TERSESAT

When you think you've prepared everything

2012-02-05T12:20:00.001+07:00

Picture was taken from here

The boarding passes are printed, the hostels are booked, the visa is stamped and the bags are packed when this comes out in my Facebook's wall:

or: "It's -4 degrees (Celsius) and they predict it will be -10 or -15 next week. But don't worry, inside the house it's 18-19 degrees.. and (we have) a lot of clothes!!! Do you remember the snow when we went up to Bolzano? It's the same in here now! We'll wait for you!!!"

On the front yard in Forli, Italy.

Now, NORMALLY, winter comes in November-January. With the coldest period in December. But as Al Gore said, it's global warming, though I prefer the term The Climate Change, since it's not warm at all in several continents. The world is turning upside down, and so does the weather. It's February now and it's snowing. In Forli. In Italy.

Look how thick the snows are!!

So I look up the weather forecast for the next 20 days.

Here's what I found:

source: www.weather-forecast.com


Source:www.weather-forecast.com

Meanwhile in Paris:


Source: www.weather.com

Now why this freaks me out?
Being a true tropical kid I never used to the cold weather. Last time I felt very cold was in 2009 where I had to take off my gloves in a snowy-bellow-zero-Celsius day to do a field task and my palms got all numb. I was so paranoid I thought they had to amputate my fingers. True story.

But hey, what can I do? It's not that throwing my undies to the sky (it was an unwritten ancient ritual, some said can stop the bad weather) can help.

All I can do is, as Big Runga and Dan Wilson (of Semisonic) said in their "Good Morning Baby" song: "I'm praying now for beautiful weather, take a car and drive forever"

Worrisome will bring me nowhere. So I guess I'm just going to sit and enjoy the ride. And most probably give myself something hot to drink. A coffee? A hot chocolate? A Pilsner Urquell? ;)

ps: always check the weather forecast before you hit the road!

Before Departure: How to travel light

2012-02-05T11:14:00.000+07:00

Picture was taken from here

Packing can be pain in the ass sometimes. Specially when you're going to hit the road for a month
and you stingily decided just to use the 10 kg, 40 x 30 x 60 cm cabin baggage. And to make things complicated: it's snowing with average of -8 degree Celsius in your places of interest.

What to bring and what to ditch?

I'm a firm believer of the art of traveling light. I believe your backpack/luggage is your "house" during the journey so you need to have everything you need yet not overweight. Just like in life.

Need. Necessity. It's the core word. It's important to know what we need to bring and not what we want to bring. Since we're human, we always deceived by our inner selves to think that what we want is what we need. Packing for traveling has teached me how to distinguished that fine line between what you want and what you need.

For clothes to bring, as a female, though I don't usually keep up with the trend, I'd like to see myself in a fashionable outfit. At least according to my term. So I'm not going to pack and look like a hippy (no hard feelings mate, you hippies are all cool but your fashion choices are not for me).

Here's what I usually do when I pack:

I divided my stuff into several categories:

1. The essential

Here go all the stuff that you'll use often or that you'd probably won't find it in the nearest store in your destination.

Underwear (and bras for the ladies). Bring enough! Don't bring too much since you can always wash them. Don't bring too little since most of the time you'll too lazy to wash.
1 towel
Toiletries (shampoo, liquid soap, skin moisturizer, toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant- all less than 100ml each and sealed nicely in small plastic bag)
medicine (of course you can buy them in the nearest drugstore but all the hassle just for a pill of Antimo? Oh and I'm sure you can't find Tolak Angin elsewhere)
Umbrella/raining coat. You never know.

I never compromise on the essential part.

2. Essential but can be compromised.

Mostly clothes (here's the tricky part). It always depends on where you'd go and on what season you'd go. Winter is tough but a lot of people overweight when they go to Bali also. Why? If cold places are your destination, you don't have to worry about doing laundry (apart from your undies). You don't sweat too much. But if you're going somewhere hot, you'll change a lot.

For cold places:
- Thermal clothes or you might know it as long johns is A MUST. I hate them. They're tight and sometimes make me itchy, but they're a life saviour. Specially when the temp hits bellow zero.
- Layered clothes. I always use at least 3 layered: t-shirt (long sleeves), sweater and coat. Of course you can have additional layer if it gets colder.

Amount to bring:
For a month trip, I'm bringing:
- 7 long sleeves t-shirt
- 5 sweater (2 stretch and 3 loose)
- 2 coat (one for rainy days the other one for cold normal days)
- 2 jeans (I'll be wearing one most of the time).
- 2 pairs of shoes (a pair of thick sneakers, a pair of boots- will be wearing them most of the time)
- 2 shawls
- 2 gloves
- 5 pair of socks (2 really thick ones, and 3 normal ones but not the thin ones)
- 2 hats
- one pair of warm & comfortable pijamas

This part can be compromised in term of amount. Instead of those amounts I mentioned above I can deliberately choose to bring:
- 4 long sleeves t-shirt
- 3 sweater (1 stretch, 2 loose)
- 3 pairs of socks
- 1 scarf
- 1 pair of gloves

3. Entertainment & documentation

- digital pocket camera (+charger & back up battery & memory card)
- ipod (+charger)
- cellphone/smartphone (+charger). Just incase you'll find free WiFi along the way.
- a book.

- a small notebook, to write all the details.

I'm glad to say I'm not an avid photographer with DSLR and heavy long lenses. Not that I'm against them. But, imagining myself packing one special rucksack just for camera is already making me tired.

I can't live without music though. Luckily these days, they have all type of mp3 players. Small, colorful, cute with gigabytes memory. I love the geeks who invented this!

I remember those days when walkman & cd player are the only things available on the road. You need to bring your cd/cassetes plus AA batteries! Oh, digital camera was a rare concept back then. I remember how I need to bring camera films (and AA batteries) everywhere and wait for months to develop them. Hassle. Hassle. Hassle.

Cellphone/smartphone (and the free WiFi) can be really useful when it comes to keep you informed with what's going on in your home country. But most of the time I use it to play Brickbreaker or updating status in twitter. I can live without this.

A book. I'm an old fashioned about this. I don't like to read in those e-book gadgets, kindle or whatever the name is. I love the smell of paper. And I love the sound when I turn each page unconsciously. The good thing about this is, after you finished reading it, you can always sell it in the 2nd hand bookstore and with a lil penny, you can buy a used book also. Most of the touristic places always have this kind of bookstores. So you can always have something to read to accompany you during the long hours of buses, trains and airplanes.

Again, packing is a very personal thing and it comes with experiences. You can read all the tips in Bootsanall yet still have no clue about packing. Or you've done packing for a thousand time yet your luggage is still overweight.

Always happen. Just like in life. Because what we need is constantly changing. So does the contain of our luggage.

Once upon a time in Edinburgh

2012-02-02T23:06:00.000+07:00

What do you do when you woke up one day, open your window and saw a castle right in front of your eyes?

It's not a fairy tale. You're not Cinderella. It's only Edinburgh.

The Castle viewed from the Princess street

As a capital city, Edinburgh is, I can't believe I'm going to say this, too peaceful. You won't find the hustle & bustle atmosphere that you'd find in every other capital city in the world. The word traffic doesn't seem exist here.

"It must have been because of the castle" so I thought. But then I remember that it's Scotland. The land where Nessie, the Loch Ness legendary monster, Highlands bagpipe, rugby and Harry Potter are diffusing with its famous whiskey scotch. So it does make sense.

A man playing his bagpipe

If you're a sightseeing type of tourist, there's not much to visit in Edinburgh. Obviously, the castle worth a visit, but besides the castle there's no other landmark in this city. However, before you decided to skip this city or to do just a one day tour, wait a little bit and you'll find yourselves staying longer that you have planned. Edinburgh, just like the scotch, needs time to introduce its flavor.

Upon arriving in the main train station, the Waverley station, you'll directly find the *drum roll please* Princess Street! I know! Give me the dress and the glass slippers already dear fairy god mother and I'll be home before midnight.

The Princess street. Now where's my pumpkin cart?

Anyways, along the Princess street you can find all kind of stores, apartments, pubs, bars, coffee shops, bookstores, restaurants even offices. But the true heart of Edinburgh lies on the opposite area of that street, the Edinburgh castle and the Grassmarket.

The Edinburgh castle will give you an insight about the Scotland's past. Meanwhile the Grassmarket will give you a true experience of Edinburgh's present.

So how do you find this Edinburgh castle? Easy! Where ever you are in Edinburgh, you will see there's a huge castle on top of the hill. Just follow the cobblestones streets whichever nearer to you and it'll lead you to the castle.
Take your time to explore the castle. Enjoy the view from the top of the castle because it simply impressive.

The view from inside of the Castle's yard

Some said that Hogwarts was inspired by the Edinburgh castle. Speaking of which, J.K Rowling wrote her first Harry Potter series in one of cafe in Nicolson street in Edinburgh. Too bad now the cafe has turned into an all you can eat Chinese restaurant.

(waving my imaginary wand) "Alohomora!!"

It's Gryffindor all over the place!

After a long day in the castle, it's time to enjoy one of the finest scotch in the country. Head down for the Grassmarket, the place where pubs and bars are filled with students from one of the Scotland's Ivy league university, the University of Edinburgh.

The Grassmarket

If you are up for clubbing, there are a lot of club in this area. And don't worry about the possibility of drink & drive. It won't happen in Edinburgh since the city is walkable. The only problem that probably will occur is you couldn't find your way home.

But since it's Edinburgh, all the corner of the city feels like home anyway.

Note: For a fair, cheap foods and beers (like in every other chain in UK), Wetherspoon still good to go.

Cheers for now!

Before Departure: How to nailed a Schengen visa.

2012-02-02T09:29:00.010+07:00

It was all started with a simple promotion add from this airline and (as always) an impulsive decision to do this trip.

Those who's been hunting cheap ticket from budget airlines must have known how it feels. The adrenaline rush, the constant mouse-clicking and the intense pressure when you finally manage to enter their system & you finally have the possibility to buy the ticket. Yet you must decided it right then otherwise the system will kick you out. You only have 15 minutes to decide. After that, you have to deal with what you've decided. You can't cancel it, you can't undo it. This game that the budget airline played is a cruel business. So in those brief 15 minutes I decided to buy the ticket.

It was May 2011, I just recently came back from my 2 months South East Asia & small pilgrimage trip. Unemployment. So I thought, what the heck. I'm going to buy it and we'll see how it goes.

Month passes by and suddenly it was December. A few months before the departure date. Since this destination is included in one of the first world countries, I need to have the magic sticker to be able to enter their territories. Yes, even tough currently they're facing a grave economic crisis, it doesn't seems to change the fact that they are still the first world countries. A visa is needed. A Schengen visa to be exact.

