Friday, February 23, 2007

My hometown

I am from Medan, the third largest city in Indonesia which is also the capital city of North Sumatra.Unlike any other big cities, it only has a few sky cross buildings, making this city comfortable and calm to live in. Its uncontrolled traffic jam is like no other giant cities either. If you are driving there, you should be aware, because most public drivers disobey the traffic rules. The similarity with other big cities is the weather. It is quite hot there. Maybe it is due to its few parks and trees.

Most cities in Indonesia have to deal with sanity problems. So does Medan. Wastes, slums, and bad city planning contribute to the problems. But compared to the other cities I have been to, this city is cleaner. The downside of this city is its untreated old buildings. There are numerous old historical buildings there. Unfortunately, they are not taken care of, thus making this city seems dirty.

However, living at this town is interesting. Its diversity in culture makes it rich when it comes to language, food, tradition, etc. You can enjoy Chinese festivals, learn Bataknese tradition or taste many different kinds of food. Because there happens to be no serious conflicts, big disasters, or other problems, I find that this city is a safe place. Besides, everybody lives in peace and respect each other. It is a good place.

You need to give real examples in your paragraphs.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Bandung: The City of Garbage??

Bandung, the capital of West Java, Indonesia is the city where I have lived for most of my childhood. I remembered once that it had been a beautiful city, with not many rubbish lying around and not much smoke polluting the air. It was a city that used to be called "Kota Kembang", which means the city of flowers.

But now, Bandung is no longer as beautiful as it once was. It has an enviromental problem that has really gotten out of hand. Garbage is everywhere, trees are getting more less and less by the day to give room for more large buildings, every day the traffic jams are getting longer, and pollution, especially from land transportation and the stench of rubbish, are making the air even harder to breathe. Bandung even received the 2006 award for the dirtiest city in Indonesia, and instead of the city of flowers, Bandung now became the city of garbage.

There are many factors which may have caused Bandung's enviromental problem. One of the main factors is the fact that many of the citizens of Bandung has a habit in throwing rubbish anywhere they please, which gives reason to the garbage problem. Another factor is the many people of Bandung, whom even if they only have to go about 100 metres, uses a car or a motorbike when they could easily walk. The factors above are only a small portion of the many that made Bandung achieve the 'award' in the year 2006.

But despite it's enviromental problem, Bandung still has many good qualities which attract the tourists, which is why in the weekend Bandung becomes twice as packed as normal. Yet, if the government and the citizens of Bandung doesn't cooperate to make this once-beautiful-city a better place, starting with it's natural enviroment, Bandung will become a city that will no longer be fit to live in.

Good thanks for posting.

My Hometown

Jakarta is a metropolitan city. Besides as the capital city of Indonesia, Jakarta is also as a economic centre. Certainly have many problems, such as traffic, unemployment, and the latest is flood. (Good points and you should develop these in your paragraphs)

Most people come to Jakarta bring much beautiful dreams like, richness and good occupation for their life. The result of this condition is make Jakarta more crowded. Flood will happen if rainy season is coming cause the people throw garbage anywhere. So this is our job as a University student to find the solution of this problem. (should be about traffic)

In weekdays, Jakarta is a busy town. At 07.00 AM and 05.00 PM, in the whole Jakarta always have a traffic problem. Besides that, Jakarta is also have many mall. Most people went to the mall just for spend the weekend or to buy their needs.(What is your point?)

Although Jakarta is a crowded city, in Jakarta we can find many recreation place, such as ancol, sea world, TMII and ragunan zoo. In sea world, we can see the biggest aquarium in south east asia. Every year, sea world usually held event in christmas day, new year and imlek day.(You should elaborate more with real examples)

I really love my hometown, cause we can find everything in there. We can find our needs or to spend the weekwend to do activity, such as sport in senayan or just having fun in recreation place.

my hometown, pekanbaru

Pekanbaru, My Hometown

My hometown is Pekanbaru, Riau and now, let me tell you about the history of my hometown. Riau was established in 1948 base on the constitution that deviding Sumatera Island into three big province. One of them is Central Sumatera that consist of West Sumatera, Riau and Jambi Residencial. After a long time, Riau people wants an autonomy for itself. So, in 1954 Riau Youth Congress was found at Pekanbaru. One year later, the conggress was held a conference in Bengkalis. Two years after (1957) the conference, the Riau Province was established with Tanjung Pinang being the capital city. In 1959 the capital city was moved from Tanjung Pinang to Pekanbaru.

