Va-va-va-VACATION!

Hmm.. It's already July. I'm still surprised how fast the time flies. It feels like yesterday I had my NYE with my friend, Andhita. But look at your calendar, it's already mid year! Mid year only means one thing. It's summer! Everybody in this world loves summer. It's the season where we just lazying around under the bright sun. Yup, summer means vacation for everybody. How's your summer my dear reader? Well, I know it's too early to blurt that kind of recap question at you. Summer just began in less than 1 month ago. So I'm pretty sure that all you readers are still planning your vacaycay that usually occurs around end of July to early August.

I started my summer vacaycay as early as the first day the season starts. Well, not the first day, but a day after the first day. On June 22, I went to Bangkok with my parents, but not for Dad, he went there for work. It was sort of surprise, considering the last time I went vacation was in 2002 *no wonder I'm such a depressed kind of guy*. It was a 4 days trip, ugh, 3, no, 2 days and a half trip. From June 22 to 25.

Day 1
My flight was at noon. We were flying using Thai Airways, and they only have 1 flight per day from Jakarta to Bangkok or Bangkok to Jakarta. We arrived in this super sophisticated Suvarnabhumi Airport at around 4.30 PM *Jakarta and Bangkok share the same time zone*. Then, there was a van, a big van, took us to the hotel. Our hotel is located in one of the busiest street in Bangkok. It was a nice hotel. Right after we settled down, me and my mom decided to go to Suan Lum, dad had this business dinner so he couldn't join us. We started our night at 6.30 that night. Suan Lum is a night market, it's located 7 MRT stations away from our hotel (oh yes, I count!). How can I describe that place. It was a cool, no, awesome, no, great market. Imagine 3700 stalls in one area, not too small area. We can find something something in that market. From A to Z, basically everything. I love that market, especially the local designers section. That section filled with lots of artsy people with artsy stuffs, the uncommon stuffs that you couldn't even find in any malls in this world. Oh I really in love with that part of Suan Lum. We ate there in this small food stall, which most of their foods coantain pork. The fact I love Thai food, it's because most of their foods are using fish sauce. Fish sauce adds this certain pleasant taste. Ooowh.. Love it! We ended our night at around 11, almost midnight. My thighs and calves felt like it was gonna burst!

Day 2
The day starts very early, well at least for me. I woke up as early as 6.30 in the morning. That day, my dad couldn't join me and my mom at all. He had this thing to do with his work. Me and my mom's plan was having shopping in big malls. There were at least 3 malls we wanted to visit. At the end we visited 5 malls. First of all, we had our breakfast at Auntie Anne's at this unidentified underground mall. Then we continued our journey to Siam Paragon. This mall is big, I mean REALLY BIG! They have this ocean world in the underground, complete with underwater glass tunnel, 4D cinema, and you know what, they have this super large tank for scuba diving and glass bottom boat thingy! Imagine that! Then we continued to walk to siam discovery, and another siam plaza chain. The skywalk ended at this place MBK. This place is amazing. It's a haven for cheap shoppers (read: fake; cheap knockoffs). Not just cheap thrills, they have other mid-ranged-price stuffs. I found a shoes there. At the top floor, it's electronic floor. Guess what, I saw iPhone Nano, which never exists in this world! Crazy eh? Then we head back to Siam Paragon for lunch, before we continue to Central World. But we only spent a little time in that mall, because dad called us and wanted to join us. So we headed back to the hotel to pick him up and went to Suan Lum again. That time, we spent a little bit longer than the night before. Oh my, I heart that night bazaar too much. The day ended at another almost midnight.

Day 3
Aaah.. This day way very interesting. Like usual, the day started very early, but this time not for shopping but for city tour. Mom arranged a tour with this fun tour guide to Wat Arun and the Grand Palace. Wat Arun is a temple by the Chao Phraya river. To get there we had to ride this traditional boat, that looked not safe at all, but hey I'm still fine up until now. The temple covered with broken ceramics. It's like mosaic in a massive size. Oh, the tour guide bought us the best Thai iced tea we ever had in our entire life. Gosh, miss that beverage so much! The the tour continued to Grand Palace. It's the place of the kings of Thai, which means beautiful. No, beyond beautiful! 'nuff said. After the tour, we ended up at.. the malls! Oh my, I almost malls OD'ed. I realized that malls in Bangkok are super massive. The central world almost made my calves blown. We spent our times there until 9 PM, then we headed back to the hotel.

