Living Attitude of Gratitude!

Passed Away

2011-03-24T23:12:00.001+07:00

- March 23, 2011 7.36 AM. In my room. It's raining heavily outside. -

Tuesday evening in the office. I was working in front of my notebook when I got a text message from my bro. My grandma passed away. In a blink of an eye, my mind flew nowhere. "A month ago I met her, now I have no chance to meet her again."

My grandma underwent a diabetes since few years ago. She lost one leg because of this disease. Once she was ever in the worst health condition. Everyone was in the hospital to be ready for the worst. So was I. I thought she would leave us that time. I regret that I didn't put my faith on her that time. She recovered eventually. She danced. She sang. She was passionate about life. She overcome death. One of my notes 2 years ago showed how impressed I was with her passion about life. I really was.

But she left us yesterday. Eventually.

She is one of the most important people in life for my family. When I was ten, we moved to Jakarta and lived with her. We had no money. We took risk to build our life peace by peace. We left Palembang with faith that life would be better in mega city. The laughter. The time we spent together. The love of grandma to her grandchildren. The time when I was hiding from her when she got mad.

Now I am at 29th floor of my apartment. It is raining outside. I am supposed to have off site with friends in Hua Hin but I chose to stay to prepare for my trip back to Jakarta.

Life isn't waiting for us when we get there. It's happening right now. With the death of my grandma, I learn that every second of my life is destined for something. For a reason. To be thankful for one more day to live. To express gratitude for all flavors I never know existed. For realization that people come to life and go leaving us in a blink of an eye.

I stay grateful.
Sent via BlackBerry® from AIS

Baby Steps for Today

2011-02-13T18:01:00.002+07:00

Nobody can predict the future. Your husband might leave you. You might come to your doctor and got a cancer diagnose. You might unintentionally throw your blackberry onto the road and broke it into pieces. Your Feb 14th might be the day your girlfriend cheated. You might come to office on Monday morning, excitedly, and your boss said that your masterpiece was a crap. You’ve been proud of your wedding but you might find it came to an end.

When that bad news punches you on your face, you always have two options. Take a baby step for today to choose the right attitude.

2011 is a mind blowing and full of discoveries year!

2011-01-02T00:21:00.004+07:00

Recently human has just made mind blowing, once-in-a-lifetime discovery that one of the Saturn moons, Enceladus, could harbor life. The towering ice water erupting from the South Pole was the first sign viewed by Cassini spacecraft. It started the journey to Enceladus. Later on the team found interesting fact that may answer question if there’s another life there outside the earth.

Under the surface of the moon, team has found there is ocean and internal heat source that cause eruption. It also contains salty water, complex organic compounds which may supply energy to life. Imagine one day we make the voyage to the geyser of Enceladus. Just because it’s only about time. Just because we can.

Human is created for discovery from time to time. I have discovered 2010 was a year of full discoveries. That I finally could stand on the surfing board. That I finally moved to the place where I always wanted to live. That I finally improved the way I see life – positive rather than negative. Life is gratitude; and we’re all the master peace of it.

And 2011 for sure will bring more discoveries to my life. I hope it will too to yours. I am sitting here in my couch, looking at the first night sky after new year and writing an important note which may be a come-back for more notes after dormant period; I see 2011 will be legendary!

Happy Now Year 2011 everyone!

What bad things happen to your life today?

2010-08-24T21:48:00.001+07:00

"The only thing that grows from cultivating any dark seed of sorrow is more bitter fruit." -- Guy Finley

True.

I have learn today that being positive and acceptive is so much fulfilling than being grumpy and denial.

Things happen naturally in life. The same thing applies to bad things. You name it. Brokenhearts happen. Bad news happen. Traffic just happen. And the best approach toward it should be just be with it, follow it and adjust self.

Mother earth never fails to put smile on people face when they have positive attitude against bad days. Bad day is just it. It's bad when we think it's bad. It's natural and it's perfect, as perfect as good day, depending on how we see it. Troubles are natural, as natural as being naked when we take shower. The day you fell in love was just as natural as the day you got dumped.

Life isn't waiting when you get there. It's happening right now. Don't expect better life unless you see the now is natural, if not perfect.

Let’s Face It. Some Days Are Bad.

2010-07-15T00:31:00.003+07:00

This is fact of life. Some days are bad that make you walk sluggishly. When you felt that people you love disappoint you. When somebody you trust so much kills you slowly at your back. When you think you have done your best but people always say that you’re not good enough.

Thing is, at the same time, some days are full of happiness that you make you want to have it 24 hours of your life. You don’t want to let it go. Even for a second. When people you love make a surprise for you, sending you a thank you note that makes your day. When somebody you hate so much stands for you when you’re cornered. When you think what you did was disaster but they said that you have done your best!

There are always ups and down that make you feel that, yea it’s just life.

Nothing too serious to think about.

This week I learn so much on how to live in present. I have been quite busy, occupied with lots of work to do. I started in the morning hoping that I could go out at night. Or even just having good time in my room with ‘Two and A Half Man’. I could hardly do it. Even weekend is so worrying for me.

This is the same feeling I got every time I felt so excited and challenged about something. After 1 month in Bangkok, I now can start feeling stillness inside me. I am perfectly fine.

Being in stillness is great. It makes me feel secure. And being in present makes me enjoy life at every blink of an eye. Even when Paul Octopus was right when my favorite team lost. I could still feel that was okay. I let go.

Here I am in my room. Somewhere in the middle of Kuala Lumpur. I can see the how laid back this city from my room. Stillness is here. I can see some cars going home. Or, sorry maybe I’m totally wrong. Some cars start the journey to somewhere in the middle of the night. That’s ~~bad~~ life.

And some people really come and go.

This week I feel so down, knowing the fact that one of my good friend’s wife has gone. I can’t say anything but sorry for what happened to him. I wish I could do more. And knowing the fact that I cannot do anything is totally unwell. I hope he’s perfectly fine.

It’s life. Jakarta is waiting for me this weekend.

Flipside

2010-07-10T00:01:00.002+07:00

Let’s face it. Some people are really different. Some point of view is not what you think they should be. And at every blink of your eyes you may see different thing in life. That is the beauty of life.

A Japanese guy in one of the roads in America got lost. He asked someone the name of the block where he was standing on. That American guy said that it was a block surrounded by road 1 and road 2. That Japanese guy did not understand.

An American coming to Japan asked someone when he got lost. He asked the name of the road he was standing on. That Japanese guy said it was a road between block 1 and 2. That American guy did not understand.

That stupid misunderstanding happened because there is no block name in America and there is no road name in Japan. There is road name in America as well as there is block name in Japan. It’s just as simple as we don’t know it.

There’s flipside of everything.

The Mystery of Tomorrow

2010-07-07T22:19:00.000+07:00

If I have chance to choose which part of my life that I want to see the most, I want to choose tomorrow. It’s not myself at 35 or 60 I really want to see. I am not interested at all.

What I want to see is what I am going to eat tomorrow. Will it be good? Will it be the same food I had today? And will I meet the same people? And will I face the same business issue? Well, life is moving and I am really curious how I see new things everyday.

I am person who usually think of the future instead of the past. It’s more interesting to see new things than bringing my imagination back to, say, 5 years ago. It was something, but I just don’t want to regret on something and wishing I could turn back the time. Being in the tomorrow is more interesting. And maybe that’s why I am quite forgetful – I think too much about the future and how interesting every second tomorrow will be.

Today is the future of my past. I couldn’t imagine before that I would be here, sitting in the sofa and typing this note whilst relaxing. From the window of my apartment, I could see how cheerful Bangkok night sky is. And I enjoy every second and every letter I type here. I enjoy every joke guys talking about in “How I Met Your Mother”.

Hopefully tomorrow will be exciting. At least it will be new thing.

Lazy Ass

2010-07-04T10:13:00.001+07:00

This morning I woke up sluggishly. This is the first time I woke up without pressure I need to do things. Being in the condition that so many things you need to do, you are always in the rush. This weekend I manage myself not to be in the rush all the time. I try to relax instead. And sleeping for 9 hours is such a blessing for me.

I am lazy.

Being grateful when you are at ease is easy. Most of people can sit back, enjoy coffee and be grateful. Being grateful at difficult time or when you’re in the rush, it’s another thing. There’s such a barrier to do so. When you can overcome the barrier and start speaking grateful language, that’s when you’re really sure that your life is in peace.

This is the first month I am in Bangkok; the city where I always wanted to be. Life’s here is good. Yet if I compare it with when I was in Jakarta, it’s totally different. I can’t sill find the right balance on everything. Saying words full of grateful helps a lot.

The place is here. The time is now. And the future is in our hands.

How do you rejuvenate yourself?

The Heartbeat of Small City

2010-05-16T20:05:00.001+07:00

Yesterday I surfed up like no more days to live and whilst enjoying being on top of the surfboard, my body was brought to the ocean by the current. Trying so hard to kiss the beach line; I knew that it would be like pain in my ass. And I was stucked far away from the beach line for some time.

I felt a bit worried about swimming all night long with my surfboard. It was 6 PM something and the sun already did its everyday to-do-list of performing twelve hours dancing. I started to wave my hands; expecting surfer fellas to see (hopefully come to me; with them being aware at least made me feel better) me struggling. My heart beat like the heartbeat of the small city in the south coast of Java.

It was the same feeling when I fell beneath Musi river. I felt afraid.

Finally I made it myself to the beach line. Luckily there was a big wave coming from my back; one of the biggest for a beginner like me, and I ride it. I made it though. The thing is there is always a good thing behind the bad thing.

OFF to Singapore.

Dessert of Thought

2010-05-14T01:19:00.001+07:00

I have not been writing quite some time. My dead mind can't go anywhere else but onto the dessert of thought. Freshness I expected to come didn't come and I started feeling that I need to relax a bit.

My days are great. I am just a bit busy with the job I love so much (seriously). Party days never end like I am in Ibiza. It's just an everyday life. You know what I mean. And now after being mentally exhausted after office hours, I still push myself to work out, tortured by my personal trainer. At least I lost weight 3 kgs now.

Today I want to be grateful for a very relaxing day. Long weekend is always like everyday breakfast for many Jakartans; they go on vacation, leaving Jakarta as if doing exodus out of polluted air and being in fresh air of rural area. Some are being beach bum. They take swim suit and show to fishes that they got sexy body. And they take surf board to stand on it, feeling like they are kings of the ocean. Good to see them out of routine and being grateful for their life.

And I am very happy that Jakarta is so quiet today. Afternoon rain was like a blessing to my day! Sitting in Starbucks and doing some works; my mind goes like an automated machine producing masterpiece in the state of mindfulness.

I find it's good to relax a bit, take some coffee and spend time with ladies in MO to charge myself. For a better day!

Sleep well, everyone!

Being Grateful

2010-04-28T23:11:00.002+07:00

Over the past 2 years I have been practicing living attitude of gratitude. Unconsciously it has helped me to see things from the bright side instead of being depressed by the problems. Having said that, I have stretched myself to the level I never imagine before. Life is full of possibilities instead of limitations.

Today I want to show my gratitude to the cool dude who has introduced it the first time to me thru his songs and positive attitude toward life; Jason Mraz. The first time I listened to his first life-is-easy song, I'm yours; I felt myself was connected to the universe. My soul bow down and started committing to live high. But I try so hard not to be a geek in the pink; the song itself is really catchy but the idea of being that kind of person isn't cool. =)

To enjoy how abundant his life is; check out his cool blog on http://www.freshnessfactorfivethousand.blogspot.com/.

We have two options facing things in life; being positive and negative. Building the positive habit is simple and hard at the same time. It's simple; because we only have 2 options. It's hard; because it's not a one day but everyday transformation instead. If we want to change our habit for great life, the time is today.

Universe is abundant and we have countless reasons to complain as well as to be grateful. Taking example of being stucked in the traffic jam; we can complain because it's a traffic jam as well say 'thanks' for the nice music we listen inside our car. We can complain because roses have thorns, or we can rejoice because thorns have roses. And I think it's good to think that when the world pushes us to our knees, we are in a perfect position to pray.

It all depends on how we see things, how we act on things coming to our life and how we shape our life.

Many times we whine on many bad things happened to us. Everyone in this world has problems. But I think there are more people in the world who have been suffering from poverty, whose freedom is taken from their lives and to whom we should compare the pain. I choose to be grateful to have great life, great family and great friends instead of complaining of being stuck in the traffic jam.

We may opt to share our pain to friends, but we may need to consider that complaining everyday to our friends is an act of being selfish. The world doesn't move around us and we're not the center of the universe. It's more on taking than giving.

What are you grateful for today?

A Dream Which May Change Life Forever

2010-03-31T02:24:00.002+07:00

This morning I woke up in the morning feeling so great that mother earth, for many times, reminded me to pursue what I really wanted to do. It was a mind-blowing dream that I got chance to travel around the world. Waking up in the morning and immediately crying unconsciously are not my thing. I don't think I am that kind of person, but when it just came in, I could hardly resist it. I fell down being so in joyous moment.

One of the best part I still remember was when I needed to go to North Pole, I went thru some middle east countries. Whilst realizing that those countries have never been in my list, the excitement of being on the road catch up my mind. I saw new things, sing a melody I don't know existed. Taste the flavor which bites my tongue. And feel the warm breeze that blows my mind up.

Well, it's too imaginary. But wait, the next part was actually novel-like story. I stopped by many countries, moved from one place to another one by bus, hitchhiking and plane. I saw sunset thru my flight window. The terminal hall becomes an everyday life that I saw people checking in, smiling whilst being alone in a row. That must be a smile of having chance to meet their beloved one back home. My passport was just full of red, green and blue from the immigration officer. They put master peace onto it. And I saw the same shoes I wore since the beginning I started being on the road.

When I woke up, realizing that dream is still existed, I feel like a slap on my face. Emotionwise, I was filled abundantly with joy. That a simple dream, unexpected one, could still change the way I see future. I felt like a blessed one because even though I tried so hard to forget that used-to-be-impossible dream, I still kept that dream unconsciously.

I fell down on the floor, filled with satisfaction. That was one of the most joyous moment in my life.

I still wanted to do it indeed.

Smiling Faces

2010-03-26T21:09:00.003+07:00

Last week I finished a meeting with a good result but feeling awkward whilst leaving it. Simple ‘thank you’ and warm smile weren’t existed when it finished. I was like, okay – why can’t a simple smile or a ‘thank you’ end the meeting up? Isn’t it lovely to have a smile in everyday life?

I think we need more on something like these pictures! Come on, keep the smile coming in! =)

Every Road Has Its Own Challenge

2010-03-23T20:59:00.003+07:00

I see the nice sunset here from my seat on the flight back to Kuala Lumpur from Kolkata. It's been a week off from Jakarta, and I start missing what I had in there. It is perfect sunset 4000 feet above the sea, here from the window seat. I am alone here in the row 24, enjoying the me time.

India is another journey I had in life. It ain't easy at all. I used to believe that I could handle any travel challenge. I remember the first time I traveled over the land from Singapore, to Kuala Lumpur, to Hat Yai - a border city between Thailand and Malaysia, and finally to Phuket. It wasn't easy at all for the first time traveler.

But then it became so easy when I climbed up Great Wall of China and explored the land thru Saigon, Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. I thought everything was going to be very easy. That time it was true that I didn't find anything to put me down on the ground.

Then I realize that's not true at all. My over-confidence has something to do with my limitation. India isn't easy at all. Having said that I never regret to have seen this incredible land, I then realize that every road has its own challenge for every traveler.

Keep walking and make sure you wear good shoes!

Top 10 Tips Travel to India

2010-03-22T13:13:00.002+07:00

Having traveled to India, which was one of the most unique travel experiences for me, here are some travel tips before you travel to India.

1. Open your mind. India is way different with any country that you can imagine. Cars honking, pickpocket, people taking shower on the road, generally-dirtier roads and crowd. In one of the days I was in India, I wish I had never booked the ticket to India. I was in the bad mood that all those annoying things just made me crazy. But then being open minded and trying to accept it helped a lot. Be open minded and enjoy the rest!

2. Drink only bottled water. Tap water is generally unsafe for first time traveler. It may contain bacteria which may cause stomachache and diarrhea. You can buy bottled mineral water (650 ml) with only Rs 14. Even when you're in restaurant, try to order bottled one.

3. Bargain hard. Everything in India is generally cheap; but almost anything needs to be bargained. Sellers/taxi drivers will always put unreasonable price at the first place. Bargain like Chinese :). For some cases, you don't need to bargain since it won't cost you that much (for example: using rickshaw for 15 minutes will only cost you Rs 10, which is nothing compared to walking for 30 minutes). In addition, you will help community to improve its economy as well.

4. Prepaid taxi. If arriving from airport, try using only prepaid taxi. It is fixed price, not negotiable and it will take you to the place you want. Even though it's a bit more expensive, the risk of being cheated is less. For first time traveler to India, if you use big money, check the change gives you. From 2 times using prepaid taxi in Kolkata airport, they always gave me -Rs 100 or -Rs 200 less. I said to the counter, "Do you think I'm stupid!?"

5. Understand the transportation system. Traveling inside the city is not efficient. You can use metro (in New Delhi and Kolkata), but some places are still unreachable. Try a mix of rickshaw (the cheapest, in suburban area, in main road it's prohibited), auto rickshaw (we call it Bajaj), bus (a bit complicated but worth to try for small distance, use in urban) and taxi (last chance if others don't work for you).

6. Be deaf! Cars honking are the most annoying thing for me at the first two days in India. You can't find a 5-sec without that noise (5 second is a day observation between morning until evening). Be deaf and you'll enjoy the city.

7. Be dirty. Roads in india are generally a bit dirty because garbage, water (showering on the road), spiting and smoke. Expect that kind of thing and you'll like walking on the street with crowd of people.

8. Don't take it personally. I met some friends in India; one of them said that they sometimes say something without any point in an aggressive way. Understand that it is different culture and do not take it personally.

9. Don't get melted. The weather in India can be very hot (to 40 C at max in hot season, between May - July). What you can do is to adjust yourself. Use sexy sunglasses, fabulous short and sunblock if you want.

10. Try couchsurfing. As always, it is the best way to travel overseas. It's not about free accommodation, but more on having someone in the city you can talk to. If you're lucky, they can go to places with you.

Safe travel to India! Don't forget to have proper preparation.

The Home of the Greatest Missionary in 20th Century

2010-03-20T23:00:00.001+07:00

On my way back to Kuala Lumpur, I finish my trip with a visit to Mother Theresa's House in Kolkata; in where most of her missionary works done since the first time she committed to work for poors and unwanted until her death in 1997.

Here I am, enjoying the holiness of this place while thinking how great humans can be when they have unconditional love. Coming from Catholic family, practicing Catholic values and vowing her life to Jesus; she has been speaking universal language, which is giving unconditional love. In her definition of that such love, Mother Theresa has been working in almost of her entire life for poors, ill and unwanted people.

Mother Theresa was born in August 26, 1910 in Skopje, Macedonia with original name of Gonxha Agnes Bojaxhiu. She received the first call for religious life at the age of twelve. At the age of 18, she left home by ship for almost 2 months to India. Here, she did the missionary works by spreading the language of love to the world. From this small and poor place, the news of greatest love and richest masterpiece is received by the world.

She built houses for poors, hospital for sicks and heart for unwanted. What she did nonetheless was unconditional love. And it was for almost 60 years of her life.

Mother Theresa has received 700 awards during her service, including the Nobel Peace Award in 1979. When she received the award, she said, "I am unworthy to be here, it's all by the grace of God."

Mother Theresa died at the age of 87 in her room behind complication of heart disease, chest and back pain, recurrence pneumonia and malaria.

"I can't breathe. My work is done."

Needless to say, being in this small place yet big in heart and unconditional love is one of the key highlights during my travel in Kolkata.

Very recommended!

-- It is not enough for us to say, "I love God",
but I also have to love my neighbor.
-- We can do no great things, only small things
with great love
-- I prefer that you make mistakes in kindness than
that you work miracles in unkindness
-- How can we love God whom we do not see, if we do
not love our neighbors whom we see, whom we touch with whom we
live?

Be Open Minded and Let's Just Put Smile on Your Face

2010-03-19T12:51:00.002+07:00

I sat down on the road with some local kids in the Sudder street in Kolkata, which is backpacker area in the city. I gave Rs 20 to a very poor boy. He bought food with that. Seeing that Rs 20 is small amount of money (~50 cents USD), which is nothing for me but maybe it gave a proper food for the boy, I feel so grateful and sad at the same time.

It's been a week for me in India. Ups and down happened just because cities here are unique compared to Jakarta. I need to handle the crowd of people walking on the street, sometimes squeezing myself on the road. After a week I get used to it.

A friend of mine said that I needed to be open minded enough to travel here and it's totally true. I thought I was open minded enough but I was wrong. Now I know that I need to stretch myself a little bit and see new things as good. India is actually a country which can makes you stressful yet smiling at the same time. I am happy to see that my last days are generally full of smile. Thanks to some friends who have been good companions while I'm here.

One of the good examples was on my way back to Delhi from Agra. I used local train for only Rs 75 (~1.5 USD) for 3 hours traveling time. It was full and packed train with almost impossible to move inside the train. No air conditioner, just a fresh air from the window. I could choose to complain about it and worried about things, but I slept like babies; just enjoying the now and making comfortable with myself.

It's true that open mind can make you smile even though the world moves against you and the way you think.

I was like, okay, I wanted to come back to Indonesia soon several days ago. Now, I don't give a shit to my negative thinking. I really enjoy it!

