Bittersweet Memories of Yogya-Bali Trip

So, last week my friend and i went to visit Indonesia again. This was our 2nd trip together. I must say that it's not easy to find a compatible travel companion who are tuned and synced to your own pace and limits. My mom, she is not into culture, history, sight seeing, nature or any adventure at all. It is whether you bring her to shopping or she rather stayed in the hotel. Mr. Boyfriend on the other hand is totally out of the question. He hates traveling. All his life, he has only been to Singapore and to China, which the journey he never spoke about. Sometimes i wonder if he had been mugged or rapped during his tour. So this friend of mine is a perfect travel buddy for me. She makes me do the impossible. I could not ask for more.


22 Oct 2010

Our first stop is at Yogyakarta. Please note that "Yogya" is pronounce "Jogja". The only reason we stop here because we want to see the beautiful Prambanan and the magnificent Borobodur. When we reach Yogyakarta the volcano Merapi was already started to emit smokes. The local says that Mt Merapi is in "Siaga" stage. Which means people should start evacuating. Luckily we only stayed 1 day in Yogyakarta. We flew to Bali the next day. So, the day we arrive in Yogyakarta, my friend had a little incident with the immigration officer at the airport. She was the last to get out from the airport because the officer had held her for questioning. The reason for her detention was because she could not provide them her return ticket out from Yogyakarta. Of course she had the ticket, she could not showed it to them because i am the one who are keeping all the tickets and i have already stepped out of the immigration counter. So, they brought her to an isolated room (it's not an office room actually, it is much more like a store), giving her options either she buy an air ticket back to Malaysia on that very second or she could pay to them so they will let her out of the airport. Luckily, she is the hard headed type so she don't give in easily. We both work in a construction industry, surrounded by thousands of intimidated testosterone every day, so the blackmail card is not working on us. I guess the immigration officer had no luck that day just because he pick the wrong prey.

After all the dramas, we rent transportation to Prambanan and Borobodur. Prambanan is dedicated for hindus while Borobodur is for buddhas. There is a story behind the Prambanan Temple called Legend of the Slender Virgin. Princess Loro Jonggrang is the slender virgin. Here goes the legend according to Wikipedia.

"The legend tells the story about two ancient and neighbouring kingdoms in Java, Pengging and Boko. Pengging was ruled by its king Prabu Damar Moyo who had a son named Bandung Bondowoso. By contrast, Boko was ruled by a demon king named Prabu Boko. Despite his unpleasant nature, Prabu Boko had a beautiful daughter named Loro Jonggrang.

The story relates that Prabu Boko desired to expand his kingdom and launch an attack on Pengging. Prabu Damar Moyo sends his son Bandung Bondowoso to fight Prabu Boko. After a furious battle, Prabu Boko is killed by the prince's supernatural powers.

The princess is heartbroken when informed of her farther death, but before she can recover from her grief the Pengging army besieges and captures the palace. Prince Bandung Bondowoso is mesmerized by the beauty of the mourning princess and propose marriage, but his offer is swiftly rejected. Bandung Bondowoso insists on the union, and finally Loro Jonggrang agrees on two impossible conditions: first the prince must build a well named Jalatunda, and second, he must construct a thousand temples in only one night.

The lovestruck prince agrees, and immediately starts work on the well. Using his supernatural powers once again, the prince swiftly finishes construction and proudly displays his work for the princess. As a trick, she urges him to enter the well and when he does so, Patih Gupalo piles stones into it and buries him alive. With great effort Bandung Bondowoso escapes, but his love for the princess is so strong that he forgives her the attempt on his life.

To fulfill the second condition, the prince enters into meditation and conjures up a multitude of demon spirits from the earth. With their help he builds the first 999 temples and starts work on the final one. To thwart his efforts the princess and her maids light a fire in the east and begin pounding rice, a traditional dawn activity. Fooled into thinking the sun is about to rise, the spirits flee back into the earth leaving the last temple unfinished.

