Travel Journal: Makassar Trip (Part 4)

Morning Heat


After a constant go-go-go for the past three days, today is the day when we finally get to chill, sleep in, slack around a little more and all that good stuff. This is partly because somehow we got Andi to convince us that for snorkeling, it's best for us to leave after 10 otherwise the tide, or whatever, would make the water murky, ladida. (maybe it is? I don't know really) Yet, we nodded along because the sound of 'not having to wake up at 5 in the morning' sounds really grand. Especially in your holiday, really. 

Although, when I stepped out our warm hotel rooms (this is not a compliment to the establishment), I did feel a pang of regret. The heat is, uncanny. Although later I did realize it doesn't matter what time of the day, IT DOESN'T GET ANY COOLER. The heat is constantly brutal from the second the sun is out and about. In other words, whether it's 7.30 or 1.30, you can not escape the South Sulawesi heat. My husband had a hand-shaped sunburn to proof it. 

A cute beach pup

Travel Journal: Makassar Trip (Part 3)

So here comes the day, that we have been waiting for, the day we finally head for Tanjung Bira. Woohoo! And it's about time where we head out of Makassar, where the abundance of good food makes it seem impossible to have less than six meals in a day. Good God.

The road to Tanjung Bira (Cape Bira)

The road from Makassar to Bira has recently been repaved, so driving there should take about 4 to 6 hours, depending on the way your driver drive. Despite his one fake eye, our driver/guide/tour operator drove really well, so it took us roughly 4,5 hours.

Along the road, we passed Gowa, Janeponto, and Bantaeng. The prettiest scenery was when we passed  open pastures with grazing skinny horses in Janeponto, but unfortunately there were so many horses coto or soup restaurants in every meters or so too, pretty gruesome idea. 

First sight of the ocean, Bulukumba

After miles of rice paddies, cute houses ("quaint" said pade), and lots of cows, very cool terraces of corn fields, mountains, on our right side we finally had a sight of what seems to be the...SEA! We're there!! Oh, wait. false alarm... 1 hour away from where you start to find sea, now there's Tanjung Bira. When it hits 4th hour and you haven't been to the sea in almost .. too long to remember, a ride to the coast can never be more excruciating.

Travel Journal: Makassar Trip (Part 2)

After all the food the night before, I couldn't believe myself that we actually managed to wake up at 5.30 in the morning, to leave for Maros at 6.00 AM. Well..that was the plan. 

Most of us did get up that early, I was about 20 minutes late. Yet our driver, Andi, slept in and arrived at our doorstop at about 7.00 AM. So we finally left, and was already on our way out of Makassar city around 7.20 AM. 

Why am I being overly minute on this? because apparently where we were going, timing is everything. Andi emphasized that we did not want to see the Makassar Sunday crowd vacationing in Bantimurung, so we need to get there at least before 10. We would have enough time to muck about, and leave right on time when other people just start to pours in. 

Bantimurung National Park, Maros

From Makassar, we drove north for about an hour to reach the Bantimurung National Park in Maros Region. The air in the area is noticeably a lot cooler, and you can see a cool waterfall where a lot of locals play and used the waterfall as a huge (yet rather dangerous) slide with the aid of big rubber donuts. 

Travel Journal: Makassar Trip (Part 1)

We arrived in Hasanuddin Airport, Makassar, very late at night, more like early in the morning, like 1 or something. After surviving our crazy taxi ride from the airport, through the calm Makassar city street, and dropped dead in our hotel room, I managed to actually wake up at 9.30 am Central Indonesia Time. 

We stayed in Mega Inn, a neat and reasonably priced hotel on Jl. Gunung Lompobattang. Here's a picture I took from their facebook page because silly me I didn't take any picture the whole two days we were there: 

copyright Mega Inn, Makassar. Picture is actually quite accurate (Oct 2013)

For around Rp. 250,000 we got ourselves a deluxe room with clean bathroom and working cable. We actually paid for a standard room (Rp. 200,000) and did stay in it for one night. But unfortunately because it's location by the stairs, we can hear every footstep that every guest in the room makes, and everything anyone in the kitchen was doing. We were also exposed to this bright light right outside our window which had only a thin white, hence useless, blind to block the glare. So we asked the hotel manager to move us to other room. (Although I later found out that the kitchen is not for cooking and they get their breakfast food from nearby stores, so I don't have any idea what all the noises were.)

We were then moved to a much bigger room in third floor, with no additional charge. So it was a really nice thing for them to do. Breakfast was a pack of Nasi Kuning (yellow rice) with its supporting lauk pauk delivered to our rooms. 

