Garuda Indonesia, the country’s national airline, has launched an international photo competition called : the Garuda Indonesia World Photo Contest (GAWPC) 2013 .
“My Enchanting Town”, is the theme chosen for the online contest where photographers are required to capture scenes of their hometown. Collaborating with the photography community Ayo Foto! (ayofoto.com), the contest is divided into three categories consisting of: Nature, Culture, and People.
To take place from 1st May to 28th July 2013, the contest will be an arena where creativity and high photographic quality of professional photographers and serious amateur photo enthusiasts from all across the globe are showcased and compete.
The selection for the best photos and winners of GAWPC 2013 will involve online public voting, ratings from Credible Online Judges and scoring by the 2013 GAWPC Honorary Judging Committee.
In the first round, public voting will select the best 1.000 photos from each category. Subsequently, public voting and online judges will select the top 200 photos in each category in round 2. While In round 3, the GAWPC Honorary Judging Committee will select the top 5 photos and photographers in each category (totaling 15 finalists).
The 15 Finalists will then be invited to the final leg of the contest which is a Photo Hunting Trip to Medan, West Sumatra
The contest will involve some of the renowned names in international photography with judges including Tom Hunter (UK), Matt Brandon (Malaysia), Peter Watson (UK), Michael Hudson (Australia), Vivit Kavi (Indonesia), Ryo Ohwada (Japan), Rapahael Olivier (France), Nacho Hernandez (Spain), Marvin Stavars (Poland), Aaron Feinberg (USA), Soumitra Datta (india), and many more.
While, for the final photo hunting round, Indonesia’s most renowned photographer Arbain Ramber and Budhi Ipoeng, and Singapore’s Goh Kim Hui, will be the Honorary Judging Committee.
With the theme “Enchanted Indonesia”, in this photo hunting contest, finalists will compete for the best photo and the best photo essay for each category in the allotted time. The Best Nature, Best Culture, Best People, Best Overall and Special Recognition photographies, will be selected from among the 15 Finalists by the 2013 GAWPC Honorary Judging Committee. Winners will be confirmed the Garuda Indonesia World Photo Contest winners at a special Gala Dinner Ceremony.
Click here for special offer Booking Hotel in Medan North Sumatera Now!
More information available at: http://gawpc.garuda-indonesia.com/
Friday, 17 May 2013
Monday, 13 May 2013
How To Travel in Bangkok without Tour Guide
Travel to Bangkok is an amazing experience. This article is my experience about 4 days in Bangkok city. You can save your budget and get more time if you travel without tour guide. There is many place that you must visit in Bangkok such as : Grand Palace, Emerald Buddha (Wat Phra Kaew), Reclining Buddha (Wat Pho), Wat Arun.
Bangkok is capitol city of Thailand. The city is very busy and the traffic jam can be make you frustated. But the mass rapid transportation can help you to the place within a minute. Okay before travel to Bangkok, first you can prepare something:
Survey using Google Street
Google Street is very helpfull for survey the area of Bangkok. Just open your browser and go to the maps.google.com, type in the search box about the street name in Bangkok. For example, I type "sukhumvit soi 38, bangkok" and then the maps open to me. There is a man icon in top left corner that you can drag it to the street. Then you can see an image about the area in 360 degree. You can walk around the street with your cursor.
For booking a hotel you can search via Hotels2Thailand. Booking a hotel via Hotel2Thailand is very easy and you can get more discount and reward. Hotel2Thailand accepts PayPal and many major credit cards.
You can also booking many tickets event via Hotel2Thailand. For example you can book a Siam Niramit ticket, Madame Tussauds, Siam Ocean Worlds, a day trips ticket for grand palace, wat phra kaew, wat pho, and wat arun. And many tickets you can get in hotel2thailand.
Now after you get the information about the trips. You can plan the transportation to Bangkok. Suvarnabhumi Airport is the biggest airport. After you arrive and check point in imigration, you can go to claim bagage and then take exit. You can take a taxi, a bus, or airport link. I choose airport link, because it is cheap and fast. You can get information about airport link in here. Other train that connecting with airport link is the BTS and MRT. The BTS is the sky train and the MRT is the subway train. For more information about BTS you can get here and for MRT you can click here.
Also for travel around river there is a boat for tourist, you can get the information about Chao Phraya Tourist Boat in here.
