Short visit of Andrew Lillis

His name is Andrew Lillis, and he comes from Ireland, the country of a Boy Bands... :) He's a lawyer who works for American company which's located in Beijing, China. As a lawyer for a well known company, he spends most of his time in the office. That's why if there's a holiday, even just 3 days, he tries to spend it wisely.... :) travelling for example. And his short visited to Jogjakarta also part of it. He sent me an email that time and asked me to accompany him while he's in Jogjakarta, and i said yes. He stayed in Hotel in Prawirotaman region. He arrived around 1.30 PM and went straight to the hotel, and after that he sent me message and told me that he's arrived. I picked him up around 2 PM and it was dark and cloudy. That time was the month of elections too. We voted for our parliament, so there're many campaign of a party. It's so dark and i just drove him for 10 minutes and suddenly the rain dropped so hard. We moved aside and waited till the rain stopped. After 30 minutes the rain started to stop, and we continued our trip. Coz his shirt was really wet, i took him to my place and borrowed him my t-shirt. Our first destination was Prambanan temple. And he enjoyed his time there....and me too. We made really nice sunset pictures, the sky was clear....everything just perfect!!!

On the second day we went to Buddhist temple, Borobudur. We left at 9 AM in the morning and we arrived at 11 AM. And just liked my other guests, he's so popular there, many local people wanted to take a picture with him....just liked and artist or model!! and i was looked like his assistance....hehehehe... We stayed there at least for 2 hours, and then we went back to Jogjakarta. In the evening, we went around city center, Malioboro. We went to a gift shop too, he enjoyed his time there. And we didn't realize that we stayed there for an hour. So, we decided to have a dinner in the city center, we ate donuts and had a cup of coffee....finally....hehehe. And we had a great conversation while we had our dinner. He told me about his family, job, his friends in his office and his annoying friend too...hehehe...hope you get along now....hahahaha....

Come here again, Andrew....and i will take you to beautiful island, Karimunjawa. The hidden palace of Central Java....see you soon friend..... :)

Jogja Cultural Tour, explore Art And Cultural of jogja, historical discovery holiday operators

Jogja Cultural Tour, explore Art And Cultural of jogja, historical discovery holiday operators

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Radek Szpak, the friendly Polish guy

His name is Radek Szpak, and he comes from Poland. I met him when he traveled around Java. And Jogjakarta was his 3rd destination after Jakarta and Bandung. He is a such nice guy, polite and friendly. Always tries to make everybody happy. He just looked like Indonesian people with a different skin color and nose... :)

He stayed in Jogjakarta for 4 days. He never complained about everything, even when local people kept asking to make a picture with him....he just smiled and said "OK!", for me that's awesome. Some foreigners wouldn't act like that when local people keep asking them to make a picture with them. Yeah, coz they want to enjoy the objects instead of making photos with local people...and sometimes local people is also going to far and become annoying... :( they keep insist them even the situation doesn't look good...so, that's why foreigner refuse them. So, for you local people who want to make a photos with foreigners...just be patient and give them some space and respect...then, they will do that... ;)

My activities when Radek was here were great! We did almost anything. Visiting temples, Jogjakarta palace, Water castle, Lava tour, and souvenir places. I also asked him to play badminton with my friends, it was so funny. For a beginner, he's ok.... :), and when we were serious he's looked so desperate, and started to say bad words in Polish language, "kurva, suka" and more... :D. He's so surprised about prices in Indonesia....just like everybody else... :) "Everything is so cheap!" he said.

There's something else about Radek which surprised me, his Indonesian vocabulary.... :) when we met at the first time, he said to "Apa kabar Andry?, saya Radek dari Polandia", then i smiled and replied "Baik-baik saja, bagaimana dengan anda?". He said "Baik juga". And he knows some more even he just stayed here for a couples of days. Good job Radek!!! :) And he taught me some Polish words for sure.....bad words.... :) Radek loves business too, when he was here i took him to the traditional market, and after that he stared to think and mumbling.... :) "It costs you at least 5 Euros for this thing" he said. "This's good for business!" he said again. And i admitted that he has a good sense of business for sure. One thing that he couldn't make it when he was in Jogjakarta. Seeing the volcano, because there's no volcano in Poland, he becomes curious about it. And when i took him to the mount. Merapi, the weather was very cloudy so that we couldn't see it at all.... :( But finally he could make it when he was in East Java, he went to mount. Bromo....and he sent me his photos when he was there.  

We discussed about everything, politics, business, religion, and girls..... ;) And it's fun coz he's an open minded person. And yeah....it was a great moment when he was here....Radek, don't forget our business agreement..... :)         

New Project... :)

Actually, sometimes i feel so bored with my daily job. That's why i try to make an activity in my leisure time... I made a property business with my brother 3 years ago, and now, since the situations getting worse, i mean about the crisis, our business doesn't go really well... :( I had to make a new business. So, it was started 3 months ago...when a friend of mine who came from Singapore arrived here, in Jogjakarta. She's a project manager for a company in Singapore.

