Bali is Always a Good Idea

This is the second time in this blog I write about my trip to Bali, It’s interesting since I feel like I have different perspective compared to the last time I went there. On my first review I wrote about ten reasons why I love Bali.

Before I share the experience, I want to tell the story on how I get there this time. I quit my job before I went to Bali for the sake of doing what I love, starting something new and start from scratch. The first time in this blog I went to Bali It’s when I was still working, the motivation was to party all night long refresh my tired mind so I could get back to job with a new spirit, but the last time after I quit my job, I feel different, It was a retreat, a quest for solitude and peace of mind may I say. But no, I wasn’t doing yoga for the entire of my vacation, although I admit I imagined myself doing vriksha asana, but this is how it went.

On my 6 days in Bali I endulge my five senses :

      Sight

The views in Bali are amazing as you know, whether it’s the sea, mountains, rice fields, fine arts, even the people, every little detail is a fine sight. Here’s my instagram capture, taken with my new , reliable HTC sensation :

Sunset at Legian

A catch from Ubud Art Market

The foggy weather was surreal

Taken at some humble village near Pura Tampaksiring

Hindu cleansing ritual

The lovely Padangpadang beach

Daily offering for the Gods

Hearing

On every spot at the daytime from the cheapest spas to haute fine dining restos there must be this sound of Gamelan, ethnic Balinese music, that I found very soothing for the soul, and at night I catch up with the latest dance music in the clubs and bars. I feel balanced indeed. 
 

    Taste

No need to say much. The best chefs in the country are here in Bali if you’re a Michelin seeker. For you who thought that Michelins are too metro, boring , less hipster and less challenging, I found Nasi Kucing and pork satay that taste like heaven with unbelievable price less than a dollar. Magic. But beware there are also tourist traps too. I ate the most expensive yet worst roast suckling pig ever and the next day I ate kebab that taste like expired yoghurt.  The key is to gather info as much as possible, befriends with people other than your tourist guide because some venues have arrangements set with few tourist guides and their opinion are less objective, my case I asked where the surf instructor got his lunch and what is popular among the locals. I believe local cuisine only can be made perfectly by the locals, if you really want to explore.

            Smell

Every corner smells very frangipani-ish in Bali as you know it. Yes, even the streets, because they give their daily offering with incense stick everywhere, I just love it. 

Touch

Take time to appreciate all those textures made by nature, how the sea feels on your skin when you take a dip, the warm sand, the corals, get yourself a  healthy tan, I used dry oil to make the skin  glowing and healthy-looking after sunbathe.

The Body Shop beautifying oil is a recommended product, It has light texture that add gloss to your tan skin and shines on your sun kissed hair. My fav scent is mango, never leave the hotel without it.

I found this trip interesting because somehow I observed more, I realized  that life is large and the best things in this world are often came for  free and in a simple way. I believe happiness is supposed to be like that too. I’ve been living in a world full of ambitions measured by price tags too long and I found it very dreadful. I was too occupied with achievements targets and afraid to let go off few things that made me thought that my happiness is depend to the standards that I was keeping with the Joneses. While the fact, we already have everything necessary to be happy. If life is a blessing, why not celebrate it every day by paying more attention to little details, and count your blessing meticulously. For me, Bali is just a perfect place to reflect life, have fun or simply to indulge your senses. I even think about permanently live there. We’ll see.

One of my lucid dreams

I had a very pleasant dream of sailing and I saw dolphins in my dream. It's a weird kind of dolphin since the colour was black and white and one of them jump into my arms. The shape was uncommon, not like the usual dolphin, It had no snout and small head.

Later when I woke up I felt a strong connection to the dream and I g*ogled "black and white dolphin" to find that it was Commerson's dolphin, the exact type that appeared in my dream.
Funny, I never knew before that such kind of dolphin exist but it was shown in my dream, my interest grew larger to this species. I found that Commerson's dolphins are exclusively found in two geographically disparate areas, southern coast of south America and Kerguelen Islands.

