Escadaria Selarón at Night

The entrance of the stairs

Going to Rio without research, I just trusted and followed my new friends. Turned out they were all bunch of adrenaline junkie who dared to walk on Rio's dark street after sunset. As the rumor said, it is not safe for you to stroll in the street after sunset. Robbery, pickpocket and all kind of crimes are gonna haunt you.

the street leading to the stair at 7 PM

It was very terrifying. It was my first day in Rio and they already took me to such unwanted adventure. So we had early dinner and they wanted to take me to the famous stairs in Rio called Escadaria Selaron. There were almost no one on the street leading to the stairs, more alone foreigners.

world map!

Before reaching the stairs, we saw this world map with names written there. They said we could write our names by paying a small fee? Not sure. It was definitely not the business hours so I could not figure out and I was really really hesitant. I wanted to go back to my hotel like ASAP.

pointing at Indonesia!

But my friends were all excited and forced me to pose before leaving. Okay...
Turned out it was a really good one! Thank you, Jihwan!


Then after more  walking for a few hundred meters, we reached the stairs!

stairs without human!

No tourist was in sight, only some local... gangster, I would say.

Yes it was indeed very nice and pretty but PLEASE just do not come at night like us. Yes, I hate humans and I normally looooove visiting in such a weird hours like this to avoid crowd but safety is always priority! I was really scared and being there on my very first day did not help either coz I basically was just overwhelmed.

A memorable visit and dear my friends, thank you for pushing me not to back out and escape to my hotel room!

First Impression of Rio de Janeiro

I spent three full weeks in Rio de Janeiro last August. I am always skeptical about a country's scenic view. For me, Indonesia is the most beautiful country. I have yet to visit places that could match Indonesia's scenery but Brazil is truly beautiful.

You just gotta believe me. Rio is awesome.

This picture does not do the justice, but still

I was greeted by an amazing view even before landing in Santos Dumont Airport.
Learning from my lesson, please try to get in to Rio through Santos Dumont (SDU) rather than Galeao (GIG) because of the super duper strategic location (right in the heart of the city) and the unbeatable scenery. You can literally walk from the airport to Lapa or Centro area.

Then I checked in to Prodigy Hotel, right next to the airport. The location is just very convenient, it is literally next to (or even part of?) the airport. Just walk, no need taxi or whatever. You can leave your hotel room 30 minutes before the take off time, you will still make it.

More reasons to choose SDU are because they have a very good money changer in the mall next to it, no 'premium aiport rate' and no need to worry about not having Reais with you. Also they have some fastfood chain restaurants like Burger King and Subway so you do not have to stress about what to eat as soon as you step in to the city. Other parts of the city is also easily accessible by VLT and metro station is just 10-15 minutes walk from the airport.

The view from the rooftop is just... Perfect.

I can wake up everyday with this kind of scenery.

My first impression of Rio de Janeiro was too sweet that I almost forgot it took 41 hours trip for me to get there...

More from Rio later!