Happy new year friends. I can't believe it's 2018 already! How was your holiday guys? I hope you spent it with your beloved ones and were having a great time. So, I spent last days of 2017 with my cousin in Kuala Lumpur. We stayed for 4 days and 3 nights: we actually tried staying at a capsule hotel for a night (which was very interesting). 

Well, awal bulan Mei kemarin gw dan temen-temen akhirnya kesampean juga jalan-jalan ke kepulauan derawan. Letaknya di Kalimantan Timur, jadi kita keliling beberapa pulau selama disana (Derawan, Maratua, Kakaban, Sanggalaki). Kami juga menyempatkan diri utk mampir ke Labuan Cermin (yg terkenal bening itu) hahaha.

So perjalanan kami cukup panjang ya. Agak amaze sih kalo liburan ke daerah di Indonesia, ternyata lama perjalanannya bakalan sama kaya ke luar negeri. Yah kira-kira mirip lah sama perjalanan Jakarta-Shanghai. Dari Jakarta - Balikpapan (2 hour flight), terus di lanjut dari Balikpapan - Berau (1 hour flight), terus lanjut lagi perjalanan dari berau ke pelabuhan (around 2-3 hours by car). Terus sampe di pelabuhan naik kapal lagi sampe ke derawan (maybe around 30 mnts). Jadi in total, sekitar kurang lebih 6 jam, ya kalo diitung sama transit2 nya maybe 7 jam kali ya utk sampe ke pulau nya.

Sampe disana, kita lumayan amazed sama jernihnya laut. It was so pretty! Even itu bukan tempat apa-apa, cuma hotel doang, dan hotelnya pun bukan yang bagus. Kalo biasa trip ke pantai-pantai tuh, area sekitar tempat tinggal kan biasa ya gitu aja kan ya, nah kalo disini, kita masih bisa ketemu sea-creatures. Jadi beberapa kali kita liat penyu lagi nimbul2 di permukaan sambil berenang, dan ikan-ikannya masih lumayan banyak yang berenang sana sini. Terus di tempat kami menginap, hall area makannya ada 1 hole yang nembus ke air lautnya, terus banyak banget ikannya.

(pictures of the resort area, pictures of the fish at the hall)

View near the hotel

The hole in dining area

Trip ke derawan ini, kami menggunakan jasa tour lokal, namanya agak gw sensor ya M*r*t*a **ven*u*e. Well, sebenernya kalo mnrt tmen2 gw tuh, the tour itself was not that bad, tapi IMHO, the service is not that great. IDK. Yang jelas, we did not have a great relationship with the tourleader. Well, maybe he's nice, but he's very ignorant, and SLEEP most of the time. He didn't take good pictures (which was very essential during this trip), and ah pokoknya banyak deh complain nya yang lebih baik tidak usah di bahas lagi. Hahaha. Let's concentrate on the good vibes shall we?

So, on our first day, we arrived around 4PM, dan hari itu kita acara bebas sampe malam. Jadi kita foto-foto bentar berburu sunset.





The next day, ini dia, where the journey began. We went to whale shark point, and continue our trip to Labuan Cermin, yang which is super jauh. The problem is, ombak hari itu tuh kencang banget, so di dalem kapal kita kaya kebanting-banting. Haahahahahaha. Apalagi yang duduk di depan. Guys, kalo keadaan kaya gini, gw suggest kalian duduk di belakang (less hurts). Besok paginya pinggang kita pada encok. LOL.

So, we swam with Whale Shark!!!! It was amazing!! Temen gw ada yg bbrp awalnya takut utk berenang, but I didn't. Yang gw takutin malah malem pas gw mau tidur. I wasn't scared of Whale Sharks. What I was afraid of tuh depth of the sea. OMG guys, call me lebay, tapi literally pas gw turun, dan berenang, gw liat ke bawah tuh bener-bener gelap. Gak keliatan apa-apa, pas whale sharknya berenang turun, keliatannya belum gitu jauh, tapi udah ga keliatan. Kebayang gak sih kaya what lies beneath that gitu. I was so scared that I can't even sleep that night. (hahaha lebay yah)...

After that, labuan cermin. It wasn't very impressive for me and my friends. Soalnya pas kita kesana, airnya lagi pasang, dan it's not as clear as we thought it would be. :(

The next day, kita keliling pulau dari ke Maratua Paradise Resort, Gua Hajimangku, terus ke Kakaban utk liat stingless jellyfish, liat manta, dan ke tempat penangkaran tukik. I will let you see it down on the pictures :)

Maratua Paradise Resort

View from Maratua Paradise Resort

Full Squad

Gusung Derawan

Sunset <3

That lining tho

A friend of mine with Whale shark

Gua Haji Mangku taken from below

Oh iya, salah satu highlight dari perjalanan kali ini yaitu stargazing. Jadi malem-malem after that long long day, we decide to take a moment to relax, put some face mask on, terus ke semacam deck dket penginapan buat stargaze, karena literally, bintang disana banyak banget. Di tempat yang gelap especially, makin banyak tempatnya. Kata TL kita, kalo mau liat bintang itu plg bagus pas ga ada bulan. Hari itu bulan sabit sih, dan when the night goes on, bulannya makin turun & finally tenggelam. We managed to get a few shots. It was so pretty, and we even got a chance to saw a few shooting stars (beyond happy and blessed)!

