yang terekam saat berkunjung ke pulau Tidung

inilah yang terekam saat kami berkunjung ke pulau kecil bernama Tidung.tidak jauh dari Jakarta. perjalanan ini spontan. saya suka yang spontan, penuh kejutan, tanpa bersiap-siap. suasana disana enak untuk berkontemplasi. maka saya manfaatkan momen itu untuk mencari jawaban-jawaban dari banyak pertanyaan. 

tetapi, belum ketemu. 

a birthday sushi and kisses

18 rules of living by the Dalai Lama

1. take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk
2. when you lose, don't lose the lesson
3. follow the three Rs: respect for self, respect for others & responsibility for all your actions
4. remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck
5. learn the rules so you know how to break them properly
6. don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship
7. when you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it
8. spend some time alone every day
9. open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values
10. remember that silence is sometimes the best answer
11. live a good, honourable life. then when you get older and think back, you'll be able to enjoy it a second time
12. a loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life
13. in disagreement with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. don't bring up the past
14. share your knowledge. it's a way to achieve immortality
15. be gentle with the earth
16. once a year, go someplace you've never been before
17. remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other
18. judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it

selamat siang semuanya ! 

tentang angka dua dan tiga

foto ini diambil pada tanggal 10 Februari tahun 1994. hari itu adalah hari ulang tahun saya. dan kami sekeluarga merayakannya dengan satu kue berukuran besar dan lilin angka 4 diatas nya, dan beberapa hadiah dari ayah ibu saya, juga dari para sepupu saya yang sengaja datang kerumah memberi selamat. ibu hanya sebentar ada disana. memberikan kado kecil yang ternyata adalah sebuah puzzle berwarna-warni yang teramat sangat saya sukai, mengecup kedua pipi dan kening saya, lalu terburu-buru pergi kerumah sakit. saat itu ibu saya sedang hamil besar, dan dua hari setelah tanggal 10 Februari, beliau melahirkan adik saya.  

ketika saya masih kecil, hal-hal yang paling bisa membuat saya berbahagia pada hari ulang tahun saya, adalah benda-benda beranekaragam dengan bungkusan berwarna-warni yang sering kita sebut kado ulang tahun. 

tanggal 10 Februari tahun 2003. saya adalah seorang remaja yang baru menginjak kelas 2 SMP, dan baru mengerti arti cinta. pada saat itu seorang laki-laki yang saya sukai menyatakan cintanya. kami berdua masih anak-anak yang saling jatuh cinta pada pandangan pertama dan belum mengerti isi lebih dalam dari cinta itu sendiri. bagi kami cinta itu adalah degup jantung yang keras ketika kami bertemu secara tidak sengaja di kantin sekolah, perasaan aneh setiap malam ketika kami ingat satu sama lain, perasaan rindu yang tiba-tiba terasa ketika liburan panjang sekolah tiba, dan perasaan hangat ketika mata kami berdua bertemu saat berbicara satu sama lain. pada tanggal ini juga saya merasakan cinta pertama. 

tanggal 10 Februari 2006, saya merayakan hari ulang tahun saya dengan makan pizza seharian dengan kekasih saya pada saat itu. hari yang biasa dengan tambahan boneka teddy bear berwarna merah muda, sebuah foto dengan frame berwarna merah muda, pizza dan bioskop, itu saja. 

tanggal 10 Februari tahun 2009, malam-malam saya dapat hadiah kucing persia dari kekasih saya pada saat itu. dan siangnya, kami pun menikmati hari bersama-sama. 

tanggal 10 Februari 2012, saya menghabiskan banyak waktu saya di sebuah organisasi internasional dan mempunyai jabatan yang cukup tinggi disana. sering sekali saya meeting sampai malam. dan menit-menit pertama di tanggal tersebut, saya berada di mobil kekasih saya yang sengaja menjemput saya meeting dari kantor. dia mengajak saya makan pagi kala itu, dan memberikan 1 album musik karya saya dan dia. 

ketika waktu berjalan dan membawa saya pada fase tertentu dalam kehidupan, hal yang paling saya nantikan pada saat saya ulang tahun, adalah kebahagiaan yang dapat saya bagikan dengan orang yang saya cintai. 

