Paradise in Parai Beach

Bangka island is known for its beautiful beaches. The most beautiful beach in Bangka island is Parai Beach. It is managed by a resort, so its beauty and cleanliness are maintained. Parai Beach is located in Sungailiat, East Bangka.

Due to its belonging to the Resort, each who enters this beach area is charged. On the left side, there are cluster of rocks named Rock Island. You wouldn't resist the temptation of Parai Beach scenery and white sands. You can also play jet-ski and banana boat here to complete your pleasure. 

It's Kartini Day!

Sawarna Village Panoramas

Sawarna Village is located in Bayah, South Banten. This village has been proclaimed as Tourism Village by the provincial government for realizing its many nearby tourist attraction. It takes approximately 6 to 7 hours drive to go there from Jakarta. When first arrive there, you will pass through  Cariang Hill. From uphill, you can see beautiful views of the beach. There are taverns and parking lot if you wanna stop by for sightseeing.

Another beautiful beach from Sawarna Village is Ciantir Beach. This white sandy beach is about two kilometers long and divided into two parts, large wavy beach and small wavy beach. Beach on the east side becomes the favorite place for surfers due to its big wave.

During enjoying Ciantir Beach, you can visit Lalay Cave there. Do provide lighting equipments while trekking there.

Sawarna Village is surrounded by Paddy Fields in every sight you see. These panoramas keep you sooth every time you walk by.

By the time you get there, you can't miss visiting Legon Pari Beach. It is a perfect place to see the sunrise and sunset. Rocks that jut into the sea so wide in the morning and afternoon at low tide, leaving puddles of sea water. You can swim and enjoy white sands here as well. Before entering Legon Pari beach, we will pass through villagers' residences and paddy fields as well. 

 

Continued from Legon Pari, we will see Tanjung Layar Reef. Those are two huge reefs that protrude into the sea and become the iconic destination for tourists who visit Sawarna Village. If it's on its high tide season, we can't go closer to the reef.

Reminiscing with Roxette

A few days ago I got a chance to meet Roxette by winning an FB quiz. I've been listening to Roxette Since I was a toddler. Not particularly listening actually, but my mom kept playing it since I was raised in Australia. On March 3, I went to the concert with Mahdesi, Echie, and met some of her friends there. When we got there, we were queuing to get into MEIS (Mata Elang International Stadium) hall. Roxette was the first performer who held concert there. There were no dressed up teenagers like teenage concerts usually be held. Those who came were young mothers and the husbands who reminisced when Roxette succeeded in their era.

The concert began at 8.30 pm. Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle came up with Dressed For Success. I found Marie wasn't able to reach high tones. But she was still great with such voice like that, knowing that she just recovered from suffering cancer. They brought hits such as Wish I Could Fly, It Must Have Been Love, Crash Boom Bang, How Do You Do, Dangerous, and Joyride. Marie let us sing together in most of the time. They came up with 2 times encore. At first they gave us Spending My Time and The Look. I could feel the 80s atmosphere there. After they said goodbye, the audience just couldn't be satisfied with the show. A couple mins later Per showed up and said "I think I can't leave without giving you this one". And then Roxette ended up their second encore with Listen To Your Heart. 

They played really well until the electricity of the outcome sound speaker was off. That was such an anticlimax concert after all. Regarding Big Daddy's explanation, Roxette's sound console from sound engineer was not working properly. But apparently the concert ran well since they could bring us the 80s and 90s goosebumps that lost lately this decade. But I actually wonder why Vulnerable wasn't played that night. I rate this concert 7 out 10 :).

The Greatest Hits Tour (a1 FTW)

 











When I was a teenager, i lived in the boy band era (unlike the boy band era of these recent years, though). There have been so many qualified boy bands spreading such as Boyzone, BSB, NKOTB, NSYNC, Westlife, Blue, A1, 98°, etc. Nevertheless, 90's era had the best qualified music of all time (at least for me :p), not to mention the boy bands.

my sister and I

So i heard that Blue, A1, and Jeff Timmons of 98° will be going on tour in Indonesia this February 26. It's call The Greatest Hits Tour. I was like, OMG i need to see them! A1 was my fave boy band when i was teenager, and still is! And so i bought the ticket with Buy 1 get 1 promo. I planned to watch the concert with my sister, Azka. She loves these boy bands as well since i contaminated her music taste from the very beginning of our childhood :p. Actually our both most fave boy bands are A1 and Blue, since we have all their cassettes ha ha!

