The Land of Coconut

Having coconut beside the beach is one of the best things to do in life......

Nyum!!!! Young coconut is one of the best delicacies....

More of Pulau Kramat, Sumbawa, Indonesia

Rich kinds of Reefs along the way to the Island of Pulau Kramat, Sumbawa, Indonesia

Arriving at Pulau Kramat (Note: my maid and the boat driver in the picture)

The beach of Pulau Kramat, Sumbawa, Indonesia

The water is very very clear........ What an amazing feeling to be there!!!! :)

@ Pulau Kramat, Sumbawa, West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia

Broken Pier in Pulau Kramat, Sumbawa, West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia

Pulau Kramat, Sumbawa, Indonesia

Amazing, clean, untouched, mesmerizing, peaceful beach of Pulau Kramat, Sumbawa, Nusa Tenggara Barat, NTB, Indonesia

In order to get here, I had to drive for about one and half hour to a small resort-like place and take a boat for about 20 minutes to this island.

According to the boat rider, the island is inhabited and the government prohibits any part of the land to be sold to anybody other than the natives there.

Interesting Facts about Indonesia

Fact #1:

Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world (237 million people).

Fact #2:

Indonesia is made up of 17,508 islands. About 6000 of them are inhabited by people.

Fact #3:

Being located in the tropical zone, Indonesia only has two seasons of the year, dry and rainy season.

Fact #4:

Almost 50% of the Indonesian population live on US$2 a day.

Fact #5:

Indonesia has the world's largest population of Muslims.

Fact #6:

The largest islands of Indonesia are: Java, Sumatra, New Guinea, Sulawesi, and Kalimantan.

Fact #7:

Indonesia is also known as the world’s 16th largest country based on the total land area in Indonesia.

Fact #8:

Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia remains to be the 11th largest city in the world and is also densely populated.

Fact #9:

Of the ten largest islands found in the world, Indonesia boasts of three that belong to its list: Sumatra, Kalimantan (Borneo), and Papua.

Fact #10:

Sumatra is the sixth largest island in the whole world and also the 5th highest island in the world.

I Introduce Indonesia to You

Many people know Bali more than they do about Indonesia. In fact, Bali is only a tiny part of the country that has more than 13,466 islands. If you can imagine Bali as a heaven on earth, I am pretty sure you'll find other parts of Indonesia even more breathtaking. Since you probably know a lot about Bali, I wanna share about Indonesia instead. Here are some basic information that you should know about Indonesia.

Official Name: Republic of Indonesia
Capital City: Jakarta
Official Language: Indonesian / Bahasa
Population: 237,556,363 (2010 Census)
Currency: Rupiah (IDR)
Time Zone: Various (UTC+7 to UTC+9)
Drives on the: Left
Most Famous Island: Bali
Number of Provinces: 33 (as of 2011)
Major Religion: Muslims (86.1%)

November 2010 Road Trip Part 1

So I just got back from a road trip to some cities in Western United States. I basically flew out from Vancouver to Las Vegas on November 8, then I spent 3 nights in Las Vegas. It was a great second visit to Las Vegas (I went to Las Vegas about two years ago with some friends who lived in LA and SF).

Welcome to Las Vegas! (@McCarran International Airport)

Unlike last time where I only had time to go clubbing at TAO and strolled down the Strip for only about 3-4 hours, this time I had enough time to stroll The Strip both at daytime and at night. It was crazy!!! I love Vegas, I always love the casino atmosphere..... not sure why though....

Wynn

Some highlights of my Las Vegas experience are:

1. I got the chance to watch the incredible stunning show of Blue Man Group

2. I went to Grand Canyon West Rim and tried the skywalk (read: COOL)

3. I was staying at one of the top hotels in Las Vegas >>>> THE VENETIAN!!! :) :)

Yes! I went to see The Grand Canyon!!! Another nature's world wonder conquered! :)

Guano Point

I was basically pretty happy with my time spent in Las Vegas even though I wish I have watched more shows that Las Vegas has to offer.

Before, we left Las Vegas, my uncle wanted to check out the golf country club at Wynn. We had a peek and wow it was pretty spectacular!!! A store attendant, who is eventually an Indonesian, at the country club store, said that it costs about $500 to play there which is more costly than any other places. The reason is it's very very hard and costly to maintain a golf course in a desert like Las Vegas. Indeed!

Wynn Country Club

After Las Vegas, I then rented out a car to depart for San Diego on November 11. I didn't drive the car, my uncle did! A bit of background, my uncle comes right from Indonesia, had no experience whatsoever about driving in North American highways, had no knowledge at all about the road signs and etc (Indonesia has road signs everywhere but NOONE pays attention to them there, including me haha), and was completely not used to driving in the right side of the road. Hmmm...... That's why I was constantly nervous and kept on checking the speed on the speedometer.

November 2010 Road Trip Part 2

On our way leaving Las Vegas for San Diego, we stopped by at a McDonald restaurant since we hadn't had lunch. What I like about McDonald in the US is the ice sweet tea which is not served in any Canadian McDonald (as far as I know). Hitting back the highway, we proceeded with high speed (approximately 100 miles/hour of speed) and again, I was constantly nervous and kept checking out the surrounding to make sure no police was around. As we almost reached the greater San Diego area, I explained to my uncle how the speeding ticket works. As I was explaining, a police car was behind us and honking on us to pull over. Oh great!!! Finally we got caught. Long story short, we got a speeding ticket with an unknown amount since it's not stated on the ticket. The ticket doesn't even have the website on it. We ended up having to go to Civil Court in Beverly Hills to find out how to pay for the ticket.

On our way from Las Vegas to San Diego, we stopped by a big and famous factory outlet, Cabazon. We shopped for about 2 or 3 hours and then we continued out road trip. I'd have to say Cabazon was alright (I rate my shopping experience there 7/10).

As we reached San Diego, we checked into our hotel, Doubletree Club Hotel San Diego. After that, we were very hungry for food and finally had dinner at nearby Cheesecake Factory restaurant. Then, we went to see how downtown San Diego looks like and then headed back to hotel for a rest.

The next day, we did a quick visit to San Diego Seaworld. It's nothing special except the Shamu Show.

I have to say that San Diego was just OK and nothing much to do except visiting the beach. I didn't have a chance to visit San Diego Zoo since my travel buddy didn't want to go. We ended up trying to go to the border between Mexico and the US. As we reached the border we didn't really have a gut to cross the border. We ended up shopping at the factory outlet near the border which was probably the highlight of our shopping experience in this trip since we shopped the most here (shopping experience 9/10).

The next day, we tried to visit a beach in San Diego, la Jolla Beach. The view was awesome! I feel that I should have visited more beaches in San Diego. Oh well, probably next time!!! We had to leave San Diego and continued our journey to the next destination, Los Angeles!