The Last Knot

My days in Taiwan as master student already over. I spent it as fully as I could. I even managed to go around Taiwan before going back to Indonesia thanks to my Taiwanese friend. Most of my to-do-list for 2 years in Taiwan already ticked or checked. But at that time, I still felt that I was in NCU, not going anywhere, feel like woke up in the afternoon, lined my friend and asked them out to have something to feed our hungry stomach and roaming on sidewalk beside our G14 dormitory to find a good canteen to eat. Even when I say goodbye to all my lab-mates, junior, senior, professor, I still can smile and say goodbye properly. I saw several of my friend even burst out the tears when saying goodbye, but then again I didn't feel like to do it. Because I feel that I am still here, I am still a part of NCU, like I am not going anywhere. 

Even after that I went back to Indonesia, I traveled to Bali, Malang and Lombok with my lab-mates, I still feel full of joy, enjoying everything, feeling like some travelers, together with my awesome partner-in-crime; Mommy, Kappa, Hongkong Girl, Minion and Local people. What the heck? you should confused about those weird name, shouldn't you? hahaha that was the nickname we got along the way of our journey in those 3 cities I mentioned before. I even managed to get one, Ursula (if maybe you don't know who she is, check Disney's movies 'Little Mermaid' then you should find which one this character is).

Starring:

 Mommy and Hongkong Girl

 Minion and Kappa

Local people and Ursula

Firstly, that empty feeling suddenly appear when the time to say goodbye to my Taiwanese friend is coming closer. That was the last 8 days we spent together, after we got back from Gilih trawangan, that they will be back to Taiwan. I remember I used my sunglasses and laughing together, but suddenly my tears are just coming out from nowhere. I was shocked! Why? And it can't be stopped, just bursting, thanks to my amazing sunglasses, nobody knows at that time. But still, although the tears already fell down, but my heart felt just ok, not in that sentimental way. But just ok, because I still can handle it.

Finally, We separated in Lombok International Airport, Indonesia. Their flight is to Denpasar-Hongkong-Taiwan. Me and minion were going to Jakarta. Mommy is staying at Lombok, coz that is her hometown. Tears began to struggle out on my eyes when Mommy say farewell as she hugged us with welling tears. But I managed to held back mine. The hardest part was when it's time to say goodbye to my Hongkong girl, Kappa and Local people. We were in the waiting room sit together, and when the time for us to boarded to each of our destination gate. Hongkong girl hug me and saying some cute thing , like " I will miss my pillow very much" (she can sleep soundly in a moving car when she laid her head to my arms since it was so big and comfy :3, so does Minions). The tears started to fell down. But once again, I really really tried to held it. Next is Kappa, I looked at his face and I know how sad he was and trying to held back the tears exactly as I did). I shook my hands with him and he tries to say goodbye while he put his hand on my shoulder while saying "Goodbye Ima", my tears almost slipped at that moment,but again, I handle it very well with my gesture. Quickly I change to Yuhan to shook my hand deeply to say my grateful for him that already helps me a lot during my life in Taiwan until now. And there they goes, come back to their life. That was when it hit me, this was the last time I could meet them directly. I wonder when we will get the chance to meet again.

I and Minion are ready to boarded on our plane. I can still saw three of my friends on the other gate waving their hands at us for the last time. That moment was the moment when the emptiness started to build inside me. That was the moment when I realized that my 3 lab-mates from Taiwan is the last knot of my life in Taiwan. They are the last pieces that binds me to the ups and downs there, they are the reason why I can still laugh and feel like a part of Taiwan's life. And now, that pieces are gone. The last knot already unraveled. It left me with sudden deep sadness. I can't explain it well, but suddenly my tears fell down on my cheek and I started to cry like a baby, I can see all the people at the queue staring at me even the stewardess, but I didn't care, I can't hold the tears anymore, it flows like a river. I was still crying until we sat down inside the plane and still went on even when the plane start to took off. Later on, Minion also cried because of my nonstop crying. 

Yes, Taiwan, I didn't know that you leave a deep impression and lot of memories in my heart. Let this time I express to you my gratitude as well as my farewell. Thank you for teaching me a lot of things about science, life, friendship, happiness, sadness, loneliness. Goodbye friends, goodbye part of my life, hopefully we can meet up and reminisce back someday in the future. 

