We likes EGSIM! =D

At first, I thought I'm not going to get any problem living without a local SIM Card in Korea. But that was horrible. So anyway, I'll tell you about my experience on getting & activating a Korean SIM Card.

I strongly suggest you to use the Evergreen SIM (EG SIM) because it's kind of special SIM Card for foreigners so you don't need to buy a new phone in Korea. It's good especially if you don't want to stay long in here.

Anyway, you can buy this like, anywhere around Korea. Incheon Airport, Seoul Station, Myeongdong, Dongdaemun, or if you don't live in Seoul, you can just go to the nearest GS 25.

Once you got the SIM Card, you need to register it by following this steps:

The prices will varied, depend on which package that you choose.

If you have any more inquiries, you can contact them through jangsh@egmobile.co.kr.

It was simple and only takes you around 15-20 minutes to do the registration & activation.

Well, enjoy your stay in Korea :)

Finally It's Korea, Yorobun

Seven hours of flight and two hours difference. Welcome to Korea.

Pada saat ini, terminal 3 bandara Soekarno-Hatta belum selesai dibangun. Alhasil kami harus takeoff dari terminal 2. Beda sekali rasanya dari Bandara Soekarno-Hatta dengan konsep bata-bata kemudian merasakan bandara super canggih di Incheon.

Ketika sampai di Korea, sekitar awal Maret, musim dingin seharusnya sudah hampir selesai. Tapi hawa dinginnya masih luar biasa bagi saya yang hanya pernah merasakan hidup di iklim tropis. Orang-orang hanya pakai jaket biasa tapi sungguh saya sangat tidak kuat sampe harus pake sarung tangan. Pardon me yah.

Transit: Singapore

It is a very well-planned trip. We spent the same price for the flight back to Indonesia, but this time we took a transit. So, here we are: Singapore :3

We landed at 5 pm, so we don't have that much time to travel around. We only able to visit the famous Merlion Park and Orchad Road. But I think those two places represent Singapore well so I'm satisfied.

First of all, we need to bring our super heavy luggage into some storage rent place. I forgot how much it took me for a 24 hours rent but I think it costs about SGD 3 or around Rp 30.000.

Before officially enter Singapore, we need to fill an immigration form and of course,  doing the mandatory immigration checking on fingerprints, pupils, face, etc. The flight attendance distributed this immigration form like, an hour before our landing so actually we have enough time to fill it inside the plane. Unfortunately, three of us slept all the way from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore so we have no idea about that immigration form thingy. We just line up in the immigration booth and immediately scold by the officer there. We have to retake the queue after finding the right form and submit it to the immigration officer. Fiuh.

We got back to the airport at 10 pm, and directly look for a comfortable place to sleep. We want to eat but the price is so expensive so we decided to wait until we got back in Indonesia. At around 2 am, a soldier (?), I dunno if he's the real one or not, asked to check our passport and ticket. And he literally woke me up. So rude. 

We finally going back to Indonesia at 8 am, after a very cold sleep in Changi.

First Flight in My Life: Malaysia!

So actually this trip already ended like, two months ago but the memories remain.

The story began in the middle of 2015 when my friends ask me to join their team in a paper competition. Actually, the whole idea inside this paper are not originally mine, I'm just acting like a wicked commentator inside the team. But that's cool because sometimes you need the devil to called someone an angel. Ha.

And finally after a very hard day completing the research: Hooray! We make it to Malaysia! We submitted our paper into an event namely International Youth Scholar Conference; held in a campus called International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM). But trust me, in Malaysia, nobody knows the name. It happens that IIUM has its own name in their own language: UIA or Universitas Islam Antarbangsa. I almost thought that we went to the wrong country and the campus never existed.

We left Indonesia from Juanda International Airport, Surabaya. It is a big and well-built airport but since we take Terminal 2, which just recently opened, it feels empty there. My dad himself brought me here from Ponorogo and I met my teammates in front of the terminal gate. They just finished their agenda from somewhere near Kediri. So, it is more reasonable to take the flight from Surabaya instead of Jakarta.

