[Road Less Traveled] Sulaiman Bay: A Gleam of Hope for the Bay

[Road Less Traveled]
Teluk Sulaiman: Secercah Harapan untuk Sang Teluk

When was the last time you witnessed this moment?

I kept my sight straight to the road. Steering the handlebars to the left, to the right frequently. Not because the winding road, but in order to evade the obstacles that scattered almost along the main road of Biduk-Biduk.

A short ride trip could become more difficult when I had to evade dozens of cow dungs that barely to be seen. It surely a common thing that we can find cows roam freely in some certain villages, so Biduk-Biduk counted in.

Pandangan saya selalu tertuju ke jalanan. Berulang kali membelokkan stang motor ke kiri dan kanan. Bukan karena jalanannya yang berliku-liku, tapi demi menghindari rintangan-rintangan yang banyak tersebar hampir di sepanjang jalan utama Biduk-Biduk.

Perjalanan yang singkat pun terasa menjadi lebih sulit ketika saya harus menghindari lusinan kotoran sapi yang hampir tak kasatmata. Memang sudah hal yang wajar, jika kita bisa melihat sapi-sapi bebas berkeliaran di beberapa desa, termasuk di Biduk-Biduk ini.

Previous story: [Road Less Traveled] Biduk-Biduk: Borneo's Nose Tip Paradise

[Road Less Traveled] Biduk-Biduk: Borneo's Nose Tip Paradise

[Road Less Traveled]
Biduk-Biduk: Pesona Desa Pesisir di "Ujung Hidung" Kalimantan

Early morning view just across from where I stay

The female receptionist looked a bit shocked and surprised when she looked at me. She smiled friendly shortly after and welcomed me in her pinky hostel. Then she explained about her confused that it's such once in a while to have a guest in these hours, around 3 p.m.

Si mbak resepsionis terlihat agak kaget dan heran ketika ia melihat saya. Tidak lama kemudian ia pun tersenyum ramah menyambut kedatangan saya di penginapannya yang bernuansa merah muda. Rasa herannya bukanlah tanpa alasan, ia menjelaskan bahwa tumben sekali ada tamu yang datang jam segini, sekitar jam 3 sore.

Hokkaido "The Winter Wonderland": Northernmost Island Through the Lens

After a long time enough this blog was abandoned without any new posts, now I feel quite relieved because in this post I able to announce the latest news about a project that I'm working on recently. Maybe some of you have read the articles in this blog which tell my journey in Hokkaido during winter. Some of them were curious and wondered every things about the island which located in the northernmost of Japan.

Started from: which destinations we will visit to; what we can find; what activities that we can do; how cold is in there; how thick the snow it has; and many more. As if the island is still holding tons of enticing mysteries in there which is not widely known. 

Hokkaido: Asahiyama Zoo, The Northernmost & The Most Innovative Zoo in Japan

Source: http://good-hokkaido.info/en/asahiyama-zoo/

At first, I didn't set any high expectation to a trip to the zoo. My mind has told me, this could be just like a cliche sightseeing. To witness displayed animals as caged objects, not living beings much like an art museum.

Until I saw penguins walked in front of my eyes, experienced being close to polar bear as their prey, intrigued by "flying" (swimming) penguin gorgeously above head, and startled to see a snow leopard passing above my head. The concept of "behavioral enrichment" of Asahiyama Zoo core's philosophy had forced me to pull my own words.

Hokkaido: See How Japan Introduces Its Freezing World

Sounkyo Hyobaku Matsuri from high

*Scratch, scratch...*

A scratching sound continuously comes from the right side of the van. There is no life for mosquitoes in here, obviously... The sound comes from me scratching a dewy window pane. Wait, do you think what the hell am I doing?!
Yes, I was too busy to wipe the haze away from the inside of window.

The warm temperature inside the van creates moisture on windows. It wasn't just normal moisture like usual, anyway (surely for Indonesian). Condensed vapor turned into thin ice layer, since the weather were so freezing outside. What a thing!

It's been about 4 hours since we left the last city, Abashiri. And now, we were heading to next destination, a small town or likely I can call it a resort village of Sounkyo in Daisetsuzan National Park. There was no sign of our destination until the sun had hidden itself. Well, nothing could be more fun than doing such ridiculous thing of scratching frosty windows!

*Scratch, scratch...*