tanggal 10 Februari tahun 2007, saya tiba-tiba dipanggil kedepan kelas ketika guru fisika saya sedang menjelaskan sesuatu tentang arus listrik. saat itu suasana kelas agak aneh, karena teman-teman laki-laki saya tiba-tiba tanpa henti mengajak saya bercanda sehingga saya tidak memerhatikan guru itu sama sekali. guru fisika saya menyuruh saya menyelesaikan satu soal fisika dipapan tulis. jujur saya belum pernah melihat soal fisika seperti itu, dan saya sama sekali tidak bisa menjawabnya. setiap kepala dikelas saat itu menatap dengan nyinyir kearah saya karena saat itu harusnya waktu istirahat sudah tiba tetapi kelas akan ditahan sampai saya bisa menyelesaikan soal itu. guru fisika saya marah-marah, sampai membanting penggaris kayu yang besar kedepan muka saya. saya ingin menangis, tetapi saya malu. akhirnya saya menahan diri saya dan hanya bisa menunduk. setelah 10 menit saya berdiri didepan kelas dengan kepala yang ditundukan dengan dalam, dan rasa malu yang membakar muka saya, saya dipersilahkan duduk. saya berjalan dengan lemas menuju bangku saya. saat itulah seluruh kelas menyanyikan lagu ulang tahun dengan keras. mereka menghampiri saya dibangku yang terkulai lemas saking bahagianya. saya menangis. keras sekali. guru fisika saya menghampiri saya dan bilang kalau soal fisika itu memang tidak ada jawabannya. saya menangis semakin keras. 

tanggal 10 Februari 2010, saya mendapatkan kejutan yang membuat saya luar biasa bahagianya. saat itu saya sedang menjalankan Kuliah Kerja Nyata di sebuah kota kecil bagian barat kota Bandung, yaitu kota Subang. hari berjalan dengan biasa saja, tanpa ada tanda, tanpa ada berita, tanpa apapun. 25 hari sudah saya tinggal didesa terpencil, dan saya merasa akan sangat mustahil bagi saya untuk merayakan ulang tahun saya dengan orang yang saya sayangi. tiba-tiba, ketika saya hendak pergi kekamar untuk tidur siang, teman-teman saya menyeret saya keluar halaman, dan mengikat saya pada pohon rambutan yang ada didepan rumah. saya hanya bisa pasrah, dan bahagia tentunya. mereka menyiram saya dengan air dari comberan, dicampur dengan terigu, juga telur. pandangan saya kabur, sampai akhirnya saya menyadari bahwa didepan saya ada kekasih saya yang datang dari luar kota dengan sebuah kue dengan lilin angka 20 diatasnya. saya sangatlah bahagia.

pada masa-masa tertentu dalam hidup saya, sebuah kejutan adalah hal yang dinantikan setiap tanggal 10 Februari.

tanggal 10 Februari tahun 2013 ini, ketika usia saya menginjak 23 tahun, saya tidak menginginkan benda-benda yang terbungkus oleh kertas berwarna-warni. saya juga tidak menantikan hari ini untuk berbagi kebahagian dengan orang yang special. karena memang saya tidak punya pacar. dan itu pilihan saya. seiring berjalannya waktu dan kalian tumbuh menjadi dewasa, segala sesuatunya bisa berubah dengan cepat. termasuk perasaan. pun saya tidak menginginkan kejutan. karena kehidupan sudah cukup membuat saya terkejut.

tanggal 10 Februari tahun 2013. yaitu hari ini. saya menghabiskan waktu saya di sebuah coffee shop di Jakarta dengan kedua teman saya. saya sadar, pada fase kehidupan sekarang ini, saya sedang mengalami quarter-life crisis. ketika ritme sebuah kehidupan berlari sangat kencang sampai terkadang saya kehabisan nafas untuk mengejarnya. ketika sebuah impian yang lama diam disalah satu bagian otak saya akhirnya harus menghilang tanpa jejak. ketika hari-hari berjalan dengan tantangan yang berganti-ganti dan saya harus selalu bersusah payah untuk berdiri kembali setelah jatuh, sendirian. ketika saya tinggal jauh dari orang tua saya, untuk bekerja di ibu kota yang keras sekeras batu. kami bertiga berbicara hal yang sama. tentang corporate culture yang sedang menjebak kita kedalam suatu kehidupan yang statis. tentang value yang selalu diagung-agungkan tetapi bentuknya tidak kelihatan sekarang. tentang kehidupan yang teramat sangat dewasa yang kami sendiri tidak yakin bisa mengikutinya dan tidak yakin apakah kami sudah cukup dewasa untuk menjadi bagiannya. dan segala macam hal lainnya yang tidak bisa habis untuk dibicarakan. 

