Finding beautiful ‘less-tourists areas’ in Jakarta ? It’s not that really hard.

Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia with more than eight millions of people living in it’s largest city in Indonesia. Make Jakarta, one of the most sought place by foreign tourists. You can easily find foreigner walking on the main streets in Jakarta, especially in the tourist areas.

But, is it true that very hard to find beautiful less-tourists areas in Jakarta ? The answer is really a BIG NO. I’ve guide my friends from Czech and Dutchman, and they asked me to guide them to places that less tourists, and guess where I bring them to ?

I take the Czech to animal market on Jatinegara, East Jakarta. Near to Jatinegara train station, the market was quite dirty and crowded. It’s a street market that sells a lot of kind animals, from illegal to legal, from monkey to turtledove bird. After taking pictures couple of animals there, we continued our track to marginal area behind the train station, still in Jatinegara to see another side of this big metropolitan city.  Tourists in this area ? as far my eyes rolling, I didn’t find any other tourists in the area. Not even one (at that time).

A very big canal in Halimun, South Jakarta. You can get a very beautiful sunset here. I know it can’t be compared to those in Venice or Macau, but still it’s worth to see. You can get taxi or transjakarta bus to go to this place. Just stand on it’s bridge, or you can buy some food at the food stall there and eat while waiting for sunset. Don’t forget to captures some pictures !!

What else ? Monas, The National Monument, the most famous landmark in Jakarta, or even in Indonesia. Symbolizing the fight for Indonesia’s independence, you can’t miss this place. As a famous landmark, of course there will be lot of tourists come to this place, but then again, think smart. While most of tourists come to this landmark during the day, why don’t you come the opposite timing ? come at night. That’s what I did for my Dutchman friends. Foreigner tourists ? I don’t even see one, well except my Dutchman friends.

What about food hunting ? Try to avoid Sabang, Jaksa, Blok M, Kemang, Menteng and Kelapa Gading, too many tourists there. How about try delicious food in rawamangun, cempaka putih or the morning market that sells lot of cakes and snacks in Senen Market, I bet you’ll love the place, the food and not to mention the price ‘cos it’s cheap.

I would love to give hundred recommend places to share, but then again it will be such a novel than tips. The most important thing is try to contact with local people, you know, we are know better our place than you guys. LOL.

Like Light Life

"A room is like a stage. If you see it without lighting, it can be the coldest place in the world," Paul Lynde.

A light for human life is like a food, it is really important to our life, as a torch to help our eyes can look around yet help us to be able doing things for our life. Can you imagine how it would be a life without light ? our life could be the coldest thing in the world. 

We can have light from from natural sources such as sunlight or moonlight, yet we still need additional light from lamp and talking about light and lamp, and what the conjunction with energy-efficient. Actually, here in my post, I want to share couple amateur tips for saving energy with lighting. Here are some of those simple ideas :

• Optimize the use of natural lighting during the day, it is not just because the natural light nicer but it does more eficient. You can do this using translucent glass windows that can provide as much light as dozens of light bulbs during the daylight hours.,  you also can make the transparent translucent roof that radiates sunlight during the daylight hours.
• Turn off all the lights just before you sleep, unless you are a  nyctophobia , it would bemore efficient if you turn off the lights before you sleep. More precisely, turn off all the lights when you are not using it.
• Use the TL lamps or CFL (Compact Flourecent Lamp) and avoid incandescentlamps. Because incandescent bulbs are less efficient, a lot of energy convert into heat instead to the light. and the rated life of a CFL ranges from 8 to 15 times that of incandescents. In fact, you can save more than 100K rupiahs on your electric costover the life of the lamp*.
• You can do task lighting** concept which widely used in office buildings, in to your home lighting concept. The basic concepts of task lighting is used to increase illuminance on the reading area. To your home, you can Install track of recessed lights to illuminate your desk or the kitchen table where you do the crossword puzzle, and keep the ceiling lights off.

Those are four ways of things you can do to save energy with lighting. Actually, there are still many ways you can do, like buying energy-efficient lighting equipment, installing energy-saving floodlights outdoor, and many more. 

The most important before you doing all those ways to save energy, make sure yourself that you really want to change. The thing before we change the world, we change the concept of ourselves. So we can like the light of our life.

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Sources :

*   https://www.powerofaction.com/estlighting/

**  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Task_lighting

Save Water Save Your Life.

Water, might be the most important thing in our life. Can you imagine if there were no water in this world ? We can have no food for more than five days, but we mostly impossible to live without water for three to five days*. Eighty percents of our body is water, that’s why we do really need water the most in this life. Not just for our body, but to this environment, for watering plants, for washing clothes, and many more things need water.