It's a good travel experience after all!

Namaste and have a good day!

Living as Locals in India

2010-03-15T14:59:00.002+07:00

Shiva is the third god in Hinduism, known as the god os destruction. But Indian prefer calling THAT as god of transformation. This means that it's not only about taking things to the ground or transforming things to nothing, where it all started; but also starting things from beginning, which is associated as good. It depends on how we see it; good or bad. In the case of Shiva, it's good that growth and new life come after destruction. Something doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

I was shocked with many things the first time I stood on the ground outside of Kolkata airport; cars honking every second, people taking shower on the main road, crowd of people in the second biggest population in the world. I started believing what people said about this country, before I left from Indonesia. It was generally negative things what they said.

But then I started seeing things as good. I was like, okay, this is different and nothing to do with mood swing. Life is just different here. The charm of new friends I met here; Joao and Shraya at least made me feel like home here.

On top of the rooftop where I was staying, there was open space to take shower just like locals do. I enjoyed taking shower, rubbing my body and enjoying the night sky view from there. A very good experience.

Namaste!

Back Seat

2010-03-14T13:04:00.002+07:00

Back to when I was in school, I used to be a kid who always sit at the back seat on the bus. I always enjoyed the moment when I could see people's head from the back and got chance to see smile and friends talking. My butt got along very well with the back seat.

Here I am, at the back seat of Skybus heading to Kuala Lumpur. It is in the midnight before moving my ass to India. It's been always great having this moment, taking a week off from routine. I don't need to be in the rush and worship meeting schedule everyday. It's just very easy, sitting here and thinking of how meaningful seeing new places and tasting flavors I might not know existed before.

Sky is the limit, that's what people said. In the respect of that philosophy, we need to see that 'sky is the limit' has something to do with human's limitation as well. If in every chance we want to reach the sky, we may end up with frustration. Sky is the limit for some cases, but many times your limit is the coconut at the top of the tree on the beach. You can't go higher.

I believe that winning choicefully is way much better than winning in every chance. As well as letting go the past, broken heart and failure, sometimes we need to let go a win. Win at big things whilst letting go some meaningless things.

That's the same with being in the spotlight. While it's good, but many times it's frustrating to satisfy ones' expectation every time. Stepping back is a win too in a way that we can get the whole picture of where we are and prioritize things we really want to do in life.

I am still the one who loves sitting at the back seat of the bus.

I just am.

Just Me

2010-03-06T21:21:00.001+07:00

I still remember the days when kids yelled at me saying that I was weird with my small eyes. It was back to 20 years ago when I was still living in Kapitan, a small village alongside Musi River. I felt like the ugliest kid in the world.

Pressure from kids are sometimes bigger from adults, just because they don't know why it happened. Even they don't really realize if they're different. Having said that, they don't know how to react to that bullying thing. I couldn't do anything but crying.

Today I watched a Chinese Cap Go Meh celebration from Chinese ethnics, attended by many Indonesia President and his ministers. It's long journey so Indonesian-born-Chinese get equality in living in here.

Back to Gus Dur presidential period the first time the inequality between non-Chinese and Chinese was erased. The spirit was continued by Megawati period when Chinese New Year became a national holiday.

I remember when I was a child I always took a day off from school in Chinese New year day, just because I really wanted to spend time with my whole family. It was love I looked for, seeing adults talking, eating, drinking and laughing like no more days to live. On top of that, getting 'angpau' from aunties and uncles was another mission. You must not miss that; the first time you really feel that you're the richest person in th world. =)

So, seeing how this country tries to erase inequality amongst its citizens, I feel so grateful. Debating and arguing about differences that may lead to conflict is so last decade. We don't move on.

GLEE describes perfectly on how we should live and answer community pressure when we have big nose; when we are a nerd; when we are out of community just because we have Chinese eyes; and when we always want to sit at the backside of our class just because our mom or dad said we were dumb. The casts of GLEE accept that they're different, become depressed (which is good phase of realizing that they have to wake up and show the world they ARE superstar) and move forward.

People called you big nose?
People called you
nerd?
People called you 'so gay'?
People didn't want to have lunch with
you just because you don't wear branded wardrobe?
People didn't want to hang
out with you just because you don't have cool job?
Or your boyfriend or
girlfriend kicked you out just because you are snoring when you're sleeping?

Screw them! Seriously. Before they judge your quality and point their fingers to your face, they need to make sure their fingers are clean.

I'm a big fan of living in harmony with differences. I learn from the monks in Cambodia to see things as neutral. Judging things as good and bad many times fails to make us live happily. We are too busy to judge things as good and bad, particularly when it comes to people. I don't think atheism as a bad thing; it's their choice to live their life. Knowing that there are people who don't believe in GOD is awesome, right? Do you think drinking alcohol is a bad thing? If you're gay or lesbian or hermaphrodite or whatever new words coming to our community, don't be shy! You don't need to keep yourself in the closet. You're the most beautiful creatures in this universe. Are you an asshole? First of all, everyone has an asshole, so we're all asshole. =) An asshole is human and there are good things in an asshole's heart. We just can't judge people just because they have different nose size with us.

We're all connected each other since the beginning of the civilization. We're one. And we will just finish our mission as one.

If you're different, then be proud of it! Keep on walking and make sure you wear good shoes.

Be in Love

2010-02-14T00:02:00.002+07:00

We're approaching Valentine's day. It's 23:51 now. In 9 minutes, we will celebrate the biggest party of being in love. It was what I thought 5 years back.

Believing it is just like drinking a glass of shameful wine. Strong attachment to that special day will not be beneficial for all. What we get is pressure rather than pleasure.

Being a single to celebrate Valentine is just like adding the pressure of being alone. We can celebrate the party of love everyday, whatsoever. Even when we're in a relationship, there is somehow a rule of thumb saying that we should have a nice and romantic dinner with our beloved one. For married one, there may be a problem when one of them doesn't take spouse out.

Well, that is a glass of shameful wine.

Everyday is special and we got lots of love here. Love is not only for spouse or partner; it's for everyone - even when you write a simple note to your ex-boss saying thank you for being a helpful boss, once in your lifetime.

Be in love!

Don’t Worry, Be Happy!

2010-02-10T22:41:00.002+07:00

We’re living in the world where when life complexity increases, we are not as happy as before. Say, compared to human in the Stone Age. With all limitations human had, they didn’t worry too much about things. Life is simple. Every time I traveled to villages and secluded places, I can see simplicity of life that brings smile and laughter into days. That’s what I miss from living in the village and rural area.

This is paradox of modern life; instead of having anything to make us happy, we start worrying about things in every single minute of our life. Technology, money, blackberry, notebook, emails, so on. All those things, in many cases, just make us stay longer in the office, finishing our job. We have technology that makes us working harder instead of simplifying things. I don’t against technology, productivity increases for sure when we use it right.

Last night when I was in Starbucks coffee and saw a couple laughing loudly, some other people looked at them awkwardly. Maybe they started thinking that laughing couple were crazy. I mean; crazy for being happy. Why bothers? No wrong with that. I enjoyed laughter, smiles and jokes; even though noises came into my ears and made me a bit distracted.

It’s happiness that everyone seeks in the modern life.

Stay happy, everyone!

Robby Williams featuring Hamsters, Vivie and Rati

2010-02-02T21:04:00.004+07:00

I thank everyone who has been giving unconditional love and putting smile on my days. You've been great in many ways. You're perfectly created to cherish others' life, even in the simplest way. And everyone in the life impacts other's life, once at least.

Three weeks back I hosted two Kiwis at my place who have made my days. We shook soul, danced and sang freely in the ocean of happiness. Not only had they brought so much fun into my days, they left personal relationship which will lasts forever. They have impacted my life in a beautiful way.

Once they left Jakarta.

And then when Tom was back to Jakarta to stay again at my place, he gave me a souvenir. It was created in love, cooked in creativity of two Kiwis; Thomas and Leigh.

Now I put it on the wall and I feel like a superstar; Robby Williams featuring hamsters, Vivie and Rati. Just like what they wrote on it. Check this out. I got two fans already.

Queen of the Hamsters

2010-02-02T20:48:00.003+07:00

Everything in this life happens for a reason. That is absolutely true, particularly when we are talking about friendship. From (500) days of Summer movie, it is said that love can happen even when we don't really expect it to come. It just happens at the same blink of eyes. Is it coincidence? Maybe not. That happens for friendship as well. This time I would like to show my gratitude to have known one of the most wonderful people I have ever known in my life. First time we met was two years ago. No chemistry for friendship. I have been so busy with my job and so was she. I don't think she could be as cool as I expected.

Until the day when I grew up hamsters and I really needed help to keep them safe whilst I was out of town shaking soul, enjoying awesomeness of Gili Trawangan last year. And it all started when, without knowing she was pregnant, Gratti gave birth. She was there to keep babies alive. That was the first time I knew somebody sent to fill my days with sweetest and spiciest friendship. Ever since we started enjoyed laziest days in Cimaja. Even universe conspired to arrange nice sunset for us.

She's open minded, something I never expected from her. She has opened her heart that wide for new friendships created by the time she knew me. At least this picture showed how fast she was adjusting herself into new things. Cimaja children love her, I guess. Her pure heart will always be the good mix with her b*tt (in a good way).

Keep being cool, queen of hamsters!

Lucky

2010-01-28T23:02:00.002+07:00

Here I am, sitting on my bed after long day working and transforming thoughts into actions. I feel so tired that what I need to do is only sleeping and hoping that hamsters won't shake butt and make noises all night long.

Today when I was waking up in the morning from my bed and trying to reach bathroom, my feet were slipped away that I almost fell down onto the floor. My head neither fell down nor hit the wall. With that, I felt so lucky.

Luck always comes into days, even at a point when we feel we are at the lowest level in life. There will be always smile and laugh for us. There will be always sun for us to forget darkness. For us, there will always be days to cherish and someone to love.

I was in Cimaja last weekend with fabulous P&Gers. We were four. But noise we made that day wasn't like one from four, at all. We felt so lucky that we were the only guest staying at Oddies.

And we were so lucky to see one of the best sunsets in the lifetime. Really. For me, it was really one of the best ones. Check this out.

I felt so lucky to have seen that sunset when I was back home to Cimaja; just like when I woke up this morning and nothing bad happened to me.

Namaste

Kiwi Are Shy and Usually Nocturnal

2010-01-18T08:22:00.002+07:00

“Life is far too important to talk seriously about.” Oscar Wilde

I never thought before that kiwis would make up my days. I thought kiwis, literally, are shy and quiet. I thought they were nocturnal, but then I realized that these kiwis are special.

They are not nocturnal, their sleeping schedule suits mine. Their dancing skills are just exceptionally good for Equinox so people just watched them and admired their butt-shaking skill. Even though they are not nocturnal, they enjoy late night conversation talking and bullshiting about seaweed, Fajar and balls. And oh yes, they used all of them in one sentence. We would love eating seaweed on Fajar balls soon.

And the other good thing is those kiwis didn’t eat my hamsters for the breakfast. Birds don’t eat mammals, I guess. Okay, OFF from talking about zoo. They’re gone now. Frankly to say, I miss those jokes and all night long laugh. I’m gonna find kiwis (literally) in the zoo later to check if they are funny too.

Gotta shake soul in the office today with tons of work to do.

I (Think I) Can

2010-01-08T20:45:00.004+07:00

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow." ~Einstein

Many times I (think I) have lots of energy to do things. I (think I) can do anything, thinking that I should bring my life to the fullest.

I love traveling and many times I plan for 2-3 vacations in advance. I create future in my mind how the next vacations look like. Most of them run well. We shook soul like no more days to live. I thank all closest friends who have been bringing so much awesomeness into my days. You know who you are.

In addition, I love my job. It's been 5 years working for Procter&Gamble. I used to complain about everything at the first 2 years, I guess. Life is fabulous when I started thinking that being grateful is way better than complaining.

Those first two have taken lots of my energy. Don't get me wrong, I love doing those two things.

I join couchsurfing.com 4 years ago that allows me to meet many like-minded travelers who love hosting travelers. Not only has it brought so much happiness in my life, it also gives me chance to meet many locals in Jakarta and travelers from all around the world. Sometimes it takes my energy too much; karaoke, gathering, clubs, late night dinner and beer session. I love talking, bullshiting, shaking butt with new travelers and hosting them. Hosting is the perfect example of one of the best things in life; giving. Giving hugs to travelers, opening arms when travelers really need it.

Lately I has been growing up awesome creatures in my room. Two cool babies named Gratti and Gratte. Their names are the expression of world of plenty, grateful. Abundance feeling. It is such an alarm system that anytime I see them, I need to be grateful. It sounds corny, but what a heck. Most of the time they're funny and delicate, but sometimes they are so annoying when they made noises when I was sleeping. I am just enjoying the goods and the bads happening to me from the first time I committed to grow them up. Now from the cool G&G, I have 7 babies. It's even more annoying if I start thinking that they are annoying. Again, it takes lots of energy to grow them up.

Last month we just came back from some vacations, some of the best I think. We didn't go abroad; local beaches and mountains in Indonesia are as cool as ones in other countries. Needless to say, december was the biggest celebration of life for us with all Christmas dinners, soul shaking on the beach whilst surfing up, Dieng Plateau exploration which has brought so much good college memories, butt shaking session in karaoke and clubs, hosting, and many more.

All is good. I love them.

Days before NYE, I hosted Clayton from states and we had interview session with Koran Jakarta (it is published already). The first day I arrived in Jakarta after Dieng Plateau trip I got chance to host Sebastian from Germany, who is one of the most friendly guests I ever had.

With the hectic December and January, I'm really exhausted. Again I love doing all those things and I'm really enjoying the now. My positive feeling always says I can. It turns out I think I can. I need to let my body take its break for awhile.

Surfing time should be awesome.

Stay fabulous and be in love, everyone!

Live High in Dieng Plateau, 2090 Meters Above the Sea

2010-01-03T13:33:00.002+07:00

I'm in the traditional village 2090 meters high above the sea, with fabulous friends from my college. While we were reaching the village, which is said to be one of the highest villages in Java, we couldn't see anything but smog. Which is cool and different experience for us. The village was so cool that fingers freezed. The warmth of Hindu temples stayed us warm inside and we admired the awesomeness this cool village. I'm giving my high five to the first villagers building this village; ancestor from Hinduism kingdom in Java.

This morning we climbed the peak of Dieng to see the sunset. We started when the sun was still down at the back of the mountain. The peak is covered by pine trees and the steps are quite steep. Been a long time I didn't work out, I tried so hard to climb it. It's that my body cells burnt the calorie to get some energy. I pushed myself to reach the peak; committed to see the light at the top. We finally reached there and the peak was pretty cool, surrounded by thick smog; feeling like being in the ground above the cloud.

"Dieng" itself comes from "Di Hyang" which means Above of the Gods. Dieng Plateau, located near Wonosobo, Central Java, is a marshy plateau that forms the floor of a caldera complex on the Dieng active volcano complex. There are about 8 small Hindu temples from the century of 7th and 8th. They are the oldest Hindu temples in Central Java and the first known standing stone structures in Java. The details in the temples here have similarity with ones in Angkor Wat, Buddha temples in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Temples structures in Dieng were generally smaller than Angkor Wat.

Be fabulous in life and safe travel back to where you started!

Live high!

Fabulously in Love

2009-12-25T22:26:00.003+07:00

This is Christmas and all we need to do is giving love. In Christianity history, Christ came to the world as a perfect example how Father gave the most precious He has; His Son. Christ died, sacrificed Himself for the people salvation. It ain’t simple. Love is the biggest tagline for every Christmas time. It’s not about the religion; it’s all about love.

“My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.” Dalai Lama

This year, I have been spending much of my time on the road; shaking soul with some greatest friends (you know who you are). The last time I traveled was for business; Bangkok with P&Gers. Right when I was feeling so excited in the city of Angels, I felt bad that I didn’t come home for quite long time. That’s why I decided to spend time on this Christmas just at home. Home is good, as well as being on the road. I feel being loved in this family, regardless fighting and loud voices I hear everyday.

I hope you guys have blasted days too in this Christmas. I hope you guys being in love. Keep practicing gratitude; it’s the best thing in life to be grateful everyday, even if it’s about all simplest things.

Rise up this mornin',
Smiled with the risin' sun,
Three little birds
Pitch by my doorstep
Singin' sweet songs
Of melodies pure and true,
Sayin', ("This is my message to you-ou-ou:")

Singin': "Don't worry 'bout a thing,
'Cause every little thing gonna be all right.
"Singin': "Don't worry (don't worry) 'bout a thing,
'Cause every little thing gonna be all right!"

- Bob Marley

Keep being happy, no matter what. Don’t worry too much about you and life; life’s good. Be fabulous and confident; you can conquer the world. Keep telling the person in the mirror, “You’re beautiful!”, even if you need to stand on your toe because you’re too short.

“Walk like you’re hot; shake soul like no more days to live; broadcast
yourself to the world like you have your own radio station.”
Merry Christmas everyone!

Be in love.

A River Moving in You; A Joy

2009-12-21T07:57:00.005+07:00

What I like from living attitude of gratitude is that it’s not a complicated rocket science. It’s for everyone to apply everyday to have great life.

Most of the time we can’t live gratefully just because too many distractions in our day! It’s not that we can’t do it; it’s an easy thing to do, it’s more on if we can come out from the distractions, structure our mind and be grateful everyday.

I got some simple things I have been doing lately that help me to live gratefully. That leads to living happily. It’s still not perfect, still many days of being pushed down to the ground because of unfavorable things; at least I try to.

1. Go vacation and shake soul. Vacation is the perfect example on how doing nothing, go slowly and breathe the life. When we’re on vacation, we expect nothing while the whole universe offers everything abundantly; air to breathe, water to drink, wave to ride on, laughter to enjoy and stars to admire. Our soul is shaken like our butt shaken being in the club, dancing.

“There is life beyond deadlines and excel spreadsheet templates”

I am grateful to have surfed Cimaja wave with beloved companions; Boxu, Betty, Wi Wie, Jhon, Mariza, Santi and all the local surfers. Not only had they brought so much joy; they are acute laid-back that I didn’t need to think a lot to make everyone feeling comfortable in a lazy days in Cimaja.

2. Having pets. Having pets can be the source of happiness. When we find unfavorable things in a day, seeing funny faces of our pets can change the whole day! Seriously. I have hamsters named Gratti and Gratte; a perfectly expression of being grateful in life and a reminder to stay on top of things to be thankful for what I have in life. Gratti and Gratte came from ‘grateful’. Though they’re bugging me, screaming at me when there’s no food to eat; I am still grateful to have them in the room. When I’m awake, they’re sleeping; when I’m sleeping in the middle of the night, they’re awake and making noises. It’s a laughter that they’re making after all; how can I kick their ass out from my room?

“When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy” Rumi

3. Work less. I’m a big fan of procrastination. Human tends to do nothing; it is our economy-based life pushing us to work. At the beginning of the life, people didn’t work. They received anything from the universe. Just because they did something wrong; they needed to work. If I can, I prefer not to work. But most of the time, for most of people, we need to work hard. If we can’t be super-rich people who don’t maybe need to work; work less by simplifying our work processes.

4. Sing a lot, shake butt a lot. Music (and being in the situation that we need to dance) is one of the best ways to relieve our soul. Sing-a-long with friends, sing alone in the room, or playing music in the middle of the night can be the source of your joy.

“The art of living is more like dancing than wrestling”

Happy shaking soul!

F-U-N-ny Days

2009-11-20T00:50:00.003+07:00

I have been walking thru my days with my lazy ass every morning, hoping that these busy days will pass easily. WTF, rather than having easy days, I have been feeling that I am not on top of worries and bad feelings everyday. Woman on top did it better than I do.

Even if it’s only about doing the easiest task. I guess it’s because I feel deadlines killed me away. One quote from Paulo Coelho is so kicking-ass, “There is life beyond deadlines and excel template spreadsheets.”

I keep telling myself that even when I am at the busiest days in my life; I still need to have fun. I still need to celebrate life by enjoying simplest things in life – starring at hamsters making love, joining friends talking about 2012 and maybe, enjoying video made by one of the couchsurfers dancing like Rihanna to win her heart to (finally) come to Jakarta. Even tweets, tweeting and re-tweet from friends about #tebakfilmtranslate and #tebakbandtranslate can be fun too (do you know that there’s international singer which in Indonesian is ‘wanita Sardin’, but in English it becomes ‘Lady Gaga’? Or, a movie with Indonesian translation of “Gila, dalem banget masuknya!” which turns out to be “Deep Impact”).

So, by having a feeling and being pessimistic about the start of the day, we can ruin the days by our self. We don’t even need friends complaining about raining days, traffic jam, or failure to get 2012 movie tickets, just to ruin our days. We can just ruin the days at the blink of an eye in the morning when we wake up.

So, you and I just need to tell to ourselves, “Just relax, I won’t worry my life!” I need you to say it to remind me how good the life is.

Meanwhile, enjoy this clip and it’s good to see how one’s energy transformed into a big fun party! Maybe the fun you enjoy today will be resonated into greater fun for 7 generations to come?

Life is Good: "Go Easy With Yourself", "Off from Technology" and "Being Mindful"

2009-11-03T20:46:00.008+07:00

picture taken by Andri Prihutomo; a friend, photographer, traveler and devoted life enjoyer

6. Off from technology.

I bought this idea of living in solitude 6 months ago. The rationale is really simple, paradox of technology: instead of making life simpler, it adds complexity. It increases number of interaction with everything in life. Having said that life is abundant with unlimited components inside it, the complexity increases exponentially.