Quoting from this link:
"The Schengen Visa has made traveling between its 25 member countries (22 European Union states and 3 non-EU members) much easier and less bureaucratic. Traveling on a Schengen visa means that the visa holder can travel to any (or all) member countries using one single visa, thus avoiding the hassle and expense of obtaining individual visas for each country. This is particularly beneficial for persons who wish to visit several European countries on the same trip. The Schengen visa is a “visitor visa”. It is issued to citizens of countries who are required to obtain a visa before entering Europe. The purpose of the visit must be leisure, tourism, or business. Upon the issuance of the visa, the visa holder is allowed to enter all member countries and travel freely throughout the Schengen area. It is strongly recommended to plan your journey within the time frame of the Schengen Visa as extensions can be very difficult to obtain, thus forcing you to leave to stay in compliance with the Schengen rules and regulations. A Schengen visa allows the holder to travel freely within the Schengen countries for a maximum stay of up to 90 days in a 6 month period."

In which countries are the Schengen visa valid? There are 25 countries: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland.

So in which embassy should I apply for Schengen visa?
It depends:
1. The first country where you're entering Schengen countries.
2. Which country that you'll spend most of your period of stay.

Sample case:
1. My flight will be from KL to Paris, so among all the Schengen countries, my feet will step the France soil at first. So according to this, I have to apply in France embassy
2. I plan to stay in Schengen countries for 3 weeks. And in those 3 weeks, I'll spend 5 days in France, 9 days in Italy, 4 days in Belgium, 3 days in Czech republic and 3 days in Hungary.

According to this, I have to apply in the Italian embassy.

Solution: It's legit to apply in both France and Italian embassy.

Now you need to google a little bit. Applying visa can be really tricky if you don't know the trick. Try to look as much as information about both embassies. Which one has the "bad" reputation in approving visa application. Which one has "too much" bureaucracy. Which one has "unorganized" system. Now according to this link, since October 2010, France embassy is using third party in which the applicants must pay another extra 25 €.

With this consideration, I decided to apply in the Italian embassy.
What I like the most about Italian embassy's system is:
1. They don't use third party as their liaison.
2. You can (should) make an appointment online.

Why this matter? In certain embassy where they don't have this system, people have to come and queue with no guarantee that they can submit their application that day. So people have to come early in the morning, take the queue number and it takes time. With the online appointment system, you only have to come at certain time. If something comes and you suddenly unable to attend the appointment, all you have to do is make another appointment online. It's such an easy and efficient system.

After you book your appointment, don't forget to print out your booking details and bring it to the embassy.

What documents do I have to submit with the application form? Each embassy has their own standard of documents but most of them are similar. Here's the list of documents needed to apply tourist visa in Italian embassy:

1.Valid Passport (must have a validity of at least 3 months upon expiration of the visa)

2. Copy of the first 4 pages of the passport

3. Application form properly and completely filled-in and signed.

4.2 recent color photos (I.C.A.O. standar)

5.Return ticket (in original or photocopy or confirmed booking). Confirmed booking is required at the moment of the visa request meanwhile the issued ticket must be shown in original at the moment when the issued visa will be picked up.

This is easy since these days budget airlines rarely issue the so called "original ticket". Print your booking ticket and you're good.

6.Travel insurance valid abroad (with minimum coverage of 30.000 Euro) for the whole period of stay.

Ask your company where you work weather your insurance covers this matter. If it doesn't, don't worry, you can buy travel insurance with per day system so it's not going to drain your pocket.

The cheapest travel insurance I found is from ACA Asuransi. You can buy it in travel agency. I bought mine from TX Travel in Sarinah.

7.Bank Reference Letter, recent bank statement (last 3 months) of the applicant. Cash or “last minute” unjustified credits on the shown bank statement are not accepted. In case of insufficient own financial means a bank Fidejussion from a person residing in Italy will be requested.

This can easily obtained from your bank. These days they're easy to get. Just come to your bank and ask the customer services to print your transaction/account activity in the last 3 months.

The problem occurs if you don't have reasonable amount of money. There's a lot of rumor about the minimum money in your bank account. Some said it's 50 million IDR some even said it's 20 million IDR.

There's no such thing written in their visa policy. HOWEVER, you need to have reasonable amount of money.

Now how do you define reasonable amount money? What I do is to make a rough itinerary from the moment you depart from your house (yes, that includes all the bus or taxi from your house to the airport) untill you come back again to your house. Calculate your budget! If you don't know how much one meal cost in Germany for example, google it.

There are 3 main costs: Lodging, transportation and foods. Then there are supplemental cost such as ticket to museums or to watch art performance, and to buy souvenir for example. Count it and add 15% to your total calculation. Just in case. Then you have your reasonable amount of money.

My advice: make a clear itinerary and even tough they don't ask for it, just submit it along with other documents. They will see that you're doing your homework and the chance of getting your visa is bigger.

If you're student, instead of your account, you can submit your parents/guardian bank account with a letter explaining that your parents/guardian will responsible fully for supporting your cost while you're in the Schengen countries.
8. Original sponsor letter from the company or employer (in english) and registration of the employing company from the Department of Commerce in photocopy (SIUP).

Ask your company for this.

Again, if you're freelancer/unemployment/student you can use the letter from your parents/guardian. For student, don't forget to attached your student card.

9.Hotel reservation or accommodation for the whole period of stay in the Schengen area.

I highly recommended this site, since you can cancel your booking a week or 3 days before without having to pay a pence. You can book hostel in this site also.

10. Statement letter from the parents or legal guardian in case of minors (with attached copy of ID Card of parents).

11. Photocopy of KITAS/KIMS for non Indonesian nationals.

12. Documents certifying family status (Kartu Keluarga)
I attached a fotocopy of my birth certificate also, just in case.

For more information about how to apply Schengen visa in the Italian embassy, click here.

Applying visa can be really personal sometimes. Since you never know why they approved/don't approved your application. The best thing to do is to do it by the book. Complete the form, provide all the documents and if you have problem, tell them the truth. Ask the visa guy (the guy behind the locket) for advices. Don't panick when he/she asks you questions. It's not a job interview and it's not wrong for having a desire to visit their country.

If everything's complete then the visa-guy will tell you when the visa is ready to be picked up. It took 5 working days but I've heard now it takes only 3 working days. Yayness!

Here's how it looks like!

By the way, it cost 60 Euro or 700.000 IDR in Italian Embassy, it supposed to be the same for other EU embassies (who don't use third party) also.

So as the Italians say, in bocca al lupo per il visto!

On the street.. Au Trieu & Hoan Kiem Lake, Hanoi

2012-02-01T15:44:00.004+07:00

I'm fully aware that Mr. Scott Schuman rarely add explanation in his posts since his pictures tell stories better than words. But mine don't have that telling a story vibe in them. So I feel like blabbering.

Young people in Hanoi are very stylist. No matter where they go. Even to the nearest tea shop in the neighborhood, sipping ice tea and snacking sun flower seeds, to be in style they must.

wait, only the youngster?

Nope!

On the street.. Barkhor, Old distric, Lhasa

2012-02-01T14:38:00.008+07:00

I'm not really into fashion and please don't ask me about the latest trend because my latest trend is always t-shirt, jeans and sneakers. But hey, just like every other girls, I tend to notice when some other girls are wearing cool outfit, beautiful shoes and unique accessories.

Inspired by this blog, I decided to make my version of Sartorialist (I hope you don't mind Mr. Schuman)

Exploring South East Asia by any means possible (PART 1: Bangkok)

2012-01-29T22:09:00.022+07:00

*disclaimer: the tittle is inspired by this book.

They said South East Asia (SEA) is a heaven for budget travelers. They said it has the best foods, best beaches, friendliest locals but worst transportation.

It was a bit of spontaneous call when I decided to hit the road, which road? the SEA mainland road. When I told my friends that I'm going to travel for a month across SEA they all questioning my choice of destination. "Why Thailand, isn't Bangkok just like Jakarta? What's there to see in Cambodia? Is it safe in Vietnam? Where is Laos?". All that type of question.

I wasn't exactly know what to expect when I first started this journey. I mean, we all have different reasons to travel. For me, most of the time, that reason is to experience different culture. To know how the local people eat, how they have fun,etc etc. But since this is SEA, I thought it will be pretty much the same with Indonesia.

I didn't even try to read about their history, their current situation and their places of interest before I departed. It was as if I'm going to visit neighbors who live across/beside my house where I can always see their front yard behind their tall fence.

In fact, it was a perfect metaphor.

So off I go. Started in Bangkok - Cambodia - Vietnam - Laos - Northern Thailand - Southern Thailand.

In details, here's the route:

the red line shows the route

Destination 1: Bangkok, Thailand
"Bangkok, Oriental setting, and the city don't know that the city is getting. The creme de la creme of the chess world in a show with everything but Yul Brynner" (One night in Bangkok - Murray Head)

The Suvarnabhumi airport greeted me with its sleek and modern look. Enormous and spacious, the airport has becoming the biggest hub, connecting flights from all over the world to SEA and vice versa. It was almost 9 pm when I landed. I was sleepy so I didn't want to waste another minute to arrive at the hostel. The problem was, I get lost. Yes people, inside the airport. Yes people, when I just arrived. In my defense, the signs weren't really clear. But hey, I didn't named this blog TERSESAT (literary means BEING LOST in Indonesian) because of nothing.
Anyway, after 45 minutes or so I finally found the bus and hop I go to one of the busiest area in Bangkok: Khao San road.

The hustle of Khao San road successfully awakes me in an instant. The neon lights, the tourists, the hawkers, the tuk-tuk drivers, the Pad-Thay seller. They were all screaming for attention. I'm fully aware that the basic law in traveling is to never ever comparing places. Every place has its own characteristic and charm. But come on, neighbors tend to do that. So I remember "my own yard" and I know Jalan Jaksa is nothing like this.

Tiredness had beat me up so I decided to pace my speed walk, find the accommodation and explore Khao San the next day. One thing that never fails my expectation is accommodation in Thailand. Clean & cheap. The bed might not always comfortable but the room & the shower are always clean. Of course, you still need to check it by yourselves before you seal the deal.

The next day, I woke up early, grab my breakfast from the nearest street-food stall, bought my coffee from 7-eleven (they're EVERYWHERE in Thailand) and stroll down Khao San road. A lot of shop were still closed, some of the street vendors were already stand by looking for costumers. The smell of scrambled eggs and coffee were starting to overpower the smell of last night Chang & Singha beers. If you're (un)lucky, you can find drunk men passed out on the corner of almost every alley. "Is it to early to stroll down Khao San?"

I, then, met with my travel mate and his group to discuss the whole itinerary of the SEA trip. We will go to Siam Reap after Bangkok and then to Ho Chin Min after Siam Reap. The rest of the group will go home after that meanwhile me and my travel mate were going to continue to do the famous SEA counter clockwise loop.

In the afternoon, we crossed the famous Chao Praya river to pay a visit to the most romantic wat in Bangkok, Arun wat.

Chao Praya river, taken from Wat Arun

Named after the Indian God of Dawn, Aruna, the best way to visit this wat or temple is in the afternoon, at 3pm-ish. Why? because it's not going to be as hot as in the morning and the Chao Praya afternoon wind will refresh you. My first impression of Arun wat was that this temple is so tall and slim. Makes me wonder "is Aruna a God or a Goddess?". If you visit Arun wat and you don't have height's phobia, do climb it till the very top. The steps might be a little narrow and steep but it's worth to try.

