Milestone

This ain't my first journal in 2010, I've been writing stuff but post them on my FB...but feels like write something in here.

Today, after almost 11 years in this island, I got ticket from the PJR...with 7 excessing speed on the 'gun'...yup, the PJR write me down.

It's a milestone (in a bad way) for me...

Am I sad? Nope...more to having fun feeling, is it the time for me to leave this island and chasing my dream, my long long long dream..insya Allah deh


**Whan, 30 June 2010, yang kena tilang ERT, di area townsite dekat clinic ;))

About forgivenes

We're so busy thinking about our own bruises and our own scars
We forget how to forgive

But if we just take the time to peek into someone else's world
Even unforgivable will be forgiven

~Phillip Henney

Don't know why...

Don't know why, gara-gara cerita itu kok jadi mellow
Maybe because of the character (?)

hhmmmm...

Darn!!! Some people are just born sooww gorgeous!

I'm looking forward to our conversation

Yes!

I'm really looking forward to our conversation
I hope it is as wonderful as I imagine

I'm looking forward to our conversation!

Social Butterfly

When you’ve been in this small town for more than 5 years, you tend to have the feeling of selfishness and loneliness. This small town is not bad actually because most of the facilities are available for people to use for free. This town has its own version of Coffee Beans café, softball and soccer field, futsal and basketball field, swimming pool (no bowling alley though…bummer!) and even a place to pamper yourself in greenery. This town is only 389.19 acres, with XL tower to the North, water tank to the East, 41 alpha security gates to the West and Miftakhul Jannah mosque to the South. This (I said) is Buin Batu.

Working 7 to 4 up in the hill, and back home (yes you right, it is home) to 3x4 mtsq room, 5 days a week, 365 days a year (minus the days off and holiday) could be so boring.

The first 3 years is probably the most active years of your social life, you can call yourself a social butterfly. Perching from limb to limb, from flower to another flower. Talking to people, interact with them and building your own social network. Building the network is not a rocket science, it’s all about spreading your charm, offering your kindness and friendship. Opening your arms, creating the space, allows new treasures in the form of people and experiences to come forward making more room for others to connect with… As simple as that!

Then here’s come the 5th year, when some of your friends have moved out to another project or simply just wanted to get out from this quite town, oh by the way, just so you know most activities in this town is shutdown at around 9PM. A friend of mine once said that after 5 years of living here, she’s becoming phobia of being with the same crowd, same conversation and same people.

But thanks to Larisa and TFlash that give fast (I heard TFlash is getting slower now since more people are using this service) connection to outside world. Thanks to Facebook and Twitter that allow us to connect with our family and friends outside this town. However, with that ‘luxury’ more and more advance, your time to interact with people is somehow become limited.

The busier you are, the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you are young, so it will go down to very limited and selected people, right! Socializing is not about moving from limb to limb or flower to flower anymore, but simply just sending a little note saying hello to your friend’s Facebook’s inbox.

What happen when the internet connection is down, when the earthquake in Jakarta impacting the connection (haha, not true, this is me exaggerating!), all of the sudden our life is feeling so empty. When you read the note on your computer screen saying “unable to retrieve connection to the server”, you’re feeling like screaming on top of your lung and cursing Larisa or TFlash.

See how our social life is changing these days! Or maybe is it only happens in certain small town? But I have friends who live in big cities and have the same situation. Does people ever tired of direct socializing (hmmm, not sure I’m using the right term)? Does “Dunia maya connection” steal our liberty to interact with people or friends? I do not know how to answer that, I guess it’s all up to us who is different in personality or in situation.

In the end, whether you are living in a small town or metropolitan city or whether you’re only have 10 friends or 1000 friends in your Facebook list, that doesn’t matter, as life is wonderful if we bother to appreciate the beauty of what we already have and savor the experience.