For your information we don't have that much budget so we decide to fly with AirAsia. I kinda have a mixed feeling since it's my first time flight ever. I was happy of course but feeling scared at the same time. This airline definitely not have a good impression since their plane crash accident two years ago or sometime around that. But we don't have other option so here we go.

As you know, this low budget airline is famous for not giving their passengers free baggage facility. You only allowed to carry a handbag or luggage with maximum weight around 7 kgs in cabin. Again, as we don't have budget to buy extra baggage slot, we decide to put our poker face and act like "we did not bring more than 7kgs luggage." It was a stupid idea since we brought one backpack and one luggage each. It is obvious that our belongings will weight more than the limit. After we pass the immigration desk, the gate officer (an airline representative) call us and put our luggage on their scale. I never experience this kind of thing before so I just exchanging glance with my other teammate. Well, if we have to put our luggage in airplane baggage (the non-cabin one) after we complete the check-in procedure, the charge will be way too expensive. Mine is weight around 10kgs, it means additional charge for the excess 3kgs (approx. Rp 150.000 charge/kg). The rest of my friends also facing the same number in their luggage scale so we are officially panic. 9kgs of charge will cost us more than Rp 1 mio. Such a big amount right? Thus, we literally beg the officer, told them that we are just students who try to present our work and we don't have that much sponsorship so if you take our money now, we don't know how to survive in Malaysia later. Thankfully the officer gave us a small negotiation. They permit us to only put one luggage in plane baggage and discounted rate. I forgot the detail but it only cost us around Rp 350.000 for three people. Phew.

We finally seated ourselves in waiting room near our plane gate. You know it is a big room with a glassed-wall (?) so you could see lot of planes taking off and landing. I happened to watch a plane when they cruising in a maximum speed just before the take-off and it was a horrible sight for me. I can't stop thinking about the bad things which might happened to them, or to me. It was like, I pray in every du'a that I know.

And it happened.

The takeoff went smoothly right, the flight was safe and sound, but not the landing moment.

It is a bit rainy in Kuala Lumpur at that time, so the pilot experienced difficulty in finding a good landing path. I feel like we have dropped quite sometime, but the pilot decided to fly us again. So, we went up and down couple of times before finally hit Malaysian ground.

After our arrival in Kuala Lumpur International Airport, we directly went to a family member's house (again, to save the money so we don't need to rent a room) and just preparing for tomorrow's presentation. The house is so nice. Everything is perfect, clean, and luxurious. I really thank my friend and his Malaysian family for taking us in.

D-Day!
Last night, all of us bid goodbye at 1 am, thus, practically, I woke up at 6 and we need to be ready at 7. It was such a rush because me and Nadiyah share a room and we are.... women. Each of us like taking 10 minutes to shower so I can't remember everything well. Thanks God breakfast is ready downstairs. After that, one of the daughter in this house drove us to IIUM campus in Gombak; I think it only takes 20 minutes.

I don't really want to tell about how the presentation goes because yeah, kind of nervous and excited at the same time so I don't want to remember that feeling again. In addition, I don't have any picture of me presenting the paper so... I'll just post some of my photos around the campus wkwk.

We agreed to use batik, Indonesian traditional clothes, as our team's attire. I really preparing this outfit and my hijab since like three weeks ago LOL. 

Kind of embarrassed to upload this picture, but I think this is the most appropriate formal team photo that we have. Thanks for everybody who sponsored us; we used the money well :)

Day 3!

Of course it is the perfect time to explore Malaysia. More excitingly, we all decided to take a public transportation, so it's a bit of challenge. Not that much problem actually since we speak the same language, just the different tone and words arrangement. 

This place called Dataran Merdeka and it's freaking hot in here. A very big field with a few tree, well, it's a palm so they can't help us to produce a bigger amount of oxygen. I already wear my hijab, but it's not even enough to cover the heat on my head.

Welcome

Hi!
This is Risti speaking. This time I'll try use blogger again after my long date with tumblr; and probably going to end soon because rumour said Indonesian govt is going to block the site. Anyway, enjoy the dishes