Many ways you can do to save water in your daily life. These are five of them :

1. When you turn on the water machine to fill your bath, pay attention on it. Do not ever leave the bath while you filling it, because the water maybe spilled out if you didn’t pay attention on it.
2. Test your water meter. Turn off all water in the house and look at your water meter. The meter should not rotate, iIf the opposite occurs, there may be leaks in water pipes. Check all your water bill to ensure there are no major surge in the use of. If those things happen to your water meter, do call.
3. Nowadays, there seems like no rainy season or summer, we nearly can’t predict when rain will come nor predict when the summer will come. So, when the rain come, we better absorb the rain water and use it for watering plants instead of complaining and getting mad because of it.
4. Do bring your own mineral drink water from home. It will not just save the water, but it save your money too.
5. Many people think brushing teeth is an activity that can be resolved quickly, that’s why most people often leave the faucet in open position while brushing their teeth. In fact, a number of 4 gallons wasted**. Is  It is not that hard to turn off the faucet for a while, isn’t it ?

After you read post, I wish nothing but when you use water crazily, think it over again, there are millions people in this world still living with water shortages. Be smart, be save, be generous. Save water save your life.

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Sources :
*  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survival_skills
** http://edition.cnn.com/2011/LIVING/04/16/ed.water.saving.tips/index.html

USE YOUR LAPTOP WISELY

Notebook or common called as laptop, seems like a must have gadget for those who are students or officers. Either we all need this thing for making homework from teacher, doing office report at home, or just upgrading our prestige. No matter what laptop do for us, it is unbeatable we do need it.

Various kind of laptop from different brand sold in malls, electronic shops, or via online internet. We can have it from the cheapest one to the highest price, with different specifications.

Talking about laptop, and talking about efficiency of energy. I want to share what I have know in order we can still use our laptop yet keep doing go-green lifestyle (yes, I called go-green as lifestyle, it’s because I’m proud doing this go-green things, I want make it as a style of my life, and will do as best as I can).

Well, back to topic. These are things you guys can do related to electrical energy savings :

1. First, when you decide to buy a laptop, try to find a low electrical capacity. It will save your house electrical and of course will save your money.
2. Always charge your laptop’s battery until it reach 100 % before you want to use it. It’s not   just save the electric,  it does save your battery’s life, not to mention, it saves your money too.
3. Adjust the lighting and contrast of your monitor. Too high lighting and contrast percentage will  spend a lot of energy.
4. Use a full black color as your wallpaper instead a colorful one also will save a lot of energy (it is believed to save more energy in CRT kind of monitor not the LCD one). Even a website powered by Google, which created by Heap Media fade to black with blackle. Blackle claims saving more than 700 megawatt-hours per year*.
5. Turn off other equipment such as speakers, scanner or printer when you finished using them.
6. Last but not the least. Add more RAM !! The more amount of RAM you have, the more your laptop will run better and it will surely make your laptop last longer.

Those are six things I have done with my laptop, which you can do the same to yours. Actually there are couple things more, like using energy-saving software program, but I have not tried yet, so I can’t say much.

From now on, let use your laptop go-greenly (greenly ? okay, I just made the word. I mean use your laptop wisely, it must be the proper word in dictionary). So, you can save your laptop’s life and the most important you save the energy. If I can do those things above, why can’t you ?

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Sources :

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackle.com         

I Can Live Without AC

There is a friend of mine, who can't sleep without air-conditioner. She always turn on air-conditioner in her room, whenever she go to bed. I once asked her, why she need air-conditioner everytime she go to bed ? Isn't it enough by using fan only ? She answered, I don't know, I just feel better with air-conditioner, it's cooling the room different with fan. Then I asked again, "so you have tried using fan when you sleep before ?", she said "well, not yet". Soon after hearing her response, I'm like, what ? are you kidding me ? tryin to compare things that you never tried before ? 

Well, I still can't get it. I mean, she has no idea exactly how does it feel sleeping with fan, but she confidently said air-conditioner was better than fan. What are you looking for by using air-conditioner ? a cold room to help you get a quality yet comfort sleep, right ? Fan is more than enough, i think, well, okay this is my personal opinion.

Actually there are many points I can show you all, why do I prefer fan than air-conditioner. Air-conditioner, more than 50% electrical energy consumption in homes is for the air conditioner (AC)*. It means that, using air-conditioner suck lot of money from your pocket. Not just for the electricity, but air-conditioner  it self, buying air-conditioner is much-much-much more expensive than fan. After you buy it, you do still need routine maintenance services, which need much more money than fan, and all those money being sucked from your bank account. It will eroding your financial slowly but sure. 