But for now, it's time to say goodbye. 

Thank you and farewell Taiwan.

Unforgettable journey with my beloved friends

"Thanks for being such a lovely and funny companion during our travel days in Indonesia"

Lombok, August 11, 2014

Mugiwara Shop in Ximending District, Taiwan

Yes you need to visit this place for sure, but I warn you in advance, beware of your wallet health condition, ok? I already warn you, so next time don't blame me XD

What can I say? I was the first victim :( 

*pat pat my wallet

That is the shop! if you see that logo and you are on the right place. They sell lots of One Piece stuff that will make you dig your wallet deeper. Action figure is for sure one of a-must-sell item (although it's so expensive there, I prefer to buy it on Taipei Main Station though, so much cheaper there), they also have manga, card, pin, key holder, towel, bed cover, clothes, slippers, etc and human-size figure of Luffy, Chopper and Sanji! Yes! of course I took pictures :3 

 with my beloved Luffy! Ore wa naru!

 with Serious Sanji? :p

with cute Chopper XD

I buy some stuffs and met 2 people here, they are costumers like me but they asking me whether I am a big fan of One Piece (and of course I said yes! or else why should I come to this shop wasting my money like a speed of the wind mahahaha). I spent some time to talked with them in mix mandarin and english because the guy who really a fan of Ope Piece cannot speak english, so I start to mix all the words, amazingly, we understood each other #LOL. 

 Luffy puzzle

How to get here:
From Taipei main station head straight to Ximen station and use exit (I forgot what number) but the direction is to Ximending. Look for a Movie Theater there and the Mugiwara shop is a cross that building.

2014 One Piece Exhibition at Huashan Creative Park, Taipei, Taiwan

My days in Taiwan are (again) filled with sweet and unforgettable memories from my amazing and awesome Taiwanese friend. I am a big fan of ONE PIECE anime, I really want to (at least once) go to some OnePiece-related event while I still here. So one day, this friend lined me and said that he didn't know that my plan to go to Osaka was canceled because of the late thesis-correction-thing. He asked me whether I wanted to go somewhere in Taipei or near Jhongli to replace my disappointment. I told him that I want to go to One Piece exhibition held in Taipei and Mugiwara shop because I cannot go until now because the ads is all in Chinese :3 (pardon me, although I've already lived in Taiwan for 2 years but then again, I use English everyday to survive) so I don't know where this place is. He said that he wanted to do something in Taipei and he can accompany me around that place after he had done his business. So I said OK! (while jumping and rolling around my room). I was so excited!

So this was a one-day journey to visit ONE PIECE exhibition in 2014 at Huashan Creative Park, Taipei and even after that we can go to the first international Mugiwara Shop ever in Taiwan (of course, this shop usually only exist in Japan before). So this time I will only tell you the first story at the exhibition. Next post I will tell you about the Mugiwara shop experience  :3

(I and Wei-yen at One Piece exhibition main gate)

(right after the main gate, you will find this photo booth)

Although I really disappointed when I knew that visitors cannot taking picture inside the exhibition hall but later I forgot about this matters because I realize that without taking pictures, I can fully enjoyed and immersed with all of the things they provided inside the hall (if I might say, the maze <3).

First thing first, you need to pay for the ticket. Quite expensive, but worth it! If you are an undergraduate student, you can have cheaper price(NT$ 260)! but if you are a master student or even graduated already (like myself :3) so you need to pay more. Luckily I went on weekday so I can get cheaper than weekend which is NT$280, yeay! You can see the ticket price on the picture below.

(Ticket price)

(Hell yeah I'm in!)

After you get your ticket, then go straight to the entrance hall and you need to show your ticket to the staff member. Then you will enter a cinema-like room, where Luffy and the crew will greeted you, here also present stories of what you will see inside. All the characters and scenes on One Piece will be shown. There will be two options when you enter this room, whether you choose to sit down on the small-chair-like sofa or you can stand and hold the hand rail like the bow of the ship. I recommend you to choose the second one, it's more exciting!