When we're done exploring Arun wat, we then crossing back Chao Praya river and decided to enjoy the sunset overlooking Arun wat.The perfect place to do this is in a cafe straight right across Arun Wat. We find a small rooftop open-air bar/cafe on one of boutique hotel in Maharat road, called Amorosa (the hotel name is Arun Residence, you probably wouldn't find the Amorosa signpost but you'd definitely find Arun Residence)

It cost a bit (they use Illy for the coffee), but hey, this view worth a view Baths.

wat Arun at sunset, taken from Amarosa

During the night, we decided to strolling down the Banglamphu area. There are three "main streets" in Banglamphu:

1. Khao San road
If you're looking for a crazy party atmosphere, this is the place. It feels really calm in the morning but as soon as the sun set, the party is on. It's true that most of the guesthouses are in this area but don't get it wrong though, if you want to avoid all the noise there are a lot of quite guesthouses in this street. All you have to do is look for hostels in the small alleys. My guesthouse called Kawin house (i know this will sounds dirty in Indonesian) but it was actually pretty decent and quite. Anyway, most pubs and bars in Khaosan road have DJs. And if you're coming in a peak season you can see people are dancing on the road. The whole Khao San road itself is turning into a night club.

2. Rambutri road
Rambutri located parallel with Khao San road. This street is perfect for those who love live music-acoustic type of thing. You'll find a lot of restaurant, cafe, bar and even waroong with a set of band (or even better, a singer who plays his own guitar) singing all kind of songs from the Beatles to Milley Cyrus. My suggestion is to eat in the waroong and sip a mango juice in those sophisticated pub. Simply because the waroong serve the best local foods better than those fancy restaurant.

3. Soi Rambutri
If you walk down until the end of Rambutri road, pass by the intersection of Chakraphong road, you'll find yourself in the Soi Rambutri. This street have all different type of restaurant. Indian, Mexican, Italian etc etc. It has a lot of cute cafe also.

Lanterns, bamboos and a lonely guy, Soi Rambutri

"One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster. The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free. You'll find a god in every golden cloister. And if you're lucky then the god's a she. I can feel an angel sliding up to me"

The next day we went to the all-tourists-destination in Bangkok: The Grand Palace. It was.. I don't know.. too much tourist. We have to squeeze our way just to be able to walk. To think about it, it was absurd because the palace is so vast. I guess ALL TOURISTS in Bangkok were visiting the palace that day. It's still a must visit when you're in Bangkok but make sure you come early in the morning before all the tourists flock there.

do you see all the (head of) tourists?

After the palace we went to see the King's mansion also known as Vimanmek Palace. Apparently, not a lot of people know about this place. Located in Dusit area, this mansion was built from teak wood and it's the biggest teak mansion. Inside, it was filled with all the antique stuff and valuable gifts from all over the world. The admission is free if you buy the Grand Palace ticket and they have a free guide also!

Vimanmek Mansion

Two days in Bangkok would certainly not enough to know or even to feel the real Bangkok. But I know I learn a lot. About the philosophy and the beauty of Wat Arun when the dusk came. About the hustle and bustle of Siam. About the meaning of the color red and yellow for taxi drivers and other blue collar workers. About the shoulder pats from a tuk-tuk driver. About the splendor Grand Palace.

But the most significant thing that I learn is how Bangkok will always accept you. No matter what you are: men, women, trans-sexual, Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Atheist etc etc. No matter who you are and no matter where you come from. The city will always greet you with both palms in front of the chest and saying: "Sa-wa-dee-kap". So let me say this to you Bangkok: "Korp-kun-kap"

"One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble. Not much between despair and ecstasy. One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble"

ps: I went there in February 2011.
ps2: listen to the song bellow! It describes Bangkok better than this post.

VISA: you loath it but you need it

2012-01-29T18:53:00.015+07:00

No, it's not a visa on your credit card.

From wikipedia: A visa derives from the Latin charta visa, literary means "paper that has been seen". A visa is a document showing that a person is authorized to enter the territory for which it was issued, subject to permission of an immigration official at the time of actual entry.

From geopolitical and human rights theory of mine : A visa is a piece of paper that classified human being into three big group based on one's nationality; First world country? Second or third?

In a simple language: A visa is a piece of paper existed to make your life miserable.

Since I was born in Bogor, a city in an Island called Java from a Javanese father and a Sundanese mother, that makes me by default an Indonesian.

In case you don't know where exactly is Indonesia, please do take a look at this picture bellow:

It's easy to find Indonesia, first of all it's in Asia. South east Asia to be exact. Now take a look at Australia, those bunch of islands near Australia, now that's Indonesia (see the red circle).

And no, Indonesia it's not the same as India (see the green circle). Though I think both countries are classified into the same group: third world countries group. Yay (not)!

Back to the visa issue. Don't get me wrong, I am a proud Indonesian and if you ask me why, I could mention 13000 reasons why I'm so damn proud of my country (13.000 is estimated number of islands in Indonesia fyi). But when it comes to visa, I can't help to not complaining of having the green Garuda passport.

Take a look at this Visa-Map (applied for Indonesian)

Sorry for the bad quality picture, so as you can see, the red color is Indonesia, the blue indicate visa free countries, the light blue for visa on arrival countries, the grey ones are countries where we required visa, the black ones are visa free for those who have diplomatic or service passport.

To process a visa takes time, money and of course all the bureaucracy stuff. With all these hassle I deliberately made a VISA AWARD! *imagine yourselves in a golden globe award*

1. Category: The easiest arranged visa
The winner is *drum roll*: CHINA

Reason: although It cost circa 30 USD for a single entry visa valid for 90 days, to apply China visa doesn't required a lot of documents. You only need to fill the form and give your passport and voila, after 4 working days your visa is ready to be served! For more information about Chinese Visa go to this page.

2. Category: The most difficult and the most expensive visa
The winner is: TTB TIBET
Reasons: To enter Tibet first of all you will need a Chinese visa (in which when you apply for Chinese visa, don't mention that you're going to Tibet!!). Then, you will need this TTB or Tibet entry permit. TTB can only be arranged on the China mainland (some said you can arranged it in the Nepal's border also). The ones arranging your TTB is not the embassy or government official, it's the travel agency. So even though they said there's no such thing as TTB's fee, they'd still put a high price on a piece of paper that doesn't even has a fancy hologram in it. In 2009, it costs me 300 USD. To find out more about TTB check this page.

3. Category: The cheapest visa's fee
The winner is: CAMBODIA

Reason: It's available on arrival and it costs 20 USD. I went there in February 2011 and few months latter they decided that it's visa free for Indonesia citizen.

4. Category: The cutest visa
The winner is: LAOS

Reason: It was in pink.

Things get tougher when you're freelancer (let say) with uncertain monthly income since most of the First World Countries will ask for bank statement for the last 3 months.

But, things will get easier if it wasn't your first time to visit the First World Country. For example, if you want to apply for South Korean Visa and there's a nicely stamped US or Japan or Australian visa in your passport then they'll issue the visa without giving you even a bit of hassle.

So hey, like it or not, it's imprinted in our passport. I'd like to think that it's one of the art of traveling. The first place when you get to know the culture of your destination is in their embassy. So go fill out those forms, complete all the documents and come to the embassy of your destination country with your biggest smile. Because isn't that what Indonesian famous for? the smile. :)

Places to Visit Before I die, The Top 5

2012-01-29T11:07:00.010+07:00

In a week, I'd be leaving to one of the places that has been on my "places to visit before i die" list for years: Prague & Budapest. As I making my itineraries, book hostels and packing my bags, I realized that as I travel more, the list is not getting shorter, in fact, it's getting longer and longer. I used to have only 5 "places to visit before I die", then it develops to 10 then to 20 and now my world map is full of pin as an indication of places that I have to visit.

So, in an attempt not to ruin my world map. Here goes my "places to visit before I die" list, the top 5:

1. Jerusalem (Israel & The Palestinian Territories)

Picture taken from the Lonely Planet

Why: as a holy city for the biggest three monotheistic religions. Who doesn't want to stroll down Via Dolorosa, hearing the call for prayer from the Al-Aqsa Mosque and visiting the Western Wall?

Challenges: Apart from the constant conflict of Israel and Palestine which leads to security issues, Indonesia doesn't have any diplomatic relation with Israel hence it will be tough to get the visa. Those who manage to enter Jerusalem mostly for spiritual tour (pilgrimage) arranged by travel agency.

Estimated cost: a 7 day tour will cost you at least 3000 USD.

2. Machu Piccu, Cusco, Peru

Picture taken from National Geographic

Why: because it's the lost city of Inca! Besides, have you ever wonder, how in the world they manage to build civilization on the top of the 2000-ish meter mountain? There's no such thing as crane back then, how did they manage to bring all the stones? with llamas?

Challenges: It's in the South America.. I need to across the Pacific ocean and The United State or across Asia, Europe and Atlantic ocean to get there.

Estimated cost: the plane ticket itself will cost at least 2300 USD (from Jakarta)

3. Samarkand & Bukhara, Uzbekistan

Why: The place where the merchants from the west met the merchants from China. The center position on the famous "Silk Road". Today, Uzbekistan is struggling to find its position among other central Asia countries (those countries which ends with -stan) where they were once part of Russian empire.

Challenges: Uzbekistan is a mystery. Just as it sounds. To enter the country itself I don't know which flight I need to take (I assume there's no direct flight from Jakarta). Not to mention the visa. The visa fees are ranged from 40 USD for 7 days to 160 USD for a year. For more information about Uzbekistan visa you can go to this page.

Estimated cost: Not yet to be counted. It appears not a lot of people go to Uzbekistan.

4. Kilimanjaro & Serengeti, Tanzania

Picture taken from Stu-Porter

Why: This will seems so lame but the main reason why it's on my 4th list is because Kilimanjaro & Serengeti were mentioned in the lyrics of Africa by Toto. "I know that I must do what's right. Sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti"

Challenges: It's in Africa. nuff said.

Estimated cost: this too will drain your pocket.

5. Kepulauan Raja Ampat, Indonesia
Why: it was claimed to be one of the best place to dive in the world and it's in "my own back yard".

Challenges: To be able to really enjoy Raja Ampat, liveaboard is necessary. And now that it's famous, all liveaboard must be book in advanced. Let say a year in advanced.

Estimated cost: A 7 day trip will cost at least 1380 USD (not including airplane ticket)

Still on the top 10 are: Kashmir in India, Jordan, Brazil, Morocco, Ukraine.

What about you? What's on your top 5 list?

Lhasa, On The First Glimpse

2011-10-23T07:33:00.015+07:00

While we were still mesmerizing the scenery of the great Himalayas, home to the Everest, the highest mountain in the world, the announcer said something in Chinese which obviously we ignored since we didn't understand a word. People then starting to pack their belongings. We realized that the train was approaching Lhasa. It felt surreal. The fact that I'd be entering Lhasa in less than 10 minutes felt surreal. My heart started to beat faster, my hands were sweating and my knees were trembling. I don't know if it was because of the nervousness or because the altitude adjustment. I knew I was nervous though. What if Lhasa wasn't exactly like I've imagined.