Talent

Some people have amazing talent
What is talent
What's my talent

hmmmm...*thinking*

Hutang budi susah dilunasi - A sad story

Sedih mendengar kisah seorang sahabat yang menjadi "korban" dari teman dekatnya sendiri. Seorang teman yang selama ini sudah dianggap saudara, ternyata begitu semena-mena memperlakukan sahabat ku ini. Sebut saja sahabatku ini bernama si Fulan. Aku sebut dia menjadi korban karena dia diporotin oleh teman dekatnya sendiri....tak terhitung berapa banyak rupiah yang dihabiskan, berapa banyak benda mahal yang lenyap dari genggaman (kamera digital, laptop, etc), berapa banyak tagihan kartu kredit, tagihanhutang lainnya yang harus dilunasi.

Kenapa sih kok tega ama si Fulan? Apa karena selama ini sudah merasa menanam budi?

Kalo memang gaya hidup seperti itu yang engkau jalani, jangan terus membebani orang dong....gue yang denger aja sedih banget, gegeretan...gimana mungkin, jadi selama pertemanan kalian itu, loe menyimpan agenda sendiri???

Duhai Allah, mohon dibukakan pintu hatinya, agar dia sadar dan tau, jika akibat perbuatannya, sahabatku si Fulan terdzalimi, sadarkan dia ya Allah, kalau memberi itu lebih mulia daripada meminta minta, beri dia kekuatan untuk bisa bekerja keras untuk menghidupi gaya hidup glamornya.

Stop it...and stop it now, kasihan si Fulan!

Surviving China -- Part 1

Sebetulnya perjalanan ke China belum ada dalam rencana jalan-jalan tahun ini, tapi entah kenapa, rencana yang tadinya Ke Spanyol dan Portugis berubah menjadi China.

Rute jalan-jalan ku kali ini cukup panjang, yaitu Ampenan – Bali – Kuala Lumpur – Shenzhen – Xian – Beijing – Shanghai – Hongkong – Macau – Kuala Lumpur – Singapore – Bintan – Jakarta

Here are the stories:

Bali dan KL
Perjalanan diawali pagi hari dengan Trigana flight ke Bali, transit cukup lama juga karena pesawat Air Asia ke Kuala Lumpur yang aku ambil adalah yang jam 15.00, cukup lama, but I managed to kill my time at the Ngurah Rai airport by reading all the travel books and eating alot at the many airport restaurants.

Aku tiba di KL malam hari, dan langsung naik shuttle bus (1 RM) untuk seterusnya nginep di Tune hotel. Jaraknya sih cukup dekat dari LCCT terminal, but karena malas geret2 tas, so aku naik itu hotel shuttle yang cuma berongkoskan 1 RM sajah. Oh iya, my back is too weak for backpack, so aku bawa itu backpack yang ada rodanya hihihi...biar gak pegel punggung!

Tune hotel really is a transit hotel, kamarnya sempit dan cukup buat tidur doang, but it is clean enough lah...Cuma, hotelnya berisikkkk!! Mungkin karena pinggir jalan dan people keluyuran di dini hari/malam hari (mungkin mau check out untuk kejar pesawat yang dini hari ngkalee)…anyway, as a transit hotel yang buat tidur doang dan mandi, cukup lah lumayan

Shenzhen
Pesawat Air Asia ku ke Shenzhen adalah jam 6.20 pagi, masih pagi buta aku dah check out dari hotel, dan shalat subuh di hotel jam 5 pagi mengikuti waktu shalat Mataram …later I found out that subuh di Malaysia itu mulainya jam 6 pagi…halah, gak papa lah…sing penting niat shalat subuh

Saat check in di antrian, everybody speak Chinese already…well, karena mereka emang mau balik ke kampong halamannya di Shenzhen.. ya iyalahh

Perjalanan Air Asia ke Shenzhen lumayan lancar, saat mau tiba di Bao’an International Airport Shenzhen, pramugarinya menyemprotkan disinfektan di dalam kabin, karena saat itu emang lagi santernya bahaya flu babi. At that point, belum ada laporan sih bahwa flu babi udah menyebar ke Malaysia dan China

Tiba di Shenzhen, sempat bingung karena kok arrival hall nya kecil banget, setelah bolak balik…eh ternyata, harus sedikit menyebrang ke terminal utama. Saat itu niatnya adalah langsung cari tiket pesawat ke Xian dan sekalian tuker duit ke Yuan.