 (all the way to the entrance hall)

 (I can't help but took a picture with my dear Luffy)

(this is the entrance hall)

After the first room, you will walk outside and found out that you are in maze, this maze will show you some important and unforgettable scene on One Piece, when Portgas D Ace being captured by the army! so you will walk slowly (with all of one piece music soundtracks) and which will lead you to a prison. You can see Ace inside the jail with both of his hand hanged on the wall, wide open. I can't help but try to reach and touch the mannequin, but the staff member didn't allow me :(  a human size Ace figure! OMG! I almost freaked out >.< the figure is incredibly detail. I wanted to touch him! I spend quite some time here, staring at him. 

Furthermore, you will walk on the maze-like hallway and then this maze is filled with the stories when Luffy want to save Ace and the moment when Ace try to save him back and died in the middle of the action. I almost cry when I read it again (OK, most of the words written in Kanji or Hiragana or katakana, so it will be better to say: I looked each of the scene, Haha! but who cares :p). I think this exhibition was emphasized on the moment of how Luffy and the crew changes and move on. 

(this is how the hallway looks like)

(credit goes to kohaku.com)

(3D version of the One Piece special exhibition drawing from Eiichiro Oda)

Those people on the picture are the key Japanese voice cast for anime, the woman in the middle is the owner of Luffy's voice <3 they came to the opening ceremony invited by the contributors of the event.

Next room is quite similar compare to the first room you enter, the difference is moment, you can watch and enjoy the moment when Luffy made promises to meet again in 2 years and become stronger than before! Next is the working room of Eiichiro Oda, the moment when One Piece was born and how the stories goes on further, it was shown on all over the wall, all the wallpaper shown from the first era, until now (latest stories on the book when Luffy need to fight on Colosseum battle). So it was like sum of One Piece stories using all Oda's drawing. Magnificent. Incredible! I spend most of my time here, staring each of the drawing. 

(Oda's table, place where One Piece born)

Next room is bubble room (yes, I named it! haha), you can see how Luffy and crew underwater and goes to the deepest side of the sea to meet Shirayuki hime (the biggest and most beautiful mermaid legend). This room is fun, because you can stand facing the big screen and move your arms as if you want to crash the bubble! all the bubble will flew on whichever direction you made! hahaha I played a lot here. Making the straw hat crew inside each of the bubble flew towards any direction.

Later on you come into the Trafalgar Law's room! He is now the second person I love (after Monkey D Luffy) in One Piece, hohohoho. This room only consist of one human-size figure of him! (which made me almost shout his name out :p) and later on the movie start to play. It shows from the very first time Luffy and crew met him again in the Ice and Fire Island after they were succeed on going out from the deepest side of the sea journey.

(This is how the figure pose in that room XD)

(credited by google images searcher)

Donquixote Doflamingo of the seven warlords of the sea. This is the next room. You will see his big figure flying on the ceiling. They design this room round, surrounded us with the stories of the manga where Luffy and straw-hat crew met him for the first time and have Colosseum battle scene later on. 

(this is how Donquixote pose on the ceiling, and it's really big!)

With all the voice of the those scenes and the light will tell you which scene are now playing, well, I try to catch the story along with the lights, but in the end I got confused and have a little headache (because I need to look at all direction to follow the story) so I decided to just enjoy the art itself, not the light :p

Last room shows each cover of the books from volume 1 (December 24, 1997) until volume 74 (June 4, 2014). And then at the end of the room, you can buy all exhibition souvenirs provided (which are so expensive, so I only picked small puzzle and postcard). 

 (front cover of the souvenir list)

(back cover of the souvenir list) 

On the exit way, I found some interesting wallpaper, so we made a pose there! Tada! Peace! Ore wa naru!

Thanks to my friend, Wey-yen Tsai, I managed to come here and enjoy this unforgettable moment in Taiwan! I love One piece! Thank you for taking me here, bad guy*! 

Oh, if you are One Piece fans and fortunately stay in Taiwan until the late of September, 2014, DO come here, ok?! I hope my experience helps you to get some information on this event. You have fluent mandarin? You can visit the official website here

*He doesn't want to be called good guy, so I need to say this one instead :p 

How to get here:

from Taipei Main Station stop at Zhongxiao Xinsheng station (Blue line towards Taipei Nangang Exhibition hall station) and use exit 4. Walk straight around 500 m and you will find Huashan Exhibition Hall on your right hand side. One Piece posters and main gate will directly guide you there.

