the lost symbols

Saat sedang bingung memikirkan topic apa yang akan saya tulis untuk tulisan ini, saya sedang membaca buku karangan Dan Brown yang berjudul The Lost Symbols. Seketika terpikir kenapa tidak saya tulis saja tentang buku ini.

Buku ini menarik perhatian saya karena terdapat teka – teki dan misteri yang harus dipecahkan dalam mencari kebenaran di balik kemegahan kota Washington DC yang dapat mengguncang umat manusia jika mengetahuinya. Terdapat berbagai konflik dan pembunuhan dalam memecahkan misteri tersebut dan pembaca pun diajak untuk berusaha menebak siapa pelaku dan symbol – symbol yang terdapat dalam alur cerita tersebut.

Cerita dimulai ketika sang professor Robert Langdon mendapat undangan untuk menjadi penceramah di seminar persaudaraan Freemasonry di Washington DC oleh Peter Solomon. Namun ketika tiba di gedung yang telah di janjikan, tidak ada acara apapun di sana dan tiba – tiba Langdon mendapat telepon dari seseorang yang mengaku bernama mal’akh dan ia yang mengundang Langdon atas nama Peter. Langdon cemas akan keberadaan temannya dan Mal’akh menyuruhnya untuk memecahkan kode rahasia kelompok Mason atau nyawa Peter dalam bahaya. Lalu seketika itu, di pojok ruangan itu ada anak yang berteriak Karena ada sepotong tangan yang ujung jarinya bertato dan menunjuk ke arah selatan. Langdon mengetahui bahwa itu adalah tangan Peter dari cincin yang dikenakannya.

Cerita berlanjut dengan Langdon mencari jawaban atas kode – kode yang ada pada tangan Peter yang terpotong tersebut dan menemukan sejumlah jawaban yang semakin tidak ia mengerti. Dan tanpa ia sadari ia pun semakin terancam nyawanya.

Pada malam yang sama, adik Peter, Katherine pun mendapat ancaman langsung yang tak ia sadari, mal’akh datang langsung ke laboratorium tersembunyinya setelah lebih dulu menenggelamkan asisten Katherine, Trish ke dalam larutan etanol yang digunakan untuk mengawetkan cumi – cumi raksasa. Menyadari hal itu, Katherine berusaha kabur tapi terlambat karena mal’akh sudah tiba di dalam laboratorium nya, tapi untung Katherine dapat kabur. Mengetahui hal itu mal’akh meledakkan laboratorium milik Katherine dan menghancurkan seluruh risetnya.

Mal’akh merupakan pembunuh yang sangat cerdas. Ia mengancam pihak FBI dan CIA sehingga mau tidak mau organisasi itu harus berpihak kepada Mal’akh sehingga menghambat pekerjaan Langdon dalam memecahkan teka – teki tangan misteri tersebut.

Lalu ternyata Mal’akh merupakan anak dari Peter yang di sangka telah meninggal di penjara karena kasus narkoba yang bernama Zacharia Solomon. Zach membalaskan dendam kepada ayahnya yang telah menelantarkan dirinya dan memilih untuk tidak menebusnya di penjara dengan alasan agar Zach belajar bertanggung jawab akan dirinya.

Zach menatto sekujur tubuhnya dan mengganti namanya menjadi Mal’akh. Ketika Peter mengetahui hal itu, Zach telah meninggal karena polisi meledakkan tempat dimana ia berada. Dan rahasia besar kelompok persaudaraan Mason pun terjaga.

Buku ini sangat bagus dan penuh teka – teki. Dan Brown berhasil membawa pembacanya dalam alur cerita yang menegangkan dan misteri. Para pembaca harus memeras otak agar mengerti alur dan inti dari novel tersebut. Jadi saya sarankan untuk tidak membaca buku ini jika anda sedang mengalami banyak masalah ataupun sedang beristirahat dari tumpukan tugas – tugas anda. J

germany

The first thing when I saw Germany was WOW, so this is Europe?? AWESOME!

When I arrived at Enschede, the border line of Germany and Netherland, I realized that there are a lot of student and that’s because Enschede is the city of students like Yogyakarta in Indonesia.

And then I went to Gronau and on the next day, I went to kÖln and I saw the biggest chatedral that I’ve ever seen. The gothic chatedral is also known as KÖln Chatedral.

After that we went to Frankfurt, and arrive at Frankfurt Hauptbahnhauf. It means Frankfurt Rail station. We walked along the street and finally found our hotel, but the problem was our hotel is located at Red Line District. Red Line district means 1 block full of prostitution and it is legal in Frankfurt, but they must obey that they only can operate at Red Line, they can’t go nowhere or they’ll get punishment from the government.

Beside our hotel, some men invited my father to got in and watched the naked girl was having intercourse with the naked boy, and it’s live on the table. And a lot of people get drunk and junkies stood outside the fence of our hotel. I was scared to stood outside too long.

On the next day, we were had city tour around the city by city bus, and it really nice and clean city, it really different if we compare it with Jakarta. I love to eat pasta and bread here, but actually, after 2 weeks stayed in Europe, I can’t handle myself to eat rice. :-D

hongkong

Who doesn’t know Hongkong? It’s known as one of the shopping destinations in the world. Located at the southern part of China. Hongkong consist of 3 islands, hongkong island, lantau island and Kowloon island. The center of government is in hongkong island but the center of economy is in Kowloon island. Lantau island is a special island because it’s for Hongkong International Airport only.

There are a lot of tourist object in Hongkong. Madame tussaud wax museum, ladies market, Victoria peak, Hongkong Disneyland, jade market etc.

