APRICOT 2007 Officially Opened Yesterday

Even though the workshop and tutorial of APRICOT 2007 in Bali has been starting since mid of last week, the conference was only officially opened yesterday (Tuesday, 27 February 2007). The conference was officially opened by Mr. Sofyan Djalil, the Minister of Communication and Information Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, after the opening speeches given by Ms. Sylvia Sumarlin, the chairman of APJII, the Indonesian Internet Service Provider Association, and Mr. Gaurab Uphadaya, the chairman of APIA. APJII and APIA are two out of several organisations which support the APRICOT 2007 event.

Yesterday morning, I attended the BGP Deployment and Best Practices tutorial, conducted by Philip Smith. During lunch time yesterday, I had the chance to meet Mr. Sanjaya, one of APJII's activists who is now working for APNIC, and Mr. Roy Rahajasa Yamin, my ex-boss in RADNET. During the plenary session, I also met Mr. Yulianus, the network administrator of Indosat, one of the leading ISPs in Indonesia.

Yesterday night, I attended the APRICOT Opening Social Event, which is held at the Westin Poolside. I met some friends from Starhub and Equinix, Singapore. I also met Mr. Toto Santoso, the administrator of Ipteknet/BPPT and also previously the administrator for the go.id second level domain. We discussed almost anything reminiscing and Bill Fridini also joined the discussion. It was fun.

Today (Wednesday, 28 February 2007) morning, I attended the second phase of the APRICOT plenary sessions at the auditorium, with some interesting presentations, such as the new 4-byte (32-bit) AS number testing by Geoff Huston, and bogon filters discussion by Randy Bush. During lunch time, I met Judhi Prasetyo, one of my friends in Singapore. His company, FortiNet, is having a booth here in APRICOT 2007 and is one of the sponsors for the event. He also introduced me to Valens Riyadi, one of APRICOT's organising committee members.

I'm now writing this article from the Nusantara 2 Room, attending the IX SIG, chaired by Philip Smith. There are some interesting presentations, one of them is regarding the new 100 Gigabit Ethernet technology, by Greg Hankins from IEEE. Currently, there's also a presentation regarding Euro-IX, which is actually a European IXP association, and *not* a European IX point by itself. Very interesting. This might be due to the fact that there are many (and not only one) IX points in Europe.

I won't post any more pictures here, you can go to my Flickr site if you want to see photos during the event. Specifically, these are the locations of the photos during my first day in APRICOT 2007 (26 February 2007) and during my second day (27 February 2007) here. I haven't uploaded any photos from today's events, will do soon, please watch out for them here.

Legian, Kuta, Bali

Date: Sunday, 25 February 2007
Location: Legian, Kuta, Bali

Melia Bali Hotel, Nusa Dua

Date: 24-25 February 2007
Location: Melia Bali Hotel, Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia

Flight from Singapore to Bali

Date: Saturday, 24 February 2007
Location:
- Changi airport, Singapore
- Garuda flight from Singapore to Bali, Indonesia
- Ngurah Rai International Airport, Bali, Indonesia

Full article will follow later. :)

First day at APRICOT 2007

Although today (Monday, 26 February 2007) is my first day at this APRICOT 2007 conference, it's actually already the sixth day of the conference, since I skipped the workshop and some of the meetings which are not related to my organisation. This conference is being held at the Bali International Convention Centre, which is quite a good, world class convention centre, similar to the Suntec City Convention Centre in Singapore. It's located within the complex of Westin Resort hotel, about 5-10 minutes from Melia Bali Hotel where I'm staying. There's a shuttle bus ferrying all the delegates from hotel to the conference venue.

Earlier, during lunch session, I met Mauldi Wirastomo and Bill Fridini, both are my old friends from APJII. They are now very busy since they are in-charge of the network providing Internet access to all the delegates. I also had the chance to meet Ahmad Alkazimy, one of APJII's key technical staff whom I previously only knew from his e-mails in some mailing lists. I also met Deny Kurniawan and I Nyoman Tusta, two of my old friends from RADNET Surabaya.