'Gravity' (2013)

Even if inside you feel you want to die, there's a bigger life impulse that keeps us alive. 

(Alfonso Cuaron)

OK. 

I might as well write it all down, while my nausea has not worn off. 

Well, actually it is not from the movie, yet some form of sudden mild vertigo came to me. 

YET, this dizziness (and any mention of any planet names) actually brings me back to that 120 minutes of pure elevated, out of this world ride that is Gravity. 

Hua Hin article, March Now! Jakarta 2013

I should say please grab a copy and see for yourself, but I think this would be enough (for my ego). teehehe..

An article I wrote for this month's Now! Jakarta. This features the more jet-setty attractions of Hua Hin, a coastal area about 200 km southwest of Bangkok, Thailand.

So.. I might later post pics of the trip and also maybe more of my more personal perspective of the region..  MIGHT.

(click here for the pdf version.)

Pastimes of the Digital Age

(Published in: Now! Jakarta January 2012)

It is impossible to deny the phenomenon of Finnish bird-throwing video game, Angry Birds. The game that was initially developed for Apple’s iPhone has now been downloaded over 350 million times through various platforms worldwide. There are thousands of other games developed for smart phones, but by far nothing has been able to compete with the popularity of Angry Birds. This touch screen-based game is now officially the most popular game in the world. Just look at all the plush toys and merchandises - even cupcakes and cookies - sold everywhere. Angry Birds even has its own Hollywood movie coming soon. The birds are, definitely, everywhere!

It is not an overstatement to say that Angry Birds or some other smart phone game might be one reason your child wants an iPad or other fancy gadget – or it could be the only reason. The game is addictive, even for adults. It is the perfect game to keep your thumbs and mind occupied while sitting in Jakarta traffic, the long queue for your movie ticket, or just basically anything that allows you an idle 2 to 5 minutes. The goal is to blast all the pigs on the map using the limited provided birds. The rewards are high scores and advancement to the next level. Every Angry Bird addict knows how it feels to see each level on the map marked with three yellow stars – it is the thrill of achievement.

Angry Birds Pizza!

When The World Was a Better Place Without Facebook

Don’t get me wrong, please don’t.
I—like most of your that might be reading, I’m sure—has been a hands-on actor on the development of today's fastest growing social network site that is Facebook.
We’ve seen it evolve before our eyes, under our very fingertips.
We resisted on it changes, but succumbed to its vital role—be it wanted or not— in our lives.
We make groups saying 'bring back the old Facebook' and join them to no avail.

The f*ck to no avail.
that's what make Zuckerberg, well, Zuckerberg. Not Abrams.
His team knows what they are doing and are not letting anyone, let alone some whiny user of his site (who pays nothing), stand between him and his idea of a social networking site.

To the various amount of groups wanting to “bring old Facebook back”, a grumpy friend of mine once said a while back (during the first Facebook major shake up) :
"Grow the fuck up. Shut it. I don’t like it either, because apparently we need time to adapt to change, but Facebook still is, such a task to make. Its scripts are beautifully and so effectively written."

Then I did shut up. Because I realized even if I were as bright as Zuckerberg, I wouldn’t have the persistence to actually keep it up. It dawned on me, IT was a big deal.
I could feel the amount of people surging in.


This website, I felt (well perhaps rather late, around 2007) was not going to be just a fad on which only geeks or late laggards were going to stay on. (in Indonesia, big thanks to the sudden mega-explosion of a certain uber hip smartphone)
It has evolved to all the right ways. There’s been nothing gone, or should I say, developed, to waste.
In his piece on Social Dynamics of Facebook, James Grimmelman (a NYLS Professor who publishes numerous comprehensive analysis of law and policy of privacy on social network sites) even go as far as stated that Facebook has the best expressed and executed privacy management tool in any social network.

Malam Tarawih tandem GP Monza

Begini ceritanya yang terjadi malam kemarin :

18.55 WIB (kurang Lebih)
Start GP Monza mulai, ketika saya berusaha mengatasi nurani yang terbelah, antara nonton balap dan solat Tarawih.
Lap Satu : Kimi gak mabok. berhasil jaga jarak dengan Sutil dan tempel Lewis.
lumayan.
dimana Fisichella? mana mana? oh, amat jauh di belakang grid saya sangka dia balapan di support race.
tapi dia nggak nabrak. hebat. dia gak skiddadle. boohaaa.
masuk lap dua : Kimi men—
"DEEEEEK, UDAH ADZAAAAAANNNN!!!"
aduuuh. cepet amatt?

Saya : " IYA BENTTTAAARRR AMPEK LAP INI ABISSSS..."
sampai mana tadi??
Ohiya, sepertinya ada yg tumbukan di turn 1, saya liat ada Heik—
"Deeeeek, jangan lupa sejadaaaaah!!"