Tidak sulit untuk nyari foreign exchange di terminal itu, karena banyak bank ada di lantai 2 terminal utama. Dan gak sulit juga nyari tiket pesawat untuk ke Xian, yang sulit adalah not everybody can speak English!!!

Akhirnya dapat tiket China Southern airlines untuk ke Xian tanggal 30 April, ongkosnya lebih murah dari yang aku perkirakan, sekitar 1160RMB.

Chinese folk culture park
The challenging part begin….kan mau nyari bis ke downtown nih, trus ask direction, aku ke bagian informasi toh…but di depan counter, none of them can speak English!! Mereka harus panggil beberapa temannya yang bisa ngerti beberapa kata-kata Inggris, so menemukan bis yang ke arah Window of the World (coz that’s where my hostel located), butuh beberapa kali gambar, tanya dan lots of laugh! After struggling with information, finaly dapat juga info soal bis….dan cuma bayar 5RMB untuk nyampe ke downtown!!! Whoaaaa murah abis!!! Bangga deh aku bisa nyampe dengan biaya yang super duper murah, by the way 1RMB = Rp1400-an

Hostel yang udah ku booking terletak di daerah Qiao Cheng Dong, kalo naik metro, turunnya di station Qiao Cheng Dong exit A. It was nice international youth hostel, clean and deket ama supermarket dan lagi receptionistnya speak very well English…so amannnnn…Alhamdullilah deh, hostel ini berjendela besar dan bersih, so I have no problem breathing hehehe



**Next post is about Xi'an, Beijing and Shanghai

Surviving China -- Part 2

The story continued...

Xi’an
Orang di Shenzhen hostel bilang, bis ke airport itu nomer 27 dan nunggunya di halte Konka depan jalan, but after nunggu hampir 30 menit kok gak dateng2, akhirnya aku memutuskan untuk naik taxi sajah ke airport, daripada ketinggalan pesawat yang ke Xi’an!! Another challenge is to explain where I wanna go to the taxi driver, he can’t speak English!! So I use my sign language to communicate with the taxi drive…and thanked God, he finally understand me!!

My plane to Xi'an - China Southern Airlines

The flight to Xian was a little bit delay, because the run way is busy, the air traffic controller put the plane in queue, so we were 20 minutes late to arrive in Xian.

When I arrived at Xian airport, I then tried to find a bus to downtown Xi’an. Sebetulnya itu bis udah nangkring depan ku, tapi ketika ku tanya drivernya dia cuma geleng-geleng kepala ajah…untung ada cewek petugas bisnya yang nanya tujuan ku, dan kubilang aku mau ke Bell Tower, dan si cewek menjelaskan kalo bis yang dari tadi nongkrong di depan ku itu emang tujuannya ke Bell Tower…..ahhhh dasar sopir o’on!!!

Xi’an is a historic city. Loe bisa liat old building berada diantara bangunan2 modern, diantara KFC or McDonnald stand. Xi’an sendiri memiliki sejarah yang lebih tua dari China, karena ternyata Xi’an itu pernah menjadi ibukota negara dari beberapa dinasti yang ada di China…Katanya ada 16 Dinasti di China. Di Xi’an itu ada tembok yang mengelilingi kotanya, temboknya cukup luasss buat jalan-jalan di atasnya dan around the area you can see the bell tower and drum tower, semuanya berdekatan…so if you wanna rent a bike, go a head!

Yang terpenting dari perjalanan aku ke Xi’an adalah, gampang cari makanan!!! Karena tak jauh dari bell tower (dari hostel ku juga), ada yang namanya muslim street yang cukup terkenal, semua makanan di situ tentu saja halal, dan banyak camilan yang enak-enak!

Cuaca di Xi’an dingin saat itu, butuh jaket deh pokoknya, I think it’s around 20 C, berbeda banyak dengan Shenzhen dan kota China lainnya.