The investigation continued to Kerguelen Island. The island is part of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands. There are no indigenous inhabitants, but France maintains a permanent presence of scientists, engineers and researchers on the island. France territory, a tick to my brain. I'm a franchophile.

Well. The only question through my mind right now is : How could something that I never knew or saw before appeared in my dream precisely?

Farewell Trip to Bukit Bengkirai , Balikpapan , East Borneo

Since this is the last month for me staying here in Borneo Island, some of my good friends held me farewell party and trip. One is from dr.Irvan Reza, was very nice of him he took me for beer, sushi and chat about life and so many heartwarming supports. I always find his perspective about life very interesting. Sometimes through few discussions we found a little hidden fact about ourself, right? Always nice to try to figure out life, especially for two lonely souls at some distant place.
I was staying at New Benakutai Hotel & Apartment since they still have promo rates, and on the next day my mates from Samarinda picked me up for a super lunch : Kepiting Kenari. I loove crabs! The crabs here are unique, the size of their claws are monstrous, almost the same size as their body.

Blackpepper Crab

Happy belly indeed! ( I love the fried crab with garlic-y spices and fried garlic as topping ). Okay, now I feel like eating those crabs again. Dang. It must took 3 hours from Samarinda just to have those crabs.

Happy Gege

Happy newlyweds , anyway Lia just had her minor surgery on her mouth, but the crabs are too irrestisible :)

Along with our happy belly ( and sleepy mood ) we drove to Bukit Bengkirai.

Bengkirai is natural conservation Park, with the iconic canopy bridge, this is the first canopy bridge in Indonesia, second in asia ( make me want to know the first ), and eighth in the world. Construction was made in USA using galvanized steel, so I think this bridge is quite safe. The only thing to overcome is just the height, by the way it's ( only ?) 30 m

Let's climb the ladders to reach the canopy bridge

Touchdown!

more stairs , hang in there thighs!

trying to keep it balanced

The forest is still natural, I saw the biggest ant ( almost half the size of my thumb eekk) and a massive beehives hung in a tree above our 30m bridge. I can imagine If it fall and hit someone, it could kill not because of the bees but the size of the hives and the heights. Ouch.
It took only 1,5 hour from Balikpapan, by the way we made a stop to buy snakeskin fruits too.

dont buy cheaper ones, tasted sour

So far this is my best weekend after spending 6 months in Borneo. My second best weekend of course spent at the clubs with some friends here,borneo is more than just jungle for all of you who thought it is.
And luckily I met a lot of interesting and nice people here.
I figured out life a little in this island. Remembering a post from Chuck Johnstone, writing is not about publicity and marketing campaign, it helps you to figure out ( and sometimes as a reminder ) your ultimate purpose in life.
Then I decided to write about this trip. There were previous trips before that i didn't put here in my blog, I was too occupied with my works. Oh, It is my loss, now I have to regain memory of those trips. Well, it taught me to keep on writing a journal .

I ended this trip with a lovely parfait desserts at Anne's Samarinda

I feel alive by travelling experiencing new things and writing. How about you?

Fake empire

I've met a lot different kind of people and listened to their dream. I learned a lot from them, sometimes I felt sad too because some of them live their life without a single dream or lacking reason behind their dreams, in my arrogant opinion.

But in spite of those facts I usually don't criticize them. For every dream is beautiful, no matter how silly it seems. I believe God made each of us with different purpose. So who am I to judge?

And recently, some people began to talked me out. I made a big decision that according to them was a stupid idea. I understand they did that because they care. They hold perspective in secular mode, while I'm not interested in secularity. I admire Mohamdas Karamchand Gandhi while they admire young CEO in a gigantic company.

We're a different kind, I understand although I must admit It hurts when someone belittle our dreams and thoughts.

I wish someday people understand that we're all fighters but not everybody must fight in the same battlefield.

Can we all slow down, and remember, that happiness is what matter the most?

Passion ...

