Tea Plantation Has Brought Much Fame and Fortune to Indonesia
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The excursion which forms a part of the so-called agro-tourism program, was first introduced in 1987. The tea plantation tour was initiated by the government of Indonesia through the cooperation of several state-owned plantations and various travel bureaus. Different agencies offer a different package of the tour. Some opt for the simple visit the plantation and factory program followed by tea and lunch. Others add a cultural show to their tea and lunch hour. Some even offer an overnight stay at the plantation villas. The price offered by agencies in Jakarta and Bandung. Compared to the difficult terrain adventure travel, tea plantation tour is more comfortable. Therefore, this tour is guaranteed to bring fun to persons of all ages. In fact, for some it can even become a link to the history of their forefathers.
Tea first came to Indonesia in 1720, courtesy of the Dutch colonists. The Dutch government carried out experimental planting in Java using seeds imported from China, but the attempt failed owing to lack of funds and expertise. It was only a century later when a man by the name of J.I.L.O. Yacobson succeeded in creating a major plantation in Bogor. Today, Indonesia has become the fifth largest producer.
For those who are more interested in the t tea itself rather than in the panoramic beauty of the tea plantations or the delightful taste of the tea, there is the tea research laboratory in Lembang. Some agencies can provide the guidance to the uncovering of the mystery of tea leaves. For local tourists, tea plantations become a perfect place for outdoor recreations and sports. Every Sunday mornings, Gunung Mas tea plantation in Puncak is swarmed with city people looking relieved of having been able to escape the noisy city life. The casual walk along the winding paths between the tea shrubs is now called a “tea-walk”. The hilly paths of the plantation also provide an exciting arena for mountain cycling. This sport is becoming more and more popular, and the plantation offers greater challenge than the roads. It’s very refreshing, of course, the atmosphere is not like what it used to be, when people were there just for a picnic. Today, people are there to do almost anything, from hiking to hang-gliding.
It cannot be denied that tea has brought much fame and fortune to Indonesia. However, it would be more sufficient if further steps were taken not only to promote the tea, but also the history, the knowledge, the tradition, and above of all these, the beauty of the tea plantation. And for the first step, it can begin promoting them to local tourists, to those who walk on the soil where tea-shrubs are abundant and where tea should not be taken for granted.
In West Java, the largest tea plantation areas can be found at Puncak, the Gunung Mas, at Pengalengan, the Ranca Bali, and at Tangkuban Perahu. Camellia Sinensis, the name given to the tree, was discovered by O. Kuntze in 2700 BC in the Chinese area of the Himalayas, where tea was used as a medical herb. Now Camellia Sinensis is famous all over the world. In fact, in some countries, making tea has been elevated to a fine art and drinking tea has become an old-age tradition. Tea, is a man’s best friend.
Singapore is Often Described as Asia Lite
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In the past few years, Singapore has gone through a kind of renaissance, it was once considered quite dour, but now offers a wide choice of activities both familiar and exotic. The arts are booming, the theaters are vibrant and the nightlife is pumping. Locals enjoy a high standard of living, and ‘fun’ is always on the agenda. Outdoor activity is not something that’s immediately associated with this small south-east Asian nation, but the Hast Coast Park, with its 11-kilometer stretch of beach and parkland is perfect for rollerblading, jogging, swimming, wake-boarding, or relaxing in one of the restaurants and bars that line the strip. This whole area is built on reclaimed land, about one third of Singapore’s land mass was once actually sea, and it continues to expand into the surrounding waters. Locals often joke that pretty soon they’ll be able to drive to Hong Kong.
Singapore is often described as ‘Asia Lite’. That’s not to say it is any less Asian than its neighbors. In fact, with its incredible diversity of cultures, Indian, Chinese, and Eurasian (to name just a few), it might be argued that it is the most Asian of Asian states. The ‘lite’ tag is applied because it is one of the most hassle-free nations in the region. Eating is a very important part of life, everyone here has an opinion about where to find the best food. They think serves the most authentic pepper crab in town and you will hear three different answers. The best rule of thumb is to eat in the food courts known as hawker centers. They are cheap, clean and totally delicious. Hawker centers are basically a whole lot of small stallholders under one roof, each specializing in a particular style of cooking. If you spot a stall with a long queue, join it. Don’t worry if you have no idea what you’re going to eat. Your taste-buds will appreciate you stepping outside your comfort zone. Have faith that the people lining up know what’s what in the culinary stakes. You’ll either be very pleasantly surprised or end up with a good dinner party story.