The prince is furious when he learns of this deception, and places a curse on Loro Jonggrang which turns her into a stone statue. In this way she herself becomes a feature of the final temple, completing its construction and fulfilling the conditions for their marriage."

For me, it is rather a sad story than a love story. How can the princess marry some stranger who just murdered her father and took over her kingdom? I don't think the prince had fallen in love with the princess, it's just his greed and ego that makes him determined to have her.





After lunch we headed to Borobodur. There are procedures to climb the Borobodur but we give up before we made up half of the Borobodur. Each step of the stairs is at least 2 feet high. And i assure you that climbing to the top of the Borobodur is not the painful and scariest part of all. It is the going down will be your nightmare. You wont notice how steep is the Borobodur until you are on your way down. I practically tell my friend that if i were to die falling from the Borobodur, that must be the Karma punishing me for all of my wrong doings.



23 Oct 2010

Our flight to Bali was at 8.00 am. Took a taxi to the airport and hop on a Garuda, and after 1 hour we landed on Bali. Once outside Ngurah Rai airport we ask around to see if there is a bus going to Ubud but nobody is willing to tell us. So in the end, we end up paying Rp 195k for a taxi to Ubud. We stayed at De Munut Cottages. Overall it was nice, we got the whole cottage to our self. The swimming pool was beside our cottage but didn't have time for a swim. The only problem i had with this hotel is MOSQUITOES! Yes, we also have mosquitoes in Malaysia, but our mosquitoes are not barbaric as Bali's mosquitoes.


24 Oct 2010

We rent transportation to see Goa Gajah, Tirta Empul, Pura Gunung Kawi, Coffee Plantation, Pura Ulun Danu Batur and Tegalalang. To be true, the trip we made this day is just so-so. We were not comfortable and not happy with our driver at all. Early morning before the journey started, when he told us the journey route, we told him that we want to skip the Barong dance. He was shocked, like he couldn't believed that not everybody is interested to see the 1 and a half hour cultural dance. Then, he began telling us what is this Barong dance about, how important it is, why it matters to them, why we must go and see it. In the end we told him that we were planning to see this Barong on our last day in Bali when we are actually not interested at all. Only then he kept quiet. After that, we tell him again that we do not wish to see the Pura Gunung Kawi because of the 300 steps you need to take to get there. Then he insist that climbing down and up to the pura is a good exercise. Well i did not come to Bali to exercise, i come here for a vacation. So we don't want to argue any further we just keep on walking to the temple direction but we never made it to the temple. We just simply went to see the shops selling souvenirs and take a seat on the cliff to enjoy the view of Gunung Kawi. I think the reason why we were not satisfied in this trip because the driver had planned our journey in advance. Maybe it's the most common itinerary for any other tourist, but we are not just any other tourist. We were not interested to visit all the temples and take photos. We are more into mingling and blending in. The only time that i treasured about this trip was when we were in Pura Ulun Danu Batur. It's not because the temple is located near the beautiful Mount Batur and Lake Batur. We could not even get far in because there was a ceremony being held at that time. So instead of being inside the temple we went outside at the back of the temple. We sat there, enjoy Mt Batur and lake view while chit chatting with a nice villager. That is the kind of thing that i will cherish in my vacation.



Nice view of Mount Batur and Lake Batur



Alley to the back of the temple


25 Oct 2010

We woke up late on purpose. We also had our breakfast late. Then in the middle of having our breakfast guess who showed up to our table? It's the driver from yesterday. We did tell him the day before that we will be checking out today and plan to go south to see Tanah Lot Temple and many more, but we did not and never did book his transportation for today. Then we tell him that we want to go by our self, as we want to spent time strolling around at Pasar Ubud before going south. Then he still doing it. Planning the journey for us. He said that he will let us shop at Pasar Ubud for 1 hour before going to Tanah Lot. So just like that we turned our back and left. There is not point talking if he will not listen. So we go back to our room pack and check out. We ask the hotel if there were any bus from Ubud going to Legian, it's the same answer we got at the airport. I started to wonder how the local move around here, do they take taxi every now and then?