Is a very strong word. So strong to cause a hiatus in a blogger’s mind. This was what really happened during my last 15 months. I eventually made an effort to climb the corpo ladder. I left almost everything behind to give this bullet my best shot and voila here I am at another day, another level, another adventure. I joined Management Trainee class and had my way to cities like Pekanbaru, Balikpapan, Cirebon, was quite a journey and now living my days at Samarinda as Credit and Service head.

I could write about this months ago but my ego had stopped me , honestly if I failed the class, I would feel like the sky’s falling on me and this was not something I prefer to share in this blog. Gladly I made it and this is not the last of me. Becoming Management Trainee has been my personal dream since college and I made it. It has been 6 months after MT graduation and coronation also.

And now what’s really happening is, I begin to question a simple question : What’s next?

Knowing the business from a broader view surprisingly made me lost my appetite to achieve more,It has been three good  years and I don’t feel like wanting to be like anything in the company, then something is not right. I need to actualize myself.  Remembering little notes I always wrote to myself, there’s a snowball in me from the day I watched Cedric Hanriot played his guitar and the day I took a day off to ask Campus Francais about education in France back there before MT class. I was in love right away and developed a hope on the word “Francophile”.

So, I gave the management one month notice, will give myself a break to re-arrange goals, to give myself a chance and a new hope for happiness. I will take French class and jazz vocal class next month. And last but not least I will pay attention more to my personal area. I’ve been neglecting my love life since I decided to focus at my career. It was very selfish of me and I’m willing to change it. I will learn to cook and to be a proper mother and wife during my career break.

Yeah, I know money don’t grow on trees. But I know money will follow them who have the will to learn and try their best.

So here I am sending signals for those who read this, if I ever happen to inspire someone I would be very glad, and even when I don’t, this site would be my personal journal,  my personal Nemo’s tomb. It would be a great lesson too.

Hello world,

I will face my fear and swim against the current to reach my own definition of happiness.

How does It feel?  I feel like crying, hugging, laughing and excited at the same time. Crazy. But I know this will be one of my best memories in life 

xoxo

Allow me to dream ...

Practice what you preach

It was an honor for me to be given the opportunity to teach the kids at my Church. It's a great responsibility. I, myself also is a product of my Sunday School teachers when I was a kid, so I know that everything that I put in my words and attitude is the young seed that I put in their heart.

Last Sunday, the topic was about the obligation as a Christian to be perfect as our heavenly Father is (Matthew 5: 48). Perfection. As a human we know the world teach us that perfection doesn't exist and it's too complicated for kids at their 10s to think about. And there I was, diverting the topic into perfect love. Perfect love that teach us to even love our enemy, to know no fear (1 John 4 : 18) , to give everybody what they need and to believe that God will also provide everything for us, so they will have abundance mentality. At least 50% of the kids nodded while I summarized my teaching yesterday, only 1 kid shook her head, this kid is rather a problem in the class, the rebel breed kind of kid that said, “ I wont do that, Miss”. I believed she only seek for attention, so I asked opinions from the other kids (and gladly the other kids didn't like her too , so It was like having a lot of people on my side ), and we found Proverbs 8 : 22 that enough to made the strong headed cub back into the cage. Success!

The problem is, I am really aware that I haven't exactly practiced what I preach. I don't love people perfectly.I don't have enemies, true, but I really have the issue to trust everybody who did hurt me in the past. I did nothing of course to make it even but I slightly enjoy it whenever I heard bad news about them. I know this is wrong, so I think about a new program that I will apply to myself on how to be free from hatred.

First I will try not to judge everyone whom I met, even they who did hurt me, I will try to understand their motives. This way, I will have a neutral point of view to everyone. Simply If I don't enjoy their presence or vice versa, I will avoid conflict and step back . I will try not to become everybody's friend , but a good companion to everyone, since friendship sometimes requires loyalty and deeper stage of emotion so you can't befriend with just everyone you meet.