There are some tutorials which we can choose to attend, based on their streams. For today, I attended the Introduction to IPv6 tutorial by Jordi Palet Martinez, and IPv6 Deployment tutorial by Salaman Asadullah. There's free Internet access provided through wi-fi (wireless) networks, and power plugs are also available in the tables, so we can use our laptop and access the Internet while attending the tutorials. Unfortunately, the Internet access is a bit slow, although, according to Mauldi, there's more than 28 Mbps of bandwidth available. I guess it might be due to more people are using the network this week compared to last week.

More pictures during the event can be found here.

[Indonesian version]

Jusco Aeon Tebrau City

On Saturday, 10 February 2007, we went to Johor Bahru, specifically to visit the new Jusco Aeon Tebrau City shopping mall, a new upmarket shopping mall in Johor Bahru. This is actually the second time we visited the shopping mall, after our first visit last September 2006 when we dropped by on our way back from Genting and Kuala Lumpur to Singapore.

We drove through the Woodlands checkpoint, and to our amazement, there was no traffic jam at all. We passed through Singapore and Malaysia immigrations within 30 minutes since we left home, and we reached Tebrau City in 50 minutes! Thank God. It's quite unbelievable since it was Saturday morning, and the traffic is supposed to be heavy on weekends.

The Jusco Tebrau City shopping mall is located along Tebrau Highway, the main federal route 3 highway towards Kota Tinggi and Mersing. If you're driving from Singapore, it's faster to go through the Causeway instead of the Second Link. After passing Malaysia immigration, make a U-turn and go towards the busy Jalan Wong Ah Fook, passing the Johor Bahru City Square. At the end of the road, keep right and follow the signs to Kota Tinggi and Jalan Tebrau. Ensure that you pass Plaza Pelangi on your right.

After about 15 minutes drive (if traffic is not heavy), you will pass an on-going flyover construction work at the junction of Tebrau Highway and Pasir Gudang Highway. You can use the flyover to go through the junction (only one side of the flyover has been built at the time of writing), and the Jusco Aeon Tebrau City shopping mall is located on the left side just after the junction.

I would say that this is currently the most upmarket shopping mall in Johor Bahru, more high-class compared to Plaza Pelangi, and more luxurious than the crowded Johor Bahru City Square. The Jusco department store is the anchor tenant, spanning over three floors. On the first floor, there's Jusco supermarket where you can buy all your daily needs. On the top floor, there's a food court serving the normal Malaysian fare, and next to it, there's a children playground where your kids can play and have fun.

We didn't have our lunch at the food court, instead we had lunch at The Chicken Rice Shop. This is a famous halal chicken rice restaurant chain, which has branches all over Malaysia, including in Kuala Lumpur's Mid Valley Mega Mall and Malacca's Mahkota Parade shopping mall. They also have opened a branch at VivoCity, Singapore. The chicken rice is very nice, and the kids loved it.

The shopping mall also houses Bread Talk, which is halal in Malaysia, unlike in Singapore. My favourite bread would be the spicy chicken floss one. There's also a Dunkin Donuts counter just opposite the supermarket, and also Baskin Robbins ice cream counter. You cannot find both counters here in Singapore. There's also a bookstore called Harris, and some other stores as well.

More pictures can be found here.

Sentosa Flowers 2007

Date: Tuesday, 20 February 2007
Event: Sentosa Flowers 2007
Location: Imbiah Lookout, Sentosa.

Full articles will follow later. :)

Jalan-jalan ke Singapore Zoo

Pada hari Sabtu, 17 Februari 2006 kemarin, saya membawa Inka dan Irza ke Singapore Zoo, kebun binatang Singapura yang "katanya" paling bagus se-Asia Tenggara. Kita janjian dengan Tante Shinta, Om Wisnu dan Aidan untuk ketemu disana. Sebenarnya Tante Shinta juga janjian untuk ketemu dengan Om Yuwono dan Tante Lenny disana, namun mereka tidak bisa dihubungi karena baterai handphone mereka habis. Jadinya baru ketemuannya setelah keluar dari areal kebun binatang. :)

Kebun binatang ini terletak di daerah Mandai Road, di daerah "hutan" di sebelah utara pulau Singapura, pas di sebelah Upper Seletar Reservoir, danau yang juga berfungsi sebagai catchment area, sehingga daerahnya sangat rimbun dan hijau. Dari arah pusat kota Singapura, Anda bisa naik MRT ke Ang Mo Kio, dari sana disambung bus 138. Kalau dari arah barat Singapura (Jurong dan sekitarnya), Anda bisa naik MRT ke Choa Chu Kang, disambung bus 927. Kalau naik taksi, perjalanan dari pusat kota ke Singapore Zoo akan membutuhkan waktu sekitar setengah jam. Lokasinya bersebelahan dengan Night Safari yang buka malam harinya.