When we reach Pasar Ubud, it only took 1 villager to answer our simple question. "Is there any bus from Ubud to Legian?" The answer is yes. We had to take a bus 3 times to reach Legian. Ubud - Batu Bulan - Tegal - Legian. It's time consuming but i got the whole day to waste. After all i am on a vacation here. Besides, public transport means blending in. The 2 hours rides cost us Rp 40k. Way cheaper than the 1 hour taxi ride which will cost us Rp 300k. I won't be mad at the hotel and taxis driver for lying to our face about the fact that no bus going to south because they were just trying to make their living. But, if you ask me if i want to come back again to Ubud in the future, then i will tell you, hell no.


26 Oct 2010

This was our last day in Bali given that we had to fly back to KL on the next morning. So we just walking around Kuta and shopping. And we went to the beach. Oh i love the beach. I really do. The waves were perfect for surfing. So if you ask me again if i ever want to come back to Bali, then i will answer you, yes, yes i will. I will come back here again soon. I want to learn to surf. I don't want to die before i learn how to surf.





27 Oct 2010

Our flight to KL at 6.00am. So we had to wake up early and leave the hotel at 4.30am. We had book a transportation to airport in advance with a nice driver in Kuta. His name is Mr. Budu. Too bad we forgot to ask him for his card. We arrived KL at 9.00 am. Since we got 8 hours to kill before our next flight to Sandakan, we decided to go to KL for last minutes shopping.


For this trip i have bring Rp 4045k for foods, transportations and souvenirs. After 5 days in Indonesia i still have balance of Rp 361k. All my expenses were sum up as follows:-

Food = Rp 1000k
Transport = Rp 800k
Admission Fee = Rp 310k
Souvenirs/ Books/ Misc = Rp 1574k

So the amount Rp 3684k spent for this 5 days trip is worth every cents of my savings. Now, i should start saving for another trip to Bali. This time for surfing only.

I'm back!

Yay! Home sweet home. Finally.

I managed to get out of Yogyakarta before the Mt. Merapi erupted. And lucky Bali was out of the tsunami range. Well, i got lots of things that i want to write about that trip but that will have to wait as i need to rest 1 week.

So, ciao ciao.

Off to Yogyakarta, then Bali

I'm leaving tonight. My flight from Sandakan depart at 2100 and arrive KL at 2345. Will be stranded at the airport at least 7 hours before next flight to Yogyakarta. Yes i could go to the nearest hotel and take a nap but nothing fear me the most than missing my flight. I foresee that this Yogya - Bali trip would be a very tiring. This explain the less excitement i pre-having in this trip. I had only 1 day to savour all Yogya's essense before flying to Bali the next day. Bali should be more relaxing, i hope so. I have been taking the Pill to postpone my period. I don't want to be left outside the temple as women who are in the time of their month are forbidden to enter. What else? Oh yes, i also have purposely take out my extra bag for shopping from my backpack. I hope i don't get tempted once in Bali. I can do it. Besides i only bring 4 millions rupiah, just enough for 1 week travelling in Indonesia.

So, until then, i will see you again next week.

New addiction

I have it. I am obsessed with books. Especially with paranormal and fantasy books. I am not always like this you know. I usually had my regular dose of Mills & Boon, or Harlequin Temptation once a month. But now, i could finished 1 whole book in a day. Almost every night i had a late night sleep because of this. And to make matter worst, i have ordered more books online. Next week i'm expecting to received around 20 books. Please tell me it is not that bad. It is not that bad right? I mean book reading is suppose to be healthy. It must be doing something good to the mind. Just look at the Japanese, they read everywhere. Even when they are in the subway queuing to enter the train, still a book must be at hand. And why i am panicking over this? I should not. It's just that i have probably spent over a thousand just for books in this year. And the year 2010 is not even over. I still have November and December ahead of me and how am i going to go through those 2 cold months without any books to keep me warm? And don't tell me the library is my salvation. The public library that we had here is not the kind of up-to-date library. Sure, you might find some good old romance novel like Judith's, but i have read all that.



