Bika Ambon, a Special Delicious Cake from Medan City

There are so many kinds of traditional food in Indonesia. They are culinary heritages that come from various regions in Indonesia. Each of them has its own uniqueness and taste. Speaking about delicious cakes, Bika Ambon is one of cakes from Indonesia that has the unique delicacy and physical appearance. This cake is made of sago flour as its main composition instead of wheat flour. The tender texture of this cake is perforated at its surface. When this cake is sliced, the tiny fibers appear at its section texture. This cake is usually golden yellow colored, but now there is also the green and brown one.

Bika Ambon is made of ingredients such as

Gembol Woodcraft: The High Valuable Artistic “Wood Tumors”

In a glance, tree roots and jungle wastes may look nothing or worthless. But with the skillful artistic touch, they would be the precious works of art. In Kendari City, various high valuable works are generated from these tree roots and jungle wastes. Various monumental woodcrafts are created. This popular craft of Kendari is called as “Gembol”.

Gembol craft is one of popular craft products in Kendari. The name of this craft is somewhat unique. This woodcraft is made of “gembol” or tree “tumor”. From its shape appearance, this woodcraft looks like wood sculpture, but it has a basic difference. The unique shapes of gembol craft products are not human-made works, but they are nature-formed instead. These natural unique shapes are originated from several kinds of tree, such as jati (teak), cendana (yellow sandalwood), and some other trees which thrive in Kendari and Muna area. With little artistic touch, the wood tumors change into the new unique forms with their high artistic value.

To produce the best products, the tree tumors are processed in several steps.

Waduk Darma: A Lovely Place for Vacation in Kuningan

Waduk Darma is an artificial lake resides in Kuningan City. This tourism object is about 425 ha wide area, surrounded by the beautiful hills and dales scenery. As it resides at the valley of Ciremai Mountain, the atmosphere around the lake is cool. Waduk Darma is often visited by thousands visitors per year for its cool atmosphere, beautiful wide view, available tour facilities, and strategic location. As it is located at the roadside of Cirebon-Kuningan-Ciamis freeway, Waduk Darma is accessible by public transportations. It is ± 12 km distance from Kuningan City and ± 37 km from Cirebon City. Its exact location is at Jagara Village, Darma Subdistrict, Kuningan Regency, West Java Province, Indonesia.

Waduk Darma is a pleasing place to relax with family or friends. Its beautiful panorama and cool air are suitable for releasing the tiredness and for self-refreshing. From this place the visitors can enjoy the panoramic sight of Ciremai Mountain. They can also enjoy boating and feel the fresh mountain breeze. Sunset moment is a more captivating sight to enjoy at twilight in Waduk Darma.

With its maximum water puddle capacity ± 39.000.000 m3, Waduk Darma functions as the water accommodation for irrigation and fishery. Because of its large water volume, this lake is also used for recreation and sport facilities. Various tour facilities are provided, such as motor boat, children swimming pool, cottages, camping area, and recreation park which is provided with art performance stage. Small shelters and many food stalls are also provided in this area.

Waduk Darma Tourism Object is usually crowded during Idul Fitri and school holidays. This tourism area is one of several tourism object alternatives reside in Kuningan City. The other interesting tour locations are Cibulan, Telaga Remis, Linggarjati, Subang hot-water bathing place, etc.

Emping: The Typical Tasted Melinjo Crispy Chips

Emping is a common kind of various crispy chips in Indonesia. Emping is slightly different from “krupuk” (prawn crackers/shrimp crackers). Common krupuk are deep fried crackers made of prawns and starch. Krupuk can also be made of various other sea foods. The other variations of krupuk are made of fruits, nuts, tubers, and vegetables. But these kinds of krupuk are most commonly called as “keripik” (crispy chips). Emping is one of these nuts-made crispy chips. Emping is made of melinjo (Gnetum gnemon) nuts.

Just like krupuk as well, Emping is often served as complementary side dish for some cuisine recipes, such as Gado-gado, Karedok, Ketoprak, porridges, etc. Emping is crispy, slightly bitter and salty tasted. It has typical, almond-like aroma. Its typical taste can neutralize the salty or spicy tastes of the other cuisines. Emping are also served as the exclusive snacks, usually in “emping balado” form. Emping taste can be varied into salty, sweet, or spicy. Emping balado is the spicy one.

Emping is made by crushing the key ingredient, i.e. melinjo nuts and drying it in the sun. Before doing this, it needs to soak melinjo fruits until their shells get peeled off. Then melinjo nuts are dried, fried without oil, and crushed using a sort of hammer to make them thin, and then these flattened emping are sun-dried again. After all is done, emping are ready to fry. It needs about 3 days to finish the whole making process of emping.