Kebun binatang ini menganut sistem open concept. Binatang-binatang yang ada dalam kebun binatang tersebut tidak dikurung dalam kandang, tapi dibiarkan di alam terbuka. Untuk binatang-binatang yang buas seperti singa, beruang dan lain-lain, ada jurang pemisah untuk mencegah binatang-binatang tersebut menerkam pengunjung.

Biaya tiket masuknya $15 untuk dewasa, dan $7.50 untuk anak-anak. Tiket untuk naik tram yang mengelilingi areal kebun binatang adalah $5 untuk dewasa, dan $2.50 untuk anak. Ada empat tempat perhentian tram, stasiun nomor satu sampai nomor empat. Disarankan untuk menggunakan tram untuk keliling mengingat kompleks kebun binatang yang sangat besar, tetapi jalan kaki tetap diperlukan untuk melakukan eksplorasi ke tempat-tempat show binatang yang tidak terjangkau oleh tram.

Di dekat stasiun tram nomor dua, ada tempat bermain anak-anak yang cukup luas, yang dinamakan Children Play Land. Kompleks playground tersebut terbagi dalam dua bagian: bagian kering dan basah. Supaya anak-anak bisa bermain di kolam air yang basah, disarankan untuk membawa pakaian renang, atau bawa baju ganti. Disana juga terdapat restoran KFC dimana kita bisa makan siang setelah capek keliling kebun binatang. Di dekat restoran tersebut, juga terdapat kolam mandi bola dimana anak-anak bisa mandi bola, gratis.

Di dekat stasiun tram nomor tiga, ada beberapa atraksi animal ride yang pasti anak-anak akan suka: naik kuda poni dan naik gajah. Tiket untuk naik kuda poni adalah $4 per anak untuk satu putaran, sedangkan tiket untuk naik gajah adalah $8 untuk dewasa, dan $4 untuk anak. Atraksi tersebut beroperasi hanya pada jam-jam tertentu: pony ride beroperasi pada jam 11am-12pm dan 2:30pm-3:30pm, sedangkan elephant ride beroperasi pada jam 1pm-2pm dan 4:30pm-5:30pm. Kemarin Inka dan Irza sempat naik kuda poni-nya, tapi tidak sempat naik gajah-nya.

Selain itu, tentu saja kita bisa mengunjungi semua exhibit binatangnya. Setiap exhibit binatang punya jadwal pemberian makan sendiri-sendiri, dimana kita bisa ikut membantu memberi makannya. Sehingga kalau bisa, diusahakan kita bisa mengunjungi setiap exhibit binatang pas jadwal pemberian makanan, yang bisa diatur pas kita sedang merencanakan itinerary.

Mengingat kebun binatang tersebut cukup besar, cukup banyak exhibit binatang yang bisa kita kunjungi. Disarankan untuk menyiapkan waktu satu hari penuh untuk sepenuhnya mengeksplorasi kebun binatang tersebut. Kemarin kita datang sekitar jam 10 pagi, dan baru keluar kebun binatang sekitar jam 5:30 sore. Anak-anak benar-benar enjoy berada disana, really having a great time.

Foto-fotonya bisa dilihat disini.

Johor Bahru Trip

On Saturday, 10 February 2007, we went to Johor Bahru. Specifically, we went to Jusco Tebrau City, a new upmarket shopping mall in Johor Bahru.

Full articles can be found here.

Singapore Zoo

We went to Singapore Zoo on Saturday, 17 February 2007, together with Om Wisnu and Tante Shinta's family, as well as with Om Yuwono and Tante Lenny's family (albeit only meeting them at outside the zoo's entrance). :)

Full articles (in Bahasa Indonesia) can be found here.