bagaimana saya mengawali hari ulang tahun saya di usia 23 tahun ini?. saya mulai hari ulang tahun saya ini dengan solat isya yang berbeda dari solat isya lainnya. inilah kali pertamanya saya menangis dalam solat. inilah kali pertama saya meminta kepada Tuhan dengan sepenuh hati. saya bilang pada Tuhan, saya tidak akan bisa menghadapi semua ini tanpa perlindungan Dia. saya tidak bisa bertahan pada bidang yang curam ini tanpa pertolongan Dia. saya meminta Dia untuk tidak akan pergi kemana-mana dan selalu berada dengan saya. saya tau Tuhan mendengar dan saya tau Tuhan selalu ada disana, mendengarkan, menenangkan. 

saya harap saya sedikit mendengar ucapan 'selamat' dan lebih banyak mendengar ucapan 'semoga' dihari ulang tahun saya yang ke 23. ya, angka dua dan tiga akan menjadi sebuah judul sepanjang tahun 2013 ini dengan sebuah keyakinan yang kuat, bahwa pada akhirnya, semua akan menjadi baik-baik saja.

to Peter Broderick and Piano, my two favorite pastimes.

i started to create an account on last.fm in 2008. and until now it is still a pleasure of mine to look for something good to listen and stalk others' taste for brand new recommendations. but whenever i log in to my account, i couldn't be any more interested when i see the fact that up until now i have Peter Broderick on the first line of my Top Artist and have his songs played until 2240 times ! i know it's been five years anyway. but if we make it 4 minutes for one song, meaning i have listened to his songs in 8960 minutes, or approximately in 149 hours, and in the other words, equally i have spent 6 days in a row to listen to his songs. but what else can i say?. they really are worth a listen.

i love his playing for he plays with a heart. i know i am the one who will say to you, heartlessly, that you only have one brain that you can point with your finger where it is located, instead of a heart that you don't even know where it precisely stays. hahaha.(that's a total joke),  but i am the one who believe that one kind of a heart stays in Broderick's fingers. i know if i put his fingers on mine, i would clearly feel the beats.

so yesterday i recorded my playing of one of his songs called Pulling the Rain. this average slash lack-of-readiness slash all of a sudden kind of playing, as i mentioned on youtube description, is intended to introduce my two favorite pastimes, Peter Broderick and his masterpiece, and, even if i recorded my playing with a keyboard anyway, Piano. 

i know it's damned and all since it is cut in the middle of a playing since i tried to gather those best parts of the video, and it was my friend who recorded a half so that i don't know if we can call it a song cover video, but anyway, to tell how perfect Peter Broderick in arranging a music is mostly important of all. and i hope my quite ugly playing still can deliver its beauty of the song. happy scrobbling those 2240 Broderick's songs, last.fm users ! :p

perjalanan ke dua negara ASEAN tahun 2012

ternyata libur masih panjang saat itu. ada kegiatan lain yang harus dilakukan oleh para Executive Board AIESEC di awal bulan Juli tahun 2012 di Phuket, Patong dan Bangkok, Thailand. saya mau kasih lihat kalian lagi apa yang bisa ditangkap oleh kamera mainan saya.

jalan-jalan sore lebih baik dimulai saat matahari sudah sembunyi

sudah berkali-kali kesini tetapi tetap jatuh cinta seperti pertama kali

saya dan Anna

ada burung habis mabuk-mabukan 

mereka tau lensa kamera

gajah lewat ketika kami diperjalanan menuju Big Budha diatas bukit menggunakan sepeda motor

selalu suka naik bus sendirian dinegara orang. apalagi dibelakang biksu. 

dan ceritanya berakhir disini.......

dan disini. 

