Madness Over Nato Straps

Hi Guys, whats up ?! Melbourne is under lockdown now, so I did a lot of online shopping lately *cry
It's winter now, although there's no snow in Melb city, but it still kinda cold here, esp for a tropical person like me :p

So, today I would like to show you my recent madness, you know, I always love watches.
I just found out about nato straps last year. Previously, I never thought that nato straps can be useful and cool enough to replace a leather straps. Ups, guess i'm wrong!

After my arrival in Australia, i began to search more on a local nato straps online seller, I found several, including 2 in Sydney, 1 in Perth, and 1 in Melbourne. Due to my mistake, my packages from Sydney and Perth did not arrived at all, i lost 'em guys *sad. Then I decided to look for another seller in Victoria, and i found Strapify, a watches store just across H&M Bourke street, ciso from Amazon AU, and the last one Daiso on Swanston street.

This is the comparison of all of them :)


DAISO - 2.8 AUD

pro: price, the cheapest ever.
cons: stitches, material.


CISO - 2.99 AUD

For Ciso, i think Ciso's material is kinda similar with common straps in Tokped ?! (but usualy they sell it on 50k IDR, no offence guys, please correct me if i'm wrong).

Theres 0.2 AUD difference between Ciso and Daiso (Daiso's straps are cheaper btw), but I think in term of quality and price Ciso offers a much much better straps than Daiso. The Straps from Daiso have a major issue on its stitches, and for 0.2 AUD difference, Ciso's packaging are more appealing tbh.


STRAPIFY 10-40 AUD

As you can see, there's a huge different in term of price between Strapify and Daiso & Ciso, and also between Strapify single & double pass. Sure thing, the quality is also different guys. For instance, the material of Strapify's single pass is better than their double pass (pics above), but it's more expensive tho, so it will be great to buy it when the sale is on :p

In term of model, and since i am (a bit) clumsy, i actually prefer a double pass, but guys take a look of those color, I can't resist those single pass tho. Btw, the left one was a bonus, because they sent me the wrong color.

In term of quality, my favourite is Strapify. I really like the material both straps and buckles.
So my fave order wil be Strapify-Ciso-Daiso.

Say whaT !!!

Madness is:

buying a comfy yet stylish running shoes for less than 100 aud, while in your country they worth 300 aud. Period.

Scholarship

Man!

I'm officially an awardee of AAS for 2020  intake.

 How sweet is that !?

what happen in 2019?

Holaaa...
Adioss...


ampun deh, tiba2 keinget kalo punya blogspot, lol

I just wanna ask ya, how you doin folks!?

I'm great, bigger than ever #ehh

Jadi ya apa yang terjadi ama gw di taon ini? Man, I finally lolos tahap administrasi scholarship aas 2019 ama lpdp 2018, haha.. baru tahap administrasi aja bangga yak?! ketawan banget kalo kmaren2 ditolakin mulu :p

Sbenernya gw baru menyadari cara nulis, konten isian aplikasi itu pas apply lpdp taun 2018..
awalnya gw misuh2 kenapa isian lpdp 2018 bejibun, udah gitu gak tanggung2  more than 500 to 900 words each.. untuk orang yg kurang kreatif macem gw, bingung gitu ya mau nulis apa, dipaksa mencari inspirasi  how to write it well :p

Alhamdulillah ya keribetan itu membawa berkah, jadi pas nulis buat aas 2019 ada sedikit mau gimana nulisnya, haha..

Kuliah di luar negeri begini, part of it is my dream and goal! tau gak gw mulei bahas kuliah diluar negeri pas kapan?
Dari jaman smp bok, gilak, 20 taon lebih! Cuma dulu fokusnya ke Belanda Belanda dan Belanda. Sampei akhirnya bergeser ke negara lain kayak UK or Aussie juga gpp deh..
Kenapa Belanda? Sebenernya stuned neso adalah beasiswa yang pertama kali gw kenal to be honest, dan gw berujung di FH pulak, semacam syahdu gitu lho :p

Ada juga beberapa pertimbangan tertentu sik misal kalo mo mudik jarak oz lebih deket, tiket oz lebih murah compare to europe kali balik bisa lebih banyakan dikit, UK kece tiada tara ada edinburg disana, UK  punya oxford cambridge *yagwgakapplyksonojgsik dan uni2 kece lainnya, ternyata unimelb rating diatas beberapa univ di UK, nilai ielts 6.5 sadjah bisa diterima di oz disaat UK minta 7 pastinya, dan nilai gw blum naik2, wkwk..

So, bagaimana proses scholarship di taun 2019? Well, lpdp 2018 ini gagal di CAT, ini tes beneran berasa buat apply kerja, panjang tahapannya 😅 so, that's why I apply 2 scholarship di 2019, bahkan mungkin mau gw tambah sebiji lagi jadi 3 😅 hahaha

How was my aas progress..
well, sekarang masi nunggu hasil interview, deg2an ya mak, mau optimis tapi takut takabur, jadi pasrah adalah the best option for now..