Because Hongkong known for its shopping places, so there are a lot of night markets and the price is cheaper than in Beijing. I bought a lot of things there, and it is cheaper than in Tanah Abang or even Mangga Dua. Can you imagine the price for iphone 16gb is only HK$ 1250, it means Rp 1.450.000. or Ipad for HK$ 2340, it means Rp 2.570.000. you won’t get that price for the same thing in Indonesia.

When i arrived there, the first thing in my mind was Madame tussaud wax museum, so I asked my father to go there and he said yes for the next day. We thought that the place wasn’t too far from the harbor and we decided to walk there. But after we read time by time at the map, we found that the places seemed quiet far. And we asked a taxi to brought us there. Fortunately we asked for a taxi, because if it’s not, we could go home without feet. It’s at the top of the hill and it needs 45 minutes to get there by car!

Before we went to the groundfloor where Madame Tussaud located, we went to the roof of the building called as skyterrace. We can see the scenery of the whole part of Hongkong. After that we went downstairs to Madame Tussaud. There are lot of wax statues depicting of the famous stars.

macau

Macau has an area of 29.5 km², comprised of the Macau Peninsula ( 9.3 km ² ), the island of Taipa ( 8.8 km² ) and Coloaine ( 7.6 km² ) and the reclaimed area COTAI ( 5.8 km² ). There are 3 bridges connecting Macau peninsula to Taipa.

Macau becomes part of China but the government of Macau separated by the government of China, Macau has special territories because it is a Portugal’s commonwealth. It has its own currency and government. And the rules of Macau are not as tight as in other part of China such as prohibited to have more than 2 children, the eldest must be son because if it’s daughter than she must be killed, and gambling is also prohibited too. And being the resident of Macau has an advantage too, they would have Portugal passport and it would be easier if they want to go everywhere.

Their income comes from tourism and gambling. That’s why lots of hotel with casino spread in every part of Macau.

I was stayed at Taipa, the southern part of Macau at The Venetian hotel. At the 1^st floor, there is a casino with lots of slot machines and card tables. I tried my luck once but unfortunately I wasn’t lucky so I just saw my father keep tried his luck, but still the same with me he wasn’t lucky.

The tour guide said that if we haven’t visited A-ma temple and the Ruins of St. Paul church it’s mean that we never been there.

The 1^st history of Macau came from A-ma temple. In that time, the Portuguese wanted to go to China but in the middle, they trapped in storm so they decided to landed on an island. They saw that the island was so beautiful and they asked the residents what was the name of the island. But they asked them with Portuguese and they didn’t understand it, so the resident answered with the name of the temple, Maca. And it was the 1^st time that the island called Macau. The Portuguese stayed and built the city upon the island and become like what I’d saw.

The Ruins of St. Paul church is the ultimate characteristic of Macau. The Jesuits set the work on their policy of spreading Christianity, devoting themselves to the encounter and symbiosis of eastern and western culture.

After a few decades, a military battalion was accommodated in the premises but in 1835 a fire erupted in the kitchens of the barracks, ravaging the other buildings and destroying the church and almost all the complex. The unique part of this ruins is the dragon sculpture. In bible dragon means evil but in Chinese version, dragon means good and spirit.

beijing

Beijing is the capital city of China. But the native used to call it Peking. It is located at the northern part of the country and it is cold enough, about 4^oC in the morning, 11^oC in the afternoon, 2^oC in the evening and 0^oC at midnight. People who come to this city usually look for its roasted duck and local snacks. But if you never see strange foods like in China, you should avoid these food stall or you will lose your appetite. They sell fried scorpions, both big and small size, fried cockroaches, fried centipede, fried chrysalis, etc.

The city itself has a lot of tourist objects. Such as Tian An Men temple, Wang Fu Jing street, The Great Wall, Silk Caterpillar Ranch and Factory, Chinese Tea House, Jia Ba Due Tomb etc.

Tian An Men is the biggest temple in China. The area consist of small temples and at the former time, each temple was for each concubine. It needs more than 6 hours to walk through all temples. What a big place!

Wang Fu Jing street is also popular and known as the most favorite shopping street because of the prices and you can find anything that you want to buy with the lower price than any other places.

One of the world wonders in China is the Great Wall, located among the hills and the climate is cold. From the parking lot we must walk to the up side to get the ticket box. And then we may choose 2 ways to arrive at the top, by foot or by cable car. I choose cable car because it’s too far and I wasn’t sure that I’m strong enough to arrive at the top.

After we arrived, we walked along the wall, but we didn’t finish 6 fortresses. We only finished 1 fortress because we very tired to finished them all. To reach each fortress, we need to hike 250 stairs and down 250 stairs too. Even we didn’t reach all fortresses, at least we had dropped our foot there. And when the time almost finish at the Great Wall, we may choose 2 ways to get down by cable car or by tobaroggo. Tobaroggo is a slide board with brake stick in the middle of the board. It seemed fun and I never seen it before in Indonesia, so I choosed to use tobaroggo. And I slide down at the highest of 1786metres from the top to the bottom of the hills. And it was really fun.

At the Silk Caterpillar Ranch and Factory, the store guide told us about the history and the process of making the silk. And she taught us too how to make hank of silks. After that she showed us the silk store and there are a lot of products made of silk such as blanket, bedcover, bolster, pillow, jacket, trousers, dress etc. and it costs lot.

And the last place was Chinese Tea House. China also known for its tea. And in this tea house, the waitress show us how to serve tea in Chinese culture. It really different with the Indonesian’s serving. And she told us that there are many kinds of tea, with different function for our health, different ways of serving and of course, different prices. I love to drink oolong tea because the taste is bitterer than jasmine tea but it left the sweet taste at the back tongue.

Overall, Beijing is awesome. But unluckily, the food wasn’t so good. 2 days in Beijing I only ate bread or noodle cup but the taste also bad