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How was your 2020? It's excellent!

catatan ibu December 29, 2020

Don't you think 2020 gone in a blink? I think so. It was really fine in January, Februar, and March. But then, boom! It is suddenly December. A lot of things happens in this year. Good and bad things happen. Honestly speaking, this year is rough. Yet, I found that overall this year is an excellent year.

It's excellent because....

we (me and my husband) have been dreaming to have our own house. And earlier this year we started to build our own. It was not easy to get the permit to build the house from the developer. Yet we could manage to get it in no time. However, we got some problem with the budget and the contractor after. It took couple months to deal with it. After long discussion, we decided to change the contractor and boom! The pandemic hit. We had to get another permit from the developer. Thankfully, we got it less than a month and we began the project in the middle of this year. Hopefully it can finish soon.

It's excellent because....

I got new online friends. As I mentioned in this post, that I am doing small business, selling online, I am happy to say this year I joined online course about selling online and I got some new online friends from there. It feels nice eventhough I was at home but I still able to get new knowledge plus new friends.

It's excellent because...

I joined Jafra. Why Jafra? It's a skincare product and honestly I have been want to know more about how to care with our skin. It is a good decision to join the hype. I get training product and knowledge about skincare for free, and I get cheaper price for their product because of member benefit. Plus side, I can sell the product and get the profit. It is still not that much but I am happy with it.

It's excellent because...

I am having another baby. Yes, our second child just born earlier this month. It was not easy journey, being pregnant and giving a birth during pandemic. But I am so happy that now I am having 2 kids in the house.

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Thats summary of my 2020. It was not always smooth but thankfully I survived. I learned the lesson and I am looking forward to 2021. Another new 365 to fill out. Bismillah, we can do it.

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5 Things to Prepare for Travelling using Campervan

lifestyle August 10, 2020

For most of Indonesian, campervan is uncommon being used for travelling. Yes they do travelling with a car but not a campervan. I think it is because of the road condition in the country. However, as long as I know, travelling with campervan is becoming a trend in the country since around 2016 (references here).

I know about campervan only through television and book. I guess I never see it in Indonesia so far. It was back around 2014 when I studied in New Zealand, I saw campervan was runnning on the street for the first time. Yet my first experienced travelling with campervan was in 2015. The story can be found here. Later, I travelled again with campervan with my family in Tasmania in 2019. Therefore, based on those experiences, I want to share what to prepare if you want to try travelling with campervan.

What is campervan?

Campervan is a vehicle that accomodates place for sleeping & cooking yet can be used for a transportation as well. We can sleep and cook inside, even some van has a small shower room. In addition it can transport us from one place to another like a car, but a little bigger. The campervan can be rent from their website. There are several options can be choose for renting in Australia or New Zealand. All the payment can be done using the credit card. We can process it from our country if we want to rent it.

What to prepare for travelling using campervan?

Choose the right size of campervan. There are a lot of size options of campervan, from campervan only suitable for 2 person until suitable for 4 person. The bigger size of the van, then it is more spacious inside. Beside that, we also have to make sure the pick up and drop off point of the campervan. While travelling in New Zealand, we didn't need to drop off the campervan in their office. We could just leave it at the airport. Yet, while we were travelling in Tasmania, we had to drop it off at their office. Each rental company has their own regulation regarding picking up and dropping off the campervan.
Prepare the international driver license. Based on my experience road trip in Australia and New Zealand, they will ask for international driver license for renting the car (campervan). They usually will ask two drivers for the safety reason. Yet, again, each rental company has different regulation regarding this.
Check the weather in the travel destination. Travelling during summer and winter is totally different. We need more warmth during winter and it means more electricity for the campervan. When I travelled in winter, we had to turn on the heater inside the campervan all night in order to be able sleeping at night. Turning on the heater needs a lot of electricity and it costs the gasoline for running it. We had to fill the gasoline often during the trip. In my opinion, it takes more energy for travelling in winter using campervan.
Book the caravan park in advance. Caravan park is where you park your campervan. Basically, it looks like a big parking space with some common room, shower and kitchen. Some place let the driver choose where they want to park as long as still inside the caravan park. But most of the caravan park will give the driver number of parking area where they should park when they check in. The number is like room number in hotel. Once we get the number, we parked our campervan. Each of the parking area will have an electric plug and a water tap. We need the electricity to charge the electronic inside the campervan. Meanwhile the water tap is used for supporting water on the toilet and washing inside the campervan. However, if we don't want to take a shower inside the car, we can used the bathroom in the caravan park. Most of the caravan park will have bathroom and some of them have hot water as well. It is more comfortable to take a shower there for me than inside the car.
Bring only the essential items in your lugage. There is no big space inside the campervan to open your suitcase. It is better to bring big backpack and only bring the most essential items. Less cloth if possible. But then again, it is different for each person.