Pekanbaru is developing to a big city with many mall, plaza, market, and so on. One of the market that very famous in Pekanbaru named “Pasar Bawah”. It lies in the north of Pekanbaru. This market sells antique things, home accessories whether import or export, and many kinds of vegetables and fruits. “Plaza Senapelan” and “Plaza Sukaramai” is one of trade centre that lies near my house, exactly near with the business area in Sudirman street. The other is “Plaza Citra”, lies at Papaya street. Three big mall are : “Mall Pekanbaru” in north Pekanbaru, “Mall SKA”, the biggest and a modern trade centre in west Pekanbaru, and the last is "Mall Ciputra” that well known as “Citraland“ was built in 2004 with a great prospect to compete with the other shooping and trade centre in Pekanbaru or even in Malaysia or Singapore. Another place for recreation that I know if you like golf sport are Golf field such as : Pekanbaru Golf Course Country Club, Kubang, Simpang Tiga Golf Course, AURI complex, and Rumbai Golf Course, Rumbai.

Nowadays, Pekanbaru is become more prosperous and very fast develop itself to be a big city that welfare both the citizen and the city. That is the reason why I love my hometown and want it to be a city that can compete the other big city in the world.



Good work. Thanks for posting.

My Hometown

My hometown, Binjai is a city located at North Sumatra. It's about an hour from Medan. But, different from Medan, Binjai is just a small town with the friendly people, lack of individualistic manners. So, it'll be really fun to have a peaceful life there.

In contrast, this town seems to be a place where you can't develop yourself very much. It's just a small town with some of the people still maintaing the old fashioned way of thinking. Also, the people there satisfy themselves easily. They think that things are enough already and they just don't want to face any new innovation. The schools there provide no clubs or any extra activities to improve the students' hobbies and interests. Thus, to get an extra skill they have to take a course outside which will cause them to spend more money and of course not all the people there have enough money to afford it.

However, since I grew up there, it left behind a special place in my heart. I have many friends and relatives with whom I spent my childhood. They left special memories to me and I hope someday I can be someone useful to help the development of the city.

Good.

My Hometown, Garut

My Hometown, Garut

My hometown, Garut, is a regency located in West Java, Indonesia. The government administration center is in a subdistrict named Garut Kota. This regency borders on Sumedang in the north, Tasikmalaya in the east, Indian Ocean in the south and also Cianjur and Bandung in the west. It has an area of 3.065,19 kilometers square. It also has 42 subdistricts which divided into 439 villages, lived by population of 2,26 million people in 2003 with population density about 737 people/km. This regency has been called Kota INTAN, stands for INdah, Tertib, Aman, dan Nyaman (beautiful, orderly, safe, and comfortable).

This regency, which has Garut bangkit Garut berprestasi as its motto, has mountain range for almost of its area with fresh and natural air and it is very suitable for a tour. In the past, a Dutchman named Holke van Garut (a governor of the Dutch government in 1930-1940) saw the potential of this beauty regency so he called it “Switzerland van Java” and he also built a hotel there. Nowadays, this regency has so many objects of tourism which can be visited and enjoyed, not only the natural one (e.g. Papandayan Crater, Kamojang Crater, Manuk Crater, Talaga Bodas Crater, Cikuray Mount, Guntur Mount, and Pameungpeuk Beach), but also the artificial one (e.g. Cipanas hot water resort, Kampung Sampireun, etc.).


Garut, a regency with a close Sundanese culture, has its own typical food and crafts. That is Dodol Garut as its typical food, while Batik Garutan and skin crafts as its typical crafts. Dodol Garut, which is available in many kinds of taste, from nut taste to pineapple one, always make many visitors interested. While, typical skin crafts from Garut e.g. skin shoes, bag, jacket, belt and hat, are also very interesting for visitors.

(16006074)
Good.

Palembang

My hometown is a city named Palembang. It is located at Sumatera island, Indonesia. Palembang is the capital of the South Sumatera province. It is also known that Palembang is one of the oldest cities in Indonesia. Historically, Palembang is located at the same place where the Sriwijaya Kingdom was.