Blackberry, laptop, messenger, facebook, twitter, any social networking site. The key is you know when to stop, when your body and mind really need to live in solitude.

If being off from technology is too extreme for you because you really need it, there are many things you can do: put appear-off-line/unavailable status in your messenger, stop notification email of your networking site, use filter for your email account, leave irrelevant groups in your email account.

7. Being mindful and live in present.

Doing one thing at a time. Multitasking may be good way to do things, but it's not the best one. I believe that the best thought is the result of being mindful in one thing. The power of less. Doing less is fulfilling because it makes us feel relaxed and we have confidence to finish things.

picture taken by Faisal Reza; a friend, photographer, traveler and a fulltime-proscatinator

Doing thing slowly. Doing things slowly will bring out the best solution, as a result of being thoughtful, for all involved - our self, business partner, family. Vacation! No best moment to enjoy life and practicing mindful life but vacation. We can move slowly without any pressure. We eat slowly. We walk slowly. No deadline. We don't push our self to hard. There is life beyond deadlines and excel spreadsheet templates.

Life is Good: "Live Gratefully" and "Eliminate Drain People"

2009-11-03T19:51:00.004+07:00

There are many books telling us how to be happy. They push us to say, 'life is good' while it doesn't seem easy to say so. We say 'life is a bitch' instead.

In this post, I don't want to say that these principles are the best for living a good life. I find it is a very personal thing to walk on our own way and find the perfect rhythm that suits us the best. Sometimes it's annoying when people tell you to do this and that.

What I have been learning on how to have good life.
1. Keep it simple and quick.
2. Reduce options.
3. Stop over-reacting and live gratefully.
4. Eliminate the drain people.
5. Don't be to hard to yourself.
6. Off from technology.
7. Being mindful and live in present.

This post is about on how to deal with mental fight and how to handle people who drag us down. On the last post, on now to treat ourself as a king in our own, nurturing and treating ourself fairly.

3. Stop over-reacting and live gratefully. I find that complaining whores are the best actors and actresses on the stage of good life! Some people keep complaining about things, even when the air-cond is just a little bit hotter than usual. It's good to complain, because we know things don't meet our expectation. Things are just not okay. But if that's too much, that's impacting us, our mood and happiness. Fact of life: billions of reasons everyday to complain if we want to: traffic jam, waiting time, air pollution, raining, your best friend having lunch with others, your ex forgets you, your shoes are too tight, many more. You name it and it can be a complaint, at the same blink of an eye.

Why would complain on simplest things when we have great life, great family, great food to eat everyday, air to breathe, one more day to live? For me, key is focusing on big great things to eliminate small unfavorable things.

Live gratefully, whores! Life is just as simple as shaking butt.

4. Eliminate the drain people. This is hard and not easy, but if we do, we eliminate heavy weight. We think relationship and friendship in general are given, so we try to hard, in a nice way, to keep them up even when we find that those relationships have been dragging down us too much. Some relationships cannot be eliminated, while some others are to-do-list. Some say it's anti-social, but it's not.

Complainers, victims, needy, angry, drama queen are the best ones to complete your days with bad mood. We can help them; I always do try keeping them up, keep the interaction with them, talk to them and entertain them. But spending the whole day with those kinds of people is not a good idea, unless we're a super-positive person. My humannes always says I can't handle spending hours with drain people, even when I try so hard to be positive.

My best way to keep myself up dealing with these people are knowing when to stop, instead of removing them from life. Spend time less with them. Manage expectation with them. Communication is the key, as well, so they will understand why they should not drag down everyone, including us.

Life is Good: "Keep it Simple" and "Reduce Options"

2009-11-01T22:01:00.004+07:00

There are many books telling us how to be happy. They push us to say, 'life is good' while it doesn't seem easy to say so. We say 'life is a bitch' instead.

In this post, I don't want to say that these principles are the best for living a good life. I find it is a very personal thing to walk on our own way and find the perfect rhythm that suits us the best. Sometimes it's annoying when people tell you to do this and that.

What I have been learning on how to have good life.
1. Keep it simple and quick.
2. Reduce options.
3. Stop over-reacting and live gratefully.
4. Eliminate the drain people.
5. Don't be to hard to yourself.
6. Off from technology.
7. Being mindful and live in present.

In this post, it's all about simplicity, the first two. On the second post, on how to deal with mental fight and how to handle people who drag us down. On the last post, on now to treat ourself as a king in our own, nurturing and treating ourself fairly.

1. Keep it simple and quick. I don't want to say this, but it's true. We tend to complicate things, particularly me. Along the way, I find happiness lies in the simplest things in life.

We automatically add non-added value things into our daily lives and work. We want to look cool because we can think in a complicated way. We think it is smart. If we want to go from one point to another, just take a straight line. That's the simplest. Life and everything is this world is abundant with unlimited options, so it is really impossible to consider all things.

2. Reduce options. Having said that this universe is abundant, we can't take all options. We have options everyday and sometimes we over-commit to take all options just because we're afraid of loosing opportunity. We are afraid of saying no. No is just a no, why complicates a simple no? It just is. Too many options will kill us.

I have been trying lately to say no easily when I don't want to. I have been living for years being so over-considerate, but it kills me. My best learning on taking decision (it can be a yes, as well) is that I spent to much time to ponder the decision. Too many what-ifs.

Don't know what movie to watch? Pick the first one that attracts you. Don't know what dress to use? Choose the ugliest one - what a heck. If you're okay with that. But if you don't, pick randomly. Don't like your job? Quit.

Enjoy Life at 30!

2009-10-10T15:58:00.003+07:00

For those who have been feeling too old to enjoy life, regardless how old you are, do enjoy life!

Some people really think that being above 30 is hard age! Going to the clubbing for us is 'not for me' statement now, because we think that the place is just full of fucking playful teenagers. We think we are not into it. In our daily life, we worry about what people think about our wrinkles, our hair loss, our big belly, our white hair, our loosing interest of things and many more. You name it.

Worry is the story we tell to our self. We over-reacted it as a drama just to express how bad our life is. The other times we use it to get sympathy. And many times we do it just because we can't control our mind; we unconsciously say that shit over and over again, as a result of years of habit.

And our economy-based life makes it worse. Is my job cool ~~boring~~? Do I look good ~~feel tortured~~ in a party? Do I take the cool ~~fucking boring~~ subject in university just like my parents and others want me to take? Do I use the wardrobe normally so people can accept my normal yet ~~common~~ boring look? Do I have a sexy butt just like my favorite porn star has?

Life is empty and meaningless. If no one lives, it's empty. If billions of humans live in this world without effort to make it meaningful, it's still empty. It's us who put meaning in life- otherwise it's still empty and meaningless. And having meaningful life is nothing to do with our years of life. Instead of seeing our self as 30 years old doing nothing, just try to see us having 50 years afterward with endless, countless possibility for our self.

Nothing is wrong in this world unless you tell yourself it is wrong. So, enjoy your life at 30. Tell everyone that it is awesome ~~hard~~ age, playful ~~boring~~ and let's see how life changes afterward.

For woman with wrinkle, we love the maturity ~~wrinkle~~ you bring to life!

Happiness in Your Work

2009-10-08T21:39:00.001+07:00

A man comes toward to two people working for a skyscraper and they are building the foundation of it. He asks, "What are you doing?"

The first one sarcastically says, "What does it look like I'm doing? I'm just moving the material over and over everyday. Boring"

The second one enthusiastically says, "I'm doing the most important thing of building a skyscraper and saving many lives in the future."

So, many people complaining about work and rather than focusing on contribution they are giving to bosses or company, they are focusing on small bad things. There are billions of reasons that we can come up with about the things we don't like about our job. To be fair, there are exactly the same billions of reasons we can come up with about things we're excited with our job. It's just about perception.

So, if you don't like your job, just quit - that's the best. Otherwise, find those billions of exciting things in your job: boss shaking butt or sexy co-worker whose eyes always try to seduce you.

Live high!

Vietnam & Cambodia Journal Sept 09

2009-10-02T18:37:00.004+07:00

Getting notification from AirAsia about new route to Saigon was just like a blast in my heart, so it beat so fast I couldn't believe that in just 15 minutes I got email in my inbox, "You should go to Saigon on Sept the 18th!" The quickest decision of travel plan I ever made.

A month before departing to Saigon was one of the confusing time in my life. Being stagnant in my mind, I was struggling with what I really wanted in life. Taking risk was as hard as standing myself on my surfing board, really couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel. While I realized it happened many times in my life, it was one of the worst. I sluggishly lived my days. Everytime I woke up a day after a sleep, I would have expected I had something new in the morning.

And booking the ticket in a blink of an eye was just an unplanned decision I made. Looking back to 9 days I had in Vietnam and Cambodia, I felt relieved. I believe there was always light and joyous celebration at the end of the tunnel. Always.

Being traveled 1500 miles away from home, I forgot how unplanned the travel plan was. But it was just like any other traveler who could always find their ways back home. It's been 27 years living life, I still found it was great to have got the lesson of the roadtrip dad had taught me before, 18 years back on the tiring road from Palembang to Jakarta. Before departing to Saigon, my heart was always being joyful from the first time getting message from Natasha which led my feet into the whopping big boat party with completely more than 60 strangers. Being drunk was just the small part on the opera of celebrating life.

The smile of sweet couple, Alex and Anju, was delightful, even much better than being drunk itself. It was just damn good to meet someone when I felt like a stranger in the city. They are just brother and sister I met, 1000 years ago in previous life. Smiles in Saigon would never be enough without them as well: Adam and Steve, Austin, Kat and other 60 people I met there!

Being far from home, it was always awesome to meet Indonesian, Bill and Yani, that I could talk without being stupid pronouncing English. I was so lucky having difficulty filling my arrival card that I had chance to start conversation with them. Again, from completely strangers to friends that I would always be comfortable to spend the time with.

Packing anything in just 10 minutes and sleeping just 1 hour after boat party to take another journey afterward were just easy to do - faith that in just one hour my eyes would see another beauty in life. I did. Faith that there would always be place to sleep, just like what in Saigon, where Viet graciously offered place to stay in his nice apartment. I did hope to have missed my day tour to Mekong Delta, expecting I still had more days to enjoy Saigon and meet nicest people in there. But I needed to let go.

I joked myself to walk alone in the middle of the night in Phnom Penh and it was the silliest joke the universe ever heard, I guess. THAT laughed so hard. It was just a coincidence that I could walk without being robbed in the downtown of the city. I wasted no time in the city to see how genocide could do that such a worst thing in life, killing hundreds of thousands people without appreciating how joyful a life should be for everyone. How meaningful the time killed people might have spent with loved ones. How precious for a mother to spend the day with her one-month baby, even it was just for couple of minutes.

At least the beauty and charm of two Germans, Birthe and Jana, have changed the whole depressing things in the city into the awesomeness of traveling together for a week. I threw away the hesitation of how awkward the feeling would be being with strangers. They are sisters from far-away land. The awesomeness of Angkor beer was just incomplete without the genuine smile of Putu Resi, an Indonesian girl who had spent time with me planning the trip.

Undoubtedly I walked down the street in Siem Reap with faith that being in the biggest religious place in the world was just incomplete without having a laid-back conversation with monk. Being good to all people was just the confirmation of what I had been practicing over the past 6 months. Karma was just logical thing I started to believe the first time in my life. I started believing that the coolest people in life wasn't Jason Mraz, but monks.

One morning after being so drunk in Siem Reap, I celebrated life quietly at the corner of Angkor Wat, alone with songbird, grass field and warm sunlight in one morning. I clapped hands rejoicing how great life I had, how great life people had.

"For you, there will be no crying
For you, the sun will always be shining
For you, the songbird will keep singing like no more days

For you, there will always be morning
For you, there will always be sweetness to taste
For you, there will always be air to breathe
For you, there will always be smile to keep you up
For you, there will always be moment to cherish

Food to eat
Places to see
Lips to kiss
Beard to shave
Luna and darkness to make you sleep
Past to forget
Future to embrace

Best friend to be with
Laughter to lift your bad mood
Problems to solve
Song to sing

For you, universe will be always loves you"

The 216 smiling faces in Bayon, the 2 days of being in sacred place, the thousands of people from all over the world witnessing how magnificent humankind's creature could be have brought countless blessing in 3 days in Siem Reap.

And it was just as big as countless smile and laughter of the 3 people I met in siem Reap: Ben, Love and Matthias. Cheek to cheek, shoulder to shoulder, ass to ass and hugs were the best way to warm ourselves in the midst of raining, in the middle of the night whilst driving two wheels of moving object in the downtown of the city. Hand to hand, heart to heart, beer to beer. Shaking butt was the coolest thing we did in the city whilst speaking the same language of love. Be in love. 'Poooop' sound created by a bottle of Angkor beer and chopstick was the best way to describe how playful our nights in Siem Reap were. We playfully changed our mind.

I could always find home, back to Jakarta. I hope we can find our way to meet again someday, brothers and sisters! And there will always be a start for traveler.

Happy celebrating life!

The past is always something to remember

2009-10-02T18:25:00.003+07:00

Hopeless faces. Cut-throat of prisoners. The classroom with fully-blooded dead body. Ghostly room with steel bed. The quietness of white-painted wall. The past of Tuol Sleng museum is written on the wall. My one day trip in Phnom Penh is a highlight because of Tuol Sleng museum, a used-to-be school building which lately Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) used for interrogating, torturing and killing people who against communism revolution.

It was back to April 17, 1975, the first time when CPK initiated revolution of the government, which formerly led by Sihanouk king, and brought the entire country into sufferings and sadness. Their principle is to build their own country without help from outside and apply communism idealism to revive from its disability. Anyone against, or suspected to be traitor of the government, will be kidnapped and moved to Tuol Sleng, or S21, to be interrogated, tortured and finally brought to Killing Field of Choeung Ek to be executed.

Most of Cambodians, who had been in S21 before, were executed and died in Killing Field.

From 1975 to 1979, more or less 20 thousand of people have died, killed brutally in the killing field. Phnom Penh was once like a ghost city when Cambodians went out from the city after Khmer Rouge propaganda that USA would destroy PP just like Japan's Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The mass movement of all its population created famine and disease, whilst people moved out to the village.

No education. No social status. No religion. No religious symbol. No currency. No human rights. Well-educated people were killed because of the threat against the government. No enough food for all people. No right to choose. No right to speak in freedom. No peaceful. What existed was sadness, suffering and cries.

When Vietnamese troops invaded PP in 1979, they found many killed people in S21 and killing field. The city was just like a ghost. That was the time Khmer Rouge surrendered to Vietnamese.

That is the description how depressing the museum is. Very depressing that no one talked loudly or put smile on their face whilst touring around the museum. Since it happened just 30 years ago, the pictures of people just minutes before executed just looked so present. Many more pictures of people died with cut throat, without head, broken face and blooded-body.

If I have only 1 hour in PP, then Tuol Sleng is the best option. It's a story from the past that everybody can learn - that freedom to talk, to choose, to live freely and to choose whatever religion, idealism to believe. It is the highest state of being a human.

Other places to see in PP are Royal Palace, Killing Field of Choeung Ek, Wat Phnom and National Museum. And it's just great to travel around the city with friends: Birthe and Jana from Germany. We ended up the day by having nice dinner at Riverside Bistro resto, which was quite expensive but very nice place. Later on, Puput, CS from Semarang came over to join us.Finished the dinner, I joined Nial, Jess and Micky, local couchsurfers to drink awesomely cheap beers, 50c for a big glass! I got three glasses of awesomeness.

OFF to bed now

Same Same but Different

2009-09-25T15:12:00.001+07:00

September 21, 09 - on the Mekong river in the border of Vietnam and Cambodia

I am on the boat in the border between Vietnam and Cambodia, whilst seeing life alongside the river. The boat is actually full of foreigners and locals. There are around 20 people inside with all bags, uncomfortable seats and hot weather inside the boat. Having said that, I feel awesome.

Sometimes it's just good to feel how life here in a very rural part of the world. And whatever happens in physical world is the reflection of our mind game. So, I feel so good, welcoming sunshine and enjoying this local boat.

Then I remember how easy life was in 7 Ulu Kapitan, alongside Musi River, Palembang, the place where I was born. The fun of swimming in the river. The playful feeling whilst playing with friends the whole day. The quietness of the night in the village. Those are what I imagine now. And I really miss life in the village. Same same, but different.

And the feeling whilst moving from one place to another is really great. It's just like opening the gate to other great things in the new place. I don't know things I'll see in the next few hours, but I'm excited to do so, whatever it is.

And it is a mix of fear, excitement, worries and everything. Heart is pumping quite hard. I really like it.

Okay, in 3 hours I will be in Phnom Penh. I'm getting so excited particularly with the story about people killed in Khmer Rouge era, when Pol Pot lead the country. This genocide happened between 1975 to early 1979, when hundreds of thousands Cambodian being tortured and killed.

Enjoying warm breeze in the border, OFF to sleep now.

Note: crossing border to Cambodia from Vietnam thru Mekong Delta is easy. USD 41 2D1N tour will bring you to some spots in Mekong Delta, stay overnight on the boat (which is awesome!). A day after, they will take you to the border and to Phnom Penh. All administrative work for visa on arrival will be arranged by the tour and VOA itself is USD 22. And same same is cool words I have been hearing quite often when I was in Vietnam.

Saigon, Where Beauty and Awesomeness Are Caught in the Same Blink of an Eye

2009-09-25T15:11:00.001+07:00

Written on the boat in Mekong Delta whilst relaxing and enjoying river view - Sept 20, 2009

Spending 2 nights in Saigon was just so awesome. I'm on the boat somewhere in Mekong Delta now, giggling imagining how fun, crazy and relaxing the city was.

The first day I arrived in HCM, I was welcomed by the warmth of Vietnamese smile. Mr. Khai, which is Viet's driver, picked me up from the airport to his apartment. Viet used to be my ex-boss in P&G and he graciously opened up his apartment for cheap bastard traveler like me. Not only did he open up his door for me to stay, he opened up his refrigerator; full of beer and wine, as well. But since I went out a lot, I only managed to drink his Budweiser.

If you were in the city, I might have been drunk in your apartment, Viet. :)

The one day city tour in HCM was awesome. It all started in Pham Ngu Lao, a backpacker street in the downtown of the city. It is basically street full of hostels, tour agent and bar/resto/cafe. Spending just 1 hour in this crowded area, I booked everything for my one day trip to Mekong Delta and Chu Chi tunnel trip.

Then the smile of Mr. Khai welcomed me again somewhere on Pham Ngu Lao street.

Rest of the daytime, I visited some must-see spots in HCM. Independence Palace is the place where the head of this country lived and led its people. It is basically full of rooms to welcome high-rank guest from other countries, to conduct meeting, dinner and some other government occasions. The place itself was initially used by former South Vietnam government, which was controlled by America.

On April 30, 1975, the troops from Northern Vietnam, called North Vietnamese Army (NVA) invaded the building, took over the formal government led by USA and pushed army to get out from the country. That was when Vietnam reunification started.

The highlight in Saigon for me is War Remnants Museum. If I had only 1 hour and needed to pick one place to see, it must have been only this museum. It tells story about the sufferings during USA colonial repression. They co-led with South Vietnam government to build its position in South Vietnam, with Saigon as its capitol. Later on they changed Saigon to Ho Chi Minh, after reunification.

What special in this museum, on top of story about USA colonial repression, is the story about Agent Orange and the suffering it created for that particular generation and one generation ahead after USA threw that toxic chemical material to Vietnam land. It killed many people, created birth defects to many babies and destroyed healthy environment. The museum itself is a bit depressing, but worth to visit though.

The rest of the daytime I visited Notre Dame church, Post Office building and Ho Chi Minh museum. The first two are the buildings made by French, which was built under French colony started on 1883. Notre Dame is very nice, standing in the midst of business district in the city. Post Office with its interesting detail inside is good as well. I sent postcard to a close friend. You know who you are. :)

As for the lunch, I brought Mr. Khai to try popular BBQ Pork Broken Rice in Nguyen Du Street, opposite to Coffee Bean Metropolitan, right at the Notre Dame Church. The place was recommended by Viet and Willy. I tried Pork BBQ + Chinese Sausage + Pork/Egg Paste + Vegie Soup and Passion Fruit - a full of awesomeness in very hot day in Saigon.

In the evening, I met Bill and Yani who are Indonesian I met on the plane to Ho Chi Minh a day before. We went to Natasha's Boat/farewell/birthday party, which was on the boat on the Saigon river.

There are crazily around 50 people, most of them are couchsurfers, having great time with all drinks, foods and positive party attitude. We ended up the night until 5 AM in the morning, doing club-hopping. I managed to sleep only 1 hour at Viet's apartment. I headed to Mekong Delta in the morning.

Very relaxing day in Mekong Delta - most of the time I am on the boat, at the back of the boat - stretching, laying supine.

Having said that I had great day tour in Saigon, it was just nothing if I didn't meet great people in Saigon. Mr. Khai with his warm personality of Vietnamese. Viet, who I couldn't manage to meet, who graciously offered his very nice apartment for a cheap bastard traveler. For all couchsurfers I met on the party; Natasha the superstar, Alex 'pa*e ta ch*tt*' guy, Anju 'the only member of tonic-tonic club', Adam and Steven who were the party magnet, my lovely gin-apple juice friend Kat, and many more couchsurfers who brightened up my day in Saigon.

