Monday, January 14, 2013

YOGYAKARTA, THE CITY WHERE ADNAN WAS BORN

Adnan Rachmawan is name, Yogyakarta is his hometown. He is one of The 3 Crazy Backpackers' member. He is now running "Wuvicraft", a handcraft company. He'd like to tell us about Yogyakarta.

image source: devianart

Yogyakarta is one of the most popular Indonesia's tourism destination. It's a capital of Yogyakarta Special Region. Yes, Yogyakarta's speciality is the structure of the government, it's a kingdom! So, the governor of Yogyakarta is a king. Sultan Hamengkubuwono X is now the governor. Everyone knows him and wikipedia has a page about him, too.

Yogyakarta is also famous for its culture; batik, traditional food called "Gudeg", traditional dance, traditional music called "Gamelan", and religion ceremony. Well, they are the main attraction for tourists. Most of them visit Yogya to experience the culture. So, where can we find a place with such attraction?
1. Kraton Yogyakarta. The center of the governmental activities.
image source: 3bp.blogspot.com

2. City Square. This site is one of the most popular site in this city. It's divided into two separate location; the north and the south one. Kraton Yogyakarta is located in the north city square.
3. Parangtritis Beach. You can enjoy both its panorama and its traditional ceremony worshipping the     guardian of the Indian Ocean.
4. Wijilan Street. This site is the center of Gudeg, traditional food of Yogyakarta.

Not only its culture, Yogyakarta is also famous for its beautiful scenery. Most tourist visit these places to enjoy the spectacular scenery:
1. Mount Merapi. People said that this volcano is the most active volcano in the world after Mauna Loa in Hawaii. This mount provides a fantastic scenery. If you want to stay for several days, this place has many hotels, motels, or inns.
image source: upload.wikimedia.org

2. Parangtritis Beach.
image source: 3bp.blogspot.com

3. Glagah Beach. It's located in Kulonprogo Region. It's far enough from Yogyakarta City, but it's worth visiting. One certain thing you need to know about beaches in Yogyakarta Special Region is, the wave is big!  This is because, the beaches are located in the south.
4. Prehistoric Mountain of Nglanggeran. This mountain used to be a volcano, but the volcano was now inactive. This mountain is rocky, it's formed by the prehistoric eruption. There are many inns here so that you can stay for several days.
image source: gunungapipurba.com

So, what are you waiting for? Just visit us in Yogya! Sure, we'll be at your side when you are here. You can email us via: giga.aga4@gmail.com


Monday, December 31, 2012

2012 In Review



Finally, 2012 has elapsed. There were so many events we had experienced. Some of them would be always remembered. Some of them were considered momentous because of the popularity for people in the world. I myself have some preferences to be considered as an important events for 2012:
SPORTS:
1.      Some of my favorite teams were successful to be a champion of season 2011/2012: Real Madrid (Liga BBVA), they even broke a record to be a team with most goals scored and a team with most points of all time in La Liga. Ajax Amsterdam (KPN Eredivisie) finally was a champion after they finished in 6th position in half-season.




2.      Manchester City (MC),champion of FA Premiership, had better luck than Manchester United (MU) in this season. After beating MU in both leg 1 and leg 2, MC  finished with the same point as MU; 89. But MC had more goal scored than MU.
3.      Juventus made a new record as the only invincible team in Serie A and finished as a champion with 84 points. Dortmund showed their supremacy of Bayern Munich for two years in a row after grabbed a Bundesliga title. Dortmund even succeeded in achieving both Bundesliga and DFB Pokal trophy.
4.      Congratulation to Montpellier! They could grab a French Ligue 1 title vigorously. It’s not easy to be a champion because there was a great competitor with  full ammunition; Paris Saint Germain.
5.      Chelsea, grabbed their first trophy in UEFA Champion League 2011/2012 after defeating the host, Bayern Munich! It made them as the first team from London who can win this competition. But then, they lost their power after Atletico Madrid (champion of Uefa Cup) beat them 4-1 in UEFA Supercup.
6.      Spain grabbed their 3rd title of EURO CUP after defeating Italy 4-0. They also made a new record as a team who could be a champion twice in a row.
7.      Zambia gave Ivory Coast an unforgettable nightmare in Africa Cup final stage, February this year. FYI, Zambia was a new champion in this competition.
8.      Chorintians, a champion of Copa Libertadores 2012, beat Chelsea 1-0 in a tremendous final stage of FIFA Club World Cup 2012.
9.      Mexico claimed gold for Men Football in 2012 London Olympic after smashed Brazil 2-1.
10. United States, claimed a gold medal for Woman Football cup in 2012 London Olympic.
11. Singapore succeeded in making them as a champion of AFF Cup with most trophies after drowning Thailand with 3-2.
12. Sriwijaya FC was successful in grabbing both Indonesia Super League and Indonesia Inter Island Cup 2012.
13. London 2012 Olympic was the best Olympic to me although Indonesia claimed no gold medal this year. The US was the best team in this Olympic followed by China. Don’t forget about Jamaica! The country ruled the running track.
14. Michael Phelps was considered as the most successful Olympian of all time with 18 gold medals.
15. Miami Heat was a champion of NBA for this season.
16. Sebastian Vettel  was considered as the youngest F1 racer who could be the number one in a season three times in a row.

image source: ausmotive.com

17. Jorge Lorenzo was the number one of Moto GP 2012.
18. Lance Armstrong’s scandal brought him to the   fall of his career. His previous title were removed.
19. Indonesia retrieved their gold medal this year in All England. Tontowi/ Liliyana made it!
INTERNATIONAL:
1.      Syrian crisis along this year seemed not to come to the end.
 image source: vovworld.vn

2.      Norodom Sihanouk, former king of Cambodia, died at age of 89 years old
3.      Barrack Obama was elected to be the president of USA for a second time.
 image source:photo-bugs.com

4.      Neil Armstrong, the first man walking in moon, died at age of 82 years old
5.      Windows 8 was released this year.
6.   The Dark Knight Rises Premiere in USA was attacked by a gunman and killed some people. There was also an Indonesian wounded.
7.      Sandy storm attacked Manhattan several days before president election.
8.      Bopha storm in Philippines killed hundreds people.
9.      Newsweek released its last print issue due to the developing of technology. Newsweek will focus on digital edition next year.
highsnobiety.com

10.  Euro crisis and the increasing of unemployment rate in some countries (especially Spain) colored the world’s economic condition.
11.  Francois Hollande was elected as a new Prime Minister of France.
12. North Pole had the worst shrinkage this year and threatening most animals there.
13. Psy’s Gangnam Style influenced the world by its phenomenal dance. Its video recently had been the most-viewed-video in Youtube with more than 1 billion viewers.
14. Palestine finally got their new status, that is a non-observer country in the United Nations (UN). In a voting held in UN headquarter, New York, only 9 countries said no including Israel.
15. Marvel’s The Avenger was the most successful movie this year followed by The Dark Knight Rises.
16. Walt Disney bought “Lucasfilm”. As we knew, Lucasfilm was known for its Star Wars.
17. “Innocence of Moslem”, a film by a Jewish, rose moslem’s rage over the world. This film was supposed to insult Prophet Mohammed.
18. Rohingya conflict in Myanmar made a number of moslem evicted from there.
19. US “Fiscal Cliff” had been the most popular economic issue this end of the year.
Well, I hope this 2013 everything will be better. I have some plans this year and I hope I can make them happen. Last, I wish the world would be more peaceful and I wish there would be more people aware of environment issue.