et cetera...: holiday

Hey bloggers! Here I am, wanna share a little bit about my family gathering on 7th-8th of July 2012.

So, right now I'm having my oh-so-long-long-long holiday. Yap, it's a very long holiday because I have 3 months off. THREE MONTHS, DUDE! And, I flew back to Jakarta from Bali and about 2 weeks ago I had a family gathering at Sukabumi.

This family gathering came from the idea of my uncle who is about to move to Pittsburgh, USA, at around the end of this July. He got scholarship to study there and he'll bring her wife -- my aunt -- and his daughter -- my cousin -- along with him. That means we won't meet up with them for 2 years and that's why we wanna have a family gathering before he and his family fly to Pittsburgh.

The family gathering was held on 7th-8th of July 2012 at Pondok Saung Geulis Cottage, Cisaat, Sukabumi. I went there along with my uncles, aunts, cousins, mom, dad, brothers, and maid. We booked 3 cottages because the cottage is big enough so we didn't need to book too many cottages.

The cottage is good enough, score 7 out of 10. Inside the cottage, there is a restaurant, fishing pools, parks, a jogging track, and cottages of course. Between each cottage, there are small ponds with fish in it so we can see the fish under the cottage. But, watch out for babies and toddlers to not to go too close to the pond.

My family and I went there by car, if I'm not mistaken, 4 cars on convoy. I was in the third car together with my uncle who will move to USA, dad, mom, and brothers. On the afternoon, we arrived there. We had late lunch, and gathered at the park. We played soccer perfunctorily, bubbles, etc.

On the second day, we just gathered again at the park, took photos, had lunch and went back to home. Just that! It was just a very simple family gathering, but really can heal my homesickness ahahaha :') I love my family, so much ♥

Heeey bloggers! As written on my last post, now I'm gonna share about my observation at Lombok Island. Well, my campus has a yearly activity called field trip for some observation and all collegers outta make a report based on the observation did on the observation point.

Nah, this year we got a chance to have some observations at Lombok Island for 4 days and 3 nights. To start it all, maybe some of you wanna know what exactly Lombok Island is. Lombok Island is a not-so-big island located near Bali. It has sooo many beautiful places to visit and most beaches there are all still virgin. That's a glimpse about Lombok Island.

There, we stayed at Senggigi Beach Hotel, located in Senggigi area.

Garden view

Terrace

First day was spent on board. From Bali, we went by bus then cross the sea on ship. It took 5 hours to cross the sea you know! Ergh I was soooo bored because there's nothing to do >:( so I just chitchat with my friends and then I slept hahaha. Finally, we arrived at Lombok! After we arrived, we had a little tour around Mataram city, had dinner, then direct to hotel to check-in and take a nap. Before we took a nap, we had some guidance from our mentor about the observation (we were divided into groups) because tomorrow is the observation day.

On the second day, after breakfast, we had some observation. My group was sent to a travel agent in Senggigi and Rembiga. There, my fellows and I did an interview using a questionnaire. Just about 1 hour, the interview done. Then, we went back to hotel to get prepared for lunch. After lunch, we went to Sade Village. Sade is a traditional settlement in Lombok Island. There, you can buy traditional textile, typical bangles and other traditional and typical stuffs from Lombok.

Typical accessories

Traditional and typical textiles

Lombok-styled accessories

The accessories

Bird cage

Local people

Welcome gate

After visiting Sade Village, we went to Kuta Beach! Don't mistaken it, guys. Kuta Beach isn't in Bali only. There's another Kuta Beach in Lombok Island ;) after going to Kuta Beach, we had dinner, got back to hotel and had another guidance about the observation did that day.

Kuta Beach

On the third day, we went to Gili Trawangan! It's my most-waited tourist attraction. Gili Trawangan is located on a different land from Lombok. So, we had to sail to get there. I heard people talking about this place and none of them say something bad about this place. That's why I'm really curious about this place. And, all what people say is totally true. Gili Trawangan was so...ADORABLE!

Gili Trawangan ♥

The unique thing in Gili Trawangan is that there's no motor vehicles there. All transportation is still using horses, bicycles, or just by foot. I took time to walk around Gili Trawangan but because walking too much can make me sooo exhausted, me and my friends decided to ride bicycles. So, we rented bicycles just by paying IDR35,000 each per day.

Bike for rent

We went around Gili Trawangan and a little bit far from the point where we gather, we stopped at a beach which I believe it's still virgin. Sooo beautiful! And at that beach, I found so many starfish!

In Gili Trawangan, you also can buy many souvenirs like shirts, textiles, bangles, ornamental things, etc. There are some souvenir shops there, like this one.

Souvenir shop

After having fun at Gili Trawangan, we had dinner and back to hotel.

Last day, the fourth day, we had an examination about our observation at the hotel venue. My group gave a presentation about the travel agents. The presentation went smoothly and, done! We went back to Bali again!

That's my observation story. Ummm actually, it seems like it's just a vacation, huh? We had more fun than the observation. From the whole 4 days and 3 nights, we only did the observation for 1 hour and the test about 2 hours. The rest is, HOLIDAY!

Here I give you other photos of my ~~vacation~~ observation in Lombok. Enjoy!