By the way, i am currently reading Seven Ancient Wonders by Matthew Reilly. It is not my cup of tea really. I prefer romance rather than thriller. But i am willing to give it a try. I'm sure if i can handle Sidney's Doomsday Conspiracy, reading this should be just like sipping my tea in a garden. So, bring it on Matthew.

Love in time of dragons

I just finished reading this book. It's by Katie MacAlister. I had the UK version. But the cover of US version seems more interesting. Never mind the cover, the title alone had me put this book on top-3 of my priority list.



















I find that this book is very addictive and "interesting". It took me 12 hours to finish it. I am a slow reader and i did paused for some toilet business and snacks once a while. I was new to dragons stories. I mean how many times you ever heard of dragons love stories? I know we are so accustomed to the idea of love between human and vampire, or werewolf, or demon, or zombie, or mutant, or superhuman, or angel and many more. But dragons? We are talking about the kind of dragons with scales and breathe fires. And Katie makes the dragon's love making even hotter. Somebody should make a movie out of this book. I tell you, this book is worth every cents.

From the depths of my heart, I hate you

Before turning 29 i never thought that i am capable of feeling hate towards our fellow human being. I am talking about an extreme kind of hate. The one that as if i saw her half dead in the middle of the desert, i would make sure that she is conscious enough to see the vultures feed on her body. And before i leave her to die, i will look into her eyes and say "see you in hell". I will sacrifice heaven to see her in hell, so i can kill her with my bare hands. I'm sure that if i spent at least 2 hours thinking how much i hate this particular human being, this would the day that i turn to be a serial killer. Yes, i have that much hate in me.





It always started as a friendship. A fake friendship of course. If only i could smell it from the beginning i would never be hurt like this. Fengshui did warned me about her but i choose not to listen. Our stories goes like this. One morning, Ms. Bitch came to me with her red eyes, as she have been crying all night. Telling me that she was humiliated in front of her friends by my bos (who is also her bos). It seems that she and my bos have made a business pact together. Ms. Bitch would look for projects to tender and Mr. Bos would finance the projects. Then one day Ms. Bitch managed to get Cleaning Projects from the government. She claim that deposit need to be pay to the government representative before they can award you the projects. But Mr. Bos refused to pay because it is a common practice you will pay after you received payments for the works done. This is typical government servants. If you got engaged in government project you need to make sure that everybody get the cakes. Ok, back to my hate story. When Ms. Bitch come into my office that morning, with her swollen red eyes, i felt sorry for her. Then she had the brightest idea ever. She said, "why don't you take over the project? All you have to do is come out with RM 3000.00 and i will take care of everything for you". 3k is not small amount of money for me. It is a hard earn cash for me. It took me 3 years to save that. Then i think to my self, "why not?". I have the money, she is my friend and i trust her. After i hand over my money to her, she went out to town and off the radar for a week. No calls and no news from her. After almost 2 weeks, she came back again to me offering to me another project. This time the project cost me about RM 2000.00. She told me that she need the money asap. It was Saturday that time. No banks open. And she had to left town on Sunday. I told her that i would bank in the money on Monday but then she had no atm cards (guess what? i found out later that her atm card were taken by the loan shark. to ensure that she pay her loan at the end of every month). Then i give her my atm card instead. Told her that i will deposit the money on Monday. So she left. Out of town again. With my atm card and another 2k. It never occurred to me that she was actually conned me upside down until colleagues my questions me. I was actually paying for her vacations. I had notice that from the moment i gave her money, she start to wear new clothes, new shoes and new handbags almost every day. Then again, after coming back she went to see me again with another project. Asking another RM 2000.00. By this time i already know that it's a ruse. I rejected her project politely. Never once i mentioned to her about being conned. 2 days after that she came back to me again with another project. This time she does not mention any money involved. I know the money part come later after i agreed of be conned. That is the last time i spoke to her. From that moment on, everything became so clear to me. All her talk, laugh, all fake. Now all i see is lies coming out of her mouth. I avoid being around her because i disgusted with people who lied to my face. Even though i secretly hoping that one day she will come to me with the projects that i have pay previously, in her hands, offering to me, and proving that i was wrong all the way, and i was the evil one.