Frankly, I always feel like this upon arriving in wherever destination. I always afraid that the place was overrated or if I had put to much expectation. I know it's never wise to have high expectation to places, BUT THIS IS LHASA FOR DALAI LAMA'S SAKE! Besides, Lhasa has literal meaning "The Place of the Gods". So don't blame me if my expectation was as high as the peak of mount Everest!

So I swallowed all my unreasonable fears and set my feet for the first time in Lhasa.

Lhasa's Train Station

We were picked up by some guys from our hotel. With gestures he asked to see our TTB and matched it with a piece of papper that he brought. Then he nodded and asked us to follow him. The distance between the main gate of the train station and the parking lot wasn't that far but it felt like I was running for marathon. That my friends, once again, is the powerful effect of "altitude sickness".

We finally hit the city, the first glimpse of Lhasa came from certain area full of modern stores. I was in shock.

Modern Stores in Lhasa

I didn't come far away from Jakarta just to shop in a colorful stores with goods that I'd probably find in Kelapa Gading. After a few turn, suddenly I couldn't breath. No, this time it was not the altitude sickness. It was this magnificent view that took my breath away.

Potala Palace, Lhasa's landmark

Apart from the annoyingly misplaced big advertisement plasma TV, installed just on the roundabout near the palace by the Chinese government, Potala was already exceed my expectation. When I saw it on TV it wasn't as majestic as when I saw it right then. Silently, I started to wipe my tears and pinched my hand, hoping that I wasn't dreaming and I was actually in Lhasa, Tibet.

Just when I was able to breath normally again, the car stopped in front of a small alley and the driver told us to get off and wait him while he parked the car. A group of army guys with AK-47 (I wasn't sure about the type of gun, I just assume :p) were coming toward us. Uh oh , I sense a bit of trouble here. We started acting like a cool tourist, hiding our camera (both Chinese authorities and some Tibetan people apparently have personal loath to cameras. The more sophisticated the camera, the more they loath it) and chatted (in Bahasa, stupidly, forgetting that we were not even close to Malaysia ,let say, where the people there understand Bahasa) about how tired we were. But then the army guys just walked pass us without even notice that there were a bunch of weird looking people with enormous backpack trying to take pictures as much as possible.

Finally manage to secretly capture a group of army guys.

After the driver parked his car he then showed us a way to our hotel. We walked through the alley and I started to feel the thick strange smells and wondering if it was Yak's. Tibetan eat all kind of Yak. Yak's meat, Yak's milk, Yak's butter, Yak's skin. Yaks are like chicken to us Indonesian, but it's pungent, worse than goat. It was already 4 PM so the sun is slowly getting set. Catching my breath slowly while walking to the hotel, my mind wanders. Trying to read who else could have walked through this alley.

an alley in the old quarter

a view while walking through the alley of old quarter

Tentang Perjalanan Kereta Api Terlama

2011-08-20T00:49:00.005+07:00

What cross your mind when someone mentioned Tibet?

Terdengar eksotis kah? Terdengar asing kah? Se-asing Timbuktu? Atau mungkin tak terbayang apapun, simply because it's out of your mind!

Di zaman sekarang, dengan semua kemudahaan informasi, kita bisa tinggal buka google, ketik Tibet and voila', semua informasi tentang Tibet tersedia disitu. Walaupun begitu, let me tell you my own story about Tibet.

Kenapa Tibet? Dari semua tempat yg ada di dunia, Tibet was on my places-to-visit-before-you-die list. Bermula dari cerita Tintin di Tibet yg pernah saya baca saat masih kecil, tayangan sync or swim edisi Tibet, film 7 years in Tibet sampai karena fakta bahwa Tibet adalah atap dunia. Kurang lebih alasan-alasan tersebutlah yg akhirnya membawa saya ke Tibet, tepatnya pada September 2010.

Kami masuk ke Tibet melalui Chengdu, setelah 3 hari di Chengdu menunggu TTB (Tibet Travel Permit). Jadi untuk bisa masuk ke Tibet diperlukan 2 tipe permit, yg pertama adalah visa Cina dan TTB ini. Visa Cina seharga 500 ribu bisa diproses di Jakarta dan tidak terlalu sulit untuk diperoleh, yang sulit adalah TTB ini. Rupanya, pemerintah Cina tidak ingin terlalu banyak turis yg masuk ke Tibet mengingat sejarah 'penaklukan' Tibet oleh pemerintah Cina yg banyak dikecam oleh masyarakat dunia. Anyways, setelah 3 hari di Chengdu (oh by the way, Chengdu is amazing city, I'll write about Chengdu another time) akhirnya kami mendapatkan TTB kami! Bentuknya hanya secarik kertas dengan tulisan mandarin dan nama kami. Untuk memperoleh TTB tidak bisa dari Jakarta, harus diurus di Cina. Ini yg membuat banyak pelancong ragu untuk ke Tibet, ketidak pastian izin masuknya.

Tujuan utama kami di Tibet adalah Lhasa, ibukota Tibet. Dari Chengdu, kami harus naik kereta selama kurang lebih 44 jam untuk tiba di Lhasa. Yes, 44 straight hours people! Sebetulnya, ada pesawat dari Chengdu ke Lhasa, akan tetapi selain karena harganya yg mahal, naik pesawat sangat tidak dianjurkan karena proses aklimatisasi akan lebih sulit untuk dilakukan.

Dengan alasan yg sama (harga), kami memutuskan untuk membeli tiket seater instead of sleeper. Kelas seater ini kurang lebih seperti kereta ekonomi di Indonesia. Semua penumpang di kelas ini duduk. It was a really good way to interact with local people compare if you choose the sleeper one. People in seater class sit and chat meanwhile people in sleeper class will obviously sleep (although sometimes they chat also).

In addition, this is the most rock n roll train journey I've ever took. Pertama karena durasinya, 44 jam hamir 2 hari 2 malam, yg kedua adalah karena kondisi ketinggannya. Sebagai anak tropis sejati yg biasanya main di pantai, berada di ketinggian 5000 meter di atas permukaan laut (dpl) selain di atas pesawat itu beyond my wildest immagination. dan walaupun sudah naik kereta dimana tubuh bisa perlahan-lahan menyesuaikan diri terhadap lingkungan ketinggian tersebut (yg berarti kadar oksigen dan tekanan udaranya berbeda dengan kondisi di ketinggian 0 meter dpl) tetap saja tubuh ini melancarkan aksi protesnya dan akhirnya saya muntah. Mengingat saya ada di kelas seater yg relatif kurang nyaman dibanding kelas sleeper, alhasil korban pun berjatuhan akibat muntah saya. Tanpa sengaja, 2 penduduk lokal terkena imbas muntahan saya. Untungnya mereka pengertian sehingga saya gak jadi dikeroyok masa deh.. hehehe.

Terlepas dari segala suka dan dukanya, I never ever ever regret taking that 44 hours train across the Himalayan. These are the reasons why:

About Churches that Can't be Built and Religion in General

2011-08-19T22:50:00.006+07:00

Today is the 19th day of fasting month. The month where humanity seems to be closer to us or at least to me. During these days when in a way I feel most connected and related to our Somalian fellows due to the hunger and thirst. The month where I would like to think that every Moslem is trying to find peace and solitude by understanding the basic thing that linked all the people in this world regardless whatever labels that society put into them. The basic thing that all people in this world have in common. The fact that we all are human being.

Just when I get a little bit more optimistic about the world's condition, this news came up on my twitter timeline.

Yes, such a party pooper isn't he?

I don't know if it's really what the so-called mayor thinks or there's politic behind his statement.

We were raised in a society where it was a taboo to questioned religion. When I was a kid everytime I asked typical question such as why we have to pray 5 times a day, why we can't drink alcohol and eat pork, why women have to cover themselves et cetera et cetera, my parents and even my religion teacher always answer "because It said so". There was never been an explanation that makes sense. It was also a taboo to ask or learn about other religion. This, in my opinion, is a total fatality.

I grew up believing that religion is something in which it's okay if it doesn't make sense.
And maybe my home town mayor was grew up believing the same thing as I did 15 years ago.

As I grow older I started looking for answers, one thing I realize for sure, most of the people didn't choose their religion. They were born into one. If their parents are Catholic then they're becoming Catholic. If their parents are Jewish then they're becoming one too. And most of the people didn't/couldn't choose their parents also. How many of us get to choose their religion? So I don't understand why we keep fighting over something that most of us didn't choose?

Most of the times, faith is a matter of heart and soul. Religion is supposed to make us feel at peace and not the other way around. So, Mr. Mayor, let me ask you this one, do you find peace by not allowing a church to be built?

QUARTER LIFE CRISIS NEVER FELT THIS REAL!

2011-08-07T21:33:00.003+07:00

You know when they say that it's normal to have a crisis when you're in your mid 20's? Few years after graduating, few years when you first start to make your own money, to decide where you're going to dine out, with who you want to dine out. Those few years when you feel that you're at the peak of your life, when people see you that you have a great prospect in your current job or not. If you do have it then they will start telling you that it's okay to settle down and tie the knot. They will haunt you with questions that annoy you so much and the only way to shut their mouth is to say 'I do' to whoever propose you at the first place.

Yes, those few years when you get confused weather to save your money on mortgage and properties or to just spend it all to travel the world. Those years when you think you're in control of your life, when you feel like you're capable of doing anything: to change the world or to destroy your life. You feel like all is in your hand. Those years when you want to do sabbatical because your job is eating you alive. Those years when you start to think is this what I want to do for the rest of my life? Or at least the for the next 5 or 10 years ? Those years when everybody seems either to get married or pregnant or give birth to babies (whichever comes first doesn't bother you) meanwhile you don't open your facebook page anymore simply because you don't seem to recognize your friends and colleagues because they've changed their profile picture with their new baby born picture and for you babies are all look-a-like.

Those years when you find it really difficult to be able to have a simple cup of coffee and hang out with your besties, because their schedules are never fit with yours and vice versa. They have their own career to keep up.

Those years when you want to learn Spanish or take a dance course just for the sake of learning it, but people around you don't seem to understand why you do it.

Those years, when your priorities begin to shifted.

Those years like now.

Langkah Pertama

2011-04-17T21:42:00.008+07:00

Sejujurnya. Gue gak bisa nulis. Pernah (sering) mencoba nulis blog (atau notes) tapi gak pernah rampung dan kalaupun rampung, gua gak pernah puas akan hasilnya.

