A saturday trip to Kawah Putih, Ciwidey

08 January 2011.

After a great Friday night out. I woke up at 5.22 in the morning.
Getting ready for this photo hunting trip with my friends from Lomonesia (a photography community)

My friend and I got in to the meeting place at Lomography Embassy Store at 6.30.

Already there are people gathering around (the meeting time was 6 AM, departure at 7).

We did the registration, sign our names and out twitter accounts (is this really necessary?) and we got our name-tag that says "HELLO, My name is: *fill in the blanks*" since some of us just met for the first time.

this is my name-tag

Comes 7 o'clock, and we're ready to go. our bags are packed, our cameras are loaded, and off we go.

The bus. the bus was nice. Air conditioned, got toilet in it, and even a smoking section at the front (divided by a glass door). We are about to pick up our friends in Bandung first, before advancing to the final destination. a good two hours away from the city of Bandung. Kawah Putih tourism spot, a sulfuric crater up in the mountain, in the Ciwidey area, West Java.

The traffic was packed. We arrived in Bandung at 9.30, 30 minutes later than expected. 14 people got in, along with our lunch (I'm already starving at the time, got little breakfast), adding up to 38 person in the bus.

We advanced to the destination, moving along through Kopo, up the hills, and that is when something came up. The bus stopped. It broke down. what a luck.
things got sorted out though. We just had to wait for a while on the broken down bus. Eat our lunch, and waiting for the substitute bus to come along. It started raining.

the bus came, after an hour wait (I think). we continued our journey, just a short way of it (but it was a hell of a roller-coaster-near-death-experience ride, the driver was crazy, twisting and turning the bus like it was a mini car). to the Kawah Putih nature tourism spot (I'm sorry I didn't take any picture of it).
Turns out that we have to pay for the ticket (but of course) and the small cars to get to the Crater (26k Rupiah). Oh and two of our friends join in with a private car. so it's 40 of us now.

Up we went. the rain had stopped, but it was foggy. I felt sort of a mixture of awe and eerie along the way up, fogs and all. 6 kilometers up, and we're there.

the car stop

We entered the facility, up the steps and into the crater. It was 3 PM.

It was vast, smell of sulphuric run all through the crater, poking our nasal cavity. Its not too crowded, and not deserted as well.

The place was a favorite spot for pre-wedding photoshoot, local and national (international?) tourist attraction just outside Bandung, capitol city of West Java.

we start taking pictures, with our analog plastic cameras. flash, normal, bulb, landscapes, human interest, trees, rock, water, and everything else. It was fun, we took a pictures of all of us together. got a couples of digital cameras for documenting the event. while we shoot analogs for ourselves to our heart content.

first view of the crater

look right

and left

and another right

We stayed in the crater for quite a while. the air is chilly, the wind's cold, and after one and a half hour or so. it started to rain.
it was late, so after another group pictures, we went down. back to our new bus (the first one break down, remember?).

Its late in the afternoon, and we were extra famished. So we went to the nearest food stalls, ordering foods from instant noodles, meatballs, grilled sweet corn, chocolate coated strawberries, and a local cuisine named 'batagor'

The first bus was better than this one, but well, cant complain, since it was an unfortunate thing. at the least we still reach or destination and on our way home safely.

The road back, was still foggy.

this is some of the view from the front seat of the bus to the front view windshield:

turn right

the mist

another right turn

Meanwhile, there is a door prizes given to the lucky participants. we put our name on a piece of paper, at it will be randomly picked.
This one here is mine. lucky me, a Diana Camera Key-chain.

We dropped of our friends from Bandung, and went straight back to Jakarta. Back to our first meeting point at the Lomography Embassy Store in Jalan Bumi No. 19, Mayestik, South Jakarta.

Hard rain welcome us as we arrived in Jakarta, it was already 10.30 PM. tired but content. We went home.

I will be waiting for our next trip. :)

And I will post my photo results soon.

I scrap-booked the name-tag, along with the tickets

Log day 3 month 1 year 2011

Today I woke up later than usual. 10.30.
I went to Karawaci. Ate lunch. And went to this coffe shop called "Arabusta" (a local coffee shop, I think)
The place was nice, spacious, simple interior. the coffee was strong. I ordered ice black coffee.





My friend Silvi and I sit and talk about stuffs, while waiting for a photo shoot. She was going to do a session for her friend's boutique. I was backing her up. With my new Sprocket Rocket Camera from Lomography.Time went untilk it's 1700 hours. It was getting late. Burning daylight.
We Start taking pictures. She with her Nikon DSLR. I use flash photography with an effinity iso 100 film. It's getting dark.

My camera setting was for Cloudy, i switch from N to B speed with my Mini Holga Flash on the hotshoe. My first roll on the Sprocket Rocket. Blind test? Confident enough to get some result. Just that, did I consider the paralax? Let's wait and see.

In the meantime, the project w/ Raymond (he's still doing all the work so far) is getting somewhere. Me going to that venue (coffee shop) was an opening for it.
Have to get more productive now. Have to. One thing at a time, but with more effort. Move faster. It's time for fast changes.

-continued- to be..