Lalu, lpdp gimana? Well, ini dari awal join gw udah kuatir banget bakalan bentrok sm penugasan ln and guys it happen!! Tadinya gw pikir bisa dipasrahin segampang itu, but eventhough I already have that in my mind, at the end ternyata masih ada rela gak rela-nya juga tetep, hiks... Jadi no other choice selain yakin sajalah ini yang terbaik, for what ever the result is..

Kenapa gw bela2in apply banyak beasiswa?well, pertama karena most scholarship have their own age requirement, suatu hal yang gak bisa ditawar gimanapun caranya.. dan taun ini gw masuk limit umur utk aas, jadi kalau taun ini gak keterima ya bye-bye aas, dan nyaris masuk juga ke limit umur lpdp seandainya mereka gak nambahin 2 taun, jadi sebenernya masih ada harapan untukku apply lpdp untuk ketiga kalinya karena taun ini gak match jadwal interviewnya..

Trus scholarship 1 lagi yang mau di-apply apa? Tak lain dan tak bukan adalah chevening *big grin. Sebenernya taun lalu sempet apply juga dan ditolak mentah2, tapi kita tak boleh patah semangat toh, so basically prinsip gw adalah maju terus ampe mereka yang bilang woy umur lo dah gak masuk!

Btw part I gw mo cerita soal lpdp, bukan proses scholarshipnya sih tapi lebih ke isu yang berseliweran.. 
Gw sangat paham kalo lo terima beasiswa, soal duid lo dpt berapa itu pure urusan si penyelenggara.. but hey, things may be different ketika duid scholarship itu pake jatah apbn just like what happen with lpdp..
jadi begini, lpdp dihujat di salah satu platform sosmed T, ada akun yang nyinyir gegara ketemu entah sosmed salah satu atau beberapa awardee lpdp yang bikin status 'full time traveller, part time student' semacem travel blogger  *uhuk
I was like hellooooo! Keep it private to yourself ajalah kalo gitu mah, it is somewhat sensitive!

gegara baca ciutan orang2, gw sempet mikir, kalo diterima ama lpdp, at some point kok  bebannya berasa lebih berat dunia atau akhirat? *lebay :p
tapi aas dan chevening pun salah satu source dananya juga dari pajak masyarakat, bedanya ya mereka bukan wni aja sih :p

On 2nd thought, mengingat kebijakan negara juga akan tetep jalan mau orang bilang apa, dhi lpdp merupakan bentuk dari pelaksanaan uud 45 yang ngejamin soal pendidikan yang baik untuk wni, jadi ini balik ke persoalan mindset..
Setiap tahunnya mereka akan tetep kasih beasiswa, apakah penerimanya lo atau bukan lo lpdp akan tetep jalan, so semua bakalan balik ke individu penerima atau awardee sendiri, bagaimana mereka memaknai scholarship ini?!

Btw part II temen gw ada yang baru dapet announcement kalo dia keterima lpdp untuk postgraduate di UK! So, congrats Darma !!!! You are definitely deserve it 🙌

Land Trip

Out agent has arranged land trip itinerary in Turkey, we visited some cities such as Bursa, Pamukkale and Cappadocia. Unfortunately we skipped Konya, Rumi's hometown, which is wellknown for it famous sufism.
From all of those cities, my day dreaming (backthen) cities are Pamukkale and Cappadocia 🖤
Pamukkale is well known for its Hierapolis and Cotton Castle, while Cappadocia is wellknown for its cavehouses and hot air baloon ride.
during the trip, another unfortunate tragedy happened, for 2 consecutive days we failed to take hot air baloon ride 'coz the wind is way too strong (so sad).

btw, these are some views from cotton castle and hierapolis Pamukkale

And these are some pics in Cappadocia / Kapadokya, including Goreme open air museum

Selcuk 🖤

Selcuk is a small city in Izmir, it is one of the favourite destination, not only for tourist but also for locals. On the first day of our arrival date, we went to Sirince, a small village located on the hill, if you would like to go here I suggest you to came not too late as of 5/6 pm, because at that moment some tenant has prepare to close their store. It is a good place to find some souvenirs too, the price is quite affordable.
Dolmus will take you there for approximately 45-60 minutes. This store will welcome you once you've arrived

From there, you may take any path, please remember that most path are uphill path. These are some of the views from top..

They also has chruch, like this:

Another local residences:

Views from restaurant/cafe uphill:

Ephesus

Speaking about roman ruins, we had visited Hierapolis in Pamukkale. But imho it was nothing compared to Ephesus. Efes simply gonna blow your mind, W.o.W!!
So ephesus is just couple minutes drive from our hotel (yes Livia's location is super strategic!). Efes is a site complex that has many ruins of roman village (part of roman empire), some structure are still in good contiditon such as celsus library and grand theater, so so soooo magnificent! We were strolling around in that area for 3 hours, without any guide (local and audio), so it may take you a bit longer if you visit this site with local guide. This site has 2 gate, upper and lower gate, and if you check on tripadvisor many visitor will suggest you to start from the upper gate so you can take a downhill path. Here' some pics of efes before I countinue our journey :p