So why I start now?
Jadi ceritanya, gara-gara satu dan lain hal, saya jadi kecanduan jalan-jalan. Traveling, kalau istilah kerennya mah. Melancong, bahasa Indonesianya. Walau saya pribadi lebih suka istilah berkelana (lebih dalam aja kesannya dan tiap denger kata berkelana selalu kebayang cowboy lagi nunggang kuda atau pedagang lagi nunggang onta).
Nah, 2 tahun terakhir ini, Alhamdulillah, kaki-kaki mungil saya ini (ukuran sepatu gue 35 jd boleh dong ah gua bilang mungil?) makin sering melangkah ke tempat-tempat baru dan asing. Biasanya saya cuma cerita lewat twitter, itu pun beberapa twit saja. Sampai akhirnya mulai banyak temen-temen yang nyuruh nulis. Saya tekankan, saya gak bisa nulis. Tapi kemudian berhubung saya lagi jadi pengangguran dan gak ada kerjaan juga akhirnya saya pelan-pelan coba. Kalaupun mandek di tulisan at least bisa dibanyakin foto aja (ini saran salah satu temen gue itu). hehehe.

So here I am!

Jadi, selamat datang kembali di tersesaat.blogspot.com ! I hope you'll never find your way out of this blog. :p

Dubai, a free tax multicultural city

2009-12-31T11:59:00.005+07:00

It was November the 1st, 2008, when i stood with all my luggage, hugging my mom and absolutely nervous. It was the beginning of all these experiences. I and my other fellows, we were heading to UEA. Work related.

It took 8 hrs of flight, 1 hrs transit in Singapore with Singapore Airline (which by far, the best airline i've ever been) before we finally arrived at Dubai Int. Airport. It was already late when we set our feet at the hotel. Although we've been dying to explore the neighbourhood but the tireness has beaten us, beside, we need to get up early the next morning anyway.

The next morning, we finally met the others peeps from all over the world. I felt like flashbacking to 2002.

Due to the tight schedule & because the location of our hotel is really far from the centre, we didn't get a lot of chance to explore the city. We've went to several shopping centre (which are really near from the hotel) and playing at Jumeirah beach. The shopping centre in Dubai are just like those in Jakarta. They're malls. Big malls. One of the mall has this indoor skiing place with artificial snow which look like and felt like the real one. Super cool. We didn't try it though, way too expensive for a new employee like us. The good things is, stuffs are really cheap here. I bought a H&M sneaker for only 5 dirhams (circa 13000 rupiah ; 1.5 USD).

Talking about Jumeirah, it was located near one of the main landscape attraction of Dubai: Burj Al Arab. Burj Al Arab is known for the world's second tallest hotel. During the night, you can see from the outside that the lights of the tower (Burj means tower in arabic) change their colors every 3 minutes. Spectacular view. (note: the cheapest suite room in Burj Al Arab costs 2000 USD/night. I wonder what the bed was made from. Swan feathers?)

Being as the world's 6th largest oil reserve, UAE has people coming from all over the world. A lot of expatriat and international worker. Almost all the taxi drivers are Indian and a lot of construction worker are egyptian. Dubai somehow reminds me of Jakarta a lot. Although 90 % of the people are moslems, we still can find a lot of bars, night clubs and alcoholic drinks are legal (except in Fasting month).

I'd love to go there again and exploring the city. *finger crossed*

ps: will update picture later on.

Life lately

2009-04-20T23:45:00.003+07:00

So, hi.

It's been a while since the last time I wrote. Life has been pretty much crazy for the last 6 months. Believe me. I had the most roller coaster moments. Hoping around from one place to another. Dozen of flights and airports. Hours of boats and buses. From the dense jungle in Borneo to the metropolitan London. From a quite peaceful island called Bunyu to a great mountains and lakes in Highlands. From the rock n roll taxi driver in Dubai to overcapacity boat in Tarakan. From monkey to Nessy. Boiled in the equator and deadly freezing because of the north sea wind. It was just crazy.

In a good way (at least that's the way I want to think about it).

The moment I make the deal, I know my life wouldn't be the same again. Everyday is like a new episode of discovery channel. Everyday is an amazing race. I laughed so hard yet I cried like a baby. Desperation. Frustration. Stressed out. Paranoia. Satisfaction. Compliment. Anger. Knowledge. Patience. Hard work. Joy. Happiness. Bliss.

I've met tons of new amazing people. Admiring lots of them. Fell in love and broken hearted with one or two of them. Missing my home. Found out a new home.

Gosh, my head are full of stories that I'd like to write. Too much, that I don't think words could even handle them (or I'm just not a good story teller. =p)

But yeah..

Life is good.

I mean, Life is awesome.

talk to you latter.

Update on:

Place: Dubai, Balikpapan, Badak, Bunyu, Tarakan, Edinburgh, Livingston, Glasgow, London, Salsbury, Highlands, Lochness.
Movies: ZERO (re-watched Hitch, fav.quote: get in, get off, get out!)
Books: The alchemist part 2, The wrong way home & Swahili for the broken hearted (Peter Moore)
Music: Oasis, Kings of Leon, Blur, James Morrison, Some of the Beatles, Meringue, Reggeaton, Lily Allen and Rihanna.

2 vaccinations, 1 letter of employment, 20 kilos luggage and a ticket to ride..

2008-10-31T01:35:00.000+07:00

Less than 48 hours I'll be leaving for a new adventure. New job, new city, new friends, new excitement..

and i'm so ready to get lost.

Wish me luck guys..

This is a (nother) one way ride..

We sing, we dance, we steal things

2008-10-21T20:43:00.005+07:00

I'm a fan of him since his first single! and I'm about to be his big fan now. I'm in love with his new album, literary. I can't stop humming it. I can't go somewhere else without bringing it. I get all grumpy and cranky if i forget to bring it. I even can't sleep without it. Exaggerating? believe me, I'm not!

So what's so special about this album?

You'll find a beautiful beautiful melody and lyrics in Lucky (feat. Colbie Caillat) and you'll really hope that you fall in love with your best friend.

There's a great simplicity in Details in the Fabric. Simplicity that makes you want to hear it over and over again.

You'll get all excited and you'll find yourself dancing and jumping all around your bed in Butterfly and Coyotes (and I'm sure, this single is going to be an opening song in his concert!!).

There's a history of childhood and not to mention great chorus in Love for a child.

There's an optimistic and spirit in Make it Mine and Live High just want you to live your life righteously.

The Dynamo of Volition makes you want to memorize the lyrics and dance along with him.

Pull the trigger in if it kills me and drowning in a beautiful mess.

Try to hear Only Human while you're driving in the night (the sensation will reach the max if it rains outside!!)

And who doesn't fall for I'm yours????

Oh and buy the original one please, the piracy is different, and believe me the original gives the best music.

Laskar Pelangi, The Movie

2008-10-02T00:18:00.003+07:00

Haduh, hari ini banyak review! Jangan bosen-bosen ya? hehehe

Jadi akhirnya saya menonton juga film garapan Riri riza dan Mira Lesmana ini. Saya bukanlah penggemar film-film yg dibuat berdasarkan buku. It would just ruin the immagination. But then again, karena setting film ini benar-benar di Belitong saya memutuskan untuk menontonnya.

I wept just 10 minutes after the movie start. Bukan. Bukan karena filmnya sebagus itu tapi menyadari bahwa this was for real. Pernah ada kejadian seperti ini. Itu yg membuat saya ngenyes. Antara mengutuk dan bersyukur disaat yg sama. Mengutuk keadaan negeri tapi bersyukur karena sampai saat ini saya masih berkesempatan mengenyam bangku pendidikan dengan sangat nyaman. Saya berulang kali menitikan airmata (caelah bahasanya). Tapi bukan karena mas Riri dan mbak Mira berhasil membangun emosinya.

Overall film ini boleh lah ditonton bareng adek-adek atau keponakan-keponakan dan sepupu-sepupu yg malas belajar.

Tapi sebagai orang yg sudah membaca bukunya, saya sarankan jangan terlalu banyak berharap. Ke-'spesial'-an Lintang dan Mahar tidak terlihat dalam film ini. Begitupula dengan kepintaran Ikal.

Though, 10 jempol untuk akting anak-anak asli Belitong!! They are just natural..

Se-natural alam Belitong.. hhh...

Masih Demam Alchemyst!

2008-10-01T21:14:00.002+07:00

Some facts about Nicholas Flamel :

Nicolas Flamel (1330 – 1418) was a successful scrivener and manuscript-seller who developed a posthumous reputation as an alchemist due to his reputed work on the Philosopher's Stone (which turns lead into gold).
He found the origin of Book of Abraham which some believed has a recipe to make human immortal
After Nicholas Flamel died, some local criminal dug up his grave to find gold yet he found nothing. Not even the trace of his corpse.
After 1410 lots of books were published in his name.
Victor Hugo mentioned him in The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Nicolas and his wife Perenelle Flamel are important characters mentioned in the Indiana Jones story Indiana Jones and the Philosopher's Stone by Max McCoy. An elderly couple named "Nicolas and Pernelle" save Indy during one scene, before professing to have followed Jones's career closely.
Nicholas Flamel house in Paris is a restaurant now.

Some facts about John Dee :

John Dee (13 July 1527 – 1608 or 1609) was a noted English mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, occultist, and consultant to Queen Elizabeth I.
Dee was a friend of Tycho Brahe and was familiar with the work of Copernicus
William Shakespeare may have modeled the character of Prospero in The Tempest on Dee
He, himself, had choosen the coronation date of Queen Elizabeth I.
Dee was also Elizabeth I's spy. He used as his signature on correspondences to Elizabeth the number "007" which would later be used by Ian Fleming in his James Bond novels.[

Selamat Lebaran, Maaf Lahir Batin!

2008-10-01T19:55:00.006+07:00

My sister gave me this book yesterday : The Alchemyst, The Secrets of The Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott. And I'm in love with it. Seriously, It's a must read! Once I started to read I just couldn't put it down and as a result, I finished it in a day. And I can't stop thinking about the next part: The Magician! It's a fiction-fantasy-mythology-thriller kind of book.

What I love the most about this book, aside that it's a-well-researched-book (I always fell in love with a-well-researched-book btw),is, it combined facts, myths and details of places with a-nowadays-world (google and wikipedia). You'll find almost all of the characters are either real or myth. For example, Nicholas Flamel and John Dee are both well known people in the real world. And Scáthach is a figure of Irish mythology.

And now, I'm about to re-read L'alchimista by Paolo Coelho for one more time again. Just to see about the details that he wrote. Do they have the similarities with the one written by Michael Scott.

Oh and by the way, J.K Rowling has mentioned Nicholas Flamel in Harry Potter and The Sorcerer Stone.

ps: I'm dying to read the sequel!

Balada Tes Kesehatan 2

2008-09-29T16:14:00.003+07:00

warning: sekali lagi, postingan berikut ini MUNGKIN akan tidak berkenan di hati para pembaca yg berbudi pekerti luhur. Jangan lanjutkan membaca bila anda mempunyai penyakit gampang jijik-an, mual akut, kencing manis, dan paru-paru basah. Sangat dianjurkan untuk anda yg sedang menderita sariawan dan sakit gigi. Tidak dianjurkan untuk membaca sambil nungging, apalagi sambil jongkok.