"I love doing tourism" : i said to her. She smiled and replied : "good, maybe you should try to make a business based on it". Since that, i kept on thinking... :) I had to make something different, something new, not an ordinary tourism... :) Usually, they only provide an ordinary tour, i mean, they will only take the guess to the tourism objects and then take the guess back to the hotel, that's all. And for me that's not "COOL"... :) I have to be creative.

Then, i started to call my friends....and then there're 5 persons. I explained to them about my idea, "NATURAL TOUR COMBINE WITH CULTURAL TOUR WITH THE TOUCH OF JAVANESE HOSPITALITY"...hehehehe. So, these are the ideas :
1. I'll manage and handle all the guess a whole month,
2. Provide them a nice and comfortable guest house with local atmosphere,
3. Serve them breakfast and dinner
4. Give them lesson about our cultures such as learning Bahasa, learning traditional dance, learning traditional music, batik course, yoga course and cooking class.
5. Take them to 25 tourism objects,
6. And transportation.

And, they agreed with me and supported me. We started to arrange and arrange everything since. The guest house, the place for courses, the tourism objects. And we did it, the guest house is nice and comfortable which has AC and hot water with Javanese atmosphere, then i've made a deal with a University to teach Bahasa, traditional dance, batik painting and traditional music. I also found a place to learn Yoga. And the cooking class would be held in our house.....so that the guess will feel like in their own home.... :) And now about the price... :) I also asked about the price to my Russian friend, Karina Belova. I asked her an advise. We had a discussions about it and share my idea, and we made a deal!!! Just great!!!...hehehehe

So, with pays some money, the guess will get :
1. Nice and comfortable guest house which has an AC and hot water,
2. Breakfast and diner,
3. Several courses (Bahasa, traditional dance, traditional music, batik, yoga and meditation, and cooking),
4. 25 tourism objects around Jogjakarta, and
5. Transportations.
All in family atmosphere.... :)

So, if you're interested, you should visit our web page and join us....www.jogjaculturaltour.com and feel the different!!!!

Rinata Ibragimova and Eva Zemaityte, two Lithuanian girls.

It was Friday afternoon when my friend from Jakarta phoned me. "There're two Lithuanian girls will visit Jogjakarta, would please handle them?" : she said. I replied quickly : "OK!" :) actually one of them were sick that time. My friend told me about that, she said that one of them has a sensitive stomach, that's why she doesn't eat rice.

I met them in a hostel, in the city center. Their name is Rinata Ibragimova and Eva Zemaityte. And yes, Rinata was sick, she got fever and diarrhea. I asked her about her sick and she explained to me that she tried to eat spicy food at first, when she was in Jakarta. And after that she started to go to the toilet repeatedly and she got fever too. After she explained her condition to me, i asked her to see a doctor. But, unfortunately the doctor wasn't at home, so i took her to the hospital. After several examinations, she got prescriptions from the doctor. The doctor told me that she would be just fine. "Just take the medicines regularly, OK!" : said the doctor. We went no where at the first day she came. We let Rinata took a rest till the next day or at least felt better.

The sun shone brightly that time. I went to the hostel to pick them up and wanted to know how's Rinata. And thank God she's better. So, we decided to go to Borobudur temple. The sun is so hot that time, and i forgot to bring my sun cream... :( but luckily Eva brought it, so i asked her... :p While we went around the temple we had a nice conversations. Actually Rinata and Eva are friends since they were in Junior high school. They went to the same school, after they graduated their high school, Rinata went to Germany for college and Eva stayed in Lithuania. And now Rinata takes her post graduate in Germany and Eva works as a marketing manager for a company in Lithuania and she also runs her own business. Rinata also loves photography.

The weather was not really nice, the sun shone brightly in the morning but suddenly changed... :( On our way home the sky was so dark..."it's going to rain" : said Eva. And yes, suddenly the rain felt down so hard...:( fortunately Rinata was better. After we arrived in the hostel we didn't go anywhere....we just set down and drank some tea, poor us...:( Since Rinata doesn't eat rice...we decided to eat pasta...horay... :) we ate pasta, pizza and bread. I was so "Western"...lol.

On Sunday we went to Kukup beach. I asked friends of mine to come with us, and they agreed. We went about 09.00 AM in the morning. The scenery along the way to the beach is so beautiful, many rice fields and forests. Rinata took many photos of it. After we arrived on the beach Rinata and Eva didn't waste their time to see the beach. "It's beautiful beach" : they said. And yes, it's beautiful beach, it's looked like Kuta beach in Bali. Many vendors and food stall on the shore. And Rinata bought a souvenir from there. Too bad that on our way home, the sky was so cloudy and the rain felt down very hard, so that we couldn't go to next destination, yup we couldn't go to Prambanan temple to see sunset... :( I'm sorry girls....

Rina, Eva, you should come here again if you wanna see Prambanan... :) I'll wait for you girls...