Saturday, May 10, 2014
A
slice from heaven. Yeah. Imagine this setting:
the sun peaked its way above the horizon as if it was scared to shed some light. The
smell of the salty sea tingled my nose as I breathed in a breath of fresh air. The
waves were saluted me singing a dulcet lullaby. The sand was my bed of
blankets. They were inviting me in, with their everlasting arms wide opened. Absolute
perfection, right?
Maldives are ranked the third most endangered nation due
to flooding from climate change but I still insist to took a chance in the middle
of pinched date with little more than glimmer of consideration. My brother and
I took a flight up from Jakarta to Male on Thursday morning. It was 7 hours long fight because I must transit on Dubai before #wrong_choice_of_airplane :(. There is also a 30 minute
domestic flight from Male, followed by a 20 minute speedboat ride to finally
arrive at the resort, but the extra travel time is totally worth it.
On the airplane with my bro! Pardon my sleepy face :p
Speed-boat arrived at the resort
Main Lobby
Prior to our trip, we had been saw several
review that Maldives is “the most enchanting island in the world.”
Truth to be told, we agreed with them almost instantly! We
stayed in Six Senses Laamu; Ocean Water Villa, which completely exceeded our
expectations. Looking out over the water, we could hardly believe our eyes to
be honest! So beautiful that you even can’t believe it's real. The villa was
incredible with lots of space!
A hammocks above the ocean which was successfully made my brother faint easily!
A stairs leading to the attic where you can gaze at the stars
View from the attic
Picture by Cindy Zenata
Indiana-Jones kind of wastafel
Open air bathroom which has a glass made bathtub, again you can see through to the ocean below, or take a rain shower on top of the waving sea
A glass window built on the toilet floor which you can see fish swimming while you’re busy
This
place is secluded, private, and 'down to earth'. There’s also have no shoes and
no news policy which was fit our style. The resort provided bicycles in guest
villa for riding and exploring the entire island. We loved riding our bikes
to breakfast and dinner every night. It was just lovely and brings a great
atmosphere. The whole resort felt so cool and luxurious without being stuffy.
Mornings
on Maldives began at ‘Longitude’,
an open-air dining room on the oceanfront where you are treated to a picturesque view.
A light breeze carried the sweet scent of both the tropics and the food.
There is an extensive menu of traditional breakfast dishes
and island favorites, as well as from a buffet of fresh fruits, pastries,
and wide range selection of vegetable and cheese. The
most impressive were the choices of healthy mix juice every morning and you had
to take time to look at the juice list and you were able to order your
different choices every morning. We made sure to fuel up,
because we were going to be spending the entire day on the white sandy
beaches; seeing as much as we possibly could without rushing through
anything. Six-Senses leads you to an island getaway which proves that
sustainability can be seriously chic. It
is amazing that such a resort on tiny island can have so much excitement!
Okay, now time to explore the resort!!
Picture by Cindy Zenata
The sun shine bright and unhibited by clouds as we enjoyed playing around the beach
Picture by: Cindy Zenata
Picture by: Cindy Zenata
Feel your feet burned after walking barefoot all day? Don't worry!
It felt like we owned the whole island! In fact the only time we saw
other guest was usually during meal times at the restaurant. Exhausted from getting around, we decided to take a break for an ice cream at the 'ICE'.
Unlimited supply of sweets such as ice-cream / sorbet + various toppings at the ICE!
Oh! Their also served a yummy creme-brulee!
In the evening, we tried sport activities that I have
never experience before such as ‘Catamaran Sailing’ with Moodo as an
instructor. While we were on boat, Moodo took us to the sandbank for free while
I was wondering about a large mass of
sand in the middle of the sea. It just happened as a complimentary because he
thought that we were newly wed in honeymoon :p. Unfortunately, I’m didn’t
prepare to bring a waterproof camera so there was no picture taken. But, I have
some example courtesy of google if you hard to imagine, here it is!
Of course, the person in the picture above it's not my brother and me!
After I landed my feet on the sandbank, Moodo giggled and said :
“Take your time guys, I’ll be going elsewhere and I’m not
gonna look at you!”
Ohmygod.
What?
Super awkward moment came up between me and my brother,
lol. Suddenly, I really hoped that I could enjoying this remarkable sunset
moment here with my future one. :’)
I walked up to the edge of the beach again and dunked my
toe into the water. It felt as if my numbed foot before melted into a puddle
mixed with the ocean. I could see a number of baby white sharks in the ocean
screaming for attention. Finally, the sun dipped into a pool of internal light.
- - -
I seem to have
the best luck when it comes to resort guides a.k.a ‘Guest Experience Maker and
Six Senses Laamu was no exception. Our GEM Abdul was beyond our
expectation. He was so friendly and always helping us plan the perfect day. No
matter what the request, Abdul was there to deliver. In addition, as a truly
unbelievable experience, everyone at the restaurants or sports activity club
were equally as friendly and accommodating. Everyone always remembered our
names, which is something that truly makes you feel special! They also love to
chit-chat and even have ‘curhat’ session like told us their life as a soccer
player before.
For
the next activities, me and my brother decided to explore an island nearby
which was really awesome and inspiring! Maldives consists of moslem populations
so there are many cultural heritages such as mosque everywhere. Since It’s a
tropical country, Indonesia and Maldives are much alike unless their skill at managing their resources perfectly and surprise...*drum-roll*.....cleanliness! In addition, actually, everything could be tourist attraction here. Literally. If you asked the reason why, take a look at the picture below and I'm pretty sure that you would questioning, "why we couldn't make Indonesia be like this?"
As known as PLN in Indonesia....
PS: is the baby scared with the camera...or me?