The Republic of Singapore lies one degree north of the equator, so it’s always hot and steamy. In the absence of changing seasons, locals tend to mark the passage of time with festivals. There are religious, cultural, food and music festivals, even a shopping festival. The great Singapore sale from May to July has taken on festival status. Of course, no festival is complete without lots of lights, and Singapore never disappoints on that front. The best ‘light-ups’ are during Hari Raya Eid ul-Fitr (the celebration at the end of Ramadhan), Deepavali (the Hindu Festival of Lights), Christmas and Chinese New Year. The lights tend to migrate like stars from east to west over a period of four or five months. It all starts in Geylang Serai during Ramadhan, which takes place this year from August 22. The streets around Kampung Melayu are packed with markets and late-night cafes, where you can try all the delicacies associated with the season.
Hari Raya is a time to visit family and close friends. Hat, talk, laugh, eat, give green packets of money to the kids and eat some more before having one last nibble and staggering home. After Hari Raya it’s time to hit Serangoon Road, Little India. As the name suggests, the Hindu Festival of lights is one spectacular illumination. Little India is always colorful, but during Deepavali it sparkles like a million electric jewels. Next, the light show heads up to Orchard Road, the designer label epicenter of Singapore, this area a little lacking in soul. However, at Christmas it’s obligatory. The lights, Christmas trees, robot Santas and high-tech visual displays make Times Square look positively dowdy.
Thaipusam , this somewhat grisly Hindu festival is held in honor of Lord Subramaniam. Devotees carry their burdens (kavadi) on a long procession from Serangoon Road to Tank Road. Some are children whose burdens may be represented by bowls of fruit or jugs of milk. In more extreme cases, the practitioners pierce their bodies with skewers and hooks and carry heavy steel frames decorated with feathers, fruit and pictures of the deities. Soon after Thaipusam, when the lights have been pulled down at Orchard Road there’s a whole different bunch getting hung in Chinatown. Dragon dances and huge parades mark the start of the Chinese Lunar New Year.
Then, a few weeks after the New Year celebration, Singapore’s biggest parade takes place, Chingay. It’s a huge multicultural display that takes place around Orchard Road or the Colonial District. As you’ve probably guessed by now, Singaporeans genuinely respect the tenets of multiculturalism, you have to in a society so crammed with diverse cultures, it’s a good base for traveling around Asia.
Most Exciting Neighbourhoods in Paris
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Tourists and locals swarm around in front of the large white facade of this 14th-century building. Inside is an exhibition on the French poet and screenwriter Jacques Prevert, where you can read his words, “Paris is tiny for those, like us, who share such a great love.” Hotel de Ville, the capital’s epicentre, is located in the 4th arrondissement. In Paris, the arrondissements don’t have names, but, since the 1860s, numbers from one to 20, spiraling around each other like an elegant snail shell. Each one is distinct, with a character all of its own. The 4th is both one of the oldest and most stylish, a rainbow arrondissement.
An accordionist sets the rhythm on the Arcole bridge, which extends from the Hotel de Ville. One hundred times a day, the old man on the Seine repeats the same bal musette tunes. His Parisian soundtrack probably hasn’t changed in 50 years. From time to time, the comments by tour guides on the bateaux-mouches reach the riverbank. Postcard-perfect decor stands at the far edge of the bridge on Ile de la Cite, the towers of the Conciergerie, the stained-glass windows of Sainte Chapelle and the flower market, while groups of tourists follow closed umbrellas carried like batons toward the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris. With its five naves, three portals and galleries built to accommodate a multitude of worshipers, this religious edifice remains an iconic site in the French capital. It is the cathedral of all cathedrals. Legions of tourists enter by all sides, the south tower, the crypt, the sacristy housing the treasury.