Palembang has some interesting places to visit. One of them is Benteng Kuto Besak which is located besides the famous Ampera bridge. A lot of people go there to see the historical building which was a fortress. People usually go there at night because the scenery is more beautiful. Another interesting place to visit is Balaputra Dewa Museum. There are a lot of historical story and historical artifact that is very interesting to be know and to see.

Besides the interesting places, Palembang is well known for its food, especially pempek. Pempek is usually made of fish, a little water, certain flour and some seasoning to enhance the taste. It tasted very delicious when we eat it with special vinegar that we call cuka. Pempek is the unique regional food in Palembang.

Palembang people usually use the Palembang language in their daily conversation. It is a little similar to the usual Indonesia Language except some vocal is changed to o and some Palembang vocabulary. And sometimes the accent of Palembang language sounds impolite if we compare it with the Indonesian Language.

Right now, Condition of Palembang is not very good. The weather in Palembang is usually hot, so the people in Palembang tend to get angry easily. Another reason why the condition is not very good is because of the high crime rate in Palembang.

Good work.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Bandoeng by nano_w10

Bandoeng by nano_w10

Bandung, Perfect Vacation Spot

Bandung, my hometown, is known as the capital city of West Java and surrounded by mountains. Bandung is famous for it’s cool weather and beautiful scenery. Trees and small gardens can easily be found in Bandung, this is the reason why Bandung is called The City of Flower. Although it's a fact that the number of green areas in Bandung has decreased throughout the years. But still, Bandung is an excellent place to spend your vacation.

As we know, these last few years Bandung has been visited by more and more people from other cities, especially Jakarta. As proof, we can see that in the weekends, the streets in Bandung are crowded by vehicles with B plate (Jakarta’s registration number).


The interesting thing is, these domestic tourists come to Bandung not to see it’s beautiful scenery or certain tourism attraction like Gedung Sate, instead, their aim is to visit the malls and factory outlets.



It is true that Bandung is famous as a shopping heaven, there are a lot of malls and factory outlets here that offer branded products with affordable prices. These factory outlets offer both imported and local garment products, so consumers’ demands can certainly be fulfilled according to their tastes.

Whatever reason for tourists coming to Bandung, I am truly proud of my hometown. Bandung isn’t considered the top three metropolitan cities in Indonesia, but still a lot of tourists are interested to visit it.


Composed by Griselda Raisa (16006090)

Good work.

Jakarta, Big and Beauty

Jakarta is a big and beautiful city. What makes it beautiful are its skyscrapers, buildings and transportation.
Skyscrapers in Jakarta have many kinds of design. There is a skyscraper which on the top of the building has a ship design, the skyscrapers name is Wisma 46. Another building that has an unique design is Garda Oto’s building. Its unique design lies within the Garda Oto’s big logo in the front windows of the building.
Bank Indonesia’s buildings are unique too. Most importantly is its mosque. It has a good design and look like an expensive building, although its ornaments are bought not from the famous company, they were bought from a little shop beside the road.
Transportation in Jakarta is going better. Even though traffic jams are everywhere, it will be reduce by the time being, because Jakarta’s Government has made some moves. Their first is Busway. Busway is a bus that made for public transportation and had its own track, so there won’t be anything that will block the way. There will be 13 corridors of Busway, only 4 that already finished, the rest are still in progress.
Jakarta’s Government second move is building a Monorail. Monorail is a little train that the rails are upside the main road. Monorail is not finished yet, the Jakarta’s Government predicted that Monorail will be finished in the year of 2011.
People in Jakarta Would prefer to take the Monorail or the Busway than to ride their own vehicle. So, there won’t be any traffic jam in Jakarta.

Good, but you need to focus on certain aspects of Jakarta and give more examples and details.

Medan, a Metropolitan City

I was born and grew up in Medan. Located on the east coast of Sumatra island, Medan is the capital city of North Sumatra province. In few recent decades, it has grown and become one of the metropolitan cities in Indonesia, the third biggest city after Jakarta and Surabaya. The number of industrial companies which keeps increasing indicates that Medan is a metropolitan city. We can also easily recognize that Medan is a busy city from the traffic jam which often happens during the daytime. The existance of malls, shopping centers, and hypermarkets, such as Carrefour, makes it even more clear that this city is metropolis.

