Thursday, August 9, 2018

Mission trip to MYANMAR (1)

I was so excited to visit Myanmar since that was my first time to visit that country. Especially, it was a very special trip because I went there for serving kids. So, let's call this as a mission trip.

I was chosen as one of volunteers for NTOU Bilingual church. Thank God for this chance. I could say that this trip might be a short escaping from a hectic and stressful study life. Hopefully, I could write some of my story for being a graduate student (*next time).

first time using our squad t-shirts on the day before our mission trip

(Above-left: Tonis - Fenny - EN - Tsai Sing - Yu Ting - Annie - CY)
(Below-left: Zhong Hui - Jing Yi- Boyu - Prof. TK - David - Nodali - Banana keke)
(other members- not in pictures: Suna - Sofania - Aunty Ping)


This could be a long long long story, so I decide to divide in many posts (still don't decide yet how many it will be hahaha ..)

In this post, I will tell you the story about how we, the mission team, could reach a small village called Manggaurong, Myanmar. Anyway, I am not that sure that I write the correct name of that village.

From Taoyuan airport, Taiwan, we took a direct flight to Yangon airport, Myanmar. It was early in the morning so I felt a bit sleepy. It took about 4 hours flying from Taoyuan to Yangon with the different time of Taiwan is 1 hour 30 minutes earlier than of Myanmar. 

ready to go Yangon airport, Myanmar


My first impression about Myanmar was oh cool, many guys used Sarung for their daily working activities. It was in the airport that many men used sarung walking around. That was interesting because in my country, Indonesia, men will not use sarung for working, except they are going to Shalat (praying for Muslim people) or they are having their leisure time. And yeah, Indonesian men will not use sarung in the airport except ... hemm .. I do not have an idea, you can mention.



Myanmar men used Sarung for daily working


Myanmar ladies (and men) used special powder on their faces. Lately, I know that the powder is from special wood named Thanakha. They mix with water and spread on their face during the day to protect their face skin from sunburn. You can google for further information. 

Myanmar and Indonesian Ladies (kak Suna)

Monday, July 9, 2018

Trip to : Keelung Mountain

It was Saturday, July 7th 2018. 

Our destination was Keelung mountain since Goh (my friend) really wanted to go there.
We went there just by using some information from internet and asking local people when we touched the place. FYI, several times we did this and we never got lost so far.

So, We took 788 bus from Keelung downtown to get off in Jiufen after.
Then, we asked local people how to get to the place and finally started our tracking.

Flat track for I know It could be the warming up before tracking

After a while, we found the first shelter that we could take a rest for a moment with a good view. In this height, we can even see a good view with low cloud and small buildings. As I can see clearly, some small buildings are tombs.

Some details about Keelung mountain

First shelter with benches and good view

Small buildings on the left side of the hill are tombs, crowded buildings on the right side is Jiufen city

To reach the peak of Keelung mountain, we need to use stairs, that I can tell there are thousands of them. So, I suggest you to do some stretching or do exercise before. It has been 2 days ago but I still feel pain in my leg. There are 5 spots that we can take a breath and lie our body down for a moment because It was terribly tired with the sun shone brightly right over our heads.

Sunarti (girl) and Goh (boy) came up the stairs

I thought It was more than one hour we climbed, we finally found the peak. At that time, I felt that I was almost out of breath. I do agree with a quote saying "Climb mountains not so the world can see you but so you can see the world" and yeah, I could see everything clearly and widely from the peak. I could even see my school from here where it was about one hour to get Jiufen from Keelung city.

Keelung mountain view. Ps: sorry for my bad phone camera 


Photo credit to Wirawat buranarom a.k.a Goh 

Cloudy view because it was about to rain

The mountain area with a green velvet spreading

Thanks again to Wirawat buranarom a.k.a Goh for this photo