Seems that my blog theme was unstable, so I have to revert it back to this original theme (you see it now 
). Some layout is not correctly displayed because of this.
I’ll work on new theme as soon as I can.
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Saya harus mengembalikan theme ke kondisi awal karena theme yang saya pakai terakhir tidak terlalu stabil.
Tampilan blog ini akan sedikit tidak ‘pas’ sampai saya memperbaiki dan mendapatkan theme yang baru.
Cheers
- Alisanta
Ha! Seems a bit unrelate to travel, but I’d like to share this post.
Several years ago I was still a cappuccino drinker, you may call common drinker. A pack of premix Nescafe 3-in-one was enough to satisfy daily need. Later, I bought separate items: black coffee, cream, and sugar, and mixed according to my taste. As you may guess, it was pretty normal drink in normal life.
Then it changed when I visited Italy, home of coffee, I got dragged into the dark world. Caffe is everywhere in Roma and served best coffee in the world: Italian Espresso.
Cappuccino is also common served, but local people only drink coffee with milk in the morning (until noon at the latest), and when you asked for cappuccino outside that time then sadly you are considered tourist and got unfriendly serving. So normally I ordered cappuccino in my breakfast, then wandering across this eternal city until night. When I had to stop walking for a break, ordering coffee would then be translated as ordering un caffe, and get espresso served in a tiny cup.
Espresso is dark black coffee and has intensely bitter flavor. Most people need to put sugar in it, but even I poured 2 pack of sugar to the Italian espresso, the taste was almost the same as no sugar. Later, still in Rome, I decided to drink espresso without sugar for the first time. It was unpleasant, but a life-changing experience
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A box on top of dining table looks not inviting. As I am not a huge fan of such snacks called ‘pia’ (something like dry cake) because bad taste brought by my friend from Semarang or Yogyakarta, so the box would not be touched by me unless told by my lovely wife.
She said that to buy this Pia Legong, you have to order 3 weeks prior pickup!! The producer is unable to catch huge demand of their product so the waiting list now is 3 weeks time. wow, this is quite a story to tell in my blog then.
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Saya mempunyai sejumlah koleksi travel guide books versi English. Mencari travel guide versi Indonesia yang informatif bisa dibilang saat ini tidak ada, yang ada cuma buku-buku catatan perjalanan orang ke luar negeri yang mau irit sehingga terkesan miskin di rumah host.
Untunglah saat ini tersedia edisi terjemahan. Beberapa waktu lalu saya ke toko buku Gramedia, takjub menemukan 3 seri DK Eyewitness Travel Top 10 dalam bahasa Indonesia yang diterbitkan Penerbit Erlangga. Ada Top 10 Hong Kong, Beijing, dan Roma. Setelah saya Google, sebenarnya telah diluncurkan 5 seri buku ini pada April lalu, selain 3 yang disebutkan tadi masih ada Top 10 New York dan Bangkok.
Saya adalah penggemar buku travel keluaran DK Publishing, sejumlah koleksi seri Eyewitness Travel saya beli murah lewat Internet dengan harga USD 4-7 per buku. Jangan kaget mengapa saya beli begitu murah, kategorinya adalah used books. Walaupun namanya bekas, sebagian besar saya terima dalam kondisi 99% mulus. Sedangkan harga buku ini kalau dibeli baru adalah USD 15-40 tergantung tebal dan serinya.
Di era Internet sekarang ini, melakukan booking hotel bukanlah perkara yang sulit lagi. Dahulu kita harus mendatangi travel agent untuk melakukan reservasi, atau menelepon langsung hotel yang ingin kita kunjungi dengan menaruh sejumlah deposit uang sebagai tanda jadi.
Kini segala informasi tersedia di Internet termasuk informasi hotel. Hotel yang berbintang haruslah mempunyai website sendiri, terlebih bintang 4 atau 5 pasti memiliki fasilitas online booking. Dengan mudah kita dapat mengetahui room availability sesuai dengan tanggal yang kita inginkan, berikut room rate untuk setiap tipe kamarnya. Dengan kartu kredit sebagai guarantee atau metode upfront payment, proses booking memakan waktu tidak lebih dari 15 menit.
Selain itu juga banyak situs Internet yang berfungsi sebagai online hotel booking website. Website seperti ini bekerja sama dengan ratusan hingga ribuan hotel di seluruh dunia sehingga cukup dari 1 website, kita mempunyai banyak pilihan hotel sesuai bintang, budget, dan lokasi yang kita inginkan. Tidak ketinggalan biasanya terdapat review dari orang yang telah booking dan tinggal di hotel tersebut sebelumnya, sehingga sedikit banyak kita mendapat gambaran yang real dari hotel tersebut di luar deskripsi dari pemilik hotel sendiri.
I was inside a church, it was an old church built around 1670-1680 and located adjacent to Santa Lucia Stazione at Venezia, Italia. That morning, I woke up early to prepare everything for my tour group and still had some time to spare before starting to explore Venezia (or Venice in English). When I walked thru that church, I realized that a mass had just begun, so I entered and sat on the last row bench.
In Italian, it is called Chiesa di Santa Maria di Nazareth, literally Church of Santa Maria of Nazaret, also locally known as Scalzi. As similar to other churches I had ever attended in Europe, mass like this is never full of people. But in Italy, churches are more popular since almost all Italian are Catholic. But weekday mass is as usual, mostly empty.
A physical and gender-related words: “Ibu Gendut” (translated: F*t Lady) ever mentioned by Cinta Laura on her case against her old production company MD Entertainment, referring to a lawyer named Elza Syarief, mainly because Cinta Laura didn’t remember the lawyer name at the time of conversation.
And today on Kompas (1-Feb-09), Sukribo comic strip also mentions about the other “Ibu Gendut”, that I dare not to write her name since this is a hot and sensitive issue in Indonesia politics season. Just look into this comic strip especially drawn figures in the banner to understand who I am referring to.
The story is quite fun and satir, clearly describe our Jakarta city condition in recent months. I don’t have any position to this condition, just afraid that it will raise bigger issues in future.
Just enjoy it!