I had a blast there and I hope you too have a blasted day! My last words in this note: drink responsibly. :)

Have a blast!

About Traveling and Spiritual Journey

2009-09-18T14:30:00.001+07:00

I'm in the airport heading to Ho Chi Minh for another backpacking trip. Having come too early, I am sitting on a seat in Dunkin' Donuts, enjoying my chocolate croissant whilst writing this note.

Some people really can't get the idea of traveling too much. Some people are traveling too much, for me. While standing here in the airport, my sister may be standing on the mountain somewhere in Rinjani. For me, she has been traveling a lot more than me, lately. So some people really travel that much.

And I keep questioning, "Why you travel that much?"

Based on my experience, in the beginning people travel because they want to see places, and unfortunately they are touristic places. They usually see places as many as they can do in their tiring day. If they need to push themselves, they will do.

But it will stop at the moment when they appreciate spiritual journey rather than trying to see all possible places to see.

It is about neither religion nor to what god you're praying too, but it's more on how you discover yourself.

When we travel, we will meet many strangers who will open up our mind to new things. We see that life is full of people with different skin color, perspective, sexual orientation, habits and the way of seeing life. We accept the idea of living life with differences unifying life rather than ruining it. At the end of the day, we are practicing love that makes us all one.

When we travel, we will have sometime being alone. When we are alone and we leave our past behind where we are from, what would we do? Will we act in different way - the way we talk to people, the way we treat people, the way we treat our biggest secret, and the most important, the way we treat our self? Have we been fair to our self?

I love calling it as 'discovering our self'. Being in hectic life everyday may make us not knowing who we are. And when we travel, we release the past with ease - no one knows you in the city!

"I don't use yesterdays mental garbage to create tomorrows experiences. I create new thoughts. I release the past with ease."

I was thrilled last week after re-watching 'Seven Years in Tibet'. And it is the perfect example of opening self to spiritual journey, rather than being a, tourist.

So, rather than trying to see all places in the city, for me, having great spiritual journey is more fulfilling. It changes life forever. Priceless.

And I know some of you are now on the road, enjoying life, sun, moon and snacks on your hands. I hope you have a life-changing journey back to your home.

Happy Idul Fitri, everyone!

OFF now - for a week, maybe.

I am different but I am proud of myself

2009-09-14T11:06:00.002+07:00

“Did you do it today? Saying I love you to the person in the mirror”
-anonymous

I woke up this morning and excitedly headed to the mirror in my bathroom, and said, “I love you”. Well, it’s maybe a bit exaggerating, uncool but what a heck. If that will make the whole day the best one in my life, why wouldn’t I do that?

Though you are still naked, why would you care? Your room is your world.

You may be an unwanted person in your community. People don’t really ask to have lunch with you. You may not be as tall as the people around you and when you’re in a concert, you need to stand on tiptoes to see your superstar. You may not be the best performer in your team, and somehow you are too hard to yourself, keep pushing yourself to be the same with perfect people in your team. You may be a person bullied everyday and it makes you think, “Am I really that bad?”

But it’s the right time for us to love our self. Appreciate our self. We’re simply beautiful people in the world. We’re just as beautiful as the most handsome or the most beautiful superstar, in a different way. It’s okay to be different. Living in colorful world is much better than living in black & white. It’s time for us to say, “I AM different but I’m proud of my self.” It’s time for short people to be in concert, stand on tiptoes and sing out loud!

Luna

2009-09-08T21:30:00.000+07:00

On my way back home, I see dark-yellow sun from the front seat of my car. As if the luna knows that this is end of the trip.
The sky is cloudy and romantically gloomy. I love the feeling of ending a trip. Fulfilling as we take something from the earth for us to give back to community, daily life and friends. It can be smile for every morning in the next few days. New spirit of doing things. Be in love, tirelessly.

Oh Luna, you are beautiful. You're flawless in your way.

And what I like from this feeling is that I still have faith that the journey will never end. This is only small step in the whole big journey. OFF now.

What Are You Deleting From Your Life Today?

2009-09-07T20:51:00.003+07:00

Our life becomes much more complicated lately since information era came in. We can describe life as system with its components and relationships. Relationship exists from two components interaction. Since information era came in, it’s been easier for two components to interact in a way we couldn’t imagine before. When number of relationship increases; number of transaction, conflict, commitment and appointment increase as well. It adds complication in life. When we’re overwhelmed with many things in life, we may want to start thinking of deleting things in our life. At the end of the day, we want simple life that leads to happiness.

This is how system, component and relationship work. Two components interact and they create relationship. If the first component interacts with the third component, it creates another relationship. When the number of component in life increases, the number of relationship increases as well at a disproportionate rate.

It works this way; one component creates no relationship, two components create one relationship, three components create three relationships, four components create six relationships, a hundred components create 4950 relationships. When the number of component increases arithmetically, the number of relationship increases geometrically. And it goes like this.

It’s quite geeky but understanding of this concept is worth it.

Life goes that way too. We have relationships with things in life; friend, parents, blackberry, car, pets, even if it’s only about our stamp collection. And when the number of things relating to us increases, the relationship increases at disproportionate rate and we need to spend more energy for that. We will end up at one point that we can’t do anything to maintain relationship. We’re overwhelmed.

It’s been three months I committed to simple life in a way to live gratefully. Simplicity means happiness in our life and I would do anything to get it.

Lastly, we need to delete some components in our life. What are components in life we can really, consider to, delete?

Deleting relationship. There are some relationships we can really remove from our life, consciously. And removing relationship doesn’t mean that we are anti-social person. No.

Deleting technology. Technology can add value to life. But it is paradox of technology that it doesn’t really make our life easier, but it keeps us work longer and harder. Lately we see more people finish working late than, say, a decade ago.

Deleting control. Having control of things is good. Being on top of things is great thing to do when we are working in a project, or, planning for a vacation. But being control freaks is overwhelming and limits our capacity to do many great things in life.

Deleting negative thinking and living gratefully. How do we start our day? If it’s raining, can we still think positively and live gratefully? Many things in life can really ruin our mood in a few minutes after we wake up. Even when we’re sleeping; bad dreams can do. However, we can choose whatever reactions for things in life. Live abundantly!

Deleting burden of life. We really think it’s important. And we don’t want to let them go; traffic jam in the morning, overwhelmed in finding files in our notebook, difficulties managing bank account. Delete them.

Deleting 80% unimportant task. There are many unimportant things in life, task or project, which control 80% of our time, but contribute to only 20% of value. Minimize them, delete them.

Deleting things in life is fulfilling. It is a journey and won’t be easy. We will go in detail in each post about 6 things in life we need to put into trash.

Happy deleting things in your life!

The Seventh Reason Sanne Should be Back to Jakarta

2009-09-06T00:10:00.000+07:00

"You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf" - Jon Kabat-Zinn

It's been 3 days I am in Bali, enjoying the isle of gods for several times in my life. I never get bored with this island as every time I came, the feeling has been completely different. Maybe the god guiding my legs is always different and this time is for god of togetherness. It's the first time I bring my parents to Bali and it's just great to see smiles, laughters and countless amazement from their faces.

And today we ended up the afternoon in Kuta, sitting on the beach whilst starring at the beautiful sunset. Thanks to the rain a day before, so we got completely clear sky. And getting chance to surf in Kuta beach was even better, seeing the sun from the front of wave. Awesome. Though I put 'beginner' status in my mind that I didn't ride all wave, I felt awesome. I was proud of being a, beginner.

Lately I have been spending time with great people from couchsurfing. From several trips I did to the beach, I got chance to see how laid back people could be. And it was just soo great to have spent time with them. Life was just so easy with them around. You, reading this writing, you know I'm talking about us. :)

One of the great, super-positive people I have spending my time with is Sanne. She was completely stranger for me at the beginning and it turns out that she's one of the most amazing people I ever met. Super-positive aura comes out from her soul and it blesses you when you're around her.

To know that she would come back to her country this Sunday, it was hard for me to leave to Bali several days ago. It means that I will not spend my time during her last days in Jakarta. It means that I will not have chance to say good bye face to face. Or should I believe that there will be no good-bye for best friend?

Well, she will go and for sure we'll have chance to meet again. Just like any travelers I met on the road in China, Southeast Asia and Jakarta. We'll meet again someday. I really believe that day by day 'let's make this world smaller than we think' is really true. Culture interactions happen more often over the past decade.

Should I have chance to define reasons why Sanne should be back to Jakarta, I can mention thousands of things. If I can't, I can still ask other great Jakarta couchsurfers to mention them. Okay, Sanne has seen 6 reasons why she should come back and now it's the 7th.

It is a black picture.
Neither beautiful sunset nor nice rice field like what we have in the previous reason.
Not the laughter at Pangandaran with laid-back travel companions.
And it's not JCo which she's always curious with.

It just is. Just black. We don't know what makes her back. It's her who knows the reason.

No matter how hard we try to define thousands of, if not millions of, awesomeness in Indonesia, it is her who will decide and make her path to come back to here. I do believe making our own personal choice is the best way to enjoy life. Life is just great outta there, maybe it's not in Indonesia. Maybe it's not for her.

When we say, "never say goodbye...", maybe we just love her too much that we should keep her with us. But loving someone means we need to let go. Best friend knows when to stop and let his friend start another journey.

And black is just the best reason for the 7th reason.

Mark your path and fill the 7th reason with your own journey, Sanne! We're happy for whatever path you choose and will always be. See you somewhere.

Namaste,
Romy

Feeling Blue

2009-08-23T20:35:00.001+07:00

I am looking at the series of buildings in Kuningan thru my flat window and questioning if this life is what I want. The city is beautiful. Lightings are great. Life is comfortable. Jakarta is what I wanted 2 years back when I was still in Sumatra. And thru the nights of getting drunk, party, writing and working, I feel something in my heart keeps telling me that lots of thing I want in life still stay there.

Last two weeks I've met some great people during my travel. Smiles from faces are great. Genuine enthusiasm are the engine of keeping myself wide awake whilst driving in the middle of the nights. Though I felt tired, I felt great to have met them. "We are the world" is the simplest way to show how we are all one. And truly we are one, part of Mother earth trying to make this world better place to live.

Feeling so blue. But I know this is one of the best times in my life. Been in the feeling like this before and I could feel the value of it years after the day. It is like doing praying and let universe conspire to do what I want.

Stars Above Batu Karas Sky

2009-08-16T01:12:00.001+07:00

Today I witnessed constellations above Batu Karas sky and it was so breathtaking! I went out from my hostel and looked for open space to get limitless view of awesomeness. It felt so good to have been always able to enjoy such great view THAT has given to us, for free. And seeing shooting star was just as awesome as being able to stand on surfing board. It was quick view, as quick as falling my body onto the water whilst doing surfing. I'm beginner anyway. I hope I will be lucky tomorrow.

Whilst looking at the constellations, I was reminded how big the universe is. Limitless. There are billions of galaxies outta there from the smallest one, a hundred thousand light year in diameter, to the biggest one, five millions light year in diameter. Having said that universe has billions galaxies, so there is that much galaxy in the space with size in between. So, universe is actually limitless.

And it's expanding every time.

And have you ever imagined how starlight traveled so you have chance to see them? If you're able to see star, meaning the light reaches you on earth, and the star distance is say, 1 million light year from the earth, then the star has started sending its light 1 millions light year ago. So, the starlight has traveled that long so you can see it on earth.

Recall that 1 light year is much more longer than 1 year in our definition. It's actually the distance reached by an object to travel for 1 year with light speed - 3 millions kmh, 10 thousands time faster than airplane speed.

What I'm trying to say is universe is limitless, big and full of awesomeness. It IS the perfect example of being abundance. And so is our life if we choose to live in abundance. One of the way to live in abundance is actually by living attitude of gratitude. We CLAIM the abundance by living gratefully.

The Universe is the Mirror of Our Limited Thinking

2009-08-14T21:11:00.006+07:00

“Whatever is happening out there is only the mirror of my own limited thinking. I trust the intelligence within me.”

Last week I was so lucky to have a chat with co-worker whose roles are mom and career woman at the same time. She has been working quite hard lately. And every night she came home when her son has slept. And it has been happening for some days or so.

One night, ther son woke up and found her coming back home quite late. Rather than giving sweet smile or warm hug, he cried whilst she hold him tight. He has missed her a lot and in the need of love that strong, he said, “I miss you, mom.”

Many women would have cried when facing that condition. And the reaction of that situation, one step further, may be being negative because of the workload they have. Whatever the reasons; bosses suck, everything is unclear, co-workers are not as friendly they used to be. And we blamed everything. We blamed our company, our job because it ruins family lie. We blamed the company who generously paid us every month. And it actually affects our own mood.

If we get out from our shoes and think again for awhile, is that fair for the company we work for, who pays us every month? It’s our choice to work there anyway. And it’s our choice to not working there as well.

From the short conversation with my co-workers, I felt blessed that day. Rather than being negative, she said that being positive means that we need to be proactive rather than reactive. Why I finish my work late? How can I come home at 5 PM everyday, so I can see my son and being an angel or storyteller before he falls asleep? Being positive means that we will face problems rather than quit from it.

I used to be super-negative person and sometimes I am still one. From the tiring days of being negative, I can identify some reactions in facing problems that affect our destinies:

We quit. For my co-worker case, quitting can be going home without really solving problems in the office. So, she will have time with family, but problems in office stay there. And that is the time she’s being unfair to company that pays her. And the other option is the other way around that may leads to her son’s cry more often. She becomes alien for her own son.

We stay, but do nothing. Sometimes ‘go easy’ becomes our strong reason to think that we have no promblem. And we do nothing. We think we’re positive person, but we’re negative person with mask. And at the end of the day, we go nowhere.

We stay, and solve. Needless to say, this is the hardest part but worth it. It’s a journey rather than instant change. In my co-worker case, she pushes herself hard to finish work at 5 PM, remove unimportant things at work and being mindful to work on biggest priorities.

I feel so lucky to have understood how a great mom can still become positive in super-busy life. She’s the example of trusting the intelligence within her and she has expanded her limited thinking to invite universe to work for what she wants.

Southeast Asia - Thousands Miles Trip on Small Budget - Vietnam Edition

2009-08-13T13:02:00.000+07:00

The Dragon-Shaped Country in Southeast Asia

Arrive at Hanoi at 21.00. I met Aris, my co-worker in P&G, and his family. They are a really cool family, since all family members joined the trip; his wife, his 10 years old daughter and his 2 years old son. The cool thing was they did the trip with backpacking style. I and the girls were picked up by the hotel mini bus with capacity of 7 people ( each paid USD 2). Hanoi airport is surrounded by rural area and our first impression to the city was small city, much different than Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur or Jakarta which is crowded and congested. After 45 minutes in a left-wheeled-car of Vietnam, we arrived at Hanoi Backpacker hostel ( 48 Ngo Huyen Street, Hanoi, Phone 844 828 5372, www.hanoibackpackershostel.com).

The hotel is owned by Sweden man, who was married with Vietnamese woman. It is a clean and neat hotel, located in Old Quarter, where most of backpacker hotels are in. There are some kinds of room; the first is private room for two people and the second is dormitory for 10 people. All rooms are equipped with air conditioner and bathroom inside. The room is clean and comfortable. They provide the cabinet to save your belonging at the bottom of the bed. We were in the same room with many foreigners.

Hanoi, the City in a Bend of a River
May 20, 2007. Hanoi is the capitol of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam ( SRV ), located at the north of Vietnam. The city is sophisticated, romantic, mix of French and Vietnam style houses, given with Hoan Kiem Lake at the center and still keeps its old-fashioned city ambience. The city is passed by Red River and called as city in the bend of a river. Old Quarter at the north side of Hoan Kiem Lake, characterized by narrow streets, is the place for world’s backpackers. Hanoi is the next destination in SE Asia.

After a good sleep, we started the day with walking around the city. We did not make the detail plan yet like what we did for Bangkok. So, I just tried to read my Lonely Planet books and thought of idea to visit some places. 5 minutes walking from the hotel, we reached at St. Joseph Cathedral, an old and unique church in Old Quarter district. Then we went straight to Hoan Kiem Lake, where most of Vietnamese in Hanoi enjoy their days. It is a calm lake, surrounded my French styled café, business buildings and narrow streets alongside it. We spent time there for a while to enjoy the beauty of this lake. In the middle of the lake at the south, there is a small tower called Thap Rua ( Tortoise Tower ). While waiting for Santi who were taking some money in ATM, I looked at the lake. Peacefulness I felt. Tranquility in the heart of mine. I love it so much.

Walking around the lake, we stopped at Ngoc Son temple ( Dong 3000, 8.00 am – 19.00 pm ) at the northern side of the lake, which was founded in the 18th century. Called also as Jade Mountain temple, this small island is separated from the land and connected by a red bridge. Finishing the temple tour, we decided to visit must-see places in Hanoi; Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum Complex, Temple of Literature and Vietnam Museum of Ethnology. We took cyclo, a local tricycle in Hanoi, to go there. Using cyclo is fun and cheap as long as we can bargain the price, because they will put the price high for foreigner. The trip using cyclo is only 10 minutes from Hoan Kiem Lake to Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum Complex.

Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum Complex and One Pillar Pagoda
When we reached Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum Complex ( 8.00 – 11.00 am, Saturday-Thursday, no camera/ video recorder, no short/tank top, bags left at reception hall ), it had been closed. A little bit disappointed as it is one of must visit sights in Hanoi. Exiting the complex, we went straight to One Pillar Pagoda ( free entrance ), 5 minutes walk from HCM complex. Here I bought Laos edition of Lonely Planet book with only USD 4.

Temple of Literature – A Gift for Confucius
Another must visit place in Hanoi is Temple of Literature ( Dong 5000 ). The temple was a gift for Confucius from Emperor Ly Thanh Tong and later on it became a university of Mandarin language. From HCM Mausoleum complex, we rent motorcycle taxi ( Dong 6000 per person ) and reached the temple in 10 minutes.

The temple is so old with gray material stone used to build the tower, fortress and the floor. So exotic. Inside the temple, there are some statues. I and Santi took the pictures of us. From the temple, we went to Vietnam Museum of Ethnology, where sorrow and sadness found its place in my heart.

Vietnam Museum of Ethnology – Sorrow and Sadness in the Vietnamese History
Visiting Vietnam Museum of Ethnology ( Dong 20.000, 8.30 am – 5.30 pm, Tuesday – Sunday ) is my best time in Hanoi. Before reaching this place, I thought that this museum would be just the same with many other historical museum; traditional houses, country history from time to time and kinds of ethnic groups in Vietnam. But this museum is really different! The historical things and emotional connection created by the story had amazed me. This is the complete package of knowledge and emotional museum; guaranteed and should not be missed!

This museum tells a story about Vietnam culture. At certain part of museum, story of Vietnamese in Bao Cap period, Hanoi life under subsidy economy, is told. Before 1975, Vietnam was divided into two parts. First is North Vietnam lead by National Liberation Front ( NLF ), a Communist guerrilla known better as Viet Chong ( VC ). The capitol is Hanoi. The economy of the northern part of Vietnam is not good as in southern part. The second is South Vietnam lead by Ngo Dinh Diem, the anti communist, Catholic leader who refused to accept the election of 1956. The capitol is Saigon, later known as Ho Chi Minh ( HCM City ), changed after South Vietnam surrendered to the North Vietnam. Ben Hai river became the line between North and South Vietnam, created in Geneva Accords in the mid of 1954.

The period between 1956 and 1975 was a tough moment for Vietnamese. In 1964, Hanoi ordered North Vietnamese Army ( NVA ) units to infiltrate the south. Supported by USA, South Korea, Australia, Thailand and New Zealand, the South Vietnam guarded its territory against North Vietnam.

In 1968, the VC launched a deadly surprise offensive, called as Ten Offensive, marking a crucial turning point in the war. Many Americans, who believed their government insistence that USA was winning, started demanding an end of the war. Paris Agreement, signed in 1973, provided for a cease of fire, the total withdrawal of US combat forces and the release of American prisoners of war.

April 30, 1975 Saigon surrendered to North Vietnamese Army ( NVA ), marking a unification of Vietnam or days of Bao Cap – subsidy economy period for North Vietnam. The years after were not an easy period for Vietnamese.

“The face is as sad as though the rice coupon was lost”
“Living in such a cramped space, people had to be really considerate and sympathetic with each other’s situation”
“In those days, our biggest dreams were just spoons of rice and pieces of clothes”
“A meal with an egg was a small proud”

“Dreams just lie out of our reach and tell us something about the condition in which we live. After unification and the days of Bao Cap, people’s dreams often consisted of such simple things as to eat a bowl of fresh, non moldy rice, town a small fan, to ride a Chinese bicycle, or to be able to wash oneself with a sweet-smelling bar of soap! Even these most basic of pleasures were beyond the means of most people! Once the door of Doi Moi was opened, the dreams could bloom out as well! As the world was flooded with all types of new goods, ideas and services, people’s dreams and hopes changed as well. Nowadays, new motorcycle, computer and mobile phone sparkle in shop window. Young students dream of going abroad to study. But – whatever the period they are living in – parents always pray and dream their children will be healthy and happy. Some dreams never change.”

Recommended to visit this museum!

Hanoi City Tour and Water Puppet Show
After visiting Vietnam Museum of Ethnology, we decided to walk around Old Quarter, ate some Vietnam food, bought souvenirs and booked the tour to Halong Bay a day after. Old Quarter is a small area at the north of Hoan Kiem Lake. The area is characterized by narrow streets, small houses, many motorcycles, café and its density. Eating at the small eating place alongside the streets, characterized the very small the seats and tables of kindergarten school students, is worthy to be tried. Eating at the restaurants – traditional foods or western foods, French or Vietnam styled restaurant – is another option.

