Mengajukan Visa Australia

Updated: Mengajukan Visa Australia Bulan Mei tahun 2014

Here we go again, saya dan suami, Rene, mengajukan visa sekali lagi ke kedutaan Australia. We took everything for granted: kami pikir syarat paspor berlaku minimal masih 6 bulan, dan kami pikir kantor AVAC masih di Plaza Asia Jalan Sudirman.

Ternyata oh ternyata....

Tulisan ini wajib dibaca oleh Anda yang hendak mengajukan visa Australia. Dan please don't make the same mistake like what we did:p

Apa saja yang berubah dari posting kami 2 tahun sebelumnya?

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Tiket Pesawat ke Australia

Tulisan ini sengaja kami tulis dalam Bahasa Indonesia, karena bertujuan untuk sharing pengalaman mencari tiket pesawat dari Jakarta ke Australia ..

Bekerja di perusahaan yang memberikan cuti pada lebaran dan akhir tahun saja, membuat saya terpaksa melakukan planning perjalanan ke Australia pada saat liburan akhir tahun. Di sisi lain, saya juga memang ingin mewujudkan salah satu mimpi saya untuk melihat New Years Eve Fireworks di Sydney Harbour Bridge. Oya, jika anda pembaca setia blog saya, maka mungkin anda sudah mengetahui bahwa mimpi saya memang banyak! hehe.. karena buat saya, travel begins with a dream.

We've made one of our dreams coming true: NYE at Sydney

Pertengahan Juni 2012, saya iseng awalnya hunting tiket ke Australia. Hal ini terpicu dengan seringnya gambar kartun Sydney Harbour Bridge muncul di film Finding Nemo yang sering sekali diputar our 5 yo Najmi di galaxy tab. Keisengan saya membawa hasil satu file word dengan perbandingan tiket Air Asia, Jetstar, Malaysian Airlines, Qantas, Garuda Indonesia dan SQ! (wah mungkin saat itu keisengan saya memang sudah berubah jadi niat:p)

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Tour from Surabaya to Bromo

I have been dreaming to see sunrise in Bromo. I go to Surabaya and Malang almost every year for business trip, but I have never visited Bromo before. This time, I extended my business trip in Surabaya and took a tour from Surabaya to Bromo. Too bad that the road heading to Bromo is closed during our visit (it will be opened by Nov 28, 2012), so we could only see the sunrise from Pananjakan Viewpoint.

Because we only had limited time, we took a private organized tour from Surabaya to Bromo. We were transferred from Shangri-La Surabaya to Gunung Pananjakan, then to our hotel in Malang. I was recommended by a friend to use the service from Ibu Yuni and I am really satisfied. I had to pay IDR 1,075,000 for two person and I thought it was quiet a bargain compared to other tour I had searched via google. The tour price including private jeep getting to Pananjakan.

A toyota Avanza picked us at Shangri-La at 12.00 on a Friday midnight and we went directly to Wonokitri, the place where we changed our Avanza with a jeep before going to Pananjakan. On the way we stopped by to meet our guide named Rafael. We didn't take the Probolinggo route, because we knew that we could only go to Pananjakan Viewpoint. 

We arrived at Wonokitri at 3 am, and after a while Rafael provided us a jeep. There were people offering hand gloves, scarf, and many things to avoid cold at Pananjakan. I bought myself a hand gloves for IDR 10,000. We had to pay IDR 5,000 per person (for Indonesian) to get to Pananjakan, while for tourist they had to pay the entrance fee as well as camera charge (strange?) for IDR 100,000.

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Micro SimCard for Internet in Singapore

I have just decided to stop using Blackberry and move to Samsung S3 just few days before I had a training to attend in Singapore. Until the day of my departure, I didn't realize that I will need to find a 3G micro sim card card for my Samsung S3:p I started googling where to buy the prepaid 3G micro sim card and I got a good information from travelfish. Indonesian telco company offers many service for BB international roaming, but I had no idea whether they also offer cheap international internet for non-BB user. So I decided to get a preferred tourist prepaid card from Starhub as my "a plan". One thing is, the preferred tourist prepaid card is not sold at Changi.

When I arrived at Changi, I approached UOB foreign exchange booth as what I read from travelfish we could get a Starhub 3G prepaid micro sim card only at their booth in Changi. But the lady offered me a 30 SGD card instead. And she said that the 18 SGD is only for the top up. I left the UOB booth at Changi and I was glad that I did some research, otherwise I would have bought the 30 SGD card. 



I went to Bugis Junction, to find Starhub outlet on the basement level. The Starhub outlet in Bugis Junction located not far from Bread Talk outlet (basement level). I arrived at 6 pm, and had to queue at the cashier. There was no sign where to buy the tourist prepaid card, so once you arrive at the starhub outlet, I would suggest to approach the cashier.