In the end, she manage to take RM 6300.00 from me. It's a large amount of money for me. But when i think it's over, it's not the lost of my hard earn money that hurt the most. It's the fooling and the betrayal that killed every goodness left in me. I was not fooled once, but i was fooled twice. Shame on me. I hate my self for being very stupid and I hate her for fooling me. My entire being is cursing her forever. There is no turning back for this hate. I will never forgive her. And i will never forget.

When?

"If two people love each other, but they just can't seem to get it together, when do you get to that point of enough is enough?

Quoted by Samantha from The Mexican.

An evergreen movie. I can watch this movie again and again. Love the comedy and love the spontaneity. I especially love the question which the assassin ask Samantha (Julia Roberts), then Samantha later ask the same to her boyfriend Jerry (Brad Pitt) and Jerry answer her, "Never".



The question was like a slap to my face. A slap of awakening. I then began to ask my self the same question. And i'm afraid that my answer was not like Samantha nor Jerry. I am currently in a 5.2 years long relationship. Though the numbers seems to be keep adding up, i just cannot see that this is the guy that i'm gonna seal the matrimony with. Every time i ask my self the question, i just failed to answer. At least Samantha still answer with her mumblings. In the end, i end up postponing to answer to next year.

The truth is, i dont know the answer. I dont know how people evaluate their relationship. Am i happy with him? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. See? Nothing is certain. In life. Except death. Maybe i should list the pros and cons. Let relationship be the defendant, Mr. Boyfriend will be the Defender, and I am the Prosecutor. But that is not fair either, because I always win. Dont believe? Ask Ally McBeal.

Or maybe i should do this the engineers' way. Do some investigation, collect data, calculation, and in the end pick what ever is effective and economic. Translate to more humane language, cheap and good to go. The term of "cheap" should be about my financial interest. So is it cheap, yes it's very cheap. But is it good to go? I'm afraid not. The engine is quite old and will require some maintenance here and there. When i say engine i don't mean Mr. Boyfriend's performance. He certainly don't have any problem in that area and i have nothing to complain.

So lets talk about Mr. Boyfriend here. Let me tell you about him. His look was a bit (0.01%) lower than average. But most importantly is that he is nice to me. In fact he is too nice. He always spoils me, not with luxury of course, but with kind gestures such as making sure that my refrigerator always full, cook nice dinner for me, surprised me by cooking lunch, sometimes wake up to find that breakfast is already served. And that 's not it. He is the only guy who have ever clean my apartment and do all my laundry. Imagine that you wake up one morning and saw the huge pile of 1 week dirty clothes was already washed clean and hanged for drying? Despite all that he got vices too. Mr. Almost Perfect Boyfriend is a heavy smoker. To kiss a smoker is a nightmare for me. And he is not the kind of person that which you can have a heart to heart session. If you are feeling low, don't bother talking to him because he will make you feel even worst. That is why I always call him "a mood spoiler". Talking to him will always let you down. The only nice conversation we ever had is through the phone. That is why sometimes being in this 5.2 years relationship can very lonely. So what it's gonna be? I think that i'm gonna pause here. We'll continue to talk about this maybe sometime somewhere in next year. For now, we'll just let it be.