Actually, my hometown is a multicultural city. There lives native peoples of North Sumatra, Batak, and some native Indonesians such as Javanese, Minang, Sundanese, and Kubu. Besides Batak which is the majority in North Sumatra, there lives Indonesian Chinese and Arabian too. We can also encounter foreigners like Indian and Tamilian who permanently stay in Medan, in which their residence is called Kampung Keling. Because of the various ethnics living in Medan, Medan is rich in cultural values. One of the examples is the cloth originates form Batak, known as Ulos, which has a special and beautiful pattern on it. A well-known dance originates from China, called Barongsai, is also performed by Indonesian Chinese in a certain occasion such as Chinese New Year and Moon Festival. The variety of peoples in Medan has also made Medan famous for its food.

Nowadays, Medan still faces many problems that often happen in a big city. The main problem is the electricity. The maintanance of electric generators often causes the electricity has to be turned off in some areas. Electric shutdown during the peak of electric usage may also happens because of the electric supplier's deficiency to afford overuse of electricity. Recently, the transportation system has been worsen too and caused traffic jams to occur in every daytime. The other problem that takes place in Medan is overcrowded vehicle which causes air pollution. Rubbish and poor drain system may also trigger flood and water pollution. Besides of the problems explained above, there are still some problems such as education problem, criminality, and petrol shortage.

Thanks for posting, need to work on your topic sentences.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Bandung - My "Hometown"

I call Bandung as my “hometown” not my hometown because I wasn’t born in Bandung. I was born in Jakarta, but I moved to Bandung a few years later, so Bandung is more like my hometown than Jakarta. That’s why I’m going to write about Bandung here.

Bandung is located in West Java, Indonesia, and it is the capital city of West Java. The weather used to be cold but now it is hot. The increasing number of citizens in Bandung has made it hotter and hotter. Many vehicles also become one of the causes for making Bandung hotter these days. Also because of that, Bandung is more like Jakarta now, there are lots of traffic jams every day from sunrise until sunset, and the weather is very hot.

Bandung has always been known as The City of Flower because it used to have many flowers. But nowadays the number of those flowers has decreased. This is bad, but what is worse is those flowers are now substituted by garbages. Even many of its citizens call it as The City of Garbage. Bandung has also been known as Paris van Java because it was considered to be as beautiful as Paris.

Many tourists, domestics and even foreigns, come to Bandung every year. Each of them has their own destination. Some go to tourism places, such as Maribaya Waterfall, Ciater, and Tangkuban Perahu, but some go to the factory oulets instead. These factory outlets are mostly located at Riau Street and Dago Street. There are also some tourists who go to Bandung to taste the Sundanese food, because the Sundanese food has a good special taste.

A factory outlet at Dago Street

Bandung also has many good schools and universities. For example there are good schools like St. Aloysius and St. Angela; and good universities like ITB (Institut Teknologi Bandung) that’s considered to be one of the best universities in Indonesia, UNPAR (Universitas Parahyangan), and UNPAD (Universitas Padjadjaran).

ITB (Institut Teknologi Bandung)

That’s a little about Bandung. No matter how people think about Bandung, and even though I wasn’t born in Bandung, I am proud to be one of its citizens and have it as my “hometown”.

This post is created by Ray Putra Prajnamitra (16006046)

Thanks for posting, please think of your topic sentences.

Batam and Bandung, two places where I grew up.

I grew up in Batam. Batam always develops from time to time. There is a port called 'Batam Center', it is used for ferry's transit. There is an airport too, called Hang Nadim. Although Batam looked so crowded, the government's still giving places for nature to grow. It still has so many plants. Someday, you must visit Batam to see the excelence of that city.

If you go by ferry, Batam is only 30 minutes away from singapore. There are many reason why Batam is always full with tourists. The civilization in Batam is better than any other places I have visited. Batam is always clean because of the influence of Singaporeans. People transit in Batam before they go to Singapore by ferry.