waktu Indonesia bagian timur di pertengahan tahun 2012

terbanglah saya dan seorang teman saya untuk bertugas mengurus keberangkatan para mahasiswa UNHAS  di Makassar untuk berangkat Exchange saat itu. coba lihat, saya berhasil mengambil beberapa gambar matahari, biru nya lautan, dan kejadian lain pakai kamera mainan saya.

suasana setiap pagi  ketika berkendara menuju kampus 

menengadah dengan teman saya

sama-sama biru. kalau hati?

ketidak sengajaan terkadang menjadi sempurna. seperti foto matahari tenggelam ini.

setelah lelah bermain-main dengan Matahari, akhirnya dia bilang 'Selamat tinggal' di Bandara 

to travel or not to travel, that's a question

a warm greeting from Jakarta, with a calming backsound of rain, snacks and hot tea. i would like to say 'hi'  to everyone of you for i just arrived here in blogspot and care to share daily stories again. it's been a crazy long time that i felt so much fired up i can jump to finally be able to track my old password of my forgotten blogspot, and start these tales of my days again ! 

in these days, when you have to work based on clients' demand, life will be so much unpredictable. i mean, it wont be piece of cake to predict what time you will be in  the middle of damn packed working hours, what time you will be so much idle that you can just go down stair and buy some ice creams, and whether or not you can split the whistle to home. on account of this situation, i never again make a promise for a dinner or just a hang out with friends after hours, because, life's been so much unpredictable lately. but what i can be grateful about, is that i always have some particular time to just sit on my desk, travel around some interesting websites for the sake of my knowledge, hunt some interesting pictures and most importantly, be alert in every social medias.

it was a chill morning without beeps on email and phone in my office when one of my English friend, Paul Scott, gave me a buzz on Facebook and asked a favor to record a video for his project. he was about to make a kickstarter campaign called The Open World Project which aims to create an app and website dedicated to travelling to aid travelers in many different ways. this project provides a strong knowledge base of restaurants, bars and sights with an interactive map and language converter and printout screenshot function to aid with travelling via taxi, train, etc. local tour guides can upload their information and offer open world world project user's discount etc. he had been asking his travelling friends he had met from all over the world to give a greeting in their very own language and gather the videos into his video campaign. i haven't recorded the video yet but sure as hell, enthusiastically, will do and help him. 

a short story about our first meeting, me and Paul, it happened 2 years ago in Thailand. i traveled solo to Bangkok to catch some fresh air in the middle of my internship in KL. we happened to meet in Khao Sarn road in one fine night, not rather randomly since he was also a friend of a friend, but i can say it's always been amazing to talk to stranger when you travel solo. so i enjoyed a night there, and had a great convo with this man in English accent. he seemed to be a true traveler i was inspired the most. he shared his experience having fun with life during his traveling around some countries and sometimes threw intelligent perspectives about life that he said he got from his times when he traveled. what i had recalled urges me to be a part of supporters of his project to ease other travelers to see the world.

on the next day of my other days, i got a beep again from a friend from Dutch i met randomly again in Bandung. it started with a like hitting on his facebook's post i gave to him. he posted one song he currently listens, Emilliana Torrini - Big Jumps. all of this lady's works are dazzling that i adore all of the songs she sings. always have loved them. so i felt like liking 100 buttons on his post. and he sort of sent me a buzz on facebook after that. and he was like: 

Hey Tazkya!

Thanks, how are you? This song Big Jumps fits the end of my travel story..Its in Dutch so you probably won't understand a thing haha. I'll try to translate a bit in English. 

It is about the feeling when a journey comes to an end. When the flowers outside are fading away during wintertime in Holland, so are my memories fading away. The world didnt stop spinning while I was away, and how easy you forget things when you are home, as the things you experienced abroad have nothing to do with your daily live back home. That doesn't mean travelling is worthless; on the contrary. This experience is for life, and you will remember your journey and nobody can take that away from you. For example when you hear a happy song you were listening to being abroad or a souvenir, that can bring memories back again like a movie. Because you are the one that experienced it all. It's hard to explain a journey to others, as it is more about a feeling then about a couple of events that happened. A lot of people have dreams, but don't dare to live them. I have seen how easy it actually is to follow them. The best part of the adventure, is that when you arrive at a new place, we usually don't find what we expected. And for these unexpected situation, you'll need to adapt to the circumstances. I travelled alone, but I never felt alone. You notice, you see, and you learn a lot about yourself, especially when you are travelling on your own. This is also what Paracelsus wants to explain with the following quote. It was the beginning of a book, The art of loving, by young philosopher Erick Fromm, which I read while being abroad and is about love. Because in the end, everyone is searching for any kind of love.

