I woke up to a familiar sensation, only this time was much worse. The swell from the drake passage was just playing me around from side to side.

Drake passage, a sea famous for either its “drake’s shake” or “drake’s lake” is a meet between Pacific, Atlantic, and Southern ocean. Throughout this eleven days journey, I only met the former (drake’s shake, with the wave heights reaching 8 meter when I left for Antarctica, and 10 meter heights now).

check out the complete story by clicking below link:

​Today is the last outing day, although there’s only cruising (no landing). But i tried to savour everything that i can since God knows when i will be travelling to Antarctica again, if that’s even possible.
 
I woke up late in the morning, knowing that the cruising will start at 10:00 am. After breakfast, i got out in the deck-6, took some scenery pictures before went back to my room and putting all the usual outfit for landing/cruising.
 
I have been always the first person to sit and wait nicely in the reception deck-4 (before each is group is called for landing in deck-3), and today is no different.

​This morning was quite calm and uneventful. I woke up at 5 and continued writing on the daily journal and went for breakfast.

Morning announcement said that today’s weather would only allow us to do landing (not cruising nor kayak). So the expedition team would land at 9 am in the morning to make ways for us (shovelling and make nice landing point) to hike to the top, where most of the chinstrap penguin colonies were located.

​I did not care if we didn’t even cruise. I’m happy we’ll able to land at all in the main continent. But as the plan shifted, the timing in the schedule was also shifted. All group were to land in the morning and with possibility to cruise in the afternoon, and I was so happy my group was among those to land on the first batch. Winning!

Read more on Day-8 experience by clicking the provided link below :)

Early in the morning about 4:45 am, i was woken up by the announcement that said the weather looks so good that they would try to pass the Lemaire Channel, and the view was amazing, passengers are welcome to go out and enjoy the view. 

I was half woken and pushed myself to got up and ran to deck-6. And she was more than right, the sun was the brightest so far we’ve had on the boat, and the view was amazing as we entered the Lemaire Channel. I took pictures and videos as we entering the channel, and back to my room, about to rest myself a bit before another announcement came that said there were ice sheets ahead of us and it was a beautiful sight. I went again outside to deck-6 and witness the most spectacular view i had ever witnessed so far. The spread of ice sheets stretched before the ship, with the sun shone so bright and i cried. Literally cried. I didn’t know why i did, but when i saw the view i just got so emotional and i cried. It was simply beautiful, so beautiful it made me vulnerable, meaningless, and grateful at the same time. That was the first for me to feel all of them at the same time.

Read more on my adventure on Antarctica Day-7 in the following link:

​Today, we were supposed to land at the mainland through Neko Harbour, but it’s all depends on the weather. I’ve witnessed it myself, the weather here is so unpredictable and can change within minutes or hour!

But after looking at the weather around 9 am when the wind was gusting, my confidence faded away. And it continuously gusting for hours until I heard an announcement that the whole landing will be shifted and they will see how it goes.

Read more on the day-6 of my experience onboard expedition ship by clicking link below!

Today is the day! I woke up early at 5 am, getting myself ready and headed to deck-6, to watch the boat entering the deception island through its hell’s gate. It was freezing cold but i was glad i made it. I secured a nice spot in front of the boat and watched the boat entering port foster. Although i only survived 10 minutes since i left my gloves inside, afraid that it might be difficult to operate the camera.

Read more to read about the Day-4 : my first landing in Antarctica Peninsula

​Last night i went to bed happy knowing that today my group (group #11, the humpback whale) will have the first landing time at 9 am!! Hurray!! They somehow rotate the group so every group has the chance to get an early land.

This time, the landing will be quite far from the ship, since there were so many iceberg (another hurray) on the way. Soon as i hopped on the rubber boat, i was so excited. As we got closer to the Cuverville island, thousands of Gentoo Penguins colonies came into view. I didn’t think i’d seen so many penguins in my life before. I was extremely excited. 

Continue reading the day-5 experience (out of 11 days) expedition to Antarctica where i made the best experience ever in my life at the Cuverville Island, Antarctic Peninsula!

This is the day that everyone on the ship is waiting for. Stepping their feet in the land of ice and wind. For me, i’m just happy of the prospect that the sea swell would eventually subside once we enter the Antarctica peninsula and leaving the drake passage.
 
I went to bed at 8 pm last night and woke up early at 4-5am, getting ready for the day. To think about it, i feel a bit guilty about how i live my life on the boat. Blame the seasick, the only think i look forward are only breakfast, lunch, dinner, and lay on the bed. Isn’t it the very definition of LAZY?