[5 Days around Taiwan] Day 2: The other side of Hualien

Yeah!! we're back! with a new backpacking stories of our adventure around Hualien for our second day. Here are our welcome greeting XD

Qixingtan Beach

Our first destination is Qixingtan beach, the sky and the water is so blue, I love it very much. These are some photos we capture to remind us of that moment.

 This beach is so beautiful <3 too bad we can't swim 'coz it's too dangerous

Ralph, Sari and me

Actually we want to see sunrise here but we decided to cancel it at the last moment because our driver is too tired and we need sleep because we still have a long way to go today. So here we are on Qixingtan Beach!!!

The Pine Garden

Pine garden is actually a house of some artist who famous of its poem and song. So this guy built a house on a hills and surround the pine tree all over his house. A military structure and century-old pine woods built in Japanese colonial period. Now it become like a museum. What make this house really cool is it has a lot of windows and there are plant on all over the roof and external wall. It makes the house cooler inside with the help of fresh wind, we didn't feel hot at all :D so here are the Pine Garden House.

Welcome you to Pine Garden House

Inside the house XD 

Sightseeing on the backyard of the house 

Front yard 

Pine garden and restaurant

Oh I almost forgot to mention about the ticket price, yes! you need to buy the ticket to come in to this garden. NTD 50 for full price, but if you are a student , then you can get half price by showing your student ID (NTD 25). If you are on group , then you need to pay NTD 40. 

ChiAn ChingHsiou Temple

This is a historical building left by Japanese colonial. This spot is open from 8.30 am to 5 pm. If you want to come inside, you need to buy ticket for:
Full price: NTD 30
Student price: NTD 15
Group: NTD 20
It is quite cheap for a small historical building, worth it :D But if you really not so into the museum-like traveler, so just skip this place , tee-hee XD

In front of the historical building site

Inside the temple

Temple's yard 

Next is looking for eating place (for our Taiwanese friend), since this month is fasting month, so we only accompany them to eat. We are really happy today because we can meet Samuel , one of our beloved labmate, who happen to be in Hualien with his girlfriend (I mention him indirectly on my previous post XD). He will introduce you to the good place to eat in Hualien, especially for you who can eat pork :P 

(This is our friend, SAM)

(Inside the dumpling shop)

(This what the dumpling looks like)

Later on we move on to our next culinary spot, which is a MUST visit shop!! ICE CREAM shop! ice is a heaven word in this hot summer season. This ice cream shop is really famous because the shape is really unique, like a pie. Check it out:

The menu and whats inside the ice cream

Sari and me really sad cannot eat it directly because we are fasting, but later on we come back on this shop just to eat this yummy ice cream! I will not forget about this experience! You really need to taste it!

Queuing at night is longer than in the afternoon *o*

full review of how the ice cream looks like 'coz now we can eat it XD

our revenge message for Sam because this afternoon he tease us with this ice cream!

Liyu Lake with giant black rubber duck

It was coincidentally in the summer festival and they show a giant rubber duck on the lake with 15 little duck surrounding it XD it is so cute and here are some recording of that duck.

We even ride the duck boat XD and here is some of the video we recorded. Oh btw, just forget what I said in the video "we are inside the duck itself" mehhhh..i don't know what's gotten into me and I even don't know what I was talking about mahahahaha tired I think :P

Fairytale Land in Hualien a.k.a VillaHome

Next destination is the Fairytale Land >.< ahahah actually it is a rich man area. So some guy bought this land and made some villa (which is so expensive, NT$ 4500 is the cheapest price to stay one night~_~) but looks like he wants to make the scenery just looks like something from european style? 

But I think this artificial lake and also the villa itself is so beautiful like a fairytale, we really love this place :D 

here is some of the review video

FYI, not many people know this area, so we are lucky that Ralph bring us here. Xie xie nin.  

final review of the fairy land XD

For further information of this spot, you can check it by yourself on their amazing website : amazing and cool website of VillaHome

That is our last destination for Day 2 of the journey, later we go to prepare our break fasting time, so we go to a famous restaurant (seafood) and this restaurant is a must visit place too.

