Beijing, June 23rd 2013

my bucket list fulfilled one by one. i really want to see The Forbidden City located in beijing at least once my my life. Apparently once is enough for me.

once i arrived in this city, i knew that the language barrier would be hell but i came prepared, i printed out some useful and everyday words i got from a downloaded travel book and hoped this would be enough to get me from one point to another.

my first impression of this city, it's almost the same like Jakarta--especially the pecinan part such as Taman Angrek and Kelapa Gading. the only difference was the fact they already got their subway system that allows traveler to travel easily.

do i like China? maybe it's too early to judge but hey! first impression is everything, right? i like Beijing as a city, but i loathe the people. i grew up in a country where they put women first (i'm NOT a feminist, but even during the war or when Titanic was sinking the words we herd all the time was "save the woman and children first" so yeah, it's shocking) i went to Beijing with my Mom and little brother. we got on the bust to get to Temple of Heaven which located near our hotel. as we waited for the bus, there're several men in uniform that looked like army uniform also waiting for the same bus. once the bus arrived we got on it and it's already packed so we stood. along the journey, some passengers got off. my mom, who had a knee surgery and always a bit limping when she walks since then approached the empty seat located right next to her. what happened next? one of the men in uniform came from the back of the bus, spread his arm and pushed my mom aside in a horrible manner then sit on the very seat. i mean come on!! 

the city itself was awesome, all the heritage and stuff they preserved (or UNESCO preserved) was a great sight and pleasure. but honestly, the first meeting with those men earlier really put us in a bad mood.

no class tomorrow

(pictures by Nova Ridho)

i always heard about moko since i set my foot in Bandung 6 years ago, yet i never got a chance to go there. finally Dian, Bintang, Nova and I went there tonight. it was raining, ergo slippery rocky road. the motorbike fell several times, i was in the back seat of Bintang's bike (which was a motor bebek, whilst Dian sat at the back of Nova's bike--a Bajaj Pulsar) didn't take a genius to figure out which bike had more problems climbing. Bintang even slipped in a normal "on road" road taht i consider wasn't a challenge at all. 

to get to moko "cafe" itself, we had to climb (literally, the boys told us to get down and climb ourselves to the place since they're afraid if we tag along, the bike will roll over and fall, so Dian and I climbed the 45 degrees angle slippery rocky road.)

we got there in the end, ordered ourselves some food. the instant noodle here tasted three times tastier since we're too tired and hungry. and the friend banana cheese with palm sugar crumble was champion!

till next "adventure"

congratulation!!

My traveling buddy finally getting married. congratulation!! have a long and happy life together, don't forget to postpone the child until you're finish with your master degree.. :p

sukses itu..

ada teman saya yang sukses tapi humble banget. bisa nempatin diri dia tergantung sesuai dengan kondisi lingkungan sekitar. tipe yang kalau dia jalan sama teman-temannya yang belum (belum ya, bukannya tidak) seberuntung dia, dia pasti liat-liat dulu kira-kira temen-temennya keberatan atau nggak sama ajakannya. teman saya ini kerja 18 jam setiap hari, tapi kalau lagi kumpul sama temen-temannya dia bisa ngelupain kerjaannya dan justru bikin conversation tentang kabar teman-temannya.

ada teman saya yang sukses dan setengah humble. bisa nempatin diri sesuai lingkungan, ngehargain kondisi orang lain yang belum seberuntung dia. walaupun kadang-kadang kalau ngobrol masih sering lebih nekenin "kerjaan gue gini nih, gitu nih, bos gue gini nih." untungnya teman saya yang ini tuh sensitif, jadi kalau dipelototin sedikit aja dia ngerti dan langsung ganti topik pembicaraan ke sesuatu yang lebih general.

ada teman saya yang sukses, tapi lupa diri. sok bisa nempatin diri ke lingkungannya, tapi ngga ngehargain kondisi orang lain yang belum seberuntung dia. kalau ngobrol dari topik general bisa selalu berujung ke kerjaan. tipe yang lupa kalau dulu dia juga sama aja posisinya sama teman-temannya yang belum seberuntung dia, dan kayak lupa kalau semua orang itu merangkak dari bawah.

ketiga orang di atas adalah orang-orang terdekat saya. saya nggak masalah sih kalau orang-orang cerita tentang kehidupan dan kerjaan mereka, tapi seringkali yang saya sesalkan cuma satu: "saya kangen cerita hal-hal bodoh yang tidak serius sama kalian." semoga kalau saya sukses suatu hari nanti, saya bisa tetap menjadi orang yang bisa mendengar cerita bodoh, sensitif kalau ngga semua orang itu tujuan hidupnya untuk hedon, dan ngga pernah lupa bersyukur.

(woke up and cannot stop thinking about it)

Batu Karas

we made a decision to go to Bogor at first, but after thinking about it for a while, it costs more than it would if we go to Batu Karas instead. so we went. we skipped class on Thursday and headed on to the South part of West Java.

the trip was a lot of fun. the fun changed when my GPS decided to show us the wrong way to go there (none of us has gone there before, so we're completely lost).  we're stuck in someone else's village for almost three hours, got on a bridge that only capable of holding one car at a time (and we must pay 1000 rupiah for the ride), even witnessed someone pooping in the empang.

(all pictures by www.kinonia.net)

after all, we arrived 12 hours after we departed, got a place to stay and rest, so we could have all the fun the next day. ^o^

i'm lucky

to be given some more time to experience this kind of friendship. 

Sudden trip

my college friend, Bayu said he wanted to go to Cirebon to visit some rattan industries. since he promised me a long time ago to show me the industries, he asked me and some of my friends to come along. at first i hesitated because i imagined it will be a long ride and i could get carsick as usual. at the same time, i'm also curious. so after thinking about it for two days i decided to come along. together with Bintang and Dian. (seems it's always the four of us that always hanging out together, since we're the ones with the least things to do.)

we departed from Bandung at five in the morning. the road, as i expected turned out to be the one that could get me carsick but this time i came prepared (tolak angin and koyo!!)

after three visits to the industries, we headed out for lunch. we had nasi jamblang near the harbor. nasi jamblang is a dish that served on top of teak leaves. we only got the rice and sambal, for the side dish we are free to choose whatever we like and pay according to what we had.

Dian and I insisted to look at the keraton before we went home, it's just around the corner. the boys agreed since it's still noon. we parked the car and a man came to us with a parking ticket. now, i already think Jakarta's parking ticket is expensive, but this aji mumpung guy gave us the ticket with Rp. 10.000 on it. not printed, but hand written. refused to start a fight so we payed. :(

one thing that embarrassed me a lot about this country, the superstitious stupidity that tells people to throw coins in every single thing. literally. in front of every object in this keraton, stood a chair or table and several people around it banging the top of the chair saying "ayo nyawer dulu!" with a pushy manner. the whole place smell with kemenyan, and even we saw a woman that wipe one of the "sacred" object intensely like she hope she'll get some fortune out of it. i mean, come on! for crying out loud.

we decided to get out of keraton and headed home. the stupidity was unbearable, then we sat under a tree for a while just to see our surroundings. we realized the tomorrow is Maulid Nabi, and it's a ritual in this area to visit the keraton or what we call 'ziarah'. this was my first time (our first time) to encounter something like this, so yeah, we're in shock.