One writer's block

Aigoo... berhubung di luar sana masih macet parah, mari melanjutkan cerita perjalanan tahun lalu, yuk. Seusai makan Palu Basa.. berangkatlah kita ke Toraja. Fyi, seingat saya, perjalanannya itu memakan waktu 8 jam yah ( totally blank ) dengan menggunakan bus-bus yang tersedia di berbagai titik di Makassar. Rombongan saya waktu itu memilih Bus Litha yang pangkalannya terletak di jalan di depan sebuah mall yang saya juga lupa namanya. Hahahaha. Harga tiketnya (again, kalo ngga salah) 120 ribu Rupiah, beda tipis dengan yang versi exclusive apalah-apalah yang menyediakan ruang kaki lebih lebar (150 ribu, uhm no thanks). Sepanjang perjalanan tidur, hanya sesekali diselingi rasa puyeng karena bus terasa berputar-putar menaiki gunung. Tiba di Rantepao sekitar jam 6 pagi. So sweet . Perbedaan cuaca benar-benar jomplang berhubung kita baru panas-panasan di Tanjung Bira, kali ini di Tana Toraja udaranya sejuk macam di Puncak siang-siang. Yang paling sweet adalah di sepanjang perjalanan banya...

Sambil nunggu ujan reda, nulis ah.. Akhir tahun lalu I got the impulse to visit South Sulawesi area. I've been there in 2010, tepatnya ke Makassar and Sorowako, but secara itu assignment dari kantor, ya biasa aja. Akhirnya pas lagi iseng nyusun trip dengan kawan, tercetuslah nama kota Toraja yang terkenal dengan acara penguburannya yang aduhai. So, kita beli tiket Merpati dan Citilink di tengah tahun yang ujung-ujungnya ngeluarin duit sampe 1.2jt lalu menangis darah pas tau Airasia buka jalur penerbangan baru DANNNN harga tiketnya pp ngga nyampe 400rebu. Bedebah! Anyway, let's bygone be bygone. Duit yang keluar jangan ditangisi, lebih baik lembur ditingkatkan biar balik modal. HAHAHAHA. Kesan pertama di Makassar waktu 2010 ternyata saya rasakan juga di 2012, yaitu.. PANAS naudjubillah OMG! Ngga ada setengah menit keluar dari pesawat, langsung berasa terik mentari membakar kulit. Keluar airport, setelah gugel sana-sini, diambil kesimpulan kalo ke tengah kota bisa ngangko...

Hujan-hujan gini enaknya mengenang cerita lama niy. Kangen juga nulis pake bahasa Endonesia untuk sesuatu yang bukan berupa proposal atau laporan kerjaan kantor. Hehehe. Mei 2012 kemarin, entah kesambet apa, yang jelas saya dan teman-teman *halah* melancong ke daerah Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam, ato yang biasa saya sebut HCMC *penting*. Trip kali ini rada bego sebenernya, soalnya seminggu sebelum perjalanan itu, saya terpilih sebagai pegawai yang beruntung untuk mengikuti training di luar negeri. Di mana? Tepat sekali. Di Ho Chi Min juga. Terjadi perbedaan gap yang luar biasa sekali antara trip yang dibayarin ama kantor sama trip biaya kantong sendiri, hahahahaha. Dari level hidup hotel Sheraton yang makan pagi, siang, malam terserah makan apa ngga pake pusing bayarnya gmana, ke level pelancong ala princess yang kemana-mana bawa koper padahal ngakunya backpacking. HAHAHA. HCMC ini yah, sesungguhnya adalah kota yang saya sukai. Why? Karena banyakkkk taman kotanya, kawan. Mirip Band...

This month I did the reminiscing thing, travelling back to where I were August 2010, yes, one of my favorite city, Bangkok. This time, instead of visiting temples and palaces like any sane tourist would do, I went on and on to places I know best. Shopping markets and malls. Love this second time experience. I get to try new routes, new BTS stations, new adventure to the very far places in Bangkok, the one and only.. IKEA store. Damn, I could go on and on, inspecting, trying, admiring, aah-ing and ooh-ing every lil piece of things in that store. Why oh why Indonesian Government didn't allow such store exist in this nation? Maybe it's not necessary the pieces that I love about IKEA, but the way they designed those rooms, invented those furniture, and arranged them in one spectacular shopping experience. We could try and attempt an IKEA-wannabe store at the very least, can't we? I'm having this lil excitement everytime I imagine I have my own furniture shops. My own big ...

Aloha! Been damn too long before I get the chance to write again. I miss you my blog, cup! Anyway, we have reached the half time of the year, more or less, and there's sad moment happy moment that I'd like to savor. Along the way, I've been pretty much the labil girl I (so not) used to be. And today is one of those days when I can think clearly about myself and my life. Yes, dear fellow reader, I hail to the "I, Me, Mine" concept so brace yourself. First, uhm.. I've been to many fun vacations taken with different circles of friends, and I enjoyed each and every one of 'em. Thousand island with the dorky college pals, Seoul with the ladies, and Bali with (basically the only) group I always hang out with at the office. Didn't mean to compare but each one felt like not enuff. No, not enuff at all. Although there's none that made me cringe at the end of the journey (you know, the feeling of not wanting it to end and stuff?), but everytime I rec...