‘He who knows nothing, loves nothing. He who can do nothing understands nothing. He who understands nothing is worthless. But he who undersands also loves, notices, sees….The more knowledge is inherent in a thing, the greater the love… Anyone who imagines that all fruits ripen at the same time as the strawberries knows nothing about grapes.’

I wanna wish you all the best and lots of love, not only for 2013 but for your whole life 

Good example about bringing back memories: I'm thinking about the conversation we had in the restaurant right now. So nice  Glad I met you.

his name is Bastiaan Sallevelt from Dutch and he happened to come to Bandung for traveling solo and randomly again we were connected in one dinner on saturday night. we just met but we started our casual conversation with things that are not casual at all anyway. we talked about philosophy, religions in the earth, theories of human relationship, school, and last but the most enchanting, traveling. 

two days in a row, i had been slapped by these two people about the awesomeness of traveling. they were simply a buzz on facebook but make me recall things undone i should have made true. one day in the election of Vice President in AIECEC, in the panel i said in front of everyone that my ultimate ambition is seeing the world with my own eyes, listening to every sounds in the world with my own ears, and capture all of them shapely through words i am gonna arrange in a book with my very own hands. and these two buzzes are just like waking me up from a long dream. 

i am so thankful that i had been surrounded by those inspiring people who love to travel and believe that world itself gives more than theories or learning, beyond the expectation. i start to see my schedule and calendar to check when my traveling plan possibly happen in the middle of my hectic days at work. i know experience is not a dime a dozen we can find it anywhere. but every learning we can get from traveling is way more expensive than tickets or amount of money you spend for traveling. for the luckiest people are those who live a life to the fullest. 

so, cheers and happy traveling 

loves, 

tazky. 

the first time and the last time i watch the World Cup 2010

 

I had a long night in the previous day. I just got back home at around 2.30 and slept at around 4.30 am. Earn asked me whether I want to join with her to shop in Platinum, one of the cheap shopping center but I was not pretty sure. To be honest, I still wanted to buy some things. Just so you know, all things in Bangkok are BEYOND GREAT that perhaps couldn’t be found in Indonesia with that price. I really want to buy some more stuffs but I just realized that I run out of money and energy. So I didn’t wake up, and I found Earn had left to go shopping. I woke up in the late afternoon, I passed the breakfast and felt so damn hungry. I decided to stay at the apartment until noon and waited until Bow got home. I felt so tired and I just ended up with writing some blogs, chatting with couple of friends, browsing and else, until the noon came.

This day ended with a cool party. We went to Khao San road in which lots of tourists love to hang out. It was beyond awesome, the diversity mixed here and I saw many kind of people with the loud music, what a perfect match!. Chinese , western, even Arabic people enjoyed the crowd together. Many people there thought that I was Thai because I looked like really Thai, they said. When we were heading to the club, they asked me for the ID something in Thai. All Thai girls have the ID to come in, and they thought that I was Thai. I simply answer I was foreigner and they let me come in.  This place was officially my favorite place. I love the crowd and the diversity here. You can see the very drunk Englishmen were joking around with the Arabic baby who passed them by and they offer the baby the drink. It was so funny.

It was the grand final of World Cup anyway. I had never watched World Cup in my life time, I didn’t even know how I can enjoy watching the football match. But I felt so happy in that time and I just try to be in Bow’s side. We wanted SPAIN !. I enjoy the crowd a lot. A lot of Spain supporter were travelling around while singing and drinking and they were totally drunk, and also dancing with the loud music that was played. Not only Spain supporter, the Holand supporter also did the same, so that the crowd was mixed perfectly. I recorded them in my camera, I will show you some video if I have already known how to resize the video because its size was too big that I couldn’t upload it to my blogspot.