Parc de Guelle

In barcelona, at the Parc de Guelle, played a Musician.
a Guitar player who plays the most unbelievably beautiful resonance by the help of this space under the 'looking area' at the top.
Where it had pillars and ceilings in abstract form which was in every essence distinctively Gaudí. As if he was hiding. (The guitar Player, not Gaudí. D'uh..)
I don't know who he is. But his music made people stop making sounds because it might interrupt this..sound they thought they just have in their head.
Except it's not only them. Everybody could listen to the this spanish guitar.
me being a tarde bitch, didn't even approach and try to ask "Que eres tu?"

it will be a while until i come to Parc de Guelle.
So anyone that gets the chance to see and listen to him play, please tell him how theres someone that misses his music.

Today...

i ran my fingers along whats left of you
what i remember of you
what consists of you
i shed a light tear

and i saw you looking right through me.
nothing is opaque
nothing is at ease

i calmly dissipate into your vague binary past.
i'd hoped to see an aurora before die

i'll juxtapose my memory of your smile along the elusive lines
i'll find your starry-eyed gaze amongst the god of the northern wind.
the goddess of the dawn.
the dawn. that taketh you away.

Bosch Painting on The Tarmac

I saw a dead rat on the street this morning on my way to work,
while i was holding my bladder because i needed to take a leak badly, the first piss-related pain i had to endure since, oh i don't know, high school?
I never were a mineral water drinker. my bad.

I saw it from afar and i could vividly imagine and smell the gory of it.
its red gut spilling allover in contrast with its black gleam of rat fur.
so über grotesque and very Bosch

Siap-Siap Sakit Hati

Hati ini terbelah di tengah. Bukan remuk, atau rusak.
Saya bahagia karena saya sehat walafiat, dan cukup makan tanpa kecuali.
Pun tidak terlalu banyak harus terkurung hujan atau terpapar matahari.
lalu saya mendengar, melihat, dan membayangkan suaranya ketika ia bicara.
menjelaskan hal hal tidak penting,
tidak masuk akal, tanpa hubungan.
lalu dengan sadar saya tersenyum karena, lagi-lagi saya sadar, saya bahagia
walau dengan waktu kadaluarsa.

ini sudah terjadi berulang kali.
seharusnya saya belajar.
berkali kali.
kamu teman.

itu saja.
seperti yang lalu,
kau hanya akan melukai diri sendiri di tempat yang sama,
dengan cara yang serupa.

Points of Today

1. I was thinking nothing about God.
about His greater power.
In fact, I was ready to give up.

until some annoying announcer in the radio-for-the-middle-aged mentioned so.
about not giving up and how we have an obligation to strive until the day we die.
We owe it to God as the one that isn't giving up on us. ever.
Shiiite...

Not even for once, would He let me brood and despair for more than one commercial break.
Yet I thank Him for this.

An instant answer, in as much as anything that is instant is dim, is now what i need the most.
Not unlike paracetamol, which I strongly doubt as something more of a serious substance than salt and water.
But if you need it, you need it.
salvaged?
just a bit so.
i have more to do. Such as convincing myself that the struggle isn't over till He said it's over.
Which leads me to:

2. This editorial article in Real Simple which mentioned about what good it brings to do simple yet significant things,such as listing five things you're most grateful at every morning before you even get out of bed.
so i'm doing it now.

1. i'm learning two of my favourite (ok, important, someday, hopefully) things, German and Photography.
2. I still have time to add more language. namely : Italian. even if i might not ever use it with anyone. chances are, like german, i'd be dead by the time these languages are about to go extinct. So i'd still have a dozen or two italians to speak to.
3. Now i know the secret to de-frizzing my hair. (!!) Very, very important.
4. The world has still got the Brits to inject us with dark humor with.
5. I have entertaining friends, despite not being British, they're never ever boring. Incredible.

Hope this lists go a long way.

Excerpts From "War Photographer"

James Nachtwey on unmediated pain in justice and misery:

If everyone could be there to see for themselves the fear and the grieve just one time,
then they'd understand that nothing is worth letting things get to the point where that happens to a single person, let alone thousands.

But everyone cannot be there and that is why photographers go there, to show them to reach out and grab them and make them stop what they're doing and pay attention to whats going on
to create pictures powerful enough to overcome the diluting effects of the mass media,
to shake people out of they're indifference
to protest. and by the strength of that protest, to make others protest.