Happy Lunar New Year

For those of you who celebrate Lunar New Year, I wish everyone of you a very happy and prosperous new year ahead. Xīnnián kuàilè, Gōngxǐ fācái. And, don't forget the red packets... :)

Sentosa

Sentosa is one of our favourite places we usually visit quite often. Not only because we have the Family Islander card which gives the whole family free unlimited entries into Sentosa for the whole year, but there's also quite a lot of things we can do there.

Cycling

One of our favourite methods of outing-cum-exercising is cycling. Sentosa is full of cycling tracks, and cycling around the island is quite fun. Our favourite cycling track in Sentosa is the one between the Ferry Terminal and the Underwater World area. The track is flat so it's quite easy for the kids, and it's going past the seaside along the north coast of the island. It's also passing by one of Sentosa's seldom-visited attractions, the Lost Civilisation and Ruined City.

Another favourite track of ours is the one along the beaches on the southern coast of the island, from Siloso Beach to Palawan Beach, up to Tanjong Beach. There are some interesting attractions along the path, including the Southernmost Point of Continental Asia, which is located near Palawan Beach. The small islet is connected to the main Sentosa island through a suspension bridge over the narrow strait.

Other than that, Sentosa also have some other cycling tracks. Some of them are passing through the middle of the island, but the track is mountainous and it's passing some thick jungles, it's great for those who are more adventurous. If it's quite difficult for you to bring in your own bicycles, you can rent them from any of the bicycles kiosks located there. There's one bicycles kiosk located just next to the ferry terminal, and another one near the Siloso beach.

Sentosa Express

Getting into Sentosa is now much easier with the new Sentosa Express. Being a Sentosa family islander, we can ride the monorail for free. Otherwise, one only need to pay $3 (including the $2 Sentosa admission), which is the same amount you need to pay if you come by bus. We board the train at the new VivoCity shopping mall. The station is located on the 3rd floor, near the lift lobby L, just on top of The Coffee Bean cafe and Best Denki, next to the Food Republic food court.

You need to purchase the tickets at the ticket counter there. For Islander members, you just need to show your Islander card to get your free tickets. You can then tap the ticket cards on the gate there, and walk through it, similar to MRT gates where you need to tap your EZ-Link cards. Unfortunately, you cannot use your EZ-Link cards here. Once you have passed the gate, you just need to wait for boarding the next train to Sentosa.

The journey from VivoCity to Sentosa will only take several minutes. There are two stations within Sentosa itself: Imbiah Station (near the Merlion and close to all other attractions around Imbiah Lookout) and Beach Station (located between Palawan and Siloso beaches, where you can catch the beach tram to the two respective beaches). There's actually another station, Waterfront Station, which will only be opened on 2010 when the new integrated resorts there are open.

Imbiah Lookout and Sentosa Luge

From the Imbiah Station, just in front of the Merlion statue, we can take the escalators up to other attractions located in the Imbiah Lookout cluster. Some of the attractions include Images of Singapore, Carlsberg Sky Tower, Butterfly Park and Insect Kingdom and Sentosa 4D Magix. Unfortunately, the ticket admissions to those attractions are quite expensive, since those are meant more for tourists. As an islander member, we can get some discounts to those attractions, but it's still consider quite expensive.

However, there's one attraction which we (especially the kids) like, and we don't mind going there again every time we visit Sentosa. Yes, you guessed it right, it's the Sentosa Luge, the gravity-powered go-cart-cum-toboggan down the track from Imbiah Lookout to Siloso Beach. Being an islander member, we only need to pay $5 (instead of the normal $8) per ride, inclusive of one Skyride/chairlift ride back. Kids who are riding pillion don't need to pay since they charge per cart and not per person, unless if they ride themselves individually. So far Inka and Irza have not tried riding the luge themselves.

The Skyride (previously known as chairlift) ride back is also quite an unforgettable experience. That is, of course, if you are not afraid of heights. :) The Skyride will bring you on top of those trees and greeneries. Ensure that you don't drop your sandals, otherwise it'll be a bit difficult for you to find them back. There's also camera on the second tower of the Skyride, which will take our photo taking the Skyride, with the Siloso beach and the sea as the background. The photo prints can be bought at $10 each (very expensive), while the lower resolution JPG file can be sent to your email address for $5. Same prices apply to Luge ride photos as well.