The highlight of my trip to Xi’an tentu saja ketika berkunjung ke Terracota Warrior museum, such an amazing discovery. Sempat aku berpikir dalam hati, gileee itu kaisar, nyuruh bikin patung tanah liat 7000an buat jagain dia waktu dia mati….Masya Alloh, sempat geleng-geleng kepala gak percaya, karena selain berupa patung tanah liat, si patung juga dilengkapi dengan persenjataan beneran…busur panah beneran, tombak beneran… amazing deh pokoknya! By the way kaisarnya dari Dynasty Qin (kalo gak salah inget, dinasti pertama China)

Beijing
Tujuan berikutnya adalah kota Beijing, aku pake kereta dari Xi'an ke Beijing...mau nyoba naik kereta China. Karena saat itu lagi liburan orang China (May labor day holiday/weekend), so tiket kereta yang tersisa adalah yang soft sleeper class seharga 400RMB. Ada 2 jenis kelas, yang soft sleeper dan hard sleeper beda keduanya kalo soft sleeper, 1 compartment itu ada 4 tempat tidur kalo yang hard sleeper ada 6 tempat tidur.

Beruntung banget di compartment kereta ku isinya 4 cewek semua, so agak bebas lah gak perlu pake kudung-kudungan.

Oh iya, lupa….selama perjalananku di China mulai dai Shenzhen sampai sekarang, di setiap tempat, people staring at me a lot, di metro, di bis, di jalan….semuanya pada melihat aku dari ujung kaki ke ujung rambut, aneh kali yaaa liat ada orang berkudung….(this exclude Xi’an yang udah biasa liat orang berkudung karena banyak banget berkeliaran di muslim quarter/muslim street)

Soft class sleeper train to Beijing
Di kereta ketemu teman baru, anak SMA yang pintar berbahasa Inggris (akhirnya ada juga yang bisa diajak ngobro!) Ternyata dia emang nyiapin diri buat bisa kuliah di Amerika, so her English is pretty good….dan emang rejeki, saat tiba di station Beijing West yang segede alaihim itu, sumpah gede banget itu station kereta!!! bapak si cewek itu jemput, so aku bisa nebeng nyampe ke hostel….alhamdullilah deh ada yang nolongin!

Hostel tempat ku nginap di Beijing deket ama Beijing Zhan (or Beijing train station), after do the laundry dan bersih-bersih, langsung aku ke station kereta itu untuk cari tiket kereta ke Shanghai. Eng…ing…eng…the biggest challenge of my trip, harus beli tiket kereta yang first class alias soft sleeper! Karena di counter yang bisa berbahasa Inggriss (buat turis-turis gitu), selalu ditawarin yang soft sleeper which is sekitar 700RMB, dan mereka gak mau jual yang hard sleeper ke para turis…sempat sedih dan down, karena kalo menurut catetan panduan yang kubawa dari Indonesia, tiketnya gak semahal itu dan kalo beli hard sleeper jauh-jauh hari masih ada tersedia tempat….masa’ mau give up so easy, pikirku..

Di tengah kebetean (cieee), ehhh muncul dewi penolong, seorang cewek (kayaknya anak kuliahan) yang tanya-tanya aku mau kemana dan gimana, trus setengah curhat dan minta tolong, aku tanya dia kok gak ada yang hard sleeper lagi tersedia…dan dia nunjukin kalo aku harus ke counter umum di loket 63. Tanpa pikir panjang aku ikut ngantri di loket 63, ternyata itu cewek ngikutin aku untuk ngantri…bener aja, ketika giliran aku, dan aku ngomong bahasa Inggris tentang tujuan ku, si penjaga loket dengan judesnya menolak permohonan aku….akhirnya aku minta tolong lagi ke itu cewek buat terjemahin dan sekalian beliin aku tiket
Alhamdullilah, aku dapat tiketnya, hard sleeper class seharga 317RMB dari Beijing ke Shanghai 3 hari lagi….yipppeeeeee!!! pokoknya sejuta tengkiu deh diucapkan untuk dewi penolong itu (too bad, I couldn’t get her name)

The highlite of my trip to Beijing tentu saja ketika ke Great Wall China, aku ngambil rute lewat Mutianyu. Tadinya mau jalan sendiri, karena ada bis wisata yang langsung ke sana, tapi ternyata hanya di hari weekend sajah…so akhirnya aku ikut tour ajah deh, murah juga dan gak bikin pusing kepala! Another great trip to the wall…Mutianyu gak terlalu ramai oleh turis, so menyenangkan dan viewnya juga bagus!