In March 12-16, I've been travelling to Bangkok. My plane landing in Bangkok
around 11 am. After fill my immigration arrival card, I go to the immigration
check point. I've got stamp to stay in Bangkok about 30 days. But I've just
stay about 4 days. After take the exit door, I go to the airport link train.
This is the fast transportation to go to the central city of Bangkok. I
purchase the ticket City Line (not Express) to Phaya Thai for 45 Bath. This
train will be stop in every station and will be arrive at Phaya Thai about 30
minutes.
Bangkok weather is so hot. So after get off from the train, I bought a
mineral water. There is a McDonald kiosk in the cornet of the connection
station between Phaya Thai Airport Link and BTS.
Then I purchased the BTS Ticket to Thong Lo via vending machine. You must
know where the station you want to go, then it is convert to the zone. This
zone is the way that you can choose in the vending machine. Okay, after know
the zone, go to the vending machine. You can choose the English language then
press the zone, after that please insert the money to the machine. You will
receive the card ticket and don't forget some coin.
Before the gate will open, you must insert the ticket to the machine gate,
and take it again for the destination station. My destination station is
Thong Lo. On the afternoon, the train is so full passenger, but this is
acceptable for me to take the train. It was about 15 minutes to go to Thong
Lo station. Then I go down with the stairs and then go to my guest house in
Padi Madi, Sukhumvit Soi 53 and it's check in time at 1 pm.
After check in procedure, I walking around the area and get the lunch in the
small restaurant. I tried for Tom Yang soup and my wife tried for Crabs Fried
Rice. The food was so good taste.
In the print voucher of dinner at Loy Nava, I will pick up about 4.30 pm. So I prepare take a bath and waiting for the Loy Nava staf. The driver was on time when I just a while waiting. We are get in to the minivan and in the evening we go to the Si Phraya Pier and get the traffic jam. Took more than an hour to arrive the Si Phraya Pier and we arrive at 6 pm.
The Loy Nava staff check my voucher and my name was exist in his iPad for
confirmation. Then I board to the Rice Barge Loy Nava for a memorable dinner
in Chao Phraya.
In the Loy Nava, you will get all of the Thai food, and also a traditional dancer will entertaint you for 90 minutes. The boat cruise from Si Phraya Pier to the Phra Arthiet Pier and back again to Si Phraya Pier. A long the river, the staff at Loy Nava guide the tourist about the landmark around the river. We seen the Temple of the Dawn (Wat Arun) in the evening and it is so nice. We arrive again at Si Phraya Pier about 8pm. We wait for the driver for pick up us but the staff said that they don't found us then the manager of Loy Nava took a taxi for us for free
and we go to our guest house. The service of Loy Nava staff was verry excelent. They are very responsive and responsible for tourist like us.
Days two, we plan to the "must see" in Bangkok : Grand Palace, Wat Phra Kaew,
Wat Pho and Wat Arun. We take the BTS from Thong Lor about 8.30 am, then get
off at Siam station, change to another BTS line to Saphan Thaksin. We down to
the Central Pier and take a Chao Phraya Express Boat with Blue Flag. The
ticket for the boat is 45 Bath.
Many tourist usually down at Tha Thien Pier, but I took off at the Maharaj
Pier. Then after out from the pier, we took a walk straight ahead and then
turn right to go to Grand Palace. Within a junction we turn left and cross
the street and 100 m we got the gate of the palace.
The palace were so busy. Many tourist from other country were meet here. We
bought a ticket to enter the Grand Palace, Wat Phra Kaew at 500 Bath. We got
the booklet about the Grand Palace complex.
About an hour we sight seeing in Grand Palace, take a picture then take a rest in the corridor. Then we walk again to the Wat Pho. After take a picture at Wat Pho, we go to Tha Thien pier. We cross the river via ferry and arrive at Wat Arun.
There is an ice cream kiosk in the park of Wat Arun. We take a rest and have lunch that we've prepare from the Thong Lor : a crab fried rice box!
In the evening we go to the Siam Discovery and up to 6th floor to Madame Tussauds. We take a picture for many figure of people. Tired to walking we take a dinner at Sukhumvit Soi 38 at Thong Lo. We eat sticky rice, nice food. You must try it.
In day 3, we moved from Padi Madi guest house to Unico Premiere MetroLink Hotel. The hotel was so close with MRT Petchaburi station. We can't check in at 12 pm because the room was not ready yet. So we leave my suitcase and go to Chatucak Market. This market only open in the weekend (Saturday and Sunday). We take the MRT from Petchaburi to Kamphang Phet.
