Singapore, 30 March - 1 April 2007

A present for MTI crew members after very hard and dedicated work: a trip to Singapore. Since none of the guys and girls has been to Singapore before, I had to assume role as a "tour leader" :) So many things to prepare, including briefing pak Muji and mas Purbo what to tell other people if they asked about our absence :D

So... the trip started from Batam since we wanted to save fiscal cost. On the first day, our destination was the NUS campus. We met with a Vice Dean of MBA program and discussed about program development. I was almost sure that most of us didn't concentrate on the discussion... their mind was already on the tour plan after visiting NUS :)

I don't want to tell about details of our visits to interesting places. Just enjoy some of the pictures...

Dieng, 18 - 19 March 2007

This time we wanted something new. The holiday theme was 'into open air'... Furthermore, we didn't want to go very far. So Dieng came into our list. It is close to Yogya, it has open air, and we haven't been there for long time. But there was one problem: where should we stay ?

The Internet proved to be an invaluable tool in such a situation. My browsing provided me with an interesting option: the Tambi tea plantation guest house. At first I was in doubt, is it a good place to stay ? But I took the risk and made a booking. One million rupiah for a big bungalow with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms was fairly a good deal.

The plantation location is about 14 km north of Wonosobo, on the way to Dieng. From Tambi to Dieng is about 11 km. The premise was perfect. It is cool, clean, and quiet. One problem was food. It was not easy at all to find food in the complex. Fortunately the management offer lunch and dinner for Rp 25.000 per person. Not bad for hungry people ! We didn't have much activities on the first day.

I started the second day with a short stroll just before sunrise. I walked around tea trees, watching villagers going to tea fields or tea factory. Those peaceful and friendly faces...

Later in the morning, there was a short tour. Going around tea plantation area, the guide explained about tea and the production process. I was not interested, so I took photos, practicing with my Canon 400D.

After taking bath, we packed and proceeded to Dieng. The road is very steep. We went to Telaga Warna, whose colour can change according to the climate. We also watched a film about Dieng at the Dieng Plateau Theatre. Finally we visited the Sikidang crater. Unlike Tangkubanperahu crater, we could approach very close to the crater and felt the burst of its mud.

The Dieng experience showed me that even small places that we often overlook hide magnificent beauties...