At 8 pm, we watched Water Puppet Show ( USD 3, open daily with some showing times ) at the north of Hoan Kiem Lake, near Ngoc Son Temple. This performing art originated in northern Vietnam at around 10th century. The puppets are carved from light-weight, durable woods and painted with appropriate colors. Standing in the water, the puppeteers manipulate the puppets using either an ensemble of support or a system of string o control a group of character attached to a common support. You can see this show at night as it is prime time and in the daylight, it prefer visiting museums in the city.

It was Saturday night. So many Vietnamese were in Old Quarter in some performing stages alongside the Hoan Kiem Lake. “Maybe it is the only entertainment they have. That’s why so many people are here.” I thought. At 9.30 pm, when all shows finished, the streets there became so crowded with motorcycles. Hanoi is the city where not many cars that you can see. You will see many motorcycles. No tax for motorcycle and the expensive price of gasoline pushed Vietnamese to buy motorcycle than car. And be careful if you are trying to cross the streets, motorcycle riders there will not reduce their speed. Some accidents caused by motorcycle were reported.

Nightlife in Old Quarter
Expecting the bars in Hanoi would be as fun as bars in Bangkok, we did not get what we wanted! Hanoi is a quiet city, where activities of people will stop at around 10-11 pm. The streets will be so quiet and dark. We continued to visit the GC Pub on Bao Khanh Street, the street where many bars are on; had a drink and a talk. Then at 1 am when the bar was closed, we came back to hotel.

UNESCO World Heritage Site
May 21-22, 2007. It was third the day in Vietnam. We took Halong Bay tour ( USD 25, stay 1 night on the boat ) that day. From the travel website we read, it is the most recommended tour in Vietnam for the one who loves the sea. The tour picked us up in the hotel at 8.30 am and we went directly to Halong Bay. I prepared all my belongings and checked out from the hotel, as I would depart from Hanoi a day after at 8 pm.

Halong Bay is UNESCO World Heritage site and one of Vietnam’s natural marvels. The torpedo-shaped limestone rises from the water is awesome, more than 3000 islands in total. When you are on the boat, you will see a breathtaking package of sea, limestone, countless caves and the boat. Recommended!

Ha long means ‘where the dragon descends into the sea’. The legend says that the islands were created by the great dragon that lives on the mountains. When it ran towards the coast, its flailing tail gouged out valleys and crevasses; as it plunged into the sea, the areas dug up by its tail became filled with water, leaving only bits of high torpedo-shaped land visible.

The Most Beautiful Sunset in Life
We were in the minibus with other tourists; English, Japanese and Australian. A Japanese girl and her Caucasian friend were talking at the first row. Luc, an English man, with his girlfriend was looked so happy in this trip. I was at the same row with Santi and Eltje. An Australian man was enjoying his loneliness. Yana and Nunik were at the last row. The trip from Hanoi to Halong City, from where we would depart to Halong Bay, took 2 hours. In the beginning we were still excited talking each other, but then all of us slept!

After two hours in the minibus, we continued to use the boat that would bring us to the destination. The boat is quite big, equipped with restaurant, room with mini fan and roof at the top to enjoy the blue sky. While we were on the boat to the destination, the guide served lunch. Unique thing was they only served food during our two days trip. For the water ( any kinds of water; beer, juice, mineral water ), we will need to pay more. So it’s better we can bring the big bottle of mineral water before arriving at Halong City. After lunch, we visited some caves at the certain islands.

Arriving at the destination, I and Santi changed the clothes quickly. It was 5 pm and about to sunset time. We took a kayak and drove it! It was the first time for me using it, so a bit hard to synchronize my swinging and Santi’s. We drove the kayak a bit far from the boat, crossing the torpedo shaped limestone at the left and right side. We stopped at the point where we could see the beautiful sun disappearing from the back of the limestone, while we were on the kayak. Simply amazing experience!

We stopped for a while.
Quiet.
Just let our soul enjoying this amazing gift from God.

The sky turned into dark and we drove kayak fast to reach the boat. We were the latest kayak coming to the boat. Then we went to the roof of the boat to enjoy the sun really disappeared from our eyesight. I love sunset and always find my peacefulness every time I saw it.

A Sleep and the Stars Above
After taking shower and having dinner, the groups went to the roof of the boat. Lying supine, we enjoyed so much the moment there. The sky was so clear, we could see the countless stars above. We were talking and joking, forgot the job and tasks we needed to do after finishing this trip. I fall asleep there and was awake consciously after I felt so cold. The wind was so cold, even though I loved the idea to sleep there, I decided to sleep in my room.

Zzzz…!

An End of the Happy Moments
I woke up at 8 am in the morning. I saw Luc and Australian man jumped into the water. I and Santi followed after. The flow of water was a bit strong. It is advisable to ask permission from the boat officer first before doing that.

After that, on the way back to Halong City, most of tourist were in the restaurant sleeping, while I and English guys were on the roof enjoying the view and sunbathing! I put sun block cream onto my body and lay supine, letting the sun rays change my body color into darker.

At 4 pm, we reached Hanoi and quickly I took my belongings. I was so sad because I had to leave the girls there in Hanoi. The 5 days trip with them was really intoxicating! We met without knowing each other and finished the trip as best friends. I really wanted to travel with them again.

Arriving at the Noi Bai airport, I checked in the flight. Before boarding into the aircraft, I went out from the airport and saw the sunset. The sunset in Hanoi town. Just wondering, why happy moments should have an end?

AK 763 Hanoi-Kuala Lumpur 20.00-00.25, Airfare USD 138, Airport tax USD 14.

Stay Overnight in LCCT

McDonalds and the Backpack
May 23, 2007. Arriving at LCCT at 00.25, I had planned that I would stay overnight in this airport. I asked some friends in Indonesia about the idea to sleep there and they said that it would not be comfortable, not like if we stayed in Kuala Lumpur International Airport ( KLIA ). There are some places to sleep there; McDonalds, Coffee Bean Café, Traditional food restaurant and series of seats near check in counter. The last one is usually full. The second last point is not comfortable to sleep. So the option for me is either Coffee Bean café or McDonalds. I chose McDonalds because there were more people there and it would me safer if I slept.

I put my big backpack as pillow, enjoyed music from my mp3, stretched forward my legs to the seat and slept! I wake up at 5 am to get ready for next flight to Jakarta ( AK 952 Kuala Lumpur-Jakarta 07.00-08.00, Airfare MYR 205, No airport tax ).

In the Middle of Vacation and Work Mood
May 23, 2007 on Wednesday was my first working day after having vacation leave. So, after catching the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Jakarta in the morning, arrived at Jakarta at 8 am, I had to start working at 10 am in the morning, ready with my laptop, all reports I needed to share, all plans I needed to do a week after, already equipped with shirt, trousers and shoes. And here I am, ready with all of those stuffs at office.

Southeast Asia - Thousands Miles Trip on Small Budget - Contemplation

2009-08-10T23:43:00.002+07:00

I May Not the Best Gold in the World, but I Appreciate My Life

I was in Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, on the way to Hanoi. This sophisticated airport, might be one of the best airports in the world as it is comparable with KLIA airport, has brought me in a comfortable space of time. Everytime I travel, my mind might stop at a certain of time, the moment when I was thinking about my life and what I would do in my life, personal and career life as well. That is my best time to refresh my vision and goals. Everytime I was feeling it, I wanted the time stopped for a while and I enjoyed that feeling longer. I was easily distracted by simple things and sometimes all those things dispersed what I was feeling. So I enjoyed that time.

For a moment, I was separated from the girls, just sitting in a seat and start to think.

I might not the best gold in the world, many people are better than me. I am not the best manager in the world – many times I did silly mistakes and faults; I am not the best son in the world – many times my mother was angry and feeling so bad because what I have done; I ever had best friend but now I’m feeling I don’t have them now – many times I felt difficulties and sadness alone without anyone knew; I don’t have girlfriend now though I was about to get her a month ago – I’m too busy with 3-days-a-week-traveling around Indonesia because of my job; I’m not the richest person in the world – I always think twice by the time I want to spend much money to buy something or to eat; I’m not a man with the best personality – I’m too selfish to be the perfect one; I’m not the holiest man in the world – maybe a thief has better heart than mine; I’m not the best Christian in the world – I’m sure Jesus in Heaven are feeling so sad because what I have done in my life.

Appreciation for what I have now; my life, my job, my parents, my brother and sister, my clothes I use, the food I eat everyday, the worries I feel everytime I meet my boss; are important so that I could still see the good things in all bad times. I hope I could be a better man everyday.

Just a simple thought.

Southeast Asia - Thousands Miles Trip on Small Budget - Thailand Edition

2009-08-08T12:36:00.000+07:00

Thailand - The Destination in Southeast Asia

Suvarnabhumi Airport
Arriving at Suvarnabhumi Airport at Bangkok, I was struck with amazement and admiration. It is a sophisticated and beautiful airport, officially opened on September 28, 2006, changed formerly airport of Don Muang in the north. The airport covers an approximate area of 8,000 acres. Be aware for confusion made as some books still recorded Don Muang as the main airport in Bangkok. The Suvarnabhumi airport consists of 7 floors. First floor is for bus and taxi lobby, second floor is for arrival, third floor is for meeting & greeting gallery, fourth floor is for departure, balance floors are for restaurants and offices. From and to the airport, you can use BTMA Public Bus ( Baht 35 ) or Airport Bus Express ( Baht 150 ) or Intercity Bus ( depends on destination ). If you travel alone, the simplest, cheapest and securest one instead of using Taxi is Airport Bus Express. There are 4 route, AE1 route to Silom, AE2 route to Banglumpoo / Khaosan Road ( use this one if you stay at world’s backpacker area of Khaosan Road ), AE3 route to Sukhumvit ( you should use this route if you want to visit Siam Paragon or stay at hotel around that road ), and AE4 to Hua Lumpong Railway Station. If you travel in a group of 4 people, it will be cheaper if you use Taxi ( Baht 100 maximum each ). You can get more information about all those transportation service at Public Transportation Center at the 1st floor.

The Exploration of Krung Thep - City of Angels
09.30 pm in the morning now, I was in Suvarnabhumi Airport after two hours flight of Air Asia. In Lonely Planet book, they still said that Don Muang was the airport of Bangkok. All transportation information I had was from and to Don Muang International airport. So I had to find how to get into the city myself. Asking several Thai people there, I stopped at Public Transportation Center at the 1st floor and asked a Thai woman how to reach the city. The Davis hotel on Sukhumvit Road 24 was my destination. I would not stay at any hotel in Khaosan Road but at Davis Hotel. Irawan, co-worker and an account manager too in my company, was in a business trip in Bangkok. I thought it would be great if I could stay there and save some Baht for the next coming days.

The woman told me clearly how to reach Davis Hotel. The I bought the AE3 route ticket of Airport Bus Express to Sukhumvit Road ( Baht 150, 45 minutes ). Stopped at main road of Sukhumvit, I walked with all of my backpacks to Davis Hotel and met Irawan and some other co-workers from Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore.

Davis Hotel is a nice traditional-from-Thai look like hotel with a very comfortable room and bed. The bed is King-sized one, well-decorated as if it was provided for the King and its Consort. On the wall above the bed, they placed a painting described some traditional things from Thailand. I was not sure what they were. Next to the bed, they placed a shiny sofa and the table to work. It should be for Irawan, for sure. He was in the working mood in a city where many travelers are in!

After putting the big backpack into the room, I explored Bangkok map and the transportation system within the city. It is complicated as there are many we can use ( Skytrain, MRT, Public Train, Bus, Tuk Tuk and Boat along the Chao Phraya River ), but they are easily to learn.

BTS System
The simplest transportation system to use is Skytrain system – or they usually call it with BTS ( Bangkok Mass Transport System Skytrain ). From the On Nut BTS station in the east, the train will go through 15 stations and finish at Mo Chit BTS station in the north. It is Sukhumvit Line and mostly it will pass Sukhumvit Road. Skytrain will stop at every station, with special stoppage at Asok and Siam. Asok BTS station is interchange between BTS system and MRT system. Siam BTS station is interchange between BTS Silom line and BTS Sukhumvit lime. Another line of BTS system is Silom line, starts from Saphan Taksin BTS station in the south and ends at National Stadium BTS station. Between both station, there is interchange with MRT system at Sala Daeng BTS station.

The cost of BTS system varies from Baht 15 to 40, depends on the distance. There are 6 distances type ( 1 to 6 ) and you will need to select one of them, depends on what station is your destination. They have the list of destination and the code. For example, if you start from On Nut BTS station to Mo Chit BTS station, the distance code will be a maximum number of 6 and you will need to pay Baht 40. Anyway, the buying process of the ticket and the process you enter the skytrain are exactly the same with the processes in MRT system of Singapore. You will need to put into the machine your coins and the electronic ticket will exit from the machine. You will need to scan it when entering the skytrain line, you enter the skytrain and then you will need to scan it again before exiting the skytrain line. Remember that payment will be done in coins and you can change your money to coins at the locket near the entrance of skytrain line.

If BTS system is your favorite, then you can visit many interesting places by stopping at particular BTS station. Chatuchak Mother Market at Mo Chit station, Siam Paragon and its surrounding plazas at Siam station, Vimanmek Mansion at Victory Monument station ( you will need to continue using bus to stop at it ), Khaosan Road at National Stadium station ( you will need to continue using bus number 15 or 47 to stop exactly at Khaosan Road ), Suan Lum Night Bazaar at Silom station, Patpong ( where you can see Thai Girl Show ) at Sala Daeng or at Chong Nonsi station and Main Port of Chao Phraya River Tour departure at Saphan Taksin. You will need only 1 day to really understand the BTS system.

Siam Complex and Fun Time on Bathtub
The noon time at the first day in Bangkok, Indo backpackers team were not in there. The first team ( Santi, Nunik, Yana, Eltje and Patricia ) would start in the city at evening and the second team ( Andri, Riri, Anand, Jerry, Najha, Raja ) will arrive a day after. So I just tried to explore some places. The first destination after leaving Davis hotel was Siam complex – Siam Paragon and Siam Discovery Center. It is a great and modern shopping center in Bangkok, stand on Sukhumvit Road together with other tall buildings on the road. For me it was not too special for it was just the same shopping center with what I saw in Jakarta or Singapore. The interesting point in that complex is place for visitor to stop and sit in the point between both plazas. People, Thais or tourists, spent their time sitting, standing and having a talk or just smoking on that point. In the afternoon, there will be more people killing their time there. Japanese, Caucasian, Taiwanese, Malayan, Thais, and so on were there as if it was the city hall of Bangkok. I went back to hotel at 6 to the hotel.

After a bit tiring city tour by walking, I spent an hour laying supine on the bathtub, covered by the warmth of foam which was created by spray of water from the tap. It was fun and I could hardly make my body stay awake! I showered and then visit girls on Khaosan Road. I used skytrain from Phrom Pong station and stopped at National Stadium station. From there, I asked the people how to get to that backpacker streets. It is bus number 15 or 47. Waiting for about 15 minutes while offered by Tuk Tuk driver to reach Khaosan with pay of Baht 300 and talking to Austria men who wanted to go to that road also, the bus was coming. It was just the same with public bus in Indonesia. I paid only Baht 7 for a 15 minutes drive from National Stadium to Khaosan Road, with bonus of fast and furious experience of A BUS, not a cool racing car ( believe me they drove like crazy – fastly and zig-zag-ly! ).

Spontaneous Idea to Dance in Q-Bar
Arriving at Khaosan Road, I felt like I was not in Thailand, but in Caucasian home with Asia ambience. It was just like the atmosphere in Patong Beach of Phuket and Legian street of Bali. Small street with many shops alongside it, small restaurants presence with the Caucasian drinking beers, some bars with the music dancing on the thirst-of-party soul and few backpackers hotels among them. It was just the atmosphere I like so much. After looking around, I found Rambutri House, in where Santi and the girls were staying in. They were desperate having conversation with Thai – taxi driver, receptionist of the hotel, anyone else on the road -; They could not speak English well. Although they could do, the pronunciation was a bit hard to understand. One more thing, in case you understand what they are trying to say to you, when you response, they can conclude extremely different message that you are trying to deliver. So be prepared and careful. For me, it was the beauty of traveling to countries which have different culture. I was in a vacation and did not want those small things ruined my mood. Just see them as challenges and in a positive way.

After talking to them for a while, I and Santi decided to go to some clubs in the city. Q-Bar was our option. The other girls did not join because of tiring trip from Jakarta-Batam-Singapore-Bangkok. We used the taxi to Q-Bar and the cost was only Baht 100 for a 30 minutes drive, something that we could not find in other countries in SE Asia. While we were in the taxi, Santi saw young couples sat on the rudder seat and kisses each other, in their car on the road of Sukhumvit, while surrounded by many cars! Cool!

Q-Bar is a minimalist club with major presence of Caucasian ( Baht 500, closed at 2 am, Sukhumvit Soi 11 ). Bit high class clubbers were in, enjoying the crowded two levels of the club. I did not enjoy the club much, I was tired, mate! Could not dance freely, particularly because it was too crowded. James Franco of Harry Osborn in ‘Spiderman 3 ‘ was in the club. I usually remember nor new actor neither new actress, but because I watched that movie a day before with Ken in Kuala Lumpur, I still remember how he looks like. The other club that you may want to see are Bed Superclub ( white everywhere inside the club, the room shape is like oval as if you’re in a clean belly of a lizard, Sukhumvit Soi 11, next to Q-Bar ), Narcissus ( Sukhumvit Soi 23 ), Lucifer ( Silom, Patpong Soi 1 ).

At 01.30, I and Santi decided to be back to the hotel so that we could start new day with full of energy.

Charm of Ancient Temples
May 17, 2007. It was the second day in Bangkok and we planned to visit some temples. I woke up in the morning and showered fastly. I had breakfast in Davis hotel and the food were really good; Thai fried rice, spicy pork soup, fresh fruits, and many more. That day I used a blue jeans and black long-armed shirt. The ambience in the restaurant was like it was a busy day; everybody got ready to work. Then lately I realized I was in vacation, they were not.

I met the girls in National Monument, then walking to Tha Phra Arthit Pier ( Pier means port ) to take Chao Phraya River tour and Temples tour as well. Tha Phra Arthit is the nearest pier from Khao San Road. If you stay there, instead of taking the boat from Sathorn Pier at Saphan Taksin BTS station, it will be better depart from that pier. It is just 15 minutes walk from Khaosan.

The First Tour on Chao Phraya River
Alongside the Chao Phraya river, there are many piers; the boat will stop at those piers. You can choose to stop everywhere. The cost of single trip from one pier to another pier is Baht 15. They also offer efficient Chao Phraya tour with price Baht 100 and you can stop everywhere, continue your tour using other boats, stop everywhere, and then back again to initial pier. Take that package if you think you will spend most of the time on the boat. They will give you sticker so that boat officer will let you stop everywhere. Be careful for some piers which is not in the route, you will need to pay again ( Baht 3 ) when departing from that particular pier. For example, small pier when you visit Wat Arun, returning back from that small pier will need to pay again.

Once, Chao Phraya river made Bangkok called as Venice of the East. Main transportation system was the boat passing through the river. Many restaurants, buildings, people activities and hotels were established alongside it, making it interesting place to kill the time at night. In the daylight, you can see that the color of the river is brown, just like major rivers in Indonesia. The company providing boat services on the river is Chao Phraya River Express.

“Grand Palace’s Closed Now and Opened Again at 1 pm”
Unluckily when I and Santi stopped at Maharat pier, other girls who was sitting at the front of the boat did not hear our yelling to stop at that pier. So I and Santi continued the trip to without them. We walked around 15 minutes to reach Grand Palace. When we were about to reach Grand Palace, it was 1 pm noontime and there was a man directing us to that place. Then at the gate of Grand Palace, which was not crowded, as if it is not a superb place to visit, an officer came to us and said that Grand Palace was closed. “Every Thursday from 1 pm to 2.30 pm, the Monks were praying and could not be visited. So it is better for you to walk around the city and come back again at 2.30”, He said. Lately he recommended us to take city tour to some other interesting places ( first place is Standing Buddha, second place is Gem shops which they called with Thai center and the last place is Sitting Buddha ). While I validated whether this was a deception or not, Tuk Tuk driver came to us and offered service to visit those 3 places with cost only Baht 60! “It was so cheap for two traveler to visit those interesting places while the Grand Palace was still closed!” We thought.

Then we agreed to use Tuk Tuk driver service. He took us to Standing Buddha at the center of Banglamphu area. “Not a special one.” I thought. I and Santi took picture each other. When we were about to leave the temple, one Thai man approached us and had a talk with us with fluent English. He actively asked some questions to us and it was a bit of interesting talk. “After this, where do you plan to go?” He asked. “Thai center, where we could shop there while waiting for Grand Palace to open” Santi said. “Ah yes, Thai center is a good place to visit, you can buy famous gem from Thailand. And this week, government is making the promotion of no tax and 30% discount for all gem products. It is the program for couples who are in honeymoon moment.” The way he explained about Thai center was convincing.