Finally I watched the football match!. Now I know why people, especially girls, really love to watch the football match. First, it made me so nervous especially when we take the country, and second, of course, CUTE GUYS. LOL. I just a bit regret  that I didn’t see the match since the very first time. but for my first and last time watching football match, I felt dead happy. Even I was in a huge and great party when I watched it. it was so nice. And it simply become much greater when SPAIN WIN ! since the very first time, the games had been so boring because there were no goals at all. I kept shouting “ME WANT GOALS” but still there were no goals. But when SPAIN finally made a goal and finally WIN , we scream so loud , we danced, we sang , aaaaaah I love the crowd a lot. So actually this was my beyond great first and last  world Cup watching in this year. WAKA WAKA EEE !

the city that never sleeps.

It was Saturday and I woke up so late because I was so damn tired. Earn and Yok, my roommate in that time had already left because they had a photo session with their friends in senior high school. When I woke up, there was no one in the room. Trust me, it was not good to wake up, and realize that you were in the middle of somewhere that you really don’t know, with no one beside you, didn’t know what to do. It was 9.30 am in the morning and I just woke up with the horrible feeling. No one i know and I was in the middle of the city in Thailand. I turned on my laptop, and wanna talk with someone to keep me company. Then I started to think that it would be so terrible if I just stayed in the apartment with nothing to do but chatting and browsing that I can always do in my home. I asked my friend to give me the link about the information about Bangkok, and I see the great market named Chatuchak weekend market. Then I decided to go there alone than only staying in the apartment and doing nothing. Then I took a bath, prepared for the adventurous day I was gonna have. 

This Saturday I had a plan to go to Cathucak Weekend Market to buy some stuff, it should be only ONE stuff, because I only had to buy one more thing. Cathucak weekend Market is reachable which mean I can only take an MRT to get there. It was awesome that one station of MRT is the entrance of Chatucak Weekend Market. I love it! because I could easily get there. I had been thinking of my walking alone the street to reach the Thailand Cultural Centre Station. I always love that kind of moment anyway. I assure you, you’re gonna love the moment you walk alone in another country, having no idea with the thing that could possibly happen to you. You cant even imagine when someone suddenly come to you and speak Thai, you cant totally understand what he says , and the one that you do is only answering him that I don’t understand Thai. It happened to me a lot. Since I walked alone along the street, there are a lot of people tried to talk with me and Thai. I also felt the situation when I walk alone in Indonesia, there will be so many boys sitting in the side of the road, trying to flirt on me. HAHA. I mean it, but I don’t feel it annoyed me, because they thought I was Thai, they spoke in Thai that I didn’t understand at all, I didn’t feel annoyed at all. ;p

I didn’t say that I felt miserable of travelling around Thai all to myself. I love something adventurous, and I simply love walking along the street alone. I saw many different things everyday, I love to pretend that I am Thai, I love to have a quality conversation with no one but myself, I love to see the cars that were just like my mommy’s car and someone’s car that could make me think that I am gonna get back home this august with a lot of new experiences to tell them, I love to breath the air, see the dogs around and tried to touch them even sometimes Thai people said to me something but I couldn’t understand. It was just awesome when you find yourself do something that you cant imagine before. Even to walk alone in my own country, I always feel miserable and think that it is no good at all to do such a thing. I never imagine that I did it, alone, in another country. I was lost in translation. But I always love to be lost in translation, how could it be not so adventurous?. But I think that that day I got a bonus. In the previous day, Bow has told me that she had a friend from England and Indonesia who were also now staying in Thai and also were interested to visit those kind of places for tourist. But I didn’t expect at all that that Saturday they were gonna come with me to go to Weekend Market. So I just left the apartment, thinking of going alone to buy some stuff and come back home again, until suddenly my phone was rung and someone texted me. The person said that he’s Tom, Bow’s friend and he’s gonna go to the Weekend Market with Jimmy, and asked me whether I wanted to come with them. I laughed so loud, even I received the message on my way to get the weekend market!. What a coincidence!. I always think that god always have a special plan for me. Trust me, when you try to be so grateful of having something that you don’t really like, when you try to enjoy every little time given no matter how miserable it is, you are definitely going to have something more!. Like me, that Saturday. God simply gave me a special bonus. I said to Tom that I was also heading to the market, and asked him whether we could meet in the market. They say yes, and i was ready to make a new friend. :D

