Would you like to see elephants up close, swimming or playing soccer? Or maybe to ride one?

Way Kambas National Park is conservation place for Sumatran Elephants and also the first elephant training center in Indonesia. It is located at Central Lampung, Lampung Province. It has a low land forest ecosystem, consisted of swamp area, grass land, and coastal forest.

This vast area, 125.621 hectare, is almost always come to mind as a place for elephant, although it is also home for Sumatran tiger, rhinoceros, and other endangered species. Other mamals that also inhabit the national park include tapir, siamang monkeys, and boar. There are also 406 species of birds, and numerous reptiles, fish, and insects within sanctuary of Way Kambas National Park.

Elephant Training Center

There was a time where wild elephants become a problem because its habitat was used as a farm. Human considered elephant as a pest and hunt them and those poor elephants only wanted to come back to their habitat. Elephant training center was built to mitigate further damage for both species.

At elephant training center, these smart mammals are protected and trained, so they are able to do many things such as dancing, playing soccer, do ‘hand’shake with their trunk, give tourists bouquet of flowers, and they can swim too. You can also hop on their back and ride them. They’ll take you around the national park.

Not only for recreational purposes, elephants are also trained to help handling human-elephant conflicts, security patrol, and as transportation measure in term of supporting forest fire prevention.

Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary

Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary (SRS) was built for rhino semi in situ conservation after realization of significant decline of rhino population in the wild and at conservation sites. The area is a 100 ha forest, divided by 10 cages, surrounded by electrical wire to prevent disturbance from other wild animals and secure the rhinos inside.

To observe and see rhinos activity inside this sanctuary, you’ll need permit from SRS management. There are visitor center and guest house available.

Way Kanan Area

Way Kanan area can be reached from the main gate in 20-30 minutes through forest area. On the way to Way Kanan, you can enjoy sense of jungle and once in a while see wild animals like deer, wild chicken, butterflies, and hear a particular shout from siamang monkeys.

Way Kanan area is a place for wildlife research. At Way Kanan area, you can go walk through the jungle to enjoy the richness of flora and fauna of Way Kambas up close, or go down to the river by boat with a guide. It is a good place to go bird watching.

There are several options for accommodation in Way Kambas National Park. First, there are cottages to rent inside Way Kambas area called Satwa Sumatra Elephant Eco Lodge. There are also restaurant serving Indonesian and western food at this place. Next, there’s a resort called Way Kanan Resort at Way Kanan that also offers boat tour around Way Kambas. There are no restaurant available in Way Kanan Resort, so it is advisable to bring your evening meal from warung that are available at Elephant Training Center. Elephant Training Center also have rooms to rent just outside elephants enclosure. You can see elephants eating or relaxing from your window. If you want to feel more outback experience, you can camp at Plang Ijo watch post, but you have to get the entry permit or SIMAKSI first if you wish to camp at the national park.

Permit to enter WKNP can be obtained at the gate. Make sure you prepare some cash for entrance fee, permit, foods, and accommodation. You’ll need extra cash to do tour on boat or jungle trekking with elephants.

Are you struggling to get through all those boring French classes?   Do you wish you could spend more time grappling with your math homework instead?    Chances are, if you didn’t have an opportunity to learn a second language when you were younger, you are not enjoying learning French in highschool.

Fortunately, you can learn to speak French online, and make the entire process much more palatable.  If you haven’t chosen a secondary language yet, this may also be an ideal way to see how you feel about spending the next three years trying to learn it in a formal classroom setting. Even though you may be able to practice speaking French with classmates, it may be difficult to have regular meetings.  On the other hand, when you learn to speak French online, you may be able to connect with someone at any time of the day.  You may even be able to find people in the forums that are native French speakers.  Depending on the situation, this may also give you a wider range of dialects to choose from.

As may be expected, if you have specific hobbies or interests, you may also be able to expand your vocabulary in these directions. When you need to learn a second language, there is nothing quite like practicing with others that can guide you to better proficiency.   Therefore, if you decide to learn to speak French online, you will have a number of advantages.

Aside from finding people to work with on flexible schedule, you may also able to continue practicing during the summer months.  This will help you retain your skills while you aren’t taking classes.  As may be expected, the more you learn now, the more time you will have later on to study other subjects.