You can buy many souvenies and t-shirt in Chatucak Market. The market is so big, enough about 2 hours exploring the market. In the evening we prepare to the Siam Niramit show. This show was place on Thailand Culture Centre. We take MRT to Thailand Culture Centre, and then after out from station, take the minivan Siam Niramit. It is free.
We arrived at Siam Niramit village and there was pre show attraction. O ya, there were also two elephant in the village. These elephants will join the show in the main event. Buy ticket Siam Niramit at the spot was so expensive it is 1500 Bath. If you want get a cheap ticket about Siam Niramit, I prefer to book at www.hotels2thailand.com. Then you exchange your booking code with the real Siam Niramit ticket at ticket box.
Before take a seat, you must leave your camera in deposit box. It's free. The show is about 90 minutes. And it is must see event that you must take it in Bangkok! Amazing Siam Niramit show!
On day 4, we just walking around hotel and prepare for ready to leaving Bangkok memorable travel. Thank you for reading this article.
Preparation Travel to Bangkok
Bangkok is capitol city of Thailand. The city is very busy and the traffic jam can be make you frustated. But the mass rapid transportation can help you to the place within a minute. Okay before travel to Bangkok, first you can prepare something:
- Pasport and Visa
- Airplane Ticket
- Hotel Voucher
- Event Voucher
- US Dollar for money exchange in Bangkok
- Research how to get Airport Link, MRT, BTS, and Express Boat
- A pen, hat, notes, camera, suitcase
Survey using Google Street
Google Street is very helpfull for survey the area of Bangkok. Just open your browser and go to the maps.google.com, type in the search box about the street name in Bangkok. For example, I type "sukhumvit soi 38, bangkok" and then the maps open to me. There is a man icon in top left corner that you can drag it to the street. Then you can see an image about the area in 360 degree. You can walk around the street with your cursor.
For booking a hotel you can search via Hotels2Thailand. Booking a hotel via Hotel2Thailand is very easy and you can get more discount and reward. Hotel2Thailand accepts PayPal and many major credit cards.
You can also booking many tickets event via Hotel2Thailand. For example you can book a Siam Niramit ticket, Madame Tussauds, Siam Ocean Worlds, a day trips ticket for grand palace, wat phra kaew, wat pho, and wat arun. And many tickets you can get in hotel2thailand.
Now after you get the information about the trips. You can plan the transportation to Bangkok. Suvarnabhumi Airport is the biggest airport. After you arrive and check point in imigration, you can go to claim bagage and then take exit. You can take a taxi, a bus, or airport link. I choose airport link, because it is cheap and fast. You can get information about airport link in here. Other train that connecting with airport link is the BTS and MRT. The BTS is the sky train and the MRT is the subway train. For more information about BTS you can get here and for MRT you can click here.
Also for travel around river there is a boat for tourist, you can get the information about Chao Phraya Tourist Boat in here.
Bangkok Day 1 : Dinner Cruise with Loy Nava
In March 12-16, I've been travelling to Bangkok. My plane landing in Bangkok
around 11 am. After fill my immigration arrival card, I go to the immigration
check point. I've got stamp to stay in Bangkok about 30 days. But I've just
stay about 4 days. After take the exit door, I go to the airport link train.
This is the fast transportation to go to the central city of Bangkok. I
purchase the ticket City Line (not Express) to Phaya Thai for 45 Bath. This
train will be stop in every station and will be arrive at Phaya Thai about 30
minutes.
Bangkok weather is so hot. So after get off from the train, I bought a
mineral water. There is a McDonald kiosk in the cornet of the connection
station between Phaya Thai Airport Link and BTS.
Then I purchased the BTS Ticket to Thong Lo via vending machine. You must
know where the station you want to go, then it is convert to the zone. This
zone is the way that you can choose in the vending machine. Okay, after know
the zone, go to the vending machine. You can choose the English language then
press the zone, after that please insert the money to the machine. You will
receive the card ticket and don't forget some coin.
Before the gate will open, you must insert the ticket to the machine gate,
and take it again for the destination station. My destination station is
Thong Lo. On the afternoon, the train is so full passenger, but this is
acceptable for me to take the train. It was about 15 minutes to go to Thong
Lo station. Then I go down with the stairs and then go to my guest house in
Padi Madi, Sukhumvit Soi 53 and it's check in time at 1 pm.