Check out how the rest of the day going in day-3 onboard Hurtigruten MS Midnatsol by clicking this link below.

Note: the actual writing of this journal happens onboard Hurtigruten's MS Midnatsol ship the same day, but published later

The Route

​If you ever wonder the route of this Antarctic Journey, you can see it in the picture below. The route is clearly mentioned and detailed in every expedition ship's website and you will know in advance before you make the booking. But, it is absolutely important to notice, that the itinerary may change at any given time depends on the weather, and you will be reminded time and time again by the Captain and the expedition crew (like what i experienced) that the route, the landing spot and the activities may be changed depends on the weather. The printed itinerary that is given every single day is also tentative.

In general, here's the intended route (itinerary) VS the actual route (itinerary).

I’m writing this as soon as i’m disconnected with the outer world. Disconnected as in my wifi router unable to intercept any signal and my cellphone network display a “no service” mode.
 
Earlier today, i checked out from my room in NH City Hotel Buenos Aires and heading for a breakfast. On the same breakfast area were boarding passes tidily arranged for everyone can retrieve themselves. So far the Hurtigruten tour management was great. I was told to leave my luggage right in front of my room the night before with the luggage tag given when i checked in the hotel. ​That way, i didn’t have to worry about my luggage and it went straight to the airport. 

Before I searched about Hong Kong, I always associated Hong Kong with skyscrapers, concrete jungle, triad, kung fu, and dark alleys. Blame those movies though. Only when I decided to go to Hong Kong that I began to do a bit research about the attractions and places to visit. To my surprise, Hong Kong does have remarkable landscape and amazing hikes as well. Those hikes like Victoria Peak hiking trails, Sai Kung County hikes, Kowloon Peak, Dragon’s back, Lion’s Rock hike are just few of so many amazing hikes in Hong Kong. Although, i did not make all the hike due to drizzling and raining for the consecutive three days when i was there.

My itinerary was already set though, out of 14 days off that I got, 7 days were for Taiwan and 6 days for Hong Kong. But I had also decided to spent one day in Macau and one day in Hong Kong Disneyland. Thus, I only had four days to explore Hong Kong, and I wanted to explore both its nature and city center as well And, I got to do it with my mom. So, I needed to select places and hike that are friendly and medium-rated difficulties in term of elevation and geography. In summary, here's the rough map or itinerary of the four days in Hong Kong (I have excluded Macau and Disneyland Hong Kong in this map). Click to read more about Hong Kong City Exploration.

Out of 6 days that I had in Hong Kong, I decided to spent one day in the land of magic – Hong Kong Disneyland. I am not a super fan (more of ordinary fan) of any Disneyland Character, but I like themed park and or amusement park. The idea to enjoy a ride, be it in a carousel, riding a boat in a man-made “scary-unknown” jungle, riding a roller coaster is really fun. I mean, wouldn’t you want to be carried away from this earth for a while and enjoy being carefree and happy for just a moment?

My attractions to nature, landscape, and architecture will always win its place when it comes to concocting an itinerary. But, when I had a chance to experience amusement park, I’ve been on a roll as well. I went to Warner Bros Studio Tour in London on 2015, did bungee jump on 2012 in New Zealand, had a skydiving in Queensland Australia on 2014, had a Hot Balloon ride on Cappadocia on 2013, and this year I heard Disneyland calling my name.

In this post, i will share my experience and I will summarise the tips at the end of this post. So, make sure you keep reading (or just scroll down if you’re impatient and want to read the Tips already), haha...

On the sixth day, I explore the beauty of Taiwan’s Northeast Coast. On the last day in Taiwan, I explored Shifen Waterfall, Yehliu Geopark and a bit of Taipei.

After I went along the northeast coast of Taiwan, I stayed the night at Airbnb in Ruifeng City. Ruifeng is such a small and beautiful city. Its night market lively and worth exploring. Early in the morning the next day, I boarded an early train to Shifen. Read more to read my journey to Shifen Waterfall and Yehliu Geopark.

On day five, I explored Taroko gorge on a group tour, and in the afternoon, I took a train ride from Hualien to Yilan. Why Yilan? Because it’s a great transit to further north, before I explore Toucheng Township, Pingxi district and Shuangxi District which is basically the east Part of the Taiwan, where it displays rugged cliffs, dramatic sea-view hills, or in another word: BEST COAST OF THE TAIWAN!!

On day 2, I explore Taichung and Tainan by using ownrides, a customized tour in which we are able to make our itinerary online before Ownrides seek you a driver and you’re good to go. You can go to the post to read more about Ownrides. As I mentioned on that post, it is suitable if you want to go places where public transportations are scarce, and you have limited time with so many places to visit and with the distance from one place to another is far.