Okay, the title is just some catchy phrase I caught from Gossip Girl episode. Epic, eh? Recently I experience mid-life crisis, ha-ha, as in fut-the-wuck am I doin here? This is so boring and exhausting and no longer exciting as I thought it would be.. hence the all traveling plans I made.. for the sake of making some refreshment out of my life. Like a candy box. But then, I face another dilemma. Here comes new engagement, considerably different from my old assignment, and it grab my interest right away. I work with different people, I work with self-motivating coach-wannabe, I work within alien culture (which is totally clashing with my day-to-day working habit) and yes I discover new excitement. Alas, I grew this signature-of-stress-disease, pimples, oh-nooo.. that is one ultimate sign that I have been stressed out too much. So I self-reflected (again) and I got confused. Do I wanna do this or not? Please wucking made up your mind, girl! Making small talks with friends always ended up...

In Jogja, we arrived at 1pm. Walking to the so-called hotel in Sosrowijayan (not recommended by me, though, unless you absolutely have no budget for accommodation. The toilet was creepy with strange smell), then going back and forth across the Malioboro area. That area reaaaallllyyyy reminded me of Patpong-Bangkok, with so many street vendors, becak (instead of Tuk-tuk), and familiar-oldies-vibe. I dunno. Maybe that’s just me. We had lunch in Mirota Batik 3rd floor (strongly recommended) whereas the 1st and 2nd floor is the perfect place for Batik-shopping and photo-hunting. Loving it there, with the creepy statues everywhere and so-damn-polite waiters and SPLENDID food altogether. Sigh. Nice place to eat. One thing about Jogja that I immediately notice is the attitude of the people. Maybe it’s because of the Javanese tradition still very much endorsed in their life ya, so every time you bumped into someone and said, “Oops, excuse me!”, they will immediately go nodding their head a...

Hearing that your flight being re-routed will never gonna be an excellent news, unless the new route involving exciting cities in some exciting countries (for example, Macau or Vegas?) So, when I get the news that I’ll be going to Semarang instead of Jogja, the prospect is not that bright since I have to take care the additional cost to travel from Semarang – Jogja. Some of my sane friends advised me not to go instead, buuuut… otuke?? The leave has been approved and the stress has been accumulated, hahaha.. so off we go with the classic theme, “No Plan is a Good Plan”. In Semarang, being road-blind as we were, the only destination stuck in my head was Simpang Lima, haven for food and souvenir (or so they say). We stood up in the Ahmad Yani airport (what a small airport, btw, with lights went off as soon as passengers leaving -_-“) waiting for taxi.. aaaand funny enough there’s no car with TAXI sign above. Weird. So what I did was, imitating what others did, which is to jump right i...

Okay, that was one awesome experience! It started with tweet-talks, you know, the kind with no-action-tweet-only conversation? HAHAHAHAHAHA, so I’m pretty impressed with the result. It gathers six different people, from different working hours and different working places and from different crowd, with only one tiny history-relationship.. college mate. Persiapan traveling paling parah seumur hidup, secara yaa even pas H-1 aja masih ngga jelas siapa jemput siapa di mana naik apa. JRENG JRENG! Paling banter yang udah dibeli adalah tiket bus Jakarta – Lampung seharga IDR 150.000 untuk periode embarkasi *halah* jam 9 malem. Juragan Arab di Lampung sana udah wanti-wanti, kalo jam 9 malem berangkat dari Jakarta, paling jam 5 pagi dah nyampe Lampung, so there’s plenty of time to spend to have (early) breakfast and berangkat ke teluk Kiluan. Alas, the damn bus got lost in translation (._.) Instead of following the normal route as usual, he decided to sharpen his skill in driving through extrem...

Okay, this is the very first time I’m using Windows Live Writer 2011, sooo.. so far it's a bit weird coz it downloads my blog template, and I’m not used to it.. but yeah.. not so bad… considering that you no longer need to login into browser anymore. Anyway, this couple of weeks (‘kay, let’s face it, only the last two weeks) I’ve been visiting Sulawesi, one stranger island that I’ve never set my foot upon. And it’s in Sorowako, anyone ever heard of it? Mixed feelings when I heard that I actually gonna go there, you know, weird thoughts flying around inside my head.. wild tribe, cannibal ethnicity, creepy bugs, dense rain forest, no asphalt road.. scary (and super hyperbolic) thoughts. Since apparently it’s not feasible to fly straight from Jakarta to Sorowako, I need to take another flight using Fokker 550 airplane which is a small airplane that could carry only 26 people in it. Ihiy! Cool, huh? First time arrived in Makassar (used to be called Ujung Pandang AND I just found ...

Finally, my first stamp on passport, and it's not even for overseas study, so yay for me! Day 1 - Silom + Patpong Arriving in Suvarnabhumi in one piece, extremely awed with the interior, and headed up to the 4th floor right away. Folks in the internet said to get easy cab with no additional charge fee, go to the departure gate and grab a taxi from there. So I did. And it worked. It cost me only 320 Baht to reach the guest house in Silom road. All you need to do is learn the useful Thai phrases. Like "Sawatdee khaa/khab - Hello", "Khorb Khun khaa/khab - Thank you" and numbers. Hehehe. The Sun Flower was a tremendous lil guest house and it's very clean. I strongly recommend that place for you who wanna stay in cozy yet strategic location. First time I saw that place, it's like lotus blooming out from a dark and mysterious pond. Very impressive. In the evening, a leisure walk through Silom - Patpong road is a must. There's so many souvenir shops there,...