Sarpino's Pizzeria

This pizza restaurant is also located in Imbiah Lookout, just next to the Butterfly Park. They sell quite a wide range of halal pizzas with crispier crust compared to Pizza Hut pizzas, and the kids love it very much. Sarpino's Pizzeria actually has some other outlets throughout Singapore, including the one in East Point, Simei.

Just in front of the restaurant, which is at the heart of Imbiah Lookout, there's a water garden where the kids can just play with the water and have fun. Inka and Irza was really having a great time playing there. Similar water garden is also can be found at Palawan Beach, just next to the Koufu food court there. Kids can also spend hours having fun at the beach there. Just ensure that you bring some extra clothes for the kids, or even better, bring their swimming gears.

More pictures of some various moments we had in Sentosa can be found here.

Various Moments in Sentosa

Full article can be found here.

Flashback: Q1's Birthday Party at Pasir Ris, January 2006

This is an old collection of photos, more than a year ago (not as long as those photos, though), taken at Pasir Ris Town Park, during Qurrata (Q1)'s birthday party on 29 January 2006. Q1 is the first son of Mas Iman and Mbak Wanti.

I had to migrate this album from MyPhotoAlbum here, because for some reasons, MyPhotoAlbum has tagged my account as "not in good standing" and can be deleted anytime. *sigh*

Some of Inka and Irza's friends shown in the photos below are no longer in Singapore. Q1 and Q2 has moved back to Indonesia, particularly Makassar. Fira and Adam also has moved to Batam, while Athaya and Alita has moved to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Full article with regards to the event can be found here.

I might be migrating some more old albums before my MyPhotoAlbum's account is being deleted permanently, so please do not be alarmed if you see some old photos being posted here. Apologise for the inconvenience caused.

APRICOT 2007 in Bali

The APRICOT conference, which stands for "Asia Pacific Regional Internet Conference on Operational Technologies", is the place where all network geeks from Asia Pacific, if not the whole world, gather to discuss about new technology in the Internet and IT fields, especially on the network area. The event consists of workshops, tutorials, conference sessions and some other forums as well. We can say that APRICOT is the Asia Pacific version of North America's NANOG. For this year, the APRICOT 2007 will be held at Bali International Convention Centre, Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia. It will be hosted by APJII, the Indonesian Internet Service Provider Association.

The last time I attended APRICOT was six years ago, during the APRICOT 2001 event in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Since then, I never attended the next APRICOT events, until this year, my company has agreed to send me to attend the APRICOT 2007 in Bali, thank God. I will be going to Bali on Saturday, 24th of February 2007, and will be back to Singapore on 3rd of March 2007. I will attend the tutorial, conference sessions and the APNIC member meeting.

I'm glad that I'll be meeting quite a lot of friends there, including some of my friends from APJII and my ex-colleagues in RADNET. I took a glance at the event's organizing committee here and saw some familiar names, including Mauldi Wirastomo and Hammam Riza, two of my ex-bosses while I was in RADNET last time. :) For those of you who will be going to attend APRICOT 2007 as well, just drop me a note, in case we can meet up there and have a chat. Looking forward to see you guys in Bali! :) :)

Inka and Irza's New Look

My blogger friend Tata, who is currently in Switzerland but is having a plan to migrate to Singapore soon with his family, informed me that his computer always hung after viewing the main page of The Journey of Inka and Irza. I tried to replicate the problem, and yes, I also encountered the same problem. My Mozilla Firefox hung after trying to load the page for some time, not too sure why. Many thanks Tata for the feedback. :)

To be frank, firstly I didn't really much bother since the blog itself is already in hiatus mode for quite some time. In the past couple of months, I prefer to write stories about Inka and Irza in the photo section of my Multiply site, together with all the photos, while the Indonesian versions of the stories are usually posted in Rumah Indra. So, I didn't update that blog too often. However, writing articles (with all the hyperlinks etc) on a photo blog is quite inconvenient, especially since you would need to add the hyperlink tags manually. So, I've decided that I would want to use back The Journey of Inka and Irza for me to write stories about my kids and family, in English. Furthermore, I have configured my Multiply site to import all my articles from all my blogs under my Blogger account, including The Journey of Inka and Irza and Rumah Indra.