I hope these are only harder than they seem and I can live to tell the result and detail of this program :)

To grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our foes, might serve Him fearlessly- Luke 1 :74

Being an introvert sucks



I installed lomo-like application on my phone. Nice eh.

Being an introvert sucks, but I am naturally introverted somehow. Who said that it cannot be changed may be totally wrong. I've inverted myself for weeks (maybe that's the reason of my hiatus), somehow if you pour all of your thoughts verbally, it will reduce your writing skill, or not? Ah well, that's another topic for another day.

What I am trying to say here, that I had enough with my lack of courage whenever I want to speak up, my inconvenience whenever a lot of people around, etc etc, and most of all, I had enough with my loud mind. You know what they said, the quietest people often have the loudest mind? Yes. For example, I didn't used to talk about my feelings, dream or anything to my friends. If I talked about it, I only talked a little about the surface.

And then , extrovertedly ,I talked a lot about anything in my mind. I gain extra confidence, it's fun to be chatty, especially if you had spent your 25 years observing people introvertedly. You get the picture. But when I talked out my problems and ideas, some facts were shocking me. Normally I don't talked about my problems , ideas or asking for someone's input or feedback. What was really shocking, was their judgement that I'd never thought about before. First, my own best friend for years said that she always worried of my over active imagination , the other friend worried of my over ambition, and the other worried because he thought that I set unreachable goals. Self esteem killer it was. But, somehow the gained confidence ( thank you for my new extroverted version) made me able to rationally thought about it first rather than sentimentally meditated it alone in my room. I talked again with them and it turned out that all of their thoughts were impacts of my lack of deep communication with them before. Deep communication sometimes requires a lot amount of time , effort and method that against my impatient nature ( this is why I choosed to be a quiet person). But I found out that being a talkative person is good and have a lot of benefit. Self esteem saved.

So, the good things about extroversion, are a stronger self esteem as the impact of boosted self confidence, more friends that do understand you, you won't cope with sentimental feeling too much so you will able to channel the energy into something more important with that happy go lucky mode on.
The importance of being introverted before you go into extrovert mode? Is the gained ability to understand people's feelings. It's like having an observation before you apply it on the field.

So? Talk! Don't wait till you meet another blogger to do it, don't afraid to be alienated. Read a lot of interesting stuff? If you don't talk about it with another (random) people around then you don't practice what you preach. Only befriends with people alike? Then you're living in a pond, and that's a new genre of introversion. Go out, explore, go on a mental diet perhaps and share it to the world.

The essence of knowledge is, having it, to apply it; not having it, to confess your ignorance. ~  Confucius

How to get out from bad, unhealthy relationship

Okay let me talk about Mars and Venus for once in a while. This time I’m going to spill some beans. Long long time ago, before I know about the minimalist concept and another self development theories, I was once a dreamless bleached bimbo. The aisle and the altar were my one and only target at the time. There was I, dating a financial steady guy ( steady=I don’t even need to make Curriculum Vitae) with the not so steady persona. I found it later that I was dating an abuser, verbally and physically. He left me with permanent flaw that were caused by fractured bones in my left little finger.

How long? Four years. Did I know that he wasn’t a good man? Surprisingly I knew, yet somehow there’s a lot of “but” in my mind that always kept me stick to him. The fact that he was this two face villain, he could be very sweet and could be as dark as your worst nightmare, and too bad I didn’t listen to my friends that time. Love did turn off my rational alarm.

Okay, why I brought this topic? Because I feel this is an important issue, a bad relationship could drag you down into the bottom of the well, no matter who you are, you might be the lioness in the office, fierce blogger on the net but maybe in real life you are still abused and consumed by choice. At this point I believe nobody will be happy. Fact, a lot of girls even women are dealing with this problem.

How did I get out?

1.       Evaluate

Seriously, don’t lie to yourself, answer this question: “Are you happy”? , “Do you feel respected?”, “Are you free?”.  That was the three questions that I asked to myself and the answer was no. I wasn’t happy, I didn’t feel respected, and I lost my freedom because he was quite possessive and easily got jealous.