On this sixth day in Taiwan, I also used ownrides. The taxi driver picked me up at Yilan Train Station, brought me on the road along beautiful east & northeast cost of Taiwan and dropped me at Ruifang as per my request. Click link below to read more about the adventure that surely blew me away!

If you stumble upon this page/post, here’s what you need to know. This is the fifth out of seven posts (about the fifth day, out of my recent seven-days trip to Taiwan). You can read about the other posts here:
Day 1: Exploring Amazing Kaohsiung
Day 2: Kaohsiung and Tainan City Day Out
Day 3: Sun Moon Lake
Day 4: Taichung City Tour 

On the fourth Day I explore Taichung City, and on the afternoon, I took a train from Taichung to Hualien. It was basically moving from west coast to East Coast via North line. Click link below to know more about the tour

Hello again everyone, this is the fourth out of seven posts about my fourth day trip on Taiwan in Last April 2018 to May 2018. You can read my first post on the previous days spent in Taiwan here:

• First day post
• Second day post
• Third day post

​On my third day in Taiwan, I explored Sun Moon Lake by taking bus from Taichung and went back to Taichung on the very same day. On the fourth day, I explored all the beauties in Taichung, be it in the city center or beyond before taking the train to Hualien for Taroko Gorge adventure.

Click below link to read more about my adventure in Taichung!!

This post is the third post out of 7 post (which tells the third day out of my recent seven-days trip to Taiwan). If you just read this post, you can catch up my first post here and my second post here. On the first day, I arrived at Kaohsiung and explore the beauty of Kaohsiung. On the second day, I explore places of interest spread from Kaohsiung to Tainan, and then continued my journey to Taichung using High Speed Railways Train.
 
On the second day, I arrived at Taichung around 8 pm. The next day (the third day), I planned to Explore Sun Moon Lake (will be abbreviated as SML), one of the most famous landscape in Taiwan.

​Before I start, this is my second post out of seven (7) that each tells the seven days of my little exploration of Taiwan. On day one, I arrived in Taiwan at Kaohsiung international airport and I discover myself lost in the beauty of Kaohsiung. On the second day, I traveled from Kaohsiung to Tainan, and then I took High Speed Railway Train from Tainan to Taichung to get further north of Taiwan. You can read my day-1 post here.
 
So, this post is focused on my exploration of Tainan city and all attractions that are still within Kaohsiung Area, but quite far from Kaohsiung City central. Here’s my itinerary for the second day in Taiwan covering Kaohsiung City Greater Area, Tainan City, and concluded in Taichung.

​This post is a series of Posts I will be posting about my recent Trip to Taiwan (on April-May 2018). At this point, I’m thinking of putting post by post by the cities or region I visited on each day. So if I visit more than one city on one day, I will put in a post. The idea is that I hope it can help illustrate the alternatives itineraries to do in a day.
 
I thought it was about time to visit Taiwan. Many had asked whether I was interested in visiting China, and my answer had been a constant “Not Yet”. China is beautiful, but I wasn’t ready to explore the big main island China, so I went to Taiwan instead. Why? Given a short time, Taiwan is a smaller area that I can treasure in a relatively short time. Based on my research, the Taiwan’s transportations networks are advance, integrated like those in Japan (comparably so), and it has such beautiful landscape on its coastal area and dramatic mountain region. So I decided to visit Taiwan, in a series with Hong Kong and Macau. I will also write about Hong Kong and Macau. But first, click button below to read about my amazing day exploring Kaohsiung :)

 While it’s still hot in my memories, i’d like to share everything about my recent trip to Brunei Darussalam. I hope by reading this post, you can decide if Brunei is your next destination ;)

At first, my obsession to visit every country in South East Asia become my solely reason to visit Brunei Darussalam (that, combined with perfect aligned AirAsia flight that matched rough itinerary in mind). But after I did some researches of what gem Brunei hides, especially the Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque, Ulu Temburong Park, and many more, it easily switches rank. I was instantly obsessed with what Brunei hides and i couldn’t wait to visit and explore all the gems. And now that I have visited Brunei, I can easily say that it has such amazing places, stories, histories, and quickly dissipates the initial motivation I had in the first place.
 
