Indonesia (and I had been to Swiss and Austria). We made a stop at this picturesque cafe by the cliff and took pictures.

It was really cold outside but it was all worth and plus when else can we experience cold in Indonesia.

We finally arrived at a specific area on the mountainside of Mount. Sinabung, where there lies a small village there. We arrived at 8 in the morning (wow a 3 hours drive, even in the morning) and I was touched by how warm they welcomed us to their village. That day was a Sunday, we were welcomed in a Christian Church, so as we were welcomed a holy mass also occurred. It was my first time in undergoing a Christian Holy Mass (cause I am Catholic and it was different in a way), so it felt so exciting and all of the songs were sang by this amazing lady harmonized with an electric piano. 

The part that really touched me is that even in the most difficult time, they still believe in God and they do rely on to God as much as possible. They were all so devoted and determined (I can see their determination) to God. I might sound like I am exaggerating but I am actually not, they placed all of their fate on God's hand even if disaster strikes, because they believe God has a purpose for everything, even in situations like the volcanic eruption.

After they welcomed us, we were set to prepare ourselves in the activity of children enrichment or encouragement. It was around 11 am, so the sun was quite hot already. We started of the activity with an Ice-Breaking activity, the activity was dancing. Our purpose was actually to make the children more comfortable with us and more brave and confident, especially in expressing themselves. We danced to the song Happy by Pharrel Williams (with our own simple choreography). We divided the groups of children by age, and the younger ones get to sing local children songs (which you guys can see in my vlog)

Afterwards he had a half an hour break at 12 noon. We ate food that the locals made for us, which was really good in my preference and it was also our first legit meal of the day, since we didn't eat anything in the morning (we did request packed breakfasts from the hotel, but the hotel gave us three small piece bread that was good but unsatisfactory). 

We then gathered back at the same area and grouped the children into age groups again. We divided them into two, Grade 1-3 and Grade 4-6. I tackled the older age group, we grouped the children into 6 or 7 people and this resulted to three big groups. Each of the group is given a piece of paper and they must work as a team to create an imaginary village or city. Through that village or city the children must determine what's inside the city and who will work there. e.g A drew a hospital and A works there as a doctor, because A's dream is to be a doctor.

After each group finished their work they were ask to present it in front of everyone else. Most children here wanted to be a teacher, doctor and police. There was one who wanted to become a priest and it really is amazing in my opinion.

At the end of the day we cooked them 'Kolak' (a traditional Indonesian warm dessert, consist of bananas and sweet potatoes) and just enjoyed them together. They were all so lovely and ambitious. They were all so happy and energetic in a way that me myself can't even compete even with so many things that limits them to actually be that happy and ambitious they are still able to feel that way. My only wish for them is to keep up their happiness and ambition close in their lives!

We then said thank you to everyone and donated some school supply to the children and also money to help the village in buying seeds to be able to regrow corps after the ash that killed nearly all. We departed around 3 pm from the village. I must say this trip is truly remarkable and one of the best I have experienced so far in my life.

Check out these two vlogs for a better understanding!

MEDAN VLOG DAY 1

MEDAN VLOG DAY 2

I thank you all for reading until this point and I do wish that you guys are here to support the people and the children of Mount. Sinabung also. I thank you all once again and have good day! God bless you all!