Hualien famous restaurant

and our menu for today XD

So that's all for our second day journey around Taiwan, we still have 3 days more, so we will take a rest and tell you our story on another post. Good night Hualien XD

How to upload your thesis in NCU library main system

I post this because I know that doing this is kind of a hassle especially for you as a first-timer to do paperwork like this. So I will explain to you to help you to overcome the difficulties. This is for those who already finish oral defense and already revised your thesis. Next step is to upload your thesis into NCU library system so that later you can print out your hard copy, I hope this will help even for a bit.

1. Browse National central university Library website at http://www.lib.ncu.edu.tw/e/ewelcome.php

2. Click 'thesis' , as shown in the picture below

3. Then click 'upload papers'

4. Login into the system by typing your student ID

5. After that you can fill out the form as shown in the picture. There are several things you need to know which are 

- the "Academic year" is the year you enter the school for the first time"

- "Year" is the graduate year

- "Thesis year" is the year you finish and upload your thesis

- "Page" is sum of whole page inside the file (including cover, sign papers and all)

After you fill all the form, then hit the 'submit' button and wait until they email you (usually in 5 minutes) whether it is already accepted or you need to correct something in your thesis format. 

Oh, in case you didn't received email 1 hour after you submit the thesis, you should go and check directly to library because sometimes the system didn't read our submission yet and need to be refreshed. So we need to ask library staff to check them.

Good luck!

[5 Days around Taiwan] Day 1: Hualien at Night

We finally arrived at Hualien city and after check-in to our hostel then we go straight to Donghwa University to meet my beloved friend, Cut Nuzlia. She will go back to Indonesia this July 18, so before that I just want to visit her for the last time in Hualien and ask her to took us around Hualien at night. So the first destination was Zhiqiang Night Market, Cut, Sari and Yuhan will introduce you about this night market. Here are some introduction of Cut and the market itself.

Zhiqiang Night Market

Day 1 of the journey was full of surprise and also luck! almost all the food we eat are treated by the Laoban (the owner of the store). First restaurant we visit in this night market , we buy this shrimp for NTD 100 each (which is so expensive for a backpacker like us! ahaha), not long after the bake shrimp was served, suddenly Laoban gave us one full plate of shrimp for free, and we were so grateful for that! Ramadhan kareem! subhanallah.. We managed to record the video because we were video-ing the restaurant when the free meal came. Yippi!

Rainbow Night Market

Next after this night market, we moved on to another one, which is Rainbow Night Market. We were informed that this market is specialized on its variety of games. As you can see on the video below.

Yuhan invited us to try one of the game. I forget how to type the game's name but you can see how the game being played by us on the video. Even though we were not lucky on winning the game ahahah. 

After playing the game, we move on to go around the night market and fortunately met this awesome woman called Paula, her english is really fluent and she works in the night market. She looked at us and notice that we are muslim, so she wants to promote this night market regarding its food. She told us we can try the vegetarian dumpling here with only a cheap price. So do you want to know about this further? check this video out ! 

So if you guys really want to go to this night market, you need to make sure to remember the place or the landmark, so that you will recognize it right away. That landmark will be introduced by Cut on this video :)

Special Midnight Sushi Vendor

So we were still going around Hualien at night and next stop will be the famous midnight sushi shop that you MUST visit whenever you come to this city ahahahah. This shop only open from 10 pm - 2 am and so many people come here because it's really tasty and most of all, it's cheap, man! Only NT 20 for one sushi and NT 15 for the soup ^o^ 

What makes this shop is so special because we once again received free meal, yeay! We didn't spend any money at all to eat here we even received a lot of bonus sushi <3 thanks to someone *smirk* And there are reason behind this free meal. Further information will be revealed on the video ^^ hohohoh.

After we eat all the free food and even manage to bring some sushi back to our hostel to preapre for our Sahoor time. But before that we say goodbye to Cut who already bring us around Hualien in midnight, thanks and much love from Jhongli for your warm welcome ^^ *hug and kiss

[5 Days around Taiwan] Day 1 - All the way from Taipei to Hualien

This was a series of our backpacking journey around Taiwan for 5 days in a row together with my labmate, Zhang Yuhan and Sari from National Central University CEM. As promises after defense exam, we plan the journey, actually all the labmate want to go together but unfortunately most of them need to follow military service and need to do all kind of preparation for job interview and all that, so they cannot go with us. So here we are, the three muskeeters on Ramadhan month which was happened on July, with hot sunshine and an incredible thirst temptation but thanks God we made it ^^ I prefer to video blog (vblog) it instead of typing so many words, I am really bad at writing ahahha so that's why this blog will be filled by lots of video :D So this is where the stories begin.