Jeff Timmons was so close

It was rainy day when we arrived at JIExpo, Kemayoran that February 26. We spent like 15 mins in parking lot and then with forced, decided to go inside the main hall. The gate was opened at 7.30 pm. Actually i was at Festival 2 class, where the audience were separated by fences. Based on my experience, when the front class isn't full enough, other class is moved to the front class so the artist or performer won't be disappointed heheh. So it was true, the festival 2 class audience were allowed to move to the festival 1 class. Then my sister and I got in to the very front row :p. The first performer was Jeff Timmons. He brought several 98° songs such as Because of You, The Hardest Thing, I Do (Cherish You), Una Noche, Invisible Man, and some of his solo singles. He took some girls to the stage and made the crowd screamed. 

A1 rocked the night

Mark Read with his keyboard

It took a couple mins to see A1. At first there was a big screen with A1 singing with seriosa style and they came suddenly to the stage with Same Old Brand New You. Aaaaa that was my fave song on The A List album. I just couldn't stop screaming and yelling! I was standing right in front of Chris. They also brought Be The First to Believe, Summertime of Our lives, Everytime, One More Try, Living The Dream, and my fave from Here We Come album, Ready or Not. I couldn't even easily breathe seeing them in front of me. They had surprise for us. They covered Poker Face and I gotta Feeling really well. Waiting For Daylight and In Love And I Hate It were their new songs from their latest album that they brought that night. And last, they smashed up with Like A Rose, No More, Caught in The Middle and Take on Me. It's too bad they didn't put Make It Good to their setlist :(. I was really entertained and fully satisfied with A1's performance. At first glance, A1 may seem no different than the rest of the late 90s onslaught of boy bands, but these guys differ in that they write their own songs and play their own instruments.They also produce their own songs, and each member of them had become producer/songwriter of many great musicians such as Jarvis Cocker, Charlotte Church, Ronan Keating etc.

Guitargenic Chris

Nerdy Blue

And then like 20 mins later Blue showed up. I was right in front of Duncan James. Their first song that night was Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word. We all began reminiscing when they brought U Make Me Wanna, If You Come Back, All Rise, Too Close, and Fly By. They changed their clothes once, from nerdy to bad boy style. For the last songs they gave us Breathe Easy and One Love. I thought Blue, as the last and closing performer, would give us the best performance of all. But seriously, A1 made it! Full band, qualified equipment, and not a single minus one was given that day. If i have to rate each performance of theirs, i'll give 6.5 to Jeff, 8.5 to A1, and 7 for Blue out of 10.

Bad boy Blue

One Love

Tanjung Kelayang & Tanjung Tinggi Beach

Belitung island is famous for its shores and several fascinating islands surround it. It is nestled on the east of South Sumatera Province. There are two famous beaches there, Tanjung Kelayang and Tanjung Tinggi. Tanjung Kelayang is well known for its small granite island view. This beach also has white sands, which is a very tempting place to swim. To those who want to visit islands surround Belitung such as Babi island, Lengkuas island, Burung island, etc you can go to Tanjung Binga or Tanjung Kelayang for a transfer boat. The price for a rental boat is approximately 300-400 thousand rupiah. 

Tanjung Kelayang Beach

Tanjung Tinggi is well known for its huge granite rocks which have the imprint of a maze so the visitors can feel the fantasy of a labyrinth when arrived here. You can also climb and walk onto these rocks. This beach is suitable to those who love to swim upon the beautifully white sands and clear sea water. Laskar Pelangi's film site was also here in Tanjung Tinggi beach.

 Tanjung Tinggi Beach

These two beaches are far from crowd and not commercialized yet. So you can still find cheap restaurants and hotels near the beaches. You can feel Belitung's traditional atmosphere here.

 The film site of Laskar Pelangi

Lampuuk Beach, Atjeh

Lampuuk Beach is one of the most visited shores in Sumatera Island, located in Lhok Nga, Aceh Besar. It has beautifully white sands, clear water, and beautiful scenery as well. It also has white corals there. This place is commonly enjoyed for swimming, sun bathing, fishing, and surfing (though i haven't tried it yet). For women who want to swim, are required to wear clothing that covers the genitals. Since Aceh is an islamic city, the area is closed every 6 pm.

 the clear water

beautiful shore of Lampuuk

 enjoying the sunset

 

white sands with cute corals