Day 4
Aaargh.. Our flight was at 8 in the morning. So we already at the airport at 6. No other things I could tell, except there's a Hermes' boutique in the airport. No, I didn't bought any of it, couldn't afford it.

Whoa.. I heart that city, though it has the same vibe with Jakarta. I miss all those colors that floating around that city. The traffic jam is pretty crazy, just like Jakarta. But hey, cute guys are everywhere! Ahahahaha..

Well, sorry for the late post, maybe there are some details I forgot. I was too lazy to write. But picture tells all, right? You can check it on my Flickr set. Actually the real summer vacation is about to come. Just wait for my update here ok? Just pray that I won't be too lazy to write!

Conquering the Super Semi Pretentious Grand Indonesia

It's almost 3.30 AM and I'm still talking about what happened today. It's been awhile I'm not going out for shopping, especially an unintentional shopping. Grand Indonesia, which I consider it as the largest mall here in this country, is celebrating its grand opening by holding 2 days of midnight sale. I went there with my parents. The mall itself is super cool! It has 2 department stores, they are Seibu and Harvey Nichols (the first HN in Asia, how cool is that!) The mall also has millions of local and international brands, such as Zara; Pull and bear; GAP; etc. And not to forget, this mall is big, I mean SUUUUUUPPPPEEEERRR big!

Ok, the sale starts at 8 PM. Me and my parents were there since 4 PM. At first, I bought a tshirt. It was a steal! It cost only Rp. 114,500.00 (US$11.2) from this cool Indonesian brand, it's (X) S.M.L. Here's the pic:

When we were walk around the mall, I saw this super, no, über cool jacket/hoodie in Topman! It looks likethe duffel coat I always love. The price? Darn.. It's expensive. It cost Rp. 839,000.00 (US$82) I know, maybe for some people in the other side of this world consider it cheap, but not here! But then, the sales attendant told me that Topman start its midnight sale at 10PM, and that item is one of the sale items. The discount is 20%, which means the hoodie price got reduce to Rp. 671,200.00 (US$ 65). Cheap? Not for me! It's still expensive! *well, I just lost US$70.* Here's the pic:

Oh yes, my parents bought it for.. ME! Thank you! I♥you!

Edging

Hmmmm... The title sounds tempting eh? No, i'm not talking about that kind of edging you friggin' perv! Like usual, I'm talking about humans. Humans with their own behaviour. This time about how humans love to test themselves onto the edge.

Last night, I hang out at my friend's home. The main plan was to watch korean TV series on DVD, but we just chatted until midnight. There were 5 of us, then I remembered to show my friends about Yooouuutuuube. All got amazed, even one of my friend came up with an idea of LSD-ing. Even she said, "oh shit, I want it now, using this trippy vision thingy." I just smiled. Then one of my friend told a story about his friend. His friend took three piece of LSD into his own mouth, and it leads him to move to the mental institution. Apparently his nerves system broke down, and none of doctors in Jakarta could fix it.

No, I tell you this story because I want LSD-ing. Not at all! I tell you this story because I want to show you that humans can push themselves to the edge, even jump off of it. That story is from druggies side. How about from our daily life?

In love life, humans push themselves onto the edge. Humans want to do anything for the love sake. Is it blinded by love or just plain stupid? The answer is all up to you, you have to look it from your own perspectives.

Not just love life or drugs life, humans always push themselves to the edge in every single aspects of their life. We always stand on the edge of a cliff, ready to fall at any time and rate. What if we fall to the valley of the darkness? Well, it's our own consequences. Scary? Naaah.. It's something we always do. It's just sometimes we don't realize it. Can we just not standing on the edge of a cliff? No we can't, unless you're comma or dead. Ahahaha..

My Personality

Crossing The Dark Side

Hello again. I know it's been a while I don't update this blog. You know, writer's block. Ahh.. Excuses!

