Jogja!

Actually, it was not the first time for me to go to Jogjakarta but at least this time I stayed there for couple of days. The first visit was on 1997.

The city was full of pleasant people. A little bit crowded but no jam at all. I was surprised after realize that Jogja has no public transportation except taxi, ‘becak’, ‘delman’ and mini bus, not like other cities which have “angkot” for their mass transportation. Interesting, huh?

The most famous place in Jogja is the Malioboro street. You can find bulk of “becak” and “delman” there. You can also have dinner in “lesehan” style like the Japaneses do. The famous batik shirt can also be found there.

In the southern of Jogja (about 40 km) there is a biggest Budhist temple in the world, i.e. Borobudur temple. It was built by Samaratungga in the 8th century. Borobudur was revealed by Sir Thomas Stanford Raffles in 1814. The temple was found in ruined condition and was buried. It was one of the seven worders world heritage but unfortunately now it is not :( (( Why… why… and why… ???

There is alsoMerapi volcano. It is one of the world’s most active and dangerous volcanoes. You can see the smoke always comes out from its cup at all time until now.

I was very happy to be able to step my feet again on the land of one of the Indonesia’s most favourites place to visit. Can’t wait for another steps in the future…defenitely withmy wife !!!

Published in: on August 18, 2008 at 9:19 am Comments (1)

A Nice Short Vacation

I and my wife had a plan to go to West Sumatra for a couple of days for a vacation on the long national holiday, 20-23rd of March 2008 but it was canceled for some reasons. Staying at home for killing time was not good idea. Suddenly we decided to go back to the plan. Quick preparations were taken such as sending the car for a service and buying meals for the trip. And the 250 km journey to Bukittinggi begun at 5 pm…

When we were about to enter the border of Riau-West Sumatra, we got stucked due to hills slided while it was dark. After waiting for one hour, we were finally out of the long queue and arrived in Bukittinggi at 11 pm!

Since no hotel reservation had been made, we looked for the hotel around the city. Unfortunately, all the hotels were fully booked!!! After two hours with empty handed, we decided to go to the capitol city of West Sumatra, Padang (more than 100 km from Bukittinggi) to stay. But in mid of the trip I felt very tired and sleepy. We parked our car at the gas station and slept like a baby. Ha…ha..ha.. Pls don’t follow us coz it’s very dangerous!

Five o’clock in the morning, we continued to go to Padang. After made a several calls (thanks to the “108″ operator) we got the hotel. After had showered and breakfast, we started our ‘real’ vacation.

Padang is one of the biggest cities in Sumatra. The roads are wider than Pekanbaru’s. No jam at all. After took some actions near the beach, we went to Bukittinggi. And, upss… the city was full of tourists from local and abroad. No wonder, it was a 4-day national holiday and very hard to get a small space for our car to park.

We ate a lot of nice foods such as satay in Payakumbuh & Padang Panjang, “nasi kapau” in Bukittinggi. We also visited the Sianok Canyon in Bukittinggi but we just stopped in front of the famous cave, made by the Japaneese soldier during World War II. Not enough energy to step up the ladder in the cave. Don’t worry, we’ll be back!
After two nights spent, we went back to Pekanbaru in the afternoon. Unfortunately, when we arrived in Payakumbuh (120 km from Padang), another hills slided happen again. The worst thing was that it totally blocked the road. So, we had to take the other route to Pekanbaru, the longest one which was about 400km!!! Since it was becoming dark and I did not know the route, we decided to stay for another one night in Padang and immediately called my boss to inform him that I would not be able to go to Pedada the day after due to this force majeure.

 From Padang, we went back Pekanbaru in the morning and it took 12 hours to arrived in Pekanbaru at 7 pm. What a nice short vacation we had….

Published in: on August 5, 2008 at 8:28 pm Leave a Comment

Invited Guest Lecturer

In June, 2008, I was invited to give a general lecture at the Electrical Engineering Department of State Islamic University of Sultan Syarif Qasim Riau (UIN SUSKA RIAU), Pekanbaru. I brought the subject of “Introduction to the Instrumentation System at Upstream Oil Industry”.

The process of crude oil processing & its facilities were introduced first. The operating principles of the main processes, i.e. the two phase separator process control, tank protection-measurement-and-control, automatic custody transfer, including the functions and working principles of each type instrument installed at those facilities were described in more details. By understanding those, I expected that those could got the whole picture of the systems and the reasons why instrument is needed to protect, measure, operate & control the process.

Glad to share it with you all…

 You may download the course material on the bottom of this post (in Bahasa Indonesia only). By downloading the file, you are considered agree with the disclaimer beneath.

 

Disclaimer: Neither I, Hendri, BOB nor any of their affiliated entities assumes responsibility for the design, selection, use and maintenance of any product on this course material. Responsibility for the design, selection, use, and maintenance of any product on this course material remains with the purchaser and end-user.

 

Published in: on at 7:24 pm Comments (2)

The Honeymoon

After one year of the employment, finally I could took a leave and brought my wife for honeymoon to S’pore. I was felt so bad for ‘neglecting’ you for one year. I’m so sorry honey…

I chose SG coz it’s not so far from Pekanbaru and I’d been there twice due to the business trip. So, I know the city a little bit and moreover, it has a very good mass transportation system.

During in SG, we stayed at a resort hotel in Sentosa island. A type of hotel she recommended. We had a tremendous good time (that’s the honeymoon always for, right?). Walked around the beach (even a lot of tankers spying our moves). We went to China Town, Bugis Street, Bugis Junction, Merlion, Little India etc.

It was very happy to see the smile on her face and she never ever said that she was tired even we had couple of full-day tours :) )) One joke of her that I always remember was that she said it couldn’t be called as a “honeymoon” but just a “honeyweek” (in Bahasa, “moon” means “bulan” (the earth’s satellite) while “month” (30 days) also means “bulan” in Bahasa). So, she asked me to have another 3-weeks honeymoon near the future to complete the “honeymoon”!!! Ha..ha..ha.. luv you so much, honey.

Returning from SG, we stayed for one night in Batam. I’d been there also once when I was a kid and wanted to visit it again. Unfortunately, we were very tired so we just spent much time at the hotel.

We then came back home and brought presents for my mother in-law who had ’sacrified’ herself flying from Surabaya to Pekanbaru just for accompanying the servant at home!!! Thanks and love you, Mom…

Published in: on at 6:55 pm Comments (4)