At the cashier I told the guy that I was looking for the tourist prepaid card. But he said, he only had the prepaid card unlimited internet for 5 days for 18 SGD called MaxMobile Prepaid. I had to present my passport, paid 18 SGD and got the 3G sim card.

Once I put the 3G micro simcard into my S3, and yeay I am online :) And I have to say I was really satisfied with the performance of the simcard that I bought.

tips to find Starhub outlet at Bugis Junction: if you are coming by Bugis MRT, take the exit which directly linked to the food court (basement level). Just go straight until you find Breadtalk, and turn left before Breadtalk outlet. The Starhub outlet is at the corner.

written on November 23, 2012

tag: kartu simcard untuk internet di Singapura, kartu simcard untuk S3 Samsung di Singapura 

updated:

You may download our ebook travel on Singapore for FREE (written in Bahasa Indonesia) here

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Bali Zoo

Planning your trip to Bali with Kids? There are several animal parks that worth visiting; the Bali Bird Park is our fave, Bali Safari Park is talk of the town but we haven't visited it yet, and the Bali Zoo. We decided to visit Bali Zoo after reading positive reviews on tripadvisor. Back in 2010 when we compared Bali Zoo with the Bali Bird Park, the reviews on tripadvisor weren't as good as today.

We went there on one of Indonesian long weekend, so we arrived early at 9.30 am. We had to purchase 3 tickets for me, rene and najmi, one free ticket goes to our 3 yo arkan. To purchase the ticket, we had to show our ID card. The ticket was IDR 75,000 for one person (this is the price for Indonesian, and later on we found out that Balinese got even lower price). Then we proceed to the gate where all of our hands got a stamp. 

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Pantai Petitenget Seminyak

When we stayed at Cattleya Marbella Seminyak, we also went to Petitenget Beach, which was the closest beach from the hotel. It was a 10 minutes drive with the car. We went there for a sunset hunting session, and we love the beach as it was less crowded compared to the beach in Kuta. 

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Sami Sami Bar Ayana

I visited Ayana Resort for the first time with my friends from the office to see the sunset at the Rock Bar, but ended up seeing the sunset from Sami Sami Bar, a cafe above the Rock Bar. We arrived at 5 pm, but the queue to go to the Rock Bar was very long, that we decided to have juice at Sami Sami Bar and enjoy the sunset. Other than juice, we also had their pizza, and it taste great! Juices and pizza were expensive, but I told myself someday if I go with rene and kiddos to Bali again, I would take them here just to eat pizza and enjoy a bit of Ayana's atmosphere.

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Gusto Gelato

I checked on Tripadvisor regarding the "recommended restaurant in Seminyak" when we planned to spend three nights in Seminyak area. To my surprise the number one recommended resto is Gusto Gelato which is a gelato and coffee cafe. Well, I have been to Bali several times, but I haven't heard about this place before.  Moreover I am an ice cream lover and I haven't tried the Gusto Gelato! Oh noo! it was then our top priority place to visit around Seminyak.

We visited the place for the first time after visiting Bali Zoo, I had my kiddos falling asleep on my lap in the car, so we had a cup of gelato taken away. It was really delicious that we decided to come back on the next day. With the help of google map, rene succeeded to find the Gusto Gelato. Located on Jalan Umalas 2, the road is small, that we thought we had entered the wrong street. We were really happy to finally find Gusto Gelato. It is a small cafe, but always full.

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El Parque Bali

We knew about this place from a tweet RT by LiburanAnak and as the hotel we stayed in Seminyak was close to El Parque Bali, we visited this place before going to the airport. We read travelfish review on El Parque that the cafe opens at 8 am. So we thought we'll have two hours before our departure time to the airport.

When we arrived at El Parque, the little shops as the entrance to the cafe still closed  and we read that it opens at 9 am. Our kiddos were really disappointed, as I have told them early in the morning that we were going to a playground. We went back to our hotel to have our final packing done, and thereafter went back to El Parque. We arrived at 9 am sharp and yes it was already open:)

We had to pay IDR 65,000 per child, expensive compared to our fave Kemang Playground in Jakarta, but hey it's Seminyak:p We paid the entrance fee and our kiddos went straightly to the pool. We were the only customer and this place was very peaceful, looks lovely with the domination of my fave purple color:p

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Cattleya Marbella Seminyak

We stayed at Cattleya Marbella Seminyak with a special price from Disdus, wow a villa with a private pool for IDR 2,685,000 (4D3N)! It was a great bargain. Prior to our stay, the hotel staffs were really helpful, they replied our email promptly. We were picked up at Bali's airport, it was about 30 minutes drive to the Cattleya Marbella Seminyak. 

The check-in process was fast, we were given orange juice as the welcome drink. From the outside, the villa looks small, and the lobby area looks unfinished:p However the friendliness of the hotel staffs gave us a warm feeling at the lobby.

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