Seperti yg sudah saya tuturkan di postingan sebelumnya, saya baru-baru ini menjalani sebuah tes kesehatan super rinci. It all went well sampai pada waktunya saya harus memberikan sampel pipis dan kotoran saya. Pada saat pengambilan sampel pipis saya diharuskan ditemani oleh seorang perawat. Cause this is my first time first, saya lalu berasumsi bahwa pada saat pengambilan sampel kotoran atau feses, saya diharuskan ditemani (ditemani = perawatnya ikut masuk ke cubicle toilet dan melihat langsung proses kotoran itu dikeluarkan) lagi. And I couldn't be more panic. Bahkan yg ini belum pernah saya lakukan di depan keluarga dan teman terdekat saya! Pengalaman boker saya yg paling romantis (a.k.a boker berdua) adalah bersama seorang teman hiking, di kaki gunung tangkuban perahu, di balik rerumputan dan semak-semak belukar dan ketika itu masih pagi-pagi buta dimana kabut tebal masih setia membalut kami. In other words, tetep aja gak face to face cuy! Membayangkan saya harus boker dengan diawasi suster sudah cukup membuat perut gua mules. Selagi saya sibuk menyiapkan strategi (bagaimana caranya bisa boker di depan suster dengan elegan dan tanpa terlihat tolol setelah sepak terjang gua dengan pipis gua), suster tersebut tiba-tiba keluar dari cubicle toiletnya. Meninggalkan gua yg keheranan dengan container yg masih kosong. Gua pikir dia akan kembali lagi untuk melihat proses pengambilan feses tersebut. 5 menit gua tungguin dia gak balik lagi, 10 menit.. 15 menit..

Akhirnya gua keluar toilet dan mencari si suster tersebut dengan harapan dia gak tiba-tiba pingsan karena pipis gua. Setelah mengecek keadaan si suster dengan cara mengukur tekanan darah, denyut nadi dan paru-paru (You know I'm exagerating don't you?) dan ternyata dia Sehat walafiat dan tidak terkontaminasi pipis gua sama sekali, akhirnya gua diberi tahu bahwa untuk pengambilan sampel feses tidak harus ditemani oleh perawat. Dengan kata lain, sendiri juga gpp. Gua pun bernafas lega.

Dengan penuh semangat dan gairah, gua melangkah kecil-kecil sambil sedikit bersenandung ke dalam cubicle toilet singgasana gua (yg untungnya sepi pengunjung). Dengan penuh percaya diri gua pun duduk di toilet daaan..

5 menit kemudian..

belum terjadi apa-apa..

mencoba ngeden dan mengatur pernafasan..

10 menit kemudian..

belum terjadi apa-apa..

mencoba ganti posisi.. dari mulai duduk, jongkok, nungging sampai ke posisi ruku.

15 menit kemudian..

nothing happen!

Shoot! I never have a problem when I have to do it. Gua justru selalu ada masalah dalam menahannya. Akhirnya dengan langkah gontai gua berkonsultasi dengan si suster. Setelah ditanya-tanya, si suster mengambil beberapa kemungkinan gua gak bisa boker:

Gua belum bisa boker karena gua baru saja mengosongkan seluruh isi perut gua (a.k.a boker) di malam sebelum medical check up.

Gua terlalu tegang

Ada masalah dengan sistem pencernaan gua which I would not this to happen regarding that I want to be declared FIT so that they would hired me.

Si suster pun memberikan beberapa alternatif solusi

Makan pisang, pepaya atau makanan-makanan yg memancing

Jalan-jalan ke mall terdekat sambil menghilangkan ketegangan dan menuggu perut bereaksi

Kembali lagi esok harinya dengan sampel feses tersebut

Berhubung gua tinggal 70 km dari klinik tersebut, alternatif 3 benar-benar tidak diharapkan. Akhirnya gua, ditemani oleh si A yg selalu memberikan dukungannya yg luar biasa, memutuskan untuk mencoba alternatif 1. Setelah mencoba pisang, pepaya dan bahkan restoran padang, gua masih belum bisa boker. Alternatif 2 pun dilakukan. Sampai akhirnya tiba-tiba waktu menunjukkan pukul 5 sore dan gua masih belum bisa boker dan mengingat klinik tersebut tutup jam 5. Akhirnya dengan penuh kekecewaan terhadap diri sendiri, mau gak mau alternatif 3 pun diambil.

Di rumah, ketika keinginan untuk boker datang, gua selalu menahan-nahan dengan pikiran: save it for tomorrow beybeh! Mengapa demikian? Jadi, pengambilan sampel feses itu harus dilakukan maksimum 2 jam sebelum si feses masuk lab. Dan karena alasan ini pula lah, gua memutuskan untuk tidak boker di rumah. Jadi begini kondisinya, rumah gua itu kalo dari Klinik membutuhkan waktu tempuh 2 jam (dengan kendaraan umum), itu tidak termasuk macet, agramas yg ngetem dan busway yg kepenuhan. Jadi, daripada gua boker di rumah dan ketika nyampe kliknik feses gua itu sudah kadarluarsa, gua pun memutuskan untuk melakukan boker ketika sudah dekat daerah klinik.

Keesokan harinya, berangkatlah gua ke klinik tersebut. Ketika berangkat, boker yg gua tahan-tahan dari semalem entah kenapa tidak terasa. Gua pikir, this is good, jadi pas gua nyampe di klinik bisa langsung boker. Setelah melewati perjalanan panjang, tibalah saya di daerah kuningan. Saya mulai deg-deg-an karena masih tidak ada tanda-tanda kepingin boker. Akhirnya saya memutuskan untuk mencoba boker di salah satu mall terdekat dengan klinik, dengan alasan, jaga-jaga klo tiba-tiba gua gak bisa boker lagi gua selalu bisa ke apotik dan beli obat pelancar. Setiabudi lah yg ternyata paling dekat. Lucky me, ketika itu mall tersebut masih sepi, so the toilet was all mine. Dengan trik-trik yg sama saya pun mencoba...

10 menit..

20 menit..

30 menit..

aaaaarg!! come on!

Merasa mulai frustasi gua pun masih mencoba berbagai cara untuk memancing. Dari mulai ganti-ganti posisi sampai membasahi daerah perut kemudian meng-angin-i-nya dengan menggunakan blower toilet. Hehehe. Untung cuma ada gua di toilet itu! Just when I start to give up and start to think about the pills in the drugstore, a phone call came. It was my mother. Dia sangat tidak menganjurkan gua menelan obat jenis apapun karena takutnya akan mempengaruhi kualitas feses yg akan gua keluarkan. (geez mom, and now you're talking about the QUALITY of my FEASES??). Dan setelah gua pikir-pikir, nyokap gua itu masuk akal juga. 3 hari sebelum medical check up gua memang dilarang untuk mengkonsumsi obat jenis apapun. Started to sound frustrated, She suggested me to drink coffee!! Now, why I didn't think that before?

Akhirnya, gua menemukan starbucks, I ordered the strongest coffees that I could bare : espresso macchiato dan ice coffee americano. Super pahit bung! Tanpa gula sama sekali! Yikes! I prefered caramel macchiato though but I thought it wasn't the time for having a descent good coffee time. hehe.

It was like a miracle, as soon as I finished my coffees, I started to have bubbles in my stomach. Pergilah saya ke toilet super sepi itu dan dalam hitungan detik...

detiik sodara-sodaraaa...

5..

4..

3..

2..

1..

I did it! I did it!!!

It was such a relieved!!Sayapun bergegas menuju klinik dan menyerahkan sampel tersebut.

Seumur hidup gua, belum pernah gua begitu memancing boker segini parah.

That day, I went home with the biggest smile on my face and thanking God for having someone invented coffee.

--- the end ---

Moral of the story : ternyata susah untuk boker bila di bawah tekanan.

movies and books..

2008-09-27T23:37:00.002+07:00

movies I watched recently :

Heroes season 3 (2 episode pertama)
Gossip Girl season 2 (2 episode pertama)
Hell boy 2
lots of lots of old DVDs that I accidentally abandoned.

books I red and still reading :

Should I Flush my Goldfish down the loo ? by Joe Joseph
Sejarah Tuhan by Kareen Armstrong
A Short History of Tractor in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka
lots of lots of comic books that I re-read just because it's so darn funny

Balada Tes Kesehatan 1

2008-09-27T22:37:00.003+07:00

Warning: postingan kali ini penuh dengan unsur-unsur yg kurang sedap apabila dibayangkan, kuran enak apabila dilamunkan. Sangat tidak disarankan untuk membaca postingan ini sambil NGEMIL! apalagi sambil makan mie ayam+pangsit.

Dalam rangka mengakhiri status saya sebagai pengangguran dan resmi dipekerjakan (dan setelah itu mecari panghasilan untuk sesuap nasi serta sehelai Zara. ;p) saya diwajibkan untuk mengikuti tes kesehatan terlebih dahulu. Apabila hasilnya "FIT" maka saya boleh berlega hati karena dengan demikian selesai sudahlah masa PDKT saya terhadap si perusahaan ybs. Seumur hidup saya, saya belum pernah sekalipun menjalani suatu proses tes kesehatan yg sangat rinci terakhir kali saya tes kesehatan itu waktu saya masih SMA itu pun di tes lari 6 keliling lapangan bola dan diwaktuin pula! klo dalam waktu 12 menit bisa mencapai 5 keliling berarti saya FIT. Tapi tentu saja, tes kesehatan ,atau lebih dikenal dengan sebutan medical check-up, kali ini bukan yg seperti itu.

Pagi itu, saya dan teman seperjuangan saya, sebut saja si A (dan nama dia benar-benar diawali dengan huruf A). Melangkah takut-takut ke sebuah gedung baru di bilangan kuningan kota jakarta. Diawali dengan membaca bismillah dan melangkah dengan kaki kanan terlebih dahulu (??) kami pun masuk ke klinik rujukan dari perusahaan tersebut. Setelah registrasi dan mengisi berbagai bentuk formulir administrasi, dimulailah serangkaian tes tersebut:

Tes pertama, ambil darah : lancar

Tes kedua, diukur tensi, ditimbang dan tes penglihatan : lancaar

Tes ketiga, tes pendengaran : eeee.. susah.. for you who doens't know, tesnya itu kita disuruh masuk ke ruangan yg hampir kedap suara dan dipakein head-phone trus dari head-phone tersebut diperdengarkan suara-suara dengan frekuensi yg berbeda-beda. Begitu terdengar suara kita haru memencet tombol gitu. I didn't have any problem with the high frequency sounds but the low ones? I sucked. Setelah sesaat mengutuk diri sendiri atas penggunaan ipod yg berlebihan, saya pun melanjutkan tes berikutnya.

Tes keempat, wawancara sama dokter : lancaar. Ditanya sejarah2 penyakit, diliat temperature telinga dan dilihat mulutnya.

Tes kelima, tes kanker payudara dan tes anus : lancaar juga, though i'll skip the details yah?! hehehe.