Okay, we have seen in terms of it's economic aspect. Now let we see it in terms of go green living aspect.The use of air-conditioner will produce chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), an organic compound that contains carbon, chlorine, and fluorine, produced as a volatile derivative of methane and ethane, which contribute to ozone depletion **. 

Yes, I prefer to not use air-conditioner, but then again it is your right to use or not to use air-conditioner in your home. Even though you will choose to use air-conditioner, there are still many ways you can do to use it wisely, for example leave the thermostat alone, keep the curtains closed, keep your air-conditioner out of the sun, etc ***. not just for you but sure for the world too. 

The point, in my opinion, by not using air-conditioner, you become a hero. You have save your self, yet you save the world too.


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sources :
*   http://www.need.org/needpdf/infobook_activities/SecInfo/ConsS.pdf
**  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorofluorocarbon
*** http://saveenergy.about.com/od/homecooling/tp/ac_usage.htm

Don't Bring Too Many Clothes

I love traveling so much. Let say this is my passion. I remember the first time I had feeling for traveling was on my early childhood. I was on my kindergarten back then, my parents took me to their hometown Sigumpar in North Sumatera, near to Lake Toba. I was so happy that time, my first time experience on a plane, my first experience seeing a place other than city I lived.

My heart on traveling continue up till now. For the last three years, I've been traveling to Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and some areas of Indonesia, like Bali, Jogjakarta, Solo, Surabaya, Lombok, The Komodo National Park in NTT, Krakatoa Island, and many others. There was one time when someone asked me, why do I love traveling like very much. Simply I answered, because the world is too beautiful to not be explored.

Since I travel a lot, a lot of my friends asked me, what they should note when traveling. Actually, being a traveler is easy and simple. One of the most important things people should know about traveling is not bring too many clothes. Traveling is not like we're moving our household into a new place, it's about the experience it self.

Why do we have to bring so many clothes ? You don't want to pack and bring a too big bagpack rite ? You don't want waste your travel time just to taking care of your things on your bag, do you ? Get simple. Take a note, what's your trip is all about ? beach, mountain or what ? do adjust to your destination place and of course the weather. Do bring more black clothes than bright color. You don't need to wash your black clothes so often like birght colors, it means you save on your detergent to wash, which means that you save your financial.

Do re-use !! For example, if you traveling about 10 days, five clothes will be enough. You can use your first one in day one and six, your second cloth on day two and day seven, and so on. Instead bring many clothes, why don't you bring perfume, to avoid bad smell of your used clothes, so you'll have a good smell and people will not notice if you wear a cloth that have been used before.

Not only make your traveling more simple and fun, bring enough clothes reduce the excessive use of detergents and also save world water-supplies. Be a smart traveler !!

I'm Proud To Be A Cyclist

I remember when I was in elementary school, it's like 16 years ago. I was 8 back then, my first time learned how to ride a bicycle, my friend's bike, not mine. It took me more than three hours, before I finally made it to ride it by my own. I still remember, how happy I was at that time, and everytime I ride my friend's bike. 

Now, at my 24 years old. The happy feeling because of riding a bicycle still the same or even more. Finally for the first time in my life, I can have my own bike. It started from last year, after couple times passing through Sudirman street on sunday morning, watching thousand cyclists riding their bike for the Car Free Day annual event (it's once in every two weeks), making it look like a big parade. Many cyclists from all over Jakarta come into Sudirman street with different types of bikes. It makes me think that it would be great if I have one and join this big parade every sunday.

In february 2010, after two months colleting money, buying the spareparts, working on it with my friend, finally my first ever bike was completed. I assemble my own bike with my friend, a fixie, white color, not so that great compare to those millions rupiah bike, but I do feel happy for having it. 

Today, having a bike, not just for joining the annual car free day, but being a cyclist has become my lifestyle. This is my green statement. I'm happy doing this, eventhough many friends of mine saying that I'm a victim of trend, I don't care. They have no idea how many positive things that I can get from this, in addition to being happy, there are many benefits for our health by riding bicycle. 

By doing a routine cycling, we can control and reduce body weight yet builds muscle and burns body fat. Some research also has shown that women who regular cycling will reduce the risk of breast cancer*. Riding for several miles does promote tension reduction and (usually) a feeling of well-being, in short, riding a bike is healthy, fun and a low-impact from exercise, not to mention it is a perfect energy-saving transportation.

Lot positive things I got from cycling, no matter what people will mocking at me for back in to retro, the thing is I'm proud to be a cyclist and will always be. 

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* source from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/2743965.stm