Tag Archives: Indonesia

Itinerary for JATIM Photo Travel

By Jamal Rahman | Published September 9, 2010

A friend, who is a famous professional photographer in Malaysia…some say in Philippine also…he he he was asking me simple itinerary to Kawah Ijen or other suitable places in Indonesia. Not because he can’t make it on his own. Just wanna get input based from my experience.

So here it goes Enche Ted Adnan….

Few good places (I think) which are good for photo travel (people & places) in JATIM are:

Mount Bromo & surrounding at Ngadisari
Madakaripura Waterfall, also in Ngadisari
Papuma Beach in Jember
Kawah Ijen

So to go to these places, here is my recommendation based on my previous travel.

D1 – KL-Surabaya-Cemara Indah (~4 Hours bus ride)
D2 – Cemara Indah-Bromo-Ranupane Lake-Cemara Indah
D3 – Cemara Indah-Madakaripura Waterfall-Catimur Homestay (at Jampit) (~ 6 Hours)
D4 – Catimur Homestay – Paltuding (basecamp) – Kawah Ijen (3 hours slow walk) – Paltuding – Catimur Homestay
D5 – Catimur Homestay – Papuma Beach – Surabaya (~6 Hours)
D6 – Surabaya – KL

For sample of pictures of these places, just search my blog here. Hope that helps Ted!

Posted in Personal Opinion, Photography | Also tagged Bromo, jampit, jamtim, jember, kawah ijen, madakaripura, papuma 1 Comment

Danau Toba 2010, a great photo travel!! Part 1

By Jamal Rahman | Published June 28, 2010

First and foremost, I would like to thank Dr Budi from Medan for the great hospitality. He had sacrificed his precious time…and as a General Practitioner, the time he spent with us was so valuable & expensive! We can’t thank you enough doc!! He is a great photographer & one extraordinary friend!! Please visit his Flickr.

For us in Kuantan, the trip started on Sunday, 20th. June. Me, Rejim & dR Ali drove from Kuantan to KL & reached Badang’s house at about 8PM. Badang treated us with great dinner at Greenwood Gombak. What a delicious catfish! Early Monday morning, Joe, our friend, sent us to LCCT. We met Remi & Emran. And alhamdulillah, the web check-in really helped speed up all the process. We need not to que too long to drop the luggages. Bravo AirAsia.

We boarded the first flight to Medan. We reached Polonia Airport at about 7:30AM. There was this new Indonesian immigration process & that delayed the clearance a bit. We waited for Dr Budie for a while. Dr Budie arranged two vans to cater the six of us. Initially, me, dR Ali & Rejim rode together with Dr Budie in his new Grand Vitara, while Badang, Remy & Emran rode Grand Max with Pak No. By 9AM we were already moving to Tebing Tinggi.

Basically for this trip, we went to these places:

Sidamanik – tea plantation
Balige – and around this beautiful place (Dolok Tolong, Hutaginjang, Bakara (the place said as the origin of Batak))
Tele
Sipiso-piso (but I didn’t go here. Been here last year)
Berastagi
Mount Sibayak

View Larger Map

From Tebing Tinggi, we drove to Sidamanik, a tea plantation area which was I very first stop. We were a bit unlucky because the weather was not that great. Nevertheless we managed to shoot few simple shots. I used bracketing for the shots & later merged & tone-mapped all the exposures into a HDR image using Photomatix Pro.

From Sidamanik we drove to Parapat. It was raining most of the time. We stopped & prayed at a mosque there before we continue the journey to Balige.

Posted in Photography, Travel | Also tagged danau toba, lake toba, sumatera 2 Comments

Danau Toba Part 2

By Jamal Rahman | Published November 7, 2009

A bit busy lately. Few workshops & conferences in between. The never ending meetings & research. Now a bit free to continue the story of our trip to Danau Toba.

In Day 1, after had our lunch at Simarjarunjung, we went to Parapat to meet other Indonesian friends but along the way we stopped at many beautiful places. We photographed a lot of farms including a tea plantation at Sidamanik.

We reached Parapat a bit late, maybe around 5:30PM or something. Pak Pulus, Rusdy etc were already there shooting The Pesta Danao Toba annual event. We shot sunset at Parapat & then join the fun shooting various Batak traditional shows there.

Then at about 8:00PM we rode a ferry to Samosir Island. It was a slow 45 minutes ride to the main island on Toba Lake. We checked into Samosir Village hotel after a quick late dinner at Bernard’s Restaurant. The next very morning, Day 2 of Danau Toba trip, we shot sunrise from the hotel’s area.

Then we had a quick breakfast, shower…before photo touring the rest of the Island.

Later in the afternoon after a simple lunch, we moved to the northen site of the island. I would say that this is the climax of the Danau Toba trip. Photographing people of Tao Toba was a great experience in my life!