Shifen Waterfall

1st spot is Shifen waterfall, it is in Taipei, Pingxi district. We were very surprised with the beauty that is presented before us when we arrived here. Real waterfalls, ahahah actually does not have any high expectation to the first spot, but it turns out the waterfall was really special! Although we cannot swim or just play with the water, but still, the scenery is awesome and peaceful. Here are some video we record so that you experience the beauty as well.

This is the front view of the waterfall.

Pingxi Lantern Festival

Second destination is near the waterfall, famous with its lantern festival let alone in this hot summer time. The Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival is one of the most colorful activities of the Lantern Festival. Pingxi is a remote hillside town. In the past, those who worked or farmed in the mountains faced the risk of being robbed or killed, and they used lanterns to inform their families they were safe. The lanterns do not function as signals anymore, but are now used as symbols of peace and good fortune. We had a chance to write our hope and messages through this lantern, we choose blue-color lantern and wrote our messages on that, after that we flew the lantern up there to the sky. It was an amazing experiences, and unforgettable one, since this is the 1st time I flew lantern directly. I didn't record a video here, because each of us is so immersed with the activity, so we only take some pictures to perpetuate this moment.

In the middle of our fun journey, we still remember our brothers and sisters in Palestine who cannot enjoy their freedom, so we wrote our message for them #SavePalestine #Freedom.

Nanfang'ao Fish Town

Next destination is Hualien, but on the middle of the road, we visit random places between Yilan and Hualien. One of them called Nanfang'ao, its one of the three largest coastal fishing town in Taiwan. You can see the scenery on the video below.

Shakadang (Mystery Valley) Trail

The entrance to this trail is conveniently located only a minute or so from the entrance of Tailuge (Taroko) Gorge, behind the Shakadang Toll Station. To reach the trailhead, follow the path behind the toll station that leads down toward Liwu River. After crossing the stream, follow the bank until the river forks at the Shakedang tributary. The trailhead can be found nearby on the right bank of the tributary. The trail itself is not particularly demanding, although it is wise to avoid it during the typhoon season when flooding can make the river crossings treacherous.

The river is crystal-clear and shallow enough to wade. If you explore in the water for an hour or so, you may discover Shenmi (Mystery) Valley. Taroko National Park Headquarters has finished paving the trail to Shenmi (Mystery) Valley. But there is no road behind the check post, so please do not dare to adventure. Generally, tourists only visit where it is downstream near the toll station.

Shenmi (Mystery) Valley features strange-looking marble rocks, limpid blue pool, and arduous cliffs at both sides. The pool at bottom of river is the most beautiful part of the valley. Moreover, the valley is so spacious that the visitors may camp.

Yanzikou (Swallow Groto)

Following the Central Cross-Island Highway, at Yanzikou (Swallow Grotto) the rock cliffs of the Liwu River gorge seem to reach to heaven while the river runs its swiftest and the distance between the gorge walls so narrow that they almost seem to touch each other.

Along the Yanzikou (Swallow Grotto) trail which runs about a half kilometer starting from the entrance to Swallow Grotto to the Jinheng Bridge, you can enjoy the sights of the Liwu River from nearly straight above the water, the potholes on the cliff faces, the springs sprinkled along the lower parts of the walls, as well as the famous rock formation "Chieftain's profile rock".

Changchun Shrine(Eternal Spring Shrine)

Drive from the west exit of the Changchun Tunnel of the Central Cross-Island Highway, then turn south(left) and go along the old Central Cross-Island Highway to the car park next to Liwu River, and you can see the Changchun (Eternal Spring) Shine which commemorates the 226 personnel (military veterans) who died during the construction of the Central Cross-Island Highway (1956~1960). Spring water adjacent by the Eternal Spring Shine flows all year round, and the Highway Bureau named it after "Changchun Falls." It is now scenic spot with special significance on the Central Cross-Island Highway.

Well from here onward, we are going to our hostel in Hualien and then go to Donghwa University to meet my friend and next post I will tell you about all the stories on our amazingly night journey ^^

See you around