High school

Today I got tagged in a high school class photos by an old friend of mine. We were classmate. We were in the same class. I'm not trying to talk cock but our class was considered to be the best in terms of brain during that era. Others could only dreamed to be part of the class. As for me, I always make sure that I would be in the top-3 of the class brain hierarchy. Why? Because I just simply love studying. I love learning something new. I indulged in my curiosity. I enjoy the feeling of satisfaction after understanding the problem. So back to the original topic, after everybody got tagged, all started commenting of how they long for that old time memories. I in my usual mode, never really cared to respond or add any further comments (unless it is something that I cannot ignore such as disturbingly cute kittens). Then after 10 or more comments added, this tagger start bitching about how some people in that class were not part of her happy memories. She claims that these people were not friendly, do not care to mix with others and finally sum up the year she spent in that class was not pleasant at all. She said that she rather and more happy to join other class. I know for sure that she is talking about me. Then sad thing is that I do not even remember who she is. I even tried looking at her new recent updated photos and compared to the class photo, I still could not tell which one is her. But in the end, after 2 hours guessing, narrowing and eliminating my guess I finally find out which one is she. To be frank I don't remember anything about her. In fact I think I barely speak more than 10 words to her in that class. I don't know why. But I'm not the type of people who discriminates others. In my defense, I have to study more than chit chatting. I was not born lucky, I don't have the privileges to enjoy high school. I sacrifice my youth in order to achieve what I have now. I'm not pretty, my family is not rich and I'm not born smart. Nothing infuriates me more that having people saying that I was lucky to be born with good brain. Nobody is naturally smart. 0 + 10 = 10. There is no way you could get 0 + 5 to equal 10. I believe that it is all about effort. I always get people asking what is my secret. There is no magic pill that make you smart instantly. The only ingredient is hard work. For me, I always see the Japanese as an example. I only sleep 4 hours every night. I get up at 4am to study and sleep at 11pm. I made sure that I have studied at least 10 hours a day. Not to include the normal school hours which from 7 to 12pm. Of course there were ups and downs in my journey. Even machines sometimes broke down. When I'm in my downs, I have my magic words something that goes like this, "the greats and heights of great man, were not attained by sudden flight, they while their companions asleep, were toiling upwards in the night".

So, I am kind of sad when she said that. It makes me feel that I'm the reason why she didn't enjoy high school. But I am not going to apologize for ruining her prime just because I want to have the last laugh. Strange isn't it, when you thought you were neutral, somewhere somebody is quietly hating you.

Anybody out there, who are dare to dream, don't stop. I dare you. Fight till the last drop of your blood. Because I tell you this, nothing of your sweats and tears will go wasted.

Hope

Look! There is my faith, at last

He come in a shinning armour

He ride on a white horse

Hold high his swords of thousand lights

Coming for me, just for me

Who should be Daniel Grigori?

I have been doing some thinking. In the end i decided that only the gorgeous Brad Pitt should be Daniel Grigori. Just look at him. He got the most perfect face that an angel could resent. And don't get me to start talking about his deep blue eyes. I bet angels should weep if they were to see those eyes drowned in tears.

I know that he maybe a little old for Daniel's character but that is not a problem at all. In fact, nobody know how angel should age. My point is if they can make Bruce Willis look 30 years younger in his Surrogates movie, then I'm sure they'll handle Brad Pitt easy peasy.

Not that I'm obsessed with Brad Pitt or anything, it's just to me that he got the most angelic face of all. I know there are a lot of other teenage star who are as good and talented as Brad such as Zac Efron, Robert Pattison, Daniel Radcliffe, and etc, but they all are just either cute or adorable.

And for Lucinda Price role, I have listed quite a few candidates but then it was so easy to eliminate them and finally come down to one and only Miss Peregrym. But this is not yet final. Missy would welcome anyone who wishes to be her contender. Unless you have that sweet innocent kind of gothic look like Missy please, i beg you, don't. I rather go hang myself than seeing Miley Cyrus play Lucinda. Or Megan Fox. No offence but she is so pretty (bit too much, i think!) and too exotic to play Lucinda.

By the way, Missy is a Canadian actress. She starred in this new series called Rookie Blue. I have yet to check that one out.