Once a Traveler

You wake up at Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Singapore. You wake up at Sydney, Bali, Hanoi. San Jose, Hongkong, Jakarta, Ho Chi Minh. Lose an hour, gain an hour. This is your life, and it’s ending one minute at a time. You wake up at Changi International. If you wake up at a different time, in a different place, could you wake up as a different person?
(Fight Club, modified with the places I visited in the last few months)

I’m a traveler as well as a consulting engineer, a dreamer, a blogger, a backpacker, and a storyteller.

My traveling experience:
Hotel: Shangri-La (80%), Hilton, Hyatt, Ritz Carlton, Intercontinental, Swissotel, Sheraton, Le Meridien, Four Season, Holiday Inn, Westin, Crown Plaza, Conrad, Sofitel, Excelsior
Airline: Singapore Air (90%), Malaysia Air, Thai Air, Air Asia, Garuda, Jet Star Asia/Valuair, Emirates Air, Vietnam Air
Membership: Singapore Air KrisFlyer/Star Alliance Elite Gold, Shangri-La Gold, Hyatt Gold, Starwood Preferred Guest
Privileges: Airport business lounge, priority check-in/luggage, upgraded hotel room, free staying in hotel, miles
Travel style: Light. First priority is for passport, wallet and mobile phone. Second priority is for Cisco badge, notebook, chargers, iPod. Third, my backpack where I keep all the rest. In fact, everything that I need for living outside the country I put it inside this North Face backpack
Favorite airport: Changi International
Favorite cities: San Francisco, Amsterdam, Sydney, Dubai, Bangkok
Best flying experience: A380 to Sydney
Longest flying time: San Francisco - Sydney (via Hongkong and Singapore)
Longest stay in city during one visit: 3 weeks (Sydney)

I decided to go full mobile even in Singapore. I decided to abandon my apartment room. I decided to stay in the hotel everytime I need to be in my base station, most probably in a backpacker hotel. According to my calculation if I need to spend only a week every month in Singapore in average it’s much cheaper to stay in the hotel that is closer to office than paying monthly room with taxi since my current room is on the far west side of the island. And obviously it will be more fun.

This is my life, and it’s ending one minute at a time.

How to Become a CCIE v2

Weekend ini gue ada di Singapore (jarang-jarang nih). Gara-garanya sabtu malam sudah ada schedule buat migrasi di salah satu project gue di KL, tapi karena bertepatan dgn pemilu Malaysia sehingga kegiatannya diundur. Dan pemberitahuan pembatalan ini terjadi di last minute, jadi aja gue tidak sempat merencanakan untuk pulang ke Indo dan terpaksa menghabiskan waktu sendirian weekend begini.

Akhirnya gue memutuskan untuk meng-update “How to Become a CCIE” yg versi pertamanya gue tulis 2 tahun lalu. Untuk mendukung ide tulisan gue sebelumnya supaya orang-orang mau menjadi engineer plus dan mampu berkomunikasi dalam bahasa Inggris, how-to ini tidak gue translate ke bahasa Indonesia.

In summary:

1. You need to know and believe in the reason why you want to become CCIE
2. Use mid-level certification such as CCNP, CCIP, CCSP, CCVP
3. Build home lab, use emulator to practice R&S and SP track
4. Just pass the written to be able to register for the lab
5. Read, read and read, then practice
6. It may not be required to finish as fast as possible, but can use “do it once, and do it right” strategy
7. Join the community, build a healthy discussion group
8. Learn how to ask the right question, to discussion group or proctors
9. Understand the lab questions, analyze it as a whole and a unit
10. Be skeptical, don’t trust the solution unless you have proved it
11. CCIE is a mind game, always believe that you can pass
12. Enjoy every moment while doing the journey

Please read the english version of How to Become a CCIE v2 in my other blog.