Before I start using it, I need to fix the problem first. Since I suspect that the problem might be due to the template, a quick and clean way to resolve the problem might be using a new template altogether. So, I backed up my previous template, and then I picked up a new template and at the same time, upgraded the template so I can use Blogger's new template layout tools, since I've already upgraded the blog to the new Blogger.

So, the problem is now fixed. You should not have any issues accessing The Journey of Inka and Irza blog site again, and I'm ready to post future articles about stories of Inka and Irza there again. Stay tuned! :)

Naik Kuda di Bandung

Salah satu pengalaman Inka dan Irza yang berkesan sewaktu mudik ke Bandung, kota kelahiran saya, awal Desember tahun lalu, adalah ketika mereka untuk pertama kalinya naik kuda. Ini adalah pengalaman yang tidak bisa mereka dapatkan di Singapura sini. Betul, mereka bisa naik kuda poni di Kebun Binatang Singapura, tapi kuda poni-nya kecil sekali, dan jalurnya pun sangat pendek. Di Bandung, tepatnya di Cisangkuy dan Ganesha, mereka bisa naik kuda "beneran", dan melewati jalan-jalan di Bandung dengan pemandangan yang cukup indah. :)

Diantara kedua tempat wisata berkuda tersebut, saya lebih merekomendasikan Ganesha dibandingkan Cisangkuy. Dengan harga yang sama, lima ribu rupiah (sekitar 84 sen Singapura) sekali putaran, jalur kuda di Ganesha lebih panjang dibandingkan di Cisangkuy.

Jalan Cisangkuy itu terletak di sebelah timur pusat kota Bandung, tidak jauh dari lokasi toko-toko outlet yang berada di seputar Jalan Riau (Martadinata), dan juga tidak terlalu jauh dari Gedung Sate, salah satu gedung bersejarah di Bandung. Jalan Ganesha adalah jalan yang berada di depan kampus utama ITB, tidak jauh dari kebun binatang di Taman Sari, dan tidak jauh dari toko-toko outlet sepanjang Jalan Dago (Juanda).

Ketika Anda memarkir kendaraan Anda, bersiap-siap untuk "dikerubungi" oleh kuda-kuda dengan joki yang menawarkan layanan mereka. Bargaining sangat diperlukan, karena biasanya mereka akan menawarkan harga tinggi, dua atau bahkan tiga kali lipat dari harga biasa yang cuma lima ribu rupiah.

Yang pasti, pengalaman berkuda tersebut sangat berkesan bagi Inka dan Irza. Terbukti hingga sekarang, mereka selalu bertanya ke saya atau ke istri, kapan mereka bisa naik kuda lagi. :) Wah, nanti kalau kita mudik ke Bandung lagi, ya... :)

Foto-fotonya bisa dilihat disini.

[English version]

Zabrina and Joe Jer Win the Amazing Race Asia

Amazing! As I have predicted earlier, my favourite team, the Malaysians Zabrina and Joe Jer, have won the first session of the Amazing Race Asia, with a narrow lead from the second team to arrive at the pit stop, Sandy and Fransesca. The race ended at Bako National Park (misspelled as "Baku National Park" by the show's producer), which is about 37 km north of the city of Kuching, in Sarawak, Malaysia.

The other Malaysian team, Andrew and Syeon, was actually the first who finished the "building the bench" detour at Kuching's Old Courthouse, but got lost when finding their way to the Sarawak Cultural Village, making them the third team to arrive at the finish line. One member of the teams had to take up treetop challenge in Permai Rainforest Resort, before setting off to the beach and took the speedboat to Bako National Park. Zabrina finished this treetop challenge very well, making her team to be the first to arrive at the finish line. Congratulations!

How about the Indonesian team, Marsio and Mardy? Well, contrary to my prediction earlier, they were actually on the fourth place, after becoming the last team to be eliminated from the race, during the leg in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Not bad at all, actually, and the fact that they can achieve the fourth place is simply amazing and beyond almost everyone's expectations. My sincere congratulations to them as well. :)

Overall, I really enjoyed watching the show, and I am really looking forward for the second season of the Amazing Race Asia. Good work, AXN Asia!