I just finished watch a movie. It's "Jane Austen Book Club", the movie itself is about exploring Austen's adage that general incivility is at love's essence. Sylvia's husband dumps her for another woman, so Bernadette and Jocelyn organize a book club to distract her. They recruit Sylvia's daughter Allegra; Prudie, a young teacher whose marriage may be on the rocks; and Grigg, a sci-fi fan who joins out of attraction to Jocelyn. The six read and discuss one Austen novel per month. Jocelyn tries to interest Grigg in Sylvia; Allegra falls in love with a woman she meets skydiving; Prudie contemplates an affair with a student; Sylvia's ex keeps popping up. In the discussions, characters reveal themselves in their comments. (from here)

Sounds a complicated drama? Not really, it was quiet light movie, but since it's a light movie, I took the other point of view of this movie. I mean, I try to analyze of each character of that movie. The one that caught my attention, it's Jocelyn's character played by Maria Bello. This character has complicated nature. When this character likes someone, she, with full awareness, gives the person she likes to someone else. In this case, to her bestfriend. And the other favorite is Prudie. Well, why my favorite? I think she has this character that almost like my character. She's an uptight girl who has a dark side.

Let's talk about dark side of a human. This dark side doesn't mean a bad thing, I mean another side of a person whom that person doesn't realize yet. In this movie, each character has its own dark side. I myself, surprised in several scenes. Are humans really like them?

These characters make me think about how complicated a human can be. I know, human behaviour are don't meant to be understand, we just acknowledge it. That's all. But don't you sometimes curious about ourselves? For me, human behaviour is always interesting. Remember, human behaviour is related to their mind. The shifting minds affect our behaviour.

Yeah ok, maybe some of you just want to scream, "hey bitch! Stop sweating the small stuff!" Hey, this is me. I always questioning about everything.

One is The Loneliest Number

I'm sitting here, sitting in front of my TV, while listening to music that comes out from my baby. Actually, I just got back from out with friends, really good friends indeed. We went to Casa in Kemang. Ok, this time i don't want to talk about Casa itself.

I got something in my mind now. It's about loneliness. Right after we arrived there, I remembered, that place provide a free internet service through wifi. And then I just turned my wifi, and i started to chat with some friends, and start to take care my facebook. Actually, not just me, a friend of mine did the same thing. There were 7 other people in the same table. But me and my friend, we just start to roam around to the other world from our small screen. I spent like an hour or so with my small screen. Ok, the point is that I can feel lonely though surrounded by 8 other people. It made me question myself. What am I doing? There are 8 other people near me, but I roamed around to the other world? No, it wasn't just happened to me. I look to the other tables where each persons are sticking their eyes to their blackberries. Sometimes new technology can really scares the shit out of me.

Us, people who lives in a big city, always look for something that made us feel less lonely. We look for our own pleasure on the internet. I didn't say I don't do it, infact I do it! Even sometimes it's a sinfully guilty pleasure. Or sometimes we went out to a loud and noisy place for serenity, let's say, a disco But look around us, sometimes we even forgot that we're surrounded by wonderful people, like friends and family. The beauty of real life socializing is in front of our eyes, but why do we always look for something more? Something that sometimes doesn't even exist. Where we can chat, laugh, or even cry with our friends, but sometimes we just skip it and choose something vague. Why we always look something far while there are beautiful thing in front of our eyes? But are we really lonely, until we have to look it somewhere else that far from us? Sometimes we can't even spot the differences between the reality and the imaginary, it's like separated by red thin fine line. Ok, gone to the disco is real life socializing, but can we really socializing in a very loud and noisy and over packed place? I'm sure the answer is no, but why we still go to that place?

Does new technology makes us really forgot our social life? I mean the real social life? Or are we just looking for something to make us feel less lonely? But am I feel lonely?

Sssshhhhh! It's a secret!

Class! Today we're going to learn something about secret. What is a secret actually? According to Wikipedia, secrecy or furtiveness is the practice of sharing information among a group of people, which can be as small as one person, while hiding it from all others. That which is kept hidden is known as the secret. Nice definition! But I only agree half of it. Why am I interested in talking about this topic? I just realize this topic when I read this beautiful blog. I regularly visit this blog. In this blog, random people sent a piece of postcard (how romantic?!) that contain a secret that person hold on to.