I couldn’t imagine how big this market is. I think it was absolutely big that you could find any kind of things there. From clothing, bags, necklaces, many kind of accessories, shoes, mirrors, many kind of books, slippers, plates, glass, cups, lamps, even the animals like dogs, cats and rabbits were sold there. I couldn’t believe my eyes that almost anything here I like them the most. My eyes couldn’t get off of the ancient books, cute summer dresses, my favorite type of shoes, fascinating bags, and else. It made me really hard to chose one of them because anyway I only had a budget to buy one thing, that’s why I thought that it was not a good choice to go to Cathucak Market, the place that I can get whole things I need with the quite cheap price. So I decided to stop walking and waited for my new friends there. Finally there they were. One tall british  and one smaller dark Indonesian guy were coming to me with a smile. That moment was the beginning of my great long day with them, until drop. I mean really drop!. :D

After walking around the market and three of us so confused what to buy because there were a lot of things, we decided to go out of the market. Oh ya, I only got one small clutch bag with the elephant print, and Tom only got one ancient book. We don’t really like to walk around there because there were too many things that I wanted to buy, especially BAGS. I don’t know why but once I went to shopping center, I always fall in love with them. My eyes couldn’t stop starring at them like the first time I saw the cutest guy in the world. Tom love to close my eyes with his big hand everytime we passed the bags shop and when I couldn’t stop starring at them all.

After that, Jimmy recommended to get out of this place and go to other places. He recommended the golden mountain as our next destination. From Catuchak Weekend Market, we should take a bus to get somewhere near the golden mountain. We finally took the bus and we stopped in the monument which I didn’t know what its name, but it was always seen in the news when the red t-shirt protest happened. LOL. Then from that place, to get the golden mountain that actually the three of us still don’t know where exactly the place, we walked along the street. I think we walked too long because I couldn’t see the place that we could stop, we kept walking and walking. I felt so tired yet so fun to see around. Once we stopped to take a picture with the monks. I loved to take the picture everywhere, and annoyingly Tom asked Jimmy whether all Indonesian love to take the picture. I kicked his ass, haha. After giving up, we finally stop the tuktuk, one of cute transportation that I really like and ask the driver for direction. Finally we took the tuktuk, and it was beyond awesome to take this kind of transportation, and not forget, taking the picture!.

After going to the Golden mountain that unfortunately we couldn’t see the sunset from there because it was closed already, we decided to go home. We need to take the BTS, but it was a long long journey to get there. We need to walk in a far far distance, take the bus, and walk again, walk walk until we finally get the BTS. Oh yeah, before we took the BTS we walked along the Khao san Road, the road that was really full with the tourist. It was awesome. There were a lot of people selling Thai souvenirs and stuffs, books, summer clothing,  and even they sold many kind of drinks and there were also a lot of bar. This place was really awesome and I love to take the picture anywhere.

After going home, Tom suddenly asked me to go out tonight to the same place, Khao san Road. I think it was so crazy, even it was 9pm when he said that and we were still on the way back home.  I had no idea at what time we were gonna leave. So I didn’t take it so serious until I got back to the apartment. Just after I arrived home, I turn on the laptop, going to chat with my old friend in senior high school, until suddenly Tom texted me to meet in one BTS station. That was crazy because I just thought that I wont happen. It was 10.30, no one in the apartment, my clothing are all dirty, I didn’t know how to get there to meet Tom, but you know what? I still left!. Haha. This is what I call adventure. Because it took a very long time for me to get dress, Tom asked me to meet in the Khao San road which means that I should take taxi to get there. I never could imagine that I finally do that. at 10.30 in the night, I went somewhere taking the taxi. But I did it, nothing was happened, everything is beyond right, and I felt a lot of fun.

In Khao san road, I, tom, and Paul, one of Tom’s English friend, were having fun together. I mean it, even it was only the three of us there, but I did have fun. We told some jokes, walking around the street to see the drunk people acting so silly and laughed at them, even we stopped in side of the road and talked with the Thai gangster who finally speak his heart out, and told us that he just recently broke up with his girlfriend who cheated. I felt like I really wanna laugh. I just imagine that now I was in Indonesia and I talked with the gangster in the side of the road, I didn’t even think it would happen. But yes, I happened even when I was out of my country, it was so silly. I went back to the apartment by 2.30 in the morning, and I got home all alone by taxi. Amazing.