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Tourism Topics List

Quick navigation for available tourism articles in this site so far:

• Ciremai Mountain
• Jemur Island 
• Situ Gunung Tourism Park
• Situ Patenggang
• Tanjung Tinggi Beach
• Waduk Darma

Situ Patenggang: A Beautiful Romantic Lake in Bandung

Situ Patenggang, or also known as Situ Patengan, is a romantic lake resides in Bandung City. As every “situ” (lake) has its own attractive special fascination, Situ Patenggang is interesting for both its beautiful panorama and its own name. This lake’s panorama is beautified by the outspread tea plantation, just like the wide green carpet. Moreover, the trees’ reflection makes the lake water green colored. The breezing wind and water ripples add the refreshing atmosphere in this lake area. Situ Patenggang is a lovely place for family picnic. This place is also often used for pre wedding photography. You know, this place’s name has a romantic story within it.

Literally, the name Situ Patenggang or Patengan came from Sundanese. Situ means lake. Patengan originated from the word “pateang-teangan” which means ‘look for each other’. And Patenggang means separated by distance or condition. In the past, Situ Patenggang was a romantic legend. As the story goes, it was a love story of a prince and a beautiful girl, Dewi rengganis. Their love journey wasn’t as beautiful as they hoped. They were separated from each other by condition. They were filled with anguish, until their tears flooded and formed a lake. Then the lake was named “Situ Patenggang”. They looked for each other until finally they met at a stone, which is now called as Batu Cinta (Love Stone). Dewi Rengganis asked the prince to make a boat, so they two could go around the lake. The boat then became a heart-shaped island, the so-called Pulau Asmara (Amour Island) or Pulau Sasaka. From this story, aroused a myth that whoever visits Situ Patenggang with his/her beloved sweetheart, and they go boating together around the lake till Pulau Asmara and Batu Cinta, their love will be everlasting. This may be something that makes the visitors wonder about Batu cinta and Pulau Asmara.

Resides in about 1600 m altitude, Situ Patenggang is 150 ha total wide area. In the middle of the lake is Pulau Asmara. The visitors wouldn’t forget the surrounding panoramic beauty in this area: the wide lake, with slight mists hang above; the green trees; and Rancabali tea plantation which is outspread beautifully. Visiting this place is an alternative to release the exhaustion. The lake contains various fishes. Various long-beak birds live around the lake. There’s also a protected forest where grasses and West Java typical trees grow.

The visitors can enjoy the beautiful panorama around the lake using speed boats, multicolored row boats, water bicycles, and oar ducks. There’re several ponds around the lake for fishing. The other facilities provided in this area are: camping grounds, parking area, gazebo, toilet, mushola, restaurant, seat mats, food & drink shops, and souvenir kiosks.

Situ Patenggang area is located at Patengan Village, Rancabali Subdistrict, Bandung Regency, West Java Province, Indonesia. It’s ±47 km to the south-ward from the center of Bandung City. Not far from this area are the other interesting tourism objects, viz. Kawah Putih, Walini Tea Plantation, Cimanggu hot-water bathing place, Ranca Upas camping ground, and Ciwidey Strawberry Agrotourism.

Jemur Island: The Charming Outer Island at Riau Province

Indonesia has so many beautiful islands to visit. Jemur Island is one of these islands which maybe not yet well known. The panoramic landscape of Jemur Island is truly wonderful. Moreover, Jemur Island has the abundant natural capital potential. Recently the spreading info on internet stated that Jemur Island is a part of Malaysia. Of course this claim raised the protest from Indonesian people. The tourism sites Travel Journal and Osvaja.net listed Jemur Island as a tour destination of Selangor, Malaysia. This statement is absolutely WRONG. Jemur Island is an island of Indonesia. This outer island is located at Malacca Strait, close to the border of Malaysia. Administratively Jemur Island included in Rokan Hilir Regency, Riau Province, Indonesia. It is 72,4 km from Bagan Siapi-api and 64,3 km from Klang Port at Malaysia.

Jemur Island is slightly sloping with the golden-yellow sands outspread, the clear water, and the steep coral. This island is the largest (2,5 ha) among the nine islands of Arwah Islands group. Arwah Islands group consists of Tekong Mas, Tekong Simbang, Labuhan Bilik, and the other small islands. These islands formed a circle, so in the middle of this circle is the still sea. The fishermen’s boats used these circling islands to take shelter from the waves and storms at Malacca Strait. The abundant fishes at around Jemur Island attracted so many fishermen to fish there. At 1960s this area had ever been the second largest fish producer in the world after Norway. Not only rich in fishes, Jemur Island is also rich in the other sea products and reefs. Moreover, this beautiful uninhabited island became the habitat of the green turtles. At certain seasons the turtles rise to the shore to lay eggs. To protect the turtles’ proliferation, Jemur Island has the turtles breeding area.