After check in procedure, I walking around the area and get the lunch in the
small restaurant. I tried for Tom Yang soup and my wife tried for Crabs Fried
Rice. The food was so good taste.
In the print voucher of dinner at Loy Nava, I will pick up about 4.30 pm. So I prepare take a bath and waiting for the Loy Nava staf. The driver was on time when I just a while waiting. We are get in to the minivan and in the evening we go to the Si Phraya Pier and get the traffic jam. Took more than an hour to arrive the Si Phraya Pier and we arrive at 6 pm.
The Loy Nava staff check my voucher and my name was exist in his iPad for
confirmation. Then I board to the Rice Barge Loy Nava for a memorable dinner
in Chao Phraya.
In the Loy Nava, you will get all of the Thai food, and also a traditional dancer will entertaint you for 90 minutes. The boat cruise from Si Phraya Pier to the Phra Arthiet Pier and back again to Si Phraya Pier. A long the river, the staff at Loy Nava guide the tourist about the landmark around the river. We seen the Temple of the Dawn (Wat Arun) in the evening and it is so nice. We arrive again at Si Phraya Pier about 8pm. We wait for the driver for pick up us but the staff said that they don't found us then the manager of Loy Nava took a taxi for us for free
and we go to our guest house. The service of Loy Nava staff was verry excelent. They are very responsive and responsible for tourist like us.
Bangkok Day 2 : Visit Grand Palace, Wat Phra Kaew, Wat Pho, Wat Arun, and Madame Tussauds
Days two, we plan to the "must see" in Bangkok : Grand Palace, Wat Phra Kaew,
Wat Pho and Wat Arun. We take the BTS from Thong Lor about 8.30 am, then get
off at Siam station, change to another BTS line to Saphan Thaksin. We down to
the Central Pier and take a Chao Phraya Express Boat with Blue Flag. The
ticket for the boat is 45 Bath.
Many tourist usually down at Tha Thien Pier, but I took off at the Maharaj
Pier. Then after out from the pier, we took a walk straight ahead and then
turn right to go to Grand Palace. Within a junction we turn left and cross
the street and 100 m we got the gate of the palace.
The palace were so busy. Many tourist from other country were meet here. We
bought a ticket to enter the Grand Palace, Wat Phra Kaew at 500 Bath. We got
the booklet about the Grand Palace complex.
About an hour we sight seeing in Grand Palace, take a picture then take a rest in the corridor. Then we walk again to the Wat Pho. After take a picture at Wat Pho, we go to Tha Thien pier. We cross the river via ferry and arrive at Wat Arun.
There is an ice cream kiosk in the park of Wat Arun. We take a rest and have lunch that we've prepare from the Thong Lor : a crab fried rice box!
In the evening we go to the Siam Discovery and up to 6th floor to Madame Tussauds. We take a picture for many figure of people. Tired to walking we take a dinner at Sukhumvit Soi 38 at Thong Lo. We eat sticky rice, nice food. You must try it.
Bangkok Day 3 : Chatuchak Market and Siam Niramit
In day 3, we moved from Padi Madi guest house to Unico Premiere MetroLink Hotel. The hotel was so close with MRT Petchaburi station. We can't check in at 12 pm because the room was not ready yet. So we leave my suitcase and go to Chatucak Market. This market only open in the weekend (Saturday and Sunday). We take the MRT from Petchaburi to Kamphang Phet.
You can buy many souvenies and t-shirt in Chatucak Market. The market is so big, enough about 2 hours exploring the market. In the evening we prepare to the Siam Niramit show. This show was place on Thailand Culture Centre. We take MRT to Thailand Culture Centre, and then after out from station, take the minivan Siam Niramit. It is free.
We arrived at Siam Niramit village and there was pre show attraction. O ya, there were also two elephant in the village. These elephants will join the show in the main event. Buy ticket Siam Niramit at the spot was so expensive it is 1500 Bath. If you want get a cheap ticket about Siam Niramit, I prefer to book at www.hotels2thailand.com. Then you exchange your booking code with the real Siam Niramit ticket at ticket box.
Before take a seat, you must leave your camera in deposit box. It's free. The show is about 90 minutes. And it is must see event that you must take it in Bangkok! Amazing Siam Niramit show!
Bangkok Day 4 : Around Hotel
On day 4, we just walking around hotel and prepare for ready to leaving Bangkok memorable travel. Thank you for reading this article.