This Saturday was so amazing. I did a lot of things that I couldn’t think would happen to me. I did things that if I tell my mommy, she’s definitely gonna angry with me and if I tell mt friends, no one’s gonna believe me. Everything was beyond my expectation, and one thing that you should remember is that when you less expect to get things, and when you already feel enough of what you get, God will give you a special bonus for your life. Just enjoy every single thing happens to you, assure yourself that you are happy, then something more than just happiness will come to you that you couldn’t ever imagine. Think about it, it worked for me. :D

 

Well this is my second day I have been staying here. This is the day that I would never imagine. I woke up lately, like in the 9 or 10 am in the morning. I just felt tired in that time. When I was half asleep, I heard my friend were already awake and doing something but I just couldn’t open my eyes, because I was too tired. So I continue to sleep. When I woke up, earn was leaving already, she had to go to work, while Yok was still sleeping. I did not know what to do in this day, but Yok told me that I could go to MBK shopping center to buy some souvenirs  after that we could meet up to see her friend’s graduation. So after I woke up, I decide to take a bath and be ready to go to MBK. I decide to go there alone, because I didn’t want to wake Yok up.

I finally left this apartnment. One thing I remembered I should do was walking along the street to reach MRT station. I already remember how the MRT station was so I walked along the street while looking around. It was a great city. It was crowded like in Indonesia, they also had a traffic jam but I just like the way they take care of their city. All is clean and beautiful. Finally I arrived at the MRT station. They actually have the same system like in Malaysia, but the difference is the MRT uses coins while train in Malaysia, uses cards. I always love using this kind of train. they all are well-organized and it really makes everything easy for tourists. We can see many kind of signs in English and they all are really detail that it wont make you lost.

I always love this moment. Walking along the street alone and see many new things around. My mind was just elsewhere and totally free. I could daydream about anything I want, I could have a quality conversation with myself, oh sometimes I should backpack to somewhere else all to myself. It would be so great.

After arrive at the nearest MRT station, as Yok’s commands, I should go to Si Lom station to reach the BTS station and stop in national stadium to go to MBK shopping center. Sometimes I was confused about everything because it seemed really new, and it’s kind of weird when people tried to talk to me in Thai because they thought I was thai girl. I could only say ‘I am sorry, I don’t understand’ and left. Sometimes I kept thanking to God everytime I found people who could answer my question in English. Some of them tried to ask me where I am from, how long I have been here and so on. People must really say that this is the land of smile. 

I finally arrived at MBK. At the first time I didn’t know where is exactly the MBK. I just walk along the street and tried to find some sign written in English. But still I couldn’t find the MBK. In about 100 meters, I saw mcd. I decided to have a brunch there because I had not had the breakfast yet. After having the brunch, I decided to come in to the mall where the McD is, and stupid me, this mall was actually the MBK. So I came in. 

It was a very very big and crowded mall. Many tourists are there and there are also a lot of thai souvenirs. I was so excited. I walked from one shop to another to see which one is cheaper (my very typical ;p). I bought some Thailand small notebooks for my friends, and also small Thailand purchases for .. well I don’t know exactly for who, but I was gonna give them to some people. After that, again and again I couldn’t take my eyes from bags!. There are a lot of discount and I just couldn’t write down to explain how I was so excited about the prices. Most of them are cheap, even too cheap. I bought two bags from one store, one for me, one for my mommy as a present for her next birthday on 24^th September. So I really have to keep it well. ;p. I also bought the purchase for my father as a birthday present also on 31^st august. After feeling enough to buy things, finally something made me interested a lot. ANOTHER FASCINATING BAG and they were only 199baht. I finally couldn’t help it and bought one for myself.

After a tiring shopping activity that hurt my feet a lot, I met up with Yok to go to her friend’s graduation. We walked from MBK to her University ; it was actually not really far. In the outside of the university, we could see many people selling gifts for the graduated students, such as flowers, dolls , even car police number look-a-like. They all were cute and I think this was the difference between the graduation here and in Indonesia. They do have a lot of things to be given, LOL.

It was very crowded in the graduation. The freshmen of this university travelled around the campus to cheer their senior in a very funny way and after that they could be paid by the senior  they were cheering to. It was awesome. All of the girls are absolutely beautiful. They consider the graduation day and wedding day the day they should be as beautiful as they can be. I really love the atmosphere. I accompanied my friend to see some of her friends in their graduation day.