** Next post is about Shanghai, Hongkong and Macau

Surviving China -- Part 3

Part 3 continued

Shanghai
Kereta malam dari Beijing, tiba di Shanghai jam 12.59. Station kereta di Shanghai sama gedenya dengan station Beijing Zhan. Seperti sebelumnya, aku langsung cari tiket kereta yang ke Hongkong (Jiulong in Chinese), somehow di Shanghai gak sesulit waktu di Beijing, dan akupun langsung dapat tiket hard sleeper ke Hongkong dengan harga 412RMB (I'm at second level for my hard sleeper class, not bad, comfortable with pillow and quilt).


Di Shanghai lebih banyak orang bisa berbahasa Inggris, mungkin karena banyak banget expatriate yang kerja di tempat ini. Pusat kota Shanghai itu ada di the Bund, typical kota metropolitan pada umumnya...lots of shopping mall dan juga padat banget, and aku sempat ke Madame Tussaud Shanghai yang letaknya ada di seputaran the Bund.

Shanghai lebih mirip Jakarta, lebih banyak shopping mall dan juga bule berkeliaran. Daerah di French Concension serasa ada di jalanan Paris...sepi, tertib dan teratur, bis dan metro cukup murah dan nyaman.

Sedikit di luar kota Shanghai, naik metro line 9, aku maen ke old town called Qibao. Bener2 kota tua, bangunan tua trus ada canal kiri kanan, dan banyak toko suvenir khas China. Dan akses kemana-mana gampang, either bis or metro.

Hongkong – Macau
By the time the train from Shanghai reached Kowloon station in Hongkong, aku teriak kegirangan....yipeeeee, terjelajah juga China!!! Ternyata I survived China, merasa lebih lega karena China gitu lohhh….kalo di Hongkong mah, banyak orang Indo (TKI) dan biasa ajah, tapi surviving mainland China…that was amazing!!

Nyampe di Hongkong, langsung dong ngukur jalan, target jelajah siang itu adalah daerah Nathan Road, dan Hongkong kota (Avenue of the star, the harbour etc)

Hari berikutnya, dengan bis aku nyampe ke big Budha, dan balik lagi ke Hongkong untuk lanjut ke the Peak, and tentu sajah ke night market dan jade market….sedikit shopping dan cuci mata di mall-mall Hongkong…ternyata menurut aku sama aja ahh barang2nya sama yang ada di Jakarta…jadi heran, kalo orang-orang Indo kok bangga banget bisa shopping di Hongkong…padahal biasa aja tuh!

Hari terakhir sebelum ke KL malam harinya, aku ambil day trip ke Macau. Perjalanan naik ferry back and forth memakan waktu 2 jam pulang dan pergi. ferrynya cukup nyaman, mirip lah dengan ferry Tenggara 1 nya Nyumont.

Dari ferry ke pusat kota cukup murah dengan bis, hanya seharga 3.40 Patacca. Belanja di Macau cukup murah, dibandingkan di Hongkong. Seluruh kota bisa dijelajah dengan muter2 pake bis yang berkeliaran di setiap rute dengan mudahnya.

It was very refreshing and cheap trip to Macau!

Sore hari dari Macau, setelah ambil backpack yang dititipkan di hotel, aku langsung ke Hongkong International Airport yang segede alaihim….ini airport gede banget, dari tempat check in ke gatenya aja butuh waktu 40 menit melewati tangga, dan train…sumpah!! Gede banget…

Akhirnya flight Air Asia dari Hongkong (yang delay 1 jam di Hongkong), nyampe juga di Kuala Lumpur….sebetulnya aku malessss banget nginjek nih negara, tetapi berhubung harus menemui seseorang di KL dan harus touring bareng dia ke KL dan Singapore…. yaaa terpaksa mampir lagi ke sini.