The other place I grew up is Bandung. Bandung has given a lot of changes since I live here. Bandung used to be called 'Kota Kembang', and now, the name doesn't fit so properly. We can't see many plant in Bandung. Every empty spaces is being used for many upgrade, such as factory outlet, mall, parking area, etc. The air pollution is growing up so rapidly so that it can decreased children's IQ. So, many scientist who live in Bandung must work very hard to prevent Bandung from destruction.

I realize that having two hometown in my journey of life isnt an easy way. I lived in Batam from 2 until 10. I spent the rest of my childhood in Bandung. But from what I feel and what I realize, my two hometown made my character.

-nessa-

Thanks for posting, please think of your topic sentences.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Bekasi by Muhammad Pandu

My hometown - Bekasi

Basically there is nothing too special about my hometown, Bekasi. It has no tall skyscrapers or giant walls of concrete like seen in big cities. Nor does it has any famous places of interests to give people some reasons to stop by in Bekasi. But despite the lack of attractive sites in the town, many people still consider Bekasi as a cozy and peaceful town to live in. This is proven by the large number of 2 million people living within the town.

Let me give you some analysis of why most people see Bekasi as a perfect place to live in:

The first, and the main, reason is because of Bekasi's strategic location. The town is less than a forty-five minutes trip from Jakarta, and approximately one and a half hours from Bandung, when given the fact that the freeway isn't hit by a traffic jam. Thus, the Bekasi residents that works in Jakarta, or those that need to go to Bandung often, could reach their destinations in short durations of time.

The second reason, is because Bekasi has its own industrial sites and commercial zones which could provide enough work for its residents. Unemployment rate is low in Bekasi. According to www.kotabekasi.go.id, only 7.12 percent of the total populations in Bekasi are unemployed. The wide commercial areas in Bekasi also provide some amount of satisfaction for most of the consumers in the town, although people from the higher economical classes prefer to travel to Jakarta to shop.

The third reason, is Bekasi’s suburban atmosphere. The town’s population is not too dense, and pollution level is slightly lower than those in big cities. Some people might ask why this third reason is such a positive thing for the residents of Bekasi. But when this reason is combined with the first reason, then Bekasi could be the perfect place to live for people who work in Jakarta but do not want to be caught in a big-city’s troubles such as constant traffic jams and heavy pollution.

Those are my analysis of why Bekasi is preferred by many people as the perfect home. It suits almost any kinds of people, from hard workers that need to be anywhere fast, to simple families that want nothing more that peace. It is also suitable to ITB students, like me, that need to be home anytime he misses it.

You use a spoken language a lot. It would be great if you could write your ideas in a written language.

Kudus, The Little Big City

My hometown, Kudus, occupy only fairly small area of Muria mountains valley, but she is the most important city in Central Java. Kudus held most important sources of income, and has an unique history line. Kudus has a good mix of industrial and religious background. Some of her belongings are so important that national government keep direct touch of them.

Kudus' main sources of income are cigarette industry. There are several large cigarette company such as Djarum, Sukun, and others, that smaller. The income of cigarette tax is so great that central government get rid most of it, and give her only one percent as her source of income on yearly budget. With only this "Very Small" percentage, Kudus would be only an average city, but large cigarette companies, especially Djarum support her economy with their side company and services. With such great support, Kudus has a great public services, maintenances and responsible for donation of some national events.

Although Kudus is well known as industrial city, it also offers some important tourism site to amuse her visitors. She has the Kudus Tower and Kudus Tower Mosque, that held Sunan Kudus' Grave. She also had Muria mount, that was once an active volcano, but was calmed in legend by Sunan Muria, that has his grave on top of Muria mount. In the time of Ramadhan, she was the place of Dandhangan, a famous fest. On industrial histories, she also have Kretek Museum, that hold all memories of cigarette industries development. All of that tourism site made Kudus was a good mix of industrial and tourism town.

Kudus is also well known for her achievement on national events. She has received Adipura prize for some times. She sponsored some of huge national events such as Djarum Super Soccer League. Even she was the place of some most legendary Indonesian badminton players and badminton training camp, the GOR Djarum. Even in some local and national academic student competitions, Kudus always take her place. With all these features, Kudus seems to be a very good city to live in.

[ Eliezer ]
Good and thanks for posting. You need to write better topic sentence in your first paragraph.