(1) PREPARATION & TRAVEL FRIENDS

Coin keberuntungan Thailand kali ini gue dapet dari sahabat gue Albert sebelum dia berangkat ke Turkey. Seminggu setelah gue dapat coin Thailand itu, nggak sengaja waktu lagi browsing Air Asia ngeliat promo ticket Jakarta-Bangkok return di bulan Agustus cuma Rp 809.000,00… sedangkan tiket Bali-Jakarta return cuma Rp 600.000,00 …Ffuuuiihh…. Pasti pada surprise kan liat angkanya? Yeaah… memang harus jauh-jauh hari sih book tiketnya. Waktu itu kalau nggak salah masih sekitar bulan February….lumayan lama ya?! Gue pikir kapan lagi bisa jalan-jalan ke Bangkok semurah itu, kalau pun tenyata pas waktunya, gue nggak bisa dapet libur … ya wis bukan rejeki gue … yah anggep aja buang sial. Lagian dengan begitu gue punya banyak waktu untuk mempersiapan petualangan gue ini … he he he he…..

In this time, I got my lucky coin from my best friend Albert before he moved to Turkey for study. A week after that, when I browsing to Air Asia website, I showed a promotion ticket Jakarta – Bangkok in return only Rp 809.000,00 and ticket Bali – Jakarta in return only Rp 600.000,00….Wow…I think you are surprising with the amount, isn’t it? But yeaahh … you must buy the ticket couple months before to get those a very cheap ticket. I bought the ticket on February and will travel on August 2008. Yeaahh…still long time, but I think may be I will not get this chance to traveling to Thailand with very cheap ticket like this. Even when the time in August I couldn’t get holiday … I will not feel lose so much. Just think I am throwing my bad luck J Beside of that I have a lot of time to preparing my adventure …ha ha ha ha ha ….

PREPARATION

Well … rada kuatir juga sebenernya mau traveling ke Negara yang gue nggak ada temen tinggal di sana sama sekali. Apalagi penduduknya nggak pada bisa bahasa Inggris. Satu-satunya yang gue harepin adalah sister company gue yang di sana. Tapi sayang waktu gue coba kontak salah satu staff di sana, mereka cuma bantu gue dengan informasi harga-harga hotel high class and optional tour yang super duper mahal … ffuuuiiihh keki bener gue. Nggak salah sih mereka punya persepsi begitu, karena selama ini pun kalau ada staff dari sister company negara lain datang ke Bali memang gaya liburan mereka ningrat semua…he he he he…. :-)

Well … Actually I am little bit worry would like to travel to the country which I don’t have any friend who live in Bangkok or who knows well this city. Moreover mostly people in there couldn’t speak English. The only one I was hopping is the sister company of my company in there. But when I contacted the staff, they only helped me with hich class hotel and optional tour which very expensive price… pffuuuiihhh I am so regret with it. Yeaaahh…actually they were not mistaken with their perseption because so far if staff from overseas company came to Bali for holiday, their holiday style is always high class …he he he he …. :-)

Karena nggak berhasil dengan sister company, gue coba approach business partner company gue di Thailand. Tapi sayangnya yang ini malah nggak ada reply sama sekali. Well … terpaksa gue harus gigit jari bergerilya sendiri tanpa melibatkan orang-orang yang berhubungan dengan kerjaan gue.

Due to I didn’t success with my sister company in Bangkok, so I tried to approach my business partner in Bangkok, another travel agents. But unfortunately I didn’t get any reply. Well … finally I decided to do by myself without any involve from people who has relationship
with my job :-(

Pertama kali yang gue lakuin adalah nyari temen di internet yang tinggal di Bangkok. Gue searching di friendster.com dan gue dapet list panjang banget orang-orang yang tinggal di Bangkok dan dari berbagai negara. So … gue pilih beberapa orang dan gue tulis e-mail ke mereka mengenai rencana gue ke Bangkok dan gue butuh informasi-informasi tentang Bangkok, seperti hotel-hotel murah dan bersih dan tempat-tempat menarik di sana. Alhasil beberapa orang me-respon email gue. Tapi yang serius bantuin gue cuma 2 orang yaitu Robert dari England dan Anik Lestari dari kota Yogya. Kebetulan gue milih Anik waktu itu karena gue juga orang Yogya dan pasti rasa solidaritas kedaerahannya lebih besar … he he he he …. bukan diskriminasi suku sih, cuma feel aja dan gue yakin kebanyakan orang berpikir sama kayak gue :-)

First time what I did is looking for friends who are leaving in Bangkok by internet. I was searching to www.friendster .com and I got very long list people who are leaving in Bangkok from many counties. So … I choosed random some people and I wrote email to them regarding my plan to Bangkok and I need their favour to help me with Bangkok information such as cheap and clean hotel and interesting pleces in there . It’s work! I got some respon for my email, but finally only 2 person who serious to help me. They are Robert from England and Anik Lestari from Indonesia. Actually when I choosed Anik, it because of she is comefrom my hometown Yogyakarta. So I was thinking she will more has solidarity feeling with same people comefrom….he he he he….This is not etnic group discrimination, just feeling and I think some people will be thinking like me too :-)

Selain nyari temen yang bisa bantuin ngasih informasi tentang Bangkok, hotel, dan tempat-tempat bagus yang bisa dikunjungi, gue juga searching di internet informasi tentang semua itu. Kebetulan Thailand memang very famous in the world dan punya banyak website khusus pariwisata mengenai negara tersebut, so very easy for me to get every information which I need. Gue juga dapet majalah pariwisata yang lagi promosiin Bangkok dari Dewi temen gue yang kerja di sister company di Jakarta. Ditambah lagi gue beli buku saku kecil yang ada peta tentang Bangkok di Periplus. Semua informasi yang gue dapet gue confirm sama Robert dan Anik, trus gue susun itinerary.