Saturday, 4 May 2013
The Jakarta Great Sale 2013 is ON again running from 1st June to 14th July
Shopaholics and tourists will surely flock to Indonesia’s capital city Jakarta when this annual mega shopping fiesta takes place in conjunction with the 486th Anniversary of Jakarta. Offering massive 20% to 70% discounts, Jakarta Great Sale is participated by no less than 74 shopping centers and giant malls all across this sprawling metropolis. The Jakarta Great Sale 2013 is ON again and this time for 6 weeks running from 1st June to 14th July !
The festival will combine great shopping, with cultural and lifestyle events, making it into one big fiesta. In cooperation with the Indonesian Women Entrepreneurs Association and Regional Crafts Council, the shopping event will highlight Indonesian cuisine and traditional crafts.
The organizers also expect that the Great Sale will strengthen relations among business people in the city, increase mall visitors by 20% and contribute to Jakarta’s revenue. The Jakarta Great Sale 2013 is expected to see a 15% increase in transactions, up from last year’s which reached IDR 10.7 trillion ($175 million).
More Information see: http://www.jktgreatsale.com/
Book Hotel for Jakarta Great Sale
The festival will combine great shopping, with cultural and lifestyle events, making it into one big fiesta. In cooperation with the Indonesian Women Entrepreneurs Association and Regional Crafts Council, the shopping event will highlight Indonesian cuisine and traditional crafts.
The organizers also expect that the Great Sale will strengthen relations among business people in the city, increase mall visitors by 20% and contribute to Jakarta’s revenue. The Jakarta Great Sale 2013 is expected to see a 15% increase in transactions, up from last year’s which reached IDR 10.7 trillion ($175 million).
More Information see: http://www.jktgreatsale.com/
Book Hotel for Jakarta Great Sale
International Surfing Championship 2013 in Aceh Indonesia
Organized by the Aceh Extreme Sports Championship (a youth community dedicated to develop tourism in the Aceh Province) and fully supported by the Provincial Tourism Office of Aceh , the event forms part of the Visit Aceh 2013 program. More than just an international sporting competition, the event is aimed to further promote the province of Aceh -along with all its natural and cultural treasures, as an exceptional Tourist Destination.
An expected 110 surfers from Indonesia and from all over the globe including from Australia, the Philippines, Malaysia, USA, Germany, and France, will display their exceptional skills as they compete in the Aceh International Surfing Championship scheduled to take place at Simeuleu Island, Aceh from 18th to 22nd June 2013.
Aside from Simeuleu Island, Aceh still has other thrilling surfing spots such as Tapak Tuan, Banyak Island, Lhoknga Aceh Besar, and Calang Aceh Jaya.
Simeuleu has been chosen as the site for the competition since the island offers the perfect challenges for competing surfers. Waves around the island are dominated by ‘reef break point’ and ‘peak reef point’ most suitable for surfing actions.
Registration will be officially open online via the event’s official website (www.aeschampionship.com) from 25th April to 23rd May 2013. Surfers will be competing for a total cash prize of IDR1,000,000,000,-. The competition will be judged by international surfing juries from Bali, USA, and Australia. During their stay for the competition in Busung Bay on Simeuleu Island, contestants will be presented with some of the fascinating indigenous Aceh cultural performances, including the famous Saman dance, cuisine and Aceh’s famous coffee.
An expected 110 surfers from Indonesia and from all over the globe including from Australia, the Philippines, Malaysia, USA, Germany, and France, will display their exceptional skills as they compete in the Aceh International Surfing Championship scheduled to take place at Simeuleu Island, Aceh from 18th to 22nd June 2013.
Aside from Simeuleu Island, Aceh still has other thrilling surfing spots such as Tapak Tuan, Banyak Island, Lhoknga Aceh Besar, and Calang Aceh Jaya.
Simeuleu has been chosen as the site for the competition since the island offers the perfect challenges for competing surfers. Waves around the island are dominated by ‘reef break point’ and ‘peak reef point’ most suitable for surfing actions.
Registration will be officially open online via the event’s official website (www.aeschampionship.com) from 25th April to 23rd May 2013. Surfers will be competing for a total cash prize of IDR1,000,000,000,-. The competition will be judged by international surfing juries from Bali, USA, and Australia. During their stay for the competition in Busung Bay on Simeuleu Island, contestants will be presented with some of the fascinating indigenous Aceh cultural performances, including the famous Saman dance, cuisine and Aceh’s famous coffee.
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