Stars overload

Happy Stargazing !

Well, that's our Journey from Derawan. Banyak banget tempat di Indonesia yang bagus dan layak utk dapat shoutout loh to travelling industry. Let us #visitindonesia, explore negara kita terlebih dahulu yuk. :) semoga di lain kesempatan aku bisa sharing my travelling stories with you guys again.


X.o.x.o

Shar <3

Hi there, Happy Lunar New Year! I hope you enjoyed your CNY. How's Monkey year for you? For me it was a roller coaster, maybe it's caused by 本命年 (ben ming nian, I was born in Monkey year). I hope the year of rooster will bring much more luck and happiness <3 (pray, pray, pray). 

So, I just realized that this year I will be 25, and I don't know about you but for me, adulthood was scary and it looked harsh. I think I started this identity crisis thingy since last year of college. I was living abroad and alone. I was the only child, so being alone is pretty normal for me. My dad couldn't stress enough of how I should be strong and independent. Maybe that's why I'm being so hard on myself, cause I thought I need to toughen up in order to be independent. I tend to idealized that things need to be like this and that. But what is ideal? Each person's concept of ideal is different. You can't please everybody, and that thought of idealism crushed me the most. I was having a hard time back then, stressed, anxious, and it showed. Then, acne starting to showed up. (Read my acne story here).


There were a lot of things going on in my head. Career, life, relationships. Back then, I had problems with pretty much everyone. I'm the type of person whose relationships are very important. I used to think about what others think of me A LOT! I was afraid that they might think badly about me, etc. But like I said, you can't please everyone.

1. Self love 
Nothing good in this world could happen if you don't love yourself. I know, you've heard this maybe for the bajillion times, but, there is trully nothing better than loving yourself. Nobody won't loves you if you don't love yourself. 
   
2. You can't please everyone 
Eventually you can't make everyone to loves you. Even how good you are to people, there will always somebody who dislikes you. Ignore them, never let yourself down because of someone that's not important. 
 
3. Focus on what you love 
Find your passion. You love to sing, then sing more. You love to dance, dance more. It helps you to know yourself better, as well as helping you to de-stress. 

  4. Surround your self with positive people 
As you grow older, you will realize that your circle is getting smaller. You prioritize people. So why would you hang out with people that brings you down? It harms your personal well-being. Forget about pride, it's you that matters.
 
  5. Build your confidence 
Building confidence is not easy. I still have this problem even until now. I could only say, focus on what you are doing, surround yourself with people who loves you. Think positively. There will always be something that you can learn in every situation.

  6. You can't control everything
You can't control people's feelings, you can't control the weather, you can't control the time. But you can control your emotion, you can bring the umbrella with you, and you can maximize your time to learn something new. Focus on what you can control rather stressing over things you can't control. 
 
  7. Time heals everything 
It will always be okay at the end. You will eventually pass what you are going through right now. No matter how broken you are, how sad you are, those thoughts will eventually lessen with the help of time. 

8. Pray, yoga, and meditate 
SAY NO MORE. hahaha. just do it. trust me, it helped. 

9. Don't compare, don't always look up 
Who doesn't want a perfect lifestyle when you can travel, eat and buy things that you always wanted? It's great, but don't always look up. Sometimes, you need to look down to realize how your life is better than a lot of people out there. 

10.  Get out from your comfort zone 
Get your ass off from your beloved couch might be hard, since it's comfy, and warm. However, you would never imagine what you'll find after you get up from that couch, you might found a treasure just around the block. :)


What ever life throws you, always believe that everything will be okay at the end. Remember, life is not always high, and not always low. Just keep going on.
I hope my story could relate to some of you. You're not alone.

Stay positive, and happy.

x.o.x.o
Sharleen

Hello again guys, here I go again with another review post. I'm sorry for not being able to post very regularly. I just got a new job and I've been sick lately (just an excuse... >,<) It's true though. It's been interesting these past weeks. 

Before I start, I would like to wish you a very happy new year 2016. May 2016 be better and wonderful for all of you.. 

Cure "Natural Aqua Gel"

How it looks like (very watery)

After you rub it in your hand (dirty hand version)

After you rub it in your hand (clean hand version)