Beside of looking for friend who can help me with Bangkok information, I also search in the internet to find out all the information. Thailand by chance is very famous in the world and so many website specially for tourism of the country, so very easy for me to get all information which I need. I also get a tourism magazine from Dewi, friend who works at sister company in Jakarta (capital city of Indonesia). Then I bought a tourism pocket book by Lonely Planet which included map of Bangkok at Periplus book shop. All information which I get, I reconfirm to Robert and Anik, then I made itinerary.

Sebenernya itinerary & hotel udah ready. Tinggal final re-confirm ama Robert and Anik. Tapi dasar gue emang hoki, lagi-lagi temen gereja gue Irene yang kerja di Satriavi ngasih gue informasi paket-paket murah dari salah satu travel agent di Jakarta. Waahh…dia introduce gue as travel agent jadi gue bisa dapet agent contarct, yang artinya gue dapet harga kontrak nett. Alhasil dengan fasilitas hotel bintang 4 di Prince Palace Hotel (malah kalo gue bilang sih kayak city 5 star hotel di Jakarta), transfer airport – hotel – airport, guide, sopir, transport, makan pagi – siang – malam, and optional tour selama 5 hari 4 malem di Bangkok & Pattaya, gue Cuma bayar US$ 132.00 nett. Kalo dirupiahin cuma Rp 1.250.000,00. Murah banget kan??!! Padahal kalo kita booking harga hotelnya aja per malem US$ 85,00. So … gue change itinerary :-)

Actually my itinerary and hotel was ready. It only needs re-confirm to Robert and Anik. But lucky me, a church friend ‘Irene’ who works for Satriavi travel agent give me information very cheap tour packages from one of local travel agent in Jakarta. She introduced me as a travel agent staff (off course I work for a travel agent company), so I got agent tariff. 4 star hotel at Bangkok Prince Palace Hotel (I though it’s more looks like 5 star city hotel in Jakarta), transfer airport – hotel – airport, driver, transportation, meal (breakfast, lunch, dinner), and optional tour for 5 days 4 nights I paid only US$132.00 nett. In IDR become Rp 1.250.000,00. Soooo…cheap, isn’t it? Actually if I book directly to the hotel, I have to pay US$ 85.00 per night J So …. I change my itinerary … he he he he he….

TRAVEL FRIEND

Rencana semula gue bakal traveling sendirian. Tapi karena banyak temen-temen yang tahu gue mau ke Bangkok, banyak temen yang interesting untuk ikut. Akhirnya terpikir oleh gue, kenapa nggak gue bikin group aja dengan nge-jual paket tour gue ini. Lumayan kan … gue bisa dapet gratis kalo jadi TL (Tour Leader) … he he he he he….teeetteeeuup mau gratisan ….ha ha ha ha ha …

The first plan I was going to traveling alone. But some friends know that I am going to Bangkok and they are interesting to joint with me. Then I thought why not to make a group tour by selling my package tour. I can get free if I am to be Tour Leader in a group ….. Pretty fair, isn’t it?! He he he he he …. As usually … always wanna get free …ha ha ha ha ha ha …..

So … mulai deh gue jualan. Gue kirim e-mail ke semua temen, relasi bisnis, and yah siapa aja yang e-mailnya nongkrong di list outlook gue J Ternyata di luar dugaan responnya bagus banget. Terkumpul 12 orang yang emang pasti mau joint. Sayangnya pas mau deket hari, satu per satu berguguran karena harga ticket mahal banget. Habis mereka booking ticketnya nunggu deket hari … yaahhh …. hari gini mana ada harga ticket bakal turun kalo makin deket harinya, yang ada yaahhh…. melambung tinggi sih iya.

So … I star to sell my tour package. I am starting send e-mail to all of my friends, business relation, and … yeah …everybody email in my address list J More than my expectation I got very good respon. There were 12 fiends who really wanna joint. But unfortunately near the date, one by one cancel due to the ticket fare is getting very expensive. They didn’t want to book couple month before traveling day. Yaaahh …. Of course more close the day the ticket more and more expensive.

Finally tinggal gue, Nana, David and Yeni yang udah pasti ticket di tangan. Nana, gue baru kenal dia dari Made temen gue di kantor. Dia orang Yogya yang tinggal di Bali. David salah satu best friend gue dari Darwin – Australia, sedangkan Yeni juga best friend gue di Bali. Tadinya Yeni hampir nggak jadi berangkat karena tiket mahal. Waktu gue cerita sama David, dia bilang ke gue akan bantu US$150 untuk perjalanan kita ke Bangkok. Wow …. Baik bener dia … so gue pikir better US$150 buat nambahin tiket sahabat gue Yeni biar dia bisa ikut jalan. David setuju, karena prinsip kita sama makin banyak orang makin seru dan fun.

Finally who seriously wanna go and bought ticket already only Yeni, David and I. Nana is a friend of my college in office. She comes from Yogyakarta but live in Bali. David is my best friend from Darwin Australia, then Yeni also my best friend who live in Bali. Actually Yeni almost cancel to go beause the ticket very expensive. When I told David about Yeni, he told me want to help US$ 150.00 for our trip to Bangkok. Wow!! … n she So generous he is! I have been thinking, better if US$ 150 for paying Yeni ticket then she can joint traveling with us. David agreed because he has same prinsip like me, more people more exiting and fun.