Setelah itu , saya diharuskan menerima vaksin typhoid, tetanus dan polio. I was fasting that day, tapi berhub. buat gua selama gak ada yg masuk secara langsung lewat mulut gua dan selama gua bisa mengontrol hawa nafsu gua maka gua ttp gak batal. Jadi gua gak ada masalah waktu mau disuntik vaksin thypoid dan tetanus. Nah yg jadi masalah adalah vaksin polio. Vaksin polionya ternyata ditetes lewat mulut. Akhirnya pas dokternya menyuruh gua membuka mulut utk ditetesi vaksin polio, gua (yg dalam hati merasa puasa gua akan batal klo ni vaksin masuk lewat mulut gua) pun membaca allahumalakasumtu... dll.. Batal lah puasa saya hari itu. Setelah itu karena sudah kepalang batal gua dan si A pun dengan senang hati menerima layanan sarapan gratis dari klinik tsb. hehehe.

Setelah lumayan kenyang, tes selanjutnya adalah tes jantung dan tes.. hmm.. gua lupa namanya yg jelas kita di x-ray gitu.. 3 kali x ray!

Setelah semua itu selesai ini dia yg paling susah: tes urin dan tes feases. Sebenernya kita cuma disuruh ngasih sample air kencing sama feses kita. Nah pas ngambil sample air kencing ini kita harus ditemenin sama susternya karena ini sekalian drugs screening. Si suster mana tau kan klo gua anak baik super manis yg gemar menabung dan bukan mantan pengedar narkoba yg suka malak anak smp? Makanya dia bilang with all do respect ini tesnya memang harus begitu. Hehe. Gua gak pernah ada masalah dengan kemampuan pipis gua. Believe me, when I have to go, I will go!! The thing is, gua gak pernah pipis dihadapan orang lain yg bukan keluarga atau teman dekat. It was a moment of panic for me to go peeing in front of stranger. Alhasil, gua grogi bukan main, pipisnya lama keluarnya dan begitu keluar... acrut-acrutan kemana-mana!!! Jangan dibayangkan yah, I know it's gross. Tapi gmn dong? gua panik bo! sampai akhirnya pipis gua itu belepotan di container sampelnya gitu. Dan susternya dgn tampang jijik tapi tetep mencoba ramah berkata: tissue.. tissue..

Yang berikutnya lebih luar biasa lagi: sampel feases

Tapi berhub. saya sudah kehilangan mood bercerita dan saya yakin para pembaca yg budiman (maupun yg tidak budiman) sudah merasa jijik dengan cerita saya diatas jadi to be continued ya....

hehe.

Kerja dan Jodoh

2008-09-06T23:58:00.002+07:00

gua : nyari kerja itu kaya nyari jodoh ya?
temen gua : kok gitu?
gua : soalnya lo cape2 ikut seleksi dan tes dan interview dll trus klo ditolak lo sakit hati
gua : sama kan kaya lo dah pedekate2 lama2 trus ditolak atau bertepuk sebelah tangan.
gua : gua sih klo ditolak selalu mikir berarti belom jodoh atau bukan jodohnya.
gua : sama kaya pacar/jodoh..
temen gua : eh tapi klo lo wirausaha berarti analogi lo gak tepat
temen gua : kan gak mungkin lo menciptakan pacar lo sendiri
gua : iya ya
temen gua : itu sih sebenernya pembenaran diri lo aja lagi
temen gua : dengan mengatakan belom jodoh
temen gua : bilang aja lo gak mau terkesan loser karena ditolak
gua : iya ya?
gua : (menyadari betapa benar omongan teman gua itu)
gua : crap!

ps: rintihan hati pengangguran kelas kakap

Lady Rain

2008-09-04T00:36:00.002+07:00

How I miss walking in the rain..

ps: rekor, 6 postingan dalam 1 hari. Biarpun postingannya gambar-gambar orang lain.

pss : gambar dari sini yak

udah ah saya bobo duluuu..

J.A.K.A.R.T.A

2008-09-04T00:14:00.002+07:00

I've never lived (yet) in Jakarta. Although, I lived (and now 'am living') next to it for almost 18 years of my life. But this one is shockingly true: plis deh Jakarta .

Cita-cita saya adalah :

2008-09-03T23:38:00.004+07:00

dari pas saya mulai bisa naik-naik ke genteng rumah malem-malem buat liat bintang yg gak pernah ada (polusi sialan) dan gara-gara terpesona sama Bruce Willis di film Armageddon .

Cita-cita saya ini bertahan cukup lama. Tapi sekarang sudah ganti.

ps : gambar dari sini

''not in the mood to write, just copying other people masterpiece,,

2008-09-03T22:42:00.006+07:00

source : link

So Who Are YOU?

2008-09-03T22:05:00.003+07:00

Taken from here, but somehow it belongs to this one

Ramadhan

2008-09-01T20:37:00.003+07:00

Don't you just love the atmosphere of fasting month (Ramadan) in Indonesia (especially in Java)?
It's just like everybody is trying to do their best.
Somehow you can feel the spirituality everywhere.

Happy Fasting everybody!! =)

Come and Go..

2008-08-29T23:22:00.007+07:00

This month I visited Bandara Internasional Soekarno-Hatta quite often. It wasn't me who left and I'm not able to travel these days (can't afford one!! hiks!). Seringnya gua nganterin orang-orang yg mau pergi (sad sad sad..). Ah, and then once I went there for a job interview (even more sad this time).

I wonder.. Kapan ya giliran gua yg dianter dan gua yg pergi ?? =p

Talking about someones goodbye, I remember a scene from a movie called Love Actually. You know, a scene in an airport where there were all these people gathered around..

"Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaking suspision love actually is all around."

Anyway, we all do know that people come and go in our life. Some of them have their own place in our heart. Some of them don't even have any place in our heart (numpang lewat doang) and the rest of them , even though we want to ditch them, cut a piece of our heart and throw it away, we know we just can't. Their places are just too much.

So people, are we talking about airport or about love? hmm..

Starry Night

2008-08-29T01:09:00.005+07:00

I just love Van Gogh's painting. I've seen some of MichelAngello and Leonardo da Vinci's masterpieces with my own bare eyes (hahaha, hayoo, pasti anda sirik ya sama sayaa? ;p) and I think they're genius. But Van Gogh's is another story. I find his paintings so breathtaking. I don't know anything about fine art but I whenever I saw her paintings, I always thought that they were painted by a little child through a grown up hands. Don't you think so?

Picture was taken from here.

Now is 01.27 am and the sky above isn't as starry as in this picture. I guess when Van Gogh painted it, the earth hasn't been as polluted as right now.

DRUPADI

2008-08-28T23:07:00.006+07:00

Iseng-iseng blogwalking dan menemukan blog ini. I have never been a big fan of her. She is beautiful and la-di-da-di-da.. But, personally, I think her acts is kind of ordinary. I mean I watched almost all of her movies, trying to find out why people are so crazy about her. Yet, I still couldn't find the answer (aside that she's physically beautiful). Well, I hope this movie gonna make me think twice. Directed by Riri Riza, produced by Mira Lesmana with lots of lots of famous names involved in it such as : Nicholas Saputra, Dwi Sasono and Butet Kartaredjasa, I'm definitely gonna watch this movie.

By the way, the picture above is taken-without permission of course- from here. And suddenly I feel like I want to make an art performance again. Hmm...

the L word?

2008-08-28T20:34:00.007+07:00

Having terrible headache these couple of days. Too much interneting? Too much watching movies? Too much reading? Too much sleeping? Too much playing?

Having all this free time to do trash. Which reminds me not to take life too seriously. It's good though. . but still I feel so insecure and I feel that the L word (a.k.a loser) is written all over my face.

Being a grown up sucks and yet interesting in the same time.

I desperately need Doraemon's time machine or pintu kemana saja. As in RIGHT NOW???

2008-08-27T07:00:00.004+07:00

found this picture from here

Ada yg punya foto muralnya siliwangi-Bandung ga?

2008-08-26T16:53:00.004+07:00

I turn down 3 job offers in a week yet I'm still complaining about being unemployment.

............

temen gua: Knp gak lo terima aja?
gua : Not the kind of job that I'm looking for.

temen gua : Emang lo nyari kerjaan kaya apa?
gua : Kerjaan yg banyak jalan-jalannya dan yg bisa merubah dunia.

temen gua : Heh?

temen gua : Lo jadi sekjen PBB aja gimana?

gua : ???

..............

2008-08-25T16:23:00.010+07:00

Things I'll miss about Bandung:

Jalan kaki! For me, it was never too hot or too cold to walk.
Wearing winter outfit. Is it that cold in Bandung? Try to go outside from 11pm till dawn. It surely is cold
Taking shower once a day. It is THAT cold and I AM that lazy.
Art exhibitions and performances. There were always things to watch.
Bebek Ayayo (jln. Bengawan), Mr. Moo (di belakang aquarius dago), Singgalang (tubagus ismail), Sari Bundo (belakang telkom), Bebek ali (samping RS. Borromeus), Si Jangkung (cipaganti), Sop Buntut bakar kafe halaman (siliwangi), Bubur braga (di braga), sekoteng braga (di braga juga obvious), Ayam keremes, cabe rawit unpar, makanan2 di sepanjang unpar (there'are too many to mention), dago pakar, Brussel Spring (jln. sumatra),ice cream for ice cream (deket sulanjana), Ngopi Doeloe (ada 2, yg satu deket unpad yg satu di deket BEC), and many many more!
My campus atmosphere and everything in it! From the basketball court until the amphitheater. I'm surely going to miss walking from the front gate of the campus to my faculty. And I will miss this too for sure.
Siliwangi and its mural
Ciwalk and PVJ.
Nomat. Senin-Jumat 10 ribu di 21 dan 15ribu di XXI. Senin 15 ribu di Blitz.
DVDs sellers (6000/dvd, super up to date dan bisa dicoba lebih dulu)
Circle-K. Did you know that Bandung has 100 Circle-K spread all over the place? I never count them but you can find them anywhere. If you go to the area of Simpang Dago, you can find like almost 4 Circle-K. Actually, I never saw Circle-K this much except in Kuta-Bali.
People talk with very polite Sundanese. Men says "saya" to refer themselves and "kamu" to refer woman in which he had a conversation with even though they are not in a relationship or something. Sundanese Bandung men rarely say "gue" and "elo" to women. So sweet!
Sense of secure even though you walk alone at 1am!!
Tourists faces (specially those who came from Jakarta), whenever I walked into a touristic place such as Dago with only wearing my pijamas. Their faces are like saying : "I envy you so much because you live here and you can visit factory outlet everyday and eat in kartika sari everyday" and my satisfied face would answers: "Come on guys, factory outlet is so lame and I can't afford eating in kartika sari everyday." Hahaha.
24 hours angkot (kalapa-dago and caheum-royom rock!!) and also the fees. Eventhough the price of BBM is increasing but I still can pay 1000 rupiah for a short distance.
My old and latest house there.

For me, Bandung is more than just a place to stay. For me Bandung is a home. I know I said earlier that home is not a place, but whenever I remember this city I will remember all the memories that I made with the people who I considered as "home".

2008-08-24T01:03:00.003+07:00

I'm super excited right now. I just found out that she went to the same college like I did. =D

I always love her blog and constantly visit it. Sometimes I envy her a lot because she has been to all the places that I always want to visit, she has red all the books that I want to read and has seen all the movies that I want to see. I wonder from what department has she graduated? Could it be architecture?

