Wednesday 27 August 2008

Summer Holiday 2008 - Camping Trip ... 2nd Day

The next day, we went to Bohinj area. Our first destination was Savica waterfall. It was about 25 minutes drive from our camp. Savica Waterfall occurs at the source of the Savica (little Sava) river. Its water bursts from the underground of the Dolina sedmerih jezer (The Seven Triglav Lakes Valley) in the walls of Komarča as Savica Waterfall, which is the most famous Slovenian waterfall.

The Savica runs over 38 m long level and falls almost 51 m deep. Total difference in height is 78 m. Another smaller waterfall also falls 25 m deep. Both waterfalls together form the two-part waterfall in the shape of the letter A. Right after the pool, which is artificially supported, is a small dam. To get to the waterfall is about 20 minutes walk from the entrance.

The Savica waterfall can easily be reached from Bohinj by road. However to enjoy the beauty of Savica waterfall is not free. Parking space is 3 EUR and entrance fee is 2.40 EUR per person. We went up to the waterfall for about 20 minutes walk. Quite tiring though. But it is worth after you see it. It's like picture in the postcard!

After Savica, we went to enjoy the view of Lake Bohinj.

Lake Bohinj is the largest permanent lake in Slovenia.Its located in the Bohinj municipality in the north-west of the country, and is inside Triglav National Park. It is 4.2 km long and 1 km at its maximum width. And the deepest part of the lake is 45 m. The lake was made by a glaicer.
The largest of the streams that flow into the lake, the Savica ("little Sava"), is fed from Črno jezero (Black Lake), the largest lake in the Triglav Lakes Valley. The outflow is the Jezernica which merges with the Mostnica to form the Sava Bohinjka (which in turn merges with Sava Dolinka to become the Sava river). The area is associated with the legendary "Zlatorog", a white chamois with golden horns. A statue of the creature stands beside the lake.

We rent a small boat to go around the lake. It was 8 EUR/hour. Actually I was a little bit scare going around to deep water, also it was the first time for me to do it. So I have to put a life jacket just in case something bad happen ... Thank God nothing happen. In fact I really enjoyed it, eventhough it was really a hard work to pedal the boat :-D

Monday 25 August 2008

Summer Holiday 2008 - Camping Trip ... 1st Day

This holiday we decided to do some camping trip to Bled and surrounding, for 3 days ... from 1st to 3rd of August. I am really excited since it would be my first time since my last camping trip. So we went at 1 of August, in the morning. Luckily the traffic was not so crowded. We came to Bled around 9. But unfortunately it was full because summer holiday is started and Bled is one of main tourist destination in Slovenia. Lot of people from Europe (especially from Nedherland, Germany and Austria) come to have a vacation here. And we didn't know that we actually can reserve the space in advance. So we decided to camp in nearby camping area, ŠOBEC in Lesce. It was a nice place, and facility is also complete. To get a space we need to pay 12 EUR per person, and if you need an electricity you need to pay extra of course. For more information, you can check here www.sobec.si. First space we found there, not so good. Grega couldn't make the tent because there are stones and big root from the tree around the land. And he only has a small tool with him :-) Then we went around a bit and finally we found a good spot to make our 'house'. It didn't take so long to do it.

After set up the tent, we went around the camp a bit then went to Bled lake. Here you can do a lot of thing ... You just park your car for 6 EUR/day then you can do swimming, biking, kayaking, taking around the lake with small ship, or going to the bled island with 'Pletna'. Per person is about 12 EUR. Quite expensive ... I already visited the island and the castle first time I was here, so this time we just swam and enjoyed the view. After that we walked around the lake and had a lunch in Villa Ajda. They have a restaurant with view of the lake. The food is also good ... after walked for hours I was so hungry that I need big portion of food, hahaha ... So I took fish with potatoes and spinach ... ehm yummy!! Anyway, I really like the view of
the lake ... the island ...the castle ... and the mountains. Can't help myself to take lot of pictures of it from different angles .... They are really beautiful!


Monday 18 August 2008

63rd Indonesia's Independence Day

18 Agustus 2008. Yesterday was 63rd Indonesia's Independence Day. Back to the country, they have interesting things to celebrate it. They have different kind of fun games like eating crackers, football saroong, put nail in the bottle (of course not so easy as it sounds :-)), marble game, sport games, etc. Then they also have a bazzar where people selling food and stuffs, and of course independence stage where people can perform dances, musical drama, dan other things. So what did I do to celebrate it here? Well, since there are no Indonesians around who I could ask to play fun games or to celebrate it ... then I came up with idea to make 'Tumpeng Kemerdekaan'. If you don't know what is tumpeng ... well nasi (read: rice) tumpeng is often prepared for special occasions like communal feast or we call it 'selamatan'. It made from rice, cooked in coconut milk tinted yellow with freshy-granted turmeric, then steamed. Then after it cooked, it is shaped like a cone. Depending on the scale of the selamatan, the rice may then colourly adorned with number of dishes like fried chicken, omelet strips, fried dried anchovies, whole boiled eggs fried in a sauce, sweet and sour pickled vegetables, cucumber slices and red chillies cut into flower shapes.

Ok, back to my 'mission' during Independence day ... as I mentioned before, I decided to make nasi tumpeng. Well, usually this kind of meal is for many people because it needs extra effort and also time to cook it. But since nobody around to celebrate ... so it was just us :-) Saturday night I made a simple model of cone - since I don't have the real model made from alumunium here. So I just made it from thick paper then padded with alumunium foil. Then I made also the flag from small white paper, then coloured the half part with red marker. Just as simple as that :-)

Then next day, Sunday - on Independence day ... I started cooking at 9:30 ... I prepared all by myself ... I cooked the fried chicken, sambal goreng ati ayam (spicy chicken liver), perkedel kentang (potatoes croquettes), telur bumbu ( boiled eggs fried in a sauce), acar kuning (yellow pickled vegetables), and of course the yellow rice. I finally finished the whole cooking session at 1 o'clock. So I cooked more than 3 hours. It was quite 'extreme' for only 2 people, hehehe ... Oh well the important thing is the spirit ... I want to make something different for my country's Independence day ... no matter where I live I carry the spirit. And what make me happy and proud is ... this was my first Nasi Tumpeng I ever made ... and it turned out well! Great job, Tatie! hehehe ... When I was still in Indonesia, I used to participate during the celebration ... the games, the perform or helping around to prepare the celebration. And here, no one I could ask to celebrate it. Not so many Indonesians living in Slovenia, and they live in different region. And going to Indonesian embassy in Vienna is quite far as well.

Anyway, for my lovely country, INDONESIA, I wish you 'DIRGAHAYU KEMERDEKAAN ke 63 ... MERDEKA!! dan JAYALAH SELALU!

My Indonesian Cooking Website


Here's my cooking website Tasty Indonesian Food
All recipes here already tested in my kitchen. Please feel free to check and support it. This website I created because I want to introduce Indonesian Food all around the world. That's my biggest dream ...

Hello ... I'm Back!!!

It's been a while I didn't update my blog. I missed it! Well, if anyone wondering where was I ... well actually I am still around ... but I was busy building my new site. Yup!! New Site!

These past 3 months I 'dedicated' myself to build it ... from gathered some informations, created the contents, learned how to make the traffic, etc. Luckily I have a wonderful husband that always there to help me around. Well I am not a computer-nerd who knows everything about website, while he knows better than me :-) Anyway, now I am back! Hopefully I am going to get back on my feet for updating my life story here.