Before i start reflecting my 2-weeks of amazing experience i gain in Indonesia, i will like to thank Temasek Foundation including both Faci Jason and Andy for giving me this opportunity to be part of TF scale II.
Learning Journey to Museum – “Interesting”
The one of the few things that i am always interested in learning whenever i travel to another country is to gain knowledge about their culture and tradition. When i first heard about Indonesia, the only thing that i got reminded of is the Javanese dance. haha. Well coming to the main point, it was our third day in Malang city and we were brought to the “Malang Tempo Doeleo Musuem” to learn more about their history and culture. It was a pretty interesting museum that will bring you back to the past 1.5 million years ago to see the various collections of archaeological objects, vehicles that showed the kingdoms that had occupied the city of Malang, namely Kanjuruhan kingdom, the kingdom of Kediri, Singhasari, wax statues to represent life in that period, antique cameras, documents etc. Mainly, what i learnt from this museum visit is that, hindus including the Kings existed in Indonesia decades ago. Which amazed me somehow or rather that hindus existed even during the 13th century as i have never thought of them living or lived in Indonesia before.
Campus Tour – “Inspiring”
I was so amazed and inspired by the way the students learn there. They learn practical lesson like an industry standard such as building a brick house for their FYP projects (under the scorching hot sun without complaining about anything.) By the way they learn together as a team you could feel that they are so passionate about what they do and learn. That is one of the values that we can look up to them.
Mt Bromo – “Dumbfounded”
My personal favourite day. No words to explain this amazing place. Everyone was getting prepared to depart from sweet garden guest house at 12am to reach the sunrise view point on time. My first time to witness the sunrise really closely to my eyes. Despite all the sacrifices of my sleep, freezing cold weather and the bumpy rides on the jeep i would say it’s was worth it after all. I was just so stunned and amazed by the beautiful scenery at mt Bromo sunrise view point. Everything seems to be so beautiful. I and khadijah was so prepared to take alot of pictures and time lapsed of the sunrise on that day. We stood at the barrier for almost more than an hour just to video and take pictures of the sunrise. Next, when we reached the Mt bromo moutain place, the only word that is appropriate for my reaction during that time was me being “dumbfounded” by the beauty of it. Never have i ever thought of gaining such an amazing experience. I am surely going to visit this place once again in future.
Taman Safari Prigen – “Zoo”
Basically i am an animal lover. I always wanted to visit “zoo” from different part of the world. It was totally a different environment and atmosphere from singapore. I feel like it is really cool and slightly dangerous as the animals are freely roaming around the forest. It was a different kind of experience as everybody have to travel in the bus while sight seeing the different types of animals live there. I was so happy to have gotten the opportunity to feed the zebra carrots. Moving on to the bird,dolphins and many more other shows was not so much of a difference from what i have seen in singapore zoo, but the last show (which i can’t really remember the name of the show) was really a good one. The whole scenario of the fire effects, stunts, water splashing and etc was super good. Moving on, i will not forget the part where i took a picture with a lion (i was really scared) touched the elephant trunks (which was really hairy) and wanted to take a picture with the monkey but didn’t had the chance to do so. The best part of this zoo is that, it’s a overall package of what mostly tourists look forward to when they travel to another country. It’s a zoo with haunted house, roller coaster, go kart etc. It’s kinda amazing and more like a day well spent with animals.
Pasar Pagi – “Car Free Day”
FREE DAY!!!