There are also many new things that I just found out or saw over there, take a look!
Extra
information for the food experiences! I’m writing this because I promise you it
is that SUPERB! The restaurants are
brilliant with an enormous of variety and the chef's will always go over and
above for you! They clearly take an enormous amount of pride in what they do.
Being a lover of food, I have to say I was beyond impressed.
Leaf
is perched above the organic garden: to get to it, you'll need to walk through
the garden, up some stairs and across a rope bridge.
It serves a combination of
Vietnamese and Mediterranian dishes.
At
the main restaurant, Longitude, 2 buffet dinners will be served on Friday (Asian Food) and
Tuesday (Seafood) nights and there three courses set dinner menu for the rest
of nights in the week. My favourite is the coconut milk rice or steam jasmine
rice with Maldivian curry or Thai curry + BBQ reef fish for two.
There's also another bar with an ocean overview for chillax in the evening named 'Chill Bar'.
There's also another bar with an ocean overview for chillax in the evening named 'Chill Bar'.
If you're looking for a place to relax, Hammock at the 'Chill Bar' are undoubtedly perfect choice!
Picture by Cindy Zenata
Picture by Cindy Zenata
- - -
Overall,
this vacation was far overdue, but having such an wonderful experience made it worth! The element of surprise
are really tremendous. If you ever find your way there, it will not be a mistake, and
you will revel in a slice of heaven. I didn't even need any more a reason to miss this place!
Sunday, April 20, 2014
I was
halfway doing an introductory program at my 1st semester in my
college, it was kind of a welcoming program to freshmen in my university. I
wasn’t supposed to take a short getaway from these but somehow being off-track
at this time is incredibly rewarding. What time?
The celebration of `100 YEARS
BEFORE THE BIRTH OF DORAEMON’!!
Oh my
100 YEARS BEFORE THE BIRTH OF DORAEMON
100 YEARS BEFORE THE BIRTH OF DORAEMON
100 YEARS
BEFORE THE BIRTH OF DORAEMON
100 YEARS BEFORE THE BIRTH OF DORAEMON
100 YEARS BEFORE THE BIRTH OF DORAEMON
What?
Yep, I
considered myself as a big fan of this so-called japan iconic robot cat from
the future. If you asked why, I grew up together with him even though the doraemon
characters itself always being a 5th grade student since the series
first appeared in 1969. Stacks of multi-layered doraemon story and anime/movies
with its kind of ‘old’ or ‘new’ series have been swallowed by me. Of course,
the fond memories of doraemon which remain from my childhood successfuly made
me tremble with excitement when coming to this kind of celebration!
 |
| The number of people visiting the place for the exhibition is pretty extraordinary and the blue balls seen in the distance are the Doraemon statues. |
Picture by Cindy Zenata
This
large-scale free celebration of “100 Years Before the Birth of Doraemon”
Exhibition was hosted at Harbour City , Hong Kong from 14 Aug to 16 Sep
2012. The exhibition itself was held as a honour to this beloved anime character because
this year is the start of the 100 year countdown to his birthday! Okay, I’m going to cut the pretense and cop to the fact that I
finally be able to take a part in this euphoria! Me and my brother got a chance
to visit the exhibition, gadgets expo gallery, and Bo-logne Café which has been transformed into
a ‘Doraemon Café’.
Let's step through the famous anywhere (dokodemo) door, and relieve our
childhood dreams!
Picture by Cindy Zenata
To carry on the campaign’s theme of friendship, future and
dreams, three famous installations also has been set up at different parts
of Harbour City including “The Night Before Nobita’s wedding!” (the scene where
Nobita check-out his future wife), “Goodbye, Doraemon!” (the scene whereby
doraemon escorting a beaten up Nobita with tears before bid farewell) and
“Memories of Grandma” (the scene when Nobita reunited with his grandma when
missing her a lot after she died).
Oh! And also here is famous gadget installation to complete the awesomeness of this exhibition
 |
| Moshimo-box (もしもボックス), a phone booth of which the user can propose a "what if" scenario and make it a reality. What kind of world do you want? |
There also a separate gallery of Doraemon's gadgets in details named `Doraemon Concept Expo: Gadgets in the Future’. It is focused on showcasing 30
original gadgets from around the world. The room is also filled with many other
doraemon characters. In addition, to enter this gallery requires a free admission queuing ticket. I got the ticket at 9am but allowed to enter at 1pm. What a long time!
On the other hand, the long queuing is worth since I overwhelmed with happiness inside! Of course i'm not forget to take
a lot of pictures and happen to just ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ over various gadgets! They
even sell the gadgets but unfortunately I happened to come near to the end of
exhibition period and everything had been sold out! :(
Picture by Cindy Zenata
For the duration of the exhibition, the BO-LO’GNE café and bar
which located inside Harbour City’s LCX
are transformed into a pop-up Doraemon themed café. Fill your tummy with a
wide-range of choices with a touch of Doraemon’s! They also served a pack of biscuits
in a shape of doraemon and doraemon’s memory toast to be taken away home. The Memory Toast lets you remember your text books right away just by
pressing the toast on the pages you want to remember and eat it. Use it in
school! =P
Picture by Cindy Zenata
During the exhibition period, Harbour City was also hosted workshop sessions
at KidX that welcomes parents and their children to participate in creating,
designing and decorating their own personalized Doraemon figures.
Picture by Cindy Zenata
Picture by Cindy Zenata
In the end,
the time to go back has come up! The celebration with bunch of doraemon figures which embedded into
the memories of many people here is not your everyday sightseeing and the exhibition is
already over for those who are interested to visit. This exhibition is freakin’ good and nostalgic! So, when event
like this are occuring again, get a short escape without a doubt!
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