Travel di KL dan Singapore gak menarik buat diceritakan, karena basically sama lah ama cerita perjalanan dulu...

So kesimpulan dari petualangan China ku:

• Berasa jadi selebritis! Karena di metro, di bis, di toko, di restoran....semua orang pada melirik dan ngeliat dari mata kaki ke ujung rambut, luar biasa deh feeling seperti selebrity.
• Banyak ketawanya! Terutama kalo pas nanya sesorang dan dia gak bisa ngomong Inggris dan hanya bisa garuk-garuk kepala....lucu banget, yet challenging buat bikin dia ngerti apa mau kita
• Susah cari makan!!! Tapi kok bukannya kurus, malah gembul...mungkin faktor minum susu made in China ngkalee
• Nyeseeelllll banget gak beli gelang jade! Hanya karena aku tinggal si credit card di safe deposit hostel!! how silly was that!! Duoduol...
• Bener-bener uji nyali......
• Thinking maybe I’ll go again to China someday, soalnya trip to China is MURAH!! If you go like a local, I mean using the metro/subway, the bus and eat local food (I managed to find a halal Chinese food in Beijing at Wangfujing street and in Shanghai, it is closed to Yishan metro station Shanghai, it served home made noodle), it will… sumpah, murah!!!

Things I learned from Japanese Dorama

1. Ikebana is a cultural and huge thing! There is Ikebana clan, some families looking after the Ikebana industry… whoa!


2. One Japanese word can mean many things, depend on how your tone of voice saying it.


3. Different language use for different people, for elder for family for someone who has higher position, different words, different tones, different meaning!


4. Man and woman love/relationship is rarely shown affection, makes me wonder…kok gak passionate gitu loh relationshipnya, is it cultural thing?


5. The word “Ganbatte!” is a word that Japanese use mostly, to say good luck! All the best! Break a leg! Take care! Do your best! Sukses yaaa! Semoga selamat!!...halah


6. Many English word are translated into Japanese for example bathroom=basurumu, pride=prado, hotel=hoteru...interesting huh!! Ogawa Ryo san is right, Japanese finds it’s difficult to pronounce perfect English because some vowels and consonants are missing from Japanese alphabet.

Ja Mata Ne!!

Post Note:

Ikebana = Traditional Japanese flower arrangement (picture from Google image)

Friend makes the world go round - Buat Lala

(Buat Lala)

What is the world consisting of? The world consists of yesterday, today, tomorrow, happiness, sorrow, friendship, you name it! The list can go on and on. But today, I feel like the only thing that makes the world go round is a certain friend.

I called it a farewell email, she said that she will leave this island and go for another exciting journey with her new family. “Gosh, another good friend is gone”, I thought.

I’ve known her for about 9 years. For some reasons, it’s always nice talking with her, maybe because we shared the same birth sign. We shared most of things related to –adventure activities – , from Rinjani to white water rafting, from Sekongkang waterfall to Hickey’s trail. “Ahhhh, we’ve shared many things, didn’t we?” I whispered

Not once or twice we talked so much about God’s creature so called “Man!!” an interesting topic to discuss, heh...I remember on a rainy day when we rode on your motorcycle, and ended up at the Sate Rembiga. We’ve never planned to go there, it was something spontaneous but we ended up spending the whole afternoon talking and sharing stories (off course with the sate!).

I guess, having you as my friend is part of my friendship world, it moves things in that area and it’s just nice feeling having this kind of friend.

Hey you!!! Thanks for everything, thanks for being you. It is a pleasure to have crossed path with you in this so called Sumbawa Island. I will miss your presence here, I definitely will miss a person who has “lelet/telat/lambat” tag on her hehe.

I will miss your little one for sure, thinking of her growing up, it will be so much fun!! Say hi to Uncle Sam from me, will you?

Gambatte kudasai!

Friend does make my world go round, how about yours?