French is a truly iconic and charming language and is spoken by around 200 million people. It is one of the official EU languages and France has an important economic situation. It is therefore quite clear why a knowledge of this fantastic language could be really useful. It can also be very seductive and a great tool for appearing instantly more cultured and well traveled. But so many of us think this is too much effort to make to learn French, and that learning French online is a cheap gimmick. Let’s explore this point in more detail:

Learning French online can be a really enjoyable experience and we all know that the things we stick at are the things we enjoy. We are more likely to keep playing a sport that we like or stick with a nice job, so why think languages are any different? If you choose a really boring way to learn, such as a textbook, then failure isn’t too surprising. (By the way, ‘surprise’ comes from the French ‘surprendre’ – we get a lot of words from the French.)

If you decide to log on and learn, then the term ‘learning French online’ could soon be returning a good number of results. You will notice a strong feeling of engagement and you will be much more inclined to log on again and again until you are fluent. This “little and often used” approach is the most effective way by far and you will gain so much more with this method. It keeps you learning bit by bit whilst ensuring you retain the skills you are learning. Another good point to this is that you will never get bored of it as you won’t have to spend so long each time.

Learning French online is not a cheap alternative and the programs/software are really quite advanced. They are designed by experts to ensure they are as effective and natural as possible. This means you will learn quickly and retain what you are learning.

These programs are also highly interactive. This enables you to produce the French language for yourself rather than just reading or listening to it. This makes learning French online so much more fun and enjoyable for all who take part. If you cannot produce what you learned then making it in the real French speaking world will not be possible. These courses retain a sense of relevancy and are not feeding you the irrelevant French that isn’t actually spoken anywhere in the world except that silly little textbook. You need an authentic experience to learn authentic French.

As daft as it may sound, learning French online is a fantastic idea and can have you fluent in less time than any other method. It is interactive, interesting and most of all, modern. You’re wasting your time with that textbook and it’s best left on the shelf (the one in the book store if you want to keep your money).

Stress is one of the reasons that you’d want to get a second helping of that delectable chocolate cake, a bag of chips and maybe a burger or two. Unfortunately, it’s not something you can avoid when traveling, especially during the holiday seasons. With flights being delayed, layovers piling up one on top of another, and long, exhausting road trips, your nerves and frustration will surely shoot to the roof.

Food is often considered a panacea. But giving in to your mindless cravings can spell good news for your body and your overall trip. You could get sick along the way, or gain a few extra pounds, which is probably worse than having a stomach bug. To this end, keep a lid on your need to munch when the going gets tough.

Do not skip meals

Not having breakfast is not an excuse for you to eat a huge lunch. The same thing is true when you skip lunch and make the most of supper. But this is exactly what you would end up doing, if you don’t follow your usual meal schedules. So make sure that you eat consistently and with just the right amount of calories.

Stay hydrated

This is probably not the first time that you have heard about the wonders of drinking 8 glasses of water a day. The more you need to stay hydrated when you are travelling or feeling hungry. You need to tell your hypothalamus that you are not thirsty or hungry, so you don’t end up pigging out. So down a tall glass of water when cravings start to kick in, or a cup of decaffeinated tea.

Know what makes you stress out and then eat

You know your body more than anyone else, so identify which triggers stress and causes you to raid the fridge or munch on sweets and a bag of chips. Doing so will help you prepare for those moments when nerves take control. If you are anxious about flying, for example, bring a bag of healthy snacks that can help you relax.

As my anniversary day was coming up I kept thinking of ways to surprise my fiancé. I thought about that for days, weeks maybe until one day I got this brilliant idea: a getaway to Rome.

It had to be a surprise, so I didn’t tell him. I always feel like trips are way better when you don’t plan ahead and wait for the big day. So I booked a honeymoon suite at a hotel, packed a few clothes and on our anniversary day I drove to his house. I phoned him and told him to come outside so we can grab a coffee. He got in the car and we hit the road. At first he didn’t really know what’s happening and why I’m ignoring all the coffee shops I was driving by so eventually I told him about the surprise. He was impressed. Surprised. And happy. Anyway, after a really long drive we finally arrived in Rome. We checked in at the hotel, grabbed a coffee and went to visit Rome.

I didn’t know much about the main attractions, neither did him, but we just kept walking and walking around. I suppose we got to see the most important things. We stopped by Fontana di Trevi and people say that if you throw a coin in the fountain and make a wish, that wish would come true. I wish for many more anniversaries like this one. I love travelling, especially when I’m with my loved one. We even went to the theater one night. Or to Vatican City, it was amazing. I wish we could spend more time in Rome but unfortunately we had to come back home. However we do plan on going there again, but next time we will hopefully travel by plane. This really was a great anniversary date.