Leaving from Standing Buddha, we continued our trip to Thai center. What I imagined before was it was a big market where I could find unique goods from Thailand. The fact was it was only a gem or jewelry shop or whatever they called it! The manager of that gem shop spoke English very well and the sales approach was good. He said that he has managing Gem business for long, that was why he had been expert relating to gem. “Nice gems and jewelries.” I thought. “But I don’t think I will buy it. It’s better for me to save the money for my trip.”

Leaving gem shop without buying anything, Tuk Tuk driver brought us to alternate gem shop, which was cheaper than previous one. I and Santi decided not to visit that shop and told him that we wanted to visit Sitting Buddha directly. But he said that second gem shop was at the same direction to that place. He asked us to help him to buy gem in that store as if we bought something, then the shop will give him free fuel. Finally we visited second gem shop and did not buy anything.

Then we went to Sitting Buddha. Tuk Tuk driver said that we should come back in 5 minutes. “So rude!” I thought. Soonest we left the temple and went directly to Grand Palace. We walked directly to Grand Palace and found ‘second entrance gate of that place’. I asked to Grand Palace officer, different person vs. previous officer saying that the place was closed, whether it was closed at 1 to 2.30 pm.

She said, “No, we never closed, though the Monks are praying.”

From the beginning, I have thought that it was deception. It was a well-planned drama and they must have created the scenario in a special meeting to trick tourists. I ever read about this from Lonely Planet and writings on the wall in Phra Arthit pier to be careful about Thai who offered Tuk Tuk service to somewhere else to visit. We got punk’d! The ‘kind-hearted’ man directing us to ‘Grand Palace’, ‘The officer’, Tuk Tuk driver, a man with fluent English in Standing Buddha, gem manager in ‘Thai Center’, gem manager in ‘cheap gem shops’ were the good actors and actresses near sacred temples in Bangkok. May God know what to do with them. Lately when I and Santi met other girls, they were also punk’d by those ‘actors’ and ‘actresses’. What a damn day!

Be careful, mate! They has made us jeopardized our time. The tips for you is never believe a kind-hearted Thais who approach you offering help, take you to other interesting places while popular attraction you want is till closed. Keep that in mind.

Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kew - The Temple of Emerald Buddha
Finally I and Santi arrived at Wat Phra Kew and Grand Palace, in a complex named as Ko Ratanakosin area ( Baht 250, 8.30 am-3.30 pm, one time payment only, including the same-day-visit to Vimanmek Mansion in the north ). Before entering the complex, I was amazed of a big stupa which could be seen from outside, layered by gold color. It was standing high on the ground. As I entered the entrance gate and saw Wat Phra Kew, I observed series of superb temples and my admiration to them were greater. They were all simply beautiful and full of glory. One of the temples are made from colorful marbles and beads. Needless to say, all those temples are the most beautiful temple I ever saw. Simple awesome!

Wat Phra Kew is a shrine for Emerald Buddha. The main chapel is a holy place for Thailand Buddhism. No camera, and no video recorder are allowed to use inside it. The ambience of the chapel is so holy, so silent. The Emerald Buddha has passed through an epic moving from Northern Thailand where it was hidden to its current home. Once it was seized by Lao forces and carried to Vientiane until it was recaptured again by Thais. One simple comment for the temple and Emerald Buddha; AMAZING! Grand Palace, the place for former royal residence, is another beautiful building in Ko Ratanakosin area. Nowadays, it is used only by the king for certain ceremonial occasions. The building was installed with many windows and pretty sharp-shaped roof at the top, with the gold color at the edges of it. Some kingdom guards were walking rhythmically to save the building.

Finishing Ko Ratanakosin area trip, I and Santi continued the trip to other temples. We stopped for a while at café at Maharaj pier and had a Thai ice tea. Basically it is a mix of tea and milk and they add ice to that drink. I ordered Kolak Durian, mainly made from Durian and added with sticky rice. It was good! Recommended to try it! It was 3.30 pm and after asking some people when temples would be closed, immediately we were speed up our steps so that we still had chance to visit other temples, Wat Pho ( closed at 5.00 pm ) and Wat Arun ( closed at 4.30 pm ).

Wat Pho - The Oldest and the Largest Temple in Bangkok
Visiting Wat Pho ( Baht 50, 8 am–5 pm ) is something that we should not miss! This is the temple where largest stunning reclining Buddha is in, 46 meters long and 15 meters high. It is made from brick, layered by gold leaf. Reclining Buddha was placed in the oldest and largest temple in Bangkok, from 16th century. There are series of high temples with sharp-shaped at the top of the temples, making them dramatic while looking at them from the bottom. The temples were made from thousands of millions of ceramics. It was simply awesome!

Thai massage school in Wat Pho is popular ( watpottm@netscape.net ). They offer two 30-hours courses, one is general Thai massage, another one is therapy massage, that you need to attend 3 hours/day for 10 days courses. In Thailand, people who work in Thai massage will need to learn Thai massage, mostly after 1-3 years in massage school. Maybe this explains why Thai massage is much different with any other massage services in the world. Experiencing some massage services in Indonesia, I would recommend you to try Thai massage. It’s the best!

Wat Arun - Temple of Dawn
Another must-visit temple is Wat Arun ( Baht 20, 9 am-4.30 pm ), Temple of Dawn. Name of the temple was taken from Indian god of dawn, Aruna. When I and Santi arrived at this temple, it was 4.45 pm and the entrance gate has been closed. Desperately begging the officer to be allowed to just see and take the picture, he finally permitted us to enjoy the beauty of this last temple. When the sun was about to hide at the other side of the world, I and Santi took some stylish pictures. By using backlight techniques, the pictures looked good.

Injection Energy of Thai Massage
While returning back to hotel, we were feeling like we did not have energy anymore, exhausted. Lately we decided to visit Thai massage service ( Baht 180, 0.5 hour foot massage & 0.5 hour Thai massage, free drink & fresh fruit ) on Khaosan Road, next to Rambutri House. The first half an hour, I immediately slept as it was an extremely good massage. The next half an hour, I was awake and always surprised anytime massager changed massage position, as I couldn’t predict what he would do to me! The massage position was extremely beyond my expectation. I could hardly believe that I was still OK after he folded my body like I was a piece of paper. Well, it is Thai massage. They know how to make you fresh after that.

Suan Lum Night Bazaar
After feeling so exhausted and refreshed by Thai massage, I and Santi were feeling so good now. The energy to continue our trip has been back to normal now. Our plan for that night was visiting Suan Lum Night Bazaar, one of unique markets in Bangkok which was only opened at night. From Khaosan Road, I, Santi and Nunik, one of the girls, used taxi instead of BTS system, since it would be cheaper. Having dinner at the entrance of SLNB, we continued to see goods sold in that market. The goods sold there were unique ones like house decoration, shoes, sandals, handbag, Thailand souvenir, woman and man accessories and t-shirt. I was interested in t-shirts sold there, as writings were inviting to the people who look at them. Some of writings are Oral-Me and Anal-Me ( instead of Oral-B ), FBI – Female Body Inspector ( instead of FBI in USA ), Cock ( instead of Coke ), Hard Cock ( instead of Hard Rock ), so on. I spent most of my time in there looking for t-shirts and bargaining. From Baht Baht 200, I could buy them with only Baht 120. I was not sure it had been cheap or not, but I needed to bargain for about half an hour.

And it, my cash in Baht was not enough to buy many t-shirts. I had only 150 Baht! Stupid. When I offered USD to the seller, he gave me unreasonable exchange rate, made my bargaining effort meaningless. So, at the end of the conversation, I bought only 1 t-shirt with Female Body Inspector writing. I thought it was a good t-shirt, white one with black writings on it and of course it was fit to my body. I used it then a day after, when we were on the trip to Pattaya.

Back to Khaosan Road, we met the second group, Andri and the gang! Story telling, excitement sharing, hahahah-ing. Interesting night! Later on, I took taxi to Davis hotel. Irawan has been sleeping when I was back to the hotel at 2.30 am.

Pattaya and the Queer
May 18, 2007. It was the third day in Thailand and we had planned few months before on the trip to Pattaya. Personally, when I visited Phuket 6 months before, I wanted to see the second most famous beach life in Thailand. That is Pattaya. Pattaya could be reached from Bangkok via land; car or bus. It takes only 2 hours drive from Bangkok and it is not difficult to get there as many signs directing your trip to that beach. For car rental, you will need to pay Baht 4000 for one car with capacity of 8 people, and for 12 working hours. You will need to pay extra Baht if you plan to use it more than 12 hours. Anyway, you could still bargain for the car rental fee. The car is mini van with air conditioner and comfortable seat, exactly the same with mini van that I used in Phi Phi islands tour, border crossing between Hat Yai in Thailand and Khanga in Malaysia on October 06 backpacking trip. You can get the information about car rental from your hotel or travel agent alongside Khaosan Road.

The group picked me up at Davis Hotel and we were on the way to Pattaya. The first one hour in the car was really fun; laughing, joking each other and introducing each other as we did not have introduction session a day before. The balance one hour, we were all sleeping! Well, we were so exhausted a day before; the first group was in city tour in the morning until late at night, the second group was busy catching the flight from Jakarta-Batam-Singapore-Bangkok. When we were awake, we had been in Pattaya.

Crocodile Farm and Pattaya Walking Tour
The first destination was Crocodile Farm ( Baht 300, one time payment for whole day trip, crocodile show at every two hours ). Basically it was a zoo, with crocodile as main animals. The other animals are tiger, bear, birds, and so on. It was just the same with many zoos in Indonesia. In that complex, you could find thousands years wood stone, made from the big trees, they were died and then changed the form into the stone.

Should you have many other plans in Pattaya ( Tiffani/Alcazar show, sunbathing on the beach, visiting Hard Rock Pattaya and other places ), this zoo is not recommended. Just put them in your last priority.

After having a not-too-good-time in crocodile farm, we continued our trip to Pattaya beach. It was a not-bad-beach, but compared to either Phuket or Kuta beach, it is not comparable. We just walked alongside the main road in Pattaya and stopped at Hard Rock Pattaya. As usual, the price for all goods there are expensive. I planned to buy some t-shirts, but I cancelled it. Then I bought only a Hard-Rock-Pattaya-writings-at-the-back jacket. It is a cool jacket for a cool man, black colored one with yellow line at the arm. I love the Hard Rock writings at the back side of this jacket. Cool! Later on, we walked around Pattaya and continued to watch queer show there.

Queer Life in Pattaya
There are two queer shows in Pattaya; Alcazar show and Tiffani show. People there recommended us to choose the last one since the shemales are more beautiful vs. the one in Alcazar. You can ask the people there how to get to there and they will help you. It was easy to reach. Tiffani show has three different seats; VIP ( Baht 1000, sit at the front), Deluxe ( Baht 700, sit in between VIP and Mezzanine ) and Mezzanine ( Baht 500, sit in the second level ). My first impression to this show was really good. I was just so shocked watching that show as most of the stars did not look like a man. They have been a woman look alike, the skin, the eye, the shape or their face and body, the way they walk and the body movement when they were dancing. Unbelievable and I was just speechless how come a man could change into a ‘woman’?

The show finished and the stars were going to the garden at the front of the building. It was the time for anyone who wanted to take picture with all of them. You can just pick one of them to take the picture and pay Baht 40. Originally they will just posed, but some of the guys touched their breast and or hugged them from the back. They would not be angry but they would ask for more Baht if you did that. I spent Baht 200 for all poses, with special poses, one was when I touched his ( or her ) breast, and another one is when he (or she) kissed me! Damn it! I could hardly believe that I wanted to do that. Well, you know now that I love challenges and will try anything new.

The next two hours, we were on the car on the way back to Bangkok. After that, the adventure to find Thai Girls show began!

Oh My God, “She Can Do That!”
It was 00.00 am Thailand time. After discussing with the gangs about the plan to visit Thai Girls show, we decided to stop at Pat Pong area, not Khaosan Road. The first plan was to stop at our hotel, then put our bags and take shower, but we thought it was not a good idea as it had been late at night.

Pat Pong area is the place if you want to watch Thai girls show. Many places you could visit there. The show will start at 10 pm until 2 am. You should be careful to choose the club as many of them will not show any sex show but only Thai girls show. One of the tricks to ensure you maximize your Baht for a sex show is by entering the club without paying and see what they show you inside. If it is only Thai girls show, then you should not pay and spend your time there. If it is Thai girls and sex show, then you could enter that club with all of your team and enjoy! Many of the club will promise you a sex show at 1 am or 1.30 am but they will not show any sex show though you have paid for that. What can you do to fight it, given the fact you’re in their club and not in your country? So it is better for you to have strategy against their trick.

Entering Pat Pong area, we were offered by some peoples promising both Thai girls show and sex show. After experiencing deception a day before, we did not accept that offer. Lately when we have been so tired walking and looking for a quality club and we started accepting someone’s offer, a foreigner came to us. He said that that offer could not be trusted as he was tricked by the man offering the sex show to us. Then we walked again and looked around. The strategy was changed. We entered a bar for a drink and asked the owner of the bar to show us a quality sex show in that area. We believed that that man would not trick us as he would not take any advantage by bringing us to any sex show club. Then immediately one of his staff brought me and Jerry, one of the Andri’s gangs, to a sex show club. What we could see inside was only Thai girls show. Promised that at 1 am we would see sex show, I took the gangs to come inside. We paid Baht 300 for free drink.

Waiting until 2 am, we did not see any sex show. Damn it! It was the second time we got tricked by Thai.

Anyway, it seemed the gangs enjoyed the Thai girls show as they could do unbelievable things with their v*g*na; opening a bottle of beer with her thing, smoking as if her thing is a mouth, throwing banana and small balls from her thing to 5 meters far! I could not believe how she could do that.

Well, it was a new experience for us and we could not forget it. I, Santi and Riri continued the night and planned to go to Bed Superclub, but it had been closed at 2 am. The taxi driver brought us to another club that would be closed at 5-6 am. At the gate of that club, I left the girls and back to Davis hotel. I was so exhausted and needed to get rest.

A day after, the first team would leave Thailand to Vietnam. The exciting feeling disturbed us as we were just curious how Vietnam looked like.

Chatuchak Market - The Mother of All Market, the Biggest Market in Southeast Asia
May 19, 2007. That day I was feeling so exhausted, but so excited. The exciting thing was I saw many new things there and I loved them all! Before leaving Bangkok, I planned to visit Chatucak Market and Vimanmek Mansion, the place that I did not visit 2 day before.

Chatucak Market, opened only at weekends, is the biggest market in SE Asia, which is why people call it as mother market. When I was in skytrain and about to stop at Mo Chit BTS station, I could see series of roofs near the station. I wondered what they were and lately I knew that they were buildings of the market. It was a huge market, seriously. I never saw the market that big like that. When I was entering the market, I walked surrounded by many people; Thais, Indonesian, Caucasian, many more! It was so crowded. The market sprawls over the huge area with 15,000 stalls and there are estimated 200,000 visitors a day. You can find anything there, live chickens and snake, t-shirts and clothes, souvenirs, man and woman accessories, house tools, anything! Name it and you can find them there. Be aware that you can be so exhausted and may bring lots of plastic bag after spending several hours inside the market. It was a great and lots of fun shopping experience.

To reach Chatucak market, you can use either taxi or skytrain to Mo Chit BTS station from any BTS station in both Sukhumvit and Silom line. If you are in a group of 4, use taxi will be cheaper.

Vimanmek Mansion
After visiting Chatuchak Market and there were still free 3 hours in Bangkok, I decided to look how good Vimanmek Mansion was. I should have visited that place 2 days before, but because the time was not enough to cover Vimanmek Mansion visit, I could not visit it. From Mo Chit BTS station, I stopped at National Monument BTS station and used taxi from there to Vimanmek Mansion ( Baht 40, 10 minutes drive ). You can use bus if you want the cheaper price.

Vimanmek Mansion ( Free with Grand Palace ticket - should be visited at the same day, Baht 100 – if visited not at the same day with Grand Palace, 9.30 am-4 pm) is the world’s largest golden teak building, used to accept state guest from all over the world. Rama V, one of the Kings in Thai history, lived in that building of grateful staircases, octagonal rooms and lattice walls. You can see many pictures and ornaments inside it to understand how the history of that Thai kingdom flew at any specific decade. You will follow a group with one guide ( free ) to enter Vimanmek Mansion, as they prohibited person to come inside alone.

There are many other buildings near Vimanmek Mansion building. You could visit them with one ticket you got from locket. At 3 pm, I came back to Davis hotel and took my bags to catch up the flight to Hanoi ( FD 3706 Bangkok-Hanoi 19.00-20.50, Airfare Baht 1450, No airport tax ). If you’re in a group of 4, using taxi ( Baht 200-250, 45 minutes ) is cheaper vs. skytrain or airport bus. If you’re alone, you can use airport bus departing from any bus terminal in Bangkok ( Baht 150, 45-75 minutes as they will stop at some points before reaching airport ).

What are you stealing from the universe today?

2009-08-07T09:23:00.003+07:00

I am on the flight from Jakarta heading to Pekanbaru to see my house there. I bought it 2 years ago while I was still working there. It's generally a very nice house in a residence located close to Pekanbaru airport. The area is free of flood and the water is differently clean, so this residence becomes a favorite one that many people want to stay there. As a result, the price has increased quite significantly. So I felt so lucky to have bought it once.

Here I am on 9D seat in AirAsia flight. The captain just told us that the plane will be landing in Medan, instead of Pekanbaru. What? Yes, I will be in Medan in a couple of minutes. As happened every year, Pekanbaru is now covered by smog that plane won't be allowed to land. The flight attendant tried to tell us, "We'll just have fun and at least we can enjoy Medan for awhile." That's exactly what I was thinking actually! If something in the world moves against us, what we need to do is accept it and react in a way that we treat our self easy.

Last night I attended P&G reward&recognition night that was held in Moroccan house in Menteng. Thankfully I got three rewards for the work team has done for the past 1 year. What special is among those 3, the last award is from country manager which was the most prestigious award.

I believed award, congrats and honor can't be claimed by single person in any situation. While we can accept them for the contribution we did, but we should not be arrogant or claim the greatness for our own glory. We all steal something from the universe. And if we have to thankful for the praise people give to us, it should be passed to the universe.

We are all one. We take things from universe; from friends, family, co-workers, bosses, nature, any kind of being in the universe. We are the one in a whole. A success story is contribution of all aspects which we interact to during our whole life.

Successful writers for example. While they can claim the honor people give to them, but they actually learn, take things from universe. From the books they have been reading since Angels opened up their eyes and introduced letters to them. From the inspiration they stole in the making, so they can write undeniably beautiful words. Even honor should be passed to whoever invented paper, books, distribution networks, language and letters so the books can reach you and inspire your minds.

While I know that the awards were given to my hands, I actually stole things from bosses, co-workers, books and unique people I interacted with, even if I don't realize they have contributed to. The greatness comes from others' greatnesses.

What are you stealing from the universe today? What are greatnesses you want to pass to universe?

Feeling one inside the whole One.

Southeast Asia - Thousands Miles Trip on Small Budget - Malaysia Edition

2009-08-06T23:23:00.000+07:00

Beautifully made by the hands of God, Southeast Asia has become one of most favorite tourist destinations in the world. With its white sandy beach, warmth of the sun all days, priceless value culture and the people inside it, you’ll feel like in the world of dream.

The last stoppages of my trip were Singapore, Malaysia and Phuket in Thailand. At that point in time, I promised myself to continue this journey to other parts of SE Asia. Made to be the house for world’s backpackers, Bangkok is the first priority of my trip. From the visits of sacred temples to wild nightlife, the city promises extra value for your budget trip. Guarantee! Covered by the nightlife and queer community, Pattaya is more than worthy to visit. Vietnam with its ex-French colonial city of Hanoi and UNESCO World Heritage site of Halong Bay rise as one of destinations in that region. Everybody, backpackers particularly, are curious to explore this new country of destination.

Getaway from busy life to relaxing vacation in Thailand and Vietnam is not just a dream. It is a reality and a must-do-off-time for you. Thousands miles trip on small budgets.

Memorial Trip of Pekanbaru

A Talk and Laugh for Mic and Yang
May 15, 2007. It’s been two months I moved to Jakarta with all of its crowded and complex life. Originally the route was Pekanbaru-KL-Bangkok-Hanoi-KL-Pekanbaru ( Rp. 1,4 Million, Air Asia free ticket promotion, booked on January 07 ), but then I had to change the last flight from KL-Pekanbaru to directly KL-Jakarta. Tuesday, May 15, I woke up at 3.00 AM to catch Air Asia flight from Jakarta to Pekanbaru at 6.30 AM ( QZ 7430, 1.5 hour, Airfare Rp. 212.650, Airport Tax Rp. 30.000 ). The time was moving slowly, just like my body, my mind and my soul. They synchronized the move of the time. Arriving at Sutan Syarif Kasim Pekanbaru airport, Mic and Yang picked me up and took me around. Excitement sharing, laughing and life updating inside Mic’s car, we really had the great times. That time I could hardly stop my mouth having a talk and a laugh and it was the first time within two months I wanted to spend more time having conversation with others. Busy and hectic life in Jakarta had made me anti-social-person – “the faster I stop talking to the people, the more productive I am” principle which I realize lately was wrong - in the contrary with what I want to be.

Two Portions of Chinese Noodle
Not having a breakfast at all, we visited Pasar Bawah, the oldest traditional market in Pekanbaru town, in where most of Chinese people spent their time to shop daily needs. We stopped at a small Chinese restaurant and ordered Chinese noodle. It is a mix of noodle and Cukyuk soup ( pork leg soup ), making it so special and a very good food to eat in the morning. Excellent! I ordered one more portion of it.