Why Brunei? Why not? It has its unique atmosphere among other places I have visited in South East Asia to name a few. It has National Park for those who enjoy being close in the wild and nature, it has multicultural vibes combined with rich, authentic cultures and histories span for ages, as well as magnetic persona of its kingdom. I hope that if you are currently considering visiting somewhere calm, unique, and enigmatic destination, put Brunei on your list. Read more of my full blog by clicking button below.
​

This post will tell story about my first (and last) day in Myanmar. I went to Myanmar from 29th November 2017 until 2nd December 2017 (four-days trip). The short itinerary was more or less like this:

• Day 1: Arrive in Yangon, Explore Yangon, take overnight bus to Bagan
• Day 2: Explore Bagan am-pm
• Day 3: Travel from Bagan to Inle Lake (Nyaung Shwe & Heho) + Explore Inle Lake
• Day 4: Travel from Inle Lake (Nyaung Shwe) to Yangon, Explore Yangon, going back home

So, I have two (or one and a half) days to explore Yangon, which is the first and last one. So, this post is a combined story from those two days. You can read my Bagan experience here ;)
 
I did quite a lot of research on Yangon as per usual, with the help of Lonely Planet Myanmar. During my research I was quite surprise to find so many diverse religious buildings in the city. With Buddhism being the majority in the country, Buddhist Temples and stupas are myriad and occupy almost every corner of the city. What surprised me was that there is also synagogue, Hindu temples, Taoist Temple, Christian and Catholic Church as well. Beside historical buildings, Yangon also has unique neighbourhood in its Downtown, as well as lake in its city. There were also sooo many places of interest in Yangon that I had a hard time to choose to begin with. But, i will go through it one by one. I will also detailing how to getting around in Yangon from what i have experienced, also other travel tips. Click "Continue Reading" Button Below

 ​Bagan is an ancient city in Myanmar, or at least it was. It was founded in the 2nd century, and bloom in 9th-13th centuries with approximately over 10,000 religious monuments were built over the course of 250 years (1000 stupas, 10,000 small temples and 300 monasteries – source: Wikipedia). From these 10,000 monuments, only about 2000 are remain in the region surviving earthquake, weather, and aging. 

This post will tell stories of my 2nd day out of four days adventure in Myanmar on November 30th, 2017 and I will cover the other day on another post. 

​I arrived in Nyaung-U, a small town near Bagan using night bus departing from Yangon. I had no time to sleep except in the Bus (I barely sleep on the bus) and arrived in Nyaung-U around 5 am in the morning. The pick-up arranged from the Hotel in Bagan picked us up and I arrived at the Hotel around 5:30 am. After taking shower and short rest, I quickly sprinted to have adventure of the day: Exploring temples in Bagan. I had only one day in Bagan since the following day I needed to go to Inle Lake for another adventure.
 
Although I will eventually list the temples, I would like to also share about details of how to get to the Bagan, where is Bagan actually located, a bit of its history, where to stay in Bagan, Where is Nyaung-U anyway and what’s the relations to Bagan, and all the nitty-gritty about Bagan.

Make sure you click "continue reading" button below to read the whole stories ;)

My recent vacation to Samosir Island had been a short one. It was meant to be a reunion. My friend from Canada was coming to Indonesia for a holiday. She, my other friend from Medan area, and myself had not been seeing each other for 9 years (although we keep updating each other on WhatsApp, emails, phone calls, or even Skype calls) and we wanted to meet somewhere.
 
I was living in Duri, small area three hours from Pekanbaru (capital city of Riau Province in Sumatera Island), and my friend were born Pekanbaru and the other one is living in Medan Area so we thought that going to Samosir Island was a great idea. Tow out of three of us had not been to Samosir, although one of them had been there myriad time. It was great, because at least one of us could be guide for all of us.
 
It was a very short trip for such a big and beautiful area, so although we made seeing the most amazing ones, I felt like was not even close to enough. We decided only for the weekend because we already have our own plans, and that was it. So, the title for this post should be “How to NOT explore Samosir Island and Lake Toba in ONLY 2 days” – since it’s certainly won’t be enough.

Make sure you check the link below to read more on my journal on those two-days travel;)

Yeayy ! i have just finished my blog on Singapore. I have visited this country Several times now in the span of 8 years (2009 - 2017) yet i just somehow managed to blog about it. If you are considering a trip to Singapore, considering to revisit Singapore, or if you think you've had enough of Singapore, or maybe it's not even on your list, then check out this post. Hopefully it will inspire you to visit the country that has LOTS to offer. Make sure you click the "Check out the Post" Button below ;) and let me know what you think, post any comments or feedback or what you want to see more on my post of Singapore. Thank you!

Marina Bay Sands Photo taken on 23 December 2017 from OCBC Skywalks in Gardens by the Bay