For me, a secret is something that we couldn't share. If someone tells a secret to someone else, then it turns to be a story. Period. Look, I don't forbid you, people, not to have a secret or millions of it. Nu uh! I even have my own secrets. Things that I won't share to anybody in this world, not even in the next world (well, only if they exist). My secrets will be kept until I die.

What about secret sharing? Secret sharing is one way for men to establish traditional relations with other men. It's like a secret group or sect. Hmmm... Each man on that group knows to do, but outside of that group, no. Is it a secret then? For me, that is not a secret, it's an agreement, a pact. An agreement amongst several person inside that group, that if someone tells something to someone, that person will be expell, or for worst will be kill.

Yes, a secret could kill. Even if that secret is a one person secret. The question is, is a secret good or bad?

A Quest Towards Happiness

We, humans, always aftering for happiness. What is happiness exactly? According to Wikipedia, happiness is a state of mind or feeling such as contentment, satisfaction, pleasure, or joy. A variety of philosophical, religious, psychological and biological approaches have been taken to defining happiness and identifying its sources. A state of mind, that means happiness itself doesn't have any form, it's abstract. So why are we, humans, keep aftering for it? Why do we keep aftering something that doesn't even has a form?

A friend of mine, she just broke up with his boyfriend. A friend of her asked her, "are you happy with him?" Then my friend, she couldn't even answer that question. She didn't know how to answer that simple question. She admitted to me, she didn't even know what she felt back then. She only felt that this guy was a good catch. She thought that she found the Mr. Right. The thing that happened to my friend, leads me to a question. Does happiness really exist? That question has been swimming in my mind these last several days. This is like a One Million Dollar question. The question that I barely know the answer.

Lots of people claiming their own form of happiness. They claim, mostly, money and love is their happiness. I think none of them is my form of happiness, those two things are humans basic needs. Humans need money, humans need to be love. Based by the Wiki definition, I only agree with the psychological approaches. Happiness is just a state of mind. It relates to somebodies psychological condition. But for me, that's not a conclusion. I perfectly know we control our own mind. Our mind is a very wonderful thing, it's like our mind is a computer of our daily activities. In fact, not just activities, our mind controls our own universe. Please underline "our own universe", a thing we create, a thing doesn't have concrete form. Why? Why do we keep aftering something that vague? Are we living a fake lives? Or are we just trying too hard to make the surroundings comfortable?

Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy once said:

Happiness does not depend on outward things, but on the way we see them

Tolstoy acknowledge happiness. Does that mean really exists? I need an answer. That's all.


PS: There's no pun intended in this post. I write it because that question's been swimming in my mind. If there's a reader feels offended, please don't. Trust me!