Live High!

2008-08-22T21:23:00.012+07:00

"Glory God, Oh God is peeking through the blind. Are we all here standing naked. Taking guesses at the actual date and time. Oh my, justifying reasons why is an absolutely insane resolution to live by."

I hate moving out/in. No, actually, I hate packing and unpacking. Well, it's a whole different story if I pack for traveling =) . I'm officially moving out from Bandung. It's kind of sad to say goodbye to this city. I always love the atmosphere of Bandung. The chill air combined with a hot chocolate in the afternoon. Walking along the pedestrian (yg sangat jarang ada, ujung2nya jalan2 di jalan raya juga) with the trees waving on you. And not to mention the foods! oh well, the lists could go on and on..

But for the sake of my life, I have to leave Bandung, which now, leave me with a un-packing problem.

dan yg bikin makin malas un-pack adalah adanya buku ini..

Live high
Live mighty
Live righteously
Takin it easy
Live high
Live mighty
Live righteously

-- Live High (Jason Mraz) --

2008-08-20T23:03:00.005+07:00

If I can be like that
I would give anything
Just to live one day
In those shoes
-- Be like that (three doors down) --

But the grass is always greener on the other side
Neighbour got a new car that you want to drive
-- Side (Travis) --

It's normal to once in a while envying others people life.

don't want to trap in the same old pattern

2008-08-19T23:30:00.004+07:00

Seriously.
It's not about the money.
It's not about the prestige.
It's what you love and want to do.
It's about living your dream.
It's about knowing your role as human being and as a citizen of the world.
It's about contributing.

So stop preaching!

2008-08-19T22:02:00.006+07:00

Ah, lagi-lagi saya tertampar. Ditampar lebih tepatnya. Ditampar oleh waktu.

Salah satu teman dekat saya (she used to be my housemate) ada yg mau pergi jauh dan dia mengadakan farewell sekalian merayakan hari ulang tahunnya yg jatuh tepat pada hari kemerdekaan Indonesia. Jadilah setelah seharian saya heboh ikut macam-macam lomba 17-an (I won a lot actually. Oh yes, I do love to compete! hehe), malamnya saya langsung melesat ke farewellnya teman saya itu. Nothing can beats 'obrolan teman lama yg sudah lama tidak bertemu'. Setelah itu, saya dan anak kosan lainnya ber-Pijamas party ria di tempat teman saya ini. Dan saya merasa ada di rumah.

Home is not a place. It's people.

Malam itu, saya seakan-akan dibawa oleh mesin waktu kembali ke masa-masa ketika saya masih satu atap bersama mereka.

Cepat sekali. 4 tahun itu berlalu begitu saja.

Ah, saya bahkan sudah kangen dia.

Soundtrack of the day

2008-08-18T21:47:00.007+07:00

If I should die before I wake
It's cause you took my breath away
Losing you is like living in a world with no air
I'm here alone, didn't want to leave
My heart won't move, It's incomplete
Wish there was a way that I can make you understand

But how do you expect me
to live alone with just me
Cause my world revolves around you
It's so hard for me to breathe

Tell me how I'm supposed to breathe with no air?
Can't live, can't breathe with no air
It's how I feel whenever you ain't there
it's no air, no air
Got me out here in the water so deep
Tell me how you going to be without me
If you ain't here, I just can't breathe
It's no air, no air

I walked, I ran, I jumped, I flew
Right off the ground to float to you
There's no gravity to hold me down for real

But somehow I'm still alive inside
You took my breath, but I survived
I don't know how, but I don't even care

No air, Jordin Sparks (feat. Chris Brown)

2008-08-14T21:12:00.005+07:00

Yesterday, I went to this place with my friends from college. I considered my self as an adrenalin junkie but kicir-kicir game and tornado were making me think again. It wasn't as scary as this activity (I did it once), but now I wonder where the hell my guts is? Is it age related? (the disappearance of my guts)

Then we went to see the police academy show. I had already seen them during my year in this place. To tell you the truth, what they did here in Indonesia was not as spectacular as in their homeland. Maybe because it wasn't easy to transfer all the tools needed for the show. They brought their own vehicles though.

Perfect Girl Evolution

2008-08-12T20:27:00.004+07:00

I (re)read this comics book and I found myself laughing all over the floor.

HIDUP ITU PILIHAN

2008-08-11T19:06:00.006+07:00

If only it could be that simple.

Choosing between black or white, apple or melon, shoes or flip flop, right or left.

But life is more than just choosing your preferable things.

Being in an intersection was something that I kind of used to love. Not knowing where the road might end and Imagining where it would take me always makes me excited.

I'm in an intersection of my life right now and It surely is not making me as excited as it used to be. Shoot!

2008-08-10T00:58:00.004+07:00

"Trust me. Everybody is less mysterious than they think they are." (Elizabethtown)

Well, I still think people are mysterious.

another thoughts from the past

2008-08-08T23:31:00.003+07:00

Ini postingan saya dari blog saya yg terdahulu.. Ketika baca ini, saya jadi geli sendiri. I was that desperate those days. Cynical to be exact.

Ini dia postingannya:

REFLEKSI DIRI..
Bandung, 18 september 2005

Apa jadinya jika manusia-manusia (yang katanya) pilihan, terbaik, terpintar dan ter.. ter.. lainnya disatukan dalam tempat yang sama?
Awalnya saya fikir tempat tersebut akan menjadi suatu tempat yang mendekati utopia.
tapi saya salah..
Yang terjadi justru kerusakan sistem..
Semuanya merasa paling hebat, semuanya merasa paling pintar, merasa paling benar, paling jago, PALING SEMPURNA!
Semuanya ingin jadi pemimpin, ingin dilihat, AROGAN! Semuanya butuh pengakuan, PRESTISE SEMATA!
Semuanya sibuk berbicara hingga tak ada yang mendengar, OMONG DOANG!Semuanya ingin serba cepat, INSTAN.
Semuanya terlalu idealis, sibuk menyalahkan orang lain, selalu mencari pembenaran dan pembelaan atas dirinya sendiri. SUPER EGO..
Semuanya..semuanya..dan semuanya..
termasuk s a y a . .
BERAT! membeberkan apa yang saya fikir saya belum siap untuk mengakuinya..
MERASA JATUH!Selama ini saya selalu mencela habis orang-orang seperti itu tapi..
DAMN!ternyata saya sama saja seperti mereka. MENCELA tanpa bisa memberi SOLUSI.. MEMAKI tanpa bisa BERBUAT APA-APA.
Ternyata saya menghujat diri saya sendiri..(I slaped my face so hard and it felt so darn hurt)
Lalu hari ini, saya kabur ke kaki bukit tangkuban perahu..mencoba melihat saya lewat mata alam.mencoba melihat saya lewat cermin angin pagi..
Tapi saya tak melihat saya..
RALAT!
saya melihat 2 saya :1. Saya seperti bagaimana saya inginkan2. Saya seperti bagaimana saya tidak inginkan
Tapi tidak saya yang sesungguhnya
Lalu yang mana saya?
Satu hari di kaki bukit tangkuban perahu ternyata tidak memberi jawaban.(tentu saja tidak, bodoh!Lagi-lagi kamu ingin yang serba instan!)
REFLEKSI DIRI..sulit!butuh lebih dari sekedar kaca. Kapan dong saya bisa menemukan saya?atau setidaknya banyangan saya?
(tuh kan si SUPEREGO ini muncul lagi.. selalu saya,saya dan saya.. ah..dari pada mikirin saya,saya dan saya, lebih baik nonton sinetron!)
-the end-
(saya sadar tulisan ini ngalor-ngidul gak jelas,gak nyambung,gak puguh.Ngambang.Tapi otak saya mandeg.Dari pada saya paksain biar nyambung lebih baik seperti ini saja. Toh saya tidak ingin tulisan ini jadi seperti sinetron-sinetron di Indonesia-yang walau saya hina habis-habisan tapi tetap saya tonton juga).

After dark by Haruki Murakami

2008-08-08T11:55:00.000+07:00

Gara-gara saya sukaaa sekali Kafka on The Shore akhirnya saya memutuskan untuk membeli buku ini. Dari isi sebenernya tidak jelek. Saya suka cara si penulis mendeskripsikan tiap detail karakter, setting dll. Dibandingkan dengan Kafka on The Shore, After Dark ini jauh lebih simple. But then again, I'm in the mood for something absurd right now. Overall, it's worth to read.

Detak Mimpi Indonesia

2008-08-06T19:20:00.002+07:00

Akhirnya selesai juga..
Tahun ini, untuk ke 4 kalinya (and maybe this would be my last. Huhu), saya jadi talent show (bahasa kerennya: creative director) dalam suatu kepanitian yang luar biasa. Dan untuk kedua kalinya performance ini akan dilakukan di Gedung Kesenian Jakarta (GKJ) yg sakral itu. Berbeda dari tahun-tahun sebelumnya, taun ini saya mencoba tidak hanya menjadi director di malam hari tapi juga menjadi facilitator di siang hari. Hasilnya, hampir seminggu itu saya hanya tidur 2-3 jam. Exhausting memang, tapi entah kenapa tahun ini saya benar-benar merasa puas. Mengambil tema: DETAK MIMPI INDONESIA, performance kali ini lebih serius jika dibandingkan dengan ke 3 performance yg saya handle sebelumnya. Quoting salah seorang sahabat saya: tema kali ini sangat sulit untuk ditunjukan dalam bahasa pertunjukan. Mengapa? karena semua itu hanya bisa dirasakan. DETAK adalah sesuatu yg hanya bisa dirasakan, MIMPI juga, INDONESIA apalagi. How can you show them to the audience? All you can do is just to make them feel it.

Lucky me, saya dibantu oleh team yg luar biasa hebat! Tiap malam tak pernah kehabisan ide dan kreatifitas. Tiada satu malam pun dimana saya tidak tertawa melihat tingkah polah team saya. Ide cerita, koreografi tarian, aransemen musik, bridging antar babak, everything in it. Padahal siangnya saya sudah sangat lelah memeras hati dan akal saya, menggunakan semua indera saya untuk mengobserve individu-individu harapan bangsa ini.

Banyak konflik (pastinya), banyak air mata (sampai-sampai saya sesak nafas dibuatnya), intinya, banyak emosi yang terkuras. And I didn't realize it before that I do love this creepy people so much. Entah untuk alasan apa.
(note: creepy people = exchange students)

In the end of the day, tidak ada yg lebih menyenangkan selain menerima satu sentuhan di punggung, satu sunggingan senyum di wajah, satu pelukan hangat dan yg pasti satu cerita baru. Satu cerita baru dengan seribu (bahkan lebih) pembelajaran baru buat saya.

Dan sekarang, saya bersiap-siap akan mengantar mereka..
11 bulan lagi, saya pastikan mereka akan pulang dengan membawa tidak hanya satu tapi seribu cerita. Tidak hanya seribu tapi sejuta pembelajaran.
Farewell bambini!! It's your turn now..