Time Turner

01.01.2011 04.00 AM

Another Year. Full of Excitements, eventful, and ups and downs. Lots of smiles, soundtracks, snapshots, good laughs, stoned nights, lonely days, cold, hot, warm, fuzzy, crisp.

Achievements: Exhibit my photos, got it in some venue & magazines. Got in a talk show on Lomography. Write a location review, do freelance translation jobs. Take quite some pictures. Went to Jogja, Bali, documented my uncle's wedding (poorly). Lots of talks.

Wish: Find a Career. Write, draw, shoot, read more. Publish something with my name on it. Make a living. Meet more people. Go to more places. Stop getting comfortable. Fight more. Search more. Think more. Do even more. And start saving money for making more money. Think more business-like. Use heart along. Use heart and gut feeling for everything.

Start thinking about yourself. feel free to expand your imagination, your mind, and share it with the rest of the world.

Be happy.

Happy New Year
2011

nic!
04.20 AM

Signs

I first heard it in this movie titled 'Serendipity'
about signs.
you can ignore it.
you can think its only a coincidence.
or you can think it as a merely random things.
or generals.

but yet, you can also see it, as a sign from the universe.

Hey, why (in the hell) would the vast universe (multiverses, maybe)
had anything to concern, about YOUR personal wellbeing?

maybe its just a drive (?) where everybody else are going too..
maybe it;'s just a general knowledge/goals, that everyone else are reaching.

But, here's the thing.
why would you be working on a book where the writer is encouraging people to follow their gut.
and then, you just saw this movie that, a person you've just met, gave it to you, and its about something to do with how you feel. how your life suppose to go.

well, there are lots of books and movies, and we humans do tends to relate to everything.

Then again, about the 'gut' thing.

I really think it is time. to move with it. to let it entangled and engulf you and makes you whole at the same time.

Am I talking in the mist here?

do you want me to give a clearer view of what I'm saying?

maybe you will, or maybe not.
it is yet to come.
my story is not yet finish written.
Or even, it haven't even really started yet.

So, good morning...
have a nice Sunday..
and dream BIG (no period)


niki.
(who will starts to write regularly, on this tiny little spot)

note to self:
either I'm on substance, or after wrapping up the translating job,
are the reasons
why I write
How I write right now.

Hello Earthling...

Greetings from the sea and under.

You have been occupying the land and exploiting the sea for a long time, since you're existence that is. It's not a very long time compared to the age of Earth itself, but hell, you do inflict a lot of damage to your own land and to us that belong to the seas and oceans.

Yes we do live in the same planet, we share the atmosphere, the oxygen derived from both trees in land and coral reefs in the sea. We face the same sun and moon, and yet, you decide to rely on your technology alone, after getting knowledge from the nature and environment, and turn it against its true knowledge possessor. Claiming every inch of land and water, for the benefits of your own kind, even fight between yourself for patches of earthen soil.

This is what our border used to look like, still stays like this in certain places. the sandy beaches, that you love the most.

But take a look underwater. See what is happening here. Instead of colorful coral reefs and tropical fishes, all we see is dead corals and rubbles. We even thank you that the water is still clear around here. In other places, its so murky and smells. Your waste, trash, fuel exhaust, are polluting our water. Both mine and yours.

Oh, yes... you do need water too...
and we do live in this interweaving ecosystem, this biosphere that although as hard as you try to resist and escape with all your technology and comfortableness, still you need energy and air and water and all that comes from nature. Sure you have made improvement that makes better and better crops, plants and animal strains by cross pollination, domestication, tissue culture, biotechnology, and everything else that goes with it.
But for how long.
another millennium?
a decade?
or just enough time for you to see your children born and then see the world collapsing?

think.

01.12.2010
niki out.

sakuran

its 3:45 AM and I'm listening to the soundtrack of the movie Sakuran, suddenly imagining anna tsuchiya with her big eyes and round face...
haven't been writing much in this tiny blog I have.
so here goes...
what am I thinking and or doing lately?
have I lived my live well enough?
all this questions never fail to flash in my mind ever so often this pass few days.
I get bored easily, I have nothing in focus, and even the pictures I took is not so good (what's this got to do?)

I've been working like a dumb mule lately, and also not getting anything from it (apart from monthly bases salary, that is), felt like I need to break free... is it just me dreaming too big? or is it actually a problem that I have to find solution soon enough before it's entirely too big to handle?

I can see some opportunities coming down my way, and I will try my best to take it.
Ready or not, I'm gonna go for it.
if not this then something else.
I just have to get it now or I might burst out real soon.

is this so typical of me? dodging out on the hard part?

well, like a good friend of mine use to say, "won't know untill you try it out."
simply that...

just don't get dragged away too far with things that will kill your soul, or at least your energy...
I'm still claiming abstinence on believing that we have soul or not, but we do have our own passion for destruction and construction of our whole life.
Either that, or we are going to live in vain.

I don't aim for divine purpose as in going to heaven or being a saint, but I will try and keep trying my best to be one of the grain of sands that forms the beach and ocean floors.

for that I will live.
I won't be the goldfish in the bowl.

am i sleepy

i am.
but also
very intrigued