Photoshop Talk

OK..
before I forgot. Let me elaborate how they make those cool monochrome multicolored images whatevs.
B/W it first, on adjustments.
pick gradient map.
Reverse or not. Whichever suits it.
change the color there as well.

*phew*

hoping the future me would understand this blog note.

for an old weathered photo effect :
overlay a photo with its monochrome image of red to yellow gradient, tweak the opacity/fill number on the layer options. Voila!!

Melupakan Adonis

P bilang "kita terlalu banyak melihat dunia."

Ketika saya tanya kenapa kita mau terlalu banyak di hidup ini.
Terlalu banyak mengenal kota cantik, danau sepi, angin dengan semerbak bau kayu, daun rimbun, buah manis di semua musim, seorang Adonis dengan senyum sipu, yang tidak mau terdengar berkelakar, tapi memang ingin sekali tertawa bahagia di pangkal lehernya karena ia sangat terhibur dengan senyummu.
Dengan rambut coklat keemasan, mata biru ombak yang seperti tembus pandang, tapi bukan kosong.
Karena ia senang sekali menatap wajah dan matamu.
Ia juga senang sekali bermandi matahari yang ia sangat yakin paling indah di kampung halamannya, membuat kulitnya terbakar kecoklatan.
Namun ia tidak khawatir karena ia terlalu sibuk bermain air dan menyelam ke dalamnya biru air Laut Selatan.

About Being Consciously and Subconsciously Out of Gas

I've been out of gas. completely. even now, as I'm typing this down.
This morning I was totally broke that the question 'Aren't you buying petrol?" could only be answered by 'with what?".
The needle was sinking way beyond the bottom line.
Tthe last line that possibly doesn't actually mean 'empty'.
because most car makers wouldn't think its drivers are cheap enough not to buy gas even their car tells them so.
except you're at Timbuktu or making movies with dramatic effects.
That red line on your fuel indicator, is obviously aren't there for show. And the yellow tiny light that blinks isn't being cute.
but the choice was to ignore it and let my desperate 1300cc engine revs up thirsty with whatever gasoline+dirt mixture that's left on my tank.

This might or might not have resulted in the dream I had about getting into a painstaking building to park at.
and having to speed up somewhere, by a group of Italian mechanic on red. [gee..I wonder what car they specialize on!]
They're mouthing/signaling us to get up and go, step on it and accelerate because apparently "we're way behind".. God knows from what pack.
To this I had to stick my head out of the side window saying, "but we can't, NO HAY DINERO!!"
to buy petrol, we meant.
Don't ask me why i try to speak spanish to italians.
it's a friggin dream. They're the fruit of my subconscious, which i have no control of whatsoever. I don't speak them languages, so I don't suppose the subconscious-me did.

As i suspect they're Italian and still clueless of the idea of being out-of-gas.
you can imagine how this haunts me.
a mix up of some bunch of Italians speaking gibberish that i responded with broken Spanish.
my biggest nightmare.
Horrible, horrible nightmare..

Out of gas on a unreasonably priced car with broken fan-belt, rear break light and wobbly car boot, when a pit-full of red clad mechanic crews are supposed to crank you up for speed.

I woke up today drenched in sweat and hogged someone else's car instead.
Which got two lines worth of gas.

that's way loads.

The Time We Had to Abandon the Steps that's gone too far

i'm walking through a leafy canopy of green,

cold and smelling like rain.

Rain has left this dry of cold months ago.

I can only walk with no stop,

i look up and saw some dust-like amber following me like trails

What did i run away from?

I have not remembered for quite some time.

But i know i belong.

two miles away is where the foliage stops.

Then someplace not unlike the journey here, lies.

i promise this land I'd come someday,

with a life tucked in all my small but abundant pockets.

i still have a lifetime of tearful life to go through as yet,

When God forbid, there's a lot for me to beseech..

My steep steps are barely halfway down, there.

Just say your lovely fine cherubic words, dear angels of lifted despair,

i will fly without you even having to lift me here.

only please, never to deny me one thing i have been abiding by,

the little dreams i have about the places i haven't.

Opus 23, 36 and Donald's Woes

Opus 23 is playing again and yet again trying to put my ears and mind to a test of allegiance. Will i ever crack and spill to recurring ennui?

Not right now.
the right amount of solemn desolation, dignified through gentle vibrations of piano keys. The only music that can bring me to prompt tears.

Still and all a pattern of staccato sound is resounding from the bathroom, it helps me think.
plump.
plump.
pllluuump.

"What have you done now?"
"for the love of God, have you not done enough now?"

I never knew it's so painful to know that people you love could really hate you, hate you for allegedly hurting their heart so bad. Scarred as though for life. Tainted as though there's no forgiveness to match its vice.