So wari told me that every sunday is a car free day at malang city. When i asked him why and he said that the government implemented such a practice to encourage them to exercise regularly. I was really surprise, as it was such a good practice to follow. What caught my attention the most was the colourful and vibrant setups on the streets. Just like in singapore we have pasar malams we call it pasar pagi in indonesia. They sell all kinds of sweet drinks, snacks, bags, socks, towels, toys, rabbits and etc. I didn’t had to chance to try out the street foods since i am a vegetarian but what i heard from the others that it was really nice and delicious. Since only a few of us were together throughout, we planned to go to the cotton cady cafe after that. Thanks to dikir, he drove us around making it so easy and convenient for us to travel to different places. Cotton candy cafe was so cool. The biggest cotton candy i have ever seen actually. We snapped alot of pictures there and went to Mie setan(SPICY NOODLE). Everyone was so prepared to try the most spicy noodle there. I was only daring enough to try the level 1 of the spicy noodle. haha… level 1 itself got me “OMG SO SPICY THAT I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE” kinda feeling. LOL.
Orange Farm – “Green”
My first reaction was, “Why are the oranges in green colour?” Like most of us was really shocked to believe that the oranges were actually not ripped yet but still taste much more nicer than the regular ones we usually eat. We were toured by some of the local university students to know more about the farm. I had so many questions in my mind that i was really reflecting on. Firstly, i didn’t know that the person that toured us around was an university student studying tourism. He also shared some knowledge that the trees there are 10 years old and due to the rainy season now, the oranges is taking a long time to change its colour. We were allowed to pluck as many oranges as we want to bring back home or to taste. My personal favourite was the sour ones. They surprisingly, taste much more sweeter than those regular oranges. Then we had picnic there for lunch, which was really fun since i never had a picnic in the middle of a farm surrounded by trees before haha. It was really a good experience. After lunch we were brought to the yoghurt factory. It was a very small factory which perform a much basic way of making cheese and yoghurt. I really liked the yoghurt drink but i didn’t get to taste the cheese though. I heard it was kinda nice.
Project Time – “Focus”
It is a whole new experience for me as i have never had an outbound program before. Usually the overseas trips i have been to is mainly for community service purposes. First of all, i was very happy with my team. We were working together as a group respecting each other decisions. Glen was really a great leader, he knew exactly what he wanted to see as the final presentation. He directed us accordingly to what we are capable of producing. Everybody played an important role in the team. We shared each other workloads together and managed to come out with a hydroponic automatic system. Hydroponic is common nowdays, but made ours abit more different than the usual ones was to include the temperature sensor, LED light to indicate the temperature and humidity status and also a LCD display for the temperature reading. We also install a pump so that the water will be transferred to the roots of the plants and the unused water will be pumped back to the tank. Such ways, helps to recycle the water without wasting it.
Closing ceremony presentation
Visit to the Special need school – “Love”
The place where you can find love in the purest way. Even though it was a short spending time with them and also despite the language barrier between me and the children there i was able to mingle around with most of the kids. I felt really blessed to be part of their happiness.
Kampoeng Kidz – “WOW”
Forget about everything else and lets reminisce about the performance by the students. WOW!!!! No words literally no words can describe the most amazing performance they performed for the both days. From dance, to stunts, to props, backdrops, costumes, fire walking and blowing it out from their mouth etc etc. Everything was done so damn perfectly on the dot. First time witnessing such a performance in live. Where have they been? These talented young people deserve to succeed even further. They are so talented that they should be in any kind of international competition or something. I really wish that they will be recognized in a bigger industry in future. Coming back to reality, this whole experience i had in batu was really one of the best one i would say. I had the little experience on how kampong really looks like, their scenery which was magnificent with that mountain view. I was really inspired by the students living there. They give such a positive vibes to the people around them despite all the struggles they have been through. Salute to those kids living there.
In conclusion, for this whole 2 weeks of outbound programme i have tried to learn as much as i can. From their culture, city, project, people, food etc. It is one of the trip that i will always remember and treasure the most. I will always be thankful to my Indonesian friends for putting in so much of their time and effort to make the whole 14 days a fruitful one for us. They really took good care of our safety and make sure that we are fed with various kind of foods that we have never tasted before for each and every meals. They gave more than 10000% of their effort. Really thankful to have met such an amazing friends across the globe.
TF Scale II is definitely a successful one.