Travelling with campervan might sound difficult yet it was totally fun experience. Especially if you travelling with your loved one. No need to travel for a long time, one week is enough to try how adventurous travelling with campervan. Hope this post can help to understand what to prepare for travelling using campervan.

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2019 Road Trip in Australia (2): Russell Fall and Iron Blow Lookout

Australia August 05, 2020

3 March 2019

It was Sunday and the weather was nice, not that cold or windy. It was perfect weather to start the road trip. Thankfully my baby was not sick anymore and ready to join the road trip. Our plan for that day was to be able reach Queenstown, for staying at night. It is around 280KM from Hobart.

We left our AirBnB house around 9 AM and we were heading to our first destination:

Russell Fall

It is part of Mount Field National Park. It is only 1 hour drive from Hobart. After we arrived, my husband left to the visitor center asking for a wheel chair. That's one of the good thing about Russell Fall, we can borrow a wheel chair from the visitor center. No need to worry to bring by ourself. Finished with it, we were so ready to explore the fall. It is around 1,4km from the visitor center to the fall. The path to the fall is really well maintained, no bushwalking, and it is flat surface. The path is surrounded with big-tall-old tree. It was like walking in the middle of jungle but without worry of wild animal. The good weather made it more enjoyable. It was supposed to be only 25 minutes walking, return from and to the visitor center. However, because we were being tourist, we took some photos here and there. When we reached the fall, we met others visitors and we had chat for a while before heading back to the visitor center.

By the time we reached the visitor center, it was already lunch time. There is a small cafe inside the visitor center. They are selling coffee, fish & chips, and some other meals. We had our lunch there and took some rest before going to next destination. Our next destination is Iron Blow Lookout.

Iron Blow Lookout

It is around 3 hours drive from Russell Fall. It is located in Gormanston, West Coast city of Queenstown. Basically, it is no different like any other lookout. There is no information center nor visitor center. It is only a lookout to look the Iron Blow below. Ever wander why we went there? It is just because my husband studied mining back in college and the Iron Blow Lookout is part of the mining history in Tasmania. I guess he read it somewhere while studying and want to look it by himself. Done we took some pictures and explored around a little a bit, we continued our journey.

Night at Queenstown

We stayed in Queenstown for our first night using camper van. Here is the link to where we stay, Campground & Caravan Park to have more look. Basically staying in caravan park is same as like staying in other accomodation. We have to book in advance if we want to secure the place. The different is in caravan park, we sleep at our car. So the question is what we are paying for? In caravan park, we are paying for the electricity, gas, and water.

Each caravan park has different regulation regarding the parking place. I will explain about campground and caravan park in different post. After we got our parking number, we parked our campervan. We set the van, took out the chair and table, set the bed inside and pluged the electricity. We divided our jobdesk, my parents in law were preparing the dinner while my husband was supplying the electricity and water for the car. However, I was taking care our toddler, put her to shower and feed her. Later, the dinner was ready and everyone had taking shower, we had our dinner inside the van. Me and my husband were taking care the dishes after that. Once everything was settled, we were ready to hit the bed. We survived our first day and we still had some days to go.

How was your 2020? It's excellent!

5 Things to Prepare for Travelling using Campervan

2019 Road Trip in Australia (2): Russell Fall and Iron Blow Lookout

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