The Square Jean XXIII offers the best view of the cathedral, the back side and chevet. This is also where you’ll start to see a surprising number of people with ice cream cones in hand, no matter what time of year it is. Bertillon, one of the most widely acclaimed ice cream parlours in Paris, is just a few steps away, on Ile Saint-Louis. Since 1954, the famous family has been delighting children from nearby schools as well as tourists and aficionados alike. On offer some 70 original flavors, all handmade on site, according to family tradition and expertise. “From my position, I can keep an eye on my father, my husband and my son, who all work in the back,” says Marie-José Bertillon, the cheerful boss who oversees everything from behind the cash register.
The main street, Rue Saint-Louis-en-l’Ile, has a few art galleries, cosy restaurants, a stationery store run by a shopkeeper who is over 80 years old, and the oldest travel bookstore in Paris, aptly named Librairie Ulysse. The street is as straight and narrow as a French baguette. The shutters are often closed, this is an island of luxury and discretion. Bottle green bookstalls line the right bank, just a stone’s throw away, along the quays listed as a UNESCO Heritage Site. The secondhand booksellers continue a tradition that dates back to 1578. Wearing a black fedora and red scarf, Pascal Vincent has occupied his small plot of sidewalk for 20 years. A former poet in Saint-Germain-des-Près, he wouldn’t give up his stall along the Seine for anything: “I love Paris, I love books and I love watching the Seine. So I come every day, drink a few glasses of wine, listen to music and talk about books with people who pass by. Sometimes I even sell a book or two..” These booksellers are a breed apart, as they work outdoors every day.
A stroll along the Quay des Célestins and Quay Henri IV leads to the Port de l’Arsenal. A barge is slowly creeping forward, while the pleasure boats are moored one alongside another, under the watchful gaze of the Génie de la Liberté, the figure perched high on top of the Bastille column. Today, the boats are named Epicure, Lady Penlyric and Les Vieux Papillon. “Some are moored here year round, others are in transit. We have moorings for 170 boats. We handle nearly 1,500 per year, they are often tourists traveling down from the canals in the north who moor their boats for a few days while they visit Paris,” said Olivier Peresse-Gourbil, captain of the port, who’s proud of this site, which many Parisians don’t even know about. A few meters from the boats, on the Place de la Bastille, the modern opera house sits on the site of the former prison, a symbol of the French Revolution in 1789. Velib bikes, from the ingenious rental bike scheme that now forms part of the Paris landscape, slalom between the cars amid honking horns. The colorful and historic area of the Marais stretches behind the Rue Saint-Antoine, one of the city’s oldest streets.
Place des vosges is a haven, hidden away from all the commotion, where the entire neighbourhood seems to converge at lunchtime. Completed in 1612 during the reign of Louis XIII, whose statue stands in the center of the garden, the former royal square is surrounded by 36 bourgeois homes all with identical colors and designs. Several former ministers and a number of celebrities live here. Children, budding models, and tourists enjoy the lawns under the lime trees. Victor Hugo, author of Les Miserables, lived here in 1832-1848, in an apartment still open to the public. The Rue des Francs-Bourgeois, to the west of the square, leads to a whole new world, where history steps aside for fashion and design. The beautiful old stones have disappeared behind brightly colored shop windows. Paradoxically, the Marais may be one of the oldest parts of Paris, yet it looks to be one of the most modern and high-tech. Architects, graphic and fashion designers, and antique dealers compete with each other in a district that “Bobos” (Bohemian Bourgeois) have colonized over the last few years. Art galleries and clothes shops have gradually replaced local businesses, and even the falafel and shawarma shops on the Rue des Rosiers, which called Rue des Juifs, Street of the Jews, until 1900, have packed up.
The Marais, is a privileged neighborhood that has transformed over the years into a superb “museum quarter” encompassing the Musée Picasso and the Musée Carnavalet, covering the entire history of Paris. It’s also home to the futuristic and brightly colored pipes of the Centre Pompidou, the iconic temple of contemporary art that has just celebrated its 30th year. In this part of the 4th, you’re more likely to hear techno music than the sound of the accordion.