The fascination of Jemur Island is really mesmerizing. Still, because its tourism is not too maximally developed yet, it makes Jemur Island not so well known as a tour destination. Besides its panoramic view, there’re some other tourism potentials at Jemur Island for their historical value, such as the former Japanese Cave, the lighthouse built in 1920, Perigi Tualang, Romusha mass graveyard, the fortress remnant of Japan army, and Panglima Layar Stone.

The Memorable Climbing to the Panoramic Beauty at Mount Ciremai

As the highest mountain in West Java, Mount Ciremai is one of the main climbing destinations for the mountaineers, with the average visit per year approximately up to 15000. Administratively, Ciremai Mountain (3.078 m) included in three regency areas, namely Cirebon, Kuningan, and Majalengka, West Java province. Currently Ciremai Mountain is including in the area of Ciremai Mountain National Park (about 15000 ha total wide area).

Ciremai Mountain is a solitary volcano with two main craters, viz. the west crater (400 m radius) and the east crater (600 m radius). At about 2900 m altitude, there is a former eruption point, the so called Gowa Walet at the south slope. Mount Ciremai can be reached via various climbing routes. The most popular and accessible is via 3 routes, namely from the east-ward via Linggarjati (580 m), from the south-ward via Palutungan (1227 m), and from the west-ward via Maja (through Apui and Argalingga). Linggarjati route and Palutungan route are the most often used and recommended by the local forestry control authority. Linggarjati Village is the main climbing gate to Mount Ciremai. Linggarjati route is the steepest and hardest route, but this route is the most often traveled by the climbers. Palutungan route isn’t too steep like Linggarjati route, but the climbers have to add extra 2-3 hours of travel.

From the peak of Ciremai Mountain the climbers can see the fantastic panorama of Ciremai Mountain craters. The climbers can also enjoy the attractive view of Cirebon City, Majalengka City, Bandung City, Java Sea, Slamet Mountain, and the other mountains in West Java from afar. The more attractive view is presented when sun is rising from the Java Sea direction. It needs 2,5 hours to go around the peak and its craters. The natural panorama of Ciremai Mountain is quite unique and varied not only the charming sunrise moment at Mount Ciremai, but also the beautiful natural forest, waterfalls at the valley area, natural bathing place, and hot spring. Moreover, Ciremai Mountain area has the biodiversity collection of flora and fauna.

The climbing travel to Mount Ciremai needs averagely 8-11 hours and 5-6 hours to descend, so the climbers need to pitch the tents on the journey. Thus make sure that the travel is well prepared. Climbing at dry season is quite pleasing because of the more favorable weather. At dry season the climbing lane is less slippery and the panorama is brighter and clearer.

Tanjung Tinggi Beach: The Exoticism of White Sands and Granites

There are many reasons why Belitung Island is interesting to explore. The charming natural beach is one of the attractions Belitung Island has. This Island has plenty of beaches which, no doubt, would attract the travelers to visit if only they know how beautiful and charming these beaches are. Some beaches in Belitung Island have the following special characteristics as their major attractions: the truly white sands, the still and clear sea water, and the most special is the big, various shaped granites outspread artistically. Combined with the blue sky and the green trees scenery, this panoramic beauty attracted many visitors and photographers. 

Tanjung Tinggi Beach is one of such these beaches of Belitung Island. This beach is located at Sijuk Subdistrict, Belitung Regency, Bangka Belitung Province, Indonesia. It is ±80 ha wide area, about 31 km from Tanjung Pandan and 8 km from Sijuk. The popularity of this beach was promoted more after the smash hit of a movie entitled “Laskar Pelangi”, just like the popularity of Belitung Island in general as well. The fascinating panorama of Tanjung Tinggi Beach has been a part of this movie’s setting. This beach has the white sand, emblazoned by the unique structure of granites. These granites vary in their size, from a few cubic meters up to hundreds cubic meters. The granites are also unique in their shape. The visitors can climb, walk and jump around among the granites to enjoy the exclusive views from every point where they stand.  

Besides enjoying the exotic beach panorama, various activities can be done at this beach. The visitors can fish, play Jet Ski, dive, etc. For those who love to fish, various fishes can be found at the waters around the beach. When diving, the unexploited natural undersea panorama can be enjoyed, with various kinds of fishes among the coral reefs. Using Jet Ski, the visitors can also visit small islands around the beach. These small islands have their own interesting tourism fascination. At September, the visitors can see the so-called “Buang Jong” ritual. This cultural attraction is an annual tradition performed by the local fishermen. Various traditional arts of Belitung are usually presented at this ritual.