2.       Souvenir

Luckily, on this point, the souvenir on my finger always remind me that I shouldn’t get back with him, at all cost.  Physical evidence like letters, photos, notes, could really help.

3.       Travel alone

Never been on solo travel?  Start it now. It builds your confidence and it’s not as scary as you think, you can thank technology that provides you with GPS and 24/7 chat with your experienced friends or fellow solo traveler around the world. Solo travelling is sexy. By the way you don’t have to travel half the globe, another state or city alone will do too. My case, I went to Jakarta that is only 120km away from home.

4.       Dream

If you don’t have one, it’s bull pup. Even if it’s irrational it’s still a dream. Don’t even ask whether it’s too late or not. For example if you’re 25 like me,  yes it would be too late if you want to be a pop sensational diva, but there’s always a chance to be a choir singer or even maybe as jazz singer. On this dream, whatever it may be, if you’re still thinking about popularity it means you’re still a self centered person. Don’t be. Give benefit to your community. It will taste better. It heals your pain. Popularity won’t.

5.       Love yourself

The saddest thing that could happen to a person is ignorance especially to him/herself, by the words love yourself, I didn’t mean you need to be an egoist man, just pay attention, stop and listen to yourself go out and figure what do you really need.

6.       Don’t hop into another relationship

Believe me, it means more trouble. If you can’t handle one, you can’t handle two. Do your math.

7.       Forgive

I’m not feeding you with religious preach, simple fact, people that can’t forgive will automatically try to get even in every way. This is a distraction and waste of energy. Use that energy to build yourself instead.  If you can summarize success theories, focus is the master key to achieve your goals.

These are my first stepping stone, my small step (that funnily I considered as a big step once) into a better life, I hope it would inspire you :)

When Internet Became Too Noisy

Cursed my cynic blood, today is the climax in my cynic days. There was this blogger I once liked so much, but when I read his new post, it really rang a bell. Did I just saw plagiarism? Only God knows, and then I read this hilarious comments on the “10 things you can learn from (put name here)”

How to become famous on the Internet :

1. Pick an admirable, accomplished person who made ten or more clever statements.
2. Take one quotation.
3. Phrase it differently to make it short enough for a title.
4. Phrase it differently to stretch it out to full a paragraph of entirely redundant explanation.
5. Repeat steps 1 to 3 nine times.
6. Find some nice things to say about the person on Wikipedia or wherever.
7. Post to your blog.
8. Receive much praise.
9. Show up on Google Reader.
10. You are now famous!!!

Please argue me if I am wrong, but few famous bloggers were craving for attention in silly ways lately, and it just didn't feel sincere. The all how to's seems to be traffic lures. It is funny for them who has quit their job yet depends on their post so much to fund their life, so they would do anything just to improve their traffic. I mean anything include plagiarism and other thing that is not honorable. That's something that is as miserable as nine to five working or so they said . I can't sense the humanity purpose anymore. Where did the change-the-world attitude went? Words of wisdom were meant to be free, no price tag attached and they can't come in regular period just like menstruation. Three posts in a week doesn't feel sincere, unless you're living in a very problematic life and always learn from it every single day. That would be unhappy. This is why I respect some of the non full time but very high quality bloggers like Mike Donghia and Jacob of Escape Normality

Yet the market is exist because of the demands, isn't it? I just wonder, thousands of subscribers, can't you just motivate yourself and be independent? There are a lot of how to's . Do you really swallow it all? The fact that, nobody's perfect, and so is your self improvement Guru. Can't you just figure out things yourself for once in a while? Nobody, I said nobody can be right all the time. Even maybe I am doing something wrong right now. Please, tell me

As silly as an article about “how to be yourself”, I think nobody need to be told on how to become their self. Have a little pride , people... and self esteem too.

Blogging were supposed to be a way to make friendship not audience, wasn't it? A friend would love to buy your e-book even without any promotion ( and perhaps will promote it for you )