AK 972 Pekanbaru-Kuala Lumpur 12.05-13.50
Taking the flight to Kuala Lumpur ( AK 972, 45 minutes, Airfare Rp. 265.000, Airport Tax Rp. 60.000 ), I did not need to pay fiscal tax as I had been having Pekanbaru passport since 2005. You don’t need to pay any fiscal tax to visit SE Asia countries if you have one of Sumatra provinces passports ( except North Sumatra and NAD provinces ). After checking into the counter, I needed only to pay airport tax RP. 60.000 for international flight. In the plane, I started reading ‘Southeast Asia on a shoestring’ book of Lonely Planet. Reading in the Air Asia flight was simply fun. The cheap price and high value are the best combination for all travelers. Comfortable seat with synthetic leather, new aircraft and beautiful flight attendants made this airway my best flight for personal trip. They have expanded its territory from only in Malaysia to many countries in SE Asia and beyond, making it one of the biggest flight services in SE Asia, in only 5 years! And to run 4,500 flights in a week, most of them from Kuala Lumpur, they have built their own airport, Low Cost Carrier Terminal ( LCCT ), just 15 minutes from main airport of Kuala Lumpur International Airport ( KLIA ). Amazing! No private flight service company ever did that! The idea, marketing strategy, close-to-people-heart flight and new routes for sure will bring this airway to value leadership in next 5 years. Superb Air Asia!

The Couch of Ken – Couchsurfing Experience in Kuala Lumpur

Titi in Pyramid of Kuala Lumpur
After 45 minutes in the flight, I arrived at LCCT, phenomenal airport of Air Asia. The airport is not big, dominated by yellow and white color. From the aircraft to the airport, no bus will take you there and you’ll need to walk ( that’s why they call it with LCC Terminal! ). Right after coming into entrance gate, there are passport checking lockets. Baggage claim at the right side of the lockets, exit gate at the opposite side. You can also take some ‘Visit Malaysia 2007’ brochures about some interesting places to visit in Malaysia. Before you exit from LCCT, you can find some taxi and bus services lockets. They provide taxi to Kuala Lumpur ( RM 60-70, 45 minutes ) and efficient bus directly to KL Sentral ( RM 9, 45 minutes ), from where you can find buses and trains to many destinations in KL. The bus is equipped with air conditioner and comfortable seat. No worries about security.

Several days before, I had made appointment with Titi, Rejoice model and Ken, couchsurfer from Kuala Lumpur. From KL Sentral, I took taxi to Pyramid of Sunway Lagoon to meet Titi. It is one of big malls in suburban area of Kuala Lumpur. The mall is signed by big Sphinx at the front of it. Sunway Lagoon is a complex of mall, hotel and entertainment site. After stucked in a traffic jam for a while, I finally met Titi and her friend, Kiki in Coffee Bean. We had fun talk with a cup of cappuccino ice.

Couch of Ken
At 6 pm, I took taxi to Ken’s apartment. This is actually my virgin couchsurfing experience, hosted by Ken Choong, a Chinese Malay who spent most of his time working in USA and traveling in Europe. The warm introduction happened when I searched the people in couch search. Ken responded my request of couch very kindly. Arriving at his apartment, his room is very comfortable with big soft bed and air conditioner. When I was showering, he surprisingly made a dinner for us. That was above my expectation. Even he took me around Kuala Lumpur and we watched Spiderman 3 movie. It was the first impressive couchsurfing experience! If you want to have the same mind-linking, excitement sharing experience and want this world smaller than you think, just visit couchsurfing.com and enjoy the be-hosted and be-surfed experiences with people around the world! Guarantee you it is FUN!

AK 880 Kuala Lumpur-Bangkok 08.25-09.30
May 16, 2007. Woke up at 4 in the morning, I took the taxi ( 5 AM, 45 minutes, RM 60 ) and arrive at LCCT to catch my flight to Bangkok ( AK 880, two hours, Airfare RM 105, No Airport Tax ). Again, it was a fun time in the flight of Air Asia.

Malaysia at a Glance
Malaysia has changed itself into one of main tourist destination in SE Asia nowadays, with the motto ‘Truly Asia’. Many great places to visit here. Recommended for adventurous people are Pulau Perhentian on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia, Kinabalu National Park in Malaysian Borneo, Bario & the Kelabit Highlands in Malaysian Borneo, Cameron Highlands in Peninsular of Malaysia, Pulau Langkawi in the East Cost, Labuan in the north of Kalimantan. Those places can be reached using mix of by air, by bus and by walking/trekking. For city tour and old building sightseeing, visit Kuala Lumpur ( Petronas Tower, Batu Caves, Culinary at Bukit Bintang and Shopping at Bukit Bintang ), Genting Highlands, Penang, Malaka and Negeri Sembilan. All of them can be reached using the flight/bus from Pudu Raye Bus Station.

If you get stuck in Kuala Lumpur and don’t know where to sleep, just visit Bintang Guest House in Golden Triangle area ( 27, Jalan Tong Shin, Off Tengkat Tong Shin, 50200 Kuala Lumpur, phone 03-2144 3398 & 03-2148 9398, website www.bintangguesthouse.com.my ). Another option is stay at Pudu Raye area and China Town as there are many guesthouse there.

Easy With Self, Easy With People

2009-08-05T21:34:00.002+07:00

Lately I've been exercising 'go easy with yourself' principle and I can say it is superb mantra for happiness. At least it has lifted up big portion of my burden and I feel much more happier. I feel much more appreciated by people as a result of being relaxed in living my life. I feel loved. I feel awesome.

Going easy with our self relates closely with how we interact with people, first, and how we perceive our self, second.

Have you ever expected someone to be like what you want and the reality ruins your perfect imagination? In my case, it is many times and it was really disappointing.

Simply accept that people are not perfect will lift up our burden. And sometimes we need to lower our expectations. No, it's not that it lowers our personal standard; it is simply an acceptance of reality. We can still expect people behave in an appropriate way; what society perceives as good, but we need to refuse to be disappointed by it. It's different. Being disappointed means that we become reactive rather than proactive in choosing the mood we want to have for our day.

And if we can't really accept particular people's behavior, why should we keep pushing our self to maintain that relationship? There's no wrong with removing relationship. Or if you still want to have one, minimum interaction is maybe a solution as well. And maybe it's the right time for us to exercise pleasure freedom that we expected to have.

Another thing is about giving love to people. If we give love to someone and they don't really accept and react in a way we expect to see, why it bothers us? It's their right to accept or putting our love in the trash.

So having full control on how we react to people's behavior may be one of the big things for our easy life.

Aside from people related matters, going easy with our self is about how we perceive our life and how we choose to live our life.

We can perceive life as heaven or hell. And unfortunately people seeing life as heaven react in a way that they create happiness in life. They strive positiveness in life that adds abundance in life.

Life is meaningless and empty and it's true. Seriously. The meaning of life depends on how we perceive it and how we add meaning into it. Some people see having wife and kids as important they can't live without. It gives meaning to their life, but some people see those as least priority and being independently alone doesn't really matter for them. But both lives can be meaningful.

Some people see diamonds as something meaningful in life but for others what meaningful is spending rest of life with partner in a jungle being servant of poorest people in the world.

Some people see money as the most important thing in life but others can live happily in the absence of income stability.

So the meaning of life really depends on how we perceive it. We're the actor for own life.

Be proud of our self and just go easy with our self. We're just special and loved. And doing what we want, though it's different, is no shame. Go easy.

Okay, I hope this note gives enlightment to your day. For those who tried hard to change people, maybe this gives encouragement to lower your expectation and react in a way that you may bring happiness into your life.

For those who see traveling as the way to go easy with self; some next posts will be about traveling. It's basically some posts about my travel over the past 5 years unpublished. So enjoy!

My Eyes Can Hear You, My Ears Can See You

2009-08-03T00:13:00.003+07:00

Being spiritual healthy is really something that helps ourselves to be on top of everything. By having so, we know that energy from universe transferred to us in a way that it creates abundance within. As a result, it's a bless that comes out. And it's gratitude prayer we say; neither negative words nor curses.

The result of gratitude prayer is higher happiness level everyday, which eventually creates bigger energy to solve things. People around us will see us on top of things, someone proactive rather than reactive and someone having free will rather than following things.

To be spiritual healthy, we need to communicate to THAT.

It doesn't matter to what god we're praying to. The thing is if we communicate to that Being and feel awesome, relieved, then we will feel spiritually healthy. Well, awesome and relieved sometimes can't really describe how big the feeling is, because the feeling to THAT is too majestic to be transformed into phrases and words. THAT is limitless, highest level of being and omnipotent.

So what's gratitude prayer that we bring up everyday to bless the universe?

Feeling abundance

Go Easy With Yourself

2009-07-30T07:57:00.006+07:00

Have you ever felt that you're overwhelmed by things - you wanted to do many things and ended up the day doing nothing? We felt overwhelmed by things and instead of being productive, we lost passion to complete our tons of to-do-lists.

Since last week, I've been trying to go easy with myself. Though I know worry-free life is something too perfect, I try to make life more enjoyable, easier. I bought some DVDs, tried to minimize everyday to-do-lists to become simpler and prioritize only big things. What I get is what I expected. Life is sooo easy. Yes, easy.

And big problems become something to beat rather than to ignore, or to escape from. We become 'on top of', instead of 'overwhelmed by', things.

The first stepping stone to go easy with self is actually mental work. We need to see things as options rather than must-things-to-do. What I mean options is you choose what important things, what you really want to do. You do what you like to do.

Many things can't be that ideal; we do things we like. But many times we need to stretch ourselves a little bit by doing must-things-to-do. And those can be options if we can build them in our mind, accept them and try to justify why we should do so called must-things-to-do. So, most of the things in the world can be something we 'choose to do' rather than a 'have to do'.

Okay - time to say hello to legs now and off to the beach. Maybe I will be too easy with myself and next posting will be delayed a week or so.

Should We Judge as Good or Bad or Just Accept What Is?

2009-07-26T13:00:00.009+07:00

Several weeks ago I had chance to meet one of the smartest people in social science, Katherine Wilson - traveler, Salsa teacher and PhD student specialized in genocide. Her blog is awesome. Though she stayed with me only for several days, we talked a lot about politics, religion, life and genocide - the newest and strangest thing I ever heard so far.

Genocide is simply defined as deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group. Jews holocaust, Rwanda genocide, Darfur - Sudan tragedy, Yugoslavia ethnic war (Serb and Bosnia) and cultural destruction (Aborigine and Indian ethnic in Australia and USA) are all included in genocide subject.

All of them are darkest moment in our history. If you see holocaust movie - Schindler's List, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - you'll see how terrible human can be. Nazi killed Jews in killing fields with poison gas, burnt people and shot them like killing dogs or any animals' name you never value. And for me, killing people for difference; economically, politically, religion, is the worst thing that ever happened in our history.

The conversation with Kat opened a whole new concept how people, at least for myself, should live in differences. It's like confirmation about what I have been believing about the perfect life should be.

While I believe the physical destruction is the worst, disgusting things human can do; the second worst is unacceptance leading to harassment, of cultural, gender, sexual orientation, and personality differences in our life.

I am grateful my Chinese family was raised in village amongst non-Chinese people - so when they bullied my Chinese face, I understood the way they thought before they said bad words to me.

Our education system sometimes make it worst, taught us not to be open, stuck in theory rather than expanding the way of thinking; in a way that people seeing similarity as bestest thing happens in life rather than wisely accepting difference.

I am grateful to have been moved to Jakarta at 10 years old and being nerd student in school, so I knew how to live, one more time in life, in minority and accepted differences. I am grateful to be in school and university where cultures blend in a perfect way - so I can see the beauty of being different.

So, difference is the destiny of life. We cannot change that. Sad thing is bigots move against world movement.

We all are imperfect in managing difference. Our humanness tends to reject difference because it creates discomfort in us. But that's okay, at least we try. I try to. Some are good stories, some failed to ge good ones.

I believe the best way to handle differences are by seeing things neutral, neither good ones nor bad ones. Good-bad system tends to judge things and categorizes things in group of bad one and good one. And we tend to look down at the bad ones. By seeing things neutral, we accept difference as normal things and handle it as something that improves our system of life. That's the perfect idea of living life in differences, for me.

So, being different isn't necessarily a bad thing ever happened in our life. We're all different in specific way. It IS us who choose our life path. Be proud of it - you have colorful paintings rather than only black & white ones.

The simple yet powerful story about being different is told perfectly in 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas', an award winning movie with Holocaust tragedy as the setting.

There are two boys in that movie; first is son of Nazi commander who didn't really have idea what his father was doing as soldier. What he knew his father is a soldier who surrendered himself to country, which was led by Nazi.

The second boy is the son of Jews, who has been in the killing field waiting to be executed. He's been tortured for years in killing field - everyday he ran to the corner of killing field, which accidentally made him meet the first boy.

They have different perspective about soldier.

For the first boy, who didn't have idea what soldiers' job is - what he knew they surrendered life for holly duty to their country - sees soldiers as one making world the better place to live. In that era, Nazi brainwashed students that their holly war was to erase Jews from civilization. They believed Jews are evil who made world worse.

For the second boy, who has been living like animals for years, what he knew was soldiers are evils who punished with gun for mistake, killed people for nothing and celebrated for the pain Jews felt.

From the insufficient information they both have, they tend to have unoptimal conclusion of one similar thing. It's like describing elephant for deaf and blind man.

You see what I'm saying? Try to look things from opposite point of view and you'll see the beauty of differences. Go easy with differences, and you'll not be tired of living everywhere and for sure it will expand your personal impact.

"Sometimes it's a form of love to talk to somebody that you've nothing in
common with and still be fascinated by their presence." -David Byrne

Perfect Getaway in Tanjung Lesung

2009-07-25T12:27:00.004+07:00

What's on earth makes us keep giving to people or community? I believe it's because abundance feeling that we have. If we have it, then we have something to share to the world. It is a state that you can't keep it inside YOU, but YOU need, if no forced, to give back to universe. It's like filling water into glass and when it's full, there's no choice for water but being in abundance state, throwing out water to everywhere.

And to get abundance feeling, we need to take it from people, things or nature. Stealing it from people or things is temporary, and the happiness transferred is, many times, fake. Taking abundance from newest blackberry or expensive wardrobe may be disappointing. The value of abundance we took may be only the price to get those worldly things. So, it's limited.

But taking it from nature is unlimited. Priceless. You can take as long as you still need love, energy and confidence to do things. Mother earth gives us unconditional love - she doesn't really expect to get love back.

It's been long time not being back on the road, and next weekend I will be stealing abundance from the universe. It's like getting water into glasses of my life, fill it up and throwing ocean of love, confidence and consciousness to the world.

Road is my homey. I'm gettin' excited.

Total Solar Eclipse July 22, 2009

2009-07-22T17:08:00.007+07:00

I was 7 years old the first time I witnessed first solar eclipse in my life. Several days after I was in elementary school, I was so afraid to neither having friends nor facing scary teachers in school. Palembang back at 1989. The fear of this phenomena was even bigger than the fear of being in school. I had no idea when one day the sky turned into dark and I was there, running into the class to hide and was afraid bad things happened. Superstition which I had been listening to came to my life.

But then I knew that it was solar eclipse, which is scientifically natural and explainable.

Today, July 22, 2009, total solar eclipse was visible within narrow corridor which began in India and traveled thru Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, southern Japan and Pacific Ocean. Total solar eclipse is one of the most fascinating astronomical phenomena that people from all over the world travel to the corridor to see this once-in-a-century eclipse. The nearest will be seen again in June 13, 2132, as predicted. And what special is the total solar eclipse today is the longest one in 21st century, lasted up to 6 minutes and 39 seconds.

Some awesomeness of total solar eclipse in history here.

Universe is trying to wow us with this phenomena.

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_July_22,_2009
http://www.zam.fme.vutbr.cz/~druck/Eclipse/index.htm

The Art of Waiting and Why It Should Stop Ruining Our Day

2009-07-20T23:24:00.004+07:00

Have you ever been in a moment that you have been waiting for someone and he/she didn't come on time, or worse, didn't come at all? You felt upset and immediately it changed your mood the whole day. Or you started judging that the person is really disrespectful - and you started complaining here and there.

It's time to stop complaining if you, by any chance, have to wait for someone. There may be many reasons why they make you wait. The person you are waiting for may be; stuck in unexpected traffic jam, engine failure, or simply because of his bad time management. No matter what the reasons, we can change our attitude from 'we have to wait' to 'we choose to wait'. There are lots of things you can do whilst waiting for. One of the simplest to do is doing nothing.

Yes, just do nothing. I learn from the past that, yes, it is disrespectful if you make someone waiting for you, but it is as disrespectful as blaming that person for being late without any chance for him to explain. Back to reality; there are many possibilities that people come late, and we know that.

And learning from the past, we can choose to make our waiting time much more enjoyable than ever! It's our choice.

Here are some tips I have been doing to make my waiting time enjoyable, or at least, not a disaster for my whole day:

Make yourself busy. We can always do things whilst waiting; writing, following-up some pending items of your job over the phone, arranging schedule, thinking about forward plans. Or maybe you can start talking to strangers to start opening your mind. We don't know that the person may be the savior for the whole future life. If you don't really want to make yourself busy with work, you can do things you like, your hobbies; listening to music, writing, or make yourself busy with your blackberry.

Do nothing. I usually do this thing a lot. Many people don't have chance to do nothing because they 'don't' want to. It IS deliberate action to do nothing. Do nothing is great - we give chance for self, mind and soul to recover. Look at the sky, the people around, and just enjoy the bestest things universe has offered to us. Life is wonderful and just being in the world doing nothing is rare opportunity, particularly if we live in mega-cities.

Breathe. Take a deep breath; you may do this only whilst sleeping. Having so many things to do in the office may make us forget how to really take a deep breath.

Gratitude. Being grateful for everything in life is a like a magic; it creates abundance to our life. If we are grateful for great family, children, food, career we have, which are big things, then why should we be ungrateful with being alone waiting for someone, which is small thing? We fill life up with happiness in big things, then small things should not ruin our happiness.

Set expectation. We can always set our expectation low, as low we can go. Say, 15 minutes waiting is worth the benefit we may get later. It's our choice. Having problem as perfectionist and you cannot let things off-track? You may want to start letting go things, which is fulfilling. Universe is perfect, human is not. So why we should be tired and being perfectionist if we know there will always be perfection above everything and our humanness? So, expect worst things happen. And accept them.

Think from both side. You may want to try thinking from opposite side; the people you are waiting for may be having problem. Accident, engine failure, unexpected traffic jam. You know the best personality of person you're waiting for, if it's a lie or not.

Monk lifestyle: waiting is giving. I really admire how monks live life; when waiting is unproductive, annoying thing for people, they treat it as GIVING. We give chances, freedom and choices for that person.

Peace of mind, to or not to be happy, is our choice. Waiting is just like other productive activities. And doing nothing is really something.

Waiting for my time to do nothing, in place like this. :)

Picture from Faisal Reza, photographer and traveling buddy. Thanks for the enlightment, buddy!

What's your biggest joy today?

2009-07-20T00:08:00.005+07:00

If you do want to get daily provoking question everyday, you may want to follow gratitudeQOD from your twitter. I usually spend a minute to answer the question; some are really hard to answer, because I don't really expect to get strange yet eye-opening question. 'What are you surrendering to?' for example.

The easiest question should be 'what is your biggest joy?'. We all know what makes us happy, rite? If you don't, you may want to live in solitude like a monk for awhile to really think about it. :) Joy sometimes comes from a very simple thing, even if it's only about taking a nap while you're on the road. It IS a joy.

Or making a fool of yourself in front of camera.... :)

Or giggling on your bed at midnight, looking at your old portrait. You looked too cool to stay quiet on your bed :)

Of if it’s as simple as your geeky-bike world, just as my friend’s world, Brad Osgood.

I want to list several things in life as my biggest joy.

1. Great family! Do you know that my family is unique and love here may not be the same like what common families have? We don't communicate intensely and don't really show love openly, but from years of living we know that we are inseparable and have ultimate definition of love. It IS love indeed.

2. Great friends! It's great to have lovely lovely friends there when I really need them, who don't judge me. They are awesomeness for my life.

3. Once I was in spiritual freedom. Back to high school, I was ever in a state of completely surrendering self to ultimate power in the universe. Beautifully abundant. Joy flew. Claps, dance and music altogether creating spiritual perfection. Hands to heaven. Superpower imposing soul thru synchronization of spiritual setting. Neither superstition nor fake feeling it was.

4. Three times fell to the river and still alive! If no one helped and saw little boy falling onto Musi river, I would have died now. Not to mention Tarutung-Sibolga accident which made my car was about to fall into valley. There must be reasons to live longer. Live high.

5. Lived in Sumatra. Living there has opened my eyes in seeing road as second home, strangers as mover than shaker. It changed how I see life. I once didn't really want to live there, I know I was wrong.

6. Being open minded and flexible. Living in bigotry isn't ideal in my eyes. Fundamentalist. Homophobic. We live in difference and why should we build border for difference. Living in Mandela's way is perfect.

7. Freedom. If I love something, I treat it like a narcotic. Tried it once. I forgot. Tried it twice. It started bothering me. And I ended up trying it many times. Not only in the context of habits but also things. Now I tried to be detached from things. TV. Blackberry if I want to. My schedule, sometimes free them up is fulfilling! And as expected, I get my solitude life (which is sometimes cool for me, and monks are the coolest creature in the world) and freedom I expect.

Mentioning 7 biggest joys is enough to end up my day with good sleep. And I should change the question to 'what are my biggest joys today?'

What's your biggest joy today?

In joy as always.

A Message from the United Nations Secretary General on First Mandela Day

2009-07-19T10:51:00.003+07:00

In celebrating first Mandela Day, UN Secretary General make statement about Mandela passion and how it has changed the world as better place to live.

Happy 91st birthday Nelson Mandela and happy Mandela Day!

"Nelson Mandela is a living embodiment of the highest values of the United Nations. His commitment to a democratic, multi-racial South Africa; his steadfast pursuit of justice; his willingness to reconcile with those who persecuted him most – these are just some of the hallmarks of a remarkable man. To this day, he works tirelessly for peace and human dignity throughout the world. His engagement in the fight against AIDS broke new ground against stigma. He is an exemplary global citizen."

"What lessons he has taught us! How inspiring he has been, across the world, across the generations! Millions of people are better off thanks to his contributions; many have been moved to pursue lives of service in his image; many, facing tribulations of their own, have found both solace and fortitude in his example. Above all, he has shown the difference one person can make in the face of injustice, conflict, poverty and disease."

"Nelson Mandela has made a lasting imprint on our lives. That is why I am so pleased to join people throughout the world in wishing him a happy 91st birthday. May we all continue to benefit from his wisdom, his good works and good humour for many years to come."

United Nations Secretary - General Ban Ki-moon

About life - Is it like taking guesses when the only answer is yes?

2009-07-19T03:49:00.005+07:00

Okay, that's maybe too rhetorical - life isn't that easy. It isn't really like answering yes for thousand times for any question we got. Sometimes we don't really have the answer now. And many times, it's a big no no.

But hard thing shouldn't make us stop dreaming and more importantly, to decide action we want to do. Being in neutral state may not be the answer for our 'live life to the fullest' questions. We end up with doing nothing.

It's about taking risk. We really wanted to buy things I need or do our plans, but the fear of second terrorist attack were still disturbing our mind. Jakarta was sooo quiet today.

Rather than just staying at home, we may need to do what we want, "just do it", whilst keeping our awareness of danger. We want to breath life, overcoming fear which is many times, fake.

So today I decided not to use my 'BACKSPACE', but just do it and press 'ENTER'. I know that this morning I have been using 'SPACE' many times, delaying decision I should have taken since early in the morning.

And oh yeah, my friends, it's simply about going to shopping mall by overcoming fear of terrorist attack. Fear existed, just like other Jakartan felt today. And sometimes it's simply about pressing 'ENTER' and move forward. We should not let terrorist win.

Better say sorry than doing nothing.

Should you want to join Indonesia Stands United in "We Are Not Afraid" campaign thru your twitter, you just need 1 click to add Indonesia flag to you Twitter avatar. Click here.

And click here in my twitter for following more abundance.

Pressing enter for next vacation,
Romy

67 Minutes of Living Gratitude – Mandela Day

2009-07-18T00:04:00.006+07:00

If you wake up tomorrow morning having chance to transform the world, what would you do? It sounds corny being asked everyday knowing the fact that most of people, including me; still think that we can’t really change the world. We are neither president nor religious leader with many followers.

Indeed simple act we do everyday can really transform the world, at least starting from YOU and places YOU live now. Smile for people in your office. Simple thanks to YOUR mother for the breakfast she prepared. Special delivery service from Pizza guy knocking at YOUR apartment door. Or, living attitude of gratitude to change the people YOU meet everyday. Simple act to change the world simply starts from YOU and it’s contagious. It’s to make the world better place to live.

Tomorrow morning Nelson Mandela will celebrate his 91st anniversary. In honor of his life and legacy, we will celebrate the first Mandela Day in July 18, 2009. Mandela Day is a global call to action that celebrates the idea that each person has the power to transform the world, the ability to make an imprint. Nelson Mandela himself has spent 67 years in making the world a better place to live. To participate, you can give your 67 minutes a day for simple thing that can change the world. Smile for 67 minutes a day. Live in gratitude for 67 minutes a day. Or just as simple as reading newspaper for 67 minutes to the elderly, said Derek, a boy from USA. For more information, click here.

Start from very simple thing you can do everyday. And make your imprint now. Easy, you just need to register and you can start making your imprint.

This is mine!

And if you’re quite internet savvy, you can spread the news thru facebook, twitter, youtube or flickr. Everything you may think will help to spread the news. Please help to make the world better place to live. You can click the icon at the bottom and put it in your facebook or twitter.

What would you do to change the world, buddy?

Some Pictures from Jakarta Bomb

2009-07-17T16:11:00.007+07:00

What's my biggest joy today? That though some of friends were injured during the blast in JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton this morning, they are all safe now...! P&G office, Menara Rajawali, is next to those two hotels and some of colleagues were in the office when bombs were exploded, including my ex-girlfriend. A friend of mine was working out at the third floor of JW Marriott when the bomb was blasted at the first floor. So he fell to the floor because of the strong impact. And a friend of mine was having breakfast meeting this morning in restaurant of Ritz Carlton hotel, so she was injured a bit.

But I'm grateful that everybody is safe now!

I didn't come back to my apartment today, which is in Mega Kuningan area - 10 minutes from explosion location - obviously the road is blocked so I won't be able to come in anyway - so I just come back to see my parents here in Depok. I may need to spend long weekend just in solitude. And it's just great to be in solitude, I may need to think about further plan and my writing project.

I hope that these below things won't happen anymore.

Bomb in Jakarta

2009-07-17T11:33:00.003+07:00

This morning I planned to go to office at 8 for pre-meeting with my boss, but I woke up late. The bombs were exploded when I was taking shower. My apartment is just 10 minutes walk from the bomb location, so I could really hear the blast. My office is next to JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton, the bomb location.

I felt so lucky for waking up late. That I didn't need to cross the roads everyday I use.

The bombs were blasted this morning at 7.58 AM in two locations: the parking lot entrance of JW Marriott hotel and restaurant of Ritz Carlton hotel. Until now, 9 people were reported died - President of Holcim Indonesia included.

Again, I felt so grateful that I wasn't there when it happened.

So when there are no such safe places to go, being in the home in Depok is the best one I think.

Time to go and be back home.

In joy,
Romy

Blonde Traveler

2009-07-16T22:42:00.004+07:00

Last week I had a chance to meet an interesting person named Kaila. She contacted me long before her arrival in Jakarta.

Rather than thinking a lot and worrying about accepting people as my guest, I chose to say yes to every couch request I got. I did considering to open my world to universe, enjoying difference, adventure and even, debate, that I might have if I meet person having different point of view with me.

And here we go, I had been with Kaila for 5 days. Lazy and relaxed days last weekend were enough to know her better.

She went for awesomeness yesterday leaving beautiful mess in my days. Communism beer and geeky atomic discussion late at night were just several things left behind. It was awesome.

Kaila is an excellent writer traveling around SE Asia. She's building her career in her web project, expecting someday she will partner with companies offering service in travel. It can be hotels offering discount voucher through her website or so. Someday she plans to stay for awhile in SE Asia for this career.

It's just awesome to see her website, www.blondetraveler.com. It is developed with heart, written in passion and oh yea, easily put so even kinder garden students can understand.

In beautiful mess because of flu,
Awesome Romy :) as Kaila said

They Sing, Dance and Steal Things

2009-07-14T13:58:00.007+07:00

Last weekend, I witnessed how music and dance turn into awesomeness when Mahagenta performing Opera Negeri Fantasi which was held in Taman Ismail Marzuki. They have been spreading joy to world, playing beautiful music, performing excellently and entertaining like no more tomorrow for them. It was blasted evening in art center in Jakarta, that I felt so relaxed and awesome. Excellent!

Opera Negeri Fantasi is a 95 minutes opera with various artists participated; musician, instrumentalist and dancer. They dream for colorful original Indonesian music alive and bring it to the world. They sing, dance and steal things. They took the awesomeness from nature and give it back to the world thru music and performance. Next year, I will be sitting there again to steal awesomeness. I need it to move through my day.

And on top of beautiful art performance, I had chance to come to Café Batavia for one more time with Kaila. It was a very hot day. Hello legs. We couldn’t resist chilling out a bit inside. I didn’t expect that its restroom is soo gay.

Happy summer and cultivating awesomeness outside, say hello to legs!

What are you grateful for today?

2009-07-10T00:16:00.002+07:00

Being on the road has transformed me to independent man; I ain't afraid of things coming to my life. Unexpected is great. Strangers are awesome. Changes in plan are just like pepper in steak. Steak is good, travel is good. And having pepper is just like adding awesomeness to travel. So, being on the road has changed the way I live, forever.

I don't want to stop the way I live, it's like a calling from heart. I feel grateful for the freedom I have; to keep being open for any chances coming in, though sometimes feeling overwhelmed by choices, I can still choose deliberately what's the best.

Thanks to the freedom mom and dad have put in me. They don't even want to change me. They tried to understand why; though they wanted me to follow, they knew when to stop and let me think what's the best. So, it's a perfect love they have given to me.

I love the freedom I have now. I feel grateful for life I have now. I feel awesome anytime I think about my life now.

I feel grateful for today; for being able to let go.Letting go is painful.

Letting go teaches many lessons. Time to be back on the road. Road is awesome. Road is my home.

Feeling great! Feeling strong in faith. Feeling kicking-ass craziness is under control.

Cosmic Spontaneous Song

2009-07-08T23:06:00.002+07:00

Should I transform myself tomorrow morning as someone who has one wish, I would ask for being completely free from limitations and sing as if no more minutes to live. I want to have my body blasted into heavenly gold grain. Then fly to ocean of stars where Universe has been positioned Himself for billions of years. Sitting in galaxies.

My soul will completely open for the heavenly music that urges myself to sing spontaneously. It is spontaneous song from heart that I used to sing for Him, 10 years back. Remembering those old days, I felt like I was free. Eyes closed. Hands up to heaven. I bow down on my knees with tears dropping to the ground. Rather than feeling madness I felt happiness. Excited in unanticipated abundance. I felt like I was in heaven; heaven of spiritual songs – amongst billions of Angels singing along with me with instruments. I felt anything but negativity.

I think I can be one of the gods if I can sing along freely, limitlessly with angels; being completely open and surrender to the flow of music – transforming my voice to the energy that blasts death stars and turning my abundance to supernova, separating billions of stars in galaxy to elsewhere. Mind is limitless. Power is undeniably big – that from human turns into god.

Oh well – that will be totally awesome to sing gratefully in heavenly abundance. But I know that we’re limitless, we can be neither god nor angels. We’re human and our humanness always says that we have limitations. We’re human with limits.

Maybe guitar and spontaneous songs can transform my life tomorrow.

Feeling undeniably shaky.

Being Mindful in Super-busy Life

2009-07-04T15:55:00.003+07:00

One of the secrets of being happy is living mindfully - how a person can live in present.

We live in super-busy life nowadays. Rather than having technology that makes life easier - it is supposed to save our time to do things - we are overwhelmed by having too much task to do everyday. We're back home even later than before. Being mindful may be a good one for your happiness.

As part of living attitude of gratitude, I start committing to live life mindfully - being present at a time. How can we live gratefully if we keep doing many things, get overwhelmed with them and at the end of the day become so negative to say 'thanks' for the day' to WHOEVER we pray to?

I know, sometimes blackberry ruins our mindful life - emails and notification coming in every second. That's why we may need to minimize its impact to our life. I start being bored with it as sometimes it made day worse than being present. So, I am considering what's the best way to handle this tool.

Maybe I need to put seducing sticker on it, "Please give me a blow job!" so I can start being excited with it again.

So, there are several things I need to do to be mindful and start cultivating happier life. I try to commit myself to do this simple yet hard to do. Aside from its impact to happiness, being mindful is the best way to improve efficiency in work life.

Here are the recipes.

1. Doing one thing at a time. Multitasking may be good way to do things, but it's not the best way. I believe that the best thought is the result of being mindful in one thing. Best plan should come when we don't have emails popping out every second. How can we have a good solution for a problem if we're online in communicator talking about school reunion?

2. Doing less. I believe in the power of less. Doing less is fulfilling because it makes us feel relaxed and we have confidence to finish things. Rather than doings many things with average result, I prefer doing some big things with exceptional results.Keep exercising of doing less helps us to focus on big things - 20% of tasks contributing to 80% of results.

3. Doing thing slowly. We tend to do shortcut if we have limited time, which leads to inoptimal solutions. Doing slowly things will bring out the best solution, as a result of being thoughtful, for all involved - our self, business partner, family.

4. Vacation. No best time to enjoy life and practicing mindful but vacation. We can move slowly without any pressure. We eat slowly. We walk slowly. We have limited things to do and even if we fail doing things we planned, we're to lazy to regret or to be angry with our self. I usually don't take anything seriously in vacation, why should I be? I am in vacation anyway.

With this note, I would like to say sorry for being mindful yet unresponsive of phone calls, messengers, emails or text messages. I've been trying to be detached of technology so that I can be fair with myself. The result I got was exactly I expected; I am not as popular as facebook savvy and my circle of friends isn't that big. Not many phone calls coming in. Only some messengers coming in, much more less than the first time Mr. Blackberry came into my life.

I'm just human with limited capacity after all and many times I am overwhelmed with super-busy life.

Happy living solitude and attitude of gratitude!

Feeling depressed? Wake up and rise again

2009-07-02T23:10:00.003+07:00

From time to time, we all ever felt down or depressed. It seems like the frequency of feeling depressed has increased much compared to period of our forefathers lived. Life is much more complicated. Problems come and go away like fast trains moving every minute. New disease are found. All those things make life become uneasy for us.

But we can be happy whenever. We can choose to, because we were designed to have free will. It’s our choice to be in control of things and overcome barriers.

There are many reasons to feel great in stormy days. I’m not qualified for this topic, but I just want to share what worked best for me to stand out from depression - many times I was in it - and turn sadness into joy.

Problem exists. This is the time of problems come. Broken heart, failure in career, big lost of dreams, big secret revealed. Name it anything.
Denial. We know the problem exists, but we keep telling our self that it’s not a big thing. We walk peacefully with ignorance. We look good, but we aren’t at all. And this stage is a sign that we’re not ready to face problem and to let go things – death of beloved one, revenge, dreams lost. Simply, we just need to realize that we’re still human with imperfection in every single word and action. Acknowledge it. Get real, speak to self that problem exists.
Acceptance. This is the first step of getting out from feeling depressed. We acknowledge that we have problem. We don’t ignore our self; we listen to what our heart says. And in this stage, we accept reality and let go things: dreams, death of beloved one and failure.
Depressed. Once we realize and accept that we have problems, we start feeling depressed. No worries, we are on-track to heal our self. Who never feeling depressed?
Recovery. We did it! We successfully move through the depression and now we feel better. Though people may see us unchallenged, impassionate; but we actually win with our self and the next big thing is to solve the problem.
Action. This part is actually problem solving stage. For me, it’s the last thing that differentiate between one in control of life and one who isn’t. The real winner should be able to face it, no matter what. There are some very simple steps which worked for me so far. I’ll share later.

Being overwhelmed of things lately? Follow @gratitudeQOD in twitter to get your abundance! Or you may need to practice living attitude of gratitude just like a friend of mine said here.

Simple thing that changed life forever

2009-06-27T17:39:00.002+07:00

Yesterday someone from business partner helped to move through an issue coming unexpectedly. Rather than punishing me for mistake I did, she showed her kindness to forget and helped me to solve it. So I felt so lucky yesterday and thought that life is still full of people with big heart to forgive and forget.

That helped me to forgive another business partner who has brought so much pain in my daily life lately, last week or so.

Living attitude of gratitude is how to see things positively rather than many negatives you see everyday.

Rather than being depressed thinking about suffering he brought to me, I chose to think that I still have work to do, get paid by Mr. Awesomeness and can still buy lots of things to enjoy life. There are many people there who lost job or many more who don't like their job. So again, being in a problem that he brought in, I still feel that I'm lucky.

Recently, THAT teaches me to never forget to look down - to keep self to stay on the ground. She is a woman from my business partner. No, her level is not that high nor her appearance isn't special. She's just a normal woman with vein and smile in her face. She always helps to support work I'm doing and she always did.

A conversation with her in a phone call has changed my life forever. She works in Ancol and her home is in Depok. She has been using public transport to office and I put my sympathy on the way she struggled with that and her passion to keep it up. Many times she had problem along the way, you can imagine how crazy public transport in Jakarta, particularly the train system.

To know I ever hurt her once with my attitude and humiliated her, I wish I could go back to the first time I met her.

It seems like THAT is trying to teach me to never forget to look down and see people around. The simple conversation over the phone call changed my life forever.

Do you know that simplicity in life can change the way you live forever? Have you ever once felt that a person has changed YOU?

What do you let go of for today?

2009-06-23T01:07:00.006+07:00

To let go things is to being completely open and surrender to changes, accept them the way they are and move forward. We are good in planning but somehow life doesn’t move according to our plans. We are burnt, somehow, when world moves against us.

Do you know how does it feel to become a control freaks? I AM control freaks. As a perfectionist, I will plan things the way it should, in detail and full of what-if scenario. Many times it was good, but somehow it was just too much, making me burnt out and nervous. World seems to move against me, that’s the time I felt negative.

There are ghosts who always walk around Mr. Perfectionist and can’t just leave them. When things you love so much in life are just like ecstasy in your life, and you become completely dependent to it; they are completely happy. That so-called ‘worries’ ghosts call their friends, Mr. Pessimist, Mr. Disbelief, Mr. damn-can’t-make-it and Mr. Negative, to sing along in your mind and as result, you just can’t sleep.

You tried to blame it to Mr. too-much-energy who keeps you wide awake at night and Mr. Masturbation comes into your mind and seduce you with Ms. Fake Jena Jameson. You end up the night keep thinking how it goes tomorrow.

Well, don’t ask me if I like it. I hate that feeling.

Being on the roads, I felt like attending university of life. It teaches me how to let go things and life is just as simple as letting go of controls. I love being on the road where I could let go everything: where to sleep, what to eat, to whom I should talk to and where feet would take me.

Thinking of being back to the roads of awesomeness. I may need to let go of precious one.

What was the precious thing in life you let go of?

Abundance

2009-06-21T00:38:00.001+07:00

We can only be a change agent to the world if we have abundance in life. In the contrary of living in scarcity, we live happily, have a completely limitless positive energy and attract power of universe -who listens to every prayer word by word- to come to our life.

Take a look at empty glass. Water fills it and it will come to a moment, when glass is full of water, being abundance. That's the perfect example of it.

When abundance comes to life, there's no other option but to share it to the world. And I feel blessed to have met some people who are really happy in life no matter what. They're just the best teachers.

Living in abundance is a result of living attitude of gratitude. It IS the process - be thankful for whatever happens in life; for whatever we have, clothes we wear, food we eat, air to breathe and even as simple as having shook butt in karaoke room with fellow couchsurfers.

And that process leads to ultimate goal of living in abundance.

The logical explanation of this is really simple. When we are living attitude of gratitude, our mind is creating energy. This energy is the source of balance vibration in our body cells (I hope you got physics subject in high school. If not, let me tell you that every atom indeed vibrates anytime naturally, we can't just see it).

When we are positive, the vibration is synchronized throughout our body to create melodic synchronization. In contrary, when we are angry or feel ungrateful, we feel imbalance - heart pumping too fast, mind is unfocused and our words are unstructured. Those are the results of imbalance vibration in our body cells.

The balance vibration in our body is like a prayer that attracts universe to act the way our body asks them to do. And we get the output as WHAT our mind thinks.

That's why people living attitude of gratitude can live in abundance. They have no option to keep energy within, but to share it to the world.

Have you ever felt hyper-positive and felt abundance? Share here so we feel your energy!

Sorry Mr. Emails to kick your ass to deleted items

2009-06-18T00:21:00.007+07:00

I do believe that happiness lies in the simplicity of life. Life can be very overwhelming with all to-do-lists, emails and instant messaging popping out every second. We lost personal connection with people and more importantly, we don’t communicate with ourself and universe the way we should. That’s the time we may need to think about simplifying our life.

I have tons of idea in life, both personal and work, and I do love them. I join mailing lists, work for Mr. Awesomeness where I get around 100 emails everyday and yes, I use blackberry – thanks to notifications popping out every minute. Many times I feel overwhelmed and I just have no energy even to see the screen.

Now, most of the time my inbox is empty and there are just some emails left in ‘pending items’ folder. Life is much simpler and happier ever since. Rather than having many unread emails in inbox, I prefer decide fast what I should do to them; responding immediately, delaying and scheduled them for next day, or, oh yea, deleting them even without reading the contents.

There are some tips, which work for me so far, to simplify our emails life:

See your emails and decide which ones to delete. Half of emails are unimportant, junk, irrevelent - important for people but unimportant for us. The last one may be confusing; should we really respond them? For me, if people just send it once and forget to follow up, it isn’t really important thing for them. So, just wait until the third email and do respond. It may be important for them and for you too.

Read fast the rests and decide; respond immediately, archive or put them in pending items. Some emails need a quick answer while others need lots of work before clicking send button. I usually put them in pending items.

Schedule pending items for the next day, whenever we’re ready. This ensures we don’t miss important emails to respond.

Warning: those tips may not be applicable to your boss’ emails and ones from Ms. Jena Jameson - they are just too important to be kicked out.

Happy living in solitude!