Sydney Opera House

I believe when you see the picture above you immediately know what I am going to write about today. Everyone know Sydney Opera House. Yes ...it is a very well-known landmark in Australia. So ... if you hear about Sydney Opera House, then you will immediately think about Australia. This is one of the ‘must see’ sites in Sydney like Eiffel Tower in Paris or Statue of Liberty in New York.

It is located in Sydney, close to Sydney harbour bridge and the Royal Botanic Garden, New South Wales, Australia. So, after you visited Sydney Opera House, you can continue to walk to the Botanic Garden ... it is a huge, big garden. Sydney Opera House was designed in 1957 by Jorn Utzon, a Danish architect. The construction work started in 1959 and was estimated to be completed in 4 years. However, the building was just completed and officially opened in 1973.
It is included as one of a UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 2007.


Brief explanation about the shell roof
It is an amazing unique building. For me, the unique thing about this building is the ‘shell-structure’ roof. The roof is just such a creative idea.


And ... the Sydney Opera House

Sydney Opera House is the home of many famous performances (theatre, ballet, orchestra, concert, opera etc)and arts exhibitions. When I visited this place, I did not have the chance to see any performances there as the ticket was quite expensive for me. I think I need to work harder so I would be able to experience and see one of the opera performances at Sydney Opera House one day :)

New Zealand Maori Arts and Crafts Institute

New Zealand Maori Arts & Crafts Institute

If you have interest in indigenous cultures, New Zealand Maori Arts and Crafts Institute (NZMACI) is a place worth to be visited. NZMACI was established in 1963 by the New Zealand government. The institute aims to protect and teach the authentic Maori arts and crafts and Maori culture to the younger generation. The Maori Arts and Crafts Institute is located in Rotarua, the north island of New Zealand, around 3 hours drive from Auckland.

In this place, you will see the unique carving and weaving style of Maori. There are carving and weaving schools in the institute. The students exhibit their carvings and weaving works; and also share story about Maori history and their ancestors. You also can see Maori traditional house.


Maori traditional house

I am not an expert in the area of cultures or arts, especially Maori cultures or arts, but visiting this place gave me different experiences. I believe after your visit you will appreciate the Maori people’s spirit and efforts to protect their identity by passing down to and teaching the younger generations about their cultures ... because I really do!!

Bali beaches

After 'the caves' yesterday, today I post an article about beaches. Beaches in Bali ... great places to relieve you stress or energize yourself during your holiday. There are many beaches in Bali, around 8 beaches if I am not mistaken. I have gone to some of them, Nusa Dua, Sanur, Kuta and Jimbaran beaches.


Sanur beach

Sanur beach is a white-sand quiet beach that is located on the southeastern part of Bali, about 5-10 minutes drive from Denpasar. You can have a beautiful sunrise view here. Other things that you can do here are sunbath, watersports or snorkeling. Nightlife here is not as lively as in Kuta. If you have spare time, spend half day to come here just to walk along the beach or to enjoy the tranquility.


Nusa Dua beach

Nusa Dua is an exclusive and quiet beach. It is located in the most prestigious and luxurious area in the southern part of Bali. There are many expensive International five-stars hotels in this area such as Hyatt, Hilton, Sheraton, Westin etc, and the beach is located at the back of those hotels. It is a nice beach, but I do not really like it as the beach is really really quiet. It is suitable for you if you want to enjoy the peace and relax with your family.

The last one is Jimbaran beach. Jimbaran beach is located close to the airport. If you come to Bali, I suggest you to come to Jimbaran beach in the evening and have candle light dinner with your loved ones at the edge of the beach. There are many seafood restaurants lining up near the beach. The food itself is not so special, but still you can enjoy the romantic dinner and the sea breeze.

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Glowworm Cave

Glowworm Cave

I just realized, when I write this piece of writing, that I had quite a number of caves tours. I have written about my visit to a cave in Lamongan (Indonesia) and Jenolan Caves (Australia) in this blog previously ... and this is my third article about 'cave'.

I went to Waitomo Glowworm Cave couple of years ago. It is one of the unique places that you should visit if you visit New Zealand. The cave is on the North Island of New Zealand. It is 3 hours driving from Auckland. The cave is just like other limestone caves with its unique formation of stalactites and stalagmites. But, once you are inside the cave, you will be amazed by the tiny little luminescent creatures that hang on the ceiling of the cave.

As it is named ‘Glowworm Cave’, then you will see the population of glowworms in the cave. The lifecycle of a glowworm is eggs – larvae – pupa – adult glowworms. The total lifetime of a glowworm is around 11 months. The light is produced during the larvae stage. Glowworms use its glow to attract, trap and then devour other insects. The adult glowworms is around the size of a mosquito and they have a very short lifespan.
The cave was extensively explored for the first time by Tane Tinorau (Maori Chief) and Fred Mace (an English surveyor) in 1887. However, the cave had been already discovered by Maori quite sometime before the first exploration. Then, in 1889, the cave was opened to the public for the very first time.

I have no pictures of the creatures as photography and video are not allowed during the visit. You also should keep quiet at all times when you are inside the cave. But, this place is highly recommended. You have to place the Glowworm cave in your itinerary if you visit NZ ... the cave with its glowworms are just unique and cool!!

The Greenwich Meridian

Have you heard of GMT? Greenwich Mean Time!? I believe this term is very familiar to you at least if you have learned about geography in your school or if you search for a place’s current time, you will find ‘Standard Time + (number) GMT'. Although the term Universal Time (UT) is used to replace GMT, the term GMT has been and is still in use since over 300 years until now.

Because of the infamous GMT, then, I spent one day to visit Greenwich when I was in London. Greenwich is in South-East London and very famous with its Greenwich Meridian (0 degrees longitude). I went there by boat from Thames Barrier Pier and arrived at Greenwich Pier. I visited the Greenwich Park and the Royal Observatory. The park is huge and I love it! It is beautiful ... and the Royal Observatory is in the centre of the park.


The Greenwich Pier

The Royal Observatory is a historical place. It was established by King Charles II in 1675. It was built to calculate the longitude of places for navigation purposes. The longitude was calculated from the Greenwich meridian, which was regarded as zero degrees longitude. Greenwich meridian is claimed as the standard for world time. I managed to see and take pictures of the famous Prime Meridian ‘line’ in the Royal Observatory. The Prime Meridian line represents the zero degrees longitude and divides the western and eastern hemispheres of the earth.


Indonesia (Jakarta) Longitude: 106 degrees, 45 seconds East

If you come to London, spend one day to go and take picture of the line. You can stand with one foot on the eastern hemisphere and the other on the western. The line lies on the ground and walls of the Observatory yard.


The Shepherd Gate Clock


The Greenwich Meridian Line

So, what time is it now? Mine is +7 GMT ...

Rupiah ... How much is it?

One of the most important things that you should bring on your trip is money ... agreed? Eventhough you have credit cards, but bring small amount of cash may be a good idea as not in every place here has the card machines. Well, this time I will write about Rupiah and hopefully can give you description about it. Rupiah is the official currency of Indonesia. The currency code is IDR.

Rupiah consists of bank notes and coins. The symbol for this currency is Rp. There are many forms of coins: Rp. 25, Rp. 50, Rp. 100, Rp. 200, Rp. 500, and banknotes: Rp. 1,000; Rp. 5,000; Rp. 10,000; Rp. 50,000; Rp. 100,000. The coins of Rp. 25, Rp. 50, and Rp. 100 are rarely used now.


The Coins




The Bank Notes

Some of my overseas friends always get confused about how we do transactions with our money. For example, you have to pay about Rp. 2,000 (two thousands rupiahs) for public transport fares. For my friends, it is a lot ... as they think Rp. 2,000 like USD 2,000 or RM 2,000 or AUD 2,000. Well, it is different. In fact, Rp. 2,000 is only USD 0.22. The exchange rate for USD 1 is around Rp. 9,000-9,500 (year 2008). So, you will find yourself spending thousands of rupiahs for bread or a meal, or a drink or a small souvenir or hundred of thousands for a hotel room ... or millions for rupiahs for an overseas flight ticket ... Yes, we have lots of zeros in every transaction.

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Jenolan Caves

Welcome to Jenolan Caves

Jenolan caves are natural limestone caves in Blue Mountain, New South Wales, Australia. It was named after a mountain, Mt. Jenolan, that is located near to the caves. In Aboriginal language, Jenolan means ‘high mountain’. The caves system is about 340 million years old and located in a 24.16 km2 area. It is, then, claimed as the oldest and the largest open caves system in the world. The exact number of the caves, that are included in the system, remains unknown until now ... further explorations are still going on. However, there are 10 caves which are publicly accessible: Cerberus cave, Chifley Cave, Imperial Cave, Jubilee Cave, Lucas Cave, Nettle Cave, Orient Cave, Ribbon Cave, River cave and Temple of Baal Cave.

The caves were already discovered by the Aboriginies thousands of years ago. They named it ‘Binoomea’ meaning ‘Dark Places’. Then, in 1838, the caves were first discovered by a foreigner, James McKeown. He was a lawbreaker and hiding in the caves. The Whalan brothers run after and arrested James. It was, then, Charles Whalan and his sons who ‘really’ discovered the caves system and became the first ‘cavekeeper’.


The Stalactites in the Lucas Cave

If you have limited time on your visit, do the Lucas, Imperial, Chiefly or Orient caves tour. Actually, I can not fully enjoy the cave tour as I do not like to be in the dark and cold places for a long time ... I just do not feel good about it. But, as I was there (... I had come far away from my home country), then I should take at least one cave tour. I only took the Lucas cave tour. The cave was named after the local parliament member to honour his effort for preserving the caves. The main feature of Lucas Cave is the Cathedral chamber and the broken column formation. The Cathedral was used for religious services and wedding ceremonies. It was good though. The thing that always amazes me when I visit a cave is the formation of the stalactite and stalagmite. I always think and imagine how long it takes to form and grow one stalactite or stalagmite with the average of growth rate of 1 mm/year ... Yes, it is very very very long!