Spotted Around Jakarta's Pretentious Night Life

Ahahaha.. Sounds like Gossip Girl has infected my mind. Well, it's quiet a chaotically fun for me. After several days of anti-socializing, finally I contacted my wonderful friends. I started my journey this week is on Thursday.
It was one fine evening with wonderful friends. Lots of things need to catch up between us. The day started at Chika's office. I went there with, of course, Chika, Starina, and Edo. But then, Chacha came. After waiting for several hours, we picked Dayu at her office, and then off we went to Pacific Place. The first thing we did (me and Dayu) there was raid Eko and Kiki at Canteen. They were having their late lunch. And after that, Me, Dayu, And Eko went to catch up Chika, Starina, and T'Intan at Gyu Kaku. We went there for our dinner, in fact, it was one quiet pretentious dinner. We ate a lot off Wagyus, tongues, chickens, not to forget; regular beefs, tomatoes, etc.etc. Lol! I consider that as a BIG DINNER. I mean really BIG, even close to HUUUUUGE! Oh, I almost forgot, Dimas and Abeu are catching up with us. Hmmm... Apparently, we didn't satisfy enough with our wonderful quality time. After that big dinner, T'Intan went home. And then we continue our catching up time at this pancake cafe called Pan-O. Well, too bad I already full of those meats I ate at that JapRest. But hey, I always save a room for some desserts! I had several bites of my friend's pancakes! It was better than Pancious anyway. Hmm.. The points are not the foods, but yes, I know that my wonderful friends are... WONDERFUL.
So that was Thursday. How about Saturday? Yes, it was a fine day for me too! I started the day with Mpit. We went to PIM for a lunch date. Listen, it supposed to be just a quick lunch date. But, destiny has another plan for me. In the middle of window shopping/joking around with her, Dayu called. She wanted me to go to Starina's place right away. There was this "pengajian", fo his late dad. So then I went there. Ugh, destiny has another plan for me! After that "pengajian", friends took me to this new Club/Restaurant/Lounge at this newly renovated premium shopping mall in the middle of the city. That place called "Immigrant". Apparently that place is the it lounge for now. But I don't feel like I belong there, since it's too uptight for me. I prefer some place more laid back. Being in that place, it feels like I become the most trendy bi*ch in town, which is not good. After "Immigrant", we had to attend this party at this most famous underground club in town. It was held by Chika's cousin EO. Well, it was a disco night. We spent around 30 mins there, since we feel like too old lately.
Alright, all good things must come to an end. Since it's already sunday morning, I now officially declare that my wonderful week has to be ended. I cross my fingers that next week will be a fine week for me and my friends, because I absolutely know that an end is a new start for something or someone. I only can say, I ♥ (heart not love, because it means bigger) you my dear friends, I really do.


PS: My wonderful week was accompanied by a lovely bag, courtesy of Chika. Want to see the bag? See it here.

Why?

Why break ups are never easy? That question has been swimming in my mind for several weeks. Why I even think about it? Yes, I've been in this phase for this several weeks. But this time, I don't want to talk about my phase. I want to talk about the break ups in general.
Break ups are usually happen between two person, whether they are seeing each other, as a friends or even a married couple. The process usually rough, in fact it really hurts for some people. The hurt usually stays for days, weeks, months, even years! But I really admire people who can overcome with the hurt in a matter of days. That's tough, man! But look, I know things can change as fast as blink of an eye, but life must go on right? If we keep muddle in miserable, life will stay at the same place. Who wants it? Being stuck in a same place really kills. If you don't believe me, try it yourself. I know it's not easy to overcome, just enjoy every single moment. Because one day, the end of your miserable will come. No matter how hard the processes are, happiness are waiting in front of your eyes. The control of your emotion and mind are in your hand, remember?
Hufff... Ok, now I really should finish this off.

This is how I feel now.

from Sunshine Monologue

Shiver

I suppose to address this greeting card to the one I really love. But now i'm not sure doing it. It's no longer usable I guess.

Dear you,
You know that I love you. I love you until my dying day. Just remember that I won't go anywhere. I'll just stay here waiting for you, only if you're still interested.

Love,
Me

Gift

Uhm... A belated Christmas Gift, from my DB


A beautiful TShirt!

WOWOWOWOWOWOWWW!!

Doubutsu-Uranai

Purple Wolf types of people tend to be pretentious in attitudes and clothes.

Because, you act very bald wherever you are, and your behavior is rather inconsiderate, people at first, think you are difficult to get on with.
But you are really a very honest man, and once understood, you are liked by many people.

Although you seem to be idealistic, you have sociality as well.

You work hard and persistently to your goal.

You put priority on experience when making decision, and will put that into action.

You are good natured man.

You may be taken advantage of, and inflict loss.

Sometimes you turn to drinks to get away from that stress.

You dislike common things, and will insist your own ways of thinking.

You can provide an impetus to ordinary every day.

Good fortunes, naturaly comes to your side.

Even if you don't put in great effort, you can be successful by the works and help of the others around you.

You are also born lucky financially and materially.

You are weak on making quick decisions.

Although you are not good at work that requires quick decision making, you have a sense of planning.

If you have someone who can put your plan into action, you will be successful.

Waduuuuuuh... bener banget!!!

My Late Afternoon Tea Buddies

+Dayu, but she was gone at the time I took this picture.

First!

First Sour Sally in '09 at Pacific Place