Indonesia

To Leave or To Stay?

3:57:00 pm

Good morning everyone, it's a great day here in Tokyo, where I type my post.
A quiet sunny day with gentle wind from time to time, a perfect time to doze off and relax...but not my heart and brain.


In past years, I wanted to say the situation in my country is getting better, but scratch that; it's NOT. Around a decade ago, we christian got a lot of bombing threat specially around easter and christmas time. Several churches got bombed and we couldn't go celebrate and pray without the fear of bombing. The Holy Mass schedule changed from 9pm and 11pm to 7pm to avoid the dangerous situation. We even need to ask for police force to guard our churches while we're praying and celebrating Eucharist. It still happens until now for safety reason.

For several years, it's getting better, or so I thought. Two days ago, the world got the news about churches bombing and several attempt in different places in Indonesia. Some of my foreigner friends even messaged me and asking if I was OK or not.. I really appreciate them for caring, it actually warmed my heart to know that. :)



This incident came as a shock to me, as I found it unfair that we have to face the threat once more. It was clearly stated in the law that it's our right to be able to celebrate our religion ceremony and pray freely, but the reality is far from ideal. It even worse that the terrorist actually using Islam as their camouflage.

HEY! No religion teaches us to hate and to kill. No GOD told us that it's justified to kill others who didn't have the same faith as ourselves or commit suicide. No GOD gave human the right to decide who's going to heaven and who's not. No GOD allowed you to judge others who are different from you.

So open your eyes, heart, and brain people! Think! Reflect! Do your spiritual teacher teach you to think that other people with different faith, different race, different political view, different sexual orientation, different culture, different way of wearing clothes, different life aspiration are sinners that you're allowed to talk bad about, to judge, to hate, to discriminate, to kill? If SO, then maybe you need a better spiritual teachers.


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I don't know if this incidents are just a make-belief chaos for the citizen to think that the current president and his team aren't credible enough, or it's a real terrorist doing. The timing are just too good to be wrong, when the presidential election will be held next year, and the political world already got all heated up with the intimidation and black-campaign to overthrow the current president.

Whatever it is, personally, this event successfully open my not-so-healed trauma. A country I'd love to call my home is not that homey. Or maybe, it's never been homey from the start, but with the help of internet and social media, the idiotic and judgemental side of my people are exposed more easily and it created the illusion that Indonesia is getting worse. Even with the current president and his chosen team who're working so hard to make Indonesia a better country, it's getting nowhere with my so uncalled trauma.

I know very well that my country is getting better in these 2-3 years, but for someone who's still trying to stand on her own feet, with most of the time struggling to stand than not, I'm in dilemma whether to go or to stay. I know I'm still that naive and don't understand most of the things that happen in the world, I know it might be harder to live outside, as it's uncomfortable and it's not home, but when I think so far ahead, it might be a better choice. My heart and soul are bound in Indonesia, where I'll always be proud to say that I'm Indonesian where ever I go (and not to forget my family is there in Indonesia), but my brain said otherwise. It keeps saying to go out to the jungle and try my luck to conquer it, to have a better life even if I have to start from zero.

I don't have enough experience in professional area or in life, but based on these 27 years of living, I prefer to live in somewhere decent and safe rather than in luxury but I have to live in fear of my safety. For the future I might have my own kids, and I certainly don't want them to live in an environment where they have to live in fear. Don't you agree?


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If you're in my position, what would you do? Kindly share yours! :D


xoxo
Anastasia



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2016

Belitung Trip

10:38:00 pm



Hello again everyone!

I realized lately I've been writing more about my trip rather than my fashion style. It's just.... I'm usually too into something that I forget to take pictures of my style and it's hard when there's no photographer to take pictures (yes, that's you my sister)..


Anyway, this year's summer break was spent at Indonesia once again. My family and I went to Belitung this time, and we had so much fun... We were there only for 4 days 3 night, but I think we went to almost all tourist spot there.


What? You haven't heard about Belitung Island? Well, let's go to some basic information about the island.


Belitung (or Biliton in english) is located in east coast Sumatra, Indonesia. It's a part of Bangka Belitung province. It's famous for pepper and tin. The biggest city in the island is Tanjung Pandan. The island has a shallow and calm sea that's perfect for snorkelling, swimming, and sailing. The island has a lot of granite boulders, turqoise sea, and white sand beaches that's perfect for tourism. The island is actually the location for book and film, Laskar Pelangi (or Rainbow Troop).

As for famous tourist spot, you can go to Tanjung Tinggi beach, Tanjung Kelayang beach, Batu Berlayar Island, Pulau Pasir, Pulau Burung, Lengkuas Island, Babi Island, Kelayang Islet, Literary Museum by Andrea Hirata, Kaolin Lake, and Laskar Pelangi Elementary School (the shooting location of Rainbow Troop).


Belitung itself is pretty famous within domestic tourist, but it still lack the international tourist. It was as beautiful as Bali, with nicer beaches, but honestly, it lacks culture compared to Bali.


But for me, every part of Indonesia is beautiful.


Back to my post, let's begin from day 1.

On the first day we went to visit the famous Vihara Buddhayana


 

  

 
Burung Mandi beach





Literary Museum by Andrea Hirata

It's all bright and colorful building, where you can find a lot of quotes, pictures, and some paragraph written in Rainbow Troop book. A recommended place to go for taking a lot of pictures.








 Laskar Pelangi Elementary School



 Ahok house, and of course trying out Belitung special noodles; Mie Atep.


The second day was spent on hopping nearby island and snorkelling.. My sister hasn't sorting out pictures and video from when we're snorkelling so I can't put much here...





I actually went up to the mercusuar and take some picture around the island.. Unfortunately it was a bad day, it kept raining-stop-raining again, so we can't really enjoy our snorkelling and picture-taking. :(











...and the islands are Batu Berlayar Island, Batu Kelayang Island, Sand Island, Lengkuas Island (that has the mercusuar).


The third day we went to Tanjung Tinggi beach. It was shooting location of Laskar Pelangi (Rainbow Troop). A beautiful beach with a lot of huge granite stone. We were lucky that day since it's sunny so we could get a lot of nice pictures. This place is a must-go-to spot, but you need to climb the huge stone to get nice and beautiful pictures. So goodluck!
















After that, we went to the new tourist spot that just opened around April, Leebong Island. It's a private island that has shallow and calm beach around the island. It will be build as a resort where you can play kayak, swimming, banana boat, and much more fun things to do. To go to this island you have to pay IDR 1.500.000 for the boat that will take you to a bigger Sand Island and this private island.

Say hello to my Snowy :D










It's better to go to Lebong Island in the morning so you can see a lot of starfish in Sand Island. We were too late because we took a long time in Tanjung Tinggi beach. T^T




The rest of pictures we took in this island are inside our GoPro.



 But we got the beautiful sunset we've been waiting for 3 days. :D


The fourth day was short, and we only went to get some coffee and take pictures at Danau Kaolin.







I heard before we can go to the middle of the lake, but there was an accident several years ago that made it's forbidden to go to the middle of the lake.


That's was the warp of my trip to Belitung, but there're some tips I want to share before I say goodbye.

^ you need to rent a car for Belitung trip because there's no public transportation here.
^ It will be better if you hire a local tour guide, to know more about the culture there. They can be your personal photographer too. :D
^ bring a lot of sunblock because it's super hot when it's sunny. You will need it, really.
 


xoxo
Anastasia


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credit:
photos taken by Sony alpha 5000 and 6000, Iphone 5s
